Show Thread Enhancements - Digital Point Ad Positioning

About
This allows you to insert an ad into a random location within the post currently being viewed and/or insert an ad after the currently viewed post.

I made this a couple years ago for internal use and decided to release it because a few people have been requesting it.

Installation

• Install the product-dp_positionads.xml product under AdminCP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> Add/Import Product
• Go to AdminCP -> Settings -> Options -> Digital Point Position Ads for all your settings/options.

Notes

• You can control which usergroups see ads.
• You can control which forums the ads are inserted for.
• This addon works just fine with vBulletin 3 as well as vBulletin 4.
• The ads are inserted relative to the currently viewed post, not necessarily the first/last, etc. post in a thread.
• Requires no template edits.
• Our ad revenue more than doubled when we implemented this (and we opted to only use it for non-registered members).

[rmd708]

I tested both versions in this thread. The other version someone posted adds one option:

"Do not show ad after second post in the following forums:"

[rmd708]

I've been trying to get it to work with vbseo. We need to have ?p=<thread id> appended to the specific URLs where that is needed.

Some of the links can be fixed in the VBSEO control panel. For example for "'Go To Post in Thread' Redirect" use a custom setting as follows:

[forum_title]/[thread_id]-[thread_title].html?p=[post_id]

Since this modified url will not be in your sitemap I don't know if it will matter so much for SEO. But if it does, you can add a no-follow to this. It is possible that these are already no-followed by VBSEO.

Also make custom rule for "'Go To Post in Thread' Pagination Redirect":

[forum_title]/[thread_id]-[thread_title]-post[post_id]-[thread_page].html?p=[post_id]

Still we need to add the ?p=<post ID> to some other URLS:

'Newest Post in Thread' Redirect

'Last Post in Thread' Redirect


Neither of these are supporting the [post_id] variable in the VBSEO config rule. I am sure we just need to change a single line of code in vbseo for it to reference the [post_id] variable, but unfortunately I don't know enough to solve it, so I gave up here.

[rmd708]

Still fails with VBSEO as VBSEO forwards all URLs to the original URL regardless of what is appended to the URL. I will give up and just use it as is, providing random ad in the first post.

I am curious what the click rate difference would be running this plugin without VBSEO. If it was significantly higher I would be willing to stop using VBSEO and revert to in-built SEO friendly URLs of vbulletin.

Can anyone give me some hints about their CTR with this plugin working correctly (without VBSEO)? Anything significantly above 1% (which is what I am seeing with VBSEO)?

[rmd708]

One concern I have with the ad placement is that it randomly chooses a paragraph to put the add under. So there will be instances where someone posts, "Hey visit this great site:" and your ad will be randomly inserted under that in the place where the person had put the link. If Adsense people see that they will see it as a violation. I would be more comfortable with the ad always at the end of the post in the signature. Or in the begining of the post. That way what they write cannot be mistaken to encourage clicking on the link.

[fayax]

Very nice mod. Was looking for something like this since my upgrade to 4.2 and it works like a charm!

Thanks DP guy!

[magnumclub]

Thanks. love the ease of use / installation.

[naisho]

Very good mod! Previously I was using first post and last post ads with a poor ctr (0,25%).
With this mod it's now a little bit over 1%, with only one ad (inside post) instead of two.
This is an average for the last 10 days.
Ads are only displayed to guests and me.

[dreamygirl]

I want to add this, but I have VBSEO. Would love to have more details on making them work.

[MysteriousSoul]

nice release , thanks.

[vimarc]

Awesome mod thanks for making my day