One rule that I kinda set for myself a long time ago - and usually try to stick with - is on free sites, unless a sponsor goes out of biz or I figure out something that I really did wrong in the advertising text - I dont go back and touch the sites. I would rather spend that time making a new site for either submitting or just a free site to get listed on my hub and have for a rainy day submit.
I also pretty much from the start always made some sort of filtering hub - in my case it turned into a linklist that became successful - but it didnt start that way - it originally was just a categorized hub that listed all of my free sites, as well as having deeper pages that had FPA's - and that is where I sent all of my traffic instead of directly to the sponsor - that way I could get the surfer either hotter - or directed to a better choice.
When I put up a sponsor banner - it went to my hubs FPA for that sponsor - and had a directory at the bottom - that basically talked to the surfer and tried to figure out what they really wanted - it also gave me the ability to filter by someone really wanting to go to a paysite, someone that would go for a free trial, or someone that wasnt going to buy anything - and in the end I could always trade off that guy for a new surfer or two by sending them to a toplist or other trade where I knew I would get something in return.
Eventually I built in some traps for the non-buying surfers that would wrangle out even more traffic - and started having some flow around my own network of sites that were built the same way - and with the free sites I was building and other pages I kept adding to the site - the SEs picked up on it - and that provided even more flow.
Time to do this was pretty much over 2 years - before seeing a real substantial profit - at which time I was able to finally retire from my day job and do this full time
Then I converted over the hub to a Link list and havent looked back - but still make my own free sites and galleries - and loads of pages just for the search engines - and I believe that if you ask GG, Surfn, Tommy or any of the others that have been around for a long time - they all still spend hours a day making sites and pages - because in the end analysis -
Its all about quantity!!!
I bolded that cause I was very hard-headed for the first two years - and wouldnt listen to Tommy and a few other friends - so I kept beating myself around about quality - everything had to be just right - well - I've learned my lesson
Sue as far as those ratios - Ive seen worse - but I would just experiment - build another free site that uses a little different approach - maybe all text or less banners and a different sponsor - you will find that magic match between you and some group of sites that will come back and slap you 6 months later
Last - an old lesson someone once gave me about how to write advertising on a free site:
Think of your free site as the back page ad on a Sunday newspaper - most people "glance" at that automobile ad and if a "special deal" on a car jumps out of the page at you - the ad worked! You just spent longer looking at that ad than the average surfer looks at a free site which is usually around 9 seconds.
Now - how do you get that surfer to look longer - and even more importantly how do you "hook them"
You have to have something that literally jumps out of the page at them - if you have a banner that is the regulation size - they wont see it - surfers eyes tune out that size graphic after the first few days of surfing - so if you use a banner it has to be unusually sized (BTW - this also gets around most of the banner blocking software programs surfers use)
I know - youre thinking - well I just cant write ad copy that well - here's a little suggestion - get a Sunday paper - look at those inserts for the national chains - what jumps out at you? Then get something like a Hustler magazine - read the ad copy on their ads - And I can tell you in most cases - dont ever use the text links that sponsors have
Either 500 people have already used them, or they dont know how to write ads either.
Thats the reason that some people keep repeating the mantra of finding a niche that you are passionate about to sell - they dont know why they keep repeating the same thing over and over - but here is the reason - you will naturally write better ad text if you know the subject and either enjoy or at least fantasize about the niche
Also - don't be real picky about typos - a well-placed typo can attract attention
Getting the theme here - dont just put out a free site that says "you can get access to this site here - click here" when you could say "Nasty midgets the right size for munching pussy standing up"
Seriously - the more you look at how the professional advertising firms write ads - the more you can practice it and the better you will become at it.