Google Adsense in phpBB

A short guide to using Adsense with phpBB forums

To avoid breaking Googles TOS it's important not to place ads on registration or welcome pages. As there still seem to be a number of people doing this I thought I'd write this guide. The following text outlines how to quickly add adsense banners to the bottom of each page (once you know which files to add code to its easy to play around with placement).

Tested with phpBB version 2.0.17

Index page

Open index_body.tpl

Find <!-- END switch_user_logged_out -->

After add the following code:

Forum pages

Open viewforum_body.tpl

Find </form>

After add the following code:

Posts

Open viewtopic_body.tpl

Find

<tr align="center">
<td class="catBottom" colspan="2" height="28"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tr><form method="post" action="{S_POST_DAYS_ACTION}">
<td align="center"><span class="gensmall">{L_DISPLAY_POSTS}: {S_SELECT_POST_DAYS}&nbsp;{S_SELECT_POST_ORDER}&nbsp;<input type="submit" value="{L_GO}" class="liteoption" name="submit" /></span></td>
</form></tr>
</table></td>
</tr>
</table>

After add the following code:

Adsense after posts

An alternative way to show ads in threads is to have banners or link units showing after the first post (or every few posts). The easiest way to do this is to install the Inline Banner Ad mod by Brian Rambling.
http://www.geocator.us/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=2

To install the mod use Easymod:
http://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?sid=&f=15

The great thing about this mod is that you can specify several adverts that will then rotate as pages are viewed / refreshed. You could even choose to have a blank advert every few pages. Additional options include preventing adverts showing to members with high numbers of posts or in certain forums.

Cheers
BP

 

Thank you for the info

 

Not to take away from this thread, but if anyone is interested (I would have to dig up the info) there is a less complex way of integrating adsense after the first post on phpbb boards, without having to install a mod.

 

I had someone contact me about this, so for the benefit of everyone I actually posted about it a while back here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=20769

cheers

 

Good info. I just added a few more banner ads on my phpbb board in viewforums and viewtopic.. They both show up just under the body of the section, and they only show for guests. I tend to get a lot of browsers who don't register so I decided to throw them a few more ads.

I can share the specific code if anyone is interested.

 

Its easy to do but it doesn't give you the flexibility of this mod (FWIW adding any code to phpBB could be considered a MOD). I only started using the 'Inline Banner Ad' today instead of the hard-wired code I was already using (I still have normal banners on the index and category pages). Its great for optimising the ads served in threads; you can tweak the layout much quicker than in an offline editor and the ability to exclude groups/forums and rotate ads is invaluable. For anyone considering it here are the admin options (available from the forum admin page).

Ad Code

new/edit/delete

Ad Config

• Display ads after X post
• Display ads after every X post
• Ad style - Normal / special
• Display ads to All/Registered/Guests
• Exclude user groups X
• Exclude forums X
• Do not display if user has more than X posts

Cheers
BP

 

Thank you! I'm planning to start a forum using phpBB and this guide is very helpful to me!

 

great thread , thanx

 

I use that Mod and love it...Its one of the more versatile ones and it takes about 30 seconds using EasyMod.

A lot easier than constantly changing code when experimenting to increase CTR

 

I've tried these methods, but I still seem to have the best results by putting the ads in overall_header.tpl and overall_footer.tpl. One thing the Inline Banner Ad mod does not do is count backwards. I would much rather place the ads just before the last post.

 

Doesn't this mean the ads show on registration pages (which is against TOS)? Or have you found a way to avoid this while still using the overall_ templates?

Cheers
BP

 

Yeah you really should not do that. Those will definately put you in violation of the TOS.

 

http://www.vierstra.com/forum/forum-subject.php/t/2754

 

Thanks for that, its a beautifully simple way of allowing more choice with ad placement

Cheers
BP

 

Yes. It's not my code (see link in my previous post) but I've been using it on my phpBB forum and it works as advertised.

 

thanks for sharing that minstrel good stuff.

 

Hi, should you tell adsense that the javascript will be appearing in frames when used with phpBB, or not?

thanks,

Ken

 

What's a 'Welcome' page? Can you give me an example? I have ads on my index page which is the first page you see when you go to my site. It has the enter site link on it. It also has some content but not much. Would that be considered a Welcome page?

 

You should also work on making your URL information relevant to the topic of discussion, which increases your AdSense ad relevancy, too. In fact, if the URL is strong, you get great ads immediately.

 

Actually, as I understand it the newer AdSense TOS have relaxed that condition - you might want to double check. basically, in the old days the intent was to disallow pages with limited content and probably limited page loads, like the registration page.

As for the question about frames from stolas, what frames? Unless it's changed markedly from 2.0.18 when I dumped it out of frustration, phpBB doesn't use frames.