Driving Revenue: back in the affiliate saddle?

[foxfirefey]

There's a comment in the current news post pointing out a new Driving Revenue script. You may remember the previous, flawed implementation.

The script is: http://l-stat.livejournal.com/js/pagestats/DR_v4u.jsThe script is now: Read more... )

Comments

[matgb]

Just making a post with links to somewhere it's likely to affect:

http://amazon.com
http://ebay.com
http://ebay.co.uk
http://sittingonthedockofthebay.com (double test)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghost-Brigades-John-Scalzi/dp/0330457101/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271407539&sr=8-1

[matgb]

Doesn't seem to do anything, and I'm not running any script or ad blockers. Is it live?

[foxfirefey]

It's definitely live and loaded--look at the bottom of the page source. It doesn't appear to do anything to me, either, but I know that it's going to try and be as unnoticeable as possible, and I'm not the world's best Javascript debugger.

[franzi1981]

I don't see the script or references to it when I look at the source code...

[foxfirefey]

Are you using the opt out described here?

Try going to the console and using the command:

set opt_exclude_stats 0

See if it appears then.

[franzi1981]

Yep, you're right. If I set the opt_exclude_stats to 0 it shows up. Set it back to 1 right after the test :P

[sundayave]

Dammit, I forgot to use that command the last time, thanks for the reminder!

ETA: Done that, and it went away like magic! *g*

[trixieleitz]

It's useful for that, but it doesn't protect people who don't have it set from being redirected when they click links in your entries. Including visitors who are not logged in to an LJ account :(

[sundayave]

Well, yeah, but all there is left for us to do is spread the word I guess.

[trixieleitz]

True.

[trixieleitz]

Do you have the stats tracking opt-out set? (This one.) It was put on LJ for something else, but it also blocked the redirections that resulted from the last time around.

[foxfirefey]

Yup, that opt-out is once again in effect for this code.

[foxfirefey]

The person is correct, though--for instance, AdBlock Plus does have this listed as a blockable element:

http://outboundlink.me/anxo/dr_ta_1/dr_rwl_v2.php?DR_id=1111&r=true&link=http%3A//ebay.com/&link_id=link_25&dr_log=false&callback=DR_JSONP_callback&ref=http://community.livejournal.com/no_lj_ads/87881.html

That goes to a JSON file on outboundlink.me. It's loaded during the hovering over of links, that is, the script fetches this JSON file at that time--and it even tells outboundlink.me what page you are on!

I'm not sure if the redirecting is turned on yet, though. Needs more examination.

[jproulx]

I'm pretty sure it's turned on, when I click the ebay links above I see my browser making requests to rover.ebay.com, which is the URL that is sent back in the JSONP callback (http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?type=4&campid=5336432744&toolid=10001&customid=1004053&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Febay.co.uk%2F)

I don't know if they're still rewriting affiliate IDs or anything, but they've gotten a little better in hiding what happens to the URLs you click on.

[foxfirefey]

I don't *think* it is rewriting affiliate IDs yet for Amazon links--nor adding any. But I *think* it is for eBay since rover.ebay.com is their affiliate domain.

Looks like the Achilles heel is still outbound.me (formerly outbound.net) lagging at times--I see a support request about it.

[sundayave]

I'm a noob but ... what is a JSON file?

And yeah, that's exactly what happened with me; hover over any link anywhere on LJ, a new script for each link comes up. I don't think I was actually redirected last night though, because I later saw that NoScript had blocked these outboundlink.me scripts that were fetched (by the script hosted on LJ, right?).

Now I don't know what they'd want to achieve by that when we, say, hover/click on a "reply" link, or an entry link for instance, because those are nowhere similar to an affiliate link, are they? It's LJ Cock-up Redux time again!