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Geniuslink News

Faster Resolution with Direct Links

GeoRiot understands that for some, link resolution speed trumps everything. For when you need absolute speed, and are willing to give up user level tracking, we are excited to announce a recent enhancement to our service: the “Skip Affiliate Redirect” feature.

This feature leverages the iTunes “Short Link” format to send consumers directly to the iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore, or Mac App Store with special affiliate tracking parameters attached directly to the landing page URL. Skipping the affiliate redirect saves up to three additional hops for the consumer and dramatically reduces the time from click to final destination.

Getting started with this new enhancement first requires adding an additional tracking parameter in the dashboard for each of your supported affiliate countries. Next, append “&DIRECT=1” to the end of each link you wish to have skip the affiliate redirect. Information about how to gather these additional tracking parameters is included in our Linking Formats documentation.

Please note that since GeoRiot also tracks clicks on your links, the only compromise you make by using the Skip Affiliate Redirect parameter is forgoing user level tracking provided by the affiliate networks (Signature/U1 from LinkShare and EPI from TradeDoubler).

Give it a try and let us know how it’s helped your conversion rate.

Categories
Geniuslink News

Welcome Back Jesse Lakes

After a two year hiatus, we are ecstatic to welcome back our co-founder Jesse Lakes. While we will all continue to wear many hats, Lakes’s will be focused towards front-of-house operations, building our roadmap, and helping out wherever he can (QA!). Due to Lakes’s vast experience with the iTunes / App Store Affiliate Program, we encourage you to connect with him to talk through best practices and ensuring you are best maximizing the affiliate program and GeoRiot service.

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Geniuslink News

Cheers to 100 Million Clicks

A huge thanks to all our clients, large and small, for helping us hit this epic milestone! Check out the 100 Millionth click.

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Geniuslink News

Maps, Stats & Graphs: The NEW Dashboard

We are thrilled to unveil our new dashboard today! After concentrating on building a top notch redirect service, we’ve shifted our focus in this release to bring our clients better tools and reporting services.

Here’s a taste for what the new dashboard can do for you:

    1. Not sure which affiliate program to apply to next?
      “Top Countries” and “Top Opportunities” in the Key Stats tab will identify the countries you could be profiting from most.

 

    1. Want to compare yesterday’s clicks to today? Last month to this month?
      The “Growth” and “Trends” tab will show you exactly this.

 

    1. Curious how your click rate changes throughout the day?
      The new hourly reports let you track hourly click rates in near real-time.

 

  1. Need some global affiliate eye candy?
    Check out our new interactive heat maps to see the geographic distribution of your clicks.

Along with the new reports we’ve also improved our existing reports with interactive graphs, sortable raw data and improved zooming on plotted data. Log in today to see it for yourself!

This update also builds a good foundation for some really cool things we plan to do with your affiliate data in the coming months. More to come!

Categories
Geniuslink News iTunes and App Store News

GeoRiot Supports New BR and MX Programs!

As you may have heard two new affiliate programs were added to the iTunes / App Store Affiliate Program today.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/resources/blog/brazil-and-mexico-affiliate-programs-added.html

The new program in Mexico, managed by LinkShare and the program for Brazil, managed by TradeDoubler, are also both now supported by GeoRiot! You can add your tracking parameters for these two new programs the same as you have for the other existing programs — via your GeoRiot dashboard.

See below for information on how to sign up for the two new programs and please let us know if you run into any issues or have questions, comments or concerns.

Thanks, as always, for your support!
– The GeoRiot Team

    To sign up for the Mexico program follow these steps:

  • Login to LinkShare
  • Click on Programs
  • Go to the search box on the far right-hand side of the page
  • Search for “iTunes”
  • In the results, you should see the three different programs that LinkShare supports; Canada, US and now Mexico.
  • Click the “Apply” button for the MX program.

It could take a day or two to get approved for the program, but once you do log back into LinkShare and generate a sample link with the Link Maker tool from your new MX iTunes / App Store account and add those parameters to your GeoRiot dashboard. Within 15 minutes our system will start serving your affiliate tracking parameters to your Mexico based traffic.

To sign up for Brazil you need to follow the steps below. Please note that unlike the other programs in Europe, a single EU based account will not work to earn you commission in Brazil. You will need an additional account, specifically for Brazil.

    1. First, you need to set up your account for Brazil:

  • Login to TradeDoubler.
  • Click on “Account”
  • Click on “Countries”
  • Check the box next to Brazil.
    2. Next, you need to create a “Site” for Brazil:

  • Navigate back to the main view in TradeDoubler dashboard.
  • Click “+Add Site” button on the bottom right-hand side of the page
  • Add the relevant information but be sure to select “Brazil” from the country drop down and put “(BR)” in the title of your site.
  • You will now have to verify your site. There are two options that TradeDoubler allows to do this.
    3. After your site has been verified, you will need to apply for the Brazil program

  • Back at the main page in the TradeDoubler dashboard click on “Advertisers” then “Search for Affiliate Programs”
  • In the search box put “iTunes” and from the website name drop down select your “(BR)” named site. Click search.
  • From the results you will see the “iTunes, App Store, Mac App Store and iBookStore Affiliate Program (BR)” listed.
  • On the right-hand side of the results, you have the option to apply. Click on the button, and wait.

While TradeDoubler mentions that you can still use a program while it’s under consideration this isn’t true (in our preliminary testing) for the Brazil program. It appears that you need to be approved before you can start sending clicks through.

Once you are approved for the Brazil program you will need to navigate through the TradeDoubler dashboard to the Brazil program and create a test link with the Link Maker tool and add it to the GeoRiot dashboard. Again, please note that your TradeDoubler/Brazil “A” and “P” values are very specific and should be the only ones used for the Brazil program.