Ad Buttons Plugin
Monetizing a blog is often done with ad buttons sized 125 x 125 pixels. The ads displayed can be affiliate links or you can sell ad spots directly to advertisers. I’ve tried adding the image ads to my WordPress template files, but whenever you want to add a new ad or take one off, you’ll have to get into the template files again and change them.
After looking for a WordPress plugin to manage my ads and trying a few, I realized none of them did exactly what I wanted. Editing someone else’s code to customize the plugin to my liking can be a painstaking process, so I decided to look a little deeper into how the WordPress plugins work and write my own ad management plugin.
My plugin is far from finished, but I decided to release a first beta version into public. The version available for download here is still a bit limited in functionality, but it can do the most basic things needed. I’m currently trying out some new functions and have a list of things to add.
The current version contains the following functionality:
Add new ad buttons
By entering image URL, link URL and link text a new ad button will be created
Enable/disable individual ad buttons
Each ad button can be enabled or disabled from the admin panel
Select how many ad buttons to display in the sidebar widget
Displaying the ad buttons on your blog is done by randomly selecting ads from your total list of active ads. You can select how many ads are displayed on your blog.
See how many times each ad button has been displayed and clicked
Ad performance is an important measurement, especially when your ads link to affiliate programs. The number of views, clicks and CTR (click thru rate) are displayed for each ad button. Views by search engine bots are automatically filtered from the count.
AdSense integration
A Google AdSense 125 x 125 ad unit can be displayed by filling in your AdSense publisher ID. AdSense ad colors can be controlled right from the Ad Buttons admin panel.
Ad scheduling
Ads can be scheduled by specifying a start and end date
Geo targeting
You can choose to show certain ads only to visitors from certain countries
Ad Buttons Ad Network
Show your ad button on other people’s blogs
The current release is version 2.1.6 and can be downloaded here: 
(last update 14-12-2009)
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Changelog
2.1.3
09-11-2009
updated ip2nation database
2.1.2
01-11-2009
fixed a bug that messed up affiliate urls with an extra http or https in the url parameters
2.1
30-09-2009
extended the stats graphing to be able to switch to other months
2.0
26-09-2009
incorporated adbuttons.net ad network.
1.7.1
23-09-2009
select a custom url for the ‘your ad here’ button
1.7
14-09-2009
added geo targeting capabilities
1.6.6
12-09-2009
statistics graphic output bug fixed
1.6.5
10-09-2009
changed the plugindir retrieval to fix errors when installation directory differs from blog directory
1.6.4
05-09-2009
fixed some bugs in the statistics graphic output
1.6.3
04-09-2009
added support for https links
1.6.2
03-09-2009
Stats have been improved
1.6.1
02-09-2009
graphical view and click statistics have been added
1.6.0
01-09-2009
detailed view and click tracking will be stored in a separate table. Viewing the statistics will be incorporated into a future release. The views and clicks as seen on the admin page can be altered, this does not affect detailed stats and should be seen as a trip meter.
1.5.3
31-08-2009
Added a little note to the widget, so people can find the Ad Buttons settings menu
1.5.2
24-08-2009
css styling can now be disabled on the settings page since it can break the layout on some wordpress themes
1.5.1
22-08-2009
Database has been changed to accomodate very long URL’s like the affiliate links from amazon.com et al.
1.5.0
20-08-2009
a ‘your ad here’ button has been added that can be linked to an existing page on your wordpress site
1.4.3
19-08-2009
custom widget title was deleted when any other option on the settings page was changed: fixed.
1.4.2
18-08-2009
small ‘powered by Ad Buttons’ link, can be disabled if needed.
1.4.1
17-08-2009
optional nofollow tag selectable on the settings page
1.4.0
17-08-2009
ad scheduling by specifying a start and end date has been added
1.3.0
15-08-2009
edit function has been added to change individual ad buttons
1.2.2
13-08-2009
fixed error message on the permalinks screen caused by the Ad Buttons plugin
1.2.1
12-08-2009
incorporated color picker by dhtmlgoodies.com to control Google AdSense ad colors
1.2.0
11-08-2009
ad layout properties can now be controlled from within the admin menu with a handy preview
1.1.0
11-08-2009
google AdSense ads have been incorporated
1.0.5
09-08-2009
fixed permission problem in the activation/deactivation of ads and added a delete option
1.0.4
08-08-2009
link target attribute is now controlled by a configuration setting. ( _top, _blank or not used)
menu structure has been changed, everything related to the ad buttons plugin is now located under the Ad Buttons top-level menu.
added a shiny new wordpress style custom icon to the admin menu
division by zero bug on the stats page has been suppressed
1.0.3
07-08-2009
installation bug fixed that prevented the installation procedure, which creates the database table, from running
1.0.2
06-08-2009
Custom widget title bug fixed
1.0.1
21-07-2009
Minor bugfix to prevent double count of clicks
1.0.0
20-07-2009
First release available at wordpress.org plugin repository
