Anybody else use Free Link Cloaker?

As I mentioned in another topic - use SSR's - server side redirects.

You can do this through cPanel to a point, but I program .htaccess.

SSR's are foolproof.

Yeah I saw that and was trying to figure out how it was done. I have screwed up some .htaccess files in the past and did not want to fix them if I could avoid it. As I understood it there used to be some problems with redirects ... still, it looks like that would be the way to go. Is it easy to track so I can continue running and tweaking separate campaigns? I will find out eventually but it never hurts to ask first right?

Thanks!

Ward

Hi Ward,

I'm the creator of Free Link Cloaker for my sins. Could you elaborate a bit more on what's not working please? I'm not sure I follow completely.

Cheers,

Andy

Not sure what the sin would be offering someone a free tool but aside from that ... it actually appears to me for all intents and purposes that the product is working fine. I never really cared for having to place it in the root directory on my site as it seems rather exposed and I have had a couple of issues with other scripts and file names ... and as you may have read ... I am not a scripter, coder or otherwise very capable with scripts.

However, when I click on any of the links, they all seem to be recorded fine in the cloak monitor. What I find disconcerting is the fact that NONE of the click counts my monitor shows me match ANY of the affiliate sites where I advertise. If this had only been on one or two sites, I would have concluded that it was just an issue with the affiliate software or someone gaming the system or even a cookie quirk (if such a thing is possible?) but ... it is this way on every affiliate program that I promote ... including the ones that claim to record repeat and unique clicks.

For example:

One program I promote - I show 21 clicks on my monitor - I know I clicked it three times in testing for an actual 18 clicks on the ad. The affiliate program shows that I have 8 clicks 7 of which are unique ...

Did that make any sense?

Thanks!

The sins are the amount of support work I end up doing for nothing But don't worry I'm happy to help.

Click/visitor tracking is actually a really hard topic to get right. It looks like it should be so simple but it seems to get mixed up due to the various different methods people use to track this stuff.

FLC uses the absolute simplest possible method. When someone clicks the link it goes to your server, which results in the counter being incremented and then it sends them on. But there are other, much more complicated systems, which people tend to use when doing unique tracking and stuff like that. Eg the first flaw comes when someone clicks the link (so FLC gets incremented) but the page at the far end doesn't load right so that click never gets recorded on the affiliate program.

To give you an example. I've worked with a company that waned the most accurate stat tracking possible (they're gambling niche but I'm not allowed to be any more specific). We ran tons of experiments with loads of different systems. At one point we ran StatCount, Google Analytics, Mint and the most expensive premium system available (think $150,000+ per year) across their whole system. Oh and we analysed the logs too. Not one of them agreed on the visitors. Javascript screw ups. Pages only half loading. Everything that could go wrong does. The only saving grace is that the stat trackers are polite enough to die quietly so no one gets their browsing experience messed up.

So moral of the story. Stat tracking is hard. Your numbers will never match (or be 100% accurate). Treat them purely as a guideline and don't get too hung up about the specifics.

And yes, I am aware that I'm passing the buck with my answer

Cheers,

Andy

I've got the same case with link cloaker. Also I've notice the difference with google analytics tracking and statcounter - in one site I used both. They didn't give the same results. in terms of visitors.

It is true that we should just consider them as an indicator of how much effort we are giving to our marketing activities but in the end actual sales is what really matters...

Well, all the Plug-Ins for word press never worked too well with Joomla so your tool has certainly been a great boon. It just came up because I am now rebuilding my sites anew and it just looked odd.

If I need stats bad enough I can compare AWStats, Analytics, my monitor and average them all out but it is not that important. I was just wondering why I would show so many clicks on my end and have less than half of them show up on some-many affiliate sites. The fact that average times on my site are about ten minutes (dropping to about four when you take away a few of my regular readers) and I do not think they are just clicking on the ads as a way to get off my site.

I figured there was something I was not seeing and you have explained it very well.

Thanks for your time, your devotion and a very handy and easy to install script!

Ward