Most Clicks not tracked. « Tips and Tricks HQ Forum

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Most Clicks not tracked.

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mikee17
Member

Hi,
It doesn't seem that clicks are being tracked for the affiliate program

I made a text link in the admin panel, and made my first affiliate. Link is below
http://buyyournichesite.com/?ap_id=mikee17

I tried and 2 of my remote employees tried. When I go to the admin panel and go to the Click Throughs page, it doesn't see my click or my other employees click. It only lists one click from the other person. When I have him click again, it still only shows his first click.

When I have him try another page like
http://buyyournichesite.com/sites-for-sale/?ap_id=mikee17

It only shows the original click, which by the way was done from IE8.
My other employee and I clicked using FireFox.

My php.ini settings are at http://www.buyyournichesite.com/test555.php

Any ideas?

..Mike

Posted 2 years ago #
amin007
Key Master

where can I go and sign up for a test affiliate account to test this?

Posted 2 years ago #
mikee17
Member

Hi Amin,

Affiliate Join link is
http://buyyournichesite.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/affiliates/login.php

Thanks,

...Mike

Posted 2 years ago #
amin007
Key Master

Hi mikee17, Just had a quick look.. clicks are getting tracked fine. you however made a slight mistake when configuring the link. This is what I got from the "Banners" that you configured:

<a href="http://www.BuyYourNicheSite.com?ap_id=amin21"></a>

you can see that the link doesn't specify an "Anchor Text" you need to fill that field in when you configure a Banner or Text Link.

I modified the above to the following and put it on one of my test sites:

Test Link

Then I clicked on it a few times and I can see that the "Referrals" are being tracked nicely. You should be able to see this in your WordPress dashboard too.

Posted 2 years ago #
mikee17
Member

Hi Amin,

Hmmm...... Couple of points

*************
**Point #1 **
*************
I have worked with dozens of affiliate systems and EVERY one allows you to use a plain URL link.

That doesn't really make sense that a anchor tag must be used since there are many times that a person will just want to use the link NOT wrapped in an anchor tag. For example, many people use TinyURL.com or some other form of link cloaking.

This is a serious design flaw and limitation for any affiliate. Can it be fixed?

*************
**Point #2 **
*************

Okay I uploaded a test banner for a test. Whether I click your "Test Link" above, or my banner 2 clicks are being recorded, normally 1 second apart. Take a look at your stats and you'll probably see the same thing.

What is causing this ?

Thanks,

..Mike

Posted 2 years ago #
gfmedia
Member

Mike, I agree with you on your first point. Requiring more than just a link is not the way to go.

Just so you know, I've had over 10 years of affiliate marketing experience. I've even worked as an affiliate manager for one of the "top" gurus so I think I know a little about affiliate marketing.

Amin, I too am having issues getting the affiliate plugin to work correctly, but I'll start another thread for my issue so I don't hijack this thread.

Posted 2 years ago #
amin007
Key Master

LOL... (I am now confused as to what you are fighting about) ofcourse plain links work.

For example the following is a plain link and it will work just fine:

http://buyyournichesite.com/sites-for-sale/?ap_id=mikee17

You can create a tinyURL of the above which looks like the following and it will work fine too:

http://tinyurl.com/yg6pzo8

Now what I meant by giving "Anchor Text" is how do you create a HTML link without an anchor text??

For example you had the following HTML code:

<a href="http://www.BuyYourNicheSite.com?ap_id=amin21"></a>

when you put that on a HTML page it's going to have a blank link (remember you need to put the link text between the ">" and "</a>" block?

all I did was point out an HTML coding error and I had to get a lecture on how affiliate software works :)

Posted 2 years ago #
mikee17
Member

Amin,

It's real weird. If I click on your links above
http://buyyournichesite.com/sites-for-sale/?ap_id=mikee17 or
http://tinyurl.com/yg6pzo8

The click is registered fine, but if I cut and paste it into my browser although it redirects, it doesn't record the click.

Does it record the click if you paste in your browser?

..Mike

Posted 2 years ago #
mikee17
Member

Amin,

I think I see the problem with double clicks being recorded. In My WP setup my site was setup as http://buyyournichesite.com not http://www.buyyournichesite.com so my theory is that having the link point to "http://www.buyyournichesite.com..." was recorded, then forwarded to "http://buyyournichesite.com..." and the click was recorded twice.

One mystery solved.

Still, I've tried pasting http://www.buyyournichesite.com/sites-for-sale/?ap_id=mikee17 in several different browsers and it doesn't record the click, it's only when I click on a link. Does it work for you when you paste it in the URL bar?

..Mike

But

Posted 2 years ago #
amin007
Key Master

Hi Mike, copying and pasting the URL in the browser won't record the click because that is not considered as a click. For a click to be valid I make sure that the visitor followed the link from a web page or email or something so this reference can be recorded in the database too. If you paste the address directly in the browser then this does not satisfy the definition of referral. This can be easily changed if you want on your installation though.

The double click record issue is related to how different browser handles redirection (on IE you won't see this behavior). At the moment the Affiliate Platform plugin doesn't do Unique referrals (this is something I will add in a future release) so it doesn't really hurt to have multiple clicks.

I tried to keep it as simple as possible, so all I have tried to make sure is that the very core functionality of an affiliate software works (an affiliate sends traffic your way and he/she gets proper commission for that referral).

Posted 2 years ago #

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