Is a tracking pixel required to get credit for a sale?

Discussion in 'Affiliate Programs' started by Chris Guthrie, Apr 20, 2009.

  1. #1
    I know that Amazon (and most other online retailers for that matter) offers a tracking pixel when creating an affiliate link.

    So my question is if this tracking pixel is required?

    The main reason why I ask is because I'm creating a PDF and I want to put links to products etc. but there doesn't seem to be anyway to put a tracking pixel in for the links other than the affiliate link itself.

    Is there some other way to do this in Acrobat I'm not sure of? I do know you can create a PDF off of a web page... so perhaps I could create a webpage that would have all of the tracking and capture it that way but now I think I'm just rambling.

    Anyone care to chime in?
     
    Chris Guthrie, Apr 20, 2009 IP
  2. JBT

    JBT Peon

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    #2
    I'm going to go ahead and bump this because i have the exact same question. Pixels make everything hard. They seem designed for use on sites or in HTML email, so there's no easy way to hand someone a link in an email or in a PDF document because that stupid pixel seems to have to be in there. All CJ products have it.

    The way I solved this... and I don't at all trust my "solution" or think it's a clean way to do it... was to make the link in the PDF go to a page on my website. That page contained the full code for the link, which included the pixel, but redirected the visitor when the page loaded to the affiliate link, using a javascript redirect.

    I know this worked at least once, but based on my long-term results I 1) am not sure it works for everyone and 2) still hate it because it's so jury-rigged. I want to be able to hand someone an affiliate link in an email if I have to, without making it a link to a redirect page on my site.

    Anyone know about this? Can you just use the naked link?
     
    JBT, May 1, 2009 IP
  3. JBT

    JBT Peon

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    #3
    Never mind. I'm a Digital Point n00b. I see it's been answered before. Short answer: Pixel not required, you can just use the part between the quotes in the a href= tag.
     
    JBT, May 1, 2009 IP