Posting & Editing Spotlight Ads on theday.com#

NOTE: This assumes you have the ad creative or image ready and that is 300 x 100 pixels in size. You must also, of course, have the click-through URL to add an ad to the system.

Log in to the NCS Digital admin UI at edit.theday.com/edit

From the black menu bar atop the page, click "Editorial > New story". You'll be taken to the story edit interface on the "Properties" tab, as in Fig. 1.

FIG. 1 -- The 'Properties' tab of the story edit/creation interface. FIG. 1 -- The 'Properties' tab of the story edit/creation interface.

As shown in Fig. 1, do the following: * Select a publication date for the ad * If you need an end date for the ad, check the "Use publish control" box and set your end date as well as the publish start date. * Choose the category of "Spotlight Ads" from the category drop-down.

Next, move to the "Edit" tab (Fig. 2, below):

FIG. 2 -- The 'Edit' tab of the story edit/creation interface. FIG. 2 -- The 'Edit' tab of the story edit/creation interface.

As shown in Fig. 1, do the following:

  • Fill in the "Title" and the "Net title" fields; use something short but descriptive, like "Spring Home Source ad";
  • Add the image/creative file (300x100 jpeg file) by clicking the "Choose File" button.

Screen should now look as it does in Fig. 3 below.

FIG. 3 -- The 'Edit' tab of the story edit/creation interface, showing the image options and fields. FIG. 3 -- The 'Edit' tab of the story edit/creation interface, showing the image options and fields.

Next, add a description in the caption field, as shown above, in Fig. 3. Caption should be a plain-english sentence for SEO purposes.

Scroll down within the 'Edit' tab until you see a field titled "Customexternalurl"; here is where you will place the full click-through link for the ad. It should have the full protocol (http or https). The URL should look like:

http://www.clickthroughlink.here

See Fig. 4, below.

FIG. 4 -- The 'Edit' tab of the story edit/creation interface, showing the 'Customexternalurl' field, used to store the click-thru link for the ad. FIG. 4 -- The 'Edit' tab of the story edit/creation interface, showing the 'Customexternalurl' field, used to store the click-thru link for the ad.

The next step is to add taxonomy, which we use to place the ads correctly on the web site. In this case we'll look for and add the taxonomy term "AD Slots Home". To do this, go to the "Keywords" tab within the story edit interface and look for the section labeled "Taxonomy", as shown in Fig. 5, below.

FIG. 5 -- The 'Keywords' tab of the story edit/creation interface, showing the 'Taxonomy' field. FIG. 5 -- The 'Keywords' tab of the story edit/creation interface, showing the 'Taxonomy' field.

In the 'Taxonomy' section, click the 'Search' button. In the resulting pop-up box, type any part of the taxonomy word you're searching for; in this case, typing "Slots" should return AD Slots Home. Highlight the taxonomy term and then click the "Add" button at the bottom of the window to add it to the story/ad. See Fig. 6, below.

FIG. 6 -- The 'Taxonomy words' pop-up in the story edit/creation interfaces. FIG. 6 -- The 'Taxonomy words' pop-up in the story edit/creation interfaces.

You should go back through the 'Edit' and 'Properties' tabs to double-check everything. You can now closes and save the story/ad, by clicking "Save & Close" at the top right, as shown in Fig. 7, below.

FIG. 7 -- When done with everything in the story edit/creation interface, click "Save & Close" to save the story/ad. FIG. 7 -- When done with everything in the story edit/creation interface, click 'Save & Close' to save the story/ad.

If you've published something that needs to start showing up immediately in the home page ad spotlight slot, there's one more thing you need to do: re-cache the home page to load new or reload updated content.

You can re-cache the home page via this URL: https://www.theday.com/&nocache=1

NOTE: Please don't overuse the recache link, as it can bog down the web server. I fyou find you have to recache several times to correct mistakes, please wait at least 3 minutes between recaches; and never do more than 2 recaches within 10 minutes.