Do Banners Really Pay Off?

[GeorgeTH]

It seems very text-based banners are still doing the trick...
I have one in the banner rotator on top of my main page which makes 2 or 3 sign-ups a week. The older-style colourful graphics seem to be a thing of the past unless you support them by good text (in which case button-style banners are fine).

But then: I hardly ever relied upon the normal 468x80 (or whatever) banners; I always preferred magazine-style banners (ratio of 200x300).

But gallery designs w/o graphics don't work either...