Has this been tried before?

Ran across this news:

"GlobalSpec announced the launch of the Industrial Ad Network (SM), an online banner advertising network designed to reach members of the manufacturing, industrial, technical and engineering communities."

I thought it sounded like a pretty smart idea. If I wanted to advertise online, right now I have to go to each site and make a special commitment. I'm already tired of managing multiple PPC campaigns, I'd hate to have to do the same with banner ads.

So, has anyone tried this before? Is there any real competition besides Adwords? And is GlobalSpec the company that can do it?

Hints for making a little money on the side

Starting a new site to earn money requires time in the beginning. The easiest to start is a home affiliate business site, I think. It will require research to be carried out to see which companies offer good products and nice referral fees. But before you can start, domain registration and website hosting research has to be done. The best web hosting packages can be easily located online. I'd also consider running through companies that are offering reseller hosting so you can have more than one domain, if needed.

If you don't have it already, get a wireless internet service so the site can be uploaded and maintained conveniently wherever you are. Actually creating the site itself will take some work, but there are some neat free tools that make it easier, like WordPress. By learning to constantly manage SEO and search engine submission, the site can do well in search engine ranking and develop enough traffic that proposals will fly in for banner advertising on the site.