BloggerVenue

Justin Tadlock has become one of my favourite wordpress templates designer. He produces a style of templates that im very fond of: magazine style templates.

Recently, he created what he calls, a super theme. It is called Options theme, and it is a wordpress magazine style template. It is not only a magazine, it is a versatile theme that will fit every blogger need. As Justin says, the options theme is like Structure (the theme im currently using) on steroids!

The name says it all. This theme is packed with a load of options for you to choose. It will take some time for you to get comfortable with the options this great theme has to give

This theme is still in Beta version, but Justin plans to release this week the “final” version. He already made some changes for the current beta version.

But enough of this talk and lets head for what the options theme has to give.

Right now, the package comes with 3 CSS layouts. The original release came with a Dark css template and a light css template. This week, “new groove” style was added. You can choose which CSS style to use within the administration panel. If you know a bit of CSS coding, you can easily create a CSS layout to implement on options theme, if not, than you just need to wait for more releases from Justin or the growing community around this theme.

The homepage layout can be changed in multiple ways. There are five blocks, and in each block you can choose 14 different options.

The sidebar is totally widget compatible, and the theme comes with several widgets to help you customize the blog, from several ad widgets to flickr or a video widget.

One of the things a like most on this theme, besides the CSS customisation, is the Features Gallery option. This option uses Smooth Gallery. This allows you to cycle featured posts with a nice transition effect between posts.

If you want to see how the theme looks, and the transition effect I’ve just mentioned then visit the demo.

As you can see, the demo is using the Dark version. The light version in my honest opinion it’s nothing special. There is now the new CSS style, new groove:

image from justintadlock.com

Pros:

- Great looking theme!

- Easy CSS customisation;

- Options for every kind of blogger;

- Widget Ready theme;

- Great support from the author and form the community

Cons:

- You will need to try, try, try all the options to see what fits best for you. (is this really a negative aspect? lol)

- Hum, can’t really think of more negative aspects…. lol

To download or gather more info about this theme just visit Justintadlock.com

So, in conclusion. this is one of the best (if not the best) theme around. Im tempted to change my current theme (Structure theme) to this one. What do you thing? Should i change? Im really tempted, but i will wait a couple more days for the new release.

Widgetbucks started delivering international cpm ads today.

I have received an email regarding this:

Dear WidgetBucks Publishers,

As mentioned in our email at the end of November, today we have successfully launched International CPM ads to be included in our Widgets.

We are now serving CPM ads to the non-U.S./Canada traffic. This will give you revenue, per impression, for your site visitors who come from other countries. This is designed to help publishers who have a blend of traffic from a variety of countries.

Our system will do the geo-location for you, determining where the visitor is coming from. Then we’ll either show the regular pay-per-click widget (to visitors from the U.S. and Canada) or show an ad that pays per impression (to visitors from other countries).

To get started, you will need to log into your WidgetBucks account and re-copy the Widget code under “My Widgets”. After you replace the code on your site, the widget will update ad types automatically.

We’re also proud to mention that we’ve been selected as a finalist for the Open Web Awards. We invite you to visit the site and vote for WidgetBucks!

If you have any questions about the launch of International CPM ads, please contact us at http://support.mpire.com

 

Happy earning!

The WidgetBucks Team

I have updated the widget code and i can see what ads they are displaying. What i have seen till now are cpxinteractive ads, which is one of the biggest cpm ads companies around.

Im a bit disappointed, but not surprised, the ads are from a second companie, meaning the cpm rates will be lower. But it’s too early to say how much will i earn per cpm ads. Im gonna use the widget on dahh.net to produce faster results and share them with you.

I think this was just a manouver to “compensate” international users, but wether we like it or not it’s our choice to use it or not. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and wait for results.

i have just received an email from widgetbucks telling about CPM ads for international traffic:

Here’s an upcoming feature. In early December, we will start serving CPM ads to the non-U.S./Canada traffic. This will give you revenue, per impression, for your site visitors who come from other countries. This is designed to help publishers who have a blend of traffic from a variety of countries.

Our system will do the geo-location for you, determining where the visitor is coming from. Then we’ll either show the regular pay-per-click widget (to visitors from the U.S. and Canada) or show an ad that pays per impression (to visitors from other countries). You’ll see a new column, called “CPM Revenue” in your earnings reports.

We’re also working on pay-per-click arrangements with global merchants, but those will take longer to implement. We’re glad to deliver a way for you to monetize almost all of your traffic in December. Please check our blog at http://widgetbucks.blogspot.com for further updates on this.

Here’s an upcoming feature. In early December, we will start serving CPM ads to the non-U.S./Canada traffic. This will give you revenue, per impression, for your site visitors who come from other countries. This is designed to help publishers who have a blend of traffic from a variety of countries.

Our system will do the geo-location for you, determining where the visitor is coming from. Then we’ll either show the regular pay-per-click widget (to visitors from the U.S. and Canada) or show an ad that pays per impression (to visitors from other countries). You’ll see a new column, called “CPM Revenue” in your earnings reports.

We’re also working on pay-per-click arrangements with global merchants, but those will take longer to implement. We’re glad to deliver a way for you to monetize almost all of your traffic in December. Please check our blog at http://widgetbucks.blogspot.com for further updates on this.

They seem to respect international traffic a little more, but, how much will they pay for impressions?

Let’s wait and see.

Lately, there has been some buzz on sites using WidgetBucks on non-English sites. In their terms thay say that you can only use WB on sites other than English if ou ask for permission. Many people (including me) haven’t paid attention to this and have been using on non english sites.

I wrote an email a couple of days asking for permition, and today i received the answer, and has i expected, i don’t have permission to use on a non english site, in this case, it was a portuguese forum.

Here it is the mail they sent to me:

Thank you for contacting us.

We have reviewed your request and we do not give permission to use WidgetBucks widgets on the site you indicate. Please remove any widgets you may already have placed.

We have a responsibility to deliver quality traffic to the mostly U.S.-based merchants in our network. We have several strict filters and audits that help insure the traffic delivered has a high likelihood of conversion to sale. This is also one of the reasons for several of our policies in the terms of service.

Our terms of service, related to sites that are not primarily English languages, have not changed since our launch. The relevant section is Exhibit A, WidgetBucks Program Policies, under the heading “Language”. It says: “The Widget code may be placed on pages with content primarily in English. Widgets must not be displayed on any page with content primarily in an unsupported language, without prior written consent from Mpire.”. Please refer to our terms of service at: http://www.widgetbucks.com/terms.page.

Thank you for your understanding.

WidgetBucks Help Team

That’s to bad for me because the ads on my portuguese forum were doing good. SO i have decided to create an english targeted for these kind of ads and for US traffic.

The site is http://www.home-shopping-network.info/ and i hope to have it online next week.

This is just a fast update telling that i changed to a new, better theme. The last one was not very widget friendly, and the space was running low….. :\ so i hope you like this one. Your feedback is very welcome!