Manage Rotating Banners & Graphics

The Ad Minister Plugin for WordPress allows you to easily add, manage and track banner ads, square ads, text ads and skyscrapers to any section of your website. Add as many ad graphics as you like to each location and they will display in rotation (a different ad every time your readers visit a new page).

Not Just Advertising…

Not only is this plugin perfect for sponsorship advertising and affiliate banners, it is also great for displaying a variety of promotional graphics and text of your own. I have used it to display screenshots of websites I have designed in my sidebar. These change each time a new page loads so keep the site fresh and show my readers a better selection of images. 

Download the Ad Minister Plugin…

Click on any post on www.ebossnow.co.nz to see the above screenshot in action.

How to Add Rotating Banners to WordPress

1. Download the Ad Minister Plugin…
2. Activate the plugin.
3. Define the positions you would like your ads to appear in by pasting a line of code into the appropriate php file (after posts – index.php, next to logo – header.php, in sidebar – sidebar.php). Download the sample code. Make sure you change the position description each time to something unique.
4. Go to the Ad Minister page under Tools
5. Click on Create Content to load your first ad
6. Add a title (this is just to help you later – no one will see it)
7. Click on the image icon above the content box and choose your ad from your computer, then click on the image and use the link icon to ad the destination website address. Alternatively, click on the html tab and paste in your affiliate code as supplied.
8. Select the position you want the ad to go in from the drop downlist (If yours doesn’t appear, check you have reloaded/saved the template after adding your administer code)
9. Click Save to save your ad.
10. Click on Create Content again to upload another ad to the same or a different position.

Banner Ads

Long horizontal graphics approx 500 x 100pixels depending on your layout. Best locations include: Your website header (at the top of every page to the right of your logo), Anywhere on your homepage, under each single post and at the top of all category pages or only particular category pages. (see the bottom of this post as an example)

Square Ads

Square graphics typically 250 x 250pixels or less depending on your layout. Best suited to your sidebar usually in groups of 2, 4 or 6. These could also work on posts or pages if left or right aligned near the top. (see my right sidebar portfolio as an example)

Find Out Who’s Clicking on Your Ads

Another great feature of this plugin is the statistics. From your Ad Minister setup page, you can see both impressions and clicks on any one of your ads. Use the Tracker URL inside a password protected page for any one of your sponsors to login and view the stats on their ads. You will find the Tracker URL at the top of each individual ad admin page. You could also setup a goal inside Google Analytics using the tracker url.

Web Ideas Tip

Try adding a graphic, text and link asking readers to subscribe to your newsletter or register for an event you are holding to the bottom of each post or at the top of each category page.