Forum Moderators: skibum
I've never actually compared the two though since it is a pain in the butt to go through the server logs to see where the 301s come from (overture or adwords).
Plus, when you site goes down then you lose the client since they're not redirected.
So I'm thinking that I'll just change the links to go directly to the merchant. Any thoughts on which of these options is better? Pros and cons of either?
Some affiliate programs such as Azoogle require that you redirect to mask the link. Provided your redirect server is stable (not tied to a bunch of other sites or subject to frrquent rebooting), there are definite advantages to redirecting. For example, you can track traffic by source, keyword, campaign, content/search, and so forth and quickly pass key variables to the affiliate site. Implementing the redirect is also easy.
When I worked for one of the major search engines, we did these redirects, but also went a bit too far with too many multiple redirects, causing noticeable latency. We also had to sign the redirects to prevent spammers from faking links.
So what did you end up doing?
Dennis
I've been running some of my PPC ads to my site and then meta refresh (redirect) to the affiliate site. My original idea was to check my server stats against the overture or adwords reports to guard against click fraud.
You may find that this is against the terms of service for affiliate programs and if detected, you may not get paid. Essentially it sounds like you are setting cookies without a user clicking on an affiliate link to the merchant site.
Going direct to the merchant site can work very well but it can be tough to turn a profit and you'll also have to look at the terms and conditions of the program to see what is permitted.
