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Make links expire X hours after being sent via email?

by Ashley Gable
5 replies
Hi,

Here is my situation:

I want to include, as part of my autoresponder series, an email with a link to my sales page.

But I want this link to expire 3 hours after being sent to them (not when they click the link, but when it is sent). Preferably, I would like the link to redirect, rather than just go dead.

I have searched high and low for a solution that can be integrated into an email/autoresponder but cant find anything. There are plenty that can expire, but they seem to be one-offs, or part of a checkout solution.

I was hoping that maybe one of the programming warriors might be able to point me in the right direction?

I am looking for a paid option.

Any ideas:confused:

EDIT: I should also add that subscribers will be getting this email at different times. So I cant use 1 link and send it to everyone.
#email #expire #hours #links #make
  • Profile picture of the author Boudewijn
    A question first, what is the OS where you run your autoresponder? Apache, IIS, Linux?

    Then, since you send the mails at different times it looks like you need a table that has:
    * the mailaddress where you send the mail
    * a datetime field for the date/time you did send that mail.
    * a boolean field indicating if the url in the message is still available. (default value true)

    next you need a small application running on the site to check the table like every minute or so. If the current time is equal to or bigger than the time you sent that mail + 3 hours, the boolean field should then set to false.

    When a recipient clicks on the URL AFTER those 3 hours (s)he should then be redirected to the page you have in mind. (response.redirect("theNewURL") )

    These are the very basics.
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  • Profile picture of the author jaybaker
    I may be able to help you out though I do need some info on your situation such as autoresponder used, whether you are able to directly interface with their system through an api or not and a bit more detailed specification of what it is you exactly want. PM me and we can discuss further what you need and want.

    Jason
    Signature

    Do you want to make successes or excuses? Success? Alright then... See what's in store for you....
    - The AC Assassin

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    • Profile picture of the author Snow_Predator
      Sorry to bring back an old thread, but I want this too! I'm on Getresponse.
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      • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
        If you didn't mind sending the email to everyone on your list at the same time, then this would be pretty easy to accomplish. Say for example you send your subscribers a link like this...

        http://www.YourWebsite.com/special.php

        On the special.php page, you get the value of the current Epoch time (number of seconds since the very first second of 1970) and make sure that number is less than the "deadline" Epoch time. You can figure all that out here.

        If they beat the deadline, they are redirected to your actual offer page (offer.php). If not, they get redirected to your expired page (expired.php).

        For example...

        <?php

        $current_epoch = time();
        $deadline = 1360263407; // Just an example number used here

        If ($current_epoch < $deadline)
        {
        header( 'Location: http://www.YourWebsite.com/offer.php' ) ;
        } else {
        header( 'Location: http://www.YourWebsite.com/expired.php' ) ;
        }

        ?>
        Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author NatesMarketing
    This one can't do hours per se, but it can do days: https://expiring.click
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