Over the last few days I’ve been playing around with the AdRotator – Ad Rotating Plugin for WordPress here at ProBlogger. The ads you see in the banner position are now rotating through three different options so that every third page view gets a different ad.
The plugin allows you to rotate AdSense ads also.
The beauty of rotating ads is that on sites with either high page views per visit and/or high numbers of repeat/loyal readers you are going at least part of the way to combat ad blindness by creating a more dynamic and ever changing appearance to your blog.
AdRotator lets you rotate as many different ad though your ad position as you like and you can use it on multiple positions on your blog.
I’m yet to have any problems with it. Installation was simple (once I found where to download it – ie its on page 2 of the plugin page and not the front page) which is saying something for me, one of the more technically challenged bloggers going around.
Installation involves simply uploading the plugin via FTP into your wp-content/plugins directory and then uploading a .txt file per ad position you want to run. Full details are pretty well explained (with an example of the files you need to upload) in the User Manual page.
I’m certain that there are other Ad Rotating scripts that you can use but in terms of simplicity and reliability I’m finding AdRotator to be a worthwhile option for WordPress users.
Wonderful! Yet another plugin I can scratch off my extensive to-do-when-I-get-some-free-time list. I’ve been wanting this for quite a while.
Now I know what to ask the fellows at Expression Engine for! thanks.
Thanks for the link. I will install the plugin this weekend and give it a try.
I echo Darren’s review. We used it for the BoB Awards and it even handles multiple ad block where the ads are even different sizes!
Too much stuff to explore, so little time
interesting. I had trouble setting it up so I am asking for better documentation. my be totally my mistakes and my bad english…
I agree, great plugin idea which I will put in blogs at the earliest opportunity but do posts like this and the resulting ‘absolutely necessary blog improvements’ rob anybody else of time and the ability to concentrate on ‘work’ :) ?
Unfair! I was 2 days early – though I did it by hand: http://tlog.dehumanizer.com/2006/02/07/adsense-tip-randomizing-ads/
:)
Cool. I may well use it for non-ad content, to randomly showcase sites. I could just write some php but hey if someone else has done it ;)
[…] Just a couple of days after my randomizing ads tip, Darren Rowse mentions a WordPress plugin to do exactly that. […]
[…] Pro Blogger me hace notar este particular plugin para WordPress llamado AdRotator. Lo interesante de este plugin es que permite la rotación entre varios banners que se especifiquen, incluso se pueden rotar anuncios adsense. […]
Hi, all. How does this compare to using a complementary application like phpAdsNew on your WordPress site?
-TimK
I understand it now. wasn’;t that hard… it’s cool!
I’ve been using this plugin at http://The-Singers.com since End of December, but not for ads. I have two instances of it working in the top left corner where it rotates between about 15 different “logos” for the blog and in the top right corner, where I am adding the medium size Amazon pic/links from every new entry in the blog. Try visiting my site and keep hitting refresh – it might give you some fresh ideas – besides using it for rotating ads.
PS: Both instances are in the sidebars, not in the main section or top header areas, and yes – I like this plugin.
The documentation for this plugin seems to imply that it would necessarily violate the Adsense TOS.
On the one hand, they state:
“In case you are wondering it doesn’t violate any terms of service **regarding competing ads*** because the final HTML (at that location) displays Ads from only one source, randomly selected.” [Emphasis mine].
But to use for adsense it requires you to manually edit your adsense code, removing line breaks and splitting up the code. That violates the TOS in a completely different, unaddressed way.
That makes me nervous and has held me back from trying it.
[…] AdRotator – Ad Rotating Plugin for WordPress Users: Blog Tips at ProBlogger […]
[…] WordPress Plugin: AdRotator – Ad Rotating Solution for your Ads (including AdSense, Clicksor, Chitika etc.) {found via ProBlogger} […]
cool plugin!
I wouldn’t use it for adsense as it requires the code to be tampered with, but it works good with my commission junction ads.
Besides #14 comment above, I added the ad-rotator plug-in to the Network site and am randomly displaying two sites under the header. I probably should have thought of that sooner! (not that it matters much because of lack of traffic .. but soon .. 1st ze empire .. zen ze vorld!)
#19 Aaaress – FYI cCmmission junction has its own smart zones to rotate preselected ads automatically .
[…] Rotating ads in Wordpress Published January 4th, 2007 WordPress Over the last few days I have been looking for some plugin that allows me to show ads in a WordPress blog (the installed version, not WordPress.com, which does not allow advertising). I found a post in Problogger that recommends AdRotator, a plugin that rotates different banners in each ad position you define. It’s fairly simple to use and install, you have to create a .txt file for each ad zone you want, and in that file you include all the banners you want, one banner per line (this requires reformatting most of the codes you need for each banner, as for example the Google AdSense javascript code). To show each banner, you just have to include a very small php code wherever in the templates. […]
I have a modified version of adrotator allowing you to use ads with multi-line codes without having to convert them to single-line codes. Read about it here
Very well done, awesome plugin
much love for this!
I like this wp plugin. I will use it in my site. Thank you.