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
2:34 pm on September 5th, 2008
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.
7:22 am on September 6th, 2008
Try something like this:
#wp125 { margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align:center; }
12:03 pm on September 6th, 2008
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
1:51 pm on September 6th, 2008
@The GTL, No it isn’t possible to really use two instances of the widget.
12:46 pm on September 12th, 2008
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
1:11 pm on September 12th, 2008
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…
1:15 pm on September 12th, 2008
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…
3:51 pm on September 12th, 2008
@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.
2:52 am on September 17th, 2008
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
12:29 pm on September 17th, 2008
@fafa, To fix the slot dropdown, try upgrading to WP125 1.1.4.
12:27 pm on September 19th, 2008
hey matt. where would i implement this code to make the ads centered?#wp125 { margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align:center; }
3:27 am on September 22nd, 2008
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?
12:12 pm on September 22nd, 2008
@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.
1:38 am on October 21st, 2008
I tried to center the ads but I cant. I tried:#wp125 { margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align:center; }in CSS /* 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.
11:31 am on October 21st, 2008
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.
11:41 pm on November 26th, 2008
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?