MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad Wordpress Plugin
written by John Chow
If you’ve ever visited Engadget or any of the other Weblogs Inc. blogs, you’ll noticed that they all run a cool little stripe ad at the top of their blogs. I always thought that was a cool advertising feature because it’s highly visible (it’s the absolute first thing readers see) and not that intrusive. Now, MaxBlogPress has ordered a review for a Wordpress Plugin that lets you create your own stripe ads.
Enter “Stripe Ads”, a new non-obtrusive way of displaying a single line of advertising message, a special note or other information right at the top of your blog, just like this:
As Wordpress Plugins goes, MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad is pretty complete. There are tons of options to control the look and feel of your ads. Installation is also very simple - just download the Plugin, unzip, upload to your Wordpress Plugins folder and activate. All the Plugin controls will be located in the Wordpress Options section under MBP Stripe Ad.
Unlimited Stripes Ads
Entering ads is as simple as entering the title and the link. MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad gives you the option to open the link in a new window and apply weight which helps determine how often the ad will appear. There’s also an option to disable a link in case an advertiser doesn’t renew. Global settings includes the ability to stick the stripe to the top of the page at all time, hide the close button and disable all the ads.
You don’t have to use MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad for selling advertising. The Plugin can be used to promote anything on your blog. From highlighting a feature articles to announcing a contest to telling everyone you’re getting married, the Stripe Ad is a great way to get attention.
Complete Control Over Ad Appearance
MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad offers really good control over the look and feel of the ads. There are options to set the front style, color and size. You can also control the background and border color. Additional options include how many time you wish the ads to show up on your blog and a field to enter your Clickbank ID (MaxBlogPress has an affiliate program).
The only thing I don’t like about the Plugin is the “Powered by MaxBlogPress” that appears on the right side of the Stripe. There is no option to turn it off. It would be nice if MaxBlogPress offers a paid professional version without the link. I’m sure many bloggers would be willing to pay for an unbranded Stripe Ad. The link does carry your Clickbank ID (if you have one) so it may make money for you, but I rather pay to have it removed. The powered by link is the only thing stopping me from running the stripe ads (that and the blog is too top heavy already).
For bloggers looking for a new advertising revenue source or a way to plug features on their own blog, the MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad plugin is a pretty good solution.
*Update - Well, that didn’t take long. Interest in the stripe ad has been so great I sold four ads already! If anyone want to buy a Stripe Ad, the price is $250 per month. Only five spots are available. Four have been sold already so if you want that last spot, get your order in now.
Payment for the Stripe Ad will be by PayPal subscription. Once payment has been made, email your ad description and link to johnchow@johnchow.com.
*Update 2 - Ads are sold out.
Find out what I am doing right now by following me on Twitter! If you like this post then please consider subscribing to my full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.
Make Money Online with John Chow's Ad Network - Join TTZ Media Now!
(15 votes, average: 3.27 out of 5)
Loading ...
Here's A Few More Related Posts
I’ve been wanting this for a looooong time…was even considering hiring someone to create this plugin. Thanks for the heads-up!
What a great Wordpress plugin. I’m sure the first two advertisers will get a ton of traffic.
Great plugin. I love the weight function and customization. You said we can see the “powered by…”, by I can’t see it. I just see the ads itself. Its very clean and simple.
I removed the powered by link.
I just wish they did not print the div within the head tag but inside the body….apart that it is lovely plugin
Actually, I was looking for such a plugin two days ago and am using it as we speak, great find
Alan Johnson
Yeah, me too. I like the plug-in!
BTW… John, did you know that your blog is nominated for the 4th international blog cup? Yours is competing against Best Week Ever, voting (1st round) will last until Jan. 7 only
Current scores
You - 56
Best Week Ever - 55
Here’s the link to the voting page: http://iblogcup.com/blogCup4/main.php
Nice creating it, useful.
It’s an interesting concept John, but I’m not sure I like the look of it. I’ve seen a few ads of a similar kind around the blogosphere. I agree though that they should offer a paid option with out the “powered by ____” section.
Keep up the good work.
I dont Know bout you but this is awesome—nice john!
It’s pretty cool. I like that the visitor to the site can click the ‘x’ to get rid of it. I also noticed that it’s the first thing that loads on the page (At least for me)
It seems lots of people are interested in the paid version with “Powered by MaxBlogPress” link removed.
I am planning to release a paid version soon with the “powered by” link removed.
- Pawan Agrawal
http://www.maxblogpress.com
I think it’s going to be too little too late on that front. You don’t have any licensing info anywhere to be found and since you’re distributing it for free, I’m guessing you won’t get many people paying to take off something they can already take off.
I agree, if you didn’t want people to remove the message you could have easily created some terms in the first place.
Alan Johnson
I don’t think any other terms would apply anyway. Using the WordPress admin and quite a bit of the default code means that the plugin would inheret the GNU GPL that WP uses, even if the plugin creator HAD created other terms or licensing.
This looks like a great plugin, but I wouldn’t use it for exactly the same reason you have mentioned above.
If they offered a pro version with no links in it I would buy it.
That actually looks really cool. Now that the New Year is here, I am looking to expand the different ways that I monetize on my blog and I think that having that ad up on the top might actually make for a bit of an increase in my monthly earnings. Thanks, John, for pointing this out!
This looks like a great plugin, but I wouldn’t use it for the same reason you mentioned.
If they did offer a pro version, I would buy it.
Nice Plugin..i really need this one
in a perfect world, we’d be able to remove “ads by google” too
So so so True!!!
I don’t see why Google Ads get to display that line of text with no function to remove it.
Someone needs to tell Google theyre lucky to get ad space on our sites as it is, never mind displaying the crappy “ads by Google” as well.
It just comes with the territory when you’re the biggest player out there
Alan Johnson
Looks like it’s licensed under GNU GPL to me (it’s got a readme.txt that’s for the official WP Plugin repo, which all plugins in there must be GPL). So just open up maxblogpress-stripe-ad.php, and replace lines 297 and 299 with:
$powered_by = '';It’s perfectly legal if it is licensed under the GPL, which it appears to be, although doesn’t specifically say anywhere.
If it`s GPL or other public license you can do that, witch would be great.
Btw. i think with a little tweak you may be able to use it as a corporate header.
Thanks a lot for that, I would have probably not used this plugin if it weren’t for the possibility of having that message removed (or I would have waited for a paid version).
Alan Johnson
No it’s NOT licensed under GNU GPL. We are using that format of readme.txt as most people are familiar with that.
It’s illegal to remove the powered by link without notifying me about that.
- Pawan Agrawal
http://www.maxblogpress.com
I just read all the readme.txt and the blog post about the plugin and there is nowhere specified that you can not modify it.
Liviu,
If the author don’t say it explicitly then it simply means that “you can’t modify” or copy it.
Most of the softwares/script are usually provided as it is without any information about modifying/copying.
This applies same for blog and websites too. If you can’t find “you can’t copy” information in the blog/website then it doesn’t mean that you can copy everything from there.
- Pawan Agrawal
http://www.maxblogpress.com
Actually if you don’t explicitly state what licensing you are using then yes, it does mean you can copy/modify it. You as the author have to protect your rights and if you fail to do so, it’s your own fault.
You might wanna tell John Chow that
Unfortunately it IS licensed under the GNU wether you want it to be or not. Trust me, many years of working with phpBB, designing templates and such have me up to speed on this.
#1 - it contains standard wordpress code, the control panel for example only works with the wordpress control panel, and as such must fall under the same license wordpress does. You agreed to that by using wordpress.
#2 - The unique code, aka the code you are saying isn’t GNU, isn’t “set apart” from the generic parts that are inherently GNU. Its all one package, your unique code isn’t seperated from the GNU wordpress code.
#3 - Notwithstanding #2 - You did not specify which license it was released under, and being that wordpress is GNU some parts of the code CANNOT be made anything but GNU, the license wordpress falls under. You need to follow some steps in order to accomplish this, they are described in the GNU itself.
Furthermore - by trying to impose restrictions on the use of the open source portions of the code you forfeit your right to use or distribute your works because you’ve broken the terms of the GNU attached to the code you used.
It’s not all bad news though.
- You CAN sell this product, you simply cannot stop the buyer from doing whatever they want with it, including re-selling it if they wish.
- You CANNOT have your name and info removed from the “changelog” or main “.txt” file as being the author of the work BUT you must put back the original wordpress credits for whichever parts of wordpress code you used. A text link appearing on a screen is not the same as author credit given within the code.
- You CAN still seperate your code from any wordpress code, make it work independantly from wordpress, and license it in any manner you want to. It’s not until you combine your code with an open source application that you run into any licensing laws. Open source (GNU) = free for everyone, all the time, without limitations, with right to make changes and distribute, without the right to limit these rights on anyone receiving distributions.
To sum this long comment up - the rights you have to be using the code in the first place MUST be passed along in full. I’ve checked and this “plugin” does not meet any of the requirements to impose another type of license over the existing one. I’d suggest pulling it from the market now if it’s intended to be copyright.
Additional points - i’m not a lawyer, the above was only my learned opinion. Also, this product was created long ago for multiple platforms and is/was already copyright before you created it.
It’s a great plugin, don’t get discouraged, its going to need some work (a lot of work as it stands) if you want to make it fully copyright by anything but the GNU though.
ATV hit the nail on the head. Just because you don’t want it to be GNU GPL, doesn’t mean it isnt.
All coders should learn how to protect their work BEFORE releasing it to avoid lessons like this one.
This is excellent. I am excited to start fiddling around with it and see what can be done for my site. Thanks for bringing the to my attention.
I hope the plugin author is reading this, all this talk of a “pro” version. It does look like a striking, but unobtrusive ad.
Not sure if I’ve have it though, it smarks too much of the blogger banner though which I want to get away from
If the plugin is actually GPL, he can’t sell a pro version. The GPL does let you charge a transferring fee though…
GPL doesn’t mean you can’t sell a pro version, it means that when someone gets it they can do whatever they want with it.
From GPL v2:
So how long before we see this as an advertising option on JohnChow.com?
It’s running now. $250 per month for a spot.
wow that’s a great deal for such a position on your blog. I’m usually ad blind, but that yellow bar really stands out. I wonder how well it converts lol.
For some reason I don’t think it was showing for me when I read the post. I see it now though. $250 sounds like a good deal for that level of visibility.
We’ll see! I’ve decided to give it a go. I’ll post details on my blog after I see some results.
Is worth if you want it to be famous.
This is really good info you have given us. Keep the up the goood work John.
That will come in very handy! very good plugin.
I’ve been waiting this for something like this to come out. Been searching around for a good plugin for adverts and found nothing.
Cheers John!
hmm, cool, I’ve seen that on quite a few blogs already, but, how much can someone make from it in average?
thanks!
Thanks John, great find, just installed it.
I actually saw something similar to this yesterday on one of the blogs, and it is a great concept, except, it gets annoying when you scroll down, and the bar follows you down. Not sure if it is the same plugin.
Also, a bit strange that neither John Chow or Maxblogpress are using that plugin on their sites as of this writing.
Just noticed it on Keiron’s site, it does not scroll down with you, which is great!
imagine if someone made a plugin that displayed an ad that