More on randomizing ads

“I believe in coincidence. Coincidences happen every day. But I don’t trust coincidences.” - Garak, “Star Trek - Deep Space 9″

Just a couple of days after my randomizing ads tip, Darren Rowse mentions a WordPress plugin to do exactly that. Funny how the universe works. :)

The plugin may be useful to some. However, I find my method much simpler and quicker - the plugin has 4 pages of instructions! I’m not saying it’s badly made, mind you. But, to me, the point of a WordPress plugin is to make things simpler, to prevent one from having to do things manually. Yet, I don’t think the plugin actually saves work or time, or is easier to use for non-technical users.

Looking at it was useful in a way, though: just like that plugin, “my” method also works for anything made in PHP - not just WordPress -, and isn’t limited to AdSense ads - indeed, it’s not limited to ads at all. You can use it to rotate between any kind of content - Chitika ads, static images, static text, a blogroll, whatever.

Related posts:

  1. AdSense tip: how to randomize ads between 2 positions
  2. Inside AdSense: changing channels
  3. AdSense tip: randomizing ads
  4. WordPress Related Entries plugin
  5. Spam Karma 2 plugin

3 Responses to “More on randomizing ads”


  1. 1 Angsuman Chakraborty

    I think you would do justice by actually reading the plugin docs :)
    The plugin isn’t limited to AdSense ads. It can be used in any way you like. I use it to display Einstein’s quote in the bottom of my pages.

    The docs are for people who like good, exhaustive documentation like myself. Frankly the docs are over 50 times the size of the actual plugin code :)
    More docs doesn’t indicate more complicated.

    Look at my code. If you find a simpler way of doing what it is doing, I would be happy to hear from you.

  2. 2 Pedro Timóteo

    Angsuman, note that I didn’t say your plugin was bad in any way. Sorry if you understood it as criticism. I simply prefer the way I came up with - to me, it’s simpler and quicker. But I bet that there are a lot more people in the world using your plugin than copying and pasting my code. :)

  3. 3 Gera

    Suggest argue, because only in a dispute born truth.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Portugal