that doesn't work. the idea is to catch the readers eye, that's what they are for! You don't want to make the readers open a separate page to see you image. And don't tell me that people shouldn't judge a book by the cover because they do :p
why is 450 pixels by 150 pixels too large? it's the size of lots of my banners now (More Than That, Amnesia) those are too large??
Besides you contradicted yourself. you said that a banner 400ishX200ish is decent now you are saying absolutely not that big...
I'm not saying these things to start anything I just want to be able to follow the rules but still make a banner that is somewhat longer.... like the one in my signature... is that too big??