XenFx Ad Manager

[Lawrence]

ditto

It depends on the weather, really.

We had a very horrible spring, so a lot of outside work I wanted to do I could not get done. For the last few days though, the weather has been very nice. The evenings I spend with my wife (because I want to, .. so if it is raining for the day, I have a lot more time. With that said, I did get sequential ad fetching done this morning with no queries, (yay, I'm not sure why queries bother me though, they just do).

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get ads position within messages done. Once that is completed, I want to clean things up a bit before I release it.

 

[Brandon Sheley]

It depends on the weather, really.

We had a very horrible spring, so a lot of outside work I wanted to do I could not get done. For the last few days though, the weather has been very nice. The evenings I spend with my wife (because I want to, .. so if it is raining for the day, I have a lot more time. With that said, I did get sequential ad fetching done this morning with no queries, (yay, I'm not sure why queries bother me though, they just do).

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get ads position within messages done. Once that is completed, I want to clean things up a bit before I release it.

Actually I already found a bunch of ad_location templates built right in already?
Is this what this thread is about, I thought it was a 3rd party add-on.

 

[Forsaken]

Actually I already found a bunch of ad_location templates built right in already?
Is this what this thread is about, I thought it was a 3rd party add-on.

This is a 3rd party add-on that would allow management of ads similar to RedTyger's add-on for vBulletin.

 

[Brandon Sheley]

This is a 3rd party add-on that would allow management of ads similar to RedTyger's add-on for vBulletin.

ah
I never used his system

Either way, thanks for developing it but I think I'll be able to do what I want with the default locations for now.
I'll watch the progress of this stiff

 

[Lawrence]

Actually I already found a bunch of ad_location templates built right in already?
Is this what this thread is about, I thought it was a 3rd party add-on.

There are 19 ad location templates included with XenForo.

To utilize these positions will require you to edit the appropriate location(s), and if you have multiple sponsors for one location (ie: top of breadcrumb), editing of the ad locations won't do.

The Ad Manager will populate any of these templates with banners and/or scripts depending on the settings you choose, and with no template edits required on your part.

Update for ads in messages: Displaying an ad in the first post of a thread, first post of each page, and last post of a thread is completed. All that is left to do is to display an ad at the last post of each page. Ad position within posts turned out to be the most difficult part as it required one additional listener and one more custom template to achieve, grrr, but it works,

 

[Phillip]

Thanks Lawrence for all your work on this. A few questions...

(1) Will ads rotate with a page refresh and/or automatically with a specific time limit in each ad location?

(2) Can any html be placed in the ad location regardless of the code or the size of the banner (jpg, flash, etc.)?

 

[Lawrence]

Thanks Lawrence for all your work on this. A few questions...

(1) Will ads rotate with a page refresh and/or automatically with a specific time limit in each ad location?

(2) Can any html be placed in the ad location regardless of the code or the size of the banner (jpg, flash, etc.)?

Each individual ad pack can be set to be replaced every page load, or at a set time, regardless of the ad location it is displayed in. I chose to allow the ad pack to decide how long it should be displayed for better flexibility for admins. For example, if you are planning on using just the breadcrumb location and have 5 sponsors, 1 of which is a major sponsor, you can set the major sponsor's ad to stay up for 10 mins, and the rest to stay until a page load.

To answer question 2, from my testing, yes, but more testing is certainly required. I had a JS clock running for testing, and a few other scripts.

Another quick update, ad placement in posts is now done, I finished it this morning. You can set an ad to show in the message of the first post only, last post only, first post of every page, last post of every page, or in every post.

 

[Brett Peters]

This sounds great, I dont suppose it would be possible in the future to consider post ads to be displayed in the viewed post automatically ? (like Digital Points ad positioning mod over at vB)

I found it very effective for serving ads to guest search engine traffic, Improved clicks but most importantly improved revinue.

 

[Kim]

Sounds great Lawrence

I have a client with your older one installed, should we hold off or is there an upgrade in the interim, not sure where you are up to with this.

 

[Lawrence]

This sounds great, I dont suppose it would be possible in the future to consider post ads to be displayed in the viewed post automatically ? (like Digital Points ad positioning mod over at vB)

I found it very effective for serving ads to guest search engine traffic, Improved clicks but most importantly improved revinue.

I'm not familiar with Digital Points ad positioning mod. You can create any number of ad packs, set it to display only in messages and only to guests, is that what you are requesting?

Sounds great Lawrence

I have a client with your older one installed, should we hold off or is there an upgrade in the interim, not sure where you are up to with this.

You may want to hold off, as there are no template edits with this new ad manager, and I only have a couple of minor options left to implement, and then fine tune how they appear when displayed.

 

[Brett Peters]

Hmm not really, More to do with an option to automatically show ads within the post that users are viewing.
Lets say that a user follows a link to any of the following posts then that post would display an ad to the actual post that is being viewed.

/xenfx-ad-manager.17343/
/xenfx-ad-manager.17343/page-2#post-231021
/xenfx-ad-manager.17343/page-2#post-231893

 

[Lawrence]

Hmm not really, More to do with an option to automatically show ads within the post that users are viewing.
Lets say that a user follows a link to any of the following posts then that post would display an ad to the actual post that is being viewed.

/xenfx-ad-manager.17343/
/xenfx-ad-manager.17343/page-2#post-231021
/xenfx-ad-manager.17343/page-2#post-231893

I think I understand. I'll look into adding that after the initial release,

 

[John L.]

I may have missed this, but how possible is it for advertisers (people who purchased advertising) to be able to control their ads, creative, and see stats? Basically with a site I am looking to make sometime in the future I would like registered users to be able to purchase advertising (tied into the PayPal subscription system) and once paid for they will be able to add creative to the package they purchased. They could also view stats to see if the package they are using works for them. If they fail to renew their subscription it will make their ads inactive until they re-purchase.

Makes the moderating of ads on your site a lot easier and promotes the use of your sites advertising as they can see stats fairly easily.

 

[Lawrence]

I may have missed this, but how possible is it for advertisers (people who purchased advertising) to be able to control their ads, creative, and see stats? Basically with a site I am looking to make sometime in the future I would like registered users to be able to purchase advertising (tied into the PayPal subscription system) and once paid for they will be able to add creative to the package they purchased. They could also view stats to see if the package they are using works for them. If they fail to renew their subscription it will make their ads inactive until they re-purchase.

Makes the moderating of ads on your site a lot easier and promotes the use of your sites advertising as they can see stats fairly easily.

Having sponsors see their own stats is simple enough to implement, and I'll add that to my list for when this goes gold. Having sponsors upload their own banners is something I'll need to look closely at, as each ad pack has numerous settings you may not want a sponsor to have access to. Maybe giving then have the ability to replace their banner in an adpack may suffice?

 

[Itworx4me]

Is there an ETA on when this might go Beta or Gold?

Thanks,
Itworx4me

 

[John L.]

Having sponsors see their own stats is simple enough to implement, and I'll add that to my list for when this goes gold. Having sponsors upload their own banners is something I'll need to look closely at, as each ad pack has numerous settings you may not want a sponsor to have access to. Maybe giving then have the ability to replace their banner in an adpack may suffice?

Essentially their options should be much less than our own. We should have as many options as possible, but they should simply be able to replace their creative if they need to. We should also have that option. The stats are really a big part of it and also being able to connect this to the PayPal subscription system that XenForo has.

 

[Robby]

Looks very nice, I can't wait to test this, is there a release date anytime soon? Don't want to hurry you but i'm very curious.

 

[Toxic]

it does look very good!

 

[Lawrence]

Looks very nice, I can't wait to test this, is there a release date anytime soon? Don't want to hurry you but i'm very curious.

I just finished adding in the option to display ads in conversations; within the messages themselves. All that is left is expiry date (a cron job), and I want to rework some of the models. What is slowing me down is the testing, as each adpack has it's own settings and each of the 19 locations as well, the possible combinations seem endless.

 

[Dean]

...What is slowing me down is the testing, as each adpack has it's own settings and each of the 19 locations as well, the possible combinations seem endless.

I can help test.......