468 Link Units

From the Ning website (Product Overview)

Control the Ads

$19.95 per month

"By default, Ning reserves the right to run ads on your social network. You can choose to remove the ads on your network or, alternatively, run ads from any advertising network with this option."

Indeed, you will need to pay a premium in order to run your own ads. Well if your member base is over the 500 treshold, I definately think it is worth the $...

Adding a 468 link unit to your Ning bar


Once you have purchased the ad control from Ning, you will need to display your ads in strategic ways if you are to maximize your ad earnings. Using the Track Statistics box, you can easily add a link unit at the very top of your site, on every page and in an optimal position, just in between the search box and the Ning message center (see screenshot!)

This hack for Ning is inspired from this Network Creators website thread. Although there is a similar thread in the Developer Network, I didnt manage to get it to work using their instructions (probably because of my poor understanding of javascript).

How to do it:

1- Sign in(up) to Google Adsense and get yourself a 468 Link Unit code (keep this window open)
2-Go to your Manage tabs on your network, then click on TRACK STATISTICS
3-Copy the code below and paste it to the Track Statictics box


<div id="google_ads_header" style="text-align:center;"><!-- INSERT YOUR ADSENSE468 LINK UNIT CODE HERE -->#################<!-- END INSERT HEADER CODE --></div><script type= "text/javascript">function getRefToDiv(divID,oDoc) if( document.getElementById ) { return document.getElementById(divID); } if( document.all ) { return document.all[divID]; } if( !oDoc ) { oDoc = document; } if( document.layers ) { if( oDoc.layers[divID] ) { return oDoc.layers[divID]; } else { //repeatedly run through all child layers<br /> for( var x = 0, y; !y && x < y =" getRefToDiv(divID,oDoc.layers[x].document);" thestring =" getRefToDiv('google_ads_header');myReference = getRefToDiv('xn_bar_menu');<br />myReference.appendChild(theString);<br /></script>


4-Replace the '##############' with your Adsense 468 Link Unit code
5-Save and you're done

Note: There are a few variants to this hack. For instance, you can place ads in the footer simply be replacing the 'xn_bar_menu' in the above code by 'xg_foot'!


This is a hack, a trick, a work around, so use it at your own risk. Your network is likely to be totally messed up at the next Ning upgrade, your pc might even burn, and you might even get fired from your job... But I would have told you so, NingTricks are at your own risk...