Prosper202 Hosting (9)
I'm very new to this type of affiliate marketing and I'm starting to take action after days of reading and absorbing the knowledge of this forum.
I'm planning to get a VPS to install Propser202 with LiquidWeb but I'm not sure which VPS to get.
Am I getting the Linux or Windows? Should I get the free version of Prosper202 or the paid version?
Thanks!
Do you have any experience setting up a VPS? You want a Linux VPS and the free version of p202 - however there is a special STM modded/improved version of p202 available here on the forum - http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...-Major-Upgrade
StormOnDemand by LiquidWeb are decent but there are cheaper VPS providers if you are just starting out and will likely spend time tinkering with the VPS before full functionality. On the other hand, there are managed VPS providers e.g. BeyondHosting that will handle most of the setup for you and give you a visual control panel for routine tasks (see http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...Hosting-50-OFF)
Thanks for your reply zeno. The only time I messed around with a VPS was a Windows version to installing SEO tools. I'm coming from a SEO background and everything does sounds confusion right now but I guess I'll just jump in and learn as I go.
For a pain free experience, especially for people who don't know how to manage servers, our recommended hosts are BeyondHosting and Hostwinds because they understand Prosper202 and the needs of affiliates like you. Plus, I work closely with both companies.
BeyondHosting has more experience with P202 and scaling servers for P202 users. Hostwinds is our newest partner and offers scalable VPS packages for the person starting out on a lower budget who would otherwise use a shared server like hostgator for tracking. (btw: Using shared hosting for tracking is a terrible idea, but I think you all know that)
Working with a host that knows how to optimized and tune your P202 server makes a huge difference, and in the future it will matter even more since the improvements (Performance and Features) being made to P202 1.8.x will make the installation process more complex.
As always if you are looking to get hosting with BH or HW, you can support further development on P202 by signing up via this hosting page. Even better, make use of the most unused feature of Prosper202
When Prosper202 1.8.2 or 1.8.3 comes out, BH and HW will have it first, and at no additional cost aka FREE. Currently Hostwinds has 1.8.2 in beta and avail if you ask for it, I will be sending files over to BeyondHosting as well for anyone on BH who wants to upgrade to 1.8.2 beta.I
Originally Posted by Mr Baffoe
Please forgive my ignorance and what is probably a stupid question, as I am totally new to PPC affiliate marketing and this forum, but why exactly would it be a terrible idea to use shared hosting for tracking?
I read the advice in the getting started section on here that all affiliates should invest in a VPS to host their landing pages, but as it then went on to talk about the importance of landing page load speeds, it sounded to me like it was just a speed issue, but now it seems I was wrong and there's another reason to do with tracking.
I have a Hostgator shared hosting server account that I currently use to host some niche affiliate websites. Could you please tell me exactly why I shouldn't also host my landing pages and implement my tracking on there? and why I should instead get a VPS?
Again, please forgive my ignorance, and thanks very much for your help.
1. Shared hosting is crap by all measures. Actual server performance sucks as you are sharing with a lot of people - you don't have dedicated resources. Expect timeouts and tracking platforms (e.g. p202) to lose clicks. Tracking is a time-sensitive thing - people don't want to stare at a blank page for 5 seconds while some backend is redirecting them.
2. You don't have any real control over server functionality with shared hosting. Want to install GeoIP databases server wide? Screwed. Need memcache installed? Unlikely. Need to install an SSL certificate? Hell I don't even know what you do there with shared hosting.
3. Others impact your activities. A douchebag running some scripts on his shared account or his site getting DDoSed could slow down all your tracking and even take down the entire server = you fucked. VPS's aren't immune to this but you are certainly better off.
4. It's cheap. There's a reason for that. Spend $500/day on advertising = $15,000/month but only $20/month on hosting? Clearly a poor investment in your infrastructure.
5. Scale. A campaign takes off and you want to push volume up. With VPS's you can generally allocate more resources immediately. Shared hosting = GG screwed again.
Thank you very much. That's very helpful.
I should get myself a VPS then.
Can I just clarify, would using a VPS for tracking in this manner also apply with Facebook ads like it would with other PPC ads like those on a dating site or something?
I believe I have read elsewhere on this forum that our Facebook ads should link to a domain/webpage that we own ourselves, which in turn 301 redirects (301 or 302?) to the affiliate link, because Facebook does not like or does not accept affiliate links in its ads.
I hope I have understood this correctly? and if this is how it's done, would we also need to use a VPS to host the domain/webpage we own ourselves in this situation so that we can implement some sort of tracking? (as well as for reasons of pure speed)
Or with Facebook ads in this redirect situation, would we only track using the feedback on our ads' performance that is provided to us in Facebook, and of course the data on conversions on the offer page from our affiliate program? (so not need the VPS for tracking, only for speed of redirect)
Sorry if any of these are silly questions, I just want to be totally sure I understand it all.
Thanks.
You're on the right track! Yes you would use a tracking system installed on the VPS for Facebook ads. Indeed you should avoid linking to any affiliate links directly on Facebook. There are several reasons for this and it is a fast way to get your account in the shit. The tracking system on your own domain can redirect clicks to the affiliate link. There are lots of ways to redirect using javascript, PHP and meta refreshes but the fastest is the PHP header redirect (sometimes referred to as 302) as for the other methods the user has to download and display a page in their browser first.
You would also host landers on the VPS for speed purposes too. If the lander has dynamic (PHP) content then the server has to process it when the page loads, therefore it is sensible to have a server that can do this quickly. Loading of images, other static content and even the time it takes to connect to your server are all things that impact real world performance - and these are all things a good VPS is likely to do better than shared hosting.
As for your last question, you could certainly leave out the VPS and have Facebook ads > offer where you use Facebook's pixel tracking, though it is not that accurate. However, this clearly requires direct linking to an affiliate link. This scenario is OK in some scenarios, e.g. when you are working directly with an advertiser. However, you would still need to bring in external tracking if using landing pages.
That's helpful to know. Thank you.
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