Affiliate Ad Manager Update

Well, there’s been a few tweaks, but so far the Ad Manager seems to be running smoothly.  As is always the case, bad data in means bad data out.  I had a few cases of some ads not showing images because Performics had urls with two “.”s before the com– “xxx..com/xxx”.  After I fixed these things were going along quite well.

So, now I’ve started thinking about the next two phases I need to do.  The first is technical, the second non-technical.  (For those of you who aren’t really interested in the Ad Manager’s inner workings, skip to the second one!)

Show Ads Based on Visits

There are clearly some ads that people are more interested in than others.  I can tell which piqued people’s interest by whether there were actual visits or not.  So, I should make sure that those with more visits actually get displayed more frequently.

I also need some sort of system to make sure that I get good balance and to try to work out some of the kinks with ads displaying at the same time.

What I need to develop is some system where I can give a value to an ad based on whether it’s going to expire (higher frequency close to the expiration date) as well as how it has performed.  So, I’m going to need to devise some kind of algorithm to determine this.

I also may want to make my randomize script smarter.  Either give it the capability to pick 4 unique ads or section the text file that generates the ads up so that they have some unique ads for each box.  (Divide the current 125.txt file into 4 unique, non-overlapping txt files.)  I could also incorporate in either solution some concept of what category the post is that is being displayed in a “single post” and try to tailor the ads to meet the post.

That last optimization will require one of the next steps in my diabolical master plan: adding knowledge to my system of where a given ad fits in my blog.

Buy Something, Silly

The second thing I need to do was suggested by YoungMommy¹ via Twitter:

YoungMommy any time you mention an affiliate’s products you spark interest, which translates in to hits and ultimately equals more revenue for both

YoungMommy giving personal anecdotes always help. people want to see it (anything) in action. i usually don’t talk about something unless i’ve tried it

YoungMommy highlighting your affiliates somehow could work too – special promotions or events tend to guide traffic

YoungMommy … I would start by writing about something you buy. offering giveaways will help

So, I’m going to actually do what I’m encouraging you to do.  I’m going to sign up for the some of the programs that I’m promoting on the site, encourage you to take a look, and give you a review.  And taking YoungMommy‘s advice, I will be offering some of the products that I buy as prizes.

Besides, Fussy and alicia said I should try this kind of stuff!

1. by the way, if you’re on Twitter, you should be following YoungMommy! [↩]