Whether you own a Web site and hope to develop a new revenue stream through ad sales or own a business and hope to access a new group of clients or customers, it is very important to consider the types of ads you buy and sell and weigh the pros and cons of the different options accordingly.

In the beginning, there were banner ads. Still extremely popular and prevalent on most commercial Web sites, banner ads allowed mainstream businesses to test the waters of Internet advertising.

However, banner ads didn't produce the rumored fantastic results most business had been led to believe were a sure thing when dealing with the Internet.

Soon, banner ads became animated, then interactive, in an effort to get more attention and, ideally, get more customers clicking over to the advertiser's site.

After that, pop-up ads became the new big thing. These are small windows that open up above or below the window showing the main content of the Web page you have requested. While anything new and different will generate excitement in the beginning, this advertising method is taking a turn for the worse because of the annoying hassle involved with constantly closing these extra windows as users surf from page to page.

And, don't think I forgot about spam messages. Spam refers to all those annoying advertising messages that you didn't request, clogging your e-mail inbox every time you log on and check your account.

There are legal and ethically responsible ways for businesses to participate in e-mail advertising. Ideally, you offer useful information to your customers which they will want to sign up for and receive. Then, you send messages containing that useful information to the people that have opted in to your list. Every time you send a message, you invite them back to your Web site and encourage them to buy your products or services.

Your customers get the information and products they are interested in and you get increased sales ˜ a win-win situation.

But, many businesses have fallen victim to the tempting practice of purchasing e-mail accounts from brokers and sending their information to thousands or millions of unsuspecting consumers.

In the long run, this will frustrate and annoy the potential customers and has often ended in boycotts of specific Web sites and companies.

The same thing is happening with pop-up ads and other forms of intrusive advertising. In fact, the popular Web site search engine Google has recently announced that they will not accept Web sites with pop-up ads into some of their premium advertising areas.

This is likely in response to the many users abandoning Yahoo! after being fed up with the x10 Camera ad being left in a new browser window after closing the window which contained the Yahoo! search results.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. As rapidly as Internet technology develops, the next greatest thing is sure to be right around the corner. In the end, it is important to use common sense when placing and accepting advertising online and to not lose site of the user or customer's experience when making your advertising decisions.