Thread: Advertising zones in Vantage

Advertising zones in Vantage

This tutorial shows you how to use the Logic Widgets plugin to set up advert zones in Vantage.

This enables you to create a new revenue stream on your site by charging customers to display their adverts in specific locations.

I would strongly recommend using the OIO Publisher plugin to manage the adverts. There is no middleman so you keep 100% of the advertising revenue and OIO Publisher fully automates the process of selling the advertising space. You can set up an infinite number of advert slots with varying prices, sizes etc. You can even set up your own affiliate program for adverts. OIO Publisher is the example used in this tutorial.

First Steps

Purchase and install the Logic Widgets for Vantage plugin from the AppThemes market place.

If you want to sell advertising space purchase and install OIO Publisher. You can also use Google Adsense, Amazon Affiliates or any other advertising code in place of the OIO Publisher code in the tutorial.

The tutorial assumes your are comfortable setting up OIO Publisher advert zones or obtaining the appropriate advert code from your chosen advertising network.

Front Page Adverts

On most sites the frontpage has the highest number of page views which means you can charge a premium for adverts that appear here.

We are going to place a frontpage advert in the header area of the site.

In OIO Ad Manager -> Ad Zones create a suitable advertising zone. The advert should be 468px width and 60px height. Zone Columns and Zone Rows should both be set to 1. Set any pricing and default ad options to suit.

Once your advert zone is set up and saved it is the Javascript Output Code you need to copy. It should look something like this:
In Appearance -> Widgets add a Logic Widget - Frontpage widget to the Header widget area.

Make sure the title setting is blank as we do not want a title to appear.

Make sure the Viewing Frontpage? condition is set to Frontpage.

Paste your advert code into the Output text box.

Your widget should look something like this:
Tutorial - Frontpage Widget.png

Save your widget and navigate to the front page of your site. If you have set up a default ad for your OIO zone that will appear, if not the default 'Advertise Here' text and link will appear like this:
Tutorial - Frontpage.png

Navigate to a page that is not the front page to ensure the advert does not appear.

Per-category Adverts

Per-category adverts are a great way of offering extra advertising opportunities to your customers and earning more money from your Vantage site. Using OIO Publisher allows you to easily charge different amounts for each category so you can choose to charge a premium for popular categories.

We are going to add a 250x250px advert zone to the sidebar that will only appear when users are browsing business listings in the 'American' category.

In OIO Ad Manager -> Ad Zones create a suitable advertising zone. The advert should be 250px width and 250px height. Zone Columns should be set to 1 but Zone Rows can be set to any number though I would recommend keeping it to 2 or 3 maximum. Set any pricing and default ad options to suit.

Once your advert zone is set up and saved it is the Javascript Output Code you need to copy. It should look something like this:
In Appearance -> Widgets add a Logic Widget - Listing Archive widget to the Main Sidebar widget area.

Make sure the title setting is blank as we do not want a title to appear.

Make sure the Include / exclude? condition is set to Include only selected.

Select American in the Categories list. You can hold down ctrl to select multiple categories.

Paste your advert code into the Output text box.

Your widget should look something like this:
Tutorial - Listing Archive Widget.jpg

Save your widget and navigate to the American categories listing archive (on the site menu click Categories -> American). If you have set up a default ad for your OIO zone that will appear, if not the default 'Advertise Here' text and link will appear like this:
Tutorial - Listing Archive.jpg

Navigate to a page that is not an American listing category page to ensure the advert does not appear.

Repeat these steps for any other categories you would like specific adverts to appear on.

Other possibilities...

There are numerous other ways you could set up advert zones in Vantage using the Logic Widgets including:

• Using the Logic Widget - Logged In widget to display adverts only to users who are not registered and logged in to your site.
• Using the Logic Widget - Listing Single widget to display per-category adverts on single listing pages.
• Search results pages typically have very high page views, use the Logic Widget - Search widget to charge a premium for adverts on search result pages.

Let me know if you'd like tutorials for any of these, or other, examples.


Disclaimer: I am the author of the Logic Widgets plugin.