Warning: hefty explanations and documentation. On a rush? Give the demo a try. Chances are you'll understand right away what and how. Then download. Then please read here.
Current version: 2.0 for WordPress 2.5+ See below for older versions.
You most certainly have two types of visitors on your blog : some returning readers, and a majority of first time visitors. Returning readers come to your site for its content and for what you write. First time visitors, and mostly search engine visitors, come because they are looking for something particular, look at the page, and leave.
The first obvious thought that comes to mind when you want to monetize your blog is: "I'm going to put ads and banners everywhere". By doing so, you won't add any value or service to regular readers, who are not likely to click on your ads. By doing so, you'll also probably won't do justice to your finely handcrafted pixel polished WordPress theme. By not serving ads to your regular visitors, chances are you'll both lose little money and show your readers you're treating them differently.
Therefore, the second obvious thought about blog monetization is : "I wish I could display a lot of ads to those coming once never returning readers, but not bother my regular fans". Enter Who Sees Ads, the ultimate ad management plugin.
Who Sees Ads ?
So, who sees ads ? Now it's up to you.
Who Sees Ads is an advanced ad management plugin that lets you decide who will see your ads, depending on user defined conditions. The association of an ad and these conditions is called a context: a set of circumstances you define, that will eventually display or not an ad.
For instance, you could consider the following criteria: Is the visitor a regular reader? Does this visitor come from a search engine? Is the visitor currently reading a recent post, or something really old?
Live demo
The plugin is active here, to display an ad on top of the right sidebar. Depending on the context, you could see it or not. Its display rules are:
- display if visitors comes from a search engine
- don't display if the visitor is a regular reader
- always display
The ad behavior is defined by the first rule that is matched. Visit the main page of my blog: as I've defined a "Regular reader" here (someone who has read at least 2 pages over the last 10 days), you're now a regular reader, hence rule #2 apply and you don't see the ad any longer. Now go to Google and click on the first result to come back here: rule #1 now applies, and you'll see the ad.
Define Contexts
Ad code + Display rules = Context
You already probably have the Ad code : it can be plain HTML (a text link, a image banner) or Javascript (your Adsense code). Let's define the display rules.
Who Sees Ads offers a very intuitive and powerful visual interface to create your context and pick display rules, in which you naturally select and order them with your mouse. The interface also offers a convenient way to duplicate, rename and delete your contexts.
Have a look and play a bit with this demo. You'll love it.
Display Rules
By default, you can pick or mix any of the following rules :
- If Visitor comes from a search engine, display / don't display
- If Visitor is a regular reader, display / don't display
- If Post is older than XX days, display / don't display
- If Visitor is logged in, display / don't display
- If Date is between specified date interval, display / don't display
- If Ad has been showed less than XX times, display / don't display
- If This visitor has viewed this ad less than XX times, display / don't display
- If All previous conditions fail, try another context
- If Any condition, display / don't display
The ad behavior will be eventually decided by the first rule which is matched. For instance, if you want to display an ad only for search engine visitors, you'll pick the following :
- If Visitor comes from a search engine, display
- If Any condition, don't display
If no rule is matched, nothing displays, so the second rule in the above example is actually optional.
I made up a list of example display rules, be sure to check them.
Advanced Display Rules
You can use PHP functions and make your own custom advanced display rules. Want to display something on home page only ? if (is_home()) display will be your custom display rule.
You can use PHP built-in, WordPress internal, or your own functions. Your brain is the limit.
Please note: you obviously need to know a bit of PHP in order to use the advanced display rules. By default, they are not enabled. If you want them active, edit the beginning of the script and set $wp_ozh_wsa['iknowphp'] to true. This requires your agreement on being on your own if you break your site or if ads don't show as expected.
There are two advanced custom display rules :
- If ( condition ), display / don't display
- If !( condition ), display / don't display
The if and if not rules are working the same, I just thought it could be more convenient in some cases to use an if not rather than an if, and this way you also have two custom rules for the price of one :)
Again, check the example display rules to get an idea of how powerful it is.
Features
Simple and Effective Ad Management
Even if you're not using Who Sees Ads to fine tune display rules, it will make your life easier. Pasting <?php wp_ozh_wsa('google-336-280') ?> in your PHP templates such as sidebar.php is a lot easier than cut and pasting 10 lines of javascript, especially if you decide later to change the javascript across multiple files.
Use it inline or in PHP templates
Create contexts and display ads either in your PHP files on within your posts and pages :
- <?php wp_ozh_wsa('mybanner') ?> in your PHP files such as sidebar.php
- <!--wsa:mybanner--> within posts and pages
Visual interface
If you haven't tried it already, play with the demo. It's not functional of course, but it will show you own the interface lets you visually create contexts, and easily rename, duplicate and delete ads.
Help Wizard
A togglable introductory help contains a handy wizard that will assist you, creating your two first rules. Click on the image for a screenshot of the Wizardry.
Posting help
Within the Post/Edit interface, you'll find a convenient drop down selection to easily insert context you will have created (if you create just one context, the select is replaced with a button)
Google Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Compliant
Per terms of use, YPN (TOS) and Adsense (TOS) impose a maximum number of ads in a page, as follow (as of writing):
- YPN: 3 ads per page
- Adsense :
- 3 ads
- 2 search boxes
- 3 link units
- 3 referral units
Who Sees Ads fully complies to these restriction, and will display ads of a particular type up to the maximum number allowed.
Google Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Compliant, part 2
Per terms of use, YPN and Adsense don't allow ads on error pages such as 404 pages, and on pages that are not viewable by their system.
Who Sees Ads also complies to this policy, and ads won't be displayed on 404 error pages, and on draft posts a publisher is previewing.
Admin Clicks Safety
Admin Click Safety is an option that will prevent you from accidentally clicking on your own ads (Adsense or Yahoo Publisher), replacing them by a placeholder when viewed by the blog admin.
Regular visitors, of course, will see actual ads if applicable. Days of "oops I clicked it!" are over.
Widget support
Who Sees Ads is now supporting widgetized themes for easier ad management.
Custom Preferences Hacking
Advanced users with some PHP editing knowledge can now define a custom set of preferences or behaviors that will override Who Sees Ads' defaults. The plugin comes with an example my_options_sample.php file. Rename it my_options.php, edit it, and never lose any change you'd make when you upgrade the plugin.
3rd party plugin compatibility: Adsense Deluxe and Adsense Manager
For those who are already using Adsense Deluxe or Adsense Manager to manage your Adsense ads, you can seamlessly make the transition to Who Sees Ads and give it a try without uninstalling them. Instead of pasting the actual Adsense code when you create a context, just enter something like the following examples, depending on what plugin you're using:
- <!--adsense#mybanner-->
- adsensem_ad('mybanner')
- adsense_deluxe_ads('mybanner')
Please note: compatibility with these 2 plugins has been implemented to allow easy testing before adopting. I personally find Who Sees Ads much more powerful and efficient, and don't see the point of using it side by side with another ad management plugin. I will not continue support of these plugins if their code evolves and changes so that it breaks with my plugin.
Rotating Ads
You can define only 1 context and assign it as much ad code as you want. You just need to specify your custom code separator in my_options.php and you're done. Example, defining the string *** CODE *** as a separator:
- <img src="banner1.jpg" alt="Banner 1" />
- *** CODE ***
- <img src="banner2.jpg" alt="Banner 2" />
- *** CODE ***
- <img src="banner3.jpg" alt="Banner 3" />
Completely dynamic
The content managed by Who Sees Ads and whether it should display or not is processed dynamically on every visit for every visitor, to ensure maximum efficiency and make sure each visitor receives the treatment it deserves. The drawback of this aspect is that the plugin is not compatible with cache plugins, which generate each page once and serve the same static file to each subsequent visitors.
Download
ozh-who-sees-ads.zip
Extract and upload to your blog, preserving directory structure if any.
Note: download counter here and stats on wordpress.org may differ and reflect the number of downloads before this plugin was hosted on the plugin directory
PHP Template usage
The regular PHP call you will insert in your PHP templates is the following:
- <?php wp_ozh_wsa('myad'); ?>
However, you can pass an additional parameter to turn off output and have the ad code returned instead:
- <?php $code = wp_ozh_wsa('myad', false); ?>
By default, the plugin returns an HTML comment when no ad has to be displayed, for instance:
- <!-- WSA: rules for context 'myad' did not apply -->
A complete example of how to use WSA with your own functions would be something like:
- <?php
- $code = wp_ozh_wsa('myad', false);
- if (strpos($code,'<!-- WSA') !== false) {
- // plugin returned actual code, do something with it
- ...
- } else {
- // plugin returned no code to be displayed
- }
- ?>
Examples and advanced use
The obvious usage of this plugin is to display ads with rules as :
- Display ad when user comes from a search engine
- Don't display ads to my regular readers
- Display ads on old stuff, don't display on fresh posts
But you can also :
Greet your returning visitors
You can display ads, or really anything. For instance, display something only to your regular readers: a "welcome back" message, or a special offer you don't want them to miss.
Geo target !
In conjunction with my own IP to Nation plugin, you can easily target visitor from a particular country. For instance, you've always wanted to display Yahoo Publisher ads to American visitors only, as Yahoo suggestscompells? Easy, your context simply has to use the following custom if rule:
if (wp_ozh_getCountryName(0) == 'United States'), display
Check the example display rules for more ideas of usage.
Older version
Download: Who Sees Ads 1.3.3 for WordPress 2.3.3-
Question?
If you have a question, read all the comments: the answer *is* there.
Shorter URL
Want to share or tweet this page? Please use this short URL: http://ozh.in/kr
[…] just released Who Sees Ads. I've already unveiled most of the features here, so I'll quickly […]
can you give me the "link" to your who sees adds options page?
I wanna try somethign like: h**p://myblog/path-to-who-sees-adds to see if its just a display problem (aka I can access the options page) or a bigger problem.
btw. from the live demo you linked above, I cannot determine if your plugin offers a feature I have seen incorporated in wp-ads plugin:
specify a % to decide which add gets shown how often, aka I define 2 different adds for one content block (aka position) then give the first oen a 30% priority and the other one a 70% priority, and another nice feature would be to be able to set a max. numebr of views, useful if I do a banner trade or offer deals like: I will show your adds to 10000 visitors, and after that it will jsut get replaced by another add
I hope you understand what I mean, as I am not a native english speaker. maybe eve n have a look at wp-ads: http://thesandbox.wordpress.com/wpads/
ovidiu » I'll suggest deactivating plugins one by one till you see WSA in the Options menu. Start by deactivating plugins with menus.
Ovidiu » the % trick you mention is easy to implement:
if (mt_rand(1,100) < 30) { // 30% chances wp_ozh_wsa('banner-1'); } else { // 70% chances wp_ozh_wsa('banner-2'); } [/php] You can do the same kind of things to show XX times an ad, fetching a counter from a table, increment it, and display ad accordingly.
will these ruels have to be put into the: Possible Rules fields?
[…] Competition you already know about it, I've released yesterday my latest plugin, codename Who Sees Ads. As far as I know, and to date, this is truly the most advanced and powerful ad management plugin, […]
wow dude this an awesome plugin I hope you win the Plugin comp wish me luck for the theme comp. I have barely started :(
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Simply the greatest ads plugin in the world, bar none!! Well done. I love that it's not locked into doing any one kind of ad… or ads at all, for that matter… one can easily use this plugin to personalize a site for frequent readers. Love it!
Best of luck in the plugin contest. I hope the competition is anywhere near as good as you!
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Does this work seamlessly with wp-cache?
Jean-Paul » by design, it can't. The principle of this plugin is to display something different depending on the context. Unless you use it to always display something, it can't be used with WP-Cache.
This said, I'm not exactly aware of how WP-Cache works but I know you can specify that a part of a page stay dynamic and does not get cached.
Thanks Ozh .. I'll play with it tonight and if necessary make it dynamic through the wp-cache function calls. It's quite easy to do so, so no problem. I really like this plugin and wish you all the best with the plugin comp. If needed, you'll certainly have my vote when time comes.
Thanks for your Great really great work. Ozh,this is will be your most popular plugin!
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WOWIE WOW! Thank you so much… this is *exactly* the plugin I've been looking for! I'll install it right away, just took a look at the demo and the backend looks perfectly usable. again: thank you!
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This is a really great plugin. I've been meaning to create something like this, and you've already done the big work.
If I were to make three suggestions:
1. One of the filters be "registered users". I'd really like to say "I want to show this to non-registered users". When I tried to do this with using your conditionals to test $user_ID it didn't work.
2. Be able to specify a time frame. Say I have a banner ad campaign that is effective for a given time frame. I'd like to say "If it's in this time frame, launch this ad".
3. Two flows into three. I use ad rotator, and would really like to be able to say "Display one of the following in this space depending on the category and the time frame." I could do category with the current test interface, I believe, but it would be even better if I could use a pre-canned condition.
Any thoughts?
MInTheGap »
Reg users: definitely something I should have thought of and included in version 1.0
Time frame: time frame or ad impression count is a frequent feature request. I'm not a user of anything like this, but there seems to be a reasonable demand and need for it, so I'll give this some thinking.
Display this or that: I'm not sure about this one since I don't see how I would add this feature without changing all the user interface.
All in all, you've posted great suggestions, thanks for this!
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Nice plugin .. I'd love to have ExecPhp abilities in this plugin so that I can put my Php function in WSA and then show them conditionaly. Right now if I put a Php call in WSA and put the context in Samsarin, it just returns the php call as text. I want to use WSA ads to conditionally show widgets on my pages until WordPress people make available this feature in WordPress Widgets..
[…] More information here […]
[…] More information here […]
Shahab » the ability to write PHP code was initially planned, but then I removed it because of security implications. I'm still thinking about it for an update, maybe as a "enable if you dare" option that will be off by default.
[…] More info | Download […]
Hi Ozh,
Can I configure this plugin without drag-n drop features?
I have two websites WP 2.2.2 enabled and in the first one it works like a charm, in the second one I have problems in drag´n drop feature (maybe scriptaculous/prototype conflicts that I can´t figure out) and the plugin seems useless.
Thanks in advance and congratulations for the nice work.
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Georgious Plugin!!! Thanks a lot, and more thanks :)
Just a question: Does this plugin will work properly when WP Cache is enable?
KCA » it's been discussed in earlier comments (follow the "Show All" link. I'll add this to a FAQ some day :)
Guahla » no, there's no way to do this.
[…] Link: Who Sees Ads? […]
Great work, indeed! :)
Another small suggestion for the next version:
I would find it useful, to have a option the "Admin Clicks Safety"-Area is just displayed under the given conditions of the Ad. Breaks my Layout quite bad at present.
Control Who Sees Your Ads With 'Who Sees Ads?' WordPress Plugin…
I've had a number of people point me to a WordPress plugin by the name of Who Sees Ads? in the last week so thought it might be time to check it out myself.
This great plugin enables you to target certain readers to see your ads – while others…
Hey,
Thank you for this. I was thinking about tinkering the 'adsense manager' to get this features, but its already available!!!!
Thanks buddy
-Nish
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that plugin are amazing, ill give atry!!! thanks for sharing!!
Nice plugine . I will going to use it and give my feedback. so keep blogging with :)
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Excellent plugin! I congratulate you.
If you're going to call a php function, where should you put your function?
Putting it in the usual theme php files results in nothing, so I assume you have to add it to the plugin file itself…?
Peter » just add the function call as a condition of the rule, as in the example popping up when you hover the [?] icon.