LinksSQL & AdvertPro - "Buy now" text ads for each link
Hi all,
I'm creating a product directory with LinksSQL. I want each product to be able to have several "buy now" links to different retailers that sell that specific product (I don’t have a store of my own). The link should redirect the visitor to the product page on the retailer site. Clicks should be tracked through AdvertPro for each retailer, so they'll show up in campaign reports, and I can bill 'em. :-) I’d like it to be quick and easy to add “buy now” links, as I expect to be doing it quite often!
Here's a good example of what I want to do (see the "Where To Buy" section):
http://www.mtbr.com/reviews/disc_brake_system/product_122115.shtml
I’ve been thinking that I could create one banner for each advertiser, and use that one banner for all “Buy Now” links for that advertiser, no matter what the product is. If I have a LinksSQL template (or global? or plugin?) generate the code for the link instead of AdvertPro, I could put “&redirect=http://advertiser.site/path/to/page” at the end to have the user end up at the right place, while still having the clicks and impressions tracked. Other than the &redirect part, the code would look the same as what AdvertPro’s Code Generator would create in the admin CP.
The reason I like this solution (provided it’s actually feasible!), is that I wouldn’t have to create a banner for every single product for every single retailer, just to get the banner to link to the right page. I think that would be much too tedius a process.
What I’m not sure about is how to create the links (we would need to know banner # for retailer’s “buy now” banner and campaign # for retailer’s “buy now” campaign – perhaps we could store those in a separate table?), or how to store multiple value pairs in one column for the product for creating the “buy now” link code (ie. Retailer1, URL; Retailer 2, URL; …). I assume there’s a way of looping through that like we do for displaying links, reviews, etc in templates??
I would really appreciate the help! :-) Oh, and if someone has an entirely different approach, I’d be really interested in hearing it!
Thanks a lot!
Stephen
I'm creating a product directory with LinksSQL. I want each product to be able to have several "buy now" links to different retailers that sell that specific product (I don’t have a store of my own). The link should redirect the visitor to the product page on the retailer site. Clicks should be tracked through AdvertPro for each retailer, so they'll show up in campaign reports, and I can bill 'em. :-) I’d like it to be quick and easy to add “buy now” links, as I expect to be doing it quite often!
Here's a good example of what I want to do (see the "Where To Buy" section):
http://www.mtbr.com/reviews/disc_brake_system/product_122115.shtml
I’ve been thinking that I could create one banner for each advertiser, and use that one banner for all “Buy Now” links for that advertiser, no matter what the product is. If I have a LinksSQL template (or global? or plugin?) generate the code for the link instead of AdvertPro, I could put “&redirect=http://advertiser.site/path/to/page” at the end to have the user end up at the right place, while still having the clicks and impressions tracked. Other than the &redirect part, the code would look the same as what AdvertPro’s Code Generator would create in the admin CP.
The reason I like this solution (provided it’s actually feasible!), is that I wouldn’t have to create a banner for every single product for every single retailer, just to get the banner to link to the right page. I think that would be much too tedius a process.
What I’m not sure about is how to create the links (we would need to know banner # for retailer’s “buy now” banner and campaign # for retailer’s “buy now” campaign – perhaps we could store those in a separate table?), or how to store multiple value pairs in one column for the product for creating the “buy now” link code (ie. Retailer1, URL; Retailer 2, URL; …). I assume there’s a way of looping through that like we do for displaying links, reviews, etc in templates??
I would really appreciate the help! :-) Oh, and if someone has an entirely different approach, I’d be really interested in hearing it!
Thanks a lot!
Stephen
LinksSQL & AdvertPro - "Buy now" text ads for each link