Thread

I’ve been running sites since I was pretty young but I never had ads because they were ugly.  Well now comes the time where I would like to developer a career out of this which means that it’s time to make money.

By luck I stumbled across http://www.openads.org/.

Has anyone used them?  Does it work with EE?  Are there better options?  My site will be low traffic at first but I want something that will grow with me and is stable.  This is a very new part of design for me and any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!

I tested an early version of openads. It was very complex.

I think the new version usability has improved immensely, but I haven’t had a chance to test it live yet.

I use it and it is so cool!

I’ve used it - it’s not too difficult to use once you understand how they structure their admin area.

Check which version of PHP and MySQL your host is using before taking the leap.  My host just happens to be using 4.4.1 which has a bug in it which wouldn’t allow the latest version to run at all, so I had to install an older version.

It doesn’t really ‘integrate’ with EE so much as run along side of it.  It is very easy to add the code to your templates to display the ads, but you have to log into a different admin area to control things.  Not a big deal really, but worth mentioning.

Overall I’d say it’s very good.  Much better than trying to roll your own, that’s for sure.

I’ve used it - it’s not too difficult to use once you understand how they structure their admin area.

Check which version of PHP and MySQL your host is using before taking the leap.  My host just happens to be using 4.4.1 which has a bug in it which wouldn’t allow the latest version to run at all, so I had to install an older version.

It doesn’t really ‘integrate’ with EE so much as run along side of it.  It is very easy to add the code to your templates to display the ads, but you have to log into a different admin area to control things.  Not a big deal really, but worth mentioning.

Overall I’d say it’s very good.  Much better than trying to roll your own, that’s for sure.

Thanks for the info everyone.  And specifically in response to Brian I am using Engine Hosting which has PHP 4.3.9…but that kind of scares me that they may upgrade to 4.4.1 soon and break the ads.  But being updates is usually a good thing.  When do hosts update usually?

I could be completely wrong on this but if your host is using 4.3.9 which is quite old now then I would have thought that if they do an upgrade soon then they would probably update to the latest version 5.

I am pretty sure that support for PHP 4 is being dropped fairly soon by PHP themselves though I could be wrong on that one. I would have thought that they would update to the latest version though. Perhaps worth asking your host and seeing if they will let you know. Any host worth their salt will tell you what they are going to be doing to the environment on which you are running your site. If they don’t or refuse to then I would seriously consider jumping ship! 😊

Best wishes,

Mark

I could be completely wrong on this but if your host is using 4.3.9 which is quite old now then I would have thought that if they do an upgrade soon then they would probably update to the latest version 5.

I am pretty sure that support for PHP 4 is being dropped fairly soon by PHP themselves though I could be wrong on that one. I would have thought that they would update to the latest version though. Perhaps worth asking your host and seeing if they will let you know. Any host worth their salt will tell you what they are going to be doing to the environment on which you are running your site. If they don’t or refuse to then I would seriously consider jumping ship! 😊

Best wishes,

Mark

Well I just signed up for the host yesterday, and it’s the host run by ExpressionEngine creator EllisLab!  I’ll have to ask them when that update is occurring.

Hiya,

Sorry you did mention that in your post and I completely over-looked it so sorry about that. Getting in touch with them would be the best bet. I’m sure they should be very helpful.

Best wishes,

Mark

Hiya,

Sorry you did mention that in your post and I completely over-looked it so sorry about that. Getting in touch with them would be the best bet. I’m sure they should be very helpful.

Best wishes,

Mark

Well they responded very quickly and said they are in the process of updating and that my account will be set up with PHP 5.1.6, which sounds good to me!

Excellent. You should be all set up and running for EE 2.0 when it comes out as well then! 😊

Best wishes,

Mark

FYI, an oldie but goodie ad program is webadverts.
It is a perl program

http://awsd.com/scripts/webadverts/

I have used it for over 10 years and serve millions of banner per year. Another friend uses it on an even higher traffic site and serves many more than I do.

I use it both with and without EE.