Tracking URLs
Submitted by dbow17 on Sun, 04/16/2006 - 16:33.
Hi All,
I took some great advice and got advertising. I even made my first Affiliate sales with a positive ROI!
In all my enthusiasm I forgot to add tracking URLs to determine what KWs are converting. So I tried changing my file names to /?source=Keyword, but the characters /? are not allowed in a file name.
So for example I was trying to rename a file from "product.html" to "?source=productkeyword.html" So the end result would be www.my-domain.com/?source=productkeyword.html . Then do the same for the rest of my keywords.
I'm sure this is an easy fix - just not sure what I'm doing wrong.
Happy Easter,
Dustin
Congratulations
Good job on becoming ROI positive. It's a big first step. Now you can focus on replicating and improving on that success.
To answer your question, the tracking URL's need to be set up after the file name. For example:
filename.html?tracking=keyword
Does that make sense?
Tracking URLs
Couple of other quick points to this...
While the book explains the benefits there isn't anything really in there that explains what to do if your merchants don't support tracking codes.
The effect of placing ?tracking=keyword to the end of your url allows to you to do a few things, but most of them would require some PHP or ASP programming knowledge so we'll just stay out of that :wink:
How ever a program such as AdTrackz (and other ad tracking scripts) will allow you to track those sales, clicks, and ROI on keywords for the affiliate merchants that don't offer tracking on their landing pages.
While it may not fit into your budget if you're just starting up, it's something you might* find useful down the road as your grow your business.
Cheers,
Spikey
Tracking URLs
Although I've studied QYDJ several times and researched this forum with a microscope, I am still unclear about where to put tracking links :D
I can think of three places:
1) The destination URL in my PPC ad
2) The filename of my destination page
3) The affiliate link on my destination page
Where does the tracking link go, and if it is to be in more than one of the above URLs, is it the same in all of them?
Thanks for the help
Lucky
/////////////////
Tracking URLs
Hi Lucky,
I don't think you're alone on this question... It keeps popping up in the forums. This is good feedback for me.
The book looks at tracking URL's from a conceptual level, the forums try to address them at a technical level. Let me see if I can make tracking URL's a little easier to understand. I'll need some time (a few days) to put together a good response (mini tutorial). Hopefully this response will answer your question and others that have been posted in the forum.
Best,
Jeremy
Tracking URLs
Bless you, Jeremy! :D
Lucky
///////////////////////
Tracking URLs
This is just too good. I've been trying to get my head round all this tracking too and am nearly there but a mini tutorial will certainly cement, hopefully, what I understand.
Big thanks from the UK.
Slainte
Creating tracking for the Keywords
I can't either figure out where to add the ?keyword= etc.
My pages are .html if i add it after the .html i get an error there is no such page on this server.
Tracking URLs
I may be wrong but I think the problem here is that it isn't filename.html?keyword=whatever
it should be filename.php?keyword=whatever
I don't think you can use ?=etc... with a .html file extension.
Your hosting company, and almost all do, must support php to use this.
Tracking URLs
Jeremy, as you can see, a lot of us are floundering with tracking codes... could we have that step-by-step tutorial? I could contribute (read: free of charge) content, proofreading, doing charts, taking screenshots, and formatting... I'm sure many others here would be happy to lend a hand, too... those interested, please speak up...
Regards
Lucky
////////////////////////////
Tracking URLs
Hi Lucky,
A quick update... I'm currently working on a Camtasia video that will walk you through tracking URL's step-by-step. I'm putting it in the next revision of the book - due out in June.
Tracking codes are pretty easy to understand conceptually, but they do require you to use PHP or some other scripting language.
Keep your eyes out for the e-mail announcing the book update.
Best,
Jeremy
Tracking URLs
OK, Jeremy, thanks, got my eyes peeled...
Cheers
Lucky
/////////////////////////
Tracking URL's
Has there been any updates or tutorials explaining in detail how to set up the tracking URL for both HTML and PHP.
I use Dreamweaver and I cannot save a file with anything after the HTML or the PHP file extension.
any advice would be appreciated
Thank You
I can post some ASP code
I have some ASP code that I wrote for displaying Dynamic Headers in your website. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll post it.
It's pretty simple to use, you just pass a value in Yahoo like
http://www.yoursite.com/pagename.asp?kwd=keyword
Then on the pagename.asp, you grab the value of kwd and assign it to a variable and then display the variable.
Pretty simple to set up, so let me know if anyone is interested in the code.
James