My favourite banner size is 728 x 90, but I can't help feeling that this generous sized creative is often overlooked by some merchants, who instead prefer to pump out loads of 468 x 60 ads.

I used to have very low expectations of banners anyway, having read about the "banner blindness" effect, and mostly liked them just to make my pages look "pretty" and instead looked to links within the body of my text to really convert, but I have noticed recently some really strong performing banners, and in my case, they have been 728 x 90. I'm not suggesting they convert better than other sizes, but I try to use them where possible and have found them to exceed my low expectations.

When designing a page layout, the best advice is usually to go for a fluid design and I understand the arguments for it. But sometimes I do prefer to do a nice tight fixed width design, and as I would design for a minimum resolution of 800 x 600 still, chopping off for a bit for window borders and margins, 728 x 90 is the perfect size to occupy a prominent space running right across the page.

So, the point is, I'm a big fan of these sized banners and I do think that those merchants who don't offer any creative at all in this size are being a bit shortsighted.