phpBay and SID

Hi

I would like to know which pages my ebay clicks are coming from. I'm using phpBay and assume I do this with the SID variable. The instructions are:

"As of 2.0, SID tracking is introduced. Wherever you place your SID tracking code, you will need to create a global variable called $sid and assign the SID value to this global variable. If $sid is set, in your tracking code, it will be picked up by phpBay Pro automatically and passed outbound in with URL masking on or off."

However, I dont' understand this. What tracking code is this referring to? I haven't actually put any tracking code anywhere. Just the line of code that goes on the post/page. E.g. [phpbay]apple ipod, 10, "", ""[/phpbay]

I've looked inside the phpbay file but still can't work out what to change/add where.

Can anyone familiar with the software help me out?

Thanks
Gillian

 

I guess Gtech, the PhpBay author, can answer you with that. Did you bother to send him an email?

 

Yes I did. He referred me to the paragraph quoted above. He's particularly busy at the moment, moving house.

 

SID tracking was added because there are some third party software programs out there, like Xtreme Conversions, that track per page/per keyword type listings.

As such, these third party software programs supply their end users with code to insert into their pages which also contain a variable that holds the SID value. So the process is, to make sure this tracking code that contains the variable is set to be a global variable (ie: $sid) and then passed onto phpBay. If phpBay's sid tracking variable has a value, then it is appended to the outgoing ebay url, and ebay will update the tracking for it.

 

Hi

Thanks for the response.

So . . . without the extra type of software that you mention above is there any way that I can track which page on my site the ebay sale came from?

Thanks for your help.

 

Hi Gillian,

Not the way it is now. Are you wanting to manually add a SID value to the [phpbay] code? If so, I could add this as another parameter.

It was really setup to work with third party software products that provide SID tracking and discovery of keywords.

Let me know if this is what you need.

 

Hi

Basically what I want to do is track which post/page the ebay sale came from. I thought that SID might be the way to go but but maybe there's an easier way?

Thanks for your help.

Gillian

 

I have some custom sites that generates ebay listings based on that page's keyword. I also set the SID to that keyword as well. This allows me to look at my sales report and determine which keyword was associated with each sale. I can't tell what page the sale came from, but I can tell the keyword, which is more important for me anyways.

It's easy enough to do, just dynamically change the SID for each page's ebay feed. Does phpBay have that capability?

 

I don't know if phpBay has the facility you talk about. I'll have to wait to hear from GTech. At this point is definately the post/page I'm more interested in as I'm relying on natural search rather than ppc.

Cheers
Gillian

 

I just purchased the phpby wp plugin and I would love it if you could make SID as an additional parameter.

I came looking for info on the SID issue too.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I'll try to get this featured added by the weekend and release 2.3 with SID tracking as a [phpbay] variable.

 

Cool, I think you just pushed me over the edge for purchasing it as well. I've got a site that I'd love something better than eBay's Editor Kit... Unique SID's are great for me seeing what sold.

 

Thanks a bunch! You've over-delivered on customer service as always

Gillian

 

Any news on the update?

Cheers
Gillian

 

Hi Gillian,

I just uploaded 2.3 Wordpress Plugin. You can download it in the store now. Apologies for the delay, I wanted to add some other things to this version.

 

Thanks for letting us know. Will go and get it now.

And, while I'm at it . . .

Can I use SID with the API version? Or is that the same as the WP one used to be, i.e. the SID bit is for people with other software?

Cheers
Gillian

 

You can manually add a unique SID value in the API version.

 

I'm still confused as to how to setup SID. I don't care if I track the keyword or the page, any information would be helpful. Can I not setup SID without the API version? I have keyword radar for tracking keywords, how can I use this to track keywords? Keyword radar wants to append =keywordradar as a sub-id to the affiliate link. where can I find the affiliate link? Do I have to edit the plugin?

Thanks

 

Hello,

I use keywordradar.com also to do encrypted keyword tracking.

For each page view it generates a unique tracking id, and that tracking id is linked back to the original tracking id so that you can see which keyword the visitor came under.

Email Brian the owner, and he'll give you help on how to get this working for you. His customer support is the best in the business IMO.

Hope that helps,

Frank.