WP125 Plugin: Easy WordPress 125×125 Ad Management
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!
Sounds awesome Matt. Well done.
Thanks, I’m going to test it.Btw, I have recently compiled a list of six ad server plugin for WordPress.
@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.
Matt, you just got another one who uses your plugin
If you have any beta releases and wants to test them, let me know 
I just replaced the plugin from Unique blog design with this one. The randomizer makes this blog a winner for me.
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.
@Sand, what site is this that you are having the problem with? I’d like to take a look at it.
http://whispertrail.com The widget is displayed on all but the homepage
@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.
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
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
hey is there a way that i can center the ads in my sidebar? i currently have a sidebar width of 160px and the ads are being aligned to the left and I can’t figure out how to have them centered.
Try something like this:
#wp125 { margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align:center; }
Awesome, awesome, AWESOME!!!
Question — is there some way to use this widget in two different columns for two different sets of ads in those three-column themes like the one we use?
Either way, thanks again for such a fantastic plugin and keep up the great work
@The GTL, No it isn’t possible to really use two instances of the widget.
Thanks for the fast response, Matt –
Couldn’t it be renamed or something (a second instance)? Pardon my ignorance on the topic — I’m definitely no programming genius
It wouldn’t be too hard to put together a second widget, but it would be a real monster to handle all the other nuances of the plugin. You’d pretty much need to create wp125-2, and go and rename the widget, and change every mention to the database tables, etc. Eventually you’d end up with two admin pages called “Ads,” two database tables for ads, and you’d have to set every setting twice to apply to both widgets…
WOW! I see, said the blind man
I sure wish it were easier than all that! Thanks again for the quick response, Matt and thanks again to you for creating this awesome plugin…
@The GTL, It would be real hard, not necessarily impossible, but still a real pain. Glad you like the plugin, though I’m sorry it doesn’t have the multi-widget support you want.
Nice plugin, I see how it works here. I need to customization it for my blog but I have a few problems with it. The Slot dropdown field is empty when I create any Ad and all of them saved with 0 (Appears in Manage).Also the columns doesnt work, I dont know what am I doing bad. Please help me.Bye
@fafa, To fix the slot dropdown, try upgrading to WP125 1.1.4.
hey matt. where would i implement this code to make the ads centered?#wp125 { margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align:center; }
ok figured out the centering part.. thanks for your help matt, awesome plugin!one more thing, is it possible to set the links to open in a new window or tab?
@Mike, It’s *possible* to make the ads open in a new window/tab. You’d have to open up wp125.php, find the function that writes the ads in, and add the deprecated target=”_blank” attribute to the a tags.
I tried to center the ads but I cant. I tried:#wp125 { margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align:center; }in CSSÂ /* Styles for two-column display */#wp125adwrap_2c { width:100%; }
#wp125adwrap_2c .wp125ad { width:125px; float:left; padding:10px;}tried:<div id=”wp125adwrap_2c” align=”center”>and after<div class=”wp125ad” align=”center”>and after echo’<center><div …’ echo’</div></center>’and nothing work.Matt can you help me please, the ads are left.Thank you.
You want to make #wp125 width:100% and text-align:center;. Then you want to change #wp125adwrap_2c (or 1c if you’re using one column) to have the margin-left, margin-right statements.
I’m having the same centering issue. I’m using the code instead of the widget because i have two connecting columns, and using the widget puts the ads in a verticle line. Because of the theme design, I have to put the code in the footer to get the correct placement. It’s in correct area but aligned to the left. Can some one please tell me what the css code is and where to place it?
Question if the two column selection isn’t working is it because of side bar width? If I use Google Chrome Theme what would need to be changed to use two column wp125?
Thank you
Yes, it is related to the width. If you reduce the padding around the ads, you may be able to squeeze them into a narrower sidebar.
Thanks Matt I will experiment.
Your Plugin is wonderful:)
Hi again, Matt. For items such as centering the ad(s) and controlling padding above and below, I'm taking a wild guess these are not options easily implemented into the admin area of the plugin for we "CSS challenged" individuals, otherwise you'd have probably already done so. Is this a true statement, sir? If not, I'd sure be looking forward to these options in upcoming releases
It's definitely a true statement.
Centering is something that is often theme-specific, and the feature likely wouldn't work for everyone. It's a feature I'd like to add, but I'm not sure how to go about it for maximum compatibility.
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
I all,
Excuse for my english.
This plugin is very nice but I have this question:
If I want insert the ADSENSE banner 120X90, how can I do? I try a lot, but the result is no good.
Thanks,
Brazoc
AdSense is not supported at this time. The plugin is generally intended fir 125×125-sized banners, which isn't really the sort of ad type the AdSense is intended for. (AdSense also generally performs better near content than off in your sidebar.)
Love this plugin. It's by far the easiest way to manage 125px ads on a blog. Plus it's free!
Hi, how can I have 3 columns instead of 2?:D
Just set it to two-column mode. They'll appear in three columns if the parent containing div (the sidebar) is wide enough.
What is the minimum width to set your blog column to in order to support two columns of 125 ads?
290-300px with the default CSS, though you can decrease the padding around the ads (see FAQ) and squeeze it into a slightly smaller column.
hi,
hope u all will be fine, this plugin is awesome, i am using it on my site http://it-aroma.com, but the problem is that i cannot add ads which include coding like:
<script type="text/javascript">
/* <![CDATA[ */
function affiliateLink(str){ str = unescape(str); var r = ''; for(var i = 0; i < str.length; i++) r += String.fromCharCode(5^str.charCodeAt(i)); document.write(r); }
affiliateLink('9d%25mw%60c8%27mqqu%3F**rrr+q%60%7Dq%28ilkn%28dav+fjh*%3Aw%60c87321%3D7%27%3B9lhb%25vwf8%27mqqu%3F**rrr+q%60%7Dq%28ilkn%28dav+fjh*lhdb%60v*gdkk%60wv*cp%60i%28470%7D470+oub%27%25gjwa%60w8%275%27%25diq8%27Q%60%7Dq%25Ilkn%25Dav%27*%3B9*d%3B');
/* ]]> */
</script>
This is the code of 125 x 125 ad for the site Text link Ads, how can i add these type of ads? sorry for my bad english
At this time WP125 can't handle ads like that. You need to have an image and a basic affiliate link. I hope to add support for this sort of thing in the future though.
How does the click tracking work? I am unable to make what I see in the backend jive with analytics on the target site…any advice?
I have the same problem as Carolyn, my advertisers report drastically different stats than the click tracker. Yes I have super cache running but I have index.php disallowed as was recommended. Any advice?