How HubPage Tracking Works
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How HubPage Tracking Works
If you haven't read it already I suggest you check out the light introduction to HubPage Referrals.
It's a quick read and outlines the basics.
How referrals (aka tracking) works...
Referrals work in two ways...
1) If someone signs up for a HubPages account via your referral link, you get 10% of their pageviews for the life of their hubs. That doesn't take away from their own pageviews, HubPages Inc graciously give up 10% of their share to you for spreading the word and getting others to join up.2) You can refer other peoples Hubs and get a cut of the pageviews. 9% or 12% depending on whether there's an signup referrer already involved and getting their 10% cut of the pageviews. This is taken again, from HubPages Inc's share of the pageviews. So it's a win/win situation when you promote or link to a fellow Hub Authors page. Their article gets exposure and you get a reward for sending them traffic.These splits apply only to HubPages and User Profile pages. On all other pages, such as a referral to a Tag page or the HubPages home page, you’ll receive 30% on a traffic referral, with HubPages getting the rest.What HubPages says about their tracking system...
How does the Traffic Referral program work?
You can drive traffic to the Hubs of other Hubbers and receive a percentage of the overall impressions. The traffic referral program works the following way:1. We start with Unique TrackersEvery HubPages account has its own default referral tracker – referred to as a Unique Tracker. You can create additional referral trackers as you organize your link campaigns.2. Use the Unique Tracker to link to someone’s Hub.Before you can link, you must be signed in to HubPages. Then, when you’re at the Hub you want to link to, look at the bottom of the page (or click the green share it button). There will be two boxes marked “link to this page” and “email this page”. You can click on these links and choose the Unique Tracker you want to insert in the email, URL or HTML code we will generate for you. From that point, you can either send the mail, or cut and paste the URL link or HTML code and place it wherever you’d like.3. The Traffic Referrals is guaranteed to be yours for 120 minutes.If someone clicks on your link to a specific Hub, you are entitled to the traffic referral impressions for 120 minutes. We set this limit because there may be multiple Hubbers referring people to a particular Hub. No other tracker can replace yours during that 120 minute period. This is called the ‘first dibs’ rule.SourceSetting up a Tracker
They'll give you a default tracker which will look something like this: 1pk0ue4rz5p3q
Now if I wanted to send someone to my hub on How HubPAges Works I'd give them this URL: http://hubpages.com/_1pk0ue4rz5p3q/hub/howhubworks
On every hub, yours and others, there is a bit down near the bottom that says "Share It". If you click on that and then click on "Link To Page" you get given a nifty little feature that makes it easy for anyone to get the code you need to refer others.
There is a better option, and that is creating your own unique referral ID. You can create up to twenty independent trackers, each with a unique name and descriptions, to help you see which linking strategies are working best for you.
Get clever with the way you use them. Don't make it look like it's you that's referring the page. On one hand I think that the default tracker looks far too random. I prefer to use a generic term for the tracker ID.
eg:
join
recommended
read
main
click
about
_recommended if you're referring someone elses hubpages: http://hubpages.com/_recommended/hub/Parents-Guide
_main if you're sending them to the homepage: http://hubpages.com/_main
_about if you want people to read the FAQ: http://hubpages.com/_about/faq
_join would be excellent for encouraging someone to sign up: http://hubpages.com/_join/user/new/
Some people can be a bit wary of signing up to sites through affiliate links. So disguising them as something subtle and inoffensive can improve your sign up ratio. Personally I have no qualms with signing up for a legitimate offer through someone elses referral link. They were after all the person who brought it to my attention and they deserve a reward.
This is where you set up your URL Trackers.
Please note: A referral tracker is unique. Once claimed it is yours and yours alone. No one else can set up a tracker with the same name. And you won't be able to set up a tracker that is already taken. The system will immediately notify you if the one you're trying to claim is already taken.
30 day trackers and 2 hour trackers
If you're the first one to introduce someone to HubPages the information is stored for 30 days. So anytime within the next 30 days if they go from being just a visitor to becoming an Author, you get credited with the referral. And of course all the benefits that come with it.
Now if someone else has already claimed that "prize" and the visitor comes back via your URL tracker they're all yours for 2 hours. So 9% to 12% of page impressions will carry your ads.It also means that within that 2 hour time frame if a person signs up to HubPages then you land the 10% of page impressions for the life of that new Authors soon to be published Hubs.Other stuff to know...
Signup and hub statistics for URL Trackers are processed every 20 minutes or so. They are not be updated immediately when the account is created.
Also, if the user has clicked on another link with a tracker in the previous 2 hours, the tracker in your link will be ignored.The page you link to within hubpages.com makes no difference as far as the tracking goes. You can link to almost anywhere on HubPages, you don't have to limit yourself to your own Hubs.When a visitor clicks on a link with a tracker in and they don't have a tracker already it is set so it will last for up to 30 days.The tracker stats on your user profile page are updated every 20 minutes. They won't show new sign ups or published hubs immediately.If you have multiple HubPages accounts, don't try and refer your new account from your old account. HubPages has the ability and will exercise their right to remove self-referrals.It should immediately resolve to the page you had inserted your tracker into, with the tracker disappearing. That computer, if it hadn't been cookied in the last 2 hours by another referral tracker, will be cookied with your referral tracker for 30 days (although it could get overwritten by another after 2 additional hours).When should you refer?
When should you refer?
Whenever you link to another hub. Whether it is yours or someone elses. Linking from one hub to another, use a tracker. The sooner you can get in and claim that cookie the better.I'm not registered at HubPages? Where do I sign up?
Hungry for more information about how Tracking works?
Read more about it in the hub I've called Trackers - Episode III
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Man, this was an EXCELLENT post! I finally grasp the entire concept!
Seriously, thanks for this one it should be a huge help.
HubPages have a fantastic two pronged referral system. Sometimes it's hard to communicate something that you've so brilliantly designed and developed. So it's up to the users to road test it, understand it and grasp it. And then there's the fans like me who get a kick out of explaining it as simply as possible for others to get excited.
Excellent hub, great explanation. They only thing Idont get is I see the estimated earnings of my affiliates page but how do you get paid - does it just go into adsense with all the rest? Is there away to track it using Adsense channels - maybe another hub?
Lissie, I was also curious about that. I'm thinking that maybe it's channeld through Adsense.
The page impressions are for Adsense (and therefore that's where your earnings go, if the ads are clicked on). How they come up with the estimate I do not know. Is it based on the assumption of a X% CTR? And if so what is the average click worth?
That aside it's still an excellent incentive.
agreed.
Lot of information for freshers.good.But thises things require lot of experimentation and hard work. I have not yet been able to do it successfully.
How do i get paid of that amount?
I've always jsut used the default tracker, since I started. Not really knowing why I was using it. But, I'm very much enjoying seeing and understanding it all through your hub and what has ben mentioned by the Paul and the others.
I like making trackers that have something to do with the subject. For example, as I have many reptile hubs, so I have 2 trackers (1)reptiles for the care sheets, and (2) reptilehelp for other reptile info (health, feeder insects, etc). I find that having a tracker that has somethign to do with the subject at hand, makes it look more natural.
But, because I have many hubs that don't fall into a larger category (dogs, reptiles, etc.) I use my name (whitney05) as a tracker for those hubs.
How many trackers would you recommend having?
How many trackers would I recommend having?
I've been playing around with it to test out different ideas and I've got about 19. Though I don't need that many.
I think half a dozen with some specially selected names would do. Or even just one. But I'd avoid using the default because it looks so ugly and even obvious.
I am begining to understand now. Thanks
my only confusion is in the 2 hour tracker thing vs the 30 days.. it said something to the affect of, if someone visits with a referrel link "claiming that prize" then later returns to the site with a different person tracker id they have two hours? huh? maybe I'm dense about this but care to elaborate on this more? with possibly a real world example to clear the dust?
If a person arrives at HubPages via say my referral tracker, but they don't sign up, they have 30 days in which to sign up and I get credited for the referral.
Now if they haven't signed up and during that time and they come back to the site via one of your referral trackers it doesn't bump my 30 day cookie off, but it does write a 2 hour one. So if you manage to land the deal and get them to register at HubPages you get the referral.
If they don't... then after the two hours it will revert back to the original person who first exposed the site to the visitor.
Those referral trackers can either be clicked on somewhere else on the world wide web, bringing them to a particular article, or they might be within the article itself, sending the person straight to the registration page.
so wait, if they go to my referrel, dont sign up I get a 30 day cookie (they do) but if they arrive again by another referrel they can sign up and my 30 day cookie is worthless (unless they dont)?? thats really not fair if you ask me.. I think for 30 days the person referring them should get full register/sign up rights to that person, this two hour thing isnt right, its not my fault if they dont sign up right away then somehow stumble on a link on the internet and return back to hub pages again (this time thinking you know what I meant to sign up but didnt have time, I'll do it now) so your referrel gets jacked? how is this remotely fair? kind of makes the 30 day cookie worthless to me.. perhaps its because they want you to push them on signing up then and there but let's be reasonable.. who comes up with this stuff?
The 30 day cookie is temporarily suspended/replaced/some-other-verb-that-explains-it-better for 2 hours. Then it reverts back to the 30 day cookie.
It's fairness is entirely up to a persons point of view.
Someone may have come to the site via a referral URL tracker and landed on a hub that is of poor quality. 15 days later they may come back to the site via another person who has convinced them that HubPages is an excellent way to have articles published online. So they sign up through that and the person through whom they have actioned the registration gets the referral.
I wish Amazon.com had such a system in place and had 30 day cookies.
I see your point.. and in the example you made this would work out but in mine its an unfair deal.. but again point of view does change the dynamics of fair/unfail.. I believe in the first come first serve rule, especially for money making affiliate links.. but thank you for your help.
As far as I know, other affiliate type programs allow for cookies to be overwritten all the time. And it's the last person who gives out the referral link which makes the sale. This system only gives a 2 hour window of opportunity before defaulting back to the initial "first comer first server". Both angles can be used to work to ones own advantage.
Nice it took me 3 weeks to figure out the linking and dibs stuff, It has lots of possiblities!
Are their any restrictions to promoting hub links outside of the hub network, besides the obvious ones? Thanx Darkside
The response to promotion outside of HubPages is entirely up the audience. I'll put links to my hubs in sigs at other forums and haven't drawn any flack. I have also linked to mine and others hubs in forum posts as an on-topic response to an existing thread. Though I only do that if I've been a member for quite some time and I also post more than just the link. Otherwise it's viewed as hit and run spam. If you can add value to an existing thread and be genuine in trying to give advice then you're pretty safe from getting smacked around by admin, mods and other active participants.
I see there's a lot here about referrals, but as I am new to the site, I still don't understand the basics of sending people to my hubs. How do they locate me and my articles? Please advise.
Email them the URL, that is the quickest way. If your hub is original and unique the Search Engines will find it sooner rather than later and index them.
thanks for great and fully informative hub
i don't know if i've missed something or somewhere about refering others to become a hubber. how actually (method and channel) they will pay us? send us a check or what?
thanks again
Zakuan, you get a cut of the pageviews for referring registrations and traffic. That is ad impressions. Therefore you get paid by Google Adsense should any of those ad impressions get click thrus.
right now my trackers are general topics (dogs, reptiles, reptilehelp, etc). would you recommend finer trackers. ie rats, hamsters, chinchillas, instead of furryanimals. I know it really doesn't matter, but for personal tracking I figured it would be better. What do you think?
I like general. In fact throw in a very generic term that could be used for sending people to other hubbers hubs, or to the join page. The finer more detailed trackers are just a matter for personal taste and how best you can make them work for you.
darkside,
i know how to send people to anyhubpage (just to read and i will earn something based on page impression) using my URL tracker i.e send them to http://hubpages.com/_myURLtracker/hub/hubpagetitle
but how to send people to hubpages.com so that i can earn something if the become a writer?
appreciate if u can clarify.
thanks
p/s: Sorry if others think this seems to be a tutorial session :)
Zakuan, if they visit your page (or anyones page) via a tracker and they sign up to publish hubs within the next 30 days, then you get credit for being the referrer.
You can send people anywhere to get that 30 day cookie. Even to forum threads. If I want to send them straight to the sign-up page at http://hubpages.com/user/new/ I make the link like this: http://hubpages.com/_join/user/new/
is it '_join' to be replaced with our URLTracker?
zakuan, yes. Use the one you've created but you must have an underscore _ at the start of your tracker name.
I've been mlssing a trick. Until now, I've just used the URL of the page I wanted to link to. No wonder I never get rich.
But my 2008 resolution is to pay more attention...
By jove, I think I've got it!
Thanks, darkside.
Great explanation on tracking. This was desperately needed by many. Thanks, by the way.
Thanks. Now I understand. You did a much better job of explaining this than the official FAQ
HI darkside, can respond to the comment above "BrainStorm How do i get paid of that amount?" Maybe I missed your response, but how does Hubpages pay people? I have 2 cents in my Referral Tracker area, lol.
darkside, I just found the answer here - http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/2482#post14961
after searching and searching, so I think I am good now.
Marlo found his answer :)
Here it is for others:
Adsense impressions that get clicks are paid out by Adsense. So it'll be in your Adsense account. The $ amount shown in the URL Tracking area is only an estimate of what you might earn.
Gee, I tried to understand this before and I ended up thinking "okay I'll try later." :-) Now I have to try again. thanks darkside. will work on my trackers.
Great hub! It is very useful! By the way, if you guys are working out to create url tracker "new". It's already taken.
I've been here for a few weeks and have never used a referral in a hub. Your explanation here has helped me bunches. Thanks.
Great info, I am going to try now.
I really like the tip on naming referral trackers more generically.
Very good answer. I hope, this will help me. thanx,
Jyoti kothari
jaipur,( India)
this was very helpful, thanks alot. I gave you a thumbs up.
If I past this link on my myspace or facebook sight and they click on it, I will get credit? Also what if I paste it to one of my hubs and someone signs up does that count as well? How do they track it to me? I know that is three questions but thanks so much for your help.
If you paste that exact URL, it will be ME who gets credit. As I was the one who claimed the word 'join'.
But indeed, if you set up your own, if you post the link in your myspace and facebook profiles, in your hubs, then you will get credit. How do they track it to you? They just do. Because it's all in their database, they work it out. No fear, you will be properly credited.
Just avoid posting your Tracker URL in other peoples Myspace comments, Facebook walls or other places. Because if it's uninvited, it's spam. But if it's on your own page, well you have permission to do so.
Why haven't I found this a week ago? My only friend already signed up--*sigh*--missed 10% opportunity of a lifetime!
I'd been to that HP link... and for the life of me couldn't foooollow what they're telling me to do. I was so confused why I should just be adding the tracker...wondering if it's OK for me to just affix something in someone else's hub. My dummy brain was wondering if that would be 'spamming' or whatever term there is possible that I shouldn't be doing.
After I had temporarily given up searching for some watered-down explanation that would be clearer than mud...serendipity-zip-a-dee-doo--I came across this, as I was now stuck again with making eBay and Amazon ads show up in my hubs.
Not sure I'd be able to apply everything in place all you have here right away, but I know where to come back. I am now your avid fan...thanks!
Like RM I've talked myself into postponing this tracker thing for the last 2 weeks that I was concentrating with capsules and writing tricks. When I finally started, it took me days wandering around the forums--thought of posting this in Jericho's thread where you were. I'll give it a try here...as I need a dummier step in "tracking system #2" that's seem to be missing even in eBay and Amazon affiliates section.
To me, the final step does not end in "now you can copy the URL or the HTML and paste it anywhere you want"--where is 'anywhere' in my website, hub or whatever? This is the kind of instructions that sends me wandering for weeks. I thought I painfully figured out the way to do the tracking...still confused.
I'm trying to filter the info to the one I need: Source..."down near the bottom that says 'Share It'. If you click on that and then click on 'Link To Page' you get given a nifty little feature that makes it easy for anyone to get the code you need to refer others." Is this an either/or or a connected step? I'm not even sure if I'm making sense at all.
The "When should you refer?" seem to be another impending headache. I'm glad I pick up something about the email...as I thought it's automatically generated when you become a fan, but it's manually generated (by me) if I understand you correctly. Am I right? My aching brain now feels so dense and dumb. Thanks!
There is a lot of information for me to gather in, so i will keep coming back
Many thanks foir great hub
Great info!! Learned alot!!
thanks for answering my question.
Hey Darkside, I read the hub and am still having difficulty figuring out how to refer people. How do you refer ppl to hubpages in order to earn the % income from their hubs?
whoa, that was a lot of info! Thanks! I will probably have to read this more than once, but I appreciate all your help!
Thanks for sharing ...interesting ...You think you have read everything and then ..here it is again ...something to absorb. You did bring a lot of things to my attention and spelled it out very well. Thank you again for you help. Now on to making money. My best to you!
A very good explanation of how the hubpage refferals work, and it gives me a couple of ideas how to promote them.... I might hub about them once I have done a bit of testing.
Finally I got the URL tracker concept!
Thanks darkside!
Interesting and useful info.
Excellent hub.Well explained.Thanks,darkside.
Hey. This is really useful. I didn't realise that another tracker couldn't take the place of another until a two hour limit is up so that is good to know. Thanks once again.
This is one of those articles that I know will make much more sense after I've been here longer. I'm brand-spanking new, so please bear with me here. I just published my first hub and I created a link capsule with links to 5 other hubs that had some related content.
All I did when I linked to those other hubs was copy and paste the urls. Should I have done something differently? I'm just having trouble wrapping my brain around this one... :(.
Kelsey, you can add a tracker to the URL. Just read this a few times, keep making hubs, checking forum posts and eventually it'll click.
Awesome hub! Lot of useful information and I definitely learned something..thanks for sharing.
Brilliant mind
Natural Teacher
aww youre all Light ,not dark at all
Thankyou!
I am like zylla3phillipines...still got to get a lot figured out, but you have helped set the ball rolling. Thanks a tonne.
Okay, several days and a few headaches later, I think I'm finally getting the referral/tracker thing. But to clarify: If I send someone (with my tracker) to your "howhubworks" hub to help explain the site to them but they click on your sign-up link at the bottom and sign-up, does that mean I've lost the referral? [Unless they don't actually sign-up until 2 hours after they clicked your referral link?]
I also have links to my hubs in my sig on another forum but it just occurred to me that I did not use trackers on those links, so I'm going to go change my sig there now. I've been at that forum 7 months and have over 2000 posts so people there know I'm not there just to spam them (and other people link to monetized sites in their sigs as well).
I've been posting tracked links to other writers' hubs over the last several days on that forum when it's related to the topic or even just funny hubs in the chat threads I participate in. I've already gotten almost 300 page views doing that. I think most of them are coming from a 72 page "sex thread" I started there that gets about 1000 views for every post, lol--I'm going to start using a special tracker for that thread though, so I can check that.
Great hub ,but just when I thought I had it , I didnt , had join/user instead of a word linking hubpages to me , so off I go to correct that ,and completely buggared the whole thing up.Now I think Ive sent some url on my last email with my profile?? ohhhh hell !
Thanks for your response to my yieldbuild question. Read some of your Hubs. You certainly are a hive of information.
This was a very brilliant expalnation to the tracker concept. Thank you so much Darkside. A big thumbs up for you!
thanks, just what I needed,
dori
Holy cow- i never knew this, thanks!
Darkside..should I put a tracker on each of my hub?I get some google search and few yahoo answers too.So how do i put them..sorry to be so very dumb..thanks.
@lyla, I haven't used trackers on all of mine. But most are. I don't think it would be a problem if you made every internal link a tracker.
Though when it comes to other sites, it's split about 50/50. Some social bookmarking sites don't like referral links being used. And the same with some article publishing sites. So I often do a bit of digging around to see whether or not it's an acceptable practice.
Wow, still so much to learn. Thanks for a very thorough explanation on tracking.
Here is one question. I am planning to use TinyURL.com. It is used to shorten the URLs and is being extensively on twitter. I too am planning to use it. So if I happen to shorten any URL with tracker, will tracker still work?? Any idea?
@packerpack, it shouldn't effect the tracker URL. It'll redirect to the tracker, which then resolves to the actual URL. One problem though, URL shorteners/redirections act as wildcards (in case people use them to get around the 2 linked domain limit. So, from what I understand, the system will assume that if used twice and there are other links on the hub it will trip the over-promotional flag.
Superb HUB!
thanks that was helpful
Only now that I fully understand what a tracker is and how to use it. Thanks for that.
Darkside thanks for the info. I still haven't got my head round all of it but I guess you learn by doing - but are you sure you can't refer yourself i.e. set up a second HP account using the referral from your first account ? I seem to remember reading somewhere that this was OK.
I am bran new too. Have four published hubs and several I have not publsihed yet. I have been spending some time trying to learn how to monitze, link correctly and all the other things you speak of.
Should I just go ahead a publish the others and worry edit later?
BTW, this is an awesome hub!
very useful hub! i have been writing here since nearly a month and just started using the referal program now thanks to you!
Thanks for the clear directions I will go try it now.
How does use of the tracker url affect linkbuilding? Is a url with a tracker the same as the same website without the tracker? Example: you made a do-follow link to one of your hubs with the tracker. Does that link strengthen your hub, or since the hub is not actually at the tracker url is the trackered link useless for SEO?
Links with trackers in them actually redirect (301) to the URL without the tracker. It is believed that search engines will still count links that redirect as a vote for the final page, but they probably discount the weight of vote somewhat.
It is worth noting that most social bookmarking sites prohibit using any kind of affiliate mechanism in links, so you probably should not use them at sites like digg, sphinn, etc.
great hub with useful info...is there a way to track the adsense earnings of referral pageviews? thanks
@kasanova, I am not aware of a way to track the adsense earnings of the pages of referrals.
This hub is much better than the hubpages one. In fact it's so good I managed to track your hub....I think..anyway I will see how it goes...shame i didn't know this when I started as a few of my friends have joined. thankyou so much.
I am such a newbie, I am not understanding the tracking....
I will have to keep reading this or incorporate my son's advice... can I track anyone? how does it show up on a site??
Your tracking hub sure is a lot easier to understand than the HubPages info. I'm no expert now but at least I know how to get credit for convincing new writers to sign up. Thank you!
Thanks for the compliment Sara. The thing is, I approached it from a users perspective (which I am). So once I figured it out, it was just a matter of repeating it to my peers. Often the powers-that-be (at any site) lose the new users eye because they've built it.
Well I'm feelin the love you sent out to noobs like me who don't have a clue. Even after reading this. yuk yuk. You're right, I'll keep on readin and hope it sinks in. Kinda had it there for a minute but lost it. Like zylla3philippines I told my one friend about HubPages and she signed up directly. Oh well, there goes my million bucks. Thanks for the good article Darkside.
So much knowledge Darkside! Thanks for sharing. I printed out your Introduction to HubPage Referrals and How HubPage Tracking Works so that I can read and re-read the information.
So you have hubpages.com_yourtracker/thepagetogoto and the 'where the page to go to' page can be the tour, or some page with a sign up? Also if you have already used a word for you tracker, is that word gone for everyone else? - Carol
Carol, your URL example isn't quite right. And you can use the tracker in any hubpages.com URL and it will work. Provided you own the tracker and you've put it in the right place in the URL.
And once you have claimed a word as a tracker, it's yours, no one else can claim it. Well they can use it, but it will be credited to you. And you must make it, you can't just use it and think that it will be automatically attributed to you.
thank you, very useful information!
Thank you so much! Kimberly
Thank you that was one of my questions. thank you for sharing
Thank you so much for all the info. I did a google search for hubpages help and yours came up. I'm really glad i clicked on it. I think this is better than what is actually on hubpages help! Keep up the good work!
Im still a bit of a goose at this even after 2 years. If i provde a link is that the same as tracking ?
Barry, what do you mean by 'provide a link'?
Thanks darkside for this hub. It has answered my question.
Thanks Darkside, great stuff all in one place. I'm still a bit green when it comes to Facebook and Twitter. When I publish a new hub, I am prompted to share my new hub with my Facebook friends and on my Twitter page. I've just been clicking "yes" to both, but can/should I add a tracker? The URL in the prompt in not editable. Thanks!
You can post a URL in Facebook or Twitter manually. In fact I do. Taking the time to write a custom summary or blurb is recommended.
Thanks for a revealing Hub of great information here. It's a pretty cool deal to get referrals like that! I am working on a website to have backlinks to my Hub Pages, the blurbs you mention there are very important. Great advice! Consider me a fan ! Gonna read your other referrals Hub now!
Thanks for a revealing Hub of great information here. It's a pretty cool deal to get referrals like that! I am working on a website to have backlinks to my Hub Pages, the blurbs you mention there are very important. Great advice! Consider me a fan ! Gonna read your other referrals Hub now!
This is an excellent hub, and it helps me understand how the tracker urls work, but I still have some questions. What I've been doing when I create a hub is click the button that asks if I want to share it on Twitter. I do this (and it posts on Facebook, too), but is my default tracker url included? If it isn't, how can I take advantage of this Twitter feature and still include my defaul or unique tracker url? Also, I'd like to add a link on my profile page with a tracker url in it that directs people to the hubpages tour and/or the sign up page. What would be the format for such a url? Thanks in advance.
PWalker, your default tracker isn't included in the shortened URL. At least not that I'm aware of.
I have tweeted my hub links, and also posted some on Facebook, and I don't use the shortened URL. I actually have these as trackers: _twitter and _facebooked
That way I can see where traffic is coming from.
Also taking the time to create these posts means I can have a short, sweet and specific blurb for each. I don't use the intro or summary, I create a new fresh one.
This is an incredibly useful hub! I think..I got it. Thanks so much!
I've had questions...but not anymore! Thanks Darkside!
Awesome! thanks a lot, been meaning to do this for ages and never knew how. Would say you might want to stress that an _ (underscore) needs to be put infront of the tracker in the address for stupid people like me :-)
Darkside,
You are the encyclopedia of the information that I need.
I have bookmarked and printed. 5 Stars!
cool, nice hub, thanks for sharing
awesome info never knew it worked like this! Thanks for being a great teacher of new hubbers!
Thanks for the hub it took me awhile but I am able to create my own trackers now.
Very helpful Hub. I hadn't realized the granular control I had available to me near the bottom of each Hub, especially with the Sharing feature.
Wow darkside. There's a lot of info here. I'm more of a writer than I am a computer person. lol. So, a lot of the very good tips for increasing page views, revenue, etc. take me some time to absorb. I'll definitely have to do some playing around, and probably come back to re-read, but this has given me a great start. Thanks!
Very good article. You write well and provide some valuable information..
Thank you, Darkside. I'm printing this out. It's very encouraging to see that you've stayed with this for three years and it works if one is persistent.
HubPages is one of the few sites worth sticking with.
I wish to send an invitation to some friends to join hub pages.Can you give a single line reply from where will I get my referal code?
abidareacode, got to http://hubpages.com/my/trackers and tell me what your 'tracking token' is. It'll look something like this: 1pk0ue4rz5p3q
It is this - 2z389c6itmst8
I invited my friend using this link.He signed in also.But sign ups under referal trackers is found to be still zero.So let me to know what I have to do.
This is the link that will send him straight to the sign up page and you get credited: hubpages.com/_2z389c6itmst8/user/new/
Slap a http:// on the start of that and you'll be good to go.
Darkside,Thanks a lot for this help
Great Hub Dark side. This hub has answered many questions I have had in regards to using the trackers.
I can certaily see why you are an elite member!!
I voted this up and certaily marked it has useful!!
Wow...that was very helpful!
thankyou for explaining in detail what to do. I have bookmarked to come back soon
As a newbie to Hubpages, my brain is already swirling with new information. Thank you for writing a clear, easy to understand page. :-D
Have I been 2 years on Hubpages and only now do I understand this? Thanks so much, Darkside.
Goody! I got it! (with the help of your wonderful hub, and my going through anything else that I could, for about 40 minutes or so!) I've started with a general purpose unique referal, to get used to it, and can't believe "learnmoreabout" was not already taken. Thanks for all the helpful info in your hub.
Teresa, that's a nice tracker phrase!
Thanks :)
It works fine on my own blog, but it wasn't happy when I tried to insert it into one of my hubs - perhaps the link was a bit long as the title of the hub I was linking to was quite long, oh, well, will figure it out sometime!
By George, I think I'm learning! Thanks!!
This is a lot of information to take in, but very, very helpful. So to refer this is say a blog post I can do this by getting the HTML and post it in the blog??
I have another question: :) So I get how you use the tracker for hubs (with the Share), but how do you create it for your profile or the main page to join?
Hi Julie, as a blog post you use the following HTML: [a ahref="http://hubpages.com/_TRACKERNAME/profile/JulieBMac"]Check out my HubPages Profile[/a]
(Replace the [ with < and the ] with >, I couldn't post the correct code because the hub strips it out)
Or use the URL of wherever you want to send a person, but always put the _TRACKERNAME after http://hubpages.com/ and before the /hub/HUBNAME
Your profile would be: http://hubpages.com/_TRACKERNAME/profile/JulieBMac
And the sign up pages would be:
thanks , your hub is very informative really
"...are processed every 20 minutes or so."
Thanks, was wondering when it would show up.
Definitely better than all the other stuff I've read on this before. Thanks.
very useful hub.thank you.
Now i got it, how tracking works; thanks lot.
yes, but i'm still kind of confused
I'll re read your hub. At least now I understand what trackers do. I'm trying to figure out a "referral to hub pages in general " tracker link
Sarah, if you want to send a person just to hubpages.com it will be http://hubpages.com/_TRACKERNAME
It is just too confusing to set it up and add to each hub. I'm just happy writing on hubpages
Was wondering if I should be including my own tracker when interlinking my hubs. Looks like I should be. Gonna take a bit more effort to do so, but I'm sure it will be worth it.
Thanks for this clearly written piece of advice ~
"When should you refer?
Whenever you link to another hub. Whether it is yours or someone elses. Linking from one hub to another, use a tracker. The sooner you can get in and claim that cookie the better."
I feel bad asking yet another question...after answering them for 2 years...but...I had a friend sign up, I sent her the link to my profile, so she could see where I was writing...not knowing she'd be so excited that she signed up, THEN let me know...will that 'link' her to me? It hasn't shown up in the URL Tracker...after a couple of hours...?
Sandy, if the link you gave her to your profile had a tracker in it, it should work. If you didn't, then its unlikely that it will credit you.
It could take a few hours or even a day before it turns up. If it doesn't then I guess you could always contact HP HQ and let them know, with a link to her profile. Perhaps have her email HP HQ to let them know that she's your friend. Not sure if it'll work. Let me know if it does.
Thank you so much...I surely appreciate such helpful hubs, and this one is definitely useful, voted up, and bookmarked...I will let you know how it worked out...:)
Thank you so much darkside,this is very useful hub.
Darkside, thank you so much for the great hub. This really helps me since I am new to Hubpages and I only started on here last week. This will help so much :)
Have a great day :)
when i add hubpager links through the link tool using the search feature... it doesn't appear that we get referral credit doing it that way... am i correct..? so we need to add our code, it doesn't happen automatically... right?
This is just so confusing, I'd better be off of it and eat an apple now, and let it be is the best choice, hehe
In my case, referring a new hubber might be unlikely, but I am receptive to adding links to other hubs if I will get a percentage of adsense. It just seems odd that hubpages would implement a system where we have to use the "suggest links" tool, then go back and add the tracking id by editing the source code in order to get credit for the referral.
That seems like a slow and confusing process. Is that the correct and only way to refer traffic to another hub and still get the referral percentage?
Daybreak, the Suggest Links tool is, as you probably already know, a recent addition.
Personally I won't use it. At least not in the way that it's intended. If used regularly and without tracker referrals your HubKarma should increase. But there's no way I'm giving away my traffic for HubKarma.
I see a lot of people misusing the Suggest Links suggestions, because not much thought on their part is going into choosing the exact right hub to complement their own hub. It's as if they're picking randomly from the suggestions given to them.
So when I have links within my hubs they're either my own, or if it isn't I actually read the hub in full that I am linking to. Either way, it's got my referral tracker in it.
dark,PLEASE HELP,
I am trying to copy and paste my tracker,but it won't let me. It is a link and does not let me copy it. Where do I go to copy and paste my tracker link
I have bookmarked, so I can go over it again. I guess I am a Duh, don't get it. Could you have a look at my hubs and be honest and let me know what you think? It would mean a lot coming from you
Tina
I'll be publishing a couple more hubs about referrals and tracking. It's not hard once you get your head around. Though it does take a little while to understand and grasp how it all works.
Unfortunately I don't have the time to individually critique anyones hubs, but the forum does have an Extreme Hub Makeover sub-forum where you can ask for tips and advice from plenty of well mannered and capable fellow hubbers.
Thanks for the info. It would have taken me a long time to figure it out myself. Very useful to have it explained in one place.
I don't understand the 120 minute rule. If you link, then someone links a minute after you, that means you don't get anything? Please make this make sense to me.
For the first 120 minutes your cookie can NOT be overwritten. That means if they click on someone elses tracker link straight after yours, then it (the other) won't work.
Thank you. I read the tidbit on the Hubpages account section, but this explanation was much clearer.
I use the suggest links feature to link to other hubs, would I have to add my tracker to those links.
Jhangora, if you want the benefits that only a referral tracker can bring, then yes, you need to add your tracker to those links.
And I wouldn't go overboard with the suggest links feature. In fact, I never use it. If I'm referring to another hub it's because its mine or because I already knew of the hubs existence. Having read and enjoyed it or the reputation of the hubber impressing me... so if I knew that they covered that topic too and it was beneficial to my readers, I'd find the hub myself.
This is sooooooooooooo awesome and excellent and THANK YOU...I am going to follow your hub here over and over again. However I first tried to learn from the tracker and this green share at the bottom of the page I can NEVER find. I don't know if I crazy or everyone else LOL rate this way up and love you darski
You're welcome darski. It's a pleasure to grab and grasp the HubPages concepts, rules and procedures and make them more understandable for... well me first of all. And then once I've understood it I feel confident enough to share it with everyone else.
The tracking stuff is very difficult though. But once you get the hang of it it is very useful and a great way to make extra money.
HI adorable friend, I came back to say think you and I am off to part 3, I also wanted to rate you up again and let you know you are simply awesome...love & peace darski
This is 100% helpful. Thank you so much for doing such a great job explaining this. I will now refer and link!
Thank you, I just started out with HP, and it is sure an incentive, one more reason to like the site.
Dark side, Can I put my tracker number as my unique web address when I am making my hub, or should I? I am so bummed out my mom and my best friends signed up and I am not getting any credit, plus my pages. Should I email hubpages or just tell them to delete accounts and start over?? they just started and only have one hub each so, it wouldn't be a problem. Please Help me with this issue :) Thanks
Hi Mindy,
Send HP HQ an email (http://hubpages.com/contact_us/) and let them know. You may also have to get your referrals to also contact them. I'm not sure. But discuss it with a HP staff member. And let us know of the outcome.
OK, so I haven't really used the referrals trackers because I found them a bit confusing. I am still a bit confused! The main confusion is when the 120 minutes applies and when the 30 days applies - is this on the same tracker URL? So someone might click it and if they have already been to hubpages you get 2 hours but if they haven't and they sign up you get 30 days?
I'm also a bit confuse3d about the 2 hours - is it 2 hours from when you create that link or when someone clicks on it??!
Or is the 2 hours just for individual hubs and the 30 days for other pages? Maybe I am just being dense but it all seems a bit confusing still!
Thank you so very much for the clear-cut explanations. For the past 9 months I have been trying to figure this out. By, George...."I think she's got it!"
A big thanks and thumbs up! :)vocalcoach
Azure, it's all done on the same tracker. And it's a concept that not many can pick up on the first pass. You will need to read it a few times before it starts to dawn on you. Once you've got it though, you'll see just how powerful it is.
You have many comments in your hubs. How do you receive so many? Can you please write a hub about the techniques you use to get more comments?
thank you so much it would be a great help, specially the way you have showed to create one's own tracker id.thanks again
Great information. I use my tracker when promoting other peoples content that I like. This helps us both out and everyone wins.
Finally, I have got it! Thanks.
Wow! thx for making things so visibly clear for the average person. Great hub.
This could prove very useful. Thanks for the explanation.
Saving this article. Finally something I understand about the whole tracking thing. Thanks!
this is wonderful useful information. thanks for sharing.
This is very clear and useful. Thanks again for sharing.
I finally grasped this whole tracking thing in just 5 lines. thanks mate, very useful information here!
Coming back to Hubpages after a long break. Had forgotten how to use the Trackers. Thanx a lot for helping me out!
I am really POed that Hubpages suddenly cut out ClickBank Sales.
There may be a lot of BS there, but not the one I was proporting.
I gladly recommend this interesting and helpful hub on tracking and its ramifications to newbies and to all who have already forgotten the tracking technology in the quagmire of forgetfulness. Laurels to darkside for a job well done.
Is it possible to extract the HTML code of a certain banner so it could be placed in a hub or blog? How is it done? Thanking you in advance.
nickmms192093@yahoo.com
Thank you so much for all of this information. I think that now I can finally understand how this works.
wow beautiful hub I will refer it to new hubbers
Hi darkside
Thank you so much for making this easy to understand for non techy people.
have to share this as i think a lot of people are possibly unaware.
Hi Darkside, I have two questions:
a) If more than one people signed up using one tracker, can I know who are the Hubber signing up?
b) Does Hubpages itemize the pageview for each Hubber under
the referral program?
a) It doesn't matter how many people sign up under the one tracker, you'll see who they are.
b) You won't see the amount of pageviews for each individual hubber but you will see the combined pageviews (traffic to hubs) for all the hubbers under that specific tracker (though if only one person signs up under that tracker it goes without saying that the pageviews would be from that one hubber).
Thanks for the reply. I have two more questions:
a) If someone signup using my tracker, would I be notified after they signup or need to wait until the new Hubber publish their first hub?
b) Can I resend another tracker after 30 days to renew the old tracker?
@Runner:
a) You are not notified, however the new hubber's name will appear in your referral stats regardless of whether or not they have published a hub.
Keep in mind that most people who sign up do not end up publishing hubs.
b) Resend another tracker to who?
Assuming that the tracker expired and I resend another tracker to the same reader, would the tracker will be renewed?
The tracker expires after 30 days. If they haven't signed up in that time I don't see the point of sending them the link again, it might come across as a bit pushy and rude.
great! thanks for clearing things up for me!
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compu-smart 4 years ago
I never got my head around the "Introduction To HubPage Referrals" link and found this Hub much more infomative...Good job.