Coyotes Designs

Getting Started

The first thing you should notice after activating the cd_ad_sponsor plug-in is the overview displayed on the admin dashboard. The left-hand column of the overview provides a count of each of the sponsors, program types, banner ads, schedules, and excluded IPs. You can click on an item in this column to display the management page associated with that item. The right-hand column displays count totals for click-throughs, impressions, running ads, pending ads, and expired ads. The cd_ad_sponsor Overview screen displays site-wide cumulative totals. That is, all totals are for all blogs regardless of the number of active blogs.
Figure 1. Ad Sponsor Overview

A new menu is added to the administration panel called, Ad Sponsors. You select a menu item to display the management page associated with that item. The following sections explain each of these menu items.

1The first option is Manage Sponsors. This is primarily a contact information page but is used internally to associate the various ads, programs, revenue types, and schedules. Sponsor information includes your log in credentials, the sponsor URL you use to log in, and data used to obtain help from a sponsor representative. As I said, this is primarily a reference list.

If you are using WordPressµ, the Sponsors you define apply across all blogs. That is, they are not blog specific. It is recommended that you define all Sponsors that you wish to promote regardless of the number of blogs you currently publish.

2The second option is Program Types. Sponsor Programs represent the various payment program types for a specific site or product offered by a sponsor. Program types include Pay Per Sign up (PPS), Revenue Sharing (REV), a referral program (REF), etc. Some sponsors offer more than one option for each program type, such as with or without a trial period. You should define each Program Type you wish to use for each Sponsor site or product. Each Program Type you define is later assigned to a specific Banner Ad.

If you are using WordPressµ, the Program Types are "Sponsor specific" and, therefore, apply across all blogs. It is recommended that you define all Program Types in which you have elected to participate for each of your sponsors.

3The third option is Revenue Types. This is the monetary method you apply to your ads. There are five pre-defined revenue types included in the cd_ad_sponsor installation. These revenue types are, CPD (Cost Per Day), CPC (Cost Per Click), CPM (Cost Per 1000 Impressions), OPEN, and REF (Webmaster Referral). You can define additional revenue types to meet your requirements.

There is one revenue type that warrants further discussion. The revenue type, CPD, is a special revenue type, in that, the cd_ad_sponsor plug-in uses this revenue type to place permanent ads, such as when a sponsor purchases a zone for a specific time period to the exclusion of other sponsor ads. Obviously, CPD ads are given priority over any other revenue types.

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4The fourth option is Manage Ad Zones. Ad zones are the locations within your theme where qualified ads are placed. Ad zones are theme specific, which means that if you switch between more than one theme for your blog you will need to modify each theme to make use of this plug-in. You should also note that since no two themes are similarly designed, you may have a zone created for one theme that may not be able to be created in another theme.

Creating a zone within your theme is simply a mater of placing a function call at the desired location and passing the zone ID. I'll discuss creating zones later. For now, just understand that you are not limited in the number of zones you can create.

5The fifth option covers Banner Ads. These represent the image- or script-based advertisement for a specific sponsor site or product. Script-based Ads are usually obtained through Google, Amazon, etc. Image-based Ads (gif, jpg, png, etc.) have preference over any Script-based Ad definition. If both Image- and Script-based Ads are defined for the same scheduled zone, the Image-based Ad is used.

Each site or product, however, may have one or more ads based on your program type participation. For example, you may have elected to participate in a "Pay Per Sale" program and a "Revenue Sharing" program for a specific product. Subsequently, each program type has a unique URL. You must define a Banner Ad for each program type you wish to display.

If you are using WordPressµ, the Banner Ads apply to the currently active blog only. Banner Ads are Category dependent to prevent, for example, an ad for audio components appearing in a cooking utensil category. Unless, of course, that is what you intend. Script-based Ads, however, are determined by the sponsor. Therefore, you should select all categories when defining a script-based ad.

6The sixth option is Manage Schedules. Ad Schedules allow you to specify the Sponsor Ads displayed at a particular location (or zone) within a specified time frame.

If you are using WordPressµ, the Ad Schedules you define are specific to each blog. Although you may select from any Sponsor, and any Sponsor Program, you are only able to define Ad Schedules within the currently active blog.

7The seventh option is Manage Default Options. This option allows you to specify the purchase page URL for your site. You also define the default ALT/TITLE tag text associated with a default ad. This text is displayed when the visitor hovers over a default ad.

The cd_ad_sponsor images folder contains default images conforming to the IAB standards that you can use as-is or as a base to create your own.

8The final option allows you to define IP addresses you want excluded from the ad stats. Excluded IPs are compared to the user IP address to determine whether a click-through is registered for a Sponsor Ad. This exclusion is necessary to prevent false clicks, such as when the site administrator tests a displayed ad link. This feature is provided to accurately track CPC and CPM statistics in the cd_ad_sponsor plug-in only.

Excluded IPs have no bearing on those sponsor programs that also acquire the source IP. This means that programs, such as Google AdSense will still register your IP and may determine that a specific click is not valid. As of this writing, I have not found an interface method associated with these programs.

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