Affiliate Link Tracking for SquareSpace and Other Non-Wordpress Website Platforms
Here's an easy 5 step solution to cloaking and tracking affiliate links using the many do-it-yourself website services such as SquareSpace, Weebly, Wix, Godaddy, Blogger, and more.
If you are reading this post, it's probably safe to assume that you are an affiliate marketer, quite possibly a recent SquareSpace convert, looking for a way to track your affiliate links.
If you don't see the tutorial video above, click here
I'll start off by saying that I remain a huge fan of WordPress. In fact, many of my websites are still WordPress sites however due to a massive malware hack in recent months, I decided to give SquareSpace a try for my primary business site salesvideos.com. I'll write another blog post about my website hacking nightmare, but for now will just say that is has been extremely time consuming, expensive, and frustrating, especially when dealing with a site that may not yet be profitable.
Note: many of the links I have in this article are affiliate links (ironic huh? lol)
One of my absolute favourite plugins on my WordPress sites was called Pretty Link. This plugin is used to create and track links that you can then embed on your pages and blog posts. The real beauty of Pretty Link is that you can easily see how each link is performing from within your WordPress dashboard.
While I am loving my SquareSpace experience so far, it didn't take me long to realize that unfortunately, Pretty Link was not an option.
I consider myself to be quite tech savvy, so after spending a fair bit of time searching for what I thought would be a simple solution and not finding one, I came up with one myself. Albeit my solution isn't as "pretty" as Pretty Link on my WordPress sites, it does do the trick and isn't terrible.
Step 1. Create a free Bit.ly account if you don't have one already.
Bitly is a url shortener that has been around for quite a while and comes complete with a nice dashboard for tracking your bitlinks performance. Note: I have heard that some email providers frown upon shortened urls and can even sometimes flag emails containing them, as spam. For example, when sending a mass email message using a service like GetResponse (I love GetResponse btw), it is possible that some of your contacts may not receive your message should it contain shortened urls created using bitly. I have not tested this extensively so I cannot report further on it at this time.
Step 2. Log into your SquareSpace account and find the URL mappings setting.
When logged into your SquareSpace account, go to Settings -> Website -> Advanced -> URL Mappings. This is where you can map broken or no longer existing urls on your site to live and relevant pages or posts.
Step 3. Create a url mapping in the following format for each affiliate link you have shortened within Bitly:
/freshbooks -> http://bit.ly/1UgKVZ4 301
In the example above, I have shortened my actual affiliate link for FreshBooks within Bitly, which is now active whenever anyone uses the url or link http://salesvideos.com/freshbooks. The 301 simply means it is a permanently redirected url.
Step 4. Setup all of your affiliate links as bitlinks within Bitly, then create url mappings for each within your SquareSpace account.
Step 5. Check your affiliate link performance by simply logging into Bitly.
If you found this article/tutorial helpful, please share it or leave a positive comment below.
Sincerely,
David Doggett - SalesVideos.com
Easily Create Your Own Draft Video Script
When watching a dazzling video, movie, or TV show, it is easy to overlook the total amount of work involved to achieve what you are consuming through your eyes and ears. The same applies for each of the sales videos I have had the pleasure of producing over the past fifteen plus years.
In it’s simplest form, producing a quality video is a three step process that begins with writing a script. The script is the foundation of any audio or video production, therefore the overall success of a video depends on the script. It is for this reason that many of my clients have hired professional copywriters to produce their scripts, however there is good news for those who need a video on a tight budget.
Even if you don’t possess advanced writing skills, don’t be afraid of drafting a video script. Because of the importance of the script, it’s not uncommon to be overwhelmed during the writing process. Let me start by asking you a few questions that should build up your confidence…
Who is the most qualified person with regards to your business, product, or opportunity? You! So who better to draft out a script outline than, you? That’s right… in the early stages of the script writing process, the focus need only to be on the key points. Points that you know NEED to be included in your script, so simply begin by noting down those key points on paper or in a document on your computer.
The number of key points required depends on the desired length of your video. Off the top of my head, I would suggest having a minimum of at least one key point for every 10 seconds of production. Let’s use a two minute video as an example, so you’ll need to think of at least twelve key points to get started.
Once you have your key points, start at the top of your list and write at least one sentence about each point. If you have difficulty writing sentences at this phase, try to list four to five sub-points or keywords about each key point. As you work down through your list, you will gradually begin to see the shell of your script coming to fruition.
From there, continue to elaborate by adding more sentences and grouping sentences into paragraphs. The final step of creating your draft script is to organize the paragraphs into a logical sequence such as Introduction, Core Content, Summary, and Call To Action.
Perhaps you have other employees or team members who can provide additional insight to your script. If so, simply ask them to follow the same process, then review each and create a new master document containing only the best content. This may even result in multiple quality script drafts which could be used for multiple video productions.
By following the easy steps outlined above, you can create your own draft video script. At this point an experienced video developer (such as yours truly can review the script and make any obvious corrections, suggestions, or tweaks before moving along to the audio production/narration phase (which I will explain in my next blog post).
Don’t forget! Video script content can be used many different ways such as, website content (blog posts), podcasts, webinars, or an email for your prospective customers. These are just a few that come to mind.
Are you considering giving your marketing a boost by having a sales video produced? If so, contact me anytime for a free 1-on-1 consultation.