November 09, 2007
One of the things you may hear a lot about is the need to be able to track and monitor your sites. Of course you have your web analytics for seeing the number of visitors to your site and what they a re looking at. But you also need to be able to track other actions on and off your sites.
Recently I decided it was time to implement some sort of link tracking. I wanted something that would be flexible and adaptable, the only option was to write my own PHP script. Now I am not a PHP programmer so the solution I have come up with so far is very basic.
The idea is that I am able to record any clicks on links I want to track. The information I am currently recording is IP address, referrer and which link has been clicked. This will allow me to see the effectiveness of any links. For example if I put a link into a forum I can use my link tracking code. I will then know how often that link is clicked and by how many people.
My second requirement was to measure the effectiveness of ads. I am still testing out OpenAds for banners at the moment. Whilst OpenAds is a great program it isn't that great for handling link tracking, I was hoping it would be. Instead I have used the home grown solution I mentioned earlier.
Being able to monitor impressions and click-through rates is good if you are planning on selling banner ads on your site. You are able to show any potential advertiser how effective advertising on your site can be.
Hi, I'm Allan your Blogmeister. Never run with hot tea and subscribe to my RSS feed.
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