Click-Tracking Resource Box Links?
Ed writes, “Just wondering if it were possible to develop a statistic that would let us know how many people actually click through to our websites. This would be immensly helpful and would let me know if my resource box is actually working or not.”
Yes, we’ve already considered this. No, we won’t be adding this functionality. Here’s why:
1) It defeats the purpose that many include active links in the resource box. Think link love. Yes to tracking link = No link love for the author.
2) When people copy and paste from our site to reprint articles instead of using the correct EzinePublisher tool for that function, they will be copying and pasting the tracking links (especially when pasting into a WYSIWYG editor that doesn’t strip the HTML) and thus, making the tracking less relevant to the traffic from EzineArticles.com.
3) Why can’t you already get this information via your website stats program? Even the most basic website traffic analysis tools will tell you who your highest referral sources are. Who knows, you may already have access to the info you are seeking here.
If we could find a way to track clicks on each link without changing the outbound link, we’d be open to it.
Different Ed than the one who posed the above question. I don’t give a hoot about who’s going to my website, but I shure would like to know the the publishers who are grabbing my articles. I just had a record 50 pick ups on my older articles in a day. Knowing of the 25 article annual limit, that indicates I have suddenly been discovered by a lot of publishers. Who are they? I’d like to visit their sites. Am I stuck with using the search engines? Which articles did they grab?
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