PHP Affiliate Link Masking
If you’re like me and have jumped into affiliate marketing head on, you may not know some of the nuances of using affiliate links. Recently, James Seligman of JMCA Media schooled me on how to really easily set up PHP redirects for your affiliate links to make them a bit more user friendly. Let me share this knowledge with you!
- Open up Notepad or a similar text editing program.
- Add the following code:
<?
header(“location:affiliate-link-goes-here“);
?> - Replace the portion in italics above with the tracked link from the program of your choice.
- Save the file as a .php file with whatever name is easiest for you.
- Upload it to a designated diretory or folder on your website. Some possible names for the folder are recommends, deals, however you can call it whatever is easiest for you.
- When you want to add an affiliate link, just add the code <a href=”/recommends/affiliate.php”>Affiliate </a>
It’s that simple! I had head of PHP redirects before but, not knowing PHP very well myself, I never looked into how to do it. Luckily James was there to show me just how easy it is! And now you have a weekend project to go mask all your affiliate links!
Read MoreEarly Bird Pricing for CJU Ends June 15
One of the leading affiliate networks (which the PsPrint program is also on), Commission Junction, is hosting their annual CJU (Commission Junction University) event September 16th – 18th in Santa Barbara, CA. This event is a chance for publishers and advertisers to meet face to face and talk about the issues facing the industry and ways of improving affiliate relations.
This year’s event has built in more networking time than any CJU before it. The organizers listened intently to the feedback the received last year wanting more chances to socialize with fellow industry professionals. This year’s keynote is Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist at Apple and current managing director of Garage Technology Ventures. It should be a good talk from someone with plenty of experience in the tech industry.
Personally, I’ve heard mixed reviews from industry insiders on this event, but hopefully so have the organizers and they’ve taken those reviews into consideration as well. The early bird pricing ends on June 15th, so now until then you can save $100 by registering now. More details can be found at http://cju.cj.com/events/. I’ve been told that the hotel books up quickly, so don’t wait. I’m still poking & prodding to see if we’re going!
Read MoreFree Toolsday for June 10th
OK it’s TECHNICALLY still the 10th here in California, so here’s this week’s free tool.
SEO Quake
is an extension for both Internet Explorer and Firefox. It’s a great tool for webmasters to improve their websites, but also a terrific tool for an affiliate manager doing due diligence on the websites their affiliates list.
My favorite feature is the Whois tool. I use this to check the registrant information on websites on affiliate applications before I approve them. I use the whois data to try to weed out the shadier side of affiliates registering with websites that do not belong to them.
As with most toolbars or extensions, which features you include are completely customizable. Another great feature for the SEM/SEO minded is the page rank button and the other Alexa rankings and Google index numbers.
Of course, there are tons of features of the toolbar that I haven’t even explored! So go check it out at www.SEOquake.com and tell me what your most useful feature of the toolbar is!
Read MoreEarly Bird Price for Affiliate Summit ENDS TODAY
Boston, MA
Want to meet me?! Of course you do! Remember that today is the last day to sign up for Affiliate Summit East 2008 and still get the cheaper Early Bird Pricing. The full conference pass – today only – is just $949 while an Expo Hall Only pass is a very affordable $99. If you’ve been waffling about going, pull the trigger and do it now while it’s still cheap!
After tomorrow, the prices go up to $199 for the expo hall only pass and a whopping $1449 for the full pass. And of course, if you sit on your lazy duff until the last minute, you have to shell out $299 for an expo hall only pass or $1949 for the full conference pass.
There are a lot of great sessions already scheduled and on the agenda for the summit. A full agenda is online already. I’ve already added several to my TripIt account so I can plan out my time, including Sam Harrelson’s Leveraging Social Media, Andy Rodriguez’s Affiliate Marketing Basics for Merchants, and Lisa Picarille’s Content that Kills sessions.
There’s no reason not to save money and really, this is a great event for affiliate marketing professionals – both publishers and advertisers – to network and learn from. So go today and register for Affiliate Summit East 2008 in Boston while you can still get in with the best price!
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Merchants to NY Affiliates: Hit the Road!
June is here, which means the “Amazon Tax” law, as it’s been dubbed, is now in effect. Merchants with affiliates residing in New York state will now have to charge tax on orders of customers in New York. In short, the state of NY has decided that affiliates constitute nexus, i.e. a term used to describe whether a business has sufficient presence or activity in a state or other taxing jurisdiction to become subject to the tax(es) of the state or jurisdiction. So now in NY state online retailers with affiliates residing in that state have to charge tax, regardless of where their corporate headquarters actually are. Some good links that explain this better than I ever could are to TechCrunch’s May 14th post and Scott Jangro’s May 22nd podcast.
So many of the larger online merchants with a large number of affiliates in NY have made the decision to drop their affiliates who reside in NY. The great folks over at ABestWeb.com Affiliate Forums have kept a running list of the merchants who’ve dissed their NY affiliates. So if you’re from NY, be aware that these merchants may not approve your application if you apply in the near future.
Sponsor My Wardrobe!
That’s right – I’m whoring myself out for sponsors! As I mentioned awhile ago, I’ll be attending Affiliate Summit East 2008 in Boston this August. This is entirely on my own dime. So I’m looking to soften the costs a bit.
So, space is now available on the back of my shirt! I will be making a custom t-shirt with my logo on the front and YOURS on the back. I will be selling the 5″x2″ logo areas, 10 total. Each area will cost a SUPER CHEAP $15. The shirt will be worn on the first day of Affiliate Summit, guaranteed. The t-shirt itself it simply white. And I will wear my hair up so all logos can be seen!
I am also selling button sponsorship. For $5 you can have a 2.5″ round button of your logo pinned to my messenger bag that I’ll be carrying during the entire conference. Of course, I will also feature your logo here in a blog post as a thanks.
If you’re interested, please contact me at blog@trishalyn.com with “Affiliate Summit Sponsorship” in the subject line.
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