=== Easy Ads === Contributors: manojtd Donate link: http://www.Thulasidas.com/buy Tags: chitika, clicksor, bidvertiser, adsense, google, ad, ads, advertising, income Requires at least: 2.8 Tested up to: 3.0 Stable tag: 1.0 Easy Ads showcases AdSense and its alternatives on your blog: Chitika, BidVertiser, Clicksor etc. == Description == *Easy Ads* provides a unified and intuitive interface to manage multiple ad providers on your blog. Currently supported are Chitika, BidVertiser, Clicksor, and, of course, AdSense. The list of ad providers will be expanded later on at your request. AdSense dumped you? Don't be heartbroken; there are other fish in the sea. You may find happiness with [Clicksor](http://www.clicksor.com/pub/index.php?ref=105268 "Careful, don't double-date with AdSense and Clicksor, they get very jealous of each other!"), [BidVertiser](http://www.bidvertiser.com/bdv/bidvertiser/bdv_ref_publisher.dbm?Ref_Option=pub&Ref_PID=229404 "Another fine ad provider") or [Chitika](http://chitika.com/publishers.php?refid=manojt "Compatible with AdSense"). Use *Easy Ads*, and you may get lucky! *Easy Ads* is an offshoot of another plugin (*More Money*) with a robust and fully refactored code base. All future developments will be made on *Easy Ads*. = Features = 1. Tabbed and intuitive interface for multiple ad providers. 2. Rich display and alignment options. 3. Robust codebase for extending to more ad providers. 4. Control over the positioning and display of ad blocks in each post or page. 5. Simple configuration interface -- nothing more than cutting and pasting ad code, and with sensible defaults for the few options present, all with clear instructions. 5. An *Admin* (Control Panel) tab with: - Option to selectively activate or deactivate various ad providers (in the *Admin* Tab). - More information about ad positions and slots (as an image in the *Admin* Tab). - Option to set number of ad slots per position. - New commands (in the *Admin* Tab) to *Reset All Options*, *Drop All Options* or *Migrate Options* to a new plugin version. If you want to consider only AdSense, you would want to consider my full-fledged, feature-rich plugin [Easy AdSense](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/easy-adsenser/ "The complete solution for all things AdSense related"). If you like *Easy Ads*, you may want to check out my other plugins: [Theme Tweaker](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/theme-tweaker/ "To tweak the colors in your theme with no CSS/PHP editing") and [Easy LaTeX](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/easy-latex/ "To display mathematical equations in your blog using LaTeX"). And my plugin for plugin authors: [Easy Translator](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/easy-translator/ "To translate any plugin (with internationalized strings) to your language."). Note that when you activate the plugin and leave the textareas for your ad codes empty, the plugin will show random ads of mine (mainly referral requests, publicity for my book and blog as well as some AdSense blocks). To suppress these, please generate your own code and insert them in the textareas. = Future Plans = This initial version 1.0 provides you with the basic functionality, but much more is planned for the future. I would like to hear from you if you have any feature requests or comments. 1. Widgets: I will release options to include sidebar widgets with optional ad customization. That is, you will be able to use the same ad code for both main text and the widgets, or have different texts, to be customized on the widgets page. 1. Ad Rotation: I will provide means to rotate ads among various providers with user-defined frequency. 1. More Providers: This plugin is designed with extensibility in mind. I will keep adding more ad providers, or even let the end-users add them. 1. Provider Specificity: This initial release treats all ad providers essentially the same way. In the next release, I will start introducing more specificity, like specialized fields for HopID, PubID, colors, etc. 1. Expertise Level: I plan to introduce expertise levels (Easy, Advanced and Expert tabs) within the tab for each ad provider. 1. Max Number of Ad blocks: Since some providers require you to limit the number of ad blocks to some policy-driven ceiling, I will expose that option to you. Also to be customized is the number of ads per slot. In this initial release, there are three slots (top, middle and bottom), each of which can take two ad blocks. In a future release, you will have much more customization options. 1. Ad Block Customization: Right now, all the ad blocks are designed to display the same ad code, for which the providers will serve different text. In a future release, I will give you a means of introducing different texts for different locations, possibly in a tabbed interface. 1. Ad Space Sharing: Although the current version shows a fraction (5% by default) of your ad space you can share with me to support this plugin, I have not implemented it yet. I will do so in a future release. 1. Internationalization: Future versions will provide MO/PO files for internationalization. = New in 1.05 = More technical and user interface enhancements (preparing to reuse `ezAPI.php` for other plugins) . Switching to Chitika for default and shared ads. == Upgrade Notice == = 1.05 = More technical and user interface enhancements (preparing to reuse `ezAPI.php` for other plugins) . Switching to Chitika for default and shared ads. == Screenshots == 1. *Easy Ads* "Overview" tab. 2. How to set the options for one provider in *Easy Ads*. == Installation == 1. Upload the *Easy Ads* plugin (the whole easy-ads folder) to the '/wp-content/plugins/' directory. 2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress. 3. Go to the Settings -> *Easy Ads* and enter your ad codes and options. == Frequently Asked Questions == = Why do I see ads for some books in my blog? How do I get rid of them? = When you activate the plugin and leave the textareas for your ad codes empty, the plugin will show random ads of mine (mainly referral requests, publicity for my book and blog as well as some AdSense blocks). To suppress these, please generate your own code and insert them in the textareas. = I get the error "Error locating or loading the defaults! Ensure 'defaults.php' exists, or reinstall the plugin." What to do? = Please copy *all* the files in the zip archive to your plugin directory. You need all the files in the `easy-ads` directory. One of these files is the missing `defaults.php`. = I activate the plugin, but nothing happens. I see some red error message stating something about PHP version. What gives? = This plugin requires PHP version 5.x or later. If it doesn't find the right version, it posts an error message in the plugins page, and does nothing. You will need to contact the system admin or support folks of your hosting service and request them to install PHP5.x for you. Usually, all it takes is just an email to get it sorted out. = Can I change the defaults? = This page might help: [Creating Your Own Defaults](http://www.thulasidas.com/creating-your-own-defaults "An blog page of mine that gives step-by-step instructions on how to modify the default values"). Soon, there will be a paid service (under a new "Go Pro!" tab in the admin page of the plugin) to generate your own defaults. = How can I control the appearance of the ad blocks using CSS? = All `
`s that *Easy Ads* creates have the class attribute `easy-ads`. Furthermore, they have class attributes like `easy-ads-adsense-top`, `easy-ads-clicksor-bottom` etc., (ie, `easy-ads-provider-position`). You can set the style for these classes in your theme `style.css` to control their appearance. = Ad Space sharing? = There will be an ad-space sharing scheme implemented starting a future version of *Easy Ads*, if you would like to support its future development. It will give you an option to share a small fraction of your ad slots to show the author's ads. Although the option is visible in the current version, the sharing code is not active yet. Unless you configure the plugin (following the instructions on its admin page) and explicitly turn off the sharing, you agree to run the developer's ads on your site(s). By using the program, the users are agreeing to this condition, and confirming that their sites abide by Google's and other ad providers' policies and terms of service. = Why does my code disappear when I switch to a new theme? = *Easy Ads* stores the ad code and options in your database indexed by the theme name, so that if you set up the options for a particular theme, they persist even when you switch to another theme. If you ever switch back to an old theme, all your options will be reused without your worrying about it. But this unfortunately means that you do have to set the code *once* whenever you switch to a new theme. = Can I control how the ad blocks are formatted in each page? = Yes! In *Easy Ads*, you have more options [through **custom fields**] to control ad blocks in individual posts/pages. Add custom fields with keys like **easy-ads-adsense-top, easy-ads-adsense-middle, easy-ads-adsense-bottom** and with values like **left, right, center** or **no** to have control how the ad blocks show up in each post or page. The value "**no**" suppresses all the ad blocks in the post or page for that provider. = How do I report a bug or ask a question? = Please report any problems, and share your thoughts and comments [at the plugin forum at WordPress](http://wordpress.org/tags/easy-ads "Post comments/suggestions/bugs on the WordPress.org forum. [Requires login/registration]") Or send an [email to the plugin author](http://manoj.thulasidas.com/mail.shtml "Email the author"). == Change Log == * V1.05: More technical and user interface enhancements (preparing to reuse `ezAPI.php` for other plugins) . Switching to Chitika for default and shared ads. [Oct 3, 2010] * V1.04: Graceful handling of PHP4, improvements in the admin interface. [Sep 20, 2010] * V1.03: Technical enhancements; no functional changes. (Refactoring static utility functions into a new class in `ezExtras.php`.) [Sep 11, 2010] * V1.02: Technical enhancements; no functional changes. (Simulating namespace to avoid potential name collisions, minor bug fixes etc.) [Sep 4, 2010] * V1.01: Google policy enforcement (no more than three ad blocks). [Sep 2, 2010] * V1.00: Initial release. [Aug 31, 2010] = Plan = * V1.06+: Widgets? Mini-tab for compact multi-textareas (for ad code entry)? * V1.06: Tecchnical enhancements; PHP5.3 (__construct functions).