Reader Question Session: Ad Rotating Plugin
Last week when I mentioned that I’d be using a plugin to rotate the 125×125 ad blocks that you see on the right of the page, I hoped it would generate some interest. It certainly did that, however, it did not interest the people I was targeting. I received several emails and a couple more comments from people asking me what plugin I would be using. As you know, any time I’m asked the same question by multiple people, I figure that’s a great topic to post about, so here we are.
The plugin I’m using is the Got Banners plugin created by GotChance.com. According to their website, “Got Banners is a simple banner rotating plugin for wordpress. Unlike other banner rotators, Got Banners displays all the banners provided simultaneously. But, in a different random order each time.”
Basically you upload the plugin, create a text file containing the code for the banners or ads you want to have rotated, and activate the plugin. While that part was quite simple, I did have some trouble with the plugin. When I originally installed the plugin the ads were displaying one on top of the other rather than a 2×2 box. Not exactly what I was hoping for. After fighting with it for about 15 or 20 minutes I finally tracked the problem down to a class tag in the plugin code which was causing problems with my style sheet. Granted I’m no great designer or coder but that seems like a problem a lot of blogs would have with the plugin. Other than that issue, the plugin works wonderfully. Every time a new page is loaded, the ads are displayed in a random order. Normally the ads would rotate on each and every page load, however, since I’m also using the WP Cache plugin, pages are only loaded once and then served up via a cached copy of the page. To be honest though, I’d rather have my site hold up to a spike in traffic from a front page Digg.com story than have the ads rotate on every load.
All in all, if you’re looking for a way to randomly rotate the ads on your site, I’d definitely recommend the GotBanners plugin. It should help combat ad blindness and will also make sure all your ads are given the same amount of screen time and positioning. At the end of the month, I’ll report back and provide some statistics to show whether or not the plugin accomplishes these goals. Until then, there’s still one 125×125 ad available for $60 per month. Drop me a line if you’re interested.
I also use the Got Banners plugin on several of my sites. It’s fantastic and I’ve never had a single problem with it.
If the ads are displayed in a random order on each page load I’m not sure how useful that would be because random is rarely actually random so you end up showing some ads more than others, which wouldn’t pease your advertisers.
Mind you, according to the GotBanners website it’s used by TechCrunch and JohnChow so thats saying something
Caroline, random is actually random. The odds are the same each and every time which is the definition of random. While some will end up being featured in the top spot more than others, over time statistics show that it will even out. And yes, it is used on JohnChow.com as you mentioned.
Ahh okay that puts my mind at rest then. I’m planning on introducing some ad spots into my blog soon but will probably start with just affiliate banners as its part way through the month so I’ll try this plugin out.
Thanks for pointing to the plugin Ben. By the way, is it just me or is Google Reader slow? It’s still not showing this post in the feed…
@ Ruchir, Google Reader seemed to have some issues over the weekend. Yesterday they didn’t report the number of subscribers to FeedBurner so I and several other bloggers looked like we lost a big chunk of our subscribers. The problem seemed to be fixed today but they might be having some issues.
thanks for the info on the plugin, I haven’t tried it yet, sort of waiting for a “good review” to see how others liked it. Scott
Scott, no problem. Like I said it’s done well for me so hopefully this qualifies as a “good review” in both senses of the phrase.
Thanks Ben for the kind review.
I wanted to clarify, JohnChow.com uses GotBanners of course. I’m not sure if TechCrunch uses it though. I just pointed out TechCrunch as an example of what GotBanners does. But, John Chow is using it…
Thanks Ben for posting the link for the ad rotating plugin
This plugin works great!
-Mike
Ben – thanks for the link to both the 125 block service and the plugin! I have been trying to find a way to get ad blocks in my site without hard-coding it in the template 😉
Dave
Sorry that I’m a little late, but wouldn’t it be just as easy to create a JavaScript code using the Math.random feature?
Also I’m sorry if this isn’t a valid solution 😛