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How to redirect seemlessly from my webiste?

by slowkid
6 replies
Hey All,

New to the whole IM online/offline marketing thing, but have been burying my nose in a ton of great threads here on WF. The knowledge here is Amazing! This has got my head spinning with all sorts of ideas and tweaks.

Here's the thing. I think I have a model that will work for me. Trouble is gaining new clients (well, would extend to ongoing clients as well). Based on what many others have posted (and practice?), I want a "try before you buy" offer for potential clients as I think the service will sell itself. BUT, while doing this, I want to be able to track the impact my "advertising" for them (in areas they currently aren't exploring) has.

My original thought was to include a shortened url (bit.ly) link to their website in an online classified, but many of the sources I want to advertise in (online classifieds) won't allow a shortened url in the classified advertising posting.

So, after all that, here is my question:
How would I redirect a page on my site to the client's website after the consumer has clicked a link in the ad (that is to my website)? :confused:

Ideally my model would have...
1) Each potential client has "inventory" that ranges from 20 - 100 distinct, one-of-a-kind, items
2) Each item would get an online classified ad, which would have a click-able classified that would direct the consumer to a page on my site.
3) >>where I'm stuck<< my page would redirect, seemlessly, the consumer to the client's website, and specifically the page where the client already has the item listed.

With this, I could track activity funneled through my site and report (google analytics or bit.ly stats?) to the client the "impact" my marketing service provides them.

I think this is a viable model in itself, but also have upsells for the clients as well.

Any ideas on how I can achieve #3?
#redirect #seemlessly #webiste
  • Profile picture of the author dmramirez
    I think i know what you're getting at. Correct me if I'm wrong.

    You can do a "masked" domain forward through godaddy. Buy a godaddy domain, go into manage domains from your account control panel, click on the "forwarding" section, and select "masked forwarding". With this, If a user were to click on your link for abc.com, it would take them to whichever site you're forwarding to, but show "abc.com" in the address bar. Would that do it?

    You could also use an Iframe in html if you want to have your own header or w/e, but it's a little more complicated that way.

    These are the easiest ways I know without you needing too much technical knowledge.
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    • Profile picture of the author slowkid
      Thanks!

      I will probably have to migrate over to Host Gator then. I was hoping there would be an easier way to get a redirect.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dustin Goode
    If you want to forward the whole domain to another site, just setup the forward service from whoever you bought the domain from (godaddy, cheapname, 1and1, etc). If you are talking about just 1 page within your domain, you can use an iframe html code. It will show the other page and still have your URL in the top address bar.
    Signature

    -Dustin

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  • Profile picture of the author DazedandConfused
    Couldn't a landing page do that?
    or would that not be enough mask?
    It would not stay with the first url, but redirects?
    (I have not had my coffee yet so I may be living up to my name)
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    • Profile picture of the author slowkid
      ... well... not sure...

      The main idea is to create a classified ad for the client that will get prospective customers to their website. As a "control" (both for stats and if the client doesn't want to pay anymore) I would like to have the classified link to a page on my site, which would then redirect to the client's page.

      At this point I can't think of a reason why not to have the client's actual page URL show up to the potential customer (unless someone can educate me as to why I should rethink this). Afterall, I'm trying to get paid for a service of driving customers to the client's website through advertising in arenas they aren't currently exploiting.

      I've looked in the CPanel of Netfirms (current hosting service) and can't seem to find a resource to do this.

      Again, each item would have a page on my site that I'd like to redirect to the client's actual page where they are listing the item.

      Thanks again.
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      • Profile picture of the author rjohnsen
        Slowkid,

        Thiis is what I do for ads I run in classified sites.

        I have a series of folders on my main site named a, b, c, etc.

        In each folder, I have an index.html file with a redirect to the site I want the click to go to.

        For example, before the </head> tag, I have the redirect command that will take the click to the site I want it to go to: (I can't post links yet, so you'll have to interpret this the best you can)

        <meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=the site I want the click to go to/">

        So, a given classified ad would have a link that looked like mysite(dot)com/a, and clicking on that link would take the visitor to the site that the index.html file in folder "a" redirected them to.

        Hope this helped.
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