Espotting - in laymans terms..

Could some explain please

[Duke_of_Url]

Apologies for the newbie-ness of this question, but here it is anyway:

I notice in the logs for my affiliate sites (running with tradedoubler merchants only) that I get clicks to my site from certain other sites that wrap their outbound links in this style:

http://affiliate.espotting.com/search/follow_through.asp?url=<http://mysite/mywidgetscheappage.htm>&affiliateid=nnnn&pos=0&keyword=widgets+cheap

My questions really are:

1. what £$gain does this site have in including links to my site, wrapped in this way?
2. does this in any way harm my site, or possible commissions that I'd get should people click from my site to a TD merchant and subsequently buy?

Apologies if this has been done many times, I did a search but didnt find anything relevant - this is an area I've never looking into before :)

thanks
DoU

[CalArch90]

The information indicates that an affiliate of espotting (I'm assuming you have a CPC campaign with espotting) is sending traffic to your site. Espotting has a network of other sites that function as partners and receive a percentage of the earnings from clicks to your site.

This looks completely normal to me. It won't harm your site in any way, and you are only paying for the clicks through your subscription with espotting. You don't pay the affilate sites directly. Espotting shares a predetermined percentage of revenues with their affiliates, but that will have no affect on your campaign costs.

[Duke_of_Url]

hi CalArch90

thanks for the reply - this is whats confusing me (doesn't take much!) - I have no involvement with Espotting, no account, nothing at all, which is why I wonder why my Affiliate sites (containing TD merchant info) are being linked to by these sites, with the links to me wrapped up within espotting links

DoU

[Shak]

maybe, just maybe :)

this is traffic from espotting partners, but NOT their PPC traffic, but the "inktomi" backfill which is used by most of their partner sites.

an easy way to find out would be to check if you are listed on msn.com or search.positiontech.com

I have just done a check on a number of espotting premier partners and they are running Inktomi as their backfill, and considering espotting say they have over a billion searches per month, then surely some free traffic is heading your way, even if some of it is from the scottish highlands.

if the above is correct, then you better just hope that you got crawled by Inktomi free of charge, or that you have done a url submit as a 1 time payment, and are NOT on their trusted feed program "ppc", otherwise this is going to hurt.

good luck and do keep us updated.

Shak

[Duke_of_Url]

hi shak

thanks for getting back to me, yeah my site is showing on search.positiontech.com

good news? bad news?

thanks4yradvice

dou

[Duke_of_Url]

and no I've not done a one time payment to get 'in' either ...

DoU

[Shak]

good news then.

its the wonders of being on the net.

a bit like a loose woman, once word gets out ....

Shak

[Duke_of_Url]

cool

not that I mind my site being indexed naturally ;) just this espotting thingy had me wondering

cheers

(remembers suddenly: Valentine day tomoz, wheres that card? mmmm)

DoU