Tourmeister
06-27-2007, 05:34 PM
Howdy,
I need to use my forum to manage advertising. It is more than just being able to display a banner in various locations. I want to be able to automate as much as possible to reduce my workload. So here is what I am thinking.
1. I want to have a usergroup, say Advertisers.
2. Promotion to the usergroup would be by Admin approval only.
3. I don't want to have to display advertising prices for everyone to see. Right now, if I try to use the current Paid Subscriptions feature to take payments, I have to specify amounts up front for everyone to see. It would be nice if I could specify paid subscriptions that are unique to a user which would display only in that user's User CP. Here they would upload images, specify click through links, select display locations, specify display duration. This way I could still use PayPal to take payments but would have more flexibility for doing special deals/discounts.
4. Once the user has paid and uploaded the images, they are placed in a que for moderation by the Admin. This would allow the Admin to review the images for content and to verify payment of the advertising fee. It might also be nice if the user could upload new images during the display term in case they want to change the image before the term expires. It would still have to be moderated though.
5. It would be nice if there was some kind of statistics package with this that would show all current and expired image terms, their duration, their display location, the image itself, the click through link, the amounts paid, and a way to show totals during a date range (month, year, etc...) for accounting purposes. Within this display, for each image there would be a active/inactive check box to manually override the display of images.
6. Finally, if a user is removed from the advertiser usergroup, ALL of their images cease to display.
I already have the VB Ad Management mod installed and it seems like it could be used to handle the images, randomizing, etc,... However, it needs some revision.
1. It should allow the creation of many variables: topbannerleft, topbannerright, bottombannerleft, bottombannerright, inlinebanner, and so on. These would be specified by the Admin in the control panel. They would then be correlated to one or more of the location choices the user can pick from on their control panel. When they upload images, after they are moderated and approved, they are added to the appropriate list of images for each location.
2. The display location of the variables should not be fixed by template mods as it is now. Instead, it should simply generate the variables, and then the Admin can put them ANYWHERE he wants in any of the templates as appropriate. Or the same variable could be used in multiple locations.
3. There should be an option to display the images sequentially or randomly.
4. In BOTH the user control panel AND the Admin CP, there should be the ability to specify which forum sections an image is to be displayed in and/or to which usergroups. I am thinking of regional advertising and usergroup targeting. I need to have images that display no matter the forum section or usergroup, and then I need the ability to target specific forum sections and usergroups. It would be nice if this information was also displayed in the statistics package that shows everything at a glance.
Now I know this is a LOT to ask. However, the current software is just not real easy to use without extensive modifications. I am NOT a programmer so this is all very much beyond my abilities. The thing is, having this would greatly simply my job and I would be willing to pay for this. If someone could produce it in a manner like PhotoPost for sale as a retail package, that would be awesome! If it were a stand alone product like PhotoPost in that you don't have to do extensive mods to the existing VB software, but it still integrated with it in terms of users, that would be even better! This way the only mods to the existing VB stuff would be the insertion of the variables and the small amount of formating code. This would greatly simply upgrades of VB.
I need to use my forum to manage advertising. It is more than just being able to display a banner in various locations. I want to be able to automate as much as possible to reduce my workload. So here is what I am thinking.
1. I want to have a usergroup, say Advertisers.
2. Promotion to the usergroup would be by Admin approval only.
3. I don't want to have to display advertising prices for everyone to see. Right now, if I try to use the current Paid Subscriptions feature to take payments, I have to specify amounts up front for everyone to see. It would be nice if I could specify paid subscriptions that are unique to a user which would display only in that user's User CP. Here they would upload images, specify click through links, select display locations, specify display duration. This way I could still use PayPal to take payments but would have more flexibility for doing special deals/discounts.
4. Once the user has paid and uploaded the images, they are placed in a que for moderation by the Admin. This would allow the Admin to review the images for content and to verify payment of the advertising fee. It might also be nice if the user could upload new images during the display term in case they want to change the image before the term expires. It would still have to be moderated though.
5. It would be nice if there was some kind of statistics package with this that would show all current and expired image terms, their duration, their display location, the image itself, the click through link, the amounts paid, and a way to show totals during a date range (month, year, etc...) for accounting purposes. Within this display, for each image there would be a active/inactive check box to manually override the display of images.
6. Finally, if a user is removed from the advertiser usergroup, ALL of their images cease to display.
I already have the VB Ad Management mod installed and it seems like it could be used to handle the images, randomizing, etc,... However, it needs some revision.
1. It should allow the creation of many variables: topbannerleft, topbannerright, bottombannerleft, bottombannerright, inlinebanner, and so on. These would be specified by the Admin in the control panel. They would then be correlated to one or more of the location choices the user can pick from on their control panel. When they upload images, after they are moderated and approved, they are added to the appropriate list of images for each location.
2. The display location of the variables should not be fixed by template mods as it is now. Instead, it should simply generate the variables, and then the Admin can put them ANYWHERE he wants in any of the templates as appropriate. Or the same variable could be used in multiple locations.
3. There should be an option to display the images sequentially or randomly.
4. In BOTH the user control panel AND the Admin CP, there should be the ability to specify which forum sections an image is to be displayed in and/or to which usergroups. I am thinking of regional advertising and usergroup targeting. I need to have images that display no matter the forum section or usergroup, and then I need the ability to target specific forum sections and usergroups. It would be nice if this information was also displayed in the statistics package that shows everything at a glance.
Now I know this is a LOT to ask. However, the current software is just not real easy to use without extensive modifications. I am NOT a programmer so this is all very much beyond my abilities. The thing is, having this would greatly simply my job and I would be willing to pay for this. If someone could produce it in a manner like PhotoPost for sale as a retail package, that would be awesome! If it were a stand alone product like PhotoPost in that you don't have to do extensive mods to the existing VB software, but it still integrated with it in terms of users, that would be even better! This way the only mods to the existing VB stuff would be the insertion of the variables and the small amount of formating code. This would greatly simply upgrades of VB.