Note 2010/06/09: I’ve noticed lately that the developer of this (still excellent) plugin has not kept up with WordPress compatibility. The main issue seems to be that you cannot add more than one ad widget to your sidebar. This has been remedied with another plugin by Finding Simple. Just install it, activate, and you’re set to go!
Recently, a client asked if I could create some ad spaces on his WordPress blog that he could administer himself. The requirements:
- ad spaces of differing sizes
- ad spaces in multiple locations on the site
- a simple administration interface with the ability to input ads with HTML code or to upload an image with a link
Simple enough? I went through several WordPress ad plugins, and while all were good, there was always some limiting factor in the above requirements.
Then I found Ad-minister. This lovely plugin lets you put ads just about anywhere on your site. If you know HTML, just slap the plugin code where you want it in your template. If you want to handle your ads through widgets, you can do that too. You can make your ad whatever size, in whatever location you desire. You can input HTML for your ad, or your can upload an image and link it (with the handy visual editor built in). You can also track impressions, clicks, schedule your ads for a limited time, and make your ads appear randomly or give more “weight” to one ad over another. There is some nice documentation that goes along with it, although it needs updating at present.
Tags: ad-minister, plugins, WordPress
Think you could do a step-by-step writeup on how you did it?
@Luke, the plugin author has written up some very nice documentation of the plugin here:
http://labs.dagensskiva.com/plugins/ad-minister/
The easiest way to implement an ad space is to create a widget ad within ad-minister, and then drag that widget on to your widgitized sidebar anywhere you want it. You can also add template tags for new ads anywhere in your theme, which requires some knowledge of html (and possibly php). But you can get all this information and more at the plugin documentation page above.
Laura,
Thanks for the link but I had already used that page as my guidance. The problem I am encountering is the same as others on the forum in that when I add a widget position, it is not showing up on the widget page so I don’t have the position to drag to my sidebar. The first position worked fine. None of the others show up. I don’t know if it’s a problem with this plug-in and the 2.8.2 version of WordPress but something is blocking the new positions from showing up. Unfortunately, there is little activity on the forums and, so far, I haven’t found a solution.
Luke
Ah, yes, this is a bug in the plugin with wordpress 2.8.2. I encountered this problem with a client who had already upgraded her wordpress installation. All we did was delete all the 2.8.2 wordpress files and replace them with the 2.7.1 wordpress files, and the plugin works again. Unfortunately, if you want to run ad-minister, you’ll have to stick with wordpress 2.7.1 until the plugin developer updates the plugin to work with 2.8+.
Laura,
Thanks for the heads up. We’ll just wait for an update as we have committed too much to the 2.8.2 version.
Hey Luke–my husband programs WordPress plugins as well as does modifications on existing ones. If you need it working soon and want an estimate on getting this one in working order for 2.8+, I can get an estimate for you. Just give us a shout.
Laura,
Thanks but if any development is needed, I have over 30 years of application development in my background with solid LAMPS experience. I usually hesitate to mess with another persons code as future upgrades make any alterations mute so I’ll just wait until they come out with an update for the 2.8.2 WordPress version.
Hi Luke–as I wrote in the post update above, there is another plugin which fixes this widget bug in Administer: http://findingsimple.com/2009/07/11/cforms-ad-ministers-widgets-wordpress-2-8/