What is a Link Tracker?
When it comes to promoting your website, mailing list, or business opportunity, it's critical that you know which resources are working for you ... and which are not. This will ultimately save you both time and money. And that's the purpose of link trackers.
A link tracker will tell you what sources are providing you with clicks on that link; some will track conversions (if you control the conversion page); some will tell you how legitimate your traffic is (time on site and other activities); etc.
Now these are NOT for use with things like Facebook, Google, or Bing ads, as those will already track clicks and conversions for you, and the cloaking nature of a link tracker (which can sometimes be turned off; this is explained below) is against their terms.
Instead, link trackers are really useful for things like:
All you do is enter a link that you want to share with people. The tracker will convert this into a new link that goes to the same location but also captures all sorts of information about the people clicking it (and potentially lets you add content / popups to that page). This information helps you to understand where your valuable clicks are coming from, and which ones are just garbage.
If you do not use a link tracker to review the types of traffic shown above, you will be throwing away time and money on efforts that do you no good. So if you use links in any of those places, I really encourage you to pick up one of these.
This page introduces several link trackers, including both FREE and paid systems, so you can find one that's a good fit for your needs. I've included pros and cons of different systems and which ones I recommend. I hope you find this a powerful review of your options.
Don't confuse these with link shorteners! Something like bitly.com can shorten your links and then tell you basic information like the number of clicks received and what country they came from. This is a far cry from the types of things that a link tracker can do for you. Also, when you use something like bitly, anyone can see the click data from your link!
A link tracker will tell you what sources are providing you with clicks on that link; some will track conversions (if you control the conversion page); some will tell you how legitimate your traffic is (time on site and other activities); etc.
Now these are NOT for use with things like Facebook, Google, or Bing ads, as those will already track clicks and conversions for you, and the cloaking nature of a link tracker (which can sometimes be turned off; this is explained below) is against their terms.
Instead, link trackers are really useful for things like:
- Links in email signatures
- Links elsewhere in an email
- Links in forums or blog comments
- Ad exchanges / traffic exchanges
- Solo ads (where you're sending a message through someone else's email)
- Times when you want to track traffic that is sent to a website you don't own. (Useful for affiliate sales OR if you want to just link to interesting articles online but then retarget people who clicked on that article, or even capture them into a mailing list, since they've shown interest in that topic. This can be done if a link tracker offers additional content / popup features with its links.)
All you do is enter a link that you want to share with people. The tracker will convert this into a new link that goes to the same location but also captures all sorts of information about the people clicking it (and potentially lets you add content / popups to that page). This information helps you to understand where your valuable clicks are coming from, and which ones are just garbage.
If you do not use a link tracker to review the types of traffic shown above, you will be throwing away time and money on efforts that do you no good. So if you use links in any of those places, I really encourage you to pick up one of these.
This page introduces several link trackers, including both FREE and paid systems, so you can find one that's a good fit for your needs. I've included pros and cons of different systems and which ones I recommend. I hope you find this a powerful review of your options.
Don't confuse these with link shorteners! Something like bitly.com can shorten your links and then tell you basic information like the number of clicks received and what country they came from. This is a far cry from the types of things that a link tracker can do for you. Also, when you use something like bitly, anyone can see the click data from your link!
Cloaking & Masking
Before we jump into specific link tracking tools, you need to understand what we mean by cloaking or masking. Both terms mean the same thing. A cloaked or masked link means that you are HIDING the URL of the web page someone is visiting. Even when they visit the page, they will continue to see the URL provided by the link tracking software. Even if they visit another page on your website, they will continue to see the original URL provided by the link tracking software.
There are pros and cons to link masking (cloaking), so depending on how you'll use it, you may need a link tracker where you can shut off masking.
LINK MASKING PROS:
LINK MASKING CONS:
If you will sometimes need the OPTION to turn off link masking:
With that out of the way, let's take a look at several link tracking options.
There are pros and cons to link masking (cloaking), so depending on how you'll use it, you may need a link tracker where you can shut off masking.
LINK MASKING PROS:
- Doesn't show your affiliate link, so someone cannot strip it out and bypass your commissions.
- Can take a long, ugly URL and turn it into something shorter, maybe even more descriptive of the page someone will be visiting. (For instance, if a link tracker says you can add keywords or create custom URLs, you can make the link meaningful.)
- Because link cloaking happens by putting a web page INSIDE A FRAME that is owned by the link tracking company, it may allow more features. For instance, you might get more detailed statistics or be able to add more elements to the web page (like popups, messages, countdown bars, etc.) even if you don't own the page. This can be powerful.
LINK MASKING CONS:
- If you post an article on another sites and include a masked link to YOUR site inside the article, you are not actually creating any search engine optimization value with that link. However, it's still useful to see whether you're getting any valuable traffic from the link. So you would or would not use a link tracker in this case, depending on your goal.
- If someone wants to bookmark or share your site, they can only bookmark or share the URL they can see, which masks the real URL. So if they visited several pages on your site and then wanted to bookmark or share the last one, they could not. LeadsLeap (see below) solves this with a tab (optional for pro accounts) at the bottom of page; when opened, this tab lets someone visit the original site, where they'll see the true URL. I don't believe any of the other link trackers on this page provide that feature.
If you will sometimes need the OPTION to turn off link masking:
- LeadsLeap lets you turn off masking with its FREE account. (Be aware that you'll lose many advanced features, but you'll still get total clicks, unique clicks, and conversions.)
- SoManyHits and ClixTrac let you turn off masking with a PAID account.
- ClickMagick does NOT let you turn off masking (cloaking) because many of its features require this.
- Unknown on the two trackers that I've only summarized toward the end.
With that out of the way, let's take a look at several link tracking options.
LeadsLeap
I have been using LeadsLeap for a couple of years with an upgraded account because it not only provides a ton of value for free, but the leads it provides have been very good for me, so the upgrade is personally worthwhile. Regardless, read on and you'll see why I'm reviewing this link tracker first.
Overview: LeadsLeap is a lot more than just a link tracker. True to its name, its goal is to provide many ways of attracting leads. It not only looks more attractive than most systems, but it also offers way more for free and you do NOT receive emails from other members after signing up.
Let me summarize all of what you get in LeadsLeap, and then I'll focus on its link tracker:
Overview: LeadsLeap is a lot more than just a link tracker. True to its name, its goal is to provide many ways of attracting leads. It not only looks more attractive than most systems, but it also offers way more for free and you do NOT receive emails from other members after signing up.
Let me summarize all of what you get in LeadsLeap, and then I'll focus on its link tracker:
- LeadsLeap gives you a ton of tools to give away for FREE, whether or not you pay for an account.
- These tools include: a link tracker (details below); a one-time-offer generator; a popup generator for gathering emails; a simple email list system; and a cookie generator. They also provide some free reports you can give away.
- By giving away membership, you build a following in their system. When your referrals give away memberships, those people become followers as well. And this is true through 10 levels of referrals. You will be able to reach all of them with a small ad when they are surfing ads for credits. (See below.) You do NOT get the opportunity to email them, but this is good because most people filter emails from systems like this and they don't like to receive them. In this case, members are incentivized not only to click your ad, but to spend time on your site. All at no cost to you.
- This means everyone can have UP TO 10 levels of upline (and you can build a massive following with the followers of followers of followers). But this is NOT intrusive. It just means that -- when you want to earn credits for surfing people's ads -- you'll have a section of messages you can click for CREDITS within the system, like this:
LeadsLeap also lets members write reviews on affiliate products and programs. This is done in a unique way: everyone who writes a review for a particular website has their reviews accumulated onto a single review page, building a ton of content for that topic and often leading to very good search engine coverage. When someone visits the page from a search engine result, only ONE PERSON'S link is active for that visitor, and this link is rotated as different visitors see the page.
While this means you wouldn't get every referral from that page, the co-op approach can give so much better search engine coverage that you'll potentially get traffic that you'd never get on your own. I think this is a valuable feature of LeadsLeap, and I encourage people to join LeadsLeap and write reviews on the programs they're active in or for the products they want to sell with affiliate links.
(If you upgrade to a pro account, your links in reviews will be rotated 4 times more often than those of free members.)
As you can see, a big part of LeadsLeap is also an ad exchange. This means you can put your message out there for others. Your ad is run based on how many credits you have, which you earn from surfing other people's ads OR using the LeadsLeap widget on your website. This widget can help you earn money, earn ad credits, and get more referrals into the LeadsLeap system.
Surfing ads can also earn you a little bit of cash, but not enough to make this a key selling point in my view.
One of the big benefits of upgrading to a pro account is that you can run many more ads and you do NOT need to surf ads for credit in order to have your ads shown. This is a primary reason I upgrade for $20/month. I get responsive traffic that honestly spends time on my site (over a minute on average) because LeadsLeap gives you more credit the longer you spend time on a website (up to 3 minutes), giving you more reason to explore the sites you find interesting.
By the way ... I'm a real person and, with a paid account, I don't have to surf ads. But I have still seen some ads through this system and ultimately joined something under another LeadsLeap member. So I know this system works.
But now let's focus on the LeadsLeap link tracker, which they call "The Real Tracker" for good reason. You get a very impressive tracker for FREE, without a lot of need to upgrade.
LeadsLeap FREE Link Tracker:
* Track Total Hits, Unique Hits, and "Real" Hits -- these are people on your page for a minimum of 5 seconds, eliminating most robot clicks and people (in other systems) who just click for credit and then close your site immediately. It also only counts their time on site when your site is the ACTIVE window (they're looking at it). This is why they call this the Real Tracker.
* Track Responses, like views of a video, clicks on links, etc.
* Track up to 2 conversions -- for instance, a newsletter signup and a purchase. (Or another idea: track someone's initial newsletter signup and then their email confirmation so you can see who's actually making it onto your confirmed mailing list.)
* Track country of origin.
* Add keywords (up to 30 characters) to any link to track its source. (What page or ad it came from.)
* By default, links are cloaked in order to give you all the advanced tracking features. But you can remove cloaking if you don't mind losing some of these features.
* Reset stats for a link.
* A link rotator is included for all your tracked links. Great way to test different offers with a single link. Or if you have an MLM team, you can put your team links into the rotator. You could even tell them they're only added after they make their first referral so you can see they're active and serious!
* Add a message bar (with countdown option) to the top of the page you're linking to.
* Optionally show "teaser text" prior to opening the page. This is great if you really want to call someone's attention to something on the page. Like: "Don't miss my free ebook on this page!"
* Optionally monetize your links. (After a certain time on the page, a visit would have some ads pop up. If clicked, you would earn some money.)
This is so many features for FREE that it beats most paid link trackers! But here's the one thing you need to be aware of. At the bottom of every page (left or right side, your choice), you will have a large or small tab. They look like this:
* Track Total Hits, Unique Hits, and "Real" Hits -- these are people on your page for a minimum of 5 seconds, eliminating most robot clicks and people (in other systems) who just click for credit and then close your site immediately. It also only counts their time on site when your site is the ACTIVE window (they're looking at it). This is why they call this the Real Tracker.
* Track Responses, like views of a video, clicks on links, etc.
* Track up to 2 conversions -- for instance, a newsletter signup and a purchase. (Or another idea: track someone's initial newsletter signup and then their email confirmation so you can see who's actually making it onto your confirmed mailing list.)
* Track country of origin.
* Add keywords (up to 30 characters) to any link to track its source. (What page or ad it came from.)
* By default, links are cloaked in order to give you all the advanced tracking features. But you can remove cloaking if you don't mind losing some of these features.
* Reset stats for a link.
* A link rotator is included for all your tracked links. Great way to test different offers with a single link. Or if you have an MLM team, you can put your team links into the rotator. You could even tell them they're only added after they make their first referral so you can see they're active and serious!
* Add a message bar (with countdown option) to the top of the page you're linking to.
* Optionally show "teaser text" prior to opening the page. This is great if you really want to call someone's attention to something on the page. Like: "Don't miss my free ebook on this page!"
* Optionally monetize your links. (After a certain time on the page, a visit would have some ads pop up. If clicked, you would earn some money.)
This is so many features for FREE that it beats most paid link trackers! But here's the one thing you need to be aware of. At the bottom of every page (left or right side, your choice), you will have a large or small tab. They look like this:
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Obviously the second one is VERY unobtrusive, but you might actually WANT someone seeing these and clicking on them. (So you might choose the larger one, depending on the intended audience of that page.) As you can see in the next image, they will have 3 options if they click on this tab:
1) Visit the original site (without the cloaked URL).
2) Report abuse. This is the ONLY danger point of this free link tracker, as your link could be removed if it's reported as a problem. I don't know how many people need to report you before this is a problem though, so if you're not sharing an awful website, you should be fine.
3) "Get this Tracker" -- someone else may want to get the tool for themselves, and if they follow that link and sign up for the tool, they become YOUR referral.
Again, this is the ONLY thing you can't control about the look of the page you're sending them to; the smaller tab option will hardly be noticed; and it could be beneficial. And all the other features of the Real Tracker by LeadsLeap make it better than most paid link trackers.
But if you upgrade to a paid account ($20/month) you can remove these tabs entirely. You can also choose custom URLs for your links, which is a nice bonus.
Another benefit to upgrading ... remember those 10 levels of referrals I mentioned? With a pro account, you get spillover downlines, and this has given me hundreds of extra people that I reach as my followers.
There are plenty of other benefits to the upgrade as well, including: the potential to earn more money from surfing ads; greater affiliate commissions; extra exposure of your top reviews to your followers; your ads shown in more places; etc.
BOTTOM LINE:
Most of the benefit of upgrading goes toward running a bunch more ads and not requiring your time to surf ads to get people seeing your own ads. So if you're JUST looking for a link tracker and you don't mind that small tab showing, you will be perfectly fine with the free link tracker that LeadsLeap offers.
You can join LeadsLeap for free.
PS: Remember that LeadsLeap's link tracker is called the Real Tracker for a reason -- it easily shows you how much REAL traffic you're getting -- people actually looking at your website (not in a background window) for at least 5 seconds. And it will tell you how long your visitors were on the site.
SoManyHits
This is the one that sent me down the trail of researching a bunch of options for you. It's not necessarily the one I recommend (since I use LeadsLeap), but let me break down its pros and cons for your consideration.
Overview: SoManyHits is more than just a link tracker; it is also a mailing list builder without the need to have your own mailing software, although you can also build a list in your own software. The idea is that you can give away a link tracker for FREE and, in doing so, build your mailing list.
Not only that, the list you build could in theory build you an even larger list. How? Your first two referrals go onto someone else's list, but then for everyone else you refer ... their first two referrals go onto your list. And all of those people's first two referrals go onto your list. Etc.
As a bonus, you can earn commissions on any referrals who upgrade their accounts. If you have a free account, you earn 40% of the available commission; as a paid member you earn 100% of the available commission, plus the extra 60% that your free referrals don't earn if their referrals upgrade.
Sounds like a great idea, right? It is, except for one thing: with a free account, every time you share a link, your visitor (the person who clicked on your link) will either get a popunder ad (a new window pops up under their current window) or an interstitial ad -- this is an ad that runs for about 10 seconds before the person reaches the page you were linking to.
This means people will see an ad for someone else's material along with whatever you wanted to share with them. I don't believe you'll even be able to use a link like that (with popups or interstitials) in most advertisements (like Adwords or Bing or even ad exchanges). And the only way to remove these ads is to upgrade to a paid account.
There's nothing wrong with paying for a link tracker. I just don't love the suggestion that you can build a mailing list with a free link tracker that really isn't very useful. I feel it would be more honest to have a paid link tracker that also builds you a mailing list, doing away with the free level that I would personally never recommend. Just one man's opinion, of course.
Overview: SoManyHits is more than just a link tracker; it is also a mailing list builder without the need to have your own mailing software, although you can also build a list in your own software. The idea is that you can give away a link tracker for FREE and, in doing so, build your mailing list.
Not only that, the list you build could in theory build you an even larger list. How? Your first two referrals go onto someone else's list, but then for everyone else you refer ... their first two referrals go onto your list. And all of those people's first two referrals go onto your list. Etc.
As a bonus, you can earn commissions on any referrals who upgrade their accounts. If you have a free account, you earn 40% of the available commission; as a paid member you earn 100% of the available commission, plus the extra 60% that your free referrals don't earn if their referrals upgrade.
Sounds like a great idea, right? It is, except for one thing: with a free account, every time you share a link, your visitor (the person who clicked on your link) will either get a popunder ad (a new window pops up under their current window) or an interstitial ad -- this is an ad that runs for about 10 seconds before the person reaches the page you were linking to.
This means people will see an ad for someone else's material along with whatever you wanted to share with them. I don't believe you'll even be able to use a link like that (with popups or interstitials) in most advertisements (like Adwords or Bing or even ad exchanges). And the only way to remove these ads is to upgrade to a paid account.
There's nothing wrong with paying for a link tracker. I just don't love the suggestion that you can build a mailing list with a free link tracker that really isn't very useful. I feel it would be more honest to have a paid link tracker that also builds you a mailing list, doing away with the free level that I would personally never recommend. Just one man's opinion, of course.
Free SoManyHits Account:
* Track # of hits.
* Add keywords (up to 10 characters) to any link to track its source. (What page or ad it came from.)
* Links are always masked for free members.
* 5% of the time you log in, you will see someone's full-page ad.
* Someone else's ad (popunder or interstitial) will run every time someone clicks your link.
* Your interstitial ads will run every time someone clicks one of your free referrals' links.
* Your first 2 referrals (to SoManyHits) go to someone else's mailing list.
* The first 2 referrals of everyone on your list go to your mailing list, in theory to build it rapidly.
* They offer you a LOT of landing pages to share the system, including blogs, quizzes, etc.
* Mail your list every 10 days through SoManyHits.
* Download your list and use in your own mailing software as you like.
* Earn 40% of the available commission on any of your referrals who upgrade.
Paid SoManyHits Account:
* $6/month to $13.50/month (depending on how long you buy it for). This is comparable to or less than other paid options.
* Lifetime option available, but not a good deal until you've used it for almost 5 years.
* Track Total Hits, Unique Hits, and Conversions. (To me, conversion tracking is an important feature to a link tracker, and is usually only found with paid trackers. The free LeadsLeap option shown above is an exception. You must have control of the conversion page though, so it usually can't track referral or MLM conversions, but can track sales or newsletter signups on your own website.)
* Never see ads when logging into your own account.
* Turn off the popunder and interstitial ads of other people so your visitors never see these.
* Choose from either popunder or interstitial ads in the links of your free referrals.
* You can ad images to your popunder or interstitial ads.
* Your links do not have to be masked.
* You can set an expiration on a link if you want.
* Mail your list every 2.5 days (instead of every 10 days).
* Earn 100% of commissions on referral upgrades. (This is not 100% of the upgrade amount, but of the available commission. The company has to make some money from upgrades.)
* Earn 60% of commissions on the referral upgrades of your free referrals.
BOTTOM LINE:
I'm not a fan of the free SoManyHits account, because I don't recommend using links that will feature other people's ads. So I only recommend this service if you plan to upgrade, and even then, I think the free LeadsLeap tracker is much better. Still, the price is fair compared to other paid trackers, so I definitely don't consider it a scam. And it may be able to build you a mailing list.
Click here to join SoManyHits.
* Track # of hits.
* Add keywords (up to 10 characters) to any link to track its source. (What page or ad it came from.)
* Links are always masked for free members.
* 5% of the time you log in, you will see someone's full-page ad.
* Someone else's ad (popunder or interstitial) will run every time someone clicks your link.
* Your interstitial ads will run every time someone clicks one of your free referrals' links.
* Your first 2 referrals (to SoManyHits) go to someone else's mailing list.
* The first 2 referrals of everyone on your list go to your mailing list, in theory to build it rapidly.
* They offer you a LOT of landing pages to share the system, including blogs, quizzes, etc.
* Mail your list every 10 days through SoManyHits.
* Download your list and use in your own mailing software as you like.
* Earn 40% of the available commission on any of your referrals who upgrade.
Paid SoManyHits Account:
* $6/month to $13.50/month (depending on how long you buy it for). This is comparable to or less than other paid options.
* Lifetime option available, but not a good deal until you've used it for almost 5 years.
* Track Total Hits, Unique Hits, and Conversions. (To me, conversion tracking is an important feature to a link tracker, and is usually only found with paid trackers. The free LeadsLeap option shown above is an exception. You must have control of the conversion page though, so it usually can't track referral or MLM conversions, but can track sales or newsletter signups on your own website.)
* Never see ads when logging into your own account.
* Turn off the popunder and interstitial ads of other people so your visitors never see these.
* Choose from either popunder or interstitial ads in the links of your free referrals.
* You can ad images to your popunder or interstitial ads.
* Your links do not have to be masked.
* You can set an expiration on a link if you want.
* Mail your list every 2.5 days (instead of every 10 days).
* Earn 100% of commissions on referral upgrades. (This is not 100% of the upgrade amount, but of the available commission. The company has to make some money from upgrades.)
* Earn 60% of commissions on the referral upgrades of your free referrals.
BOTTOM LINE:
I'm not a fan of the free SoManyHits account, because I don't recommend using links that will feature other people's ads. So I only recommend this service if you plan to upgrade, and even then, I think the free LeadsLeap tracker is much better. Still, the price is fair compared to other paid trackers, so I definitely don't consider it a scam. And it may be able to build you a mailing list.
Click here to join SoManyHits.
Note: the programs above are MORE than just link trackers. As you read through the rest of these (below), I think you'll agree that the LeadsLeap link tracker is the best FREE tracker you can get. LeadsLeap has very little reason to upgrade in terms of its link tracker because it's already so good, but offers additional value for $20/month. And SoManyHits offers its own value in its upgraded account. (I don't recommend SoManyHits as a free tracker though.)
The programs below are dedicated link trackers, some with free options, but I would not recommend any of their free options, as LeadsLeap offers so much more for free.
The programs below are dedicated link trackers, some with free options, but I would not recommend any of their free options, as LeadsLeap offers so much more for free.
ClixTrac
ClixTrac used to be a free link tracker, and they still have a very limited option for free. But to prevent abuse, they moved to a low-cost paid option. Here are there account types:
FREE ClixTrac Account:
Since I would never use their free account, you can see why I say that there's nothing wrong with PAYING for an account. SoManyHits its reasonably similar in price to this, and it offers more than just link tracking. But overall the following are low prices for a link tracker:
$4.95/month ClixTrac Account:
$9.95/month ClixTrac Account:
Since the $9.95/month option is the only one that tracks conversions, this is the only one I would use. As you can see, pricing is comparable to SoManyHits' paid account, though ClixTrac offers more as a link tracker at this price, and SoManyHits offers other benefits, like the chance to build a mailing list.
LeadsLeap doesn't offer everything that ClixTrac offers, but neither does ClixTrac offer everything available (for free) from LeadsLeap. For instance, I love that LeadsLeap lets you add the links to rotators or add teaser text before a page opens or add a welcome bar to the top of the page (with your message on it).
So it all boils down to your preferences.
FREE ClixTrac Account:
- You can create banners as well as links, and track impressions and clicks.
- Change banner and link destinations at any time.
- Organize banners and links into campaign groups.
- You can only track clicks on each banner or link for up to 7 days or 100 clicks. For this reason alone, I would never use this free account.
- Likewise, you can only track impressions of banners or links for up to 7 days or 500 impressions. Again, this is a non-starter for me.
- Get 10% recurring commissions for referring others.
Since I would never use their free account, you can see why I say that there's nothing wrong with PAYING for an account. SoManyHits its reasonably similar in price to this, and it offers more than just link tracking. But overall the following are low prices for a link tracker:
$4.95/month ClixTrac Account:
- Remove click limitations. (Naturally what you're looking for.)
- Create banners and links that have no click limitations.
- Track banner views/impressions for up to 20,000 impressions per day. (As far as I know, LeadsLeap and SoManyHits don't have tracking limits. And you can always add tracking links to banners.)
- Reset your counters back to zero at any time.
- Access to partial click data like time of day, clicker's IP and referring web page URL. (But remember how much more data you got for free with LeadsLeap? It doesn't include IP, but it does include country origin.)
- Cloaking is optional.
- Earn 30% recurring commissions on their affiliate program.
- Pay annual and it becomes just $3.95/month.
$9.95/month ClixTrac Account:
- Remove banner impression limitations.
- Get more data like time of day, IP address, referring URL, browser, operating system, and country.
- Keep your traffic sources private by turning on our optional referrer remover. Strip out the referrer data before passing the clicker over to the destination URL.
- Use their unique Sub-ID tracking to customize each click and pass variables over to the destination URL. Great for passing keywords, email addresses or other variables over to get even more detailed click information.
- Optional stat sharing pages allow you to share stats with friends and clients, without giving them full access to your account. You can share stats for individual tracking items, entire campaign groups or your entire account.
- Get downloadable, real-time reports.
- Create your own custom domain in place of the clixtrac.com domain name to track your banners and links.
- Earn 50% recurring commissions on their affiliate program.
- Count sales or other successful transactions with conversion tracking.
- Split-test traffic to different landing page URLs to see which page or sponsor converts into the most sales and highest ROI (Return-On-Investment).
- Yearly Discount Rate - Save $24! Comes to only $7.95/month when paid annually.
Since the $9.95/month option is the only one that tracks conversions, this is the only one I would use. As you can see, pricing is comparable to SoManyHits' paid account, though ClixTrac offers more as a link tracker at this price, and SoManyHits offers other benefits, like the chance to build a mailing list.
LeadsLeap doesn't offer everything that ClixTrac offers, but neither does ClixTrac offer everything available (for free) from LeadsLeap. For instance, I love that LeadsLeap lets you add the links to rotators or add teaser text before a page opens or add a welcome bar to the top of the page (with your message on it).
So it all boils down to your preferences.
ClickMagick
From a features perspective, this is actually my favorite link tracker, but it's beyond what I actually need so I don't have an account. (And it doesn't let you turn off link masking, if this is important to you.) It starts at $17/month (or $12/month paid annually), and since I get all the tracking I need from LeadsLeap, along with many other benefits (like high-quality traffic to my site), I prefer spending $20/month on LeadsLeap. But I'm sharing this because I think it may be a great fit for a lot of serious affiliates.
Before I share all the goodies of ClickMagick, let me share, in their own words, what you cannot track:
Due to massive uncontrollable click fraud problems, ClickMagick does NOT track traffic from "bulk" traffic sites, auto-surf traffic exchanges, or Pay-Per-View (PPV) traffic platforms.
These traffic sources generate tons of fake clicks, cause problems for our users and unnecessary support tickets for us, and we simply don't want this type of traffic associated with our platform.
You can't track adult traffic with ClickMagick either, for most of the same reasons - we just don't want all of the scams and fraud inherent to adult traffic to be associated with our platform.
Finally, you may not use ClickMagick tracking links for "unsubscribe" links in emails.
Here's an image of creating a link with ClickMagick. Its many features are shown below the image.
Before I share all the goodies of ClickMagick, let me share, in their own words, what you cannot track:
Due to massive uncontrollable click fraud problems, ClickMagick does NOT track traffic from "bulk" traffic sites, auto-surf traffic exchanges, or Pay-Per-View (PPV) traffic platforms.
These traffic sources generate tons of fake clicks, cause problems for our users and unnecessary support tickets for us, and we simply don't want this type of traffic associated with our platform.
You can't track adult traffic with ClickMagick either, for most of the same reasons - we just don't want all of the scams and fraud inherent to adult traffic to be associated with our platform.
Finally, you may not use ClickMagick tracking links for "unsubscribe" links in emails.
Here's an image of creating a link with ClickMagick. Its many features are shown below the image.
Here's what you do get with ClickMagick:
- Link Cloaking -- I don't believe you can turn this off, as many of the features require it.
- 24/7 Link Uptime Monitoring
- Automatic Bot Filtering
- Click Fraud Monitoring & Traffic Quality Analysis -- LeadsLeap is the only other link tracker on this page that assesses the quality of the traffic you're getting, and it's included for free with LeadsLeap.
- Custom Tracking Domains (Unlimited)
- Advanced Geotargeting & Mobile Optimization
- Effortless Conversion Tracking (Of ANY Action Or Sale) -- Except for LeadsLeap, all the options on this page require a paid account to track conversions. LeadsLeap will track 2 conversions for any tracked link, and does so for free.
- Track Entire Funnels -- Use this to see where funnels fall apart so you know what to fix.
- A/B Split Testing w/ Automated Winner Alerts -- The only other link tracker I've reviewed that does this costs $39/month or more for this feature.
- Multi-Mode Link Rotators -- Leadsleap is the only other link tracker on this page that offers a link rotator, and it's included for free with LeadsLeap. ClickMajick's rotator does offer some additional features.
- Add 4 Types Of Pop Ups To ANY Link -- This is called the MajickPop. I normally have to use other software to do this type of thing, but here it's built in. It allows you to add a popup to any page you're linking to ... even if you don't own it. This is a great way to grab email addresses from those interested in particular topics.
- Add Content & Notification Bars To ANY Link -- LeadsLeap is the only other one on this page that offers notification bars, and it's included for free with LeadsLeap. ClickMajick's may be more flexible. Again, put this on other people's sites ... maybe make sure someone sees your bonus when they buy an affiliate deal through you!
- Add A Countdown Timer To ANY Link Or Page -- LeadsLeap is the only other one on this page that offers this, and it's included for free with LeadsLeap, but can only be used in conjunction with a notification bar in LeadsLeap. With ClickMajick, it's an independent feature.
- Add Retargeting Pixels To ANY Link -- Of course if you own a web page, you can already add retargeting pixels to the page. But what if you only want to retarget people who have followed particular links to that page? Or you want to retarget people when you've sent them to a site (like Amazon) that you don't control? This is how you do it.
- Dynamic Affiliate Links -- This is really interesting. It lets you bypass a generic affiliate landing page (create your own instead) and still get commissions from the company's order form.
- Content Locking -- Produce great content, then require someone to share or join a mailing list before they can get access to it.
- Advanced Postback URL Tracking
- Dynamic Ad Network Token & Sub-ID Passing -- ClixTrac is the only other one on this page that seems to offer this, and it only does so at the $9.95/month level.
- Facebook Sharing - Custom Title, Description & Image
- True Real-Time Stats
- Google Analytics Compatible -- Lets you build custom audiences and Google's retargeting options.
- Easy-To-Navigate Detailed In-Depth Stats
- Public Stats Sharing
- More
ClickMajick Pricing:
$17/month (or pay annually for $12/month): All core features; up to 10,000 clicks /mo.; track just 1 funnel; 2 custom tracking domains; 6-month data retention.
$47/month (or pay annually for $33/month): All core features; up to 100,000 clicks /mo.; track 5 funnels; organic tracking for 5 websites; 10 custom tracking domains; 1-year data retention.
$97/month (or pay annually for $66/month): All core features; up to 1,000,000 clicks / mo.; unlimited funnel tracking; unlimited organic tracking; unlimited custom tracking domains; 2-year data retention.
For the smaller affiliate who doesn't need to track funnels in detail and isn't going above 10,000 clicks per month, the basic package provides a ton of features for a very competitive price. And even the higher packages offer a ton of value for those who will use the features.
Click here to get ClickMagick.
LinkTrack.info
I won't go into details here because it's another example where I would never choose the free account, and you get much more value from the options I've already covered. But here are some highlights:
- The free account limits tracking to 7 days or 100 clicks. I'd ignore this option just on this point.
- The lowest cost for an upgraded account is $6.95/month. This removes click limitations and gives some benefits like vanity URLs and report sharing.
- But to get things like unique clicks and conversion tracking and downloadable reports, you have to upgrade to $24.95/month. That's more than LeadsLeap, which provides an incredible link tracker and much more (including plenty of quality visitors) for just $20/month, and it's nearly as much as ClickMajick, which offers the best I've found in click tracking for about the same price.
LinkTrackr.com
This is another I found in my effort to provide you with a broad view on the link tracker market. This one doesn't even offer a free account and starts at $9/month for just 100 links and 10,000 total clicks tracked each month.
- If you want conversion tracking, you're at $19/month and up.
- If you want A/B split testing, you're at $39/month and up.
- And all their accounts come with limits to their tracking.
Summary & Link Tracker Recommendations
FREE Link Tracker:
No question about it, LeadsLeap is going to be your best option out of those I've found. (And I looked beyond what I've reviewed on this page.) You get a robust feature set that I consider better than many paid options along with MANY other benefits to your account. The only thing you cannot control is that you must have a small tab at the bottom of the page you're sharing; this allows people to see how long they've been on the site (actively), to report any abuse, and to get a LeadsLeap account through you (at which point you can reach them with promotions over time).
Upgrading gives you a few benefits on the link tracker (including removing that tab), but most of the upgrade benefits are for other things like quality traffic through ads. Upgrading is not necessary to having a very good link tracker.
PAID Link Tracker:
The best PAID option depends on your needs. So let me summarize the only ones I would choose:
ClickMagick: for the most robust link tracker without any other benefits, this is your ultimate choice.
ClixTrac: if you need a dedicated link tracker that costs less than ClickMajick but still has some advanced features, I would go with the $9.95/month account on ClixTrac. ($7.95/month if paid annually.) I wouldn't choose a lower account with them, due to the lack of certain features.
LeadsLeap: if you're interested in all the extras of LeadsLeap, like traffic from ads, traffic from reviews, a 10-level downline (for viral growth) that will see your ads, spillover for this downline, and much more ... then upgrading in LeadsLeap for $20/month is your best option. While it doesn't offer some of the advanced features of the others, it also offers some that ClixTrac doesn't have and is very thorough for most people's needs.
SoManyHits: this seems to me like the most limited out of these paid link trackers, so I wouldn't pay for it just for link tracking. But if you're interested in the possibility of building a mailing list that you can write to every 2.5 days, and the possibility of other people helping to grow your list virally, this is the option for you to try.
I hope this in-depth review gives you the insights you need to choose a link tracker, and that you'll start using one on a regular basis to save your money and your time.
No question about it, LeadsLeap is going to be your best option out of those I've found. (And I looked beyond what I've reviewed on this page.) You get a robust feature set that I consider better than many paid options along with MANY other benefits to your account. The only thing you cannot control is that you must have a small tab at the bottom of the page you're sharing; this allows people to see how long they've been on the site (actively), to report any abuse, and to get a LeadsLeap account through you (at which point you can reach them with promotions over time).
Upgrading gives you a few benefits on the link tracker (including removing that tab), but most of the upgrade benefits are for other things like quality traffic through ads. Upgrading is not necessary to having a very good link tracker.
PAID Link Tracker:
The best PAID option depends on your needs. So let me summarize the only ones I would choose:
ClickMagick: for the most robust link tracker without any other benefits, this is your ultimate choice.
ClixTrac: if you need a dedicated link tracker that costs less than ClickMajick but still has some advanced features, I would go with the $9.95/month account on ClixTrac. ($7.95/month if paid annually.) I wouldn't choose a lower account with them, due to the lack of certain features.
LeadsLeap: if you're interested in all the extras of LeadsLeap, like traffic from ads, traffic from reviews, a 10-level downline (for viral growth) that will see your ads, spillover for this downline, and much more ... then upgrading in LeadsLeap for $20/month is your best option. While it doesn't offer some of the advanced features of the others, it also offers some that ClixTrac doesn't have and is very thorough for most people's needs.
SoManyHits: this seems to me like the most limited out of these paid link trackers, so I wouldn't pay for it just for link tracking. But if you're interested in the possibility of building a mailing list that you can write to every 2.5 days, and the possibility of other people helping to grow your list virally, this is the option for you to try.
I hope this in-depth review gives you the insights you need to choose a link tracker, and that you'll start using one on a regular basis to save your money and your time.