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Voluum or Thrive (24)

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I am new to STM and I gotta say, this is the best and most helpful forum/site that I have ever seen before... in or outside the affiliate world. Anyways, I wasn't sure which thread to put this in... either Thrive or Voluum... so I put this in here... which is more general in nature. I have done my research and have narrowed it down to one or the other for my tracking software. I know how to work with servers so the self-hosted option isn't "scary" to me. I realize that initially, Thrive will cost more due to the server costs. I just want the best tracking software and/or the best bang for the buck. Any thoughts? I mostly plan on using FB, Bing, Adwords, Mobile Ad Networks... and perhaps POF. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

PS - has anyone used Thrive with Beyond Hosting? Thrive is pushing LiquidWeb but they seem to be more expensive than Beyond Hosting and you get a less powerful server as well for the same dollar.
Thrive didn't seem thrilled with Beyond Hosting and Beyond Hosting implied not many people use Thrive with them.

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One other thing... do any of you put landing pages on the same domain that you have your tracking software? ie. say your tracking software is on track.yourdomain.com... do you put landing pages on yourdomain.com/youroffer.html? Technically I am sure you can... as I assume you only put the tracking software on the sub-domain... or with Voluum... point you track subdomain to them... and you can use the root domain to do with what you please such as put other folders or files on it? But is that recommended? I wonder if it slows things down to a crawl or could slow down your tracker if you start getting major traffic? I would assume it would seem to be a good idea as there would be less red flags for google adwords and FB if you aren't redirecting to a completely different domain.

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The reason I don't recommend doing that is because when you grow and serve millions of hits per day there might occur some weird things.

Ooh and welcome!

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With Thrive, you can put your landing pages on the same domain as the tracker. Some traffic sources prefer this. The redirects are also faster from tracker to LP. You can also use landing pages/offers from any other domain(s). The choice is up to you.

Also, since Thrive doesn't charge per-event fees, it might be slightly more expensive in the beginning, but at higher volumes, which hopefully you plan to grow to, it's much less expensive.

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I use both. Voluum for display and Thrive for high volume pops. Dont put your eggs in one basket

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Thanks guys... I was thinking about doing what Attila said... do it both ways so I have a back up if one goes tits up... furthermore - go with Voluum first because it's the cheaper route initially with the free account that the have and I can learn it without having server costs... and then as I ramp up and sort myself out with this tracking technology... add a Thrive account. Although I think I read where Voluum no longer allows for custom domains on the free account, if so - that may cause me to alter my thinking.

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Just my opinion here, but I think you've got it backwards. When you start doing higher volume I think you're going to want to be using Voluum, even though it will be more expensive. Nothing against thrive, in fact I've never used them, but this is essentially the hosted vs self-hosted question. The great thing about Voluum is that it can handle any volume you throw at it. With a self-hosted tracker that is simply not the case. When you start doing high volume you are going to run into problems with a self-hosted tracker, I can pretty much guarantee this. I'm speaking from experience. I do roughly 1 million views per day (from ppv). I was using a self-hosted tracker (not thrive) before switching to voluum. Suffice it to say I was on a very powerful dedicated server and still had trouble with the self-hosted solution.

Click loss will be less and redirects will be faster using voluum because they have datacenters located throughout the world. The other great thing about voluum is that it requires no php to be inserted into your LPs so you can throw them up on a CDN and essentially eliminate hosting all together.

Just my 2 cents...

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I don't think it's just a self-hosted vs hosted question... each has different features and strengths (and weaknesses).

Keep in mind, Voluum also uses servers too... which we don't have control over at all. They are buying bandwidth just like a Thrive user is... the difference with Voluum is you have no control over it. I run an IT/Web company - I know how it works.

Take away that it's an affiliate marketing software package... at the end of the day it's still a server and app/software. I have seen Zeno and a few others say Thrive is a good option and I think I saw him or someone "like" him say that would be the best choice... or something to that affect in one of these threads.

In terms of your personal issues... it could have been the tracking software package you were using and not the fact it was self-hosted.

Keep in mind, I am not saying you aren't wrong... but I would like to hear about everyone's experiences... and again, people forget a hosted solution is not different from a pure technological sense than a self-hosted... in that both use a server at the end of the day. The difference is who is spending what on which technology and how is it setup.

I'm not touting Thrive over Voluum... I'm not sure yet which is better - hence me starting this forum.

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@lwpack

Thanks very much for sharing your experience. While other self-hosted tracking solutions in the past have major scaling issues, I do hope that you don't put that judgment on Thrive without giving it a shot. We have users currently who are doing well over 1 million click/day without issue. So your words "I can pretty much guarantee" that 1 million views per day will not work, pains me greatly.

Given the right server environment and hardware resources, Thrive can handle millions of clicks/day (we've tested this internally on AWS). If your server utilization is getting high (your admin should monitor this but we also have a basic tool to monitor this in-app) and you don't want to upgrade your server, we also have a Historical Cleanup method that easily allows you to clear clicks. Given enough resources avaialble, Thrive can handle enough scale for 99.9% of affiliates.

In terms of hosted, if you didn't want to manage your own server and all that, we do also offer a premium Managed Service in which we set you up on our AWS setup. With this service, you'd never have to worry about configuring a server or scaling. We start this at $299/mo and we have customized monthly pricing for your volume. However, the pricing is flat and we never charge per-event fees, and at high volume, the cost of this is not high in comparison. If you are interested in this, please contact us directly.

We also do not require PHP code for your landing pages so you can use CDN. Please don't judge until you've tried!

Thanks,

Tom

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In regards to LP and tracking domains, unlike what Thrive support writes, Voluum does allow you to use the same domain for tracking as well as your landing pages. However, any experienced affiliate marketer would tell you that this is very bad practice.

LP domains tend to get flagged by various software as well as browsers in some cases. If I was your competitor, and found your tracking domain and LP domain are the same, I could quite easily send a report and have your tracking domain flagged which would kill all of your campaigns. Affiliates are ruthless, protect yourself against this. Either way, this will happen if you send enough clicks thru a single domain.

When I was running around 2-3M clicks a day, running regular sweeps campaigns, nothing sketchy -- I would swap out my LP domain every 2 weeks. I recommend anyone who does even 1M clicks a month to swap LP domains once a month - you can never know where you've been flagged. For example, one time my CZ LP was flagged by Czech antivirus software, and for the longest time I had no idea why I had a 50% drop in performance.

In another case, a while ago I was silly enough to test a download offer via direct linking without a dedicated tracking domain - my single tracking domain was flagged the same day after several million visits and all my other campaigns ceased to convert. That's why we offer up to 20 custom domains in Voluum so you can swap em out on the fly or add dedicated ones for more at risk campaigns.

If a more legitimate traffic source requires you to use the same domain for LP and tracking then set aside a dedicated one just for that.

TLDR; Do not use the same domain for tracking and LPs. You can afford the extra $9, and if not get a $4.99 .info

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@zeropark - that's a good point. Thrive only offers 1 custom domain... and each one after that is $39 a month... Although, when I look at Voluum... the pricing page says $99 a month package is 3 custom domains... you only get 20 custom tracking domains if you do the $999 a month plan.

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Yes, you get 3 custom domains with the Pro account, I've personally never used more than 3. You'll be fine with that unless you're running various high risk campaigns.

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@webworx The 1 custom domain limit is only for your Thrive install. You pay for additional domains only if you want multiple Thrive installs at any given time. You can host your landing pages on any number of domains. There is no limit to this.

With 1 domain license, you can also switch your domain to a new one every month if you like. You get 1 license slot, which you can change the domain for at any time to a new domain/new Thrive install.

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Apologies if one of our support guys reported wrong on this.

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Especially when starting out and on a tight budget, it will be hard to compete with Voluum in terms of performance. I run mostly mobile, and having data centers around the world really helps get those redirect speeds down when running INTL campaigns.

At least in my case, it was a big difference when going from a self-hosted imobitrax install to Voluum.

With that said, I think Thrive certainly has its merits and would not hesitate to give it a shot. I've spoken with Tom on Facebook a few times about it, and he's shown excellent support. So really, either one will be great choice.

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@ffclogin - I understand but Voluum offers 3 custom domains for about the same price as your one... and if that custom tracker domain gets jacked up by punk affiliates trying to sabotage us... now we gotta start paying for $40 or so for another custom domain. It's not a complete dealbreaker for me but now has put Voluum back into the picture when I was about to go with Thrive. In the whole scheme of things... once this gets going and assuming I am doing well... does $40 a month matter... probably not but why pay it if you don't have to?

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I think there's still a disconnect here. If your domain gets "jacked up" you can just switch to another domain with no additional cost. You can switch to unlimited domains.

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I see you liked my super technical term "jacked up"... it's kind of all encompassing.

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@webworx Yes, I did lol. No matter what happens to it (maybe a nuclear bomb obliterated your domain), you can switch domains unlimited times.

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Voluum is free. Use it. Figure out the mechanics of the media buying game first. Get accepted into a traffic source and an affiliate network. Deposit 100-200$ get verified, setup postbacks etc. Run a few low paying direct linking campaigns preferably with a network that allows text link ads so you don't have to make banners. Then decide how to proceed. Since you'll need a box to host landers on etc. It might take a week or a few months for you to grasp everything, no point adding a bunch of recurring payments as overhead out the gate imo. You can always upgrade and change trackers / servers later on. I use Voluum for traditional campaigns and thrive for popunders. The trackers have similar features so it's quick learning curve if you decide to switch or use both. Also, stay away from the gorillas (Facebook, adwords) initially, as they will likely discourage you from media buying. Hope this helps, good luck!

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The free version for Voluum doesn't allow for custom domains... and I hear their default domain is banned or blacklisted with some entities.

I have traffic sources and affiliate networks... I have been doing Amazon Associates (and have the other usual suspects - clickbank, jvzoo, shareasale, etc) since they started... ran a ton of money through google adwords for clients... used Bing a bunch... and have some experience with Facebook.

I run an IT company and have done sites for companies and music bands that you probably know... and hundreds you don't. I have several hosting accounts - from VPS to shared... in the past had my own servers as well. I just haven't done AM like how you guys do it... and not at that level... hence my presence now on STM... and this forum/site is outstanding and I am so glad that I found it and for all of your feedback.

My main thing is I want to start off this phase of Affiliate Marketing right... hence my extensive research I am doing and STM provides so much insight it's amazing. I'm not the typical IM/AM/TECH newbie in affiliate marketing but I still have much to learn as the way many of you do AM is in another level/league... if nothing else, the approach is different. Thanks for your reply musketeer.

PS - I also have a "sad story" like many on here have... with some challenges in the past 5 years which caused me to change gears and rethink things... that seems to be a common thread among many of us on here... and I love how everyone appreciates the good fight, hard work and applauds success... I hope to one day be able to put my story on here and inspire others like many on here have inspired me.

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I will probably end up going with both... I have found it's always good to have a backup in the technology space... or really in any business endeavor. One company may go out of business, their service level may go down... I may have a personality conflict with them... they may have technological issues... who knows... but it's nice to be able to quickly adjust to anything thrown my way and having accounts with both of them would allow for that. I would run some campaigns through one and others through the other tracker.

I am leaning towards Voluum to start off with (due mostly to cost (no server cost) and only have to mess with one thing initially - ie. no server to manage - which I am fine with in the future but no time now)... and then when it's warranted or I can justify the cost... add Thrive.

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Make a decision and move forward.

In the long run getting a tracker of any kind up and running and focusing on learning tracking + running campaigns is more important.

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I don't think it's necessary to get both. If you are starting out, you'll get confused. Stick with one, learn the basics and if the first one doesn't seem good enough, you can switch later. Using both at the beginning will only confuse you. That's my opinion.

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