I have promised Max Blog that I’d write a review for them if I installed their Rotating Ads widget. I did and it works for the most part.
Here are the things that work and does not work:
1) WORKS: The sidebar ads work just as advertised. They rotate nicely and when you click on them they take you to your intended target. Great job there! Bravo.
2) WORKS: The “Top of first blog” display ads work just as advertised as long as you are on the Home/Index page. They rotate nicely and when you click on them they take you to your intended target. Good job there also.
3) DOESN’T WORK: When you a) click on a category name, b) go to the list of articles in the category, and then c) click and display a blog from that list, d) click on its TITLE once again to display it in its own page, the “Top of First Blog” banner ad flips to the top of the page, displays some MaxBlog code underneath, and it looks kind of ugly. (Try it on this blog and see for yourself while I still have the plugin installed.)
4) DOESN’T WORK: When you select a PAGE, the Banner Ad flips to the top of the page, displays some MaxBlog code underneath, and it looks kind of ugly. (Try it on this blog and see for yourself while I still have the plugin installed.)
To me it’s clear that the plugin has some sort of issue in keeping the banner ads fixed in their positions when displaying independent WP 2.7 pages.
5) WORKS 50%: The “within post” setting does not wrap the text around the banner. The banner gets plastered right on top of the text. If you install it, don’t use the “within blog” setting with WP 2.7, or use Google AdSense ads (a maximum of 3 such ads on a blog page).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not display AdSense squares on all pages but only on the main Home (Index) page. It does not work on individual pages, or the pages that you can reach through the list displayed when you click on a category name.
6) DOESN’T WORK (so far): I wrote about all these problems to MaxBlog’s customer service. I received a short e-mail flatly stating that “MaxBlog plugins work with WordPress 2.7″ and declared the ticket “closed” as though I did not write all that detailed feedback… Disappointing customer service, to say the least… although I should hasten to add that this is a FREE plugin and perhaps we should not expect more service than that.
Overall… not bad for a free product. You can use it with confidence for your Sidebars but probably not for anything else. I use the Carrington theme. So it might be a quirk of the theme I’m using as well. I hope this promising plugin will work better with your WP 2.7 blog.
I will update this blog if and when the issues I’ve mentioend are fixed or if I get a more constructive and appropriate answer form the “customer serrvice.”
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.