A WordPress Sponsor Ad Management Plug-In
September 2nd, 2009 | 
Author: 
I wrote the WordPress Sponsor Ad Management Plug-in to use within the WordPress and WordPressµ version 2.8* framework to manage the many sponsor ads associated with numerous blogs. To give you an idea as to why I wrote this plug-in, consider that for one WordPress setup I have ~30 blogs that reference 109 sponsors, each sponsor has 9 program types for each of their six or more sites; 109 * 9 * 6 = 5886 ads. Divide that by 30 blogs equals 196.2 ads per blog. Managing these ads by hand is a complete waste of time. I also wanted to track the performance of the sponsor ads, how many clicks to how many impressions. Granted, I do not promote all 109 sponsors at the same time on any one blog. The cd_ad_sponsor plug-in, however, will let me determine (in conjunction with the sponsor statistics) which sponsor ads are most effective.
Version 1.3.0 is now available from the downloads page.
Note: The cd_ad_sponsor download from WordPress in incorrectly named. The download DOES contain the correctly named cd_ad_sponsor.zip file. Please extract this file before you upload it to your plugins folder. You may also download the correctly named plug-in from here.
One cautionary point I want to stress is that this plug-in requires that you edit the structure of your theme files. If you are not comfortable poking around in your theme files, I would recommend that you skip using this plug-in. The modifications are simple enough, though, and you can read more about using the cd_ad_sponsor in the User Guide.
The cd_ad_sponsor plug-in is targeted for use by site owners only. It is not designed to be operated by your Authors, or other members. Consequently, there is very little error checking. The plug-in may also take some time to configure, as well as modification of theme files, which is not within the usability of non-administrative users.
If you are looking for the cd_ad_sponsor user guide documentation, please see Sponsor Ad User Guide for more information about using the cd_ad_sponsor plug-in.
Introduction
This plug-in accepts graphic- and text-based banner advertisements from sponsors where those ads [should] conform to the IAB Ad Unit Guidelines. There is no restriction, however, on the size of your banner ads. Text-based banner ads contain mostly anchor tags wrapping text links but may contain smaller images, such as icons. They are often presented using JavaScript, such as Google AdSense and those ads obtained from Amazon, Commission Junction, etc.
Sponsor ad sizes should be limited to the current WordPress Theme element dimensions, such as the Header, Footer, and Sidebar dimensions. No validation is performed to prevent you from adding a 468 pixel wide banner in a 200 pixel wide sidebar. You will have to control what ads you accept and make any necessary changes to your theme to accommodate the possible ad sizes, or modify those ads to meet your theme requirements.
The cd_ad_sponsor plug-in does not track the sale of an ad. That is a procedure left entirely to you. There are many shopping cart type plug-ins available to process these purchases. I do not have any one specific e-commerce plug-in that I recommend.
Note to WordPressµ users. The plug-in automatically determines the site while selecting the appropriate ad to display. You can have a sponsor purchase ad placements on one or more sites in one or more zones and the plug-in will manage the ad display for you. I have noted where cd_ad_sponsor definitions apply site-wide, or to a single blog.
Requirements
The cd_ad_sponsor Plug-in requires that your server runs PHP 5.1.x or greater, MySQL 5.x or greater, and WordPress(µ) 2.8.4 or greater.
I have tested this plug-in on two different servers, my development server and my production server, and four WordPress 2.8.4 and 2.8.5 installations, two single instance configurations and two WordPressµ configurations. It is also running on this web site. All ads that you see are presented by the cd_ad_sponsor Plug-in.
Installation
The cd_ad_sponsor Plug-in installation is straight forward. It does not require a special configuration.
- Download the cd_ad_sponsor plug-in file,
- Extract the files locally,
- FTP the files to the WordPress Plugins folder,
- Activate the cd_ad_sponsor plug-in.
- If you are running WordPressµ, ensure the plug-in is activated site-wide.
Compatibility
I have tested this plug-in on my specific WordPress installations, as I noted above. Each WordPress install is running a variety of other plug-ins, such as Viva Thumb-Zoom, WP-PageNavi, EmbedIt, MU Meta Tags, and some others. I have not found any incompatibilities, as this plug-in does not interact with any other plug-in. That does not, however, mean that incompatibilities will not occur. Should you encounter an incompatibility with another plug-in, please post your findings in the comments and I will help you as best I can.
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Initial release. Please let me know of any issues you may encounter, and especially if you would like to see future enhancements. Thank you for your support.
~Coyote
Coyote,
I have searching for the link to get Amazon as a sponsor for my websites. So far, no luck.
Maybe it is too easy. However, if it was that easy I would see them everywhere, but I don't. So, since you have them as sponsors on your blog, could you please tell me how to get them as sponsors on other blog sites.
Thanks,
Cathy Sutton
Hi Cathy,
You an reach Amazon's affiliate page here, https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/main.html
A couple of unrelated notes for you:
1. Make sure you download the latest release of the cd_ad_sponsor plug-in from my site.
2. After you FTP the files to the /plugins/ folder, go in to the /cd_ad_sponsor/js/ folder and rename or delete the cd_ad_base.js file. This file was created to add the expand/collapse feature to some of the management pages, but it interferes with WP's JQuery setup. I am in the process of correcting it, and will let you know when I am done.
Also, please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for this plug-in.
Thanks for your interest!
~Coyote
Hi Coyote,
I've been looking for a plugin exactly like this - you did amazing work here, plus the guide is also very easy to understand.
There is one issue with the current WP Version(2.8.6) though: after activating your plugin, I cannot use the Widgets-Page in the backend any more (i.e. expanding the boxes etc.)
I've had the same problem with other plugins - obviously, the WP team changes something in the Widget-Backend; I'm not a programmer, afaik it is some kind of JavaScript problem (I don't have a link though, but I remember reading that it's just a small js inclusion change).
It would be great if you could look into this; like I said, I love the plugin but unfortunately I can't use it because of the widgets issue.
greetZ from Vienna,
ritchie aka datadirt
Hello Ritchie,
Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate all the comments I receive from users.
It appears the cd_ad_base.js file interferes with some of the normal WP .js functions. You can delete or rename this file. It is located in the /plugins/cd_ad_sponsor/js/ folder. This file provides expand/collapse functionality only, so it will not affect the plug-in itself.
I disabled the cd_ad_base.js file on all of my blogs, including this one, and have no further issues. I am working on another solution to the expand/collapse feature, as I believe it is necessary when dealing with a large number of banners and schedules.
Let me know if this helps.
greetZ from Arizona,
~Coyote
Hi Coyote:
I am so happy to have found this. i am just getting started with ads -- I have been contacted directly by some would-be advertisers for my blog periodically, but while I could figure out how to plop a JPG or HTML ad manually into my templates (or at least I thought I could) I had no idea how I would manage and track them. I have installed your plugin and put up a couple of test ads in anticipation of a real I am getting next week, at http://www.ethicurean.com. I successfully modified my home.php and sidebar.php templates, but for some reason I cannot get the top and sidebar ads to show up properly on either the single post or single pages (for the sidebar one). I tried created a new zone for the ads on just the single posts and duplicating them, but that hasn't worked either. I wonder if you can tell me off the top of your head what might be happening? I am NOT a programmer -- but I have been modding my template files for a while and I can generally fumble my way through.
See the top of http://www.ethicurean.com/2009/11/22/aquaculture-2/
I am looking at it on Firefox on a Mac. when i look at it in Safari, I get a ? where the ad image should be. Does this have something to do with the frequency setting do you think?
Any help would be much obliged. And I would be happy to donate something for this incredibly well built and documented plugin but I didn't see a tip jar anywhere.
Thank you so much!
Hello Bonnie,
I'll do my best to help you.
I looked at your site, and I see two ads, your zone1 and zone2 definitions. The "Butcher..." and the "Soul Food Farms..." ads appear in those zones respectively. Nice looking site, by the way! :-) I like the authors and their articles. I'll be reading more later.
First things first.
Ensure that you have created a sponsor entry, then define a program for that sponsor. Next, you need to create a zone for the area of the appropriate page where you want that ad to appear. You will need to add the < ?php cd_ad_zone() ?> function in the template file corresponding to that zone. Next, create a banner ad entry associated with that zone (*hint: assign all categories), then create the schedule for that banner ad. Rinse and Repeat.
NOTE: Do NOT set the frequency value for any zone that is not intended to be embedded within a post.
As far as the question mark appearing in Safari, I can only assume that Safari displays this character when an image/link is not available. I say, "assume" because I am not on a mac running Safari, and therefore, cannot test this assumption.
I don't have a tip jar set up, only a donation link. A comment and/or vote on the WordPress Codex site would be appreciated!
One other thing you may want to verify is that you are modifying the correct template file(s). I cannot download the Proximity News Theme to verify which template files you must modify. I will, however, be more than happy to look over the files if you e-mail them to me.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if I can assist you further.
~Coyote
Hi Coyote:
Thanks for the kind words about my jerry-rigged site :-) and for trying to help me.
Before I asked for help, I did follow all your directions and set up sponsor entries, created zones, created the two test banner ads, and all that using your very helpful User Guide. Then I plopped your PHP call code in the various Proximity template files -- and the ads show up beautifully on both the Proximity home.php (what would be the index) and also in the sidebar.php, but only in the sidebar.php when it is called for the home, not when it is called for either the single post or page templates. I would rather not embed the ads within the actual post, but have them display above the headline in the same position they are in the home page. I am going to email you those template files to see if you can figure out where i am going wrong.
BP
Hi Bonnie,
You are welcome.
Do you use Skype? If so, I'll be glad to chat with you. My user name is, coyotesdesigns. I am usually online twelve to sixteen hours a day, including holidays. Sad, I know. ;-)
I'll wait for your email and/or message.
~Coyote
[edit]
I received your files. They appear to be fine.
In the sidebar.php file, you might want to move the cd_ad_zone function and your sponsorship div tag to just inside the <div id="sidebar"> tag. I don't have the css file so i cannot tell whether this will cause a problem or not, but since the other cd_ad_zone functions are 'inside' the containing div tag, I would try the same in the sidebar.
Let me know if this helps.
Hi, thanks a lot for your help! I renamed the js-file today and re-activated the plugin - the widget interface is working now.
Glad I can use the plugin for my ad management now, have a great weekend!