WP125 Plugin: Easy WordPress 125×125 Ad Management
Thursday, July 10th, 2008 by MattAfter a few months of planning and work, I’ve finally released my new WordPress plugin. I’d had the idea sine around the time I started selling 125×125 ads on Webmaster-Source. I thought it was a bit of a pain to hard-code ads in and manually take them down after their run was over. And I don’t like figuring out end dates by counting ahead on a calendar either. That’s why I put together WP125, a WordPress plugin for easy 125×125 ad management.
I built the plugin to simplfy the management of 125×125 ads, and lower the barrier to get started selling them a little. Some of the features include
- Custom ad layout options.
- A widget to drop into your sidebar to make it easier to set the plugin up. Or you can use a template tag if you’re pro-code like me.
- Click tracking.
- Ads are automatically taken down on their end date.
- The plugin can figure out an ad’s expiration date automatically, based off how many days you say the ad should run for (no more counting forward on your calendar!). It took a bit of time and effort to get this feature working, but it was certainly worth it.
Try the plugin out, and tell me what you think. It’s a first release (1.0.0), and it’s barely been out tweleve hours, so it may have some bugs or interface oddities that need fixing. (It’s not on Wordpress plugin site quite yet either, but I’m working on that…) Tell me what you like, what needs fixing, etc.
I think WP125 is off to a good start, but I had to shave off a couple features I’d originally planned in order to get it out the door in time for the WLTC WordPress Plugin Competition. Sadly, that means I’m unable to use it on Webmaster-Source to manage my ads. I built the plugin to work the way I figured most people woud prefer, and pushed my preferences to the side for now. I handle my ads a little differently than other people, and it would have taken too much extra time and work to build support for that into the plugin. Hopefully I’ll have the time to include the settings I’d like at a later date.
Enjoy the plugin, and send your feedback along!
10:19 am on July 10th, 2008
Sounds awesome Matt. Well done.
1:15 pm on July 10th, 2008
Thanks, I’m going to test it.Btw, I have recently compiled a list of six ad server plugin for WordPress.
12:25 pm on July 11th, 2008
@Michael I partly made it for the Weblog Tools Collection competition, but I rarely have good luck in contests. I’m hoping it will work well as linkbait (GoCodes certainly did) anyway.
@Hendry. I read your post on the ad plugins. Nice roundup. I hope you like WP125.
7:19 pm on July 11th, 2008
Matt, you just got another one who uses your plugin ;)If you have any beta releases and wants to test them, let me know
7:20 pm on July 11th, 2008
[...] My Advertisement section got reviewed and I’m now testing Matt’s WP125 Ad plugin [...]
11:39 am on August 6th, 2008
I just replaced the plugin from Unique blog design with this one. The randomizer makes this blog a winner for me.
4:31 pm on August 8th, 2008
I have a background behind my widgets, but it doesn’t show up behind the ads; only behind the title. How can I fix this.Also when using the ad widget above another widget it squeezes the one below it along side rather than just stacking.These problems may be related. I could really use some help here.
11:06 am on August 9th, 2008
@Sand, what site is this that you are having the problem with? I’d like to take a look at it.
12:52 pm on August 9th, 2008
http://whispertrail.com The widget is displayed on all but the homepage
12:10 am on August 10th, 2008
@Sand, First of all, nice design.
I’ve been looking through your CSS and HTML for awhile now, and I have to say it’s puzzling. It seems to be a CSS issue, specific to your site for some reason. Have you tried posting a help request on the free web help forum at w3schools.invisionzone.com? They’ve got some real CSS fanatics over there who may know what’s wrong. I suggest posting there. If they don’t find anything, I’ll give it another shot, or refer you to another help source. I can also advice you on how to patch the plugin if you have any trouble implementing a fix the W3Schools people come up with. Sorry I don’t have an immediate answer, but I hope your problem will be able to be resolved soon.
9:32 pm on August 11th, 2008
Thanks for the help. I am new to CSS. So I very well good have done something strange. Ill let you know if I can get it working
5:22 am on August 14th, 2008
Thanks! I orignially came here for the affliate link plugin, but this looks good too! I will try it and let you know about my bugs too.if any tht is