When I created those 125×125 ad buttons, they were at fixed locations – the first buyer bought the first spot and the second bought the second and so on. The main problem with this setup was higher up buttons had better click rate than the lower ones. With all advertisers paying the same monthly price, that wasn’t fair. I wanted some way to rotate the buttons so every advertiser would get even exposure. This was when Shrihari Sankaran of Got Chance emailed me.
The Got Banner Randomizer
Shrihari asked me if he can code up a “randomizer” for my ad buttons. What it would do is rearrange the banners into a random order on every page refresh. It was exactly what I was looking for and Shrihari coded the randomizer in a day. Then he made one that would work with any number of banners. I told Shrihari that if he made this into a WordPress plug it would be a big hit.
I Asked, Shrihari Delivered
Got Banners is a simple banner rotating plugin for WordPress. Unlike other banner rotators, Got Banners displays all the banners provided simultaneously. But, in a different random order each time. This ensure all advertisers get even exposure at every banner locations throughout the day. You can see it operate on this blog by hitting the refresh button.
This plugin comes with a normal version as well as a widgetized version, both are built in. The plugin works with an unlimited number of banners so as long as they’re the same size. Got Banner is ideally suited for application like what I’m using it for. However, even if you don’t sell private advertising, Got Banner can be used for randomizing affiliate buttons from Text Link Ads, Google AdSense or any other affiliate program.
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{ 58 comments }
Sweet plug-in for all those who want to see how other options besides adsense compare.
It’s perfect for those who want to direct sell their ad spots
I agree. Adding some functionality to manage the direct selling would make this plug in even better
I was wondering if you were working today, what with all the guest posts and all.
This is a good widget, now all you buttons get even exposure and click opportunity. Great job Shrihari.
It looks like an excellent plugin. When my blog gets bigger I will definitely give this a go.
V
Oh, I misread! Honestly I kind of like having my sidebar items in a certain order, but I do see when it could be useful (Your case Mr. Chow). I’m wondering how many page views you’re going to get just from the refreshes?
That is a pretty useful plugin for large blogs, not so much for smaller ones.
Why not for smaller ones? That is just a nice plugin. Something i was looking after (even tho my blog is small). The point is even if you use affiliate banners you never know which one performs best and at what position, this way you can at least give it a chance to the banner gets its position with which it performs best.
A really great plugin.
In that case nevermind, I stand corrected.
Like John Chow said you can used for randomizing affiliate buttons
With affiliates wouldnt you want your higher earning ones up top and not constantly moving around?
It’s to reduce ad blindness
Definitely! I think once a blog actually has some good traffic flow to work with… this is a great plugin to utilize!
Good stuff!
Thanks!
I was wondering how you did that. I sell 468×60 advertisements and use WP-Ads to rotate them.
The WPAds plugin will work for one banner (or if you float them eventually two per slot). This seems something totally different, imagine this plugin as “Getting the banners dance” they get replaced, going up, down, left, right pretty neat i have to admit.
yeah, but becouse you put them in the /banners/ directory, any adblock with *banner* filter will catch all of them.
I just don’t get it why on earth anyone call any banner like this in 2007. why not /goodpayingfolks/ or something…
It’s easy enough to change which directory to call the banners from in the source code, though, if you know anything about PHP.
Here’s an idea for the next release though – make it an easy option to change which directory to call banners from in a text area form.
Good plug-in though
I have no idea…?
Ah, nice. I should probably learn how to upload plugins.
This is a very interesting plug-in, when I start getting enough traffic at my blog that’s worth selling ads on i’ll try it.
Shaun, installing plug-ins is easy, just follow the readme file it comes with and you’ll be ok. If you have any problems with any plug-ins just contact me and i’ll email you back.
Thanks! I appreciate it. I’ll try to upload some this week.
Don’t worry shaun, upload and install wordpress plugin is very easy just follow the instruction. Good luck
easy? i tried installing the related post plugins into my blog but to no avail until now..anyone care to give a link to the right method? I have uploaded and activated it, what shall i do next?
Uploading plugins is deviously simple, Shaun, using something like Filezilla and activating them in Wordpress. Try it!
What a great wordpress plugin!
You’re the man! lol
I was looking for something like this just today.
I didn’t looking for it but I jsut need it. And John gives me
I wasn’t looking for it either, but I will be bookmarking it for future use.
V
Neato!
Will come in handy.
This will come in handy one day when my newly created blog MikeMikey.com is successful. Another great pickup by John!
Something wrong when I active this plugin.
“Warning: call_user_func_array() [function.call-user-func-array]: First argumented is expected to be a valid callback, ‘gb_add_pages’ was given in”
I just noticed that it is rotating… I was just thinking that it is to make it like all the time looking differerent so people think there are always new banners.
While I don’t think I’ll use it now since I don’t sell banner ad spaces, it’s a good one to keep. Great job Shrihari!
Interesting, I want try this wonderful plugin.
uhmm, this is a very nice plug-in. I may try it
Fantastic plug in guys. I’m sure it will get lots of use by the bloggers direct selling ad space as well as using other revenue programs.
Hey,
Thanks for nice comments there. I’d also like to thank John for this post and also for suggesting me to develop a WP Plugin based on the script that i wrote.
So far, i have been notified of one error.
Warning: call_user_func_array() [function.call-user-func-array]: First argumented is expected to be a valid callback, ‘gb_add_pages’ was given in
Could you tell me when this happens ? This error is displayed when you click the “Activate” link ? I’ll see into this.
Thanks,
Hari (Shrihari)
Thanks for the link! Now if I can get one of my 2200 stumbleupon visitors to click the darn links!
Sounds like a great plugin. I just hard-coded the randomization into the theme template using php, but this would be another way to go about it.
Or you could use PHPAdsNews.
Cool new plugin though.
This looks like a great plugin. There goes another hour as I go through the testing, upload and install process!
Cool Plugin, though I think a plugin for something so simple kinda superfluous.
Excellent plugin. Now i need some banner adds and some plugins. Well need to clean up my theme for this plugin.
I tried adding this to my blog and it ignored my margin attributes and rendered 2 banners!
I played myself and hadn’t drunk my morning coffee when I commented this – it does work as intended. I though it did something else!
What did you do incorrectly in the first place?
V
A very useful plugin for those people who want to sell their ad space directly for some extra income
But I guess this is not meant to be utilized for blogs with low traffic. Yet a good plugin for big blogs!
Fantastic piece of work Shrihari
Smaller blogs could still use it to rotate things like affiliate programs that are related to your blog.
Cool!
Along the same lines, I wrote some script for showing random banners on the likes of hosted Blogger (which have no built in support and no way to add plugins):
http://blogsformoney.com/post/Random-Banner-Ads-on-Blogger-Hosted-Blogs.aspx
This is neat! Will definitely try this on my blog.
I imagine the plugin will work with text links as well? Aren’t banners kind of on their way out?
Yeah, it will work with text links too. Just that you’ll have to customize it a bit.
What do you mean by “customize it a bit”?
V
Err… I mean that the text links are usually listed as a list using and tags. The tag can be entered in the admin panel in the place of the banners. But, the tag has to be coded into the plugin file(if using the widget) or the sidebar(if using the normal one).
I really don’t care about those banner ads flip or not, coz I’m using adblock plus
Btw, congrats for passing 8000 rss readership.
nice plugin Shrihari , I will try with my blog
Thanks for the info! I’m gonna try it on my blog.
I think i will try this very soon on my blog. Thanks for the information though