[y2ksw]

Originally Posted by Automaton

Sure.
Ultimately When a potential advertiser clicks on our ADVERTISE WITH US link either in the forum our on our home page, it will go to the subscriptions options page with all the drop down menus.

We might have... 4 options for advertisors, each with its own drop down menu and subscription length options.

Once a vendor selects the option they want, and the length of time they want from the drop down menu, they should be given the opportunity to upload a banner. Either by way of URL or by browsing their computer files. This banner upload feature can be before or after payment. Whatever is easiest for you.

The proceed with payment like normal. Our Merchant is paypal so thats where they go.
Once paid, their banner is inserted in to the rotator and the setting are based on the option and length of time they signed up for.

That would be ideal.
This way
Banners are only up while they pay for the feature. Soon as the subscription is expired or cancelled, the banner comes down, and we ans well as the vendor get a notification.

This way however you would need also vendor handling. As vBulletin works, there is only one vendor: the board owner, and all subscription payments go to one account. Also there is no way to tell the number of items you buy, all vBulletin subscriptions are limited by time only and each additional subscription adds only time.

To make it work for more vendors, the whole payment and subscription should work differently, more like in an auction. Then it would be also more easy to define other criterias, such as how many banners you could insert for the chosen period. Well, if the vendors are listed in a similar table as the banners and the rules are not too many, it should be possible to make it. The payment ID returned to both the board and the buyer will make that a sort of ticket, to allow one or more banner uploads.

The problems I see are the setup which is left to the buyer and the possible implications if they are using scripts, like messing up your pages or installing spyware and worms. Maybe scripts shouldn't be available, right?

I have to think a little about it ...