Affiliate link same as regular link?

[Glassman]

Here's the situation:

I'm going to advertise on a high traffic site and want to use my affiliate tracking code to monitor the effectivness of the ad. The affiliate code is like this:
mydomain.com/cgi-bin/at.cgi&a=123456

When it comes to link popularity, is it better not to use the affiliate code or should I use the regular mydomain.com?

[topr8]

if you are looking for link popularity from the adverts too, then you are best not using the kind of link you are proposing to.

[rogerd]

The PR benefit of the remote link will accrue to the page linked to, not the site as a whole. It's unlikely that the script is something that you want to have higher PR, or that it will be able to distribute whatever PR it receives. Go with the straight link to your home page or other major target, and use your referrer logs to see how the ad is performing.