A couple of days ago we asked for suggestions for new banner sizes and we got two really good suggestions from our visitors:

We need the 250×250 square and some of the other rectangular banners.

This is a fun website. I have never created a banner ad or anything else resembling website stuff. But I am willing to learn how. However, the banner I need to create is for an ad in a magazine called Invision. It is presently not available on your list of sizes on your website. The ad they have offered me is 180 x730 pixels. It would be great to get one of your free VIP memberships for this and greatly appreciated.

Since we said that if we implemented the suggested banner sizes we would give you some VIP memberships as thanks we've sent both Dave and Raphaelle a coupon each for a one year VIP membership

We didn't only implement the suggested 250×250 and 180×730, but we also implemented the following banner sizes at the same time:

• 250×300 – Big button 1
• 300×250 – Big button 2
• 180×180 – Square 1
• 250×250 – Square 2
• 300×300 – Square 3
• 180×730 – Extra wide skyscraper 1
• 250×730 – Extra wide skyscraper 2
• 300×730 – Extra wide skyscraper 3

As you can see suggestions can pay off sometimes

Try the banner creator for free at www.createbanner.com you too.

We're planning to expand the banner sizes we let you all create so we need you to suggest new sizes.

Is there any special size you're missing or do you think we got them all covered? At the moment we offer the following banner sizes, but is that enough?

• 468×60 – Banner
• 728×90 – Leaderboard
• 120×60 – Small button 1
• 125×60 – Small button 2
• 120×90 – Medium button 1
• 125×90 – Medium button 2
• 125×125 – Medium button 3
• 120×600 – Skyscraper
• 160×600 – Wide skyscraper

Anyone suggesting a banner size we're implementing in the banner creator tool will get a free one year VIP membership as thanks so hurry up and suggest new banner sizes.A one year VIP membership is worth about $35/year.

This could also be a great opportunity for you to tell us what you think about our plan to let our VIP members to select any size they want, i.e. to make up their own sizes directly from the banner creator. Is that a good idea?

Also what do you think will add value to the VIP membership? What would make you pay for a membership? Anyone suggesting a feature we implement will get a lifetime VIP membership, a value of about $1750 (calculated on 50 years life expectancy multiplied by $35 so if you live longer it's worth even more).

As a test we're now selling 5 one year VIP memberships for 3,000 Entrecard credits each at the Entrecard Marketplace.

A VIP membership gives you the following advantages:

• Create as many banners you like (completely brand free)
• Return to your account and re-design your banners later
• Copy banners you've created and just change for example the text or the background
• Multiple file formats supported

VIP memberships are usually sold for $35 per year, but now since the Entrecard market is new we're testing it with a really nice offer for your

To see all products and services we're selling at the Entrecard marketplace check out this page.

CreateBanner.com is the first of Xavier Media's  services to use our new API for making long boring link short: 2ve.org

The feature we've added to use 2ve.org is a Twitter button found in both the VIP area and the banner designer where you can Twitter your banner. The link to your banner will be shortened with the help of 2ve.org, causing the links to be even shorter then TinyURL.com so you can Twitter more text . We're doing this to give you even more options to share you banners with friends and family (and to give you a chance to show us and the world how good you are at designing banners).

To Twitter about your banner you simply just click on the Twitter icon after you've saved your banner. You will then be sent to Twitter with a short link to your banner pre-filled in the message box at Twitter. Easy isn't it?

As a small side effect of all this you can now follow CreateBanner.com on Twitter. Just click here to follow @CreateBanner. As a follower you will get updates from our blog and a few other banner creation tips and tricks. Later we'll even give away some trial VIP membership to people who follow us, so make sure you start following us as soon as possible: @CreateBanner

We've just done a few upgrades to the banner creator that we hope you will enjoy. The first one and the thing I think you will notice the most is the tool bar found inside the banner creator and the VIP area:

By holding your mouse pointer over the icons you get a short description of the function hidden behind the icons. We hope this will make it easier for you to find all functions in the banner creator.

In the VIP area where VIP members can access all their created banners we've also added similar icons. The icons can be found next to each saved banner and by clicking on them you can for example view HTML code for the specific banner, copy the banner to the banner creator or even visit the banner at ImageShack.us:

We've added a feature that was removed in the upgrade to version 4. It's the "email this banner" function where you could email the banner to your friends (or to yourself). This function is (believe it or not) hidden behind the envelope icon found on most pages in the banner creator.

We've also done a few smaller changes in the code behind, but I think that may just bore you to death .