I got this video from Google today, and it’s definitely worth watching if you’re writing ads for Google Adwords. If you’re not using these methods already, try a split testing a few of them (using Linktrack of course!) in your next campaign.

An excellent explanation of the 301 redirect and how to implement it in a variety of systems.  Linktrack uses a variant of the PHP Redirect:

PHP Redirect

<?
Header( “HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently” );
Header( “Location: http://www.new-url.com” );
?>

Want to double check our work?  Try the Search Engine Friendly Redirect Checker.

This is a pretty common question, so definitely worthy of a blog post.  I’ll get it up on the FAQ page eventually, but it can go here for now.

When you create a new Linktrack tracking link, the only required field is the destination – everything else is optional.  The hitch here is that the destination URL must be a valid URL.  That means it can’t contain any special characters that aren’t allowed in a normal URL.

Here are a few examples of invalid destination URLs:

• www.mydestination.com (needs the “http://” protocol.  Should look like http://www.mydestination.com)
• http://www.mydestination.com/some folder (uses an illegal space. Try http://www.mydestination.com/some_folder or http://www.mydestination.com/some%20folder)
• http://www.mydestination.com/ (you can’t see it, but this has an illegal space on the end)
• http://www.mydestination (doesn’t include the “.com, .net, .info” or similar second level domain name.  Gotta have that
• my destination (this is just a phrase.  We’re looking for a destination URL in this box.

For the technically minded, here’s a good read on valid characters in a URL.

We just rolled out some really cool site updates to give LinkTrack a little sharper look and to address some little issues that have been bugging me. If you see something we missed, please drop us a line and let us know.

The big changes in this release include:

• Lots of minor layout changes to give the site a more “put-together” look
• Some pretty major changes to the front page of the site based on our marketing feedback
• Integration of our blog and social networking efforts into the main site
• Made the ‘link search’ feature a little more user friendly – i.e. it now searches more fields and paginates the full result set.
• Changed the default sort order of the links page to show the links you made last at the top of the list, rather than sorting them by the most clicks in the last 24 hours.
• A new contact form and re-organization of the FAQ and tutorials

As always, thanks for supporting our site and being part of Linktrack.

Here’s a quick video tutorial showing how to make a tracking link using a free account.  Watch me make a link using a demo account, place it in our Twitter stream and follow the results.

While not exactly breaking news, I still feel obligated to comment on the shutdown of the popular tr.im URL shortening service.  I was/am a big fan of the tr.im service, but from the beginning felt that its business model was going to be its Achilles heel.  Bit.ly, the other powerhouse in the industry has the same issue.  While their focus on selling tracking data to corporate customers has merit, the model requires a much more costly setup and maintenance budget just to get to the point of having a marketable product.  Bit.ly seems to have acquired the funding that they need, but their focus on data mining can still leave its users in the lurch dependent on the whims of their real customers.  LinkTrack uses a subscription based business model which puts the focus of our product on the users who rely on it, which I think is a good thing.

One of our account holders recently asked some key questions regarding the click limits and expiration dates for links created using a free account:

What page do people get when they click my link after it has expired?

An example expired link page: http://linktrack.info/expired

What page do people get when they click my link after it has been de-activated (for reaching its click limit)?

An example de-activated link page: http://linktrack.info/inactive

Is there a difference between the two?

Yes, but it’s very small. Mostly just some minor wording changes explaining why the link is inaccessible.

How will I know my link has expired? Do I get a notification email (esp. since I don’t know when the 100th click has occurred)?

If you’re using a free account, we’ll send you a notification the first time one of your links reaches the cut-off threshold or one of your links is about to expire. It’s important to note that we only send these emails one time (for the very first de-activated/expiring link).

If that kind of information is important to you, consider upgrading your account to receive various email alerts (like the click threshold alert), or keep track of the expiration dates/number of clicks by checking your tracking statistics regularly.

For those of you who have been asking, we’ve recently released our highly anticipated referral program! Now, not only can you use our service, but you can make extra money every day by referring it to other people.

All you need to get started is a Linktrack account (so we know who you are) and a Paypal account (so we can pay you). Get all the details now on our affiliate information page.

Would you like your link to turn off automatically after a certain number of clicks?

Since we’re adding new features today, we went ahead and added an option to Professional accounts that allows you to automatically disable your link once its passed a certain number of clicks.

This is might be good for limited time offers where only the first few visitors get the deal. Also might be good for selling downloadable products or sending one-time-use tracking links via email.

The dog with the glasses has nothing to do with this. I just thought he was cool.

Would you like to get an email when your tracking link gets a certain number of clicks?

For our professional users, we just rolled out an awesome new feature for alert emails. Now you can get a notification when your link passes a certain number of clicks! This is great if you’re rationing out clicks to clients or if a particular number of clicks is important to you for any reason.

Let’s say you’re selling click-throughs on a banner ad for your web site. Now, you can get an alert when then number of clicks is reached, and touch base with your customer to renew. Combine this with our already popular public tracking pages and you’ve got a recipe for a brand new business model for your web site!