Category Archives: News

Grow With Us

Technically, we’re not a startup since we’ve been online for several years. Regardless, Linktrack is realizing every startup’s dream: we’re growing. Not only are we growing, but we’re seeing that growth generate new growth and snowball. Personally, I couldn’t be more proud.

If we were a free service, our kind of growth would be a problem. Fortunately for us every dollar we make can go right back into new infrastructure, new features, and better service.

What does this mean for you?

It means the more we grow, the better we’re going to get. If you’ve been with us for a year or more you’ve already seen improvements. If you’re just now coming onboard, please be on the lookout. We’re improving responsiveness, reporting and our core product daily.

Thank you for being part of a very exciting time.

–Keeton

Keeton Harrington
Owner, Linktrack.info

API Sample: Store your link history offline

This week we added another code sample to the API library. This script will pull the link history for the last day and append it to a file on your local server.

If you want to automatically retrieve your history and keep a copy for your own records this is a great place to start. Run it at the same time every day (we recommend a cron job or schedulded job) and retrieve up to 1,000 records at a time.

Get the code sample here.

Download Link History Via the API

This week we introduced a cool new method to download link data via the Linktrack API. This kind of thing is useful if you want to integrate our site’s tracking data with another web site or application.

The new API method is called “getLinkHistory” and it’s documented on our API documentation page. There you’ll find a code sample or two and everything you need to get started.

We get a lot of requests to white label our service, so this tool is designed with that in mind. The API is available to anyone with an account – just look for it under your “Account” tab.

Cheers,

Keeton

Bug Bounty

We’ve recently rolled out a new version of our Linktrack software, and I thought this was as good a time as any to get some more users participating in our bug bounty program.

Note: This program is intended to last for one month. If this post is more than a month old and you found something, please email us to see if there’s any reward money left.

The rules are simple: Find a bug on the site, and we’ll pay you for your efforts according to the fee schedule below.

Bug reports must include a reasonable number of the following to to find and duplicate the problem (explain it to us like we’re five):

screenshots
links
notes
browser information
steps
examples

Payments will be made via PayPal a day or so after you submit your report. We’ll run this program for one month or until our $250 budget runs out.

Bugs are worth the following:

Typos: $.50
Layout (this looks weird in my browser): $1.00
User interface (I’m clicking the button, but it’s not working!): $3.00
Broken features (I’m getting an error page): $15.00

Please send your bounty request and supporting documentation via email along with your PayPal email address for payment. We’ll reply to let you know if you’re eligible.

If you have to submit more than one request that’s OK, but please try to group your stuff together whenever possible.

Thank you!

Keeton

Update: bugs reported
The following issues have been reported and are no longer eligible:

Typos in the “Follow Linktrack on Twitter” box have been reported.
The ‘recent’ link in the footer shows an unfriendly XML page.
You have a post titled “Unique Selling Propostion (USP)” – in the title, proposition is spelled incorrectly.
on the FAQ page, “yardwork” is not a real word. It should be “yard work”
Usability concern, not a bug – On the signup page, please have your terms of service open in a new window or popup
Footer needs to be fixed, the year is right next to Danifer Web Services I think there should be a space there and there’s a > floating on the bottom.
On http://linktrack.info/p/affiliate the word “affiliate” is spelled incorrectly
on http://linktrack.info/p/faq — “ebay” should be “eBay”
Unlimited Clicks, Links Won’t Expire, Turn Links On And Off links not working properly (Under “Features”, left side of page
Undisclosed security improvements. Includes removal of PHP version reporting.

XML and JSON

A quick update for those users using the API:

We’ve noticed a serious decline in the use of XML for APIs for online applications. This is followed by an increase in the JSON format. Personally, I’m not partial to either but there’s no denying the trend.

Going forward our API will default to XML as usual, but will also include a JSON format parameter as standard practice going forward. The current API (1.0) implements this with the [format] parameter. Just append &format=json to your request to get JSON format.

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Keeton

Feature: Conversion Tracking

ROI, or Return On Investment is a critical metric for success in online marketing. It’s important to know where your clicks are coming from, but it’s even better to know which ones are turning into sales.

Measuring ROI with Linktrack is simple thanks to our Conversion Tracking feature. If you have a Professional account, just click the “Track Conversions” check box when you make or edit a link. Once it’s turned on, you can download a snippet of HTML code that can be placed on any successful sale or conversion page.

When a click turns into a conversion, it’s recorded in our system!

At Linktrack, we use our own Conversion Tracking feature to measure the success of our advertising campaigns. Here’s an example from our latest Google AdWords ad:

Use conversion tracking to measure ROI from:

Pay-Per-Click marketing
Banner advertising
Traffic exchanges
Affiliate marketing
and more

Try it now with a Professional account and get your first month free for only $1!

$1 Upgrade Trial

We’ve been running the Linktrack.info web site for years and years and we’ve never offered a discount on our premium account upgrades. Seriously – we’re like the worst sales people in the world.

But all that ends today! Try any of our premium accounts for a whole month for just a buck. That’s $0.03 a day to try email click alerts, downloadable reports, custom domain names and more. If you don’t completely love it, cancel at any time – no questions asked.

Click here to get the $1 upgrade now

Need more info? Drop me a line and ask me anything.

Cheers,

Keeton

Organize Links by Group

We’ve made a few upgrades in the last month or so and one of the most notable is the Groups tool for link organization. If you’re a power user with several hundred links this is a great tool for you, and even if you’re not it will help keep your stuff organized. We’ve made it available to all of the accounts (including the free account) so you can start using it today!

Make as many groups as you want, add your links to groups as needed and remove them when you’re ready. Look for the “manage” and “add group” links when you make a link, on your links page, or under your Account page.

Custom Domains Now Available

Last month we launched the Custom Domain Beta program and it was a huge success!

Today I’m pleased to announce that we’ve added the Custom Domain feature and made it available to all of our Professional account holders at no additional charge.

Yes – you read that last part correctly. We originally intended to charge extra for the awesome new feature, but decided to roll it into our increasingly popular Professional account.

If you don’t have a Professional account yet, you can get one here.

To add and edit custom domains (yes – you can have more than one) just look for the custom domain management panel on your “My Account” page:

Manage Your Preferences

We’ve recently added a feature for managing web site preferences on the “My Account” page. The new preferences options will let you set the number of links and tracking records to display per page.

If you have a Professional account, you can also set your preferred domain name so you don’t have to select it manually when making a new link.

Look for the “preferences” link on the “My Account” page: