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tracking domains and cloaking question (confused) (7)

03-23-2016 06:40 PM #1 cruz909 (Member)
tracking domains and cloaking question (confused)

i am thinking of using Adsbridge for tracking. what confuses me is domains .

lets say i have a landing page on my own domain for example website.com/landing , first of all is that an appropriate way to send traffic to the landing page , do i have to cloak it without getting banned by the advertiser or the affiliate network?

secondly , can i use the same domain for the landing page on tracking ? , (i know the question might sounds stupid)

thank you

03-23-2016 09:08 PM #2 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

First of all, you only need to cloack if you are breaking someones rules, so either the rules of the traffic network or the affiliate network. As an example, facebook doesnt allow ads for adult dating, so if you want to push it over there, you need to cloack the sexy LP and show some generic community (social network alike) site to the reviewers - which is what cloacking solutions will help you with. Another reason to use a cloacker is to protect your creatives/LPs from competition. Keep it mind that quality cloackers are expensive.

- website.com/landing is an OK way to host a LP, but its better to use something that sounds in par with what you are promoting, so lets say "website.com/get-slim-fast/" OR "get-slim-fast.website.com" for a diet offer.

- You can use the same domain for tracking and also for the landing pages, but its not really recommended. Use some generic name like trcksmth.com for tracking and put landing pages on more related domains. Another reason to keep them separated is to avoid getting both the tracking domain and LP domain flagged at the same time by some checking service. In case you decide to use a hosted tracking solution like Voluum for example, its pretty much mandatory to host LPs on a different domain as I think its technically not possible to cname the tracking domain to them and still use it on some other host for landing pages.

04-09-2016 02:30 PM #3 simon_89 (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by matuloo View Post
- You can use the same domain for tracking and also for the landing pages, but its not really recommended. Use some generic name like trcksmth.com for tracking and put landing pages on more related domains. Another reason to keep them separated is to avoid getting both the tracking domain and LP domain flagged at the same time by some checking service. In case you decide to use a hosted tracking solution like Voluum for example, its pretty much mandatory to host LPs on a different domain as I think its technically not possible to cname the tracking domain to them and still use it on some other host for landing pages.
I'm not understanding this part matuloo. So are you saying that for Voluum's tracking link: http://11111.voluumtrk.com/click should be changed to another tracking link. By spying from time to time, I can see affiliates using Voluum as their tracker but their tracking link looks a bit more unique like stm.voluumtrk.com or something along the line like that.

It wouldn't be the same domain for tracking and landing pages, right? Since, tracking domain is http://11111.voluumtrk.com/click and landing page could be antivirusinstallasia.com.

What I'm getting at is that I should get a separate domain(would I insert the domain under the below screenshot fields) that is different from my landing page(ie. antivirusinstallasia.com) to prevent flagging issues.

04-09-2016 08:13 PM #4 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Yup, you can either use the default tracking domains of Voluum, so voluumtrk and the other 2 you have listed on the screenshot. Or you register your own domain, CNAME it to your unique Voluum url and use that domain in the tracking links.

So lets say you register a domain simontrack.com, the tracking links will now look like this : http://www.simontrack.com/b704369743...3-e7f7d8199aae ... and the link on the http://www.simontrack.com/click.

What I had in mind when saying its technically not possible to use this tracking domain to host LPs was, that since this is "CNAMEd" to voluum you cant really put anything else on that domain. So for LPs, you need another domain on YOUR hosting.

With this setup you are covered 2-ways - if someone using voluum causes their default URLs to get flagged, you will not be affected. And in case the domain that hosts your LPs is flagged, the tracking domain will be clean and you dont have to change all campaigns to new urls.

Do you understand what I wanted to say?

04-09-2016 09:57 PM #5 simon_89 (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by matuloo View Post
What I had in mind when saying its technically not possible to use this tracking domain to host LPs was, that since this is "CNAMEd" to Voluum you cant really put anything else on that domain. So for LPs, you need another domain on YOUR hosting.

With this setup you are covered 2-ways - if someone using Voluum causes their default URLs to get flagged, you will not be affected. And in case the domain that hosts your LPs is flagged, the tracking domain will be clean and you dont have to change all campaigns to new urls.

Do you understand what I wanted to say?
I think I understand your first part a bit more. Are you saying if I got a domain like simontrack.com, I'm using that link specifically for tracking?

I guess what I'm trying to get to here is:

What's the difference between using: simontrack.com/click vs xxxxx.voluumtrk.com/click?

The thing is Voluumtrk is self hosted and is separate from the LPs that I host. The LPs are on another domain like simonLP.com

04-09-2016 10:42 PM #6 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Voluum offers a couple of domains for all the users to use, for example voluumtrk.com. There are 100s of people who use it, so if someone seriously screws something up, the domain gets flagged and ALL the Voluum users who track their campaigns with this default setup will have a problem. This has already happened once and there is no guarantee it cannot happen again.

To prevent this from happening, you have the option to register your own domain, CNAME it to voluum (this is basically something like a redirect) and use your unique domain in the tracking links. Using the example I gave you, simontrack.com/click and xxxxx.voluumtrk.com/click will work the same, you can actually use both at the same time... but when voluumtrk gets flagged, simontrack.com will not be affected.

Did you ever see what happens when a domain gets flagged? When google flags a domain, any user with chrome will get a red page warning and 90% of them will close the page and you will loose the traffic. If some other service flaggs it, anyone with some related protection enabled will get a warning and you will loose traffic again.

Using a separate domain to host LPs is simply another step to increase the security of your campaigns. If your LP domain gets flagged, you just re-upload the LPs on another domain, change the LP urls in voluum and you are running again in a few hours.

Flagging doesnt not happen often, unless youre doing some super shady shit, but why not take the extra step to make your life easier?

04-10-2016 01:16 AM #7 simon_89 (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by matuloo View Post
Voluum offers a couple of domains for all the users to use, for example voluumtrk.com. There are 100s of people who use it, so if someone seriously screws something up, the domain gets flagged and ALL the Voluum users who track their campaigns with this default setup will have a problem. This has already happened once and there is no guarantee it cannot happen again.

To prevent this from happening, you have the option to register your own domain, CNAME it to voluum (this is basically something like a redirect) and use your unique domain in the tracking links. Using the example I gave you, simontrack.com/click and xxxxx.voluumtrk.com/click will work the same, you can actually use both at the same time... but when voluumtrk gets flagged, simontrack.com will not be affected.

Did you ever see what happens when a domain gets flagged? When google flags a domain, any user with chrome will get a red page warning and 90% of them will close the page and you will loose the traffic. If some other service flaggs it, anyone with some related protection enabled will get a warning and you will loose traffic again.

Using a separate domain to host LPs is simply another step to increase the security of your campaigns. If your LP domain gets flagged, you just re-upload the LPs on another domain, change the LP urls in voluum and you are running again in a few hours.

Flagging doesnt not happen often, unless youre doing some super shady shit, but why not take the extra step to make your life easier?
Ah, I understand what you mean now! A $10(domain) may save upwards of $100+ cost of lost traffic . I'll implement that now!

Actually, one of the reasons why I picked this thread back up from the grave was because I was intrigued about your post and what it really meant.

But, another is I had one of my domains flagged and I discussed it here in this thread. I was only notified by the traffic source and was suspended temporarily. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known my domains were flagged.

I'm trying to come up with a way to change my links after it gets flagged and before the traffic source gets notified from it. I'm not running super shady shit because I'm doing sweeps and not antivirus. But, it seems as if I tried to start one whitelist campaign with only one placement, it's like I'm taking the majority of the traffic therefore putting me at a greater risk of getting flagged.

Do you know how long it takes for a site to get flagged?

Now, I'm not the type of marketer that wants my accounts to be banned and trying to develop more rapport with people/networks I work with. But to take preventative measures from ever happening again I feel like taking these following steps:

1) Get 7 domains, rotate the domain daily therefore reducing the risk of being banned from traffic networks.
2) Use trafficprotector to notify when my domains have been flagged and hopefully I can change the links before the traffic networks find out. Beat them to finding out.

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