Text Ad Exchange system questions

This section provides answers to questions about our Text Ad Exchange system.

What is a Text Ad?

This is an ad for one of your sites.  We store and format the text here, and deliver it to publisher/advertisers.  It includes a title, some text, and a link to your site.  In our members' area, you will see little boxes like this:

These boxes contain ads by our members, and their contents will change (rotate) each time the page is displayed.

What is a Text Ad Exchange, and how is that different from a Banner Exchange?

A Text Ad Exchange provides a way for you to promote your sites OUTSIDE of the Traffic Exchange, and your information is stored on OUR SERVER (so, it doesn't cost your site any bandwidth).  You also get to CONTROL the color scheme, so that the ads fit better with your site's existing colors.  We offer a full palette of the "dos-safe' colors, and you can control the border, background, text, title, and link colors individually.

To members who run their own websites, a text ad exchange represents another way to earn tokens.  Put our text ad exchange script on one or more pages of your website, and you will receive tokens every time the banner is displayed.  The short-description of the code to place is in the "Important Links" box on the Members/Your Info page.

To members who want to promote their sites as widely as possible, a text ad exchange represents a whole new set of 'eyeballs' for you.  The cost is minimal: 0.1 tokens per impression.  But now you're showing your ads, not just to other members, but to other members' website visitors.  You can take your advertising to a whole new level.

What do I earn with the Text Ad Exchange?

You earn 0.05 token per individual text ad impression.  That may not sound like a lot, until you realize that you can have up to 12 text ads per site page.  We have examples in the members' area showing 7 and 9 ads down the right edge of some of our longer pages.

Can I show text ads on my site without showing my own text ads?

Yes.  On the Members/Your Info page, change the 'self-viewing option' to 'no', and your own text ads will not run on your site.  Alternatively, you can set your Text Ads to "Show on other sites=No", and the ads will only display here at CastleSurf.

Am I REQUIRED to show my text ads on other sites?

Absolutely not.  In fact, our default when you create a banner is that it is NOT on the outside exchange. 

I've enabled some text ads, but they are not getting any hits.

Check your "Allow Ad Exchange" setting on the  Members/Your Info page.  Setting this to 'yes' will allow text ads that are set to Ad-Exchange=Yes to display.  This setting allows you to control all of your text ads at one time.  For instance, if you had a site-down, you could switch this to 'no' to prevent displays from happening until your outage is over.

How do I put the banners on my site?

You just put a small piece of javascript on your page(s) where you want the banner to appear.  It will look something like this:

For a basic 1-up ad default colors:

Replace the '#' with your User ID number.  Save the page and upload it to your website.  Every time your page is displayed, it will pull one of our members' text ads, and credit your account appropriately.

You can have up to 12 text ads in a block, the 'letter' refers to the size of one box, and the 2 digits refer to how many ads across and down within a block.

For best results, log in and go the the 'your info' section and select 'design an ad layout' under the important links section. This will allow you to preview the ads for size and shape, and will provide you with the properly formed script for your site.

What if I do it wrong?

If there was a problem with your user id, the title of the first ad on your display will contain an error message.