Clicking Through: A phpBanner Primer - Different Strokes
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While using the "client" keyword selection makes sense if you get an exclusive advertiser, the truth is that you will have many advertisers vying for the prime spots on your site. And you're interested in satisfying as many clients as possible so that you can buy your own island and retire. Which is why you might prefer this:
<?
$banner=get_banner("keyword","kids");
? >
In this case, phpBanner will display a random banner containing the keyword kids.
You can even display a banner on the basis of its dimensions. Consider the following example, which displays a random banner of size 400x60:
<?php
<?
$banner=get_banner("size","400x60");
? >
And if you're wondering if you can call this function more than once in your PHP script, no sweat. Take a look at the next example, which contain two banners, one at the top and one at the bottom of the page, and see how you can get rich twice as fast:
<?
require("/www/htdocs/phpbanner/require/config.php");
require("/www/htdocs/phpbanner/require/banner.php");
? >
<html>
<head>
<basefont face="Arial">
</head>
<body>
<table height="100%" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="5"
cellpadding="5"> <tr>
<td align="center"><? $banner=get_banner("client","1");? >
<a href="http://www.mysite.com/phpbanner/link.php?banner_id=<?echo
$banner[id];? >">
<img border=0
src="http://www.mysite.com/phpbanner/view.php?banner_id=<?echo
$banner[id];? >" alt="<?echo $banner[alt];? >">
</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="100%" width="100%" valign="top" bgcolor="silver"
align="left">
<h2>Sample page</h2>
<center>
Content here
<p>
Content here
<p>
Content here
<p>
</center>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><? $banner=get_banner("keywords","Oracle");? >
<a href="http://www.mysite.com/phpbanner/link.php?banner_id=<?echo
$banner[id];? >">
<img border=0
src="http://www.mysite.com/phpbanner/view.php?banner_id=<?echo
$banner[id];? >" alt="<?echo $banner[alt];? >">
</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
Here's how this looks:
In case you're wondering if the same banner can appear more than once on the page, the developer clearly states that "...you may call get_banner() as many as you want, it won't be return any similar banner_id..."
Finally, the most important feature, at least as far as your advertisers are concerned: the reports which demonstrate how many eyeballs have seen their banners, and how many clicks have resulted. In order to assist you in generating these reports, phpBanner comes with a fairly simple report generating module.
All your clients can access banner statistics by clicking on the "My Banner" option in the menu. After entering their credentials, the Banner Manager will appear on the screen.
The above screen give the advertiser a quick overview of the number of hits and clicks of each and every banner uploaded to the application.
Next: Clicking Through >>
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More By Harish Kamath, (c) Melonfire
