Sponsor Ref Link Code Question

[Zug]

I am curious of when a sponsor provides link codes to promote their various sites, or even their own affiliate referral link ..

If the link url they provide from their program page uses http:// but when you visit the actual link it is forwarded to https:// ..

Can you use either http or https and still be credited for the click or sign up? I've seen many programs do this and It would be useful to know if it makes a difference. I would not think that it does, but could use a positive correct answer. Maybe this is a dumb question? I dunno ..

[TheButcher]

If it includes your affiliate ID it should not matter, and they probably have the affiliate link generator setup prior to SSL being added to the site that is all it is. If they were smart they would have the server setup to redirect all http links to the https site anyways.

[Zug]

If it includes your affiliate ID it should not matter, and they probably have the affiliate link generator setup prior to SSL being added to the site that is all it is. If they were smart they would have the server setup to redirect all http links to the https site anyways.

Yeah, most of the programs do forward to https but the links they provide in their program are http .. confusing.

Specially with ccbill link codes .. example: http://refer.ccbill.com/cgi-bin/clicks. ... e-link.htm

While some ccbill sites do supply https in their code. It's just like, jeeez, can't they fix that if they are using https? You would think that is a no brainer for them to supply their affiliates with proper links even if it doesn't matter and avoid confusion. .. At least for me, lol. I am anal(ytical) about things like this.

[tacnet]

I am curious of when a sponsor provides link codes to promote their various sites, or even their own affiliate referral link ..

If the link url they provide from their program page uses http:// but when you visit the actual link it is forwarded to https:// ..

Can you use either http or https and still be credited for the click or sign up? I've seen many programs do this and It would be useful to know if it makes a difference. I would not think that it does, but could use a positive correct answer. Maybe this is a dumb question? I dunno ..

There is a way to make sure its working. Click the link and then go to the ccbill signup page and checking that the tracking cookie is set to your affiliate ID

If you pm me the link, I have a cookie editor plugin on firefox so I can check it for you

Pretty poor though to still be giving out affiliate links via http

[tacnet]

Yeah, most of the programs do forward to https but the links they provide in their program are http .. confusing.

Specially with ccbill link codes .. example: http://refer.ccbill.com/cgi-bin/clicks. ... e-link.htm

While some ccbill sites do supply https in their code. It's just like, jeeez, can't they fix that if they are using https? You would think that is a no brainer for them to supply their affiliates with proper links even if it doesn't matter and avoid confusion. .. At least for me, lol. I am anal(ytical) about things like this.

Wow that's interesting......

I just tried your ccbill link with https and IT DOESN'T WORK (times out). So I searched a few of our affiliates for more ccbill links and tried those on https aswell and THEY DONT WORK EITHER. Looks like ccbill doesn't have a proper SSL certificate setup

Thats not the only thing either. I checked the response headers and I found that ccbill do a temporary 302 redirect to the sponsors website rather than a permanent 301 redirect. Google WONT RANK A PAGE VIA 302 REDIRECT !

That means that all those program owners out there that are using ccbill's affiliate system WONT GET ANY SEO BENEFIT from all their inbound affiliate links. It also means affiliates cant get their affiliate links indexed. Instead, ALL THE SEO BENEFIT goes to ccbill !!!

Ive suspected ccbill might be doing this for some time but I never got round to checking it.

Thankfully all our affiliate links go directly to tacamateurs.com AND we allow all our affiliates to get their gallery links indexed.

[TheButcher]

That is totally unacceptable in this day, SSL has been the norm for too many years for something like this to be going on.

[TheButcher]

I just got off CCBill's live chat talked to an Ivanak and Dragan, the latter gentleman told me he would email his supervisor to see what they had to say, as soon as I hear for them I will update this thread.

[Zug]

Yeah? Well, I had presented this question to ccbill support myself at least a year ago. About the ccbill using http instead of https .. they didn't have much to say about it.

I knew that you could not use https for a ccbill link like as in https://refer.ccbill.com/cgi-bin/clicks ... &PA=000000 .. I didn't think it really mattered ? But now, I am not sure. I was more wondering about just any program that provides affiliates with http urls when they forward to https anyway. So, I could use https instead of their supplied http link. Since, I am creating database links of programs, ya know? I can pretty easily change the links for each program if need be. But, the big point being is do you get credited for visits and sign ups using either or?

Like just for an example, I am listing ghostcash webmaster referral link, and it shows on the program page for tour link: http://nats.ghostcash.com/track/MzAwMDU ... jAuMC4wLjA

And the join link shows as: http://nats.ghostcash.com/track/MzAwMDU ... 4wLjA/join

But, of course when you click the link it forwards to https. So which should I use? The main content tour pages for their various sites all show as https in the program listings.

And, for a ccbill site for example, I am listing ftvcash webmaster referral link. The program page does not forward to https. http://refer.ccbill.com/cgi-bin/clicks. ... vcash.com/ .. but if you type in https://ftvcash.com it then goes to a ssl page but does not show the main index rather it shows the latest update feed. And then, when you input your ccbill affiliate ID it shows the program links as using http:// .. so yeah, I am a bit confused here of what is going on with sponsor programs not using https. Specially, now with ccbill not using https ...

Which is why I opened this thread - I am not trying to point any fingers at any program, but I am now quite confused about what I should be doing to properly promote programs. So .. should I use https if the site is https and not use the supplied program links with http? Or what the heck should I be doing?

[tacnet]

It shouldn't matter which one you use. Most sites will have a bit of code in their .htaccess that says if the url starts with http:// then redirect to the exact same url using https://

But ccbill dont appear to be doing this. With their links it looks like you HAVE to use http because https simply doesnt work.

Typically, when one site sends traffic to another, information is sent that identifies the originating site as the source of the traffic. So the receiving site can see where the traffic came from. This process stops when traffic flows from an HTTPS site to a non-secure HTTP site. This DOESNT mean you are not getting credited with the clicks because your affiliate details are stored in the URL itself (eg with ccbill links CA=920029&PA=2635627 identifies you as the affiliate)

What it does mean is that ccbill cant tell where the traffic came from. So you could have the same ccbill link on domainA.com, domainB.com and domainC.com but ccbill will have no idea where the click came from (and therefore neither will the merchant). They just know its a click from somewhere with your affiliate ID. Its sloppy and it means their traffic reporting cant be that great but it will work

So for NATs sites, just use whatever link they give you (probably https) but for ccbill, it looks like you need to stick with http

[tacnet]

One more thing to watch out for with ccbill's affiliate links is make sure the sponsors website is ONLY using ccbill as the credit card processor. Check they haven't added Paypal, Epoch or whatever because you will only get paid if the user signs up with ccbill

[Terry]

WTF will Ccbill even care or reply to this

[bbwlover]

Where is Corvette when you wish he was still with CCbill

[webcamhostess]

If any one from Ccbill comments on this can you please share what they have to say

[Zug]

It shouldn't matter which one you use. Most sites will have a bit of code in their .htaccess that says if the url starts with http:// then redirect to the exact same url using https://

But ccbill dont appear to be doing this. With their links it looks like you HAVE to use http because https simply doesnt work.

Typically, when one site sends traffic to another, information is sent that identifies the originating site as the source of the traffic. So the receiving site can see where the traffic came from. This process stops when traffic flows from an HTTPS site to a non-secure HTTP site. This DOESNT mean you are not getting credited with the clicks because your affiliate details are stored in the URL itself (eg with ccbill links CA=920029&PA=2635627 identifies you as the affiliate)

What it does mean is that ccbill cant tell where the traffic came from. So you could have the same ccbill link on domainA.com, domainB.com and domainC.com but ccbill will have no idea where the click came from (and therefore neither will the merchant). They just know its a click from somewhere with your affiliate ID. Its sloppy and it means their traffic reporting cant be that great but it will work

So for NATs sites, just use whatever link they give you (probably https) but for ccbill, it looks like you need to stick with http

So this would explain why ccbill stats do not show referring urls when you request to see that data.

My question is, even if most sites have that bit of code in their htaccess that forwards to https; does it still cookie the affiliate's referral link? Redirecting to the exact same 'page url' is fine, but, it's no use if it doesn't forward to the exact same url along with the affiliate's referral link code.

All of this would be cleared up if all sponsors would just provide affiliates with the https code instead of providing http codes. However ccbill's processing url is another story.

IMO all sites should be using https. Regardless of whether or not they request personal user data like email or anything else. I have noted some webmasters that do not use https say they don't need it if they are not requesting personal user data.

Paysite owners should all be using https on all their pages and provide affiliates with https links to all of their promo pages. If they don't they should not be allowed to process signups. Yet most pay sites still do forward to https, but some provided affiliate links are only using http. Which, at least to me, makes things a little sketchy.

Times are tough enough as it is without having to worry about this minuscule 'thing' with https from ccbill or any other sponsor program. Regardless if it matters or not. Right is right and fair is fair to all affiliates work and their general viewing traffic Affiliates should not have to worry about this or worry about double checking tracking cookies between http and https links.

Here's another provided affiliate link code that forwards to https:
http://www.gammae.com/blazingbucks/trac ... r=&buffer=

Does it cookie the http then forward to https, or what is the deal? What should affiliates link to? .. I shouldn't even have to ask the question.

[Zug]

.. further .. if using http or https does not matter, since https is only 'really' intended for if personal user information is being tracked or being collected, well then, isn't a tracking cookie being placed on a visitors computer personal enough to need to use https? Does not this ccbill url place a cookie for tracking visitors personal browsing? .. http://refer.ccbill.com/cgi-bin/clicks. ... processing

A tracking url using http forwarding to https .. go figure. Just what is the purpose or benefit of that backwards procedure?