iFrame a Link & Still Track Conversions

May 3, 2008 // No Comments

@IamJustinM asked the other day

Is it even possible to track visitors and conversions when you have the landing page in an iframe??? Can’t figure it out….

I gave a quick answer, “at top of iframe page, write tracking data to db, then get unique id and use that as your sid w/ the network” but wanted to show it a bit more in detail. So I took 5 minutes I whipped up this quick script:


<?php
    // http://yourdomain.com/iframe.php?cSource=google&q=my+keyword

    mysql_connect(’server’, ‘username’, ‘password’);
    mysql_select_db(‘databasename’);

    $cTable = ‘iframetrack’;
    /*
    CREATE TABLE `iframetrack` (
        `nID` INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY ,
        `cSource` VARCHAR( 20 ) NOT NULL ,
        `cKeyword` VARCHAR( 200 ) NOT NULL ,
        `cBrowser` VARCHAR( 200 ) NOT NULL ,
        `nIP` VARCHAR( 16 ) NOT NULL ,
        `tsDatetime` DATETIME NOT NULL
    ) ENGINE = MYISAM ;
    */

    if (empty($_GET['q'])) {

        list(, $cRefererQS) = explode(‘?’, $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'], 2);
        parse_str($cRefererQS, $_RefererGET);

        $_GET['q'] = $_RefererGET['q'];
    } // ends if (empty($_GET['q']))

    $cQuery = “insert into $cTable (cSource, cKeyword, cBrowser, nIP, tsDatetime) values (’” . mysql_real_escape_string(stripslashes($_GET['cSource'])) . “‘, ‘” . mysql_real_escape_string(stripslashes($_GET['q'])) . “‘, ‘” . mysql_real_escape_string(stripslashes($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])) . “‘, ‘” . mysql_real_escape_string(stripslashes($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'])) . “‘, now())”;

    mysql_query($cQuery);
    $nID = mysql_insert_id();

    $cAffLink = ‘http://www.cpaclicks.com/redirect.asp?a=2429&b=27673&d=0&l=0&o=’ . $nID . ‘&p=0′;

?><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN”>
<html lang=”UTF-8″>
<head>
<title>Title</title>
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=UTF-8″ />
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Language” content=”UTF-8″ />
</head>

<body style=”padding:0px; margin:0px;”>
    <iframe name=”mainsp” id=”mainsp” src=”<?= $cAffLink ?>” width=”100%” height=”100%” scrolling=”auto” frameborder=”0″>
          <p><a href=”<?= $cAffLink ?>“>Click to continue.</a></p>
      </iframe>
</body>

</html>

Now it’s probably not perfect, but it gives you a way to track this info. When you link to this iframe, set cSource to the source of the visitor (can be just the source, or source & ad number combined - whatever) and (optionally) set “q” to the keyword. If you omit this, it’ll look at “q” from the HTTP_REFERER, which is what most search engines use for the keyword field.

I’m not going to go into detail on how to change things - if you need help, just ask.

PS - Sorry about the funky quotes - WordPress is being “smart”. Find / replace to fix it.

This entry was posted by Eric on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Affiliate Marketing, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

Pros & Cons of Promoting “As Seen On TV” Products

April 25, 2008 // 1 Comment

I’ve been pretty successful pushing “As Seen On TV” products (available via the As Seen On TV Network), and have learned quite a bit. I’ve come up with a few pros and cons to consider before starting a new campaign for a TV product.

Pros

  • Free advertising - I don’t know about you, but I’m not running commercials to sell affiliate products that I promote. As Seen on TV products sell the user over the TV, but consumers still buy online.
  • Pre-sale already done - the user typically has already been sold after watching the infomercial. Reiterate the points, but get them to the buying page ASAP.
  • Online video - these offers replicate the infomercial online, but you’re not allowed to use their video on your website. First free tip: make an image that looks like a video player and link it via your affiliate link.

Cons

  • Single provider - if the provider pulls the offer, there goes your source. It’s happened to me before. And again. And it’ll probably happen again.
  • Shady sales process - I wanted to test tracking and see the order process for myself, so I ordered a product I was promoting. My confirmation said I had enrolled in an auto-renew service, but I never had the chance to opt-out of that. I had to call to cancel it.
  • Bad tracking - Of the products I’ve seen, the user orders, and is then asked if they want product A, B, C, D, E… M, N, O, and P. If they give up before they get to the end, your tracking pixel isn’t shown and you don’t get credit for the sale, but the user is still charged and the order is processed. So even though you gave a valid lead, you don’t get credit for it.
  • Typically flat rate commission - even though the user goes through an up-sell process, you don’t get a percentage of that. So don’t bother selling the additional pieces.

So if you’re just starting out, look at the As Seen On TV Network for some infomercial products to start promoting.

Here’s a bonus hint: brand bidding on Looksmart and Ask.com give terrific ROIs, but horrible volume. I think it’s worth taking a few minutes and throwing the product name in a quick adgroup. 410% ROIs are great :D

SUPER-DUPER BONUS HINT: Get a .tv domain name. Yeah, they cost more than your typical .com, but the user just saw the ad in TV, so it’s a perfect fit!

Final hint of the week: Don’t mention PPC when signing up for the As Seen On TV Network. Get your account, then tell them you want to do PPC.

This entry was posted by Eric on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 8:50 am and is filed under Affiliate Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

I Won!!!

April 2, 2008 // 1 Comment

I’m a winner of the Craziest Internet Marketing Contest You’ve Ever Seen!
That’s right - $500!! Woot!

Wow… well, I’d like to thank Steve for his words of encouragement:

F*** f***in around in contests

And of course thanks to Gyutae at Winning the Web and all the fine folks at Pepperjam (see you in Boston!)

This entry was posted by Eric on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 9:55 am and is filed under Affiliate Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

No Fooling - $14,575 in Prizes

April 1, 2008 // 1 Comment

The Craziest Internet Marketing Contest You’ve Ever Seen wraps up tomorrow, and it’s now up to $14,575 in Prizes. God I hope I win *something*. And not a t-shirt - I already bought one to get a few more entries. That’d be ironic.

There’s rumors of an H2 being added, but since we turned to April 1 today, I’d say that’s a prank.

There are 28 “clues” which earn you entries into the contest. I think I’ve done darn near all of them. I was going to do the video post, but the time / reward ratio isn’t worth it. I say that now, but it could be the winning entry for me. We’ll see how I feel later today, if I respond to the view “clue” or not.

Get going - entries close Tuesday 4/1 at 9 PM ET.

This entry was posted by Eric on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 8:37 am and is filed under Affiliate Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

Your First Niche

March 27, 2008 // No Comments

Probably the hardest decision for any affiliate marketer, aside from when to quit your day job, is what niche to get into first. It’s a hard choice. One with too much competition and you’ll probably get discouraged quickly. One with not enough volume and you won’t see the potential the industry has. Picking your hobby may just turn your hobby into work, and that’s no fun.

One idea is to look at the Best Affiliate Program of 2007 over at ABestWeb. 4checks.com and CrazyforBargains.com (both on the ShareASale network) are currently in the lead, but there are other choices there, too.

So pick a program, find out what network they’re running on, contact the affiliate manager, and start asking questions. How much does the top affiliate push per month? What sources are the top affiliates using for traffic, and what sources are still untapped?

While you’re at it, check out the other “Best of 2007″ awards.

This entry was posted by Eric on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 9:01 am and is filed under Affiliate Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

What’s In My Reader

March 25, 2008 // 3 Comments

Reading blogs is probably the best way to find out what’s going on in the affiliate marketing industry. Here’s what’s in my reader (in semi-alphabetical order):

These are just my affiliate marketing blogs. I also read some fitness and finance blogs.

What am I missing? What other blogs should I be reading? And I’m not interesting in reading about how wonderful the Amex black card is or what John has for lunch, so don’t suggest them.

And yes, I know my blog is completely unfocused. It’s an outlet for me to write, brag and complain, and a means for my mom to know what’s going on in our house. Hopefully there will be more useful stuff as the year goes on.

This entry was posted by Eric on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 8:16 pm and is filed under Affiliate Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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