Question 1: I wanted to know what you did to get the featured articles to rotate to linkable images in the main content? Are there resizing issues for different browsers?
I'm using the Featured Content Gallery plugin. You can set it to show the first photo it finds in X number of posts from a certain category, or, the way we use it, to show a certain image from certain posts in any category. For the latter, you have to use the custom fields and create a new Name field called articleimg, and the value for that will be the full URL to the image from the post you want to show in the rotating gallery. So when you are uploading to your Media library, note the URL you get after upload. There is a good how-to video for FCG at the developer's site: http://www.featuredcontentgallery.com/
I haven't had any browser resizing issues. Right now, I'm having to rethink the width because I'm experimenting with the right inner sidebar.
Question 2: What do you use for adding the flash ads to the header images?
That's not Flash. Thanks for thinking it is. :-) No, that's a combination of a new widget area and a plugin. I created a new widget area (find out how in the Atahualpa Options/New Widget Area section) and added it to the Style and Edit Header area:
Code:
%image <?php bfa_widget_area('name=top760_ad'); ?> %pages %cats %bar2
Question 3: What do you use for getting your adds to rotate in the right column?
Same process as Question 2, although I didn't have to create new widget areas. I have 3 instances of Sponsors Slideshow widget in the right sidebar, each one calling a different ad group from the Links. I love the fact that they all fade in and out together, so there is no annoying, erratic blinking.
I also use Widget Logic to tell the various widgets where to appear. We don't want the main ads showing on the obituary pages, for instance, so the Widget Logic code is added to the plugin, saying, essentially, "show up everywhere except obituaries."
How do you know the number of visitors to your site? Unique vs common visitors?
Our site is now on Hostgator, and we can look at our stats in our control panel. We could also use the Wordpress stats plugin. Your host will have its own stats system.
I am still looking for a Wordpress advertising manager plugin that will give us good click-through stats and also a nice fading effect like we get from Sponsors Slideshow. There is no ad management function at all with SS.
Just typing all this makes me remember how complicated it seemed to set it all up the way we need it to be. But at least the theme is so flexible, you can make it do almost anything you want, while waiting for somebody to design the perfect plugin.