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LinksSQL and banners

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LinksSQL and banners
I'm ready to upgrade from Links2.0 now but I have a question about banners. At the moment I use WebAdverts to display banners with no problem. Can I still use WebAdverts with Links SQL?
If I purchase the AdCycle plug in can I presume that means I can't use it display banners on other parts of my site other than the links pages? I'd like to have the plug in but a total of 600 dollars is a lot for a personal site and I need to run banners on other pages within the site from the same banner management programme.
Lastly, I installed a mod from the forum that added a page title to each individual category. This involved adding an extra | to the links.db so will that be a problem when moving the database into Links SQL?

Thanks

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Re: LinksSQL and banners In reply to
Shouldn't be a problem running webadverts via the iframe or JavaScript modes. This is what I do, including on the cgi generated pages. The advantages with AdCycle is that you can target keywords to the search output whereas webadverts you cannot.

Not sure what you mean by your second question, if its about displaying the "category" name within the title tag, then you can do like: <title>My site : <%category_name%> Computer Games </title> in the category template.

- Eraser.

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Re: LinksSQL and banners In reply to
OK thanks sorry if that wasn't clear - this is the mod I was talking about:
http://www.webmasters-resources.com/links/category_title_mod.html

I'll need to take another look at the WebAdverts documentation to understand what you are talking about. Would anyone say that it is worth spending 150 dollars on the AdCycle plug in?

BTW - this forums spell checker suggests 'squabble' for SQL!! Just thought that was amusing - I hope it's not an omen :-)

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Re: LinksSQL and banners In reply to
This Mod is not available for linksSQL2, and there is no way yet to specify individual title names other than the way I have shown.

As for webadverts, if you are calling your ads via the basic
IMG tags, you will not benefit from anti-caching and can only show simple gif/jpeg files. You are advised to use iframe/jscript if not for efficiency reasons. The docs has plenty on this.

The adcycle plug-in is a matter of choice. If you are happy with your current system , why change? The only benefit I can see is the keyword targeting ability, but you may think otherwise.

Good luck!

- Eraser

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Re: LinksSQL and banners In reply to
There is so much new going on, it's hard to keep up, and I'm an old dog learning all these new tricks.

I was not a fan of either Webverts or Adcycle. Both had (and still do) have serious problems. Adcycle has improved greatly in the past 6-8 months though.

By having a plug-in for that, which is a wrapper around the official adcycle release, you'll both find more help for it, and easier integration.

That's not an edorsement, just a simple fact.

If you want to use webverts, it would probably still pay to get the adcycle plug-in to see how it's done, and how you can modify it to run with webverts.

I need to switch over the logic on my sites from Advertpro to to Adcycle, since that is what GT went with. Right now I can't offer any deep insights, except the plug-in did install :) I will be probably setting up a site with the plugin in a week or so, and at that time may have more direct feedback.





PUGDOG® Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ:http://LinkSQL.com/FAQ
Forum:http://LinkSQL.com/forum
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Re: LinksSQL and banners In reply to
Thanks for that but.. and this is probably a daft question... will the Adcycle plug in also run banners on the rest of the site that are not a part of the Links pages and... I know the mod is not a part of Links SQL, I am wondering whether having added an extra field to the database will mess up a transfer of the data into Links SQL.

Bottom line with Adcycle is that I guess I'll have to trust GT that this is a worth while add on otherwise it presumably wouldn't be there. I cant afford 200 dollars just to try it out so I'll have to pay the cash and be stuck with it :)

Thanks

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Re: LinksSQL and banners In reply to
I think the prices are in Canadian $ so it is cheaper than you think if you are in the US. About $150-$160 I think, and in the UK about £110 - and that also includes a licensed version of adcycle so it is pretty good value.

Paul Wilson.
Installations:
http://www.wiredon.net/gt/
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Re: LinksSQL and banners In reply to
The plug-in uses adcycle pretty much "as is" so it should run on the rest of the site as well.

Also, the GT price is $150 US or $215 CD


PUGDOG® Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ:http://LinkSQL.com/FAQ
Forum:http://LinkSQL.com/forum
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Re: LinksSQL and banners In reply to
I have been running adcycle on my site using banner.txt file for a while and it works as good as out of the box..

--..No Offense for GT fine effort..--
and that is whay i will suggest comapring the saving Pugdog mentioned

Regards
Abd

http://www.idleb.com
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Re: LinksSQL and banners In reply to
Hi,

I would recommend AdCycle plugin for some of the following reasons:

1. You are not comfortable installing scripts: the plugin is downloaded, unarchived and installed all from your browser. We've also committed to updating the plugin as AdCycle is updated so if you ever need to update, you can simply download the new plugin.

2. You want to display specific ads per Links SQL category. There are template tags that will let you easily display banner ads per category and you can set this up in your admin.

3. You want to display specifc ads per search results. You can use a simple template tag to display ads based on what users search for.

These would be the strongest points in my opinion. You can still use AdCycle to display banners anywhere else on your site, that's not a problem, you use it as you normally would.

If you already have Webadverts set up and are happy with it, and points two and three aren't that motivating to you, then you would probably be ok without it.

Alternatively, you can download the shareware version of AdCycle from their site, try it out for thirty days, and then if you want the integration you can purchase the plugin, or if you don't need the integration, you can purchase it directly from AdCycle for $89 US.

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: LinksSQL and banners In reply to
Thanks Alex and others for your advice. I've ordered the plug in anyway.. I'm sure it'll be just dandy :)