Best way of advertising in Vbulletin

[eitai2001]

Hi Guys.

For the last few days since I got vBulletin, I have been searching high and low for a decent way to manage adverts on the forum. But all of them I came accross had one limited feature or another ... I actually prefer the standard built in system more then the mods, but it doesn't allow rotation or set expiration.

And all the mods I found had some sort of limitation that didn't help me. The closest I found was VB Geek or something, and even that didn't offer all the features I needed.

And yesterday I was searching some more and it hit me, why do I need a mod, why can't I use something that is dedicated to ad serving, and so I began searching for ad serving software. I struggled, I'll admit ... and then I had an ingenious idea ... let me go check the softalicious available in my Cpanel of my host.

And there it was ... ad serving open source software. I ended up going for OpenX, but I still have a lot to learn on the best way to use it ... it's got a bit of a learning curve, but I figured out the basics of it and that's all I need for now. (This morning I also got an email from a large South African forum, and the lady said that's what they use).

Anyway, at the end of the day ... I have advanced banner rotation with full on campaign and click/impression tracking support, with the flexibility of using the built in VB advertising system so that I can show banners only to certain members, or on certain forums, etc.

The best part about having a dedicated ad serving platform though, is that now if I open another website or if I want to advertise on the front of the main site (which uses drupal not VB), I can manage all the ads from one place.

Basically what I am doing is creating dedicated ad spots in both drupal and VB and I will manage the ads from OpenX. The only time I will need to edit the settings in Drupal or VB is if I have a specific request i.e. only on x forum or to x members or something, but in general I'm sorted once I complete creating all the general containers

I hope this piece of info helps some of you guys who want proper control of the adverts in your forum, and advanced options. Best of all, the software I'm using is Open Source

Regards

Itai

[ThorstenA]

Google Admanager is far better than OpenX. It is free for now. And no hassling with installing this as a product. It is hosted by Google. I wrote a product which integrates nicely vbulletin and Google Admanager.

I can do that:
- Campaign for my "bmw forum" which targets audience in New York from 8pm - 10pm. I display every user the banner only twice, with the further restriction of displaying the banner only every one hour.
- I can forecast exact PIs / visitors / unique visitors for any campaign

[eitai2001]

I didn't even know Google has something like this ... what makes it far better? I don't really know the features of either of the platforms.

Do you know if they are planning on charging for it in future? I don't need very hectic stuff, and don't want to risk having to change from google to openx because they start charging.

[ThorstenA]

Originally Posted by eitai2001

I didn't even know Google has something like this ... what makes it far better? I don't really know the features of either of the platforms.

Do you know if they are planning on charging for it in future? I don't need very hectic stuff, and don't want to risk having to change from google to openx because they start charging.

Yes, they intend on charging in the feature if you have lots of pis - I think multiple million of pis per month.

Google is Google - ads are delivered very fast and you do not have to worry about anything. I prefer it much more than openx which I used before. Much better!

[eitai2001]

I think issue is google has a lot in the T&C ... the perfect solution is embed the Google Code inside the Open X code ... sounds complex, but gives you ultimate felxibility.

[ThorstenA]

Originally Posted by eitai2001

I think issue is google has a lot in the T&C ... the perfect solution is embed the Google Code inside the Open X code ... sounds complex, but gives you ultimate felxibility.

That would the ads display slower.

This is about ads, I do not care sooo much about their t&c in that case.

Google knows how to deliver ads, it's nearly all their income. They do make billions out of it ! They have it pretty well done!

[8thos]

I saw OpenX in my Softalicious but I'm using Google Ad Manager. More convenient.