Banner-rotator problem - HTML Forums

basports · 10-25-2009, 10:34 PM

Hello -

I'm new here. I'm also sort of a newbie when it comes to anything overy technical. I do have a website, www.basports.com, which I maintain through a control-panel (a variant of the FCK Editor).

If anyone can help me with this, I'd be most appreciative.

I run a couple of 300 x 250 banner-ads in 2 separate spaces at the top of my home page.

I'd like to monetize these spaces and run some paying ads.

Let's assume I might have 5 different 300 x 250 banners running in each of these 2 spaces = a total of 10 different banners.

For my explanation sake, let's number them 1A...5A for the left-space & 1B...5B for the right space.

So what I would like suggestions for is a banner-rotator script that can do the following:

1) when someone comes to my home-page, I would like that person to see 1A on the left, and 1B on the right.

2) that configuration would stay the same (no new banners) UNLESS that person refreshed their browser,
then they would see 2A on the left, and 2B on the right.

3) In essence, I would like to insure that each of the 10 banner ads gets about the same number of impressions during
the course of any day, week, etc.

If no one refreshed their browser during the same visit, then ideally 5 different visitors would get

1A...1B

2A..2B

3A..3B

4A..4B

5A..5B

And then that sequence would recycle.

I've experimented with several rotators and I can't seem to find one that would do this.

Also, since some banner code for the same banner might be in javascript, example:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://js.partners.betus.com/javascript.php?prefix=sxOKNIzzv9Q0x7TxNqgOamNd7ZgqdRLk&media=321&campaign=1"></script>

OR in HTML, example:

<a href="http://record.partners.betus.com/_sxOKNIzzv9TMWN1nNLYighAKtYov8wyz/1" title=""> <img src="http://media.partners.betus.com/BANNERS/girls/girls_300x250_mybanner.gif" width="" height="" alt="" border="0" style="width:auto; height:auto;" /></a>

in some of the banner-rotators I've seen, there seems to be only provision - let's say in rotating 5 different banners -
of plugging in the 5 different URL's and the 5 different image sources into the example of how to use the rotator provided. How would I handle this if it's only a javascript banner code?

Forgive my naivete, but another newbie question: if, say, a small snippet javascript code is put on that home-page instructing that banner-rotator how to function, how do you do this with 2 separate sets of banner ads using the same banner-rotator? Or don't you?

I'm most certainly willing to pay for a banner-rotator script that would do this, and again I thank anyone for their time in making any recommendations.

phatbass · 10-26-2009, 02:16 PM

Hey basports!

What you're looking for would require server-side scripting not client-side scripting, meaning that you wouldnt be able to achieve that with Javascript and would need to use something like PHP or ASP.

When using Javascript, you're only aware of the actions of that particular browser session and cannot see what other users have seen (e.g. their banner impressions).

A sort of a "hack" solution would be wrighting a cookie into the user's browser and checking its value upon each page load to ensure you give them a different banner each time. The very first load though would still need to be done randomly. In the long run, this should still ensure that all your banners got same number of impressions.

Logic would be somthing like this:
onLoad:
if (cookie value = ""){
generate a random number between 1 and 5;
store it in the cookie;
display banners using cookie value;
}
else{
if (cookie value < 5){
cookie value = cookie value +1;
}
else{
cookie value = 1;
}
display banners using cookie value;
}

You can also set expiry date on the cookie to either expiry quickly, so that next time the user visits your site, they will be presented with a random banner, or set a long expiry so that next time, the user will start where they left off.

Hope this makes sense

.

basports · 10-29-2009, 01:51 PM

Thanks for taking the time to answer this. I think I have to work with my tech-guy because this is a bit too advanced for me to do myself.