Links on galleries: redirect or direct ?

[Jab]

The tour links, I mean..

Which would be best:

1. Use subdomain redirects (such as http://xxxsitename.shortdomain.com/) to conceal the refcodes BUT users have to wait a little longer to see the page (mainly due to the extra dns lookup).

2. Stick to the faster direct links, although some users shun affiliate links.

Would you trade a little time off your pageloads for clean links ? Is it worth it ?

Thanks !

[Toby]

Just use javasript mouseovers to hide the refer codes.

[Jab]

Are those allowed by all tgp's ?

[Toby]

I use them on all of my galleries, have yet to have one rejected. As long as your status bar code shows the actual end destination URL you should have no problems. Any that disallow them will usually say so in their rules. Cleo notes in her rules that you must also return the status bar to the proper state on mouseOut.

[Jab]

Got it. Thanks, I'll try that right now.

[Garou]

onmousovers are not allowed on LOTS of tgps/mgps just like any java stuff

[Toby]

Originally Posted by Garou

onmousovers are not allowed on LOTS of tgps/mgps just like any java stuff

LOTS? Perhaps among the big guys. But they also specifically say so in their rules, and I usually build entirely separate galleries for each of them anyway due to the longer list of rules.

[Jab]

Ah ok. Well, I always avoided any scripting in my galleries. I've now done a round with mouseovers (and mouseout). I've done my best reading all those rules again (jeez) but I would hope that they'd have it as a ban word anyway and not blacklist my *ss for it. All the cheaters have made many tgp owners very trigger-happy.

In case mouseovers are not allowed:

Would you go for plain links (ie speed) or subdomain redirects (ie obfuscation) ?

[Toby]

Originally Posted by Jab

In case mouseovers are not allowed:

Would you go for plain links (ie speed) or subdomain redirects (ie obfuscation) ?

When I submit to TheHun (aka Garou) I try to get as simple and plain as it gets with the coding. It's hard enough to get a gallery approved with all the competition there, so give as few reasons as possible for rejection.

[Mr. Stiff]

I use redirects, but only because I want to know the CTR on my galleries and I want to be able to match my stats agains sponsor stats

[Mr. Blue]

Originally Posted by Garou

onmousovers are not allowed on LOTS of tgps/mgps just like any java stuff

Yep. It's better to build clean without javascript, etc.

[Jab]

To follow up: I've now submitted a couple galleries with onmouseovers without any complaints. Some tgp webmasters block words such as 'onmouseover', which is great actually since it rules out mistakes.

Regardless of this, I'm worried. Onmouseovers seem a grey area. As long as you're honest I personally don't see the harm though. Heck, it's more honest than subdomain redirects:

Destination: http://www.xsite.com/tour/jane_doe/?ref=bling46987 
Onmouseover: http://www.xsite.com/tour/jane_doe/
Redirect:    http://xsite.goto.com/

...but I understand it's easier to check for javascript strings than it is to seperate the 'bad' redirects from the 'good'.

Bottom line, onmouseovers are scrutinized and redirects are not. So be it.

I'll continue with redirects/plainlinks. Although I'd still like to find out how plainlink-galleries compare to mouseover-galleries and subdomain-redirect-galleries (conversion, acceptance, clicktrough, etc).

As a sidenote, onmouseover gals do get listed on some major tgp's such as thehun, mark's bookmarks, richard's realm.

Thanks for the replies !