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CDN Hosting + VoluumTracking = No need for hosting server? (19)

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Hi 2 quick questions

1. Is it possible to host my HTML landers on a CDN provider and use a third party tracker like Voluumtracking so I don't need to buy hosting account?

2. Also it is possible to update the HTML landers on the fly if I use a CDN?

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1. yes. easy to set up. no need for any server-side scripts when using voluum. The FAQ over at voluum also states this: http://feedback.Voluum.com/knowledge...st-my-landers-

2. Yes (more or less). although some CDN has a file refresh interval. So if you change a file, it will not check for a new version for a certain duration. keep in mind that for some DNS your file will be distributed through a large network of nodes, so it may take some time for your file to be updated at all locations.

You can use a pay as you go CDN to basically set up landing pages on the fly without paying any monthy fees except for traffic and storage, which means that it will be dirt cheap for most people doing paid traffic.

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Yup, exactly as gridhook explained. Note that if you plan to do some editing to the CDN files (e.g. upload > test, change > test etc.) then you can give the files a low TTL first. The TTL effects how long the end servers (which deliver content to the user) hold onto content before checking for updates. You can set this to as low as allowed when doing editing. Then, when ready, bump the TTL to e.g. 1-30 days. Also many CDN's offer a purge option which takes time but tells all end servers to remove their cached content.

I have also found Cloudflare to be reasonably responsive if you're making changes to the page frequently.

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CDN is content delivery network is to host your css, javscript, images, the nearest low end servers will serve the web request, but you still need a beefy vps or dedicated to host your landing page or self hosted tracker (CPVLab or whatever)

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Hey augzie, I'm using Rackspace Cloud Files to host static websites and track with Voluum.

You only need to set a low TTL (Rackspace allows a 3min TTL I think) just in case you need to edit pages and see the changes. I would actually test my LPs on my server first and once I have everything set and working I move them over to Rackspace.

I followed these instructions:
https://www.rackspace.com/blog/point...control-panel/

Also, I'm using Cyberduck for uploading files, as it will take care of the folder creation,etc (Rackspace cloud files does not use folders for storage.)

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I thought with a CDN you don't need a VPS or dedicated to host your landing page because the CDN hosts the landing page for you?

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Correct - however, CDNs aren't purposed for dynamic content. So, if you have pages that execute PHP code (making them dynamic) then they lose that functionality if hosted on a CDN. An example being landing pages that use the as-is STM P202 lander code. Several other things are easiest using a private server as well - e.g. geo-redirection.

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Yep, exactly so!

If you just want to use HTML and CSS (normal non-interactive Web content) on your page, or even Javascript, you can host your entire lander on a CDN. I've not done enough testing to know how good an idea this is, but on the face of it it should work pretty well.

However, as soon as you want use anything that needs to run on a server, you'll need a server!

Examples of things that would require a server:

• Self-Hosted Tracking
• Geo-redirection using your own hosted database (more reliable and cheaper than using a third-party service)
• Anything that stores or retrieves data from somewhere you control (self-hosted email collection, etc)

Various other things are easier to do with your own server: for example, using traffic source tokens like Age and State can be done either using a server-side language like PHP or with Javascript (which can be hosted on a CDN), but it's significantly more of a pain in the ass to do it with Javascript.

In addition, if you're doing complex calculation or other things requiring a lot of code, doing that on your server means your visitors don't need to download a big pile of code in your landers, which may make them faster.

Geo-redirection is a special case, as Zeno mentions. It's possible to do it purely in Javascript using a third-party service, but it's a unreliable, laggy pain in the ass. I couldn't find out if Voluum does geo-redirection on a quick read around - anyone? - but if it does, that removes that problem. Otherwise, I'd recommend that if you want to do geo-redirects but also want to host your LPs on a CDN, you get a server JUST for the redirection!

TL : DR - You can do most things without using a server, but some of them may be more reliable, faster, or less of a pain in the butt WITH a server.

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I would highly recommend to get your own server for hosting HTML pages. It will definitely make things easy for you in most situations.

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Wow thanks guy that cleared up a lot... but makes me sad

Looks like it's easier to just get a dedicated server, and learn to code better!!

I understand it's most useful to learn html, css, js and php for affiliates right? along with some photoshop skills.

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Just get a cheap VPS. If you're starting out you can honestly just get a $5 VPS from DigitalOcean and play around with it to get your feet wet. They are billed hourly I think so you can roll one out, delete it, make another, make 3 for the lols, delete them all, etc. and only spend $0.50.

As for learning things, Photoshop, HTML and to a lesser extent CSS are really must-haves IMO - not so much coding by hand but being able to decipher wtf is going on, change up links, put javascript in and out of the page, troubleshoot etc. I hate JS and wouldn't recommend putting much effort into learning it outside of how to paste it in the correct locations in a page. PHP is super useful for a lot of things - you don't need to know how to write from scratch but being able to deal with the syntax and understand what a script does can help.

Most of the JS/PHP scripts you will ever need are already here on the forum so just shout out if you need some help figuring something out.

Edit: also Voluum does do geo-redirection via it's Rules feature.

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I use both. I use amazon cloudfront, which requires a Web server as the master source of content for its cdn edge locations. Whatever amazon cannot deliver from the cdn, it will pull and cache from your master server.

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Yeah this approach is similar to Cloudflare and dynamic content acceleration. How did you set it up btw? I can understand how the system works with custom origin, S3 bucket, config to pull from X or Y etc but I just find everything AWS-related to be such a pain in the ass - they make every little thing more complicated and tedious than I expect.

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You can get a un-managed VPS from digital ocean for like $5 a month ...
Its easier then you think to do ...
I hope this helps ..

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generally speaking CDN's will have issues with tracking when your passing subids in the url...if your doing a "pull" setup...

the benefit of the CDN is lost because the query string is unique every time...meaning it tries to pull content from hosted files...and the caching aspect of the cdn is lost....

you can still host assets on a CDN like images....but trying to host the whole page you will generally have issues...

You could attempt to do this with a "push" setup CDN...where your content is stored on the CDN....but changes then can take time sometimes 24hrs...as all edge locations need to be purged of old content...

but just make sure your CDN provider handles query strings correctly...

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Hi,

Aws cloudfront allows you to differentiate objects by query string too. So index.php?id1=xx and index.php?id1=yy are two objects cached separately. Cloudfront forwards cookies also, so tracking with prosper completely works, even if the client never makes a connection to the web source server. A connection to prosper is always made, of course, and that's ok.

@zeno: I set it up to cache query strings and to forward cookies to a custom origin. Performance is blazing fast due to reduced geolocation network latency, and the cdn service is dirt cheap.

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This is getting confusing again...

My plan was to use a CDN with a third party hosted tracker like Voluum so I didn't have to worry about my own hosting

So in essence, If you use php scripts(dynamic content) on your landers you should have your own server?

OR if you want both:

Host the html, css, images, js on a CDN but have a separate (vps or dedicated?) server to host and "cache" your php scripts/dynamic content?

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Correct. Get a VPS to start, no need for the power of a dedicated server. If you use Voluum you may not need to use your server much as you could host HTML-based landers on the CDN, but you will run into instances where you want to use PHP and so the VPS is useful regardless.

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In most cases CDNs are the best option, for numerous reasons:

1. They are much more stable. Even if they experience problems, it's usually on a small scale / only affects specific regions and it's quickly resolved.
2. The content loads significantly faster, especially if you run international campaigns. The lower latency can reduce click-loss by up to 3-4%. Note that the some CDNs can reduce latencies even if they route the traffic without any caching to your regular PHP server, because they use optimized network paths.
3. They scale when you get more traffic, without any action on your end.
4. They are usually much cheaper than regular hosting.
5. Most CDNs allow you to ignore query parameters, so the content does get cached even if the subid changes every time.

While the above is true for whatever tracking you use, Voluum can simplify that process in multiple ways:

1. The click URLs are static, i.e. you don't need to pass any tokens / use any dynamic scripts. This makes it much easier to manage tons of landing pages.
2. The rules system allows you to route traffic based on criteria such as Country or OS, so you don't have to do it in your scripts.
3. Voluum can pass a number of dynamic tokens to your landing page URLs, e.g. {os} or {model}. Because of that, you can use basic JavaScript code to put that in your landing page (e.g. "Hello Samsung user"), it won't require any calls to external services that could slow down the lander.
4. Voluum itself works like a CDN in that its servers are distributed in different locations. So the mix of Voluum + CDN is likely to make a huge difference in terms of load speed and click-loss comparing to traditional hosting.

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