xdns

--- BtitT2/branches/beta/user/usercp.pidchange.php 2010/11/18 09:30:43 664
+++ BtitT2/branches/beta/user/usercp.pidchange.php 2010/12/18 16:03:10 665
@@ -41,7 +41,8 @@
           $res=do_sqlquery("UPDATE {$TABLE_PREFIX}users SET pid='".$pid."' WHERE id='".$CURUSER['uid']."'",true);
           if ($res)
              {
-             do_sqlquery("UPDATE xbt_users SET torrent_pass='".$pid."' WHERE uid='".$CURUSER['uid']."'",true);
+             if($XBTT_USE)
+                 do_sqlquery("UPDATE xbt_users SET torrent_pass='".$pid."' WHERE uid='".$CURUSER['uid']."'",true);
              redirect("index.php?page=usercp&uid=".$uid."");
              exit();
              }

http://btit-tracker.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/btit-tracker/BtitT2/branches/beta/user/usercp.pidchange.php?view=patch&r1=665&r2=664&pathrev=665

While the rest of the world is fascinated by shortening their links through services such at bit.ly, and Hootsuite (ow.ly), among others. Advertisers are making their links longer so they can determine which online marketing campaigns are producing traffic on their website. It is called “link tagging,” and if you have used Google AdWords, you may already be familiar with the insights they offer through the free Google Analytics tool.

Some communication professionals are also finding that using link tagging for e-mail newsletters, press releases, blog links, and even Twitter campaigns help them to show the effectiveness of their efforts. Why let the marketers and advertising people have all the fun?

It turns out that there is a free tool in the Google Toolbox that you can use to make these special links called the Google URL Builder. If you just have one or two links that you need to convert and track it is ideal. If you are more advanced and have multiple links (say 100s) that you need to track, you might want to go with the free EpikOne URL Builder spreadsheet tool. My recommendation is to start small and grow as you scale the learning curve.

I have done this for a couple of clients, but didn’t have permission to show the data. Luckily Marc van Bree, who blogs at Dutch Perspective, has been using this technique in his job at Chapin Hall, a family policy and programs research center at the University of Chicago. We will use Chapin Hill as a “How to” case study.

Marc had been using Google Analytics to look at user behaviors and intentions on the organization’s new website. However, he was interested in the large amount of "Direct Traffic" coming to the site when he learned that direct traffic is a broad category that can include people inputting a particular web address directly in the URL bar or clicking a link that opens a new browser window—for example, a link in a document or from an e-mail program. Knowing this, it was no stretch to hypothesize that his e-mail marketing efforts were responsible for a large amount of this direct traffic.

But how to prove that the direct traffic was really from the email newsletter? or from Twitter links, or from Facebook?

Enter Google’s URL Builder tool! If you have Google Analytics on your website, you can use this tool without any IT help or technical expertise. The same principle applies for other analytics tools, but you will have to get specific instructions for that, like this one for Omniture. If you are in a big organization where IT controls your analytics, take this post to them and see if they can help you with a solution.

Step One

Go to the Google URL Builder Site or the free the free EpikOne URL Builder spreadsheet tool if you have many URLs to convert.
For Google URL Builder, Fill out the form
You can use any words you want for the Campaign Source,Campaign Medium and Campaign Name fields. They key is staying consistent in both word choice and case sensitivity. The long URL that the tool generates is called a “referral string” and can be “read” by Google Analytics.