WP Text Ads: WordPress Plugin for DIY Advertising

If you’re a blogger who might have been thinking about do-it-yourself text advertising, then you would’ve been on the hunt for the best solutions out there. Something that doesn’t rely on third party services like TextLinkAds.

Well, if you’re a WordPress user like I am here at JMMO, then you’d have a few options available. One of them is a WordPress plugin called WPTextAds.

Some of you may remember that I mentioned playing around with it about a month ago. After one month, here’s my review of WPTextAds plugin.

Overview:

It’s a cool little plugin that you add just like any other WordPress plugin. Once activated, you can specify your advertising requirements. It has a few features, which include being able to offer Homepage, Site-wide, and Per-Post ad links, as well as being able to offer 30, 60, and 90 day ads for purchase. WPTextAds has a limited-edition free version, where you can install the plugin for trial with some limitations.

Pros:

• Easy to install, good admin interface.
• Features like homepage/site-wide and per-post ad links, and the multi-days package availability.
• Has customisable email templates that may be sent automatically to people requesting to advertise on your blog.
• Offers a free trial version that you can use to play around with.
• Automatic ending of ads when their subscription is over.

Cons:

• A bit pricey at US$127 compared to some other similar plugins out there.
• There’s no affiliate programme running, so people don’t have extra impetus to promote it.
• Only offers text advertising, so you need to look for other solutions if you wish to offer graphic ads on your blog too.
• There are no ‘extensions’ to the plugin/service. That is, there’s no way to track clickthroughs and such.

Overall:

Although the free version only offers 2 links per area (2 for homepage, 2 for site-wide, 2 for per-page post), it’s still something worth looking in to if you’re not anticipating a huge number of advertisers clamouring for ad space on your blog. In my case, I found it quite useful trying it out – as I managed to gauge the interest levels of direct advertisers on my blog. I would’ve purchased it, had it not been for the “cons” that I found in this plugin. I especially found the limitation of not having the ability to offer direct graphic ads using the same plugin to be quite a difficult hurdle to get past. And, the fact that there was no way that I can track statistics made it even tougher for me.

So, that’s why even though I’m still currently using the free version (I especially like the ability of being able to sell homepage ads separately from site-wide ads!), I’m considering phasing it out when I find a better DIY advertising solution. But, we’ll see how it goes.

In any case, if you think that this is something that might be of interest to you, you might find that WPTextAds is still worth exploring.