I decided to compile all the threads and polls about advertising into one place so we could get a solid overall picture of advertising and all it's related issues.

Does Guest Advertising Work?
I think we've shown pretty conclusively that it does. I was even rather surprised by the results.

Rules?
Ad Rules Poll
I would argue that the more rules you have on your ad forum, the more it's only going to hurt you and your site in the long run. Other people will just move on to the next site. I think of advertising as working on a scale of even ratios - the more I allow others to advertise, then the more I can advertise.

The top six don'ts in advertising are:
1) Requiring people to post your ad when they post theirs, commonly called "postbacks". This seems to be an overall hated rule, and sites who do this not only run the risk of not being allowed to advertise anywhere, but they also run the risk of turning away potential members who may be initially checking out the site just to advertise.
2. Rejecting people from different software/hosts from posting.
There seems to be a consensus that this just makes your site look bad to potential members, as well as a general feeling that it's really not that hard to make an ad for each type of software and save it for use later. You don't even have to intentionally advertise on that type of software, just respond when someone advertises on your site. I wrote a documentation for coding ads on different boards to address this problem.
3. Requiring a form
Most roleplaying sites who do this are not large enough to warrant the extra time it takes to fill out a form, and they don't get people who post there (and a lot of people won't let them post their ads on their sites). Many roleplaying sites go to great lengths to make their ads stand out, and forms really don't offer anything that's worth the trouble of using them. If you have a large site, like an advertising site, then the form gets a lot of hits and is worth the time to fill out.
4. Post my button so you can post your ad.
This just isn't fair, and sites that have this rule have empty ad forums and get their ad deleted on other sites. This isn't worthwhile in any sense. Popular ad forums are an exception, because of the exposure your ad receives. That would be an even trade.
5. Disabling images without noting it in your rules
Just don't do it. If you want to disable images, make sure your own ad doesn't have images, and you let advertisers know in your rules. Posting images should be enabled by default, but you might want to check the guest group and make sure it is enabled. Also, in general settings or security settings there is usually a setting for displaying images.
6. Make your font too small
This post explains this some. Some skins make the default size even smaller, so when people post in size 1 font, it looks like size .5 (and is unreadable). Just let the text be the default size. And some skinners will report you if you try to change the font size on your site (in other words, some admins don't have control over that if they want to use that skin). Changing font sizes on a skin can also get you banned from sites like IFSZ.

Essential rules:
*Don't post links on other sites' shoutboxes.
*Don't join a site to pm your link to members of that site. IF and other hosts can ban your site for this.

Other Relevant Threads (please do not rez/post to these threads - just read them)
Advertising Issues
Advertising
Advertising for All
Thinking Creatively about Advertising
Advertising More than Once
The Art of Advertising

Defiantly deserves a pin I would say ^_^. Good job Ros by compiling this, defiantly very helpful!

edit: oops, posted on teh wrong topic! *blush*

This is fantastical!

I had no idea so many people posted so many things about something that many dont give much thought =)

But very helpful in the longrun!