Tracking Amazon and Ebay Clicks in Analytics

1. 48

   johnr54posted 14 years ago

   Many months ago I suggested a feature that would allow Analytics to track outbound clicks. 
   
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/4077
   
   The key use for such a feature would be to track click throughs to Amazon (or Ebay)
   
   For those active in selling Amazon products this feature would allow you to track which products (or hubs) are generating clicks through to Amazon.
   
   Squidoo offers a similar feature within their stats dashboard, and it's commonly offered in wordpress "SEO" themes and plugins.
   
   This feature would also allow you to set up Goals in Analytics, and on one page see which hubs (or keywords) are generating the most Amazon click throughs.
   
   Having the option to enable this feature would help those who want to tweak their products offerings.  The only real downside to it is that it artificially inflates the page view count (each outbound click is an artificial page view) but the visitor count is most likely what folks are looking at anyhow.
   
   I use this feature all the time on my external blogs and it's great to see what keywords I want to work on, or which pages I should drive traffic to.
   
   Anyone else think that tracking which hubs and products are generating clicks is a good feaure?

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2. 84

   Aya Katzposted 14 years ago

   Yes. It sounds like a good idea!

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3. 70

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   sure, i use similar tracking with wordpress.
   
   adsense tracking can be done with googles adsense, for the rest of our idea...you would have to contact google who runs your analytics service
   
   squidoo uses one account and pays you out from it..so tracking is much more practical
   
   analytics can do it
   http://www.google.com/support/googleana … swer=55527
   
   but not with the way we have access to our hubpages
   
   The analytics aspect of this request is impractical, but a request for a better onpage stat tracking like wordpress's basic wp stats plug-in, yeah that would be awesome

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   1. 70

      sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Im in full support, i understand how it could be done..I think its a rather Big request, but im in support
      
      Just expanding on hubs current stats, isnt so big of a request

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4. 48

   johnr54posted 14 years ago

   You can do it all with Analytics, but all you need is the tracking code added to log the outbound clicks with the URL.  The jsquery library does it (I use that on my static html sites), and several Wordpress plugins do the same thing.  I do this on all my wordpress blogs, and you can see at a glance which landing pages and which keywords are generating the most affiliate click throughs.
   
   Basically, once you have the outbound click being logged in Analytics, you set up goals in the Analytics setup menu, and you can see at a glance which pages are giving you the most affiliate link traffic.
   
   I'd even write a hub on how to do it if the tracking were made available.

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5. 48

   johnr54posted 14 years ago

   What specific stats are you asking for that are in the wp stats package?  That sounds like it could be a good idea.  I'm not sure why we have to judge one idea as better or more feasible than the other.
   
   As far as adding this code, from the Analytics help page you referred to, you can see that you are only adding a little Javascript to the outbound links. 
   
   I am certainly no coding expert but the way I do it on my static html sites is to ftp the jsquery library to the site root one time, and then add 3 lines of Javascript to the header of the site template. 
   
   After that all outbound clicks are logged in Analytics, and the rest is done in the Analytics panels. 
   
   Seems consistent with the Hubpages mode of operation, outsource all the non value added stuff (Analytics, Adsense tracking and payments, Affiliate tracking and payments) and focus on making the site hum along.

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6. 70

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   I would rather have your request put into action, I dont think my idea is better.
   
   Just considering that all the ebay and amazon capsules are probably some sort of custom code using their respective API's , what seems like a small java addition is probably a monster re-encode of the entire hub system.
   
   enhanced visitor tracking would do wonders for my earnings, which in turn would help hubs on their impression share..I think some form of this feature should def be implemented, Im just not setting any request how its implemented - i.e through analytics.
   
   What I do with little WP sites isnt comparable to the type of work it takes to implement even the slighest change on a monster site like HP
   
   So im with you! and your idea is better! I hope it makes their list!

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