Randomly positioned ad in between postbits in showthread

Inspired by this hack.

The ad is positioned randomly after one of the postbits. We use this for positioning adsense ads on visordown.com.

Install the attached plugin then add the following code to your postbit or postbit_legacy template:

<if condition="$GLOBALS['adsense_position'] == $post['postcount'] && $GLOBALS['adsense_position'] > 0">
$spacer_open 
<div style="padding:0px 0px $stylevar[cellpadding]px 0px"> 

<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center"> 
<tr> 
	<td class="thead" align="left">Sponsored Links</td> 
</tr> 
<tr> 
	<td class="alt1" align="center">

<!-- ad code goes here -->

	</td> 
</tr> 
</table> 

</div> 
$spacer_close 
</if>

Changelog

v1.01
Bug fix: The ad code shouldn't appear on PMs any more (template change)

Donations

Hopefully this plugin will earn you provide you with some good revenue. If you'd like to show your appreciation please donate as little or as much as you like.

[UK Jimbo]

@Marv

Try replacing the plugin code with this (untested)

edit: removed, that's not going to work. Have a meeting to go to now but will look at it a bit later

[UK Jimbo]

Took less time than I thought - give this a try:

// only for non-threaded display
if($threadedmode == 0) {

	// only need to do the calculation once
	if( $counter == 2 && empty($GLOBALS['adsense_position'] && $totalposts >= 3 ) ) {

		$_min = $postcount;
		$_max = min($totalposts,$_min+$perpage-1) - 1;

		$GLOBALS['adsense_position'] = rand($_min,$_max);
	}

}

[EyeCrave]

I get this error with that code above:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_AND, expecting ')' in /pathto/showthread.php(1031) : eval()'d code on line 5

BTW - awesome plugin.

[UK Jimbo]

OOps - that's what happens when you do things in a hurry. Try this for size:

// only for non-threaded display
if($threadedmode == 0) {

	// only need to do the calculation once
	if( $counter == 2 && empty($GLOBALS['adsense_position']) && $totalposts >= 3 ) {

		$_min = $postcount;
		$_max = min($totalposts,$_min+$perpage-1) - 1;

		$GLOBALS['adsense_position'] = rand($_min,$_max);
	}

}

[EyeCrave]

Works. Thank you!

[Marv]

Originally Posted by UK Jimbo

OOps - that's what happens when you do things in a hurry.

Thx UK-Jimbo,

I?ll give it a try and report back to you asap.

[The Chief]

installed and works great!!

[UK Jimbo]

Originally Posted by Marv

Thx UK-Jimbo,

I?ll give it a try and report back to you asap.

Any luck?

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

I don't know if cause I installed this wrong or the Googlebot just isn't doing its job (so to speak)...

but I'm having trouble actually getting relevant ads. I don't think the googlebot is actually "reading" the content of the page. I always get ads for "free forum software" and related.

ie: I think its basically only reading the footer. or something

any ideas as to what is blocking or causing the Gbot to not actually dig into the content?

[UK Jimbo]

Hi GrendelKhan

Are the pages publically visible or do you have to register to see them? If Googlebot can't get at the pages (and content) from the same URL that you're using to access it then it can't index it. Sometimes it might take a while for pages to get indexed. I'd give it a couple of days and see how it goes. Post back and let me know how you get on.