Rotator Script

My favorite URL rotator script has been updated, making it an even more valuable tool for the same low price.

Here are the changes, and some comments I have on the changes.

1.  URL Rotator Enable or Disable
2.  Maximum Number of Link Rotations
3.  Default URL Delivered When No Links Available for Rotation
4.  Page Rotation Weight
5.  Updated URL Rotator Admin Page
6.  Updated and Improved Link Rotator Reset Stats Page

1.  There are times I wanted to temporarily remove a link from rotation, to update the site.  With older versions, if you wanted to disable a link from rotation, you had to delete it from the rotator.  Then, if you wanted to rotate that link later, you had to add it back into the rotator.  When you deleted the link, the stats for that link were also deleted, so you had no history of rotations on that link.

With the new Enable/Disable function, you can now remove a link from the rotation without deleting it.  Simply disable the link, and then enable the link to add it back into the rotation.  The hits stats are preserved and will hit counts will continue where they left off.

This is a huge plus.

2.  This is great if you are running a coop for advertising.  Let’s say you are buying 10,000 views and want to distribute those hits to 10 sites, or 10 coop members.  When you setup the link for each site, or customer, set the maximum hits to 1,000.  After each site receives it’s 1,000 hits, the web page will be removed from the rotation.

But wait, what if all sites reach their maximum rotations, but you are still getting traffic to the rotator?  That possibility is taken care of with #3.

3.  In the Admin Profile you can set a default URL that will be displayed if all links are disabled, so traffic never goes to waste.

4.  Again, this is a great feature if you are running a traffic coop, or just want to easily send more traffic to certain links.  Using our 10,000 views again, lets say one coop member wanted to purchase 3 of those 10 spots, each link getting 1,000 hits.

In the past versions of the link rotator, you would have to enter the same link 3 times, each time with a unique name, so they would get 30% of the views.  Now, you just need to enter a weight of 3 and that link will get 3 hits before moving on to the next link in the rotation.

You can also use #2 (Maximum Hits) and #4 (Weight) at the same time.  In the above example you could set a weight of 3 and a maximum hits of 3000 to make sure the URL didn’t get more views, if your traffic source over delivered.

5.  The main admin screen now shows the next link to be rotated in bold and italics.  This is good for having a quick look at what link is up next.  The main screen reporting also shows the number of views delivered for each link in relation to its weight or maximum hits.  For example 3 of 5 hits is displayed if a link has a weight of 5 set and three views have been delivered.  Or, 50 of 1,000 would be displayed if a URL had a maximum hits of 1,000 set and 50 views had been rotated so far.

6.  The updated reset stats page, allows you to easily reset the hits rotated so far, for weight and maximum hits to zero.

The URL Rotator is still very easy to use.  When you add a new link, the script automatically enables the link for rotation, and sets weight and maximum hits to zero, disabling those features.

I also noticed that the addition of these new features did not result in a price increase, a better rotator at the same low cost – I like it!

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