Track specific visitors who click on banner

(subject included - apologies)

<ja***@catamaranco.com> wrote in message news:...

Is there a simple way to track users leaving our site to vendors whose wares we have advertised as a banner on our site.....?

Some of the vendors we deal with may not have sophisticated tracking devices to allow us to determine if we are contributing to their sales....

I realise I may be able to attach an ID to a user that has logged in,
correct?

But what about general pages outside this system....could the asp banner
component be used for these purposes?

I appreciate any advice on this scenario.

Thanks
Jason

[Ray Costanzo [MVP]]

If you have a way already of identifying your users, such as with a username
as you suggested, then instead of doing a:

<a href="http://someoneelse'ssite">click me</a>

use

<a href="/out.asp?site=http://someoneelse'ssite">click me</a>

And code your out.asp page to log the info where you need it logged and then
redirect the person to the link in the querystring.

That's basically one way you could do it.

Ray at work

<ja***@catamaranco.com> wrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...

(subject included - apologies)

<ja***@catamaranco.com> wrote in message news:...

Is there a simple way to track users leaving our site to vendors whose

wares

we have advertised as a banner on our site.....?

Some of the vendors we deal with may not have sophisticated tracking

devices

to allow us to determine if we are contributing to their sales....

I realise I may be able to attach an ID to a user that has logged in,
correct?

But what about general pages outside this system....could the asp banner
component be used for these purposes?

I appreciate any advice on this scenario.

Thanks
Jason

Ahhh ok...but should I not also include the user's logged in username in the
querystring?:

<a href="out?site=http://someoneelse'ssite.com?username=John Doe>BANNER</a>

or

<a href="out?site=http://co.za?vID=213>BANNER</A>

This way I could aproach http://someoneelsesites.com and say 'hey, I
referred this specific customer to you...did it result in a sale, is so I
would like a comission'

Also Ray could you comment:

1. I would be able to read my Surfstats/webtrends reporting at the end of
each mnth and see that http://someonesles'ssite.com?username=John Doe (John
Doe) visited that site x number of times vai the urls...is this approach
acceptable or would a database be more elegant.....

2. What about the Ad Banner component found in ASP...could this also work?

Thanks
Jason
"Ray Costanzo [MVP]" <my first name at lane 34 dot commercial> wrote in
message news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

If you have a way already of identifying your users, such as with a username as you suggested, then instead of doing a:

<a href="http://someoneelse'ssite">click me</a>

use

<a href="/out.asp?site=http://someoneelse'ssite">click me</a>

And code your out.asp page to log the info where you need it logged and then redirect the person to the link in the querystring.

That's basically one way you could do it.

Ray at work

<ja***@catamaranco.com> wrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...

(subject included - apologies)

<ja***@catamaranco.com> wrote in message news:...

Is there a simple way to track users leaving our site to vendors whose

wares

we have advertised as a banner on our site.....?

Some of the vendors we deal with may not have sophisticated tracking

devices

to allow us to determine if we are contributing to their sales....

I realise I may be able to attach an ID to a user that has logged in,
correct?

But what about general pages outside this system....could the asp banner component be used for these purposes?

I appreciate any advice on this scenario.

Thanks
Jason

[Ray Costanzo [MVP]]

<ja***@catamaranco.com> wrote in message
news:%2***************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

Ahhh ok...but should I not also include the user's logged in username in the querystring?:

<a href="out?site=http://someoneelse'ssite.com?username=John Doe>BANNER</a>
or

<a href="out?site=http://co.za?vID=213>BANNER</A>
I wouldn't pass the username in the querystring, since you probably have
that available to you in a session variable, right?

There are many ways to do what you want to do, and I guess it all depends on
how involved you want it to be and what trade-offs you can live with. The
quick and dirty way is to just pass the url in the querystring, but in doing
that, you allow your users to see where you're sending them and go directly
there and bypass your "out.asp" file. So, instead of the URL, you could do:
out.asp?linkID=393, where that is the ID of a link in a database. But, for
one, then you have to develop the means to manage your links in a database
and add the little bit of overhead of retreiving the link from the database.
Also, if you have to work with a designer who uses Dreamweaver or something,
you'll have to make a "generate an ""Out Link"" for me to paste into the
href box in Dreamweaver" or something like that. Either that, or designer
will need to know how to get the link ID he wants.

The advantage to doing it this way is that you can much more reliably track
where your visitors are going when they leave through your "out.asp" page.
And you can also worry less about people just pasting in the href that
you're trying to send them to when they see it in the status bar. It all
depends on what results you want, I suppose.
1. I would be able to read my Surfstats/webtrends reporting at the end of
each mnth and see that http://someonesles'ssite.com?username=John Doe (John Doe) visited that site x number of times vai the urls...is this approach
acceptable or would a database be more elegant.....
I guess that also depends on your environment. It would make reporting
easier to keep it all in Webtrends instead creating a second place you have
to go for data!

2. What about the Ad Banner component found in ASP...could this also work?

IIRC, all that does is put in some random banners based on some parameters
you put in a text file. That wouldn't track your out-bound traffic in any
way. But, you could use it if you want your links out to vary with each
page load.

Ray at home

Thanks Ray! Actually, I am using a combination of cookies and database
lookup to determine if the user is logged in.

I fully understand the logic of the processing "out.asp" page but I am not
sure your example helps with determining WHO left my site....it seems the
out.asp page determines where the user wants to go and redirects him there.

But, still not quite clear on how to keep running tabs on WHO left my site.

I need to be able to negotiate with the reciever website and say this guy
came in...did he buy?

My final problem is that my login/reg system works great in Domain 1 via
cookies and db lookup but obviously does not carry over to sister Domain
2...I have read Aaron's shopping cart example but I'm still hoping for a
solution to share cookies across domains and then track their departure to
other sites.

Thanks for you input Ray

- Jason
"Ray Costanzo [MVP]" <my first name at lane 34 dot commercial> wrote in
message news:ei**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

<ja***@catamaranco.com> wrote in message
news:%2***************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

Ahhh ok...but should I not also include the user's logged in username in the

querystring?:

<a href="out?site=http://someoneelse'ssite.com?username=John

Doe>BANNER</a>

or

<a href="out?site=http://co.za?vID=213>BANNER</A>

I wouldn't pass the username in the querystring, since you probably have
that available to you in a session variable, right?

There are many ways to do what you want to do, and I guess it all depends

on how involved you want it to be and what trade-offs you can live with. The
quick and dirty way is to just pass the url in the querystring, but in doing that, you allow your users to see where you're sending them and go directly there and bypass your "out.asp" file. So, instead of the URL, you could do: out.asp?linkID=393, where that is the ID of a link in a database. But, for one, then you have to develop the means to manage your links in a database
and add the little bit of overhead of retreiving the link from the database. Also, if you have to work with a designer who uses Dreamweaver or something, you'll have to make a "generate an ""Out Link"" for me to paste into the
href box in Dreamweaver" or something like that. Either that, or designer
will need to know how to get the link ID he wants.

The advantage to doing it this way is that you can much more reliably track where your visitors are going when they leave through your "out.asp" page.
And you can also worry less about people just pasting in the href that
you're trying to send them to when they see it in the status bar. It all
depends on what results you want, I suppose.

1. I would be able to read my Surfstats/webtrends reporting at the end of each mnth and see that http://someonesles'ssite.com?username=John Doe (John

Doe) visited that site x number of times vai the urls...is this approach
acceptable or would a database be more elegant.....

I guess that also depends on your environment. It would make reporting
easier to keep it all in Webtrends instead creating a second place you

have to go for data!

2. What about the Ad Banner component found in ASP...could this also

work?
IIRC, all that does is put in some random banners based on some parameters
you put in a text file. That wouldn't track your out-bound traffic in any
way. But, you could use it if you want your links out to vary with each
page load.

Ray at home

[Ray Costanzo [MVP]]

<ja***@catamaranco.com> wrote in message
news:u3**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

Thanks Ray! Actually, I am using a combination of cookies and database
lookup to determine if the user is logged in.

I fully understand the logic of the processing "out.asp" page but I am not
sure your example helps with determining WHO left my site....it seems the
out.asp page determines where the user wants to go and redirects him
there.
I didn't explicitly explain this, but the way you'd track WHO is the same
way you're tracking who's doing what in your other pages. Do you pull in
user information on any of your other pages, like by looking up the person's
name in your database based on a cookie value? You'd do the same thing in
your out.asp page. Example:

UserID = Request.Cookies("userid")
LinkID = Request.Querystring("linkid")

'''code here to get the URL associated with that link id, i.e.
sSQL = "select href from ExitLinks where LinkID=" & linkid
Set oADO = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
oADO.Open YourConnectionString
Set oRS = oADO.Execute(sSQL)
If Not oRS.EOF Then sLinkOut = oRS.Fields.Item(0).Value
oRS.Close : Set oRS = Nothing
sSQL = "insert into SiteExits values (UserID,LinkID)
oADO.Execute sSQL,,129
oADO.Close : Set oADO = Nothing

Response.Redirect sLinkOut

Does that make any sense?

My final problem is that my login/reg system works great in Domain 1 via
cookies and db lookup but obviously does not carry over to sister Domain
2...I have read Aaron's shopping cart example but I'm still hoping for a
solution to share cookies across domains and then track their departure to
other sites.

If you can't do the database method, you can do the <script src=> method.
See here: http://www.pathlore.com/customer/sup...ip_may2003.asp

Ray at work