The 125 x 125 pixel Ads links is the latest trend in selling ads space. The pros and cons can be read at Darren Rowse’s post, Are 125 x 125 pixel Ads Right for Your Blog? so I will not be repeating what he said. Some,who have no knowledge of html might not know how to make these images link to their preferred sites. You can either Google for the info or if you prefer, here is a simple and easy way.
Of course first of all, you got to have the image ready. I won’t be getting into this part but I usually do mine in Photoshop. Any graphics software should be okay for such a simple job. You can even use Paint, that comes with Windows if you want something that is not too fancy as long as you can size it appropriately.
Once you have the image, there are two ways that you can go about it. The first and easiest way of course, is to upload the image to imageshack.us.
Log into imageshack.us Make sure the “upload” button is checked. Click browse and look for the image that you have saved in your computer. Then click “Host it”
Once the image have been uploaded, you will be given a few choices on how you want to display the image. Choose “Hotlink for Websites.” Copy those codes to your clipboard or simply just right click-select all-copy.
Open Notepad and paste the codes there. The unedited codes will look like this.
Now, if you want that image to be linked to your Blog, all you have to do is to change the URL that I have underlined to that of your blog’s, like what I have done here but make sure all the colons are there and that’s all to it.
Copy the modified codes and paste it to wherever you want the Ads to appear. Click on the image below to get a rough idea of what happens.
That is one way, There is another way. I prefer to upload the images to my own server as sometimes imageshack images loads very slowly or don’t load at all. The procedure is almost the same. Only difference is the codes appears a little bit differently.
You can upload the images and grab the url and add the link codes or if you don’t know how, a simple get around is to upload the image to a post (Assuming you are blogging in Wordpress) like when you want to post an image, grab the raw codes by switching off your Visual Rich Editor and modifying the first portion of the codes like what was done with the codes from imageshack.
The codes will look something like this,
As in what we did with the imageshack codes, replace the codes that I have underlined with your preferred link. Additionally, you will see these words, [title=''] In between those semi-colons you can add some text so when you hover you mouse over the image, the text will appear. You can actually add another short piece of code to make the page load in a new window by adding the words, [target="blank"] immediately after your “title”
Hover your mouse over the image below before clicking it to get a rough idea
You are now a html expert! If you want to Advertise here, all you have to do is to click on the image below to get the details. Send me your image and I will do all the necessary coding for you before inserting your Ads in my sidebar.
Now thats what I needed to see, I will try imageshack in the morning….thanks
Informative post for those who need to get their 125×125 px onto their blogs. For now the 125s seem to be the trend. But I foresee sometime in the future, almost every blog will have them plastered on the top right corner of their pages. That’s when we get tired of looking at them and start to think of something different to be unique.
Even now a blog like John Chow’s is so plastered with favicons and 125s at the top it’s starting to look cluttered and unsightly even though when people first saw his blog redesign, they all went oohs and aahs.
If we look carefully at most blogs going in this direction, would it be right to speculate that blogs no longer look like blogs - more like the traditional websites filled with banner ads. Remember we used to be told by some gurus to be mindful of banner blindness? But who cares, put the banners on and let advertising dollar roll in! Leading bloggers have made this move as “politically correct” and the floodgate is now open.
I am doing direct ad sales starting from next month but I don’t have a Photoshop, all I can use is Paint.Net. The earnings is not going to depend on the design right?
Anyway, I like your button design!
@ Markk
Inline banners is starting to get popular as well but it is not advisable of blogs with small audience because it will somehow make readers leave.
What I think would be a nice touch is to mask the picture with Adsense URL. So when a user actually click on the picture to get “advertised” they are redirected to adsense’s “advertise on this site” thing.
Then again, thats the highway to get banned by Adsense, anyone dare to try?
Melvin,
Like you said,
that’s the highway to get banned by Adsense,
LOL.