Best way to track affiliate links?

[jsjones]

I've been "doing" affiliate marketing for about a week now. I came across Clickbank Pirate and thought I'd give it a go since I don't really have anything to lose with a 60 day money back guarantee. So far it seems ok; everything is straightforward, and in particular, tracking hits *and* conversions is really easy. All I have to do is append the affiliate link with "/name_of_tracker".

But I have other affiliate links not from Clickbank Pirate and I'm not sure how I should track them. Do I need to purchase software? Or are there free ones (this would be preferrable)? And can I get stats on conversions as well or just hits?

Thank you very much.

Jeremy

[jsjones]

I should probably add: I would like to be able to track different versions of the same link. So for instance, if I post a link on a blog and the same link on an article, I want to be able to differentiate between the two so I know where the hits and conversions are coming from.

[BMboyz]

For me.... From my experience and the easy way..
we use redirect function at our cpanel...then we can track via awstat...

[jsjones]

Sorry, I should make my situation more clear: I do not have a website- well not one up and running anyway. (That's one reason why CB Pirate was so appealing). And the website I chose to build is for an adsense campaign, not really for affiliate links. Of course, if I find suitable affiliate products to promote on my site (when competed) I will, but my original intention was an adsense campaign and I do not currently have suitable affiliate products.

So I just have affiliate links that I advertise on blogs, forums, articles, traffic exchanges, safelists, etc (for the purpose of building a list to which the CB Pirate people continue to advertise afterwards while I get the comissions). So I want to know from where people click my links, and once they reach the squeeze page, I want to know who opts in to the mailing list (the squeeze page is hosted by CB Pirate). With CB Pirate it's not a problem because they have a nice way to track everything. But I joined another similar program, Affiliate Silver Bullet, which is slightly better than CB Pirate for most things, *except* that they have no inbuilt tracking system. So for the ASB links, I need some external source of tracking.

[smartmarketing]

You might want to try Bit.ly, the URL shortner that a lot of Twitter users use.

First of all, it's free.

Second, you can track the number of clicks, which countries are clicking on your link and the referral sites the clicks are coming from.

When I say referral sites, I mean places you might have advertized your Bit.ly link on. e.g. Twitter or 5 Star Affiliate Forum or Your Blog, etc.

It's pretty decent info for a free device.

[jimmywhite]

Originally Posted by smartmarketing

You might want to try Bit.ly, the URL shortner that a lot of Twitter users use.

First of all, it's free.

Second, you can track the number of clicks, which countries are clicking on your link and the referral sites the clicks are coming from.

When I say referral sites, I mean places you might have advertized your Bit.ly link on. e.g. Twitter or 5 Star Affiliate Forum or Your Blog, etc.

It's pretty decent info for a free device.

I use bit.ly as well and it works great for me!

[rdennis103]

Hey OP,

Take a look at budurl and shrten.me also.

Good luck with IM.