What do you think about NATS ?

[cd34]

that would track 100 raw & 1 unique.

[ClickBuster]

Originally Posted by cd34

that would track 100 raw & 1 unique.

Are you sure?

[seoguy]

Originally Posted by ClickBuster

Opti, one of the reasons that people are seeing differences in stats and bad ratios is the fact that NATS tracks only with cookies. How to check this? A simple PHP script can prove this.

<?php
set_time_limit(0);
for ( $i = 0; $i < 100; $i++ )
  file ('YOUR_NATS_CODE_HERE');
?>

This will track 100 unique hits in your account. If you try this on MPA, it won't work, because it tracks with both cookies and database.

-- Andrew

hey,

could you tell sme (i don't know anything about scripting and so) if this is good or bad :-)

[cd34]

100 hits to a url from the same IP address = 100 RAW = 1 UNIQUE

100 hits to a url from 100 different IP addresses = 100 RAW = 100 UNIQUE

There are three real ways to do tracking:

Cookie
Hash
URL Munging

Tracking by cookie is easy to spot -- tell your browser to notify you of any cookies set and when you click your link you'll see the cookie.

Tracking by hash is usually used as a backup. This is sometimes an IP only or IP/UserAgent hash that is used to identify the sending webmaster. The trick here is that on some 3rd party systems, your hash can get quite muddied by the fact that a user going through one of AOL's edge proxy servers would have the same IP and possibly the same UserAgent as someone else that was sent. I don't know the mechanics of how CCBill does this, but, they do employ a hash as a secondary validation.

URL Munging -- this is pretty easy to see when the url that the surfer sees either has query strings or prestates that follow the surfer along. Provides for an ugly url, but, unless a surfer dissects the url, the tracking will follow through.

Obviously using all three is preferred. #3 requires some work on the webmaster's part to make a tour that passes the info along. #2 requires some database work and #1 is pretty easy to implement without any code changes to the sponsor's tour.

[ClickBuster]

lame

[ClickBuster]

Originally Posted by seoguy

hey,

could you tell sme (i don't know anything about scripting and so) if this is good or bad :-)

Well if the surfer's browser does not support cookies or they're turned off - you lose the sale - now you tell me, is it good or bad?

[swedguy]

Originally Posted by ClickBuster

Well if the surfer's browser does not support cookies or they're turned off - you lose the sale - now you tell me, is it good or bad?

The wm ID is still in the query string and follow through on all the pages = you will still get a sale.

[ClickBuster]

Originally Posted by swedguy

The wm ID is still in the query string and follow through on all the pages = you will still get a sale.

Unless the surfer decides to go to the index page, where it's cookie will be rewritten with the default account ID for the site. But you will get bookmark sales which is good.

This is not the proper way to track, because you may see more unique hits (surfers with no cookies), that are actually raw hits. That's where stats difference may occur and is not a reason that would affect your sales too much.

I bet their reason was to increase the stability of the system and not do a database check, which can be prevented from just looking at the cookie (if it exists, no check is needed).

[swedguy]

Originally Posted by ClickBuster

Unless the surfer decides to go to the index page, where it's cookie will be rewritten with the default account ID for the site. But you will get bookmark sales which is good.

The default is the opposite. So far I've only seen one company that changes it to their own ID on the index page (the company that owns that other big board).

[ClickBuster]

ahahahaha... I thoiught it was static

[N J]

Originally Posted by cellinis

As it is, this NATS thing basically renders my landing pages useless, because there is no Direct to Join option... and now this..

Actually this is possible, however a bit tricky, but this might help you:

Is it possible for an affiliate to generate or create a link that goes to the join page directly?
For an affiliate no, not really. You've got 3 choices. You can provide them with the default join form links that are displayed on your Site Admin page but replace the <?=$_REQUEST['nats']?$_REQUEST['nats']:'MDowOjI'?> with thier NATS code. Another option is they can follow thier link codes to the join form and grab the join form path from the browser. One last option is to set up a tour that leads directly to the join and have them link to that tour.

[GonZo]

Nats for program management is pretty damn comprehensive. I can tell you getting it set up can be difficult and time consuming.

They need to explore working with 3rd party integrators in the near future to insure success.

If you dont have someone competant that is dedicated to this project it could linger on for the better part of 7-10 months. Believe me... I know firsthand.

What is it they say at the Zoo? See sig?

haha.