Affiliate Click Thru' Query

[marknc]

I am using the Referrer Perl Script for one of our affiliates and Actinic certainly does the job in generating reports on sales. However, a particular affiliate has requested monthly reports on click thru's also. Does anyone know if this can be done in Actinic and if so how?
Mark

[cdicken]

The referrer text string is only recorded in Actinic when the order is placed.

In order to record the actual number of click-thru's, your client needs to add a call to some click-thru tracking software into the link that takes customers to the Actinic store. The link to the Actinic store can still be the call to the referrer script. I have seen this done successfully a few times, but cannot remember a URL off the top of my head.

[marknc]

click thru's

At least I know it's possible. If you think of the url do let me know. Thanks.
Mark

[Mike Hughes]

I think Chris is talking about a click tracking script that your affilliate can place on his server to track the click throughs. His links then point to the script on his server where the click gets counted and then redirects the browser to your website.

You'll find lots of them if you a search for 'click tracking script'.

Mike

[marknc]

click thru's

Yes, but the trick is to concaternate that script with the Referrer Peal Script! I haven't a clue how to do that or whether it's even possible.

Mark

[Mike Hughes]

In this case you wouldn't have to do that.

This would a script on his site that redirects his links to your site. Here's an example:

The link on his site says http://www.his-site-url.com/cgi-cin/...cript.perl?xyz

when a visitor clicks on this link it goes to the tracking script on his server and updates a counter for him to view.

It then redirects the browser to your website using his affiliate url. i.e. www.yoururl.com/cgi-bin/actinicreferrerstuff.

That way he can view the counters on his server to see how many click through's he's sent you.

This is the first result of a search for 'click tracking script' on google. they may explain it better. http://www.scripts4webmasters.com/cl...ng/index.shtml


Mike

[marknc]

click thru's

Thanks I'll look into it. I tried using such a method a while back, tacking on the actinic referrer script to a click thru counter but it didn't work. In a way the actinic report "Transactions by Referrer" is the most important statistic we need, click thru's is secondary. We could even "wing it with an educated guess on click thru's based on average conversion rates, but it wouldn't be very professional!
In my view Actinic is unmatched as ecommerce software goes, and extremely flexible if you know what you're doing (not always the case )
Combining these functions in the same script would make it complete.
I'm not at all familiar with perl but I bet it only takes a few seconds for any developer with an interest in Actinic, worth his weight! But of course we live in a commercial competitive world and Actinic like all successful businesses need to make money, and deservedly so; so if I can't do it myself I can only make a suggestion to Actinic and hope they can include it in the next upgrade.
Anyway, I will experiment and let you know, meanwhile, if there are any more kind-hearted developers out there who have the answer take pity on my ignorance and show me the way.
Mark