Zones Guide

Posted by Will on Mar 1st, 2010 | no comments

Basically, a wpCJ Zone is a set of Products or Links from Commission Junction that must be shown in a certain way in a certain place of your site.

As you can see, a zone has three basic components:

• A template that defines how it looks.
• A set of Products or Links (or Ad Units) and
• A certain location in your site that directs wpCJ to actually show the Ad Units.

In this guide, we will try to explain each component by answering some questions about them.

Let’s begin.

How can I create and mantain a Zone in wpCJ?

There’s an option in the wpCJ Module called “Zones”. By accessing it you will be able to create, modify and delete  zones. Once you click on it, you will be presented this page:

As you can see, there are several fields that can be entered. Three of them are mandatories: Name, Zone Type and Template. Let’s explain every field in detail:

• Zone Name: Every zone must have an unique name. It is advisable, however, that it shares the same name of its template or something similar.
• Zone Type: Every zone can be a Product Zone or a Link Zone. It defines the type of Ad Units that it can contains and show.
• Zone Template: A zone must know how to show the Ad Units it contains. It is defined by the Template that is assigned to that zone.
• CSS Class: Technically, a zone is a HTML DIV tag. If you want to customize the way this DIV looks and behave, set its class and define it in the CSS files of your WordPres theme.
• Surrounding HTML – Precode: If you need further customization to the way a zone looks or behave, you can specify the code that should be added BEFORE the Canvas Code of the template being showed.
• Surrounding HTML – Postcode: In the same vein, if you need to add a certain code AFTER the Canvas Code was showed, put it here.

Once you have entered these parameters, click on “Submit” and it will be saved making the new zone to appear in the “Current Zone” list at the bottom of the page:

Also, if you hover your mouse pointer over any zone, it will present you additional options:

• Promote it: It presents you the necessary code to promote the zone.
• Clear it: It will empty the zone of ant products or links it might contains.
• Delete it: It will permanently delete the zone from your wpCj installation.

How can I populate a Zone in wpCJ?

This question will be answered in the Product and Link guides.

How can I promote a Zone in wpCJ?

A Zone can be promoted in any post or page of your WordPress blog.

Also, it is possible to promote it directly in your WordPress theme files.

In order to promote a given zone, open the Zone option of wpCJ, and hover your mouse pointer over the zone in the “Current Zones” list. It will shows a link named “Promote it”. Click on it.

It will open a little panel with the requiered code to promote that zone in a page, a post or your theme files. Copy and paste them accordingly.

Keep in mind that the zone must be populated in order to promote something.

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website