Difference between revisions of "NATS4 LinkCodes"
| Line 30: | Line 30: | ||
[[Image:NATS4_Unencoded_Linkcode.jpg|frame|center||||Figure 1.2 - Unencoded Link Codes Explained]] | [[Image:NATS4_Unencoded_Linkcode.jpg|frame|center||||Figure 1.2 - Unencoded Link Codes Explained]] | ||
| − | This example shows | + | This example shows the unencoded link code. Instead of the encoded string, we now have a period-delimited list of all the info that the encoded string would have. |
*'''Affiliate Username''' - The username of the affiliate who referred this surfer | *'''Affiliate Username''' - The username of the affiliate who referred this surfer | ||
*'''Programid''' - The numeric id of the program that the surfer's transaction will be paid out under (See [[#Things to Remember|Things to Remember]]) | *'''Programid''' - The numeric id of the program that the surfer's transaction will be paid out under (See [[#Things to Remember|Things to Remember]]) | ||
| Line 38: | Line 38: | ||
*'''Adtoolid''' - If the surfer followed a link code associated with an [[ct#Adtool|adtool]], this will represent the numeric id of the adtool the surfer saw. If no adtool was used, this will default to 0 | *'''Adtoolid''' - If the surfer followed a link code associated with an [[ct#Adtool|adtool]], this will represent the numeric id of the adtool the surfer saw. If no adtool was used, this will default to 0 | ||
*'''Subid1 & Subid2''' - (See explanation above) | *'''Subid1 & Subid2''' - (See explanation above) | ||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
== Shortname Link Codes == | == Shortname Link Codes == | ||
Revision as of 12:00, 30 March 2010
Affiliates get their link codes on the Affiliate Link Code page. There are 3 types of link codes:
- encoded
- unencoded
- shortname
PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL THREE TYPES ARE INTERCHANGEABLE WITH EACH OTHER.
Encoded Link Codes
This is the most common variety of link code. All of the info NATS needs to tie an affiliate to a surfer is in the base64-encoded string of characters at the end.
For more information on what a link domain is, please visit the page devoted to it. For the variations on track, please visit the pages devoted to each of them.
Unencoded Link Codes
This example shows the unencoded link code. Instead of the encoded string, we now have a period-delimited list of all the info that the encoded string would have.
- Affiliate Username - The username of the affiliate who referred this surfer
- Programid - The numeric id of the program that the surfer's transaction will be paid out under (See Things to Remember)
- Siteid - The numeric id of the NATS site your surfer is trying to visit
- Tourid - The numeric id of the site's tour that your surfer will be redirected to (See Sites Admin for details)
- Affiliate Campaignid - The numeric id of the campaign associated with the affiliate (0 = the default campaign for that affiliate)
- Adtoolid - If the surfer followed a link code associated with an adtool, this will represent the numeric id of the adtool the surfer saw. If no adtool was used, this will default to 0
- Subid1 & Subid2 - (See explanation above)
Shortname Link Codes
These linkcodes will look very similiar to Unencoded Link Codes, but instead of using the ids, this format will use the shortnames of the program, site, and tour.
Example: http://demo.nats4.com/track/DemoAff.pps.sitea.MAIN.0.0.0.0/
Decoding Link Codes
Encoded link codes can be decoded using base64 decoding.
Things to Remember
- All three formats are interchangeable!
- If moving from NATS v3 to NATS v4, your NATS3 link codes are 100% usable and compatiable in NATS v4
- The non-encoded formats are security-smart! If an affiliate alters a link code so that he/she sends traffic to a program that the affiliate does not belong to, or if they send traffic to a site/tour that does not belong to the program, the affiliate will not get paid out on any transactions that result from that traffic.
- The non-encoded formats are NOT idiot-proof! If an affiliate alters the link code so they are using a program they don't belong to or using a tour that doesn't belong to the site, they will not get desired payout or the surfer will not land on the right tour in most cases.
Deep Linking
Affiliates can link directly to a pre-join page by appending /join to a linkcode. For example:
http://linkdomain/track/MjozOjE/join
Affiliates can link to any other page on your site by appending a forward-slash and a relative URL to the link code. For example, using the following linkcode to link to http://example.com/tour1.html:
http://join.example.com/track/MjozOjE/tour1.html
Affiliates can manipulate the query string too. For example, the affiliate can pass the variable, extra_var=1234 to a tour by appending a question mark and the variable assignment to their linkcode:
http://join.example.com/track/MjozOjE/?extra_var=1234
