Systems and methods for selling and displaying advertisements over a network

1. A system for selecting and displaying advertisements over a network, the system comprising:

a database configured to store a plurality of advertisements associated with an advertiser; and

an advertisement selection server configured to:

receive a request for advertising content from a user computer over the network, the request comprising a selection criteria associated with a web page of a website accessed by the user computer;

obtain a plurality of advertisements from the database, based on at least the selection criterion;

generate contextual information associated with the obtained advertisements, the contextual information indicating a relevance of the obtained advertisements to content within the web page;

select, from the obtained advertisements, a first advertisement for display at a predetermined location within the web page and a second advertisement for display at a location within the web page that is contextually relevant to the second advertisement, the selection being based on at least the contextual information; and

transmit at least the first advertisement and the second advertisement to the user computer, wherein the user computer is configured to display the first advertisement at the predetermined location and to display the second advertisement at the contextually-relevant location.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first advertisement comprises a text portion and a graphics portion.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second advertisement comprises a text advertisement.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second advertisement is derived from a portion of the first advertisement.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement selection server is further configured to:

receive a successive request for advertising content from the user computer;

based on the successive request, identify a successive location within the website for display of the first advertisement; and

transmit the first advertisement and the successive location to the user computer, wherein the user computer is configured to display the first advertisement at the successive location within the website.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement selection server is further configured to:

identify a number of successive requests for advertising content received from the user computer;

determine whether then number of successive requests exceeds a threshold value; and

transmit the second advertisement to the user computer, when the number of successive requests fails to exceed the threshold value.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the website comprises a plurality of web pages; and

the advertisement selection server is further configured to:

select a plurality of first advertisements from the obtained advertisements; and

transmit at least the first advertisements to the user computer, the user computer being further configured to display the first advertisements at corresponding predetermined locations within the web pages.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the web site comprises a plurality of web pages; and

the advertisement selection server is further configured to:

select a plurality of second advertisements from the obtained advertisements; and

transmit at least the second advertisements to the user computer, the user computer being further configured to display the second advertisements at locations within the web pages, the locations being contextually relevant to corresponding ones of the second advertisements.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

a plurality of locations within the web page are contextually relevant to the second advertisement; and

the user computer is further configured to display the second advertisement proximate to at least a subset of the locations.

10. The system according to claim 1 , wherein:

the request is generated by the user computer in accordance with instructions provided to the user computer by a content publisher; and

the instructions comprise markup code provided to the user computer in response to an HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) request to access page submitted to the content published by the user computer.

11. A system providing advertisements, comprising:

a database configured to store content associated with a website of a content publisher: and

a content publisher server configured to:

receive a request from a user computer to access a web page associated with the website;

in response to the request, obtain a portion of the stored content associated with the web page;

generate instructions that direct the user computer to request, from an advertisement selection system, a first advertisement for display at a predetermined location within the web page and a second advertisement for display at a location within the web page that is contextually relevant to the second advertisement; and

transmit the stored content portion and the instructions to the user computer, the instructions comprising information identifying the predetermined location and the contextually-relevant location.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further comprise a plurality of contextually-relevant locations for the second advertisement.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the stored content portion and the instructions form at least part of an HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) response.

14. A computer-implemented method for selecting and displaying advertisements within a website, comprising:

receiving, from a user computer, a request for advertising content of an advertiser, the request comprising a selection criteria associated with a web page accessed by the user computer;

obtaining, in response to the request, a plurality of advertisements associated with the advertiser, based on at least the selection criterion;

generating contextual information associated with the obtained advertisements, the contextual information indicating a relevance of the obtained advertisements to content within the web page;

selecting, from the obtained advertisements, a first advertisement for display at a predetermined location within the web page and a second advertisement for display at a location within the web page that is contextually relevant to the second advertisement, the selection being based on at least the contextual information; and

transmitting at least the first advertisement and the second advertisement to the user computer, wherein the user computer is configured to display the first advertisement at the predetermined location and to display the second advertisement at the contextually-relevant location.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein:

the website includes a plurality of web pages; and

the user computer is configured to display the first advertisement at a predetermined location within a first one of the web pages, and to display the second advertisement at a location within a second one of the web pages that is contextually relevant to the second advertisement.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting a plurality of first advertisements; and

the method further comprises transmitting the first advertisements to the user computer, wherein the user computer is further configured to display the first advertisements within the predetermined portion of the web page.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting a plurality of second advertisements; and

the method further comprises transmitting the second advertisements to the user computer, wherein the user computer is configured to display the second advertisements at locations within the web page, the locations being contextually relevant to corresponding ones of the second advertisements.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein the user computer is configured to display the second advertisement at a plurality of locations within the web page, the locations being contextually relevant to the second advertisement.

19. A method of selling advertising for a website of a content provider over network comprising:

creating a package of advertisements, the package comprising a first advertisement and a second advertisement, the creating comprising:

obtaining information associated with a plurality of advertisements;

generating contextual information associated with the obtained advertisements, the contextual information indicating a relevance of the obtained advertisements to content within the web page; and

selecting, from the obtained advertisements, and based on at least the contextual information, a first advertisement for display at a predetermined location within the website, and a second advertisement for display at a location within the website that is relevant to the second advertisement; and

offering the package of advertisements for purchase via said network.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the package comprises a plurality of first advertisements.

21. The method of claim 19 , wherein the package comprises a plurality of 1 second advertisements.

22. The method of claim 19 , wherein the package further comprises information identifying a predetermined duration of time to display first advertisement and a predetermined number of displays of the second advertisement.

23. The system of claim 1 , wherein the selection criteria comprises at least one of an advertisement size or an advertisement format.

24. The method of claim 14 , wherein the selection criteria comprises at least one of an advertisement size or an advertisement format.

25. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform a method comprising the steps of:

receiving, from a user computer, a request for advertising content of an advertiser, the request comprising a selection criteria associated with a web page accessed by the user computer;

obtaining, in response to the request, a plurality of advertisements associated with the advertiser, based on at least the selection criterion;

generating contextual information associated with the obtained advertisements, the contextual information indicating a relevance of the obtained advertisements to content within the web page;

selecting, from the obtained advertisements, a first advertisement for display at a predetermined location within the web page and a second advertisement for display at a location within the web page that is contextually relevant to the second advertisement, the selection being based on at least the contextual information; and

transmitting at least the first advertisement and the second advertisement to the user computer, wherein the user computer is configured to display the first advertisement at the predetermined location and to display the second advertisement at the contextually-relevant location.