IMPORTANT - Open letter to the affiliate tracking software people and sponsors
 

You know who you are..


Free Webmastering 101 tutorial for you:

Do not, I repeat DO NOT, under any circumstances, use the string 'track' in your URL's. EVER.

If somebody puts a gun to your head and says "add 'track' to this URL" just look them square in th eeye and say "NO. I'm not an amateur hobbyist"

*track*

*banner*

*ads*

etc..

are among the top strings blocked by most adblocks on the planet, especially via the hosts file

YOU ARE BLACKHOLING WEBMASTERS' AND YOUR OWN TRAFFIC!!!

As for your inhouse traffic, do whatever you want with it but I'm tired of sending my traffic into a blackhole so please do something about it. Thank you

BUMP. This is serious

What tracking software uses that?

bump.................

NATS, Crakrevenue, probably more of them.

Guys, check your links for fucks sake

yep, by default NATS setting up their urls with "track" or "strack".

have you tried to let them know about it? may be in future updates they can change that, but what to do with dosens of old links?

Use your own redirect links.....

^^THIS

A bigger problem is that entire domains used for affiliate tools are blocked.
So, even if you fix one problem a new problem will arise.
Affiliates are best off to use dynamic redirect linking schemas so if a problem arises for them they can change their link structures quickly.

:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

For the record - no, I haven't contacted NATS about it. For all I know they are good and competent guys who would fix this immediately.

The reason why I didn't is because I've tried contacting namy other companies about similar problems in the past and it seems nobody ever gives a fuck or I can't get past the support monkeys who have no idea what I'm talking about etc etc.

I'm done wasting my time and begging to be heard. Call me an asshole that goes straight to the boards if you want. I don't care.

For those that don't know how adblocks work - they block connections to addresses that contain cetrain strings.

What strings?

Check out this list to get an idea.

Why are they so popular and effective?

BEcause webmasters in 2014 still use names like ads, banner etc for their folder and file names lol.

Check this out:

/ad/banner.
/ad/banner/*
/ad/banner?
/ad/banner_
/ad/bannerdetails/*
/ad/bannerimg/*
/ad/banners/*
/ad/behavpixel.
/ad/bin/*
/ad/blank.
/ad/blog_
/ad/bottom.
/ad/card-
/ad/common/*
/ad/common_
/ad/content/*
/ad/cpmstar/*
/ad/css/*
/ad/directcall/*
/ad/empty.
/ad/extra/*
/ad/extra_
/ad/files/*
/ad/frame1.
/ad/framed?
/ad/generate?
/ad/getban?
/ad/getbanandfile?
/ad/google/*
/ad/google_
/ad/html/*
/ad/iframe.
/ad/iframe/*
/ad/image/*
/ad/img/*
/ad/index.
/ad/index/*
/ad/inline?
/ad/integral-
/ad/jsonp/*
/ad/leaderboard.
/ad/live-
/ad/load_

/banner-ad-
/banner-ad/*
/banner-ad_
/banner-ads/*
/banner.asp?$third-party
/banner.ca?
/banner.cgi?
/banner.gif?
/banner.htm?
/banner.php
/banner.ws?
/banner/468
/banner/700
/banner/ad.
/banner/ad/*
/banner/ad_
/banner/adv_
/banner/affiliate/*
/banner/rtads/*
/banner/sponsor_
/banner/virtuagirl
/banner160x600-
/banner20468x60.
/banner460x80.
/banner468.
/banner468_
/banner468a.
/banner468x60.
/banner468x80.
/banner728x90_
/banner_125x
/banner_468.

etc.

Yes, people still use these strings :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

All blocked. Same goes for URL's. I run an adblock that simply drops everything *banner* *ads* etc and I haven't seen a banner in years.

This is ABSOLUTELY BASIC STUFF.

There is no excuse for using these strings for anything that the surfer has access to.

Couple more :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

/track-referrals.js
/track.ads/*
/track.ashx?*=http
/Track.aspx/*
/track.aspx?
/track.cgi?
/track.gif?
/track.js?referrer
/track.js?screen=
/track.php?*&uid=
/track/*&CheckCookieId=
/track/*?rnd=0.$image
/track/?site
/track/aggregate?
/track/count*js
/track/dot.gif?
/track/imp?
/track/jsinfo
/track/mygreendot/*
/track/pix.asp?
/track/pixel.
/track/site/*
/track/track.php?
/track/view/*
/track/visitors/?
/track/visits/?
/track2.php
/track;adv
/track?event=
/track_clicks_
/track_event.php?
/track_metric/*
/track_pageview?
/track_social.
/track_visit?
/trackad.
/trackAdHit.
/TrackClick.
/trackContentViews.
/tracker-r1.js
/tracker.js.php?
/tracker.log?
/tracker.php?
/tracker.pl?
/tracker.tsp?
/tracker/event?
/tracker/imp?
/tracker/log?
/tracker/p.gif?
/tracker/ping/*
/tracker/referrer/*
/tracker/story.jpg?
/tracker/t.php?
/tracker2.js
/tracker?*=
/tracker_activityStream.
/tracker_article
/tracker_gif.
/tracker_pageview.
/tracker_pixel.
/TrackerAS3.
/trackerGif?
/TrackerHandler.
/trackerpixel.js
/trackerstatistik.
/trackEvent.js?
/trackImpression/*
/trackimps?
/tracking-hits.
/tracking-info.gif?
/tracking-init.
/tracking-pixel.
/tracking-pixel/*
/tracking.ashx?
/tracking.cgi?
/tracking.fcgi?
/tracking.gif?
/tracking.jsp
/tracking.php?id
/tracking.phtml?
/tracking.vidt
/tracking/*/agof-
/tracking/addview/*
/tracking/beacon/?
/tracking/clicks
/tracking/epixels.
/tracking/index.
/tracking/pixel.
/tracking/pixel/*
/tracking/pixel_
/tracking/pixels.
/tracking/tag_commander.php?
/tracking/track.jsp?
/tracking/tynt_
/tracking/views/*
/tracking/widget/*
/tracking202/*
/Tracking?id=
/tracking_ajax.
/tracking_cookie_baker.
/tracking_frame_
/tracking_headerJS_
/tracking_id_
/tracking_iframe.
/tracking_link_cookie.
/tracking_pix.
/tracking_pixel
/TrackingCookieCheck.
/trackingcookies.
/TrackingData.
/trackingfilter.json?
/trackingFooter.
/TrackingHandler.
/trackingp.gif
/trackingPixel.
/TrackingPixel/*
/trackingpixels/get?referrer=
/trackings/addview/*
/trackingScript1.
/trackingScript2.
/TrackingService.js
/trackIt.js
/trackit.php?
/trackit.pl?
/trackjs.
/trackjs1.
/trackjs6.
/trackjs_
/trackmerchant.js
/tracknat.
/trackopen.cgi?
/trackpageview.
/trackPageView/*
/trackpidv3.
/trackpix.
/trackpixel.
/trackr.swf
/trackstats?
/tracksubprop.
/TrackView/?track
/trackVisit/*
/trackvisit?
/TrackVisitors/*

Yes i noticed same problem,but they just dont care.You can improvise by using your own/url creative,but problem is many time sponsors have unique promo tools which you cant replicate and you have to use link.Unless sponsor have api,then you can.

How about the links that CCBill and systems like that use.

For instance.

Whats the likely hood of the words/abbreviations

Clicks
CA
PA
BAN
or
HTML
being blocked?

this is what a URL would look like from CCbill.
(://refer.ccbill.com/cgi-bin/clicks.cgi?CA=904803-0000&PA=affidhere&BAN=0&HTML=http://percyprincess.com/tour/)

Exactly.

What can you do as an affiliate when your sponsor's linkcode is something like this?

hxxp://www.xxxxxxxxxx.com/track/N726BBVhj2

Many sponsors use these for their own internal tracking as well.

We are all using traffic.

Sitting ducks

https://easylist.adblockplus.org/en/

Take a look at the lists and see what you can find.

*clicks* while not the most fortunate string, doesn't seem extremely risky

Should be: We are all *losing traffic.

Yeah I looked them over and I dont see anything major. Parts here and there but nothing specific.

Just wondering if the domain for ccbill segpay and other processors is blocked.

Thanks for the info m8

Adblock traffic is essentially worthless. Unless you really know what you're doing, avoiding the blocks is a waste of resources.

I'm not talking about detecting surfers running adblocks and redirecting them somewhere etc.

I'm talking about surfers that are unable to even reach your website in the first place.

LOL fuck this.. This is hopeless

fuck me that list is quite long :D

and on that list I see:

:Oh crap

i see that on some nats program

anybody knows wtf means???

That is why we wrote our own tracking software (one of the reasons anyways)... check out how smooth these links are:

http://gfmate.com?rf=MTAwOjEzMQ

THIS explains why sales are down!
Good to know - hard to do anything about but thanks, I guess.

Exactly, sponsor closes/whatever else, it is as easy as changing one link to redirect the traffic.

Easy to change structure of urls if need be / change the url used if setup correctly.

Not really, you could do the same for your own links.

Mobile tracking by your ISP -- connecting via LTE/4G/3G, and not over WiFi. (If re-checking, make sure to refresh the page, or wait a few minutes to test again).

http://lessonslearned.org/sniff

As long as tracking of browsing history exists, adblockers will exist.

http://www.techspot.com/news/58599-v...rs-online.html

Verizon Wireless Injecting Unique Identifiers Track Subscribers Online

Interesting thread. Thanks for starting it :thumbsup

bump! :)

Thanks to the, OP! :thumbsup

Being CCBill it's not that easy. I doubt CCBill will change its' link/tracking structure for little ol' me. :)

Sure, i could move to NATS and do some custom coding but what percentages of lost traffic are we talking about here? Seems like a cat-and-mouse game to me.

Im sending this to my ccbill rep so they can push it to the techs. Maybe something will happen.

what percentage of surfers actually use ad blockers? Anyone knows?

http://www.truebridge.com/blog/2014/...ity-marketing/

How Adblock Plus is Driving Creativity in Marketing

Maybe, some out of the box thinking is called for ...

Great move, let's see if they do anything about this. :) Keep us/me posted.

Thanks for sharing that. Good ol' Boston company. Great read and lucky for us we are in the process of making those changes. I guess its no wonder after reading about ad block plus 300+ million downloads that our best sales come from sites we can direct link to or have our aff code integrated into the link so there are no apparent tracking ques.

>>>> http://yourls.org

You're welcome.

To answer my own question. Here are stats of how many people use ad blockers, at least in Firefox. Staggering number!

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...tics/?last=365

In percentages for adult it is around 25%. That's a huge number.

Right. This is what I'm talking about :thumbsup

You're welcome, guys. Tell a friend :thumbsup

Not exactly the solution to our problem.

It would indeed hide the word "TRACK" in the URL the surfer is about to click, which is good. Nobody likes to be "tracked". No point in scaring the surfers :1orglaugh

BUT the surfer would still be routed via something like hxxp://www.xxxxxxxxxx.com/TRACK/m726BBVhj2 and that might be caught by the adblock.

Back in the day to get rid of the ads you needed to modify your hosts file to look something like this. Then a URL like this would simply be dropped based on the *track* string.

These days you have software adblocks and most of all ADBLOCKING BROWSER EXTENSIONS that are extremely popular. They may not be as radical as hosts files but still.. no point getting in the line of fire..

:2 cents:

Exactly.

289,728,865 Downloads

21,687,591 Average Daily Users

And that's just for Firefox..

To be absolutely clear because some people seem to be missing the point:

It is an uphill battle and some traffic is bound to be lost due to adblockers. They block specific sites, they block counters, affiliate links etc based on various criteria. Plus these list are all "user contributed" so you never know what some user is going to suggest for blocking.

So we cannot win this 100%

BUT ONE THING IS CERTAIN:

You should always avoid using OBVIOUS tracking strings (*track* *ads* *banner* *adv* etc) in your URL's, directory and file names etc because some of them WILL DEFINITELY end up blocked based on that.

And this is what I'm talking about in this thread.

I will take this into consideration. Thanks for coming out. Cool starry brah.

interesting topic thx

Adblocker 101:
Couple obvious points
If you change /track/ to /qwert/ you may get around the block if the base URL is not blocked.
The more traffic/people that see the ads loading the faster the new link structure will be added to ad blocker.
Currently no real adblock on mobile...

Now for some fun:
Beating ad blocker will not make the cash fall from the sky like it is 1999...!
You can expect 1-15% more ad loads,
This new found 1-15% will be in the way of ad loads that will be shown to people that don't want to see your ads...
This will resulting in them not clicking on your ads
---- ok a few will but we are talking about 1 in like 10,000 ----
So this will make your CTR's look 1-15% worse than they really are...
Expect to be changing links a lot...
Ad blocker list is updated weekly sometimes more...
And what do you get for all this hard work....
About a 1% increase in $ --- with that extra $1 you can really make it rain...

This means that you need to wait for the program to change their links...
They the program owners need to now support and maintain all new and old link structures for you...
Wash Rinse Repeat ...
How long until this causes a fuckup and you see a larger than 1% drop in sales...
---Opps their system no-longer supports the links you forgot to update so it didn't track your sales so sorry... Guess you wont be making it rain that month...

So what can you do if you are hell bent on getting that 1%:

You the website owner need to help yourself and solve a couple issues.
1- You need to start hosting your own ad creatives and not hotlinking them from the sponsors.
2- You need to stop linking directly to www.sponsor.com/track=12345 and start using redirects etc..
*added value is with proper stats you can now track your own links...
3- For the longterm you need to add a couple things:
A) script to your page that detects that adblocker is being uses..
*simple load a pixel from a known blocked value.. if adblocker is being used it wont load.
B) script that check to see if said pixel has loaded.. again .. if adblocker is being used it wont load.
C) script to force ab creatives and links from a backup not blocked location.
D) Setup a few domains that can be simbolicaly used.. add a new one a month check your current ones

When you redirect a link from a not blocked domain etc.. it still loads.

Keep in mind you should be checking your sites with ad blocker weekly your own sites.
Simple make a page that loads 1 image *using the same path as yoru ads* from each of your domains..
Turn on ad blocker..
See the ones that are not loading anymore, they are being blocked.

Or again you could wait for ALL the sponsors you send traffic to, to update, maintain, etc and then wait again for them to do it all over again when they get blocked again, and again, and again..

... manually changing your hard coded links (or maybe link files) each time.