Running your own ads is always better than using any other ad network as a middle man. No matter how impressive is your ad network, it will always take quite a share ranging from 20-40% of your revenue. Well, that’s a big chunk of revenue, when you are making 1000$, about 300 is going to the ad network. When you are having a heavy traffic blog you can have your own ad server. However, for new or middle aged blogs, even this is ruled out. I have found a very effective free WordPress plugin to run your own 125 x 125 based ads in your blog. Its really an awesome, light weight plugin. After installing it, all you have to do is go to: Ads–> Add/Edit. Enter Name, slot number, target URL, expiration, and add image. You can also set the click tracking for the target link. That way you can check how many times the ad has been clicked.
If you wish to edit the settings, go to: Ads–>Settings.
1) Here you can set the ad orientation to one column or two column.
2) Set up the number of ad slots.
3) Give a title to the widget.
4) Enter an optional sales page.
5) Enter an expiration email. When an ad expires an email will be sent to this email address. You can also enter the pre expiration dates.
6) When no ad is active, you can show your default ads.
Your ads can be displayed using either the included widget (you can set it up by visiting Appearance –> Widgets), or by using the template tag. Also, you can display a single ad, without any formatting, using , where num is the number of the ad slot you wish to show. This is useful for cases where your theme prevents the default formatting from working properly, or where you wish to display your ads in an unforeseen manner.
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