Forum Home Enhancements - Adsense integration together with nice welcome message - StarBuG optimized blending

Introduction:
I am StarBuG, a clinical Physician for Children, and I am running several health Forums to support patients with medical questions. During the many years I am running my Forums I constantly worked on optimizing my Advertising integrations to maximize my earnings and the user experience using my forums. The click through rates for my Adsense integrations are good to very good for forums and may increase due to further optimizations so mark this mod as installed if you use it to make sure you always use the best optimized version of my adsense integration.

What this mod does:
This mod adds a Google Adsense large rectangle below the navbar together with an eye catching welcome message and a call to action (registration). This ad is the best performing ad on my forum. I run a forum with a fixed width and I think that on a fluid style this mod wont look that good but give it a try if you want.

Installation instructions:

in the template navbar find:

{vb:raw ad_location.global_below_navbar}

and add below:

<vb:if condition="THIS_SCRIPT != 'search'  AND !$show['notices'] AND $show['guest']">
 <div class="ads_lr_wrapper">
  <div class="ads_lr">
    YOUR GOOGLE ADSENSE CODE HERE
  </div>
  <div class="ads_lr_welcome">
   <p id="welcome_bold_big">Welcome to YOUR FORUM NAME</p><br>
     
     <p id="welcome_normal">your forum for YOUR THEME</p><br>
     
            <ul>
             <li><b>&nbsp;&raquo;</b>  some things people find</li> 
             <li><b>&nbsp;&raquo;</b>  on your forum</li> 
             <li><b>&nbsp;&raquo;</b>  some reasons why</li>
             <li><b>&nbsp;&raquo;</b>  guests should register</li>
            </ul>
            
            <br>
            
            <p id="welcome_bold">...then you have come to the right place!</p><br>

            <p id="welcome_normal">we will try to help you with your problem.</p><br>
            
            <p id="welcome_bold_big"><a href="http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/register.php">YES! I want to register an account for free right now!</a></p><br />
            
            <p id="welcome_small">p.s.: For registered members YOUR FORUM NAME is free of ads</p>
  </div>
 </div>
</vb:if>

in template additional.css add:

/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| #> Large Rectangle Ad + Welcome Text below navbar
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
.ads_lr_wrapper {
    border: 2px solid #274C84;
    -moz-border-radius-bottomleft:5px;
    -moz-border-radius-bottomright:5px;
    -moz-border-radius-topleft:5px;
    -moz-border-radius-topright:5px;
    background: #ffffff;
    width:850px;
    height:290px;
    padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
}

.ads_lr {
    position: relative;
    background: #ffffff;
    width: 336px;
    margin-left: 10px;
    margin-right: 30px;
    float:left;
}

.ads_lr_welcome {
    background: #ffffff;
    position: relative;
    width: 460px;
    margin-top: 10px;
    margin-left: auto;
    margin-right: 10px;
    float:right;
}

#welcome_normal {
  font-size:normal;
  font-family:Helvetica;
  text-decoration:none;
  text-align: left;
}

#welcome_small {
  font-size:x-small;
  font-family:Helvetica;
  text-decoration:none;
  text-align: left;
}

#welcome_bold {
    font-weight:bold;
    font-size:normal;
    font-family:Helvetica;
    text-decoration:none;
        text-align: left;
}

#welcome_bold_big {
    font-weight:bold;
    font-size:large;
    font-family:Helvetica;
    text-decoration:none;
        text-align: left;
        color:#274C84;
}

Additional Comments:
Make sure you change all lines marked RED to fit your forum.
Of course you should customize the welcome text to fit your forum and change the colors and size of the welcome box to fit your forums theme.

Screenshot:


More of my Adsense Integrations:

• Adsense Integration as last post - StarBuG optimized blending
• Adsense Integration above similar threads - StarBuG optimized blending
• Adsense Integration as second post - StarBuG optimized blending

Demo:
Patientenfragen.net - we have the answers

Of course feedback is welcome and if you have suggestions to further improve CTR please let me know!

ps: The welcome text in the screenshot is an automatic translation by google that's why it is hard to read

StarBuG



Google isn't paying you enough money! Discover WHY!

[Palehorse74480]

If this was integrated into this...

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=231352

That would rock!

[kether1]

Just a note: The xhtml validator says that using the <p=id ... and then calling a class is not the proper way to do the css for this modification. Is there a way to do this that will not cause a fail when validating the xhtml of my site? (http://validator.w3.org) The css works as expected, but under validation I get several errors because of this. Any suggestions on how to correct it? I tried changing the <P=id to <div class=, but that ruined the css.

Thanks,
Kether

[baghdad4ever]

thanks

installed

[cagbaazee]

Hello. Thanks for the Mod.. I have following your instruction and install according to u. But what i need that it is not properly display.. I need it to be in Center Position and more ever it should be in Home page only instead in every pages. Need it to be install above the navbar.

My website - http://gurusecret.info\vbforum

please check and let me know what is wrong with it.


Thanks

[unitrash]

Does this not work for 4.1.2?

I applied this to an earlier version and it worked fine. Repeated the process recently to 4.1.2 and no luck for some reason.

[stained]

Yes, this definitely works in 4.1.2.

Add the lines in red to the first section of Starbug's additional.css code. This will center the welcome box on a fluid-width forum.


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| #> Large Rectangle Ad + Welcome Text below navbar
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
.ads_lr_wrapper {
border: 2px solid #000000;
-moz-border-radius-bottomleft:5px;
-moz-border-radius-bottomright:5px;
-moz-border-radius-topleft:5px;
-moz-border-radius-topright:5px;
background: #999999;
width:850px;
height:290px;
padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;

}



If you want centered and the nice shadow (mentioned by Starbug earlier in the thread) just amend the first section of his additional.css code to:



/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| #> Large Rectangle Ad + Welcome Text below navbar
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
.ads_lr_wrapper {
border: 2px solid #000000;
-moz-border-radius:5px 5px 5px 5px;
-khtml-border-radius:5px 5px 5px 5px;
-webkit-border-radius:5px 5px 5px 5px;
-moz-box-shadow:4px 5px 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);
-khtml-box-shadow:4px 5px 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);
-webkit-box-shadow:4px 5px 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);
background: #999999;
width:850px;
height:290px;
padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
margin-bottom: 10px;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
}

Obviously you'll need to change the background colour and border colour to suit your own colour scheme.

[cagbaazee]

Hi... Thanks for mod.. everything is working fine. but i request u how can i put it up above the images. please check :

http://gurusecret.info/vbforum

I hv mark as install and also member of yr wonderful website.

Cheers

[StarBuG]

@cagbaazee
Just place my code above the other ad code in your navbar template

[synseal]

Thanks for this, I have edited the code a bit to suit my forum and made the welcome message an image for SEO reasons but it looks okay to me.

http://www.techkings.org/forum/

Thanks Starbug for this hack!.

[preemz10314]

Works great. Thank you very much. Really cleaned up my guest message as my forum is private. Just one thing, I am not certain but I think people who use AD Block, do not see this at all...

p.s Thanks stained your code worked perfectly. Marked as installed* 5stars and nominated.