The Master Series of CGI programs includes several variable page content solutions:

• Master Daily Content (different content every day).
• Master Site News (new content intermittently).
• Master Merry-Go-Round (rotating content).

Those three Master Series titles are free from http://willmaster.com/a/9/pl.pl?cgi The programs can display a combination of text, image, sound, and other content types on your page. The content can be displayed with SSI or within a JavaScript popup window. However, the programs do not provide impression or click-through statistics.

This article shows you how to obtain useful statistics in conjunction with the above programs. You can know which content is popular and which is not, which to keep and which to replace with something that gets results.

ProLinkz™, a commercial program available from http://willmaster.com/a/9/pl.pl?pl , will log impressions and click-throughs, then display statistics for a variety of time periods. You can see your hit totals as bar graphs for the month, day of week, day of month, even hours and minutes of the day. Statistics can be viewed for a specific time period or all together. The referral URL is logged when available.

How to partner ProLinkz with one of the variable content programs to obtain useful statistics

Here are several types of statistics you might want and how to obtain them. The instructions apply to all three of the Master Series titles named above.

In order to follow these instructions, you will need an installed copy of at least one of the three Master Series titles mentioned at the beginning of this article and an installed copy of ProLinkz.

One — Statistics for a specific popup window

Let's suppose you have a "Latest News" link on your pages. Clicking the link launches a popup window with the latest news according to what you specified in the Master Site News control panel. Or, you might have a "Quote of the Day" link (using Master Daily Content) or "See a Testimonial" link (Master Merry-Go-Round).

What we will do is replace the program URL in the JavaScript popup window code with a ProLinkz URL. As the popup window is created, ProLinkz updates its log and launches the content program (Master Site News, for example) to provide the popup window with correct copy.

First,		go to your ProLinkz control panel and make a code for this popup window. The code might be popup4 or whatever makes sense to you. The destination URL is the URL to Master Site News (or whichever program you are using), plus "?page=complete" (without the quotes). The ?page=complete at the end of the URL tells the program to print the HTML code required for a complete page rather than just the content. The URL might look something like this: http://domain.com/cgi-bin/MasterSiteNews.cgi?page=complete
Second,		in the JavaScript popup window code (this is assuming you already have the JavaScript required for the popup window on your page), find this line: var url = 'MasterSiteNews.cgi'; (The line might contain the file name of any of the three Master Series titles.) Replace MasterSiteNews.cgi (or other program name) with the URL to your copy of ProLinkz plus a question mark plus the code you specified for this particular situation. The line might look something like this: var url = 'http://domain.com/cgi-bin/prolinkz.cgi?popup4';
Third,		in the popup window JavaScript find this line: url = url + '?page=complete'; Put two slashes in front of that line. The two slashes disable the line, which is required so ProLinkz can display the content properly. You'll end up with: //url = url + '?page=complete';

Coded in this way, every time someone clicks the link to display the content, ProLinkz dutifully records it and then causes the correct content to display within the popup window. When you're ready to view statistics, simply use the ProLinkz control panel.

Two — Statistics for individual content

You can track how many times specific content has been viewed, whether displayed with JavaScript in a popup window or with SSI as part of a page's content.

These statistics are probably most useful in conjunction with Master Daily Content and Master Merry-Go-Round, with their variable content. But you may find a Master Site News use for it, too.

For this system, a specific code is inserted into the variable content itself. In essence, an image URL is replaced with a ProLinkz URL. The ProLinkz URL causes the log to be updated before the image is displayed.

First,		go to your ProLinkz control panel and make a code for each individual content. The codes might be c1, c2, c3, or whatever makes sense to you. Each destination URL is an image. If you already use images in your content, one image's URL can be used as the destination URL. Otherwise, use the URL of a small transparent GIF image.
Second,		when you type the content into the Master Daily Content (or other Master Series title) control panel, the SRC of the image you chose in the First step will be the ProLinkz URL instead of the usual image URL. You might end up with something like: <img height="1" width="1" src="http://domain.com/cgi-bin/prolinkz.cgi?c2" alt="transparent GIF">

With this configuration, every time someone clicks the link to display the content, ProLinkz dutifully records it and then causes the correct content to display within the popup window. When you're ready to view statistics, simply use the ProLinkz control panel.

Three — Click-through measurements

This is the usual reason for using ProLinkz. Instructions for click-through measurements are included with program purchase.

Click-throughs can also be measured in conjunction with ONE or TWO, above. In conjunction, you can determine the ratio of content views to click-throughs. In that way, you can determine which content is providing the best response and which needs changing.

 
There are many reasons to gather statistics on page views and click-throughs. Most relate to making business decisions with more confidence.

Partnering ProLinkz with one of the free and easy-to-use content delivery programs discussed in this article will provide options and versatility. As you try one or two of the described options, you will likely think of more ways to use them. Please email us and tell us about your inventions. We are always open to suggested uses and may wish to share yours with other readers!

Copyright 2001 William Bontrager
Programmer/Publisher, "WillMaster Possibilities" ezine
http://willmaster.com/possibilities/
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Business Home Page: http://willmaster.com/