Only one ad capable in MS?

[MonicaCMartin]

After much frustration trying to create multiple ads in the monitization section of MS, I e-mailed tech support to learn that you can only create one ad in MS? The others have to be created manually?

Thanks,
Monica

[rolik]

That's a bummer.

Here's what I did. I don't know if it's better or worse than what MS does. I'd be interested in feedback.

I logged into wordpress directly (i.e. http://yourdomainhere.com/wp-admin), clicked on "widgets" on the left hand side, and dragged a text widget over to the sidebar.

I then put this HTML into the text widget:

<a href="http://yourdomainhere.com/yourprettylinkname" target=_blank><img src="http://somedomain/somepicture.jpg" border=0></a>

The first link is your pretty-link URL, which masks your affiliate URL.
The second is a link to a picture on the site you're affiliating with. You could in theory put some text before the </a>.

I made a couple of ads like this. I also used an Amazon ad in one place, which was nice because their affiliate tool generated the HTML for me, and all I had to do was cut/paste it.

Like I said, I don't know if this was a wise or foolhardy approach. But as far as I can tell, it works fine.

[DeanRichards]

The others have to be created manually?

I'd say that was a yes and a no. rolik is absolutely right. The ads created by MS/WPD are nothing more than sidebar text widgets. And while you can certainly create new ads completely by hand with html (which is basically just a shortened from of english) you can also take the original ad you made with MS and cut/paste it into a new sidebar text widget (or into a post/page). This will leave the original text widget empty so you can go back into MS and create a new ad for that spot.

So you don't really have to create new ads completely by hand; you just have to move them around manually.

[MonicaCMartin]

Thanks for the reply guys - I really do appreciate it, but it sounds complicated for a newbie like me. But I'm off to give it a try. I really wish MS can find a way to make this as easy as generating the first ad. It seem this is a vital part of IM - in fact, the whole point of IM! If I can't monitize my site, I'm out of business - literally!

Thanks,
Monica

[rolik]

I think this is where I learned it from:
How to Put Ads On Your WordPress Blog | BlogWell

[MonicaCMartin]

Rolik,

I tried that site, but don't know enough about HTML - was a bid confused. The reply I got from WPD was as follows:

To add new text widgets to your sidebar, first log in here: http://www.mydomain.com/wp-admin/widgets.php
(replace "mydomain" with your domain)
(Your login information is on the Website Settings page of your WPD dashboard)

Find "Text" on the list in the middle.
Click "Add" to bring it to the right side.
Now, on the right side, click "Edit".
Paste your code and click "Done"
Click "Save Changes"

Your code should now be rendering correctly on your website's sidebar.

Can you or anyone explain to me how to copy my code to paste? I created an ad in MS and tried to copy it, but could not. I tried "save HTML" but all that did as create a number of files with each element in it separately. The directions above seem pretty simple if I can just figure out how to copy my code

Thanks,
Monica

[MonicaCMartin]

OK, making slow progress! I took your advise Rolik and used the Amazon Affiliate link generator. That was easy and it worked! I generated an ad/link for my item on Amazon, then went to the wp-admin in WPD, opened up the Text Widget and pasted my Amazon code, saved and closed. Bam, it was there on my site. However, when I created another ad using the exact same steps, it replaced the one I just added How do I create a second or third ad? There must be a way to open up a new text widget and I just can't figure that out. Can someone help me? I feel like I keep inching forward, slowly but surely! Thanks!

Monica

[MonicaCMartin]

Dean,

I figured it out! How to cut and paste my code from MS. Just click on "Copy HTML" button, then, at the "Upload Images" screen that pops up, select "WPD - my account", Continue, Close.

Then, go into wp-admin at WPD site, text widget, drag a new text widget to the right and paste the code that was previously uploaded. The big problem I was having was over writing my previous post. I didn't realize all you had to do was drag a new text widget to the right for each new ad! So easy once you figure it out, but so frustrating until you do. Thanks so much to you and rolik!

Thanks,
Monica