28 August 2008Two Great WP Plugins For Selling Ads on Your Blog
Manage all your purchases automatically, save time and effort
I’ve always had trouble with selling ads directly from my blog. I always felt that the process was too complicated for both the advertiser and the publisher. Only when high paying advertisers meet high profile blogs, is it worth working out a deal manually. When I say “manually”, I mean that the advertiser contacts the blogger directly via email/contact form proposing a deal. The blogger responds accepting/rejecting/asking questions etc. Once things are worked out, the blogger has to receive the ad info from the advertiser (ad image, ad url, ad placement…). Once the blogger has all of that, he/she must insert the ad on his blog manually, and then when it expires, take it down manually. This means that all the smaller blogs that want to sell ads directly for a lower price, usually end up switching to an ad network to sell ads.
This post is a short guide to show you how to use two great WordPress plugins to sell your own adspots on your blog with automatic ease.
Managing Your 125×125 px Ads
WP125 is a wonderfully simple new plugin that offers a great way to manage all of your 125×125 pixel ads. Here are the features outlined by the developer:
- One or two column ad display, and support through template tags to implement your own unconventional design.
- Show as many ads as you want, and in either manual or random order
- Keep track of how many times an ad is clicked
- When creating a new ad, you don’t have to calculate the end date yourself. Just input how many days you wish the ad to run for, and the correct date will be applied. The ad will be automatically taken down when the time comes.
- When an ad run is over, the record is archived on the Inactive ads screen, so you can check on the final click count, or revive the ad for another run.
You should use WP125 to manage all of your 125×125 ads. If you don’t have any advertisers yet, be sure to fill in your own ads (affiliate programs or filler ads linking to your advertise page).
Once you’ve set up all the ads you want, copy the PHP code or use the widget to insert the ads into your sidebar (or wherever else).
Sell Ads Automatically With WP-eCommerce
Now that you have a way to manage your ads, we will set up WP-eCommerce to help sell your ads. First, install the plugin by downloading it here. Once installed, you will see all the features and functionality this plugin was built for. It is great for running an online store right out of your WordPress install, but we will instead be using it to create a page where advertisers can purchase an adspot on your blog/site.
First - configure all of the necessary settings. Make sure shipping and taxes are turned off. Create a new category called “Advertising”. Configure the shop settings to match your blog’s appearance and functionality. This might mean a bit of theme tweaking (such as making the shopping cart appear only on certain pages).
Make sure to also set your payment options and even set up some coupon codes if you want.
Now, once you have doen this, add a new product in the category “Advertising” called 125×125 ad. Fill out the product information, pricing, description, and include a picture if you want.
The last step is to setup your “Advertise” page to display your products. In the WP TinyMCE editor, one of the buttons should now allow you to insert a produtc category. Insert the “Advertise” category and maybe include some site statisitcs/information for advertisers to consider.
You are now pretty much complete. Whenever someone purchases an ad, you will be notified and sent money (via your payment option). All you need to do now is insert the ad into WP125 and you’ll be on your way.
Tags: Advertising, Plugins, WordPress
jbj
28 August 2008, 2:53 pm
Nice article! ISIS Ads Management is a nice ads plugin, you should definitely try it =)
redwall_hp
28 August 2008, 3:23 pm
Thanks for the link and mention.
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