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!

[bandare]

Thanks very much for sharing this. I looked at your site a while ago and thought I'd like that registration box - very kind of you for sharing!

For those not sure, make sure you don't have any welcome notices for guests because if you do it wont show!

[stained]

Thanks from me too. I've been trying and trying but I can't get this to display correctly. I haven't bothered with colours etc yet but as you can see, there is a large gap between the two halves.

I have a fluid design and normally have a custom notice showing for guests (this is definitely set to inactive currently). http://www.vbseo.com/f28/how-make-yo...rs-image-7549/

The template edits in accordance with your instructions above are all in place. Would you have any idea why might be causing the welcome message to be displaying like this?

Thanks

Edit: okay, I see the answer now "and I think that on a fluid style this mod wont look that good but give it a try if you want"' I can get it looking better (second picture below) but when I log out of the forum the 'all cookies cleared' notice stops the ads from displaying. I'll keep fiddling with this but if anyone can help with a fix for fluid width forums that would be a great help! Thanks

[bada_bing]

Originally Posted by StarBuG

Do it yourself

Shouldn't be hard to adapt.

Wrap it in a table create 2 tds both 50% width and put the content in it.
The css formating can stay

It's easy

can you post how to do this.

[StarBuG]

Originally Posted by stained

Thanks from me too. I've been trying and trying but I can't get this to display correctly. I haven't bothered with colours etc yet but as you can see, there is a large gap between the two halves.

Don't replace the fixed width with a 100% width otherwise you get the "large gab" effect your are getting right now.

[stained]

Hi,

Thanks. I haven't changed anything to be honest. I just inserted the code as you posted it.

[VonDoom]

I did get it to sort of work on fuid styles, But there are two separate CSS attributes one for the ad and one for the welcome text. I was able to make the welcome half fluid But on lower res screens the two halfs would stack and that wasnt the outcome i was hoping for so i set it back to static for the time being.. Either way im getting good clicks from this.

[StarBuG]

Originally Posted by VonDoom

Either way im getting good clicks from this.

Yeah the CTR is quite good for forums

[StarBuG]

2nd post updated.

Optimization for using the full potential of "placement targeting" described.

I hope you like it!
Feedback is very welcome

[ckeins]

Nice mod. Installed!

I first had problems, as I didn't noticed to "deactivate" the standard guest notice.

It works very good now, and I'm looking forward to get more clicks.

Edit:

I'm running Photopost Gallery on my forums and I recognized, that the additional.css wasn't loaded automatically. It was missing in the header-inc.php. You have to add the red code.

$extracss = "<link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\" href=\"$vboptions[bburl]/css.php?styleid=$vbstyleid&amp;langid=$vblang&amp;d=$vbdate&amp;sheet=forumbits.css\" />
	<link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\" href=\"$vboptions[bburl]/css.php?styleid=$vbstyleid&amp;langid=$vblang&amp;d=$vbdate&amp;sheet=forumhome.css\" />
	<link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\" href=\"$vboptions[bburl]/css.php?styleid=$vbstyleid&amp;langid=$vblang&amp;d=$vbdate&amp;sheet=forumdisplay.css\" />
	<link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\" href=\"$vboptions[bburl]/css.php?styleid=$vbstyleid&amp;langid=$vblang&amp;d=$vbdate&amp;sheet=additional.css\" />";

[TalkDisneyChann]

For some reason I can't get to the border to show. It's not the same color as the background, so im not sure what the problem is.