Is it you?  Are you the one who clicks on the banner ads on social media and social networking sites like Digg, MySpace, Reddit, Facebook, Propeller, and everywhere else (except Mixx, where I haven’t really seen them yet)?  I’ve been looking for whoever it is that still thinks they’re the 9,999th visitor or that they really just won a free Xbox 360.  When I find this person, I have one word.

Stop.

It’s 2008.  Banner advertisements, as wonderful and beautiful as they were before the turn of the millenium, are now worthless.  Or are they?  They still seem to be on just about every website (this one included, though I don’t know why I bother since nobody clicks on them).  I would think that most people, especially the astute, tech-saavy readers of social media and users of social networks, are immune to them and barely register that they’re even there. [Read more...]