As you know I have been testing out OpenAds to track links, this includes graphic banners and text links. So far I have had mixed results. Whilst OpenAds is a great program, is free and has lots and lots of options I find that it does not suit me as a small publisher.
It takes time to learn and set up, the actual amount of files needed is huge which means it not only takes up lots of space on your server but takes ages to upload initially. I have been testing graphical ads as I found text ads and WordPress do not get on too well. I have also been experiencing some 404 problems, as yet I am not sure if it’s to do with the OpenAds installation.
The new solution
It just so happens I know a smattering of PHP and have put together a basic link tracking script. The script works well for what I want it to do and I have learned a lot about PHP and how bots follow links. I will be using PHP and MySQL (a database) to manage link tracking.
Why link tracking is good
There are many reasons you would want to know who is clicking on your links. If you sell ads, promote affiliates via affiliate links or want to track links you place elsewhere on the internet then tracking is the way to go.
By tracking links I am able to let advertisers know how many clicks they are getting on any ad space they buy on my sites. If I promote an affiliate program I can see how often the affiliate link is clicked. If I make a post on a forum or place a link on another site I can track clicks on it.
How is link tracking done
What I have done is created a domain just for tracking, every time I want to track a new link I create a new URL and include the target URL as part of the new URL. This means I would use the tracking URL for example mytrackingurl.com (not the real URL) then add the target URL such as ?target=gotothissite.com.
When the link is clicked on the user is taken to mytrackingurl.com and redirected to the new URL. During this process the PHP records the click and stores it in the MySQL database. That database can then be queried at a later date to see how many times the link is clicked on.
Whilst this is not the best solution available it is simple enough to build upon and does what I need with the minimum of fuss. If you want a full on solution I would recommend OpenAds, however I needed something different so went with my own solution.
