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Does anybody know if there is a way to get direct links to advertisers on Commission Junction with tracking? We don't want to rely on the links sent down in the feed because a lot of them are junk.

What I'd like is a link that just goes to the advertiser's homepage and still allows us to receive commissions. Something like: http://www.newegg.com?pid=123123&aid=321123

If it has to run through CJ's tracking URL's that's fine too, but I just want the user on the homepage.

Thanks

Nick
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2 Answers2

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Old thread but figured it needs an answer. Solution is quite simple.

What you need to construct is a URL that like this: 

http://<cj-root-domain>/click-<your-pid>-<advertiser-link-id>?url=<url-encoded-redirect-link>

E.g.:

http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-1245-10888587?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jewelry.com%2Fdaily-deal.shtml

So...

  1. Pick a CJ root domain to link on. www.anrdoezrs.net, www.tkqlhce.com or any others on this thread will work.
  2. Find any generic link ID for the advertiser by logging into CJ and viewing the Links tab. A good link to use will be something that's not likely to be deleted, like their brand logo.
  3. Take note of your Publisher PID
  4. URL-encode the actual destination you want to link to
jonaz
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  • I have no way of verifying this, since I no longer work at the company where we needed this functionality, but your solution sounds pretty good. – Nick Jan 14 '14 at 19:04
  • Thanks for this, I was just wondering - how do you verify which of the links in the tab will not expire/be removed soon (like the one you mentioned with the logo)? I don't see an expiration date anywhere in the table. I think they have some bug in their xml feed and are giving me a non-working id there, so I am trying your method to rebuild the links with id replacement. – marto Nov 16 '21 at 21:50
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Nick, I am not entirely sure what exactly you are asking for...

A CJ html link generally appears as such :

<a href="http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-2343223-123123" target="_top">acme.com</a><img src="http://www.awltovhc.com/image-123123-123123" width="1" height="1" border="0"/>

You can track links by using server side coding such as PHP to add, in the case of CJ an SID which can be unique as the case as a username, product code/name on your website. So the resulting link will now appear as :

<a href="http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-2343223-123123?sid=userid_here" target="_top">acme.com</a><img src="http://www.ftjcfx.com/image-123123-123123" width="1" height="1" border="0"/>

You should be alright to strip the URL further, although if you remove the img src, CJ won't be able to support you with impression data, only clickthroughs.

<a href="http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-2343223-123123?sid=$userid">

I am not familar with all the CJ api's however I assume when you refer to feeds you are downloading something from the Product Search Service API or something similar in which case you will need to run a script to go through each url to search for '?' where you can add in the sid parameter, as a simple example:

    <?php
$url = 'http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-12312312-12312321?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.borders.com%2Fonline%2Fstore%2FTitleDetail%3Fsku%3D0470029412&amp;cjsku=12312321123';
 $track_url = str_replace("?", "?sid=123book", "$url");
 echo $track_url;
?>
Michael
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  • Mike, most of links that we retrieve from CJ point to somewhere inside the site, a product or a "deal" or something. We want to just have a general purpose link, that would still have our tracking codes embedded into it. – Nick Feb 16 '11 at 20:02
  • @Nick There is no real way you can have direct links to the advertisers, because you need to pass the tracking id's in the URL so that you are awarded commission for the lead/sale. You can make the links a bit more presentable by hiding them. For example `http://www.newegg.com?pid=123123&aid=321123` will appear as : `http://www.yoursite.com/go-to/newegg` as the link on your site. Try [hide affiliate links](http://www.affiliatebeginnersguide.com/links_guide/php-redirect.html) for starters. – Michael Mar 12 '11 at 16:19