New Report: Referrer Hosts

We’ve added a new report for referrer hosts, available to Professional level account holders.

This report lists the top referrer hosts for your link, sorted by the most active referrers.

It’s similar to the top 10 referrers report you’ll find on the charts page, but we’ve expanded it to include all traffic sources. Use the it to get an idea of which web sites are sending the most traffic.

If you have questions about the referrer report, check out our post on referral tracking.

Referral Tracking

Referral tracking is something Linktrack does really well, but we get a lot of questions about it. In this post, I’m going to try and answer the top 3 most frequently asked questions for referral tracking.

1. What is the referrer field?

Any time you visit a web site (any web site) your browser passes a little bit of information about your request to the web site you’re visiting. This information includes things like your IP address, the browser you’re using, and your referrer information.

The referrer field contains information about the web site you just came from if it’s available. At Linktrack, we gobble up this data so you can view it and get an idea of where your traffic is coming from.

2. Why is the field blank sometimes?

When you visit a web site, you don’t have to include referrer information in your request, and a lot of times you don’t have any information to include even if you wanted to!

The most common reasons for a blank referrer field include:

  • the address was typed in manually,
  • the visitor clicked a link from their email program (like Microsoft Outlook),
  • or the visitor is coming from a secured web page.

3. Why should I care about the referrer field?

If you’re using Linktrack, you probably want to know everything there is to know about the people clicking your tracking links. One of the most valuable bits of information is where they came from!

If you know that, then you can see which sources are sending you the most traffic and where you’re having the most success. You can use this information to narrow down your best referral sources, improve the efficiency of your marketing, etc.

Custom Domain Names – Beta

Update 11/12/2010: This feature is no longer in beta and is now available to all Professional account holders.

Read more: custom domain tracking.


We’re currently beta testing a new feature for custom domain names. If you would like to use your own custom domain name with our tracking service and are interested in the beta program, please let us know.

The final custom domain feature will be available under a new pricing option above the Professional account.

Domains brought on during beta testing will be grandfathered in with no additional cost.


Requirements:

  • You must have a Professional level account to participate in the beta program
  • You will need to register and configure your own domain name
  • Your domain can’t be in use for any other purpose. If you already have web site, you will need to make a subdomain (like subdomain.mydomain.com)
  • Your profile must have a valid contact email (in case we need to contact you about your domain).

Checklist:

  1. Let us know what domain you want to use
  2. Configure your domain’s DNS so that the CNAME record or a forwarder points to our server’s alternate domain hostname: alt.linktrack.info
  3. Tell us your account name, and notify us when the DNS is configured

Some Notes:

  • This program is being beta tested. We expect to make changes to it based on customer feedback
  • DNS configuration changes can sometimes take 24-72 hours to take effect

5 Reasons You Should Use Linktrack

Earlier today, I was asked to “Tell me a little bit about why your company stands out.” That’s a pretty standard question, but not one that we’ve addressed on the site. I hate to waste good content, so here’s my response:

Linktrack stands out because we offer a highly competitive analytics product with an easy to use user-interface. In addition to standard features (like vanity links, custom domains, etc.) we offer unique features like:

  • Password protected links,
  • Links that expire when you want them to,
  • Email alerts when your links are clicked,
  • Our unique Plus+ tracking feature,
  • Public tracking pages
  • and more

Our pricing philosophy is “unlimited everything” where you only pay for access to premium features. We don’t restrict you by number of links, how much you can track, etc. We offer an extremely versatile tool and give you the freedom to implement it however you choose.

Monitoring the v2.1 Update

We’ve been monitoring the update to v2.1 over the last few weeks, and it’s time to declare it an overwhelming success. Not only did we improve the user experience and add some highly anticipated features, but we achieved our primary goal of reducing the CPU utilization on our heavy lifting servers.

Here’s a snapshot showing the before and after CPU usage on one of our database servers:

The end result is a snappier response which is great for our users. It also means we’ve effectively increased our capacity without incurring any new costs (which as an owner is great for me).

click2go.me Domain

For our Professional account holders, we’re adding the click2go.me custom domain name to our list of alternative domain names.

Alternative domain names let you use the Linktrack tracking service without using the linktrack.info domain name. This especially useful if you don’t want other people to know you’re using a tracking service.

Alternative domains are available to all Professional account holders when you make a link. Just look for the “Address” box and pick the one you want to use.

v2.1 Released

You may or may not have noticed that we recently rolled out v2.1 of Linktrack to our production servers. The update itself was a huge leap forward, but most of the public functionality is the same on the surface. We’ve been growing a lot over the last year, and this update was in response to our expanding user base.

Here are some of the changes you might notice:

  • Re-vamped dashboard page to display more useful summary information
  • Added adjustable date ranges on the tracking pages
  • Revised “forgot your password” utility
  • Reformatted the “visitor IP addresses” page
  • Adjusted the layout of our pricing page
  • New messaging and alert system
  • Giant improvements to our API!

In case you missed that last one, there have been Giant improvements to our API!

This update laid the ground work for expansion and added some of the most requested features to our existing API. Now you can use it to create your own custom links (using any of the options and features you want) and check on their status from your own applications.

The API is an industry standard style RESTful interface with XML output. We’ll be adding JSON output in the future. You can get API credentials and view code examples on your “Account” page. Just look for the API link.

As always, your feedback drives our future development. If you have a comment or a question, please drop me a line any time.

Make Tracking Links With the API

We recently expanded our API to assign passwords and keys for individual user accounts. What that means is that you can now make changes in your own account via our API without having to log in or even visit our site.

This comes in response to users who were interested in integrating our service with another program (TweetDeck for example).

To generate your own API key and see some example uses, log in to your account, click on the “Account” link and look for the API options.

We plan on expanding the API functionality very soon, so if you have any feature suggestions or feedback please let us know.

Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance

I signed up for Microsoft adCenter the other day after an issue with Google AdWords.  Shortly thereafter I received an email (text below) describing the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance.  I’m glad to see that AdWords will soon have a real competitor in the PPC advertising market.  Without competition, it’s easy to let your customer relationships become stagnant.

Microsoft Advertising adCenter
Dear Keeton,

Microsoft and Yahoo! have now received regulatory clearance to form the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance in the United States and European Union. This milestone is an exciting step in our effort to give your business a time-saving and cost-efficient way to connect with a larger combined audience of potential customers.

How the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance benefits you
After the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance is implemented, you will:

Reach more potential customers: Search ad inventory from both the Yahoo! and Microsoft networks will be joined in a new, unified search marketplace powered by Bing™ , with a combined audience of over 150 million searchers in the U.S and nearly 577 million searchers worldwide.1
You’ll use a single platform—Microsoft adCenter—to manage your campaigns easier and faster. With just one buy, your search ads will reach users on Bing, Yahoo!, and other premium partner sites and networks, such as The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, msnbc.com, FoxSports.com, Facebook, and Buy.com.

What’s ahead
For now, it’s business as usual; there is no change to your account or service. Your ads will continue to serve on Bing search results pages, and you will continue to receive the same great service from Microsoft.

Both companies are committed to making this transition a seamless experience. Our goal is to bring the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance to the U.S. by the end of 2010, prior to the crucial holiday season, with additional countries following on a staggered schedule beginning in 2011.
As our transition dates approach, we will contact you with information about what to do next. In order to ensure you continue to receive important service updates, please verify your contact information is current in Microsoft adCenter. View our help topic: Change contact information.
How to learn more
In the meantime, you can familiarize yourself with the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance by visiting our new resource, searchalliance.com, where you’ll find plenty of additional details, including press releases, FAQs, and more!

We appreciate your business and look forward to bringing you the benefits of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance.

Sincerely,

The Microsoft adCenter Team

Google AdWords: Account Under Review

At Linktrack, a portion of our advertising dollars are spent on Google AdWords.  I’ve personally been an AdWords customer since they first started the program (for this and other projects) and have generally been satisfied with their product.

Recently, my account was placed in a mysterious “under review” status that resulted in a complete freeze of my entire AdWords account (no impressions, clicks, etc.) and no notification via email or status message that anything was wrong.  My only indication was a complete stop of all account activity on otherwise healthy and active campaigns.

After searching the internet for cases similar to mine, I discovered the “under review” scenario that a few other advertisers have experienced.  After reading several horror stories of accounts under indefinite review, I was worried that my account would never be re-activated and that AdWords would no longer be an advertising option.  I’ve since resolved the issue and am documenting my communication with Google to help other advertisers in a similar situation.

Since there was no indication from Google that something was wrong, I had to contact them.  Phone support for my account was unavailable, so I took the email route.  Here is the first response, received approximately 12-24 hours after my request:

Hello Keeton,

Thank you for your email. I understand you’re concerned about your AdWords account not working. It appears your account is under review, which may be the reason for this issue. We periodically review accounts for security purposes and to verify billing information. I’ll consult a specialist team regarding the status of the review and will provide you with an update shortly. I sincerely appreciate your patience.

If you have additional questions, please visit our Help Center at http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/, where you’ll find answers to many frequently asked questions. We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

Sricharan
The Google AdWords Team

This form response didn’t provide any helpful information, so I was resigned to wait.  I used the time to clone my pay per click campaigns to Microsoft Adcenter for display on the Bing.com search engine.  24 hours after the initial email, I received the following:

Hello Keeton,

Thank you for your patience.  As mentioned in my previous email, your AdWords account has stopped running as your account was under review. Our AdWords specialists have confirmed that our system is having difficulty processing your credit card.

Our AdWords Specialists and engineers have worked to resolve this issue. Please re-submit your credit card number or enter another credit card number to process your charge. Your ads will start running as soon as our system successfully processes your payment, usually within the 24 hours following your credit card re-submission.

To edit your credit card information and re-enable your account:

1. Sign in to your account at https://adwords.google.com
2. Click the “Billing” tab.
3. Click “Billing Preferences.”
4. Click “Edit” next to the Primary Payment Details section.
5. Fill in all fields on this page, including your credit card number.
6. Click “Save Changes” when you’re finished.

If you have additional questions, please visit our Help Center at http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/, where you’ll find answers to many frequently asked questions. We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

Sricharan
The Google AdWords Team

This answer was far more helpful and reminded me that I had recently updated my credit card information on the account.  Why I didn’t receive an email that there was a problem with the billing, I will never know.  After updating my credit card information, my account started working after four or five hours.

If you’re investigating your own “under review” account, I hope you find this information helpful.

Hello Keeton,

Thank you for your email. I understand you’re concerned about your AdWords account not working. It appears your account is under review, which may be the reason for this issue. We periodically review accounts for security purposes and to verify billing information. I’ll consult a specialist team regarding the status of the review and will provide you with an update shortly. I sincerely appreciate your patience.

If you have additional questions, please visit our Help Center at http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/, where you'll find answers to many frequently asked questions. We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,  

Sricharan
The Google AdWords Team