Have Banners Been Effective for You?

[HQHost.net]

I've read a lot that banner advertizing isn't taken seriously by the majority of mainstream advertizers, but still can't give up completely the idea of using banners and experimenting with then. I don't have a lot to be proud of - I mean one one banner can perform better than another, but I've never been happy with either performance.
So I wonder if you use banner advertizing and how successful this is in your case.
Can you share any good sites and blogs with tips how to improve banners performance.
What's considered to be a good CTR?

[~ServerPoint~]

Depends on what you advertise and where