The Wardman Wire

I’m experimenting with the Wordpress plugin WPAds for rotation of banner ads on The Wardman Wire (under the header). It seems to work well, and gives me the following:

• Limit on total impressions for each ad.
• Weight ads to appear in different proportions.
• A count of number of displays of each ad.
• It has taken about 10 minutes to set up.

At the moment I’m playing with a banner I display for this site which I use elsewhere. Displaying a banner for this site on this site makes me look a bit of a whompa, so I nicked one of the 18 Doughty Street ones temporarily, and Christian Wolmar is worth drawing attention to. I’m sure they don’t mind free advertising.

Cartoon courtesy Dave Walker.

Want some free advertising?

However, I need more variety, so here are a couple of FREE offers:

• If you’re a political blog that I’ve expressed admiration for in the past (or you are confident that I will like your blog) and have a 468×60 banner ad handy (that is less than 15kb in size), send a copy over to mattwardman AT gmail DOT com and I’ll put you in the mix while I’m playing. If you have a 125×125 button, send me one of those as well - as I’ll be playing with that in the future and the sponsors aren’t biting currently. Ones I receive by Sunday lunchtime will be in the mix all next week, as I am away. They’ll all be in on an equal weight basis.
• I’m busy, so if someone (who is a political blogger) can come up with a decent set of (static or not too much animation) banners for the following sites, I’ll give you 5000 ad impressions for you own site (half on this site in a prominent position, half on my other political sites - see the “Wardman Network” in the sidebar). Maximum weight is 15kb per advert. I’m looking for ads that show the different nationalities but also show that they are a family of sites. I am after a 468×60 banner and 125×125 button for each. Flags or maps are obvious, but leeks, roses and John Bull etc. are all fine. Use your imagination if you are interested.I’ll also do four runners-up prizes of 2000 ad impressions. If I get lots of ads I like I’ll increase the number of prizes.I am away next week so ideally I would at least some in by Sunday.The list of aggregator sites that I am after banners for: www.politics-england.co.uk, www.politics-scotland.co.uk, www.politics-europe.co.uk, www.politics-ireland.co.uk, www.politics-wales.co.uk
• [Update: Let me add a further option. I'm also after a set (6 total: 3 of 468x60 and 3 of 125x125) of complementary banners for promotion of this site - The Wardman Wire, and I'll offer the same 5000 ad impression bounty as above, and four of 2000 impressions for runners up. This competition runs for 2 weeks until 7th September. ]

 Wrapping-up

Also, I would welcome any comments and views on how it works.

Please ask any questions via the comments.

Currently it doesn’t seem to like Internet Explorer, for example.

Tags: wpads, matt wardman, free advertising, political blog, 18ds[tags]wpads, matt wardman, free advertising, political blog, 18ds[/tags]