Comments on: A guide to Smarter Tracking Techniques for Affiliates

By: Sam Sinton

Sam Sinton — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 13:14:04 +0000

First time i have come across your website, thanks so much for the tutorial on event tracking. I have been having so much trouble trying to track masked URLs that i almost gave up! The forums are full of people with similar problems but no resolutions.

Fingers crossed this works for me!

Thanks!

By: Dan Harrison

Dan Harrison — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:32:04 +0000

John, they offer a wide variety of commissions, from flat rates to percentages, but it’s heavily dependent on the merchant. Webgains are a network who manage the tracking, payment, link tracking and creatives for merchants.

Dan

By: John Essex

John Essex — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:03:11 +0000

Just been taking a look at the webgains site, I couldn’t find anything about what commission they pay and what sort of products? Are they just a networking site that connect you with retailers?

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:19:30 +0000

ah, yes. my suggestion is from the point of view of the merchant …

By: Dan Harrison

Dan Harrison — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:33:22 +0000

Well, the article is about tracking to improve sales. I don’t care about giving merchants a backlink, actually, I particularly don’t want them to have a backlink. Especially if I am trying to rank higher than them for a product that they sell.

I personally use mysite.com/recommends/the-product-name, which does a redirection to the product using htaccess.

However, you keep talking about SEO. From who’s point of view are you talking? It sounds as if you’re talking about from the merchant’s point of view.

Dan

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:20:39 +0000

Ok, in which case, how about the following as a url

http://www.mytargeturl.com/my_product_name?5678_1234_my-useful-reference

The php code decodes the “backlink friendly” url and fires off a suitable request to the affiliate tracking system.

You also need to do some .htaccess configuration to make this work.

Certainly, much more complicated than your approach for most people but if you’re able to do more advanced server configuration / programming, you get better SEO ?

By: Dan Harrison

Dan Harrison — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:07:35 +0000

Hi Simon,

Not sure I’m with you… and even still, there’s an argument for masking URLs. Namely that you get higher CTRs if a link doesn’t look like an affiliate link.

Dan

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:01:35 +0000

Another way to write affiliate links is as follows. This method preserves “back links” when creating an affiliate link.

Using the webgains example from above, use the following link format

http://www.mytargeturl.com/product?wgcampaignid=5678&wgprogramid=1234&clickref=my-useful-reference

Then in your target url, you need a bit of code to make your web server build and send the original request as shown above. T

By: Dan Harrison

Dan Harrison — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:57:04 +0000

Hi John. Webgains and Affiliate Window are easily my favourite affiliate networks. Been using Webgains for years. Simple interface, fast, good team, easy to use.

Amazon Associates is ok, but it’s not very good when it comes to tracking references (i.e. there aren’t any). I do use other networks, but I really dislike those. I use them because I must.

By: John Essex

John Essex — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:55:10 +0000

Hi Dan,

Nice post and some useful tips. Whats your experience been of webgains, have you used them for long? How does it compare with Amazon affiliates?