Do you look at signatures?

Personally I tend to ignore banners. I think that when users deliberately try to attract attention (arrows, flashy stuff, bold and huge colors, etc.) it actually makes it easier to avoid/ignore.

I find myself taking interest in legitimate and regular (standard) links more than flashy and "forced" links. If it interests me, I'll check it out.

 

I sometimes add a small icon or smiley next to my links; I've never used a large image like a banner.