Hi,
You can make a link sponsored by adding a field in the admin area called 'isSponsored', and then just changing the sort order to display sponsored links first. All this can be done without any changes in the code. In the html template, you can then make a link look differently by wrapping:
<%if isSponsored%> ... some graphic <%endif%>
As for the Adcycle plugin, yes, you can pick that an ad group will only be displayed in a given category, and it won't be overwritten when pages are built.
Cheers,
Alex
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