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Adding Custom Content to Articles and Article Pages
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biggerfish



Joined: 31 Jul 2005
Posts: 23
Location: norwalk, ct

PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 6:30 pm    Post subject: Adding Custom Content to Articles and Article Pages Reply with quote

I'd like to put a block of ads or adsense or some other thing between lists of articles, and also in the middle of articles on a page. Any ideas how to get this to work?
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rich graham
www.biggerfish.biz
norwalk, ct usa
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john
Site Admin


Joined: 16 Mar 2004
Posts: 3434

PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:12 pm    Post subject: Re: Adding Custom Content to Articles and Article Pages Reply with quote

I'd like to put a block of ads or adsense or some other thing between lists of articles

By lists of articles, I am assuming you would be referring to your category pages, so you could do this by adding the ad code into your category template.

Look in your category template for the area which starts with

Code:
{{loop articles}}


Everything from there through the part below that says

Code:
{{/loop}} <!-- articles -->


is repeated for however many articles there are for each day. You could put your ad code before the close of the loop and your ads would appear to be separators between articles.

and also in the middle of articles on a page. Any ideas how to get this to work?

The only way to put anything in the middle of any article would be to actually place it in the text of the article itself. There is no way to alter the templates to do this for you.
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biggerfish



Joined: 31 Jul 2005
Posts: 23
Location: norwalk, ct

PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:22 pm    Post subject: Got it... Reply with quote

Got it...

I'm starting to get a pretty good grip on the structure. Thanks again for the help.
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tigersi



Joined: 20 Apr 2005
Posts: 174

PostPosted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm also doing what you're planning on. I've embedded ads into my blog articles and set them up to automatically insert. At least, that's what I do for Google ads that show in all my articles.

I also like to add very content-specific Amazon or other ads at the bottom of my articles too. Because I use Amazon, and because they don't have contextual ads, I manually insert the scripting code for these into specific articles.

Click on any of the following links examples of my ad placements)...

http://bigcatchronicles.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/8/2/1100941.html
http://bigcatchronicles.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/7/28/1085766.html
http://bigcatchronicles.blogharbor.com/blog/Energy/Unocalacquisition/_archives/2005/7/19/1045979.html


You'll see all the articles have Google ads at the very top of the article (above the title) and these have Amazon at the bottom (not all of my article do). The first link above shows an Amazon Recommended Ad at bottom. In the second link, I used individual product icons. And the third link shows a list of Amazon text links I manually created. In all three cases, I manually inserted the Amazon code into the specific article.

One suggestion I learned from my web design buddies -- and John too -- is to use "include" statements to make it easier to deal with ads and such. If you do, and want to periodically switch out ads, then using "includes" will make it a snap. The main File Manager page shows the code for "include" commands.

For my Google ads, I used Dreamweaver to do the ad layout. I copied the code from the Google site and inserted the script into a table then saved the result as an HTML file. Then I uploaded the file to the File Manager. From there, I added an "include" statement into the article template, and placed it so my Google ad would show at the top where I wanted it.

I do something similar, btw, and use "includes" for my side ads. I haven't found a way to randomize Amazon ads -- so each day I manually change out the side ads. I created a bunch of Amazon ads in advance (using the same Dreamweaver process). However, for side ads I created a component and inserted the "include" statement in the component. Then when I want to change ads, I open the component and paste in a different file name, save it and I'm done.

It's fast and easy.

P.S. A lessen I learned the hard way is that Google really does know what it's talking about when it comes to ad placements. Their heat map works! And it's relevant for any ads, not just Google. I also followed suggestions of Googles and some other bloggers and blend in my Google ads rather than make THEM JUMP OUT. Here's the link to the Google heat map...

https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html&gsessionid=HyRs2QlabOI

I ignored Google advice for months and had lousy results. I started following the map (and ad blending) in late June. My July ad revenues jumped 1000% from the previous average. Go figure! Learned my lessen!

I also wrote a recent article on my experience with Google AdSense here...
http://bigcatchronicles.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/8/2/1100622.html

P.S.S. If you haven't already discovered it, a great blogger source of money-making blog tips is ProBlogger. Tips from someone who's making a full-time living blogging.

http://www.problogger.net/
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Kathy (aka, Roaring Tiger)
http://bigcatchronicles.blogharbor.com
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biggerfish



Joined: 31 Jul 2005
Posts: 23
Location: norwalk, ct

PostPosted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:55 pm    Post subject: Thanks for the tips! Reply with quote

RT - thanks piles for the tips, techniques and links. I'll be using most of them, I'm sure.

I'm posting this part for future reference by others: I get a great deal of knowledge from www.webmasterworld.com forums. Most of it is good info, sometimes incomplete - like url's specific to where to find content, examples of other sites, etc are prohibited from being posted in the forums. You really have to dig and "read between the lines" there sometimes.

Another good source is www.webproworld.com.

Thanks again for the tips. Lots of studying to do.
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www.biggerfish.biz
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Richard McKinnon



Joined: 29 Aug 2005
Posts: 12

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 5:16 pm    Post subject: adsense followng articles Reply with quote

John,

I followed your instructions. Ok. Now I have the Adsense little box on the Blog Page follwoing the articles. However. it sits right on top of the next article heading, except, when the previous day heading follows.

How can I give it more room on the page for better readibility?
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john
Site Admin


Joined: 16 Mar 2004
Posts: 3434

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 5:20 pm    Post subject: Re: adsense followng articles Reply with quote

Can you provide a link to your blog so we can see it in action?
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Richard McKinnon



Joined: 29 Aug 2005
Posts: 12

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 5:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

www.perceptric.com
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john
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Joined: 16 Mar 2004
Posts: 3434

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 8:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As per the reply we just posted to another question you posted, you will want to add some custom CSS code to your style template.

Try adding the following:
Code:
.article {
    margin-bottom: 50px;
}

and adjust that number upwards or downwards to your liking.
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tigersi



Joined: 20 Apr 2005
Posts: 174

PostPosted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 12:12 pm    Post subject: another thing Reply with quote

John,

Let me know if there's a way to accomplish something I wanted to do with Google Ads.

Right now, I've got them set up so the ads are on top of an article, then the title, then the body. Take http://bigcatchronicles.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/9/10/1215587.html for example.

What I would like to do as an alternative, though, is an article layout like this....

http://bigcatchronicles.blogharbor.com/layout/google_ad_on_side_mockup.htm

Will that work with a BlogHarbor article? If so, what would I do to the article template?
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Kathy (aka, Roaring Tiger)
http://bigcatchronicles.blogharbor.com
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john
Site Admin


Joined: 16 Mar 2004
Posts: 3434

PostPosted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 1:28 pm    Post subject: Re: another thing Reply with quote

I would modify the article template, placing something like this right after the
Code:
<div class="article"> line:

<div style="float:left;width:100px;">
enter your Google Adwords code here
</div>


Change the width from 100px to whatever width you choose.

Then add the following to your Custom CSS in the style template:

Code:
.articleTitle, .articleAuthor, .articleBody {
    clear: none;
}


That should do it for you.
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tigersi



Joined: 20 Apr 2005
Posts: 174

PostPosted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 5:42 pm    Post subject: yahoo Reply with quote

Hi John,

It worked! The ad size is 300x250 so I adjusted the pixel width in the code you gave me and added in a height code and bada-bing, it's just what I wanted.

Now I can avoid some ad blindness by periodically switch back and forth between designs. Cool beans.

Thanks!
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Kathy (aka, Roaring Tiger)
http://bigcatchronicles.blogharbor.com
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Netsense



Joined: 25 Aug 2005
Posts: 15

PostPosted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 10:55 am    Post subject: placing adsense at top of article Reply with quote

Hello guys

I want to place my adsense at the top of the article, in the left corner.
Just like the ads in this article:
http://bigcatchronicles.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/8/2/1100941.html

I followed the advice above, but I don't get it to work. When I choose to download my changed template and open it, the google ads get displayed, but they don't show up in my blog...

Can anybody help me out (I even want to pay you, because this thing is driving me crazy...)

Thanks for your help

Regards

Christof
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tigersi



Joined: 20 Apr 2005
Posts: 174

PostPosted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 2:15 pm    Post subject: here's the code Reply with quote

Here is the copy of my code from my Big Cat Chronicles article template that you can adapt for your top ad. This is the include code I used. It includes some code to allow the ad to "float":

Code:
<div class="article">
<div style="float:left;width:320px;height:270px;">
{{include name="includes/Google/GoogleArticleTop300x250.htm"}}
</div>


Look for this code within the following article template code to see where to insert it in the template:

Code:
{{if title}}
{{title}}
{{else}}
Untitled
{{/if}}
</div>
<div class="articleAuthor">by
{{if author}}
   <a href="javascript:openWindow('{{view_user_url}}', 'info', 450, 600);">{{var name=author escape=html}}</a>
{{else}}
   Anonymous
{{/if}}
 at {{publish_time.hour}}:{{publish_time.min}}{{publish_time.ampm}} ({{publish_time.zone}}) on {{publish_time.month_name}} {{publish_time.day}}, {{publish_time.year}} &nbsp;|&nbsp; <a href="{{permalink_url}}">Permanent Link</a>
{{if cosmos_url}}
&nbsp;|&nbsp; <a href="{{cosmos_url}}">Cosmos</a>
{{/if}}
</div>

<div class="article">
<div style="float:left;width:320px;height:270px;">
{{include name="includes/Google/GoogleArticleTop300x250.htm"}}
</div>

<div class="articleBody">{{body}}
</div> 
<!-- article -->
<!--
<div class="articlePrintLink"><a href="xx"><img src="/_images/print.gif" border="0" width="20" height="20" alt="Print this article"></a>&nbsp;<a href="xx">Print Article</a></div>
-->

{{include name="includes/Google/GoogleArticleBottom468x60.htm"}}



If you look at the last line above, you'll see the code I used to create a Google ad at the bottom of my article too (it doesn't always show).

To create the HTM files, I used Dreamweaver. First I created a table, then I inserted the Google ad code into the table. Then saved it to my filename of choice.

I think you can substitute a TXT file too.

You might also be interested in the workaround I used for Chitika ads in my blog. Go to this thread...
http://forums.blogharbor.com/viewtopic.php?p=4038#4038
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Kathy (aka, Roaring Tiger)
http://bigcatchronicles.blogharbor.com
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tigersi



Joined: 20 Apr 2005
Posts: 174

PostPosted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 2:35 pm    Post subject: google ads Reply with quote

If you have several Google ads and Google doesn't have enough unique ads to show, then what happens is Google will blank out some ads.

For example, I want to have Google ad in my left column (as a component) as well as at the top of an article (code inserted into template). Same problem with not enough ads. What happens is my left column ads will always show, and the top article ad may or may not. It just depends on the keywords. I assume Google favors the left column ads because they show all the time.

My less than favorable solution for right now is to forego left column Google ads in favor of the top article ones (better placement relative to the Google heat map (URL below). I also have Google ads at the bottom of my articles (below the content and above the keywords). Sometimes they show and sometimes not.

If you have multiple ads, then here's how you can check. Remove all ads, then add them one back at a time as components. I suggest doing this first because you want to determine if the problem is your Google code before worrying about the BlogHarbor template.

If you can see the single ad in a component, then you're code is okay. At the least, you should see a Google PSA. Try this with each ad, one at a time.

Next, try adding two or more component ads. If some ads blank out when you have two or more loaded, then you have the problem I described above.

If you can't see a the single ad in a component, then you have Google code problems. Try recreating the ad at the Google website and repaste in the code.

If problems continue with the components, then you'll need to visit your friendly neighborhood Google support rep.

Once you determine your Google code is okay, then you can continue on to inserting it in the article template, as described in messages above. Check out mine immediately before this posting as I gave you a copy of my code that works with my article template.

Here's the URL for the Google heat map. It really works!
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=17954&ctx=en:search&query=heat+map&topic=0&type=f
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http://bigcatchronicles.blogharbor.com
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