A Quick Tip to All YE Members

[jmandgroup]

I see a lot of links in members signatures and posts but almost none of you are using any way to collect data on who clicks on it. Some analytical software will register links directing to you and registers the click. I suggest starting to use link shortners such as bit.ly or clicky.me . They offer quick, free data. If you need help on how to use the BBcode to show what you need here is what you need to do:

[ url=http://www.mydomain.com]Come to my Website[/url ]
Come to my Website

Warning: I am unsure what the post minimum is to be able to BBCode in your posts and signature.

[CGM]

Google Analytics and StatCounter both register my non-shortened URLs with no problem and provides all the data you need.

When I hover over a link and its a bit.ly link or similar, especially on forums like these, I never click it. Why? Because its a way for people to hide referral links to junk I don't want to support.

I suggest simply opening a Google Analytics or StatCounter account and using your normal URL as to not look spammy.

[liquidx]

man I never thought of that good tip but you could use a subdomain to really know where each click is coming from and then register it with google analytics

[noob]

Google Analytics and StatCounter both register my non-shortened URLs with no problem and provides all the data you need.

When I hover over a link and its a bit.ly link or similar, especially on forums like these, I never click it. Why? Because its a way for people to hide referral links to junk I don't want to support.

I suggest simply opening a Google Analytics or StatCounter account and using your normal URL as to not look spammy.

Open incognito in Chrome and copy the link there. If it ends up being junk, close the browser and it destroys all the cookies anyway.

[Bodge4]

I see all my click throughs and I use google analytics.

[CGM]

I'm confused about what is being said in this thread.

Free software like Google Analytics and Statcounter provides information showing where clicks from external websites come to you. For example, if someone clicks a link in my signature I see that it came from this thread.

Also, you can just copy and paste a URL without the BB code formatting and the forum automatically creates a link with the title of the website as the clickable link.

[jmandgroup]

I use google analytics with clicky.me . Both data pools that I receive always have two different numbers. I have never had the two match up.

Also before anyone brings up a SEO issue, most use a 301 redirect which still gives credit to the original domain.

I do understand the spam issue. I have never clicked on any members links that I believe is here to spam us. But that doesn't mean it might not happen.

[jmandgroup]

Also, you can just copy and paste a URL without the BB code formatting and the forum automatically creates a link with the title of the website as the clickable link.

If you are using a link shortner than it doesn't change to the title. I put the BBCode for those who use a link shortner.

[CGM]

If you are using a link shortner than it doesn't change to the title. I put the BBCode for those who use a link shortner.

Woops, my bad. I didn't realize the link shortners did that.