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
[…] you prefer not to get your hands dirty by messing with the code, you can try the Who Sees Ads WordPress plugin. Want automatic updates? Subscribe to our RSS feed or Get E-mail Updates Automatically! Digg […]
Hi there.
I use your great Plugin for a long time now.
Today i tried to change my layout and change the rules, but no changes where saved, or better after changing the rules are empty. Also i can't create new rules, they are all empty after saving :-(
Hey, I just implemented this plugin across my site in minutes, it works a charm, thanks again.
[…] Who Sees Ads : 2.0 (Ad Management Plugin) […]
[…] Who Sees Ads : 2.0 (Ad Management Plugin) […]
[…] Who Sees Ads : 2.0 (Ad Management Plugin) […]
[…] Who Sees Ads : 2.0 (Ad Management Plugin) […]
[…] Who Sees Ads : 2.0 (Ad Management Plugin) […]
[…] Who sees Ads […]
Hi,
What a great plugin.
Could I use it to show different ads in different categories? If so what code would I use in the 'Any Condition' box?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Chris
Hi Ozh,
Who Sees Ads is great, but I\'m getting an error when calling the <a href=\
Hi Ozh,
Who Sees Ads is great, but I\'m getting an error when calling the Recent Posts plug-in with it activated:
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at … plugins/ozh-who-sees-ads/wp_ozh_whoseesads.php on line 620
… ozh-who-sees-ads/wp_ozh_whoseesads.php on line 621
There doesn\'t seem to be any white space issues. Any thoughts?
… The script appears to be trying to set a cookie (why is it even being queried?), and rmarsh.com's Recent Posts is actually being called on a homepage that isn't WP-driven. Hummmm :\
Great plugin. Along with fixing the document.getElementsByClassName references as detailed by Scott in the next release, it may also be a good idea to change all the get_bloginfo('url') references in the admin file (used for img paths) to get_bloginfo('wpurl') so the icons appear for people who don't install WP in their site's root directory.
[…] according to your visiting habits and your participation on this blog (and I have Ozh to thank for much of that code). WordPress […]
[…] Wahl viel dank eines Tipps auf das Who Sees Ads Plugin, das im direkten Vergleich um einiges besser ist. Dank dem Plugin kann ich nun exakt […]
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Hi!
Who can i customize an normal ad via CSS?
I want post a single ad block into my posting and let it float from the content / text.
Who to float and ad!?
Thanks
Heiko
[…] © Who See Ads Sitenizde reklam yay?nlaman?z?, bu reklamlar? istedi?iniz ki?ilerin görmesini […]
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
[…] ??????????????????????????????????????????Who Sees Ads?????????????????????????????????????????????????? […]
[…] monetizing an anime blog. For anyone who wants to include ads on their blog, I highly recommend the Who Sees Ads plugin, so that you can limit ads to certain crowds (or exclude your regular visitors from ads). I'm […]
Howdy Ozh,
Still having problems with this, almost a month later.
Have knocked around the subject with the developer of 'Recent Posts', but to no avail. His thoughts:
Craig: I hate it when one plugin developer says the problem is with another developers plugin… so I won’t do that. But the error message happens when Ozh’s plugin tries to set cookies after the page has already sent headers.
Any from you?
Hope your vaca was enjoyable!
[…] Who Sees Ads : 2.0 (Ad Management Plugin) […]
[…] Ozh' Who Sees Ads – Who Sees Ads??Wordperss????????????. ????????????????, ???????????, ????????. ???? […]
[…] Who sees ads : Money making plugins first! Who sees ads is a very robust plugin which allows you to create […]
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[…] Who Sees Ads Another Killer plugin from OZH. You can decide whether your AdSense ads should be displayed to a search engine visitor or not, or a regular direct hit reader or not etc. Great in incresing the CTR and revenue of Google Ads.Bad thing – Can't really track as to how the ads are performing and how they gave you improved revenues. Don't forget to subscribe in the Olympics frenzy :) Read More […]
[…] Who Sees Ads? This entry was posted on Sunday, August 10th, 2008 and is filed under Adsense. You can follow […]
Since last pluginupdate to version 2.0.1 i have a problem with uncommenting the line
//$wp_ozh_wsa['my_wsa-buttons'] = false;in my
my_options.php.The option to allow rotating ads some line above works fine.
Duerrbi » Can't reproduce the problem. You probably screw up something when editing…
[…] http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-who-sees-ads-control-adsense-display/ ???: WordPress?????? Download Monitor ?????? […]
[…] wird übrigens vom Plugin Who Sees Ads […]
Ozh,
I did the automatic upgrade to the latest version of WSA, and the ad rotation feature seems to have disappeared; is that coming back?
Leszek » this feature was untouched. It's probably because your personal settings (my_options.php) were deleted in the automatic process
(hopefully I don't plan in updating often this plugin so they won't disappear too often:)
That's what happens when I don't modify the settings for a long time – I forget what I did before! Went back and fixed my_options, and it came back – thanks.
[…] Bei Pay per View gilt meistens ein TKP Preis, der aussagt, wie viel Euro man nach 1000 Besuchern bekommt. Man sollte diese Werbeform jedoch nicht für die Stammleser einblenden sondern höchstens für Suchmaschinenkommer. Das manage ich mit dem Plugin Who Sees Ads. […]
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Would it be possible to add in a has_tags() function to this plug in? Google keeps complaining about their ads being served with NSFW content, so I figured I could just tag all those NSFW and find a plugin solution
Adam » has_tag() is a WP built-in function. You can simply use a condition like:
if { has_tag('porn') } then {don't display}
[…] Ozh’ Who Sees Ads – Who Sees Ads??Wordperss????????????. ????????????????, ???????????, ????????. ???? […]
[…] Who Sees Ads ? Manage your Ads, Control Who Sees Them « planetOzh 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. […]
[…] Who Sees Ads: 2.0 (Ad Management Plugin) […]
[…] Ozh’ Who Sees Ads – Who Sees Ads??Wordperss????????????. ????????????????, ???????????, ????????. ???? […]
Hi.
First of all, wonderful plugin!
Although, I use wp-cache so I cant use it right now.
But, the first person in the comments who asked if this plugin would work with wp-cache, you said that it may be possible since you can make a certain part of the page remain dynamic.
So is it possible or not?
Please advise.
Thanks!
Fahad » I spent a hell lot of hours trying to make this running with WP Cache, and my conclusion was that they can't live together.
I see. Thanks for the wonderful plugin though! :)
[…] accomplish this, here's a plugin from OZ, called "Who Sees Ads". It's been there for quite some time, but I'm unsure if anyone have used this […]