Validate Coupon Links - (Possible New Feature (Request) )

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   Stephen

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   Posted 3 months ago

   Has anyone come up with an automated solution for validating coupon links? I'm getting quite a few 'non-active' or invalid coupon links from icodes for the various affiliate feeds I have with them.

   Example one coupon link throws this page: http://www.shareasale.com/notactive.html?577509 when the coupon is clicked on. It would be great to test for example after a coupon is imported if it returns the /notactive.html in the url or similar for other affiliate program providers and then just sets that coupon to DRAFT or just simply removes it from the database.

   How hard would this be to code Mark? I'm currently using the Integrity app on my Mac to test and then remove these manually.

   What do you guys think? Feasible or not?

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   Stephen

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   Posted 3 months ago

   I've found over 104 bad links in my site using Integrity for Mac. There is a broken-link-checker for wordpress but I cant get it to work.

   This would be an awesome feature to add to coupon press.

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   iCodes

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   Posted 3 months ago

   Just to point out, invalid links are nothing to do with us (iCodes). At the time the coupon is added the link works fine, however shareasale merchants go offline and online all the time due to payment status.

   We auto remove inactive merchants from our feeds using the data supplied in the shareasale merchant feed, but if you import the data into a database then it's out of our control.

   Also linkshare links don't always work on the first click, they have always been like that, obviously a network issue, plus.they don't work for the first 24 hours of getting accepted,

   Lee

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   Stephen

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   Posted 3 months ago

   Right, which is simply why it would be nice to just kill them out when they don't work. We are referring to the affiliate programs and their merchants, not icodes, but the data icodes gets from its networks. The feed process is working fine, but some coupons such as the one mentioned from share-a-sale do this quite often. We're sure its the merchant or the network and not icodes. We'd just like to be able to toss out non-working links as people tend to not come back if they get codes that either do not work or are bad in some way. This can give sites a bad reputation.

   Would just be a nice feature to have.

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   iCodes

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   Posted 3 months ago

   Yeah I fully agree Stephen, would be a great feature.

   Lee

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   Mark

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   Posted 3 months ago

   thanks for your input lee, anyway to query your server for out of date links so i can create an update feed?

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   Stephen

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   Posted 3 months ago

   Mark, it might be easier to check the links on the couponpress/mysql side and look for a consistent URL like the /notactive.html from share-a-sale and if the link returns that url then dump it or set it to draft for manual review.

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   iCodes

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   Posted 3 months ago

   I think Stephens way would be the best, we only go on the networks merchant feed status, and if they are not updated then our links will also not be updated unless done manually.

   The problem with Shareasale is merchants come and go on a daily basis, they maybe only offline for an hour or so while they topup their account, so a temp removal is probably the best solution in most cases.

   As for linkshare, it would be a nightmare, the majority of the time you see one of those 'Bad Request' error pages is just a redirection glitch at the network, but would result in a removal of a merchant when it's still valid and working most of the time.

   Lee

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   Danie

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   Posted 3 months ago

   Hey

   Is the feeds from one supplier only? Will the returning url ALWAYS have the same return i.e. /notactive.html?

   I havent worked with couponpress, but do I understand right:

   Run a url checker through the database and look for any url that contains the keyterm
   /noactive.html in mysql, and if present, set to draft or delete?

   Would the search term (noactive.html) change at any time os that you needed to have a option to edit the search query?

   Does it have to be an integrated feature, or will a plugin architecture also work for you?

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    Stephen

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    Posted 3 months ago

    a database query would not work as the /notactive.html is not in the database, it is a redirect from the url that is in the database. so what needs to happen is the links need to be validated by a plugin or a cron routine that would check all the links in the database, one time and either validate the links as working, and toss out or set to draft the ones that get 404'd or redirected to a /notactive.html or similar and then pop off an email to the admin so they can be manually reviewed or deleted. After that on every import of new coupons those links would be checked, but not the entire database unless it was forced to.

    So yes a plugin with a scheduler or cron would be needed. Keepin mind that each of the affiliate networks have different invalid link pages so you would have to account for each of the different invalid link pages when checking.

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    Danie

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    Posted 3 months ago

    OK, summary

    go to database
    grab url
    check if url returns valid (this is input option for varied results)
    if yes, leave alone
    if no, do action

    Am I missing something?

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    Stephen

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    Posted 3 months ago

    no that's pretty much the idea ...

    You'd have to check these networks and grab whatever their 404 or not valid link page is and parse that ...

    affiliate future
    amazon
    avantlink
    buy
    commission junction
    google
    linkshare
    linkshare canada
    pepperjam
    shareasale
    webgains

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    Danie

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    Posted 3 months ago

    OK, let me try again:

    Go to database
    Grab specified url field
    If url is from
    affiliate future
    amazon
    avantlink
    buy
    commission junction
    google
    linkshare
    linkshare canada
    pepperjam
    shareasale
    webgains

    check for SPECIFIED return url

    if ok, leave it
    if 404, or return specified text

    Then action this

    An admin section in the backend to add specific domains, correlating specific returns, and specify action ??

    Does that do it?

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    Stephen

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    Posted 3 months ago

    That should do the trick.

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    Danie

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    Posted 3 months ago

    Funny thing is, I think this will be possible .....

    I have done most of the coding for this for another plugin comncept, and it needs some changing and some additional string manipulation, but quite possible.

    Can you help me set up a specific flow chart with the functions, the urls you knw, so we can include them as option anyway, and what actions you require??

    No rush as I wont be able to touch it till March ... but shd be quick to get at least beta to you for testing

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    Donny

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    Posted 3 months ago

    Not to put fuel on the fire but none of the dead links I have seen actually return 404 they are redirected to a status page on the site. These are dynamic links THAT WORK even if the result isn't what we want.

    Thats why your WP link checker is "broken" the links are not dead.

    The problem is the Shareasale type model of money pools. Its great for letting a lot more affiliates into the system but it doesn't have a quality that a publisher is looking for. On going link checking is a very simple Fopen the url and search for keywords we know are on dead pages. BUT to check a few hundred dead links you have to check a few THOUSAND good links and while the dead pages are small the valid checks will have tons of graphics and thus server load.

    Then you are going to have some Store owners who are going to see these checks as attempts to Robotically fraud statics even though no one is attempting fraud the sale.

    The fix for this is a business relationship between Icodes and the Affilate sites so that they get an XML feed fo who is live and who isn't and its autotoggled on their side. Or ask them to setup a PING system for ping on or ping off. Sites like Shareasale and Aventlink should be open to this idea as it will reduce their server loads and bandwidth use from dead links served by sites, users and robots.

    If Icodes was my baby I would install my own ping system and try to sell it to the affilliate sites it woudl be the most helpful to my users and give a 100% clean result output from Icodes which creates an upsell point to premium service.

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    Donny

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    Posted 3 months ago

    In the process of setting up with Icodes I signed up with Aventlink and inside their site we have Product feed features in XML these are large xml files The first sample I seen was 34mb in xml.

    This imports the ENTIRE store into the site and I am curious what it would take to get this feature into the Store and or coupon theme so that we can Niche the site with a very large catalog of items. I have about 30 avantlink stores I want to import and each one of them has up to 35,000 products that are very niche products.

    I thought the merchant function of coupon press sounded like this feature but I really am not seeing the path for using these feeds.

    I mention this because its a very quality feed and it can be designed based on sales/discounts of variing percentages

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    Donny

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    Posted 3 months ago

    AvantLink.com supports incremental datafeed downloads!
    Incremental datafeed downloads allow you to retrieve just new or modified products since a given date. This can drastically reduce the size of your downloads and any subsequent processing time. You can control this functionality in your download request with the following parameters: •incr - Use this parameter to trigger an incremental download. Options include the following: ◦only-modified: This will retrieve all products that have been added to or changed in the merchant's datafeed since a given date.
    ◦only-removed: This will retrieve all products that have been removed from the merchant's datafeed since a given date.
    ◦all-status: This option modifies the layout of your download slightly by adding an additional "Status" column (or node, for XML formatted feeds). This allows you to simultaneously retrieve new/modified products ("Status" = "Modified") and removed products ("Status" = "Removed") in a single request.

    •from - Use this parameter to set the date from which new/modified/removed products should be retrieved. Dates should be formatted as "YYYY-mm-dd" or "YYYY-mm-dd HH:ii:ss". If you leave this off your request (but still use one of the above "incr" options) then our script will automatically determine the date you last downloaded this datafeed, and use that as the reference point.

    Useing Avantlink XML feeds on a per merchant basis we can setup a request that lets us remove products that are discontinued by simpling asking for a REMOVE only xml.

    Also one of the features that I LOVE is Marks Amazon cart. Man if ever there was a brilliant feature for an affiliate site that is it.

    I would suggest that an effort to combine that thinking in the Storepress with the adventlink XML merchant feed and work with Adventlink to put a full cart pass over feature on their side for their clients.

    I believe this woudl allow faster and better qualtity niche sites that focus on individual merchants with large inventories. Keep the visitor on YOUR site doing business and allow for some accountablity of the sale AND making solid use of return visitors.

    It would also allow for a Product review site to use the network feature and create 5-10 or 10,000 stores and review product and link to individual merchants as subdomains.

    I really think a solid focus on this feature that adventlink is making available could really increase conversion rates on niche focused sites.

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    iCodes

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    Posted 3 months ago

    We already do a fair amount of manual and automatic non working link removal at iCodes, however the majority of non working links happen after the affiliate has imported the data into their own database which is why the script is needed at the affiliates end and not just at iCodes.

    I'll also look into improving things at our end also to try and catch more link problems.

    Lee

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    Danie

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    Posted 3 months ago

    @ Stephen

    I got a bit lost down the thread, but just wanted to clarify some aspects:

    In the affiliate feed you get, there is a link url available.
    This link, when clicked, directs to a landing page at the affiliate site
    The affiliate site, returns a url that contains specific text, turning it into a ''404''
    This is the link from the affiliate feed that you want the post from you site url to be actioned on.
    

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    Danie

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    Posted 3 months ago

    @ Stephen

    Ive got it working now, so would appreciate some of the links so i can test it on affiliate sites as well.I have sent PM as well, but if anyone has any coupon links that returns this ''404'' type please post or PM

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    Danie

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    Posted 3 months ago

    So I guess this one is a non starter then, bummer

    I used this
    <?php
    $url = 'http://www.domain.com'; print_r(get_headers($url)); print_r(get_headers($url, 1));
    ?>

    to grab the header data from the url, which will return the redirected url location. With some nifty string manipulation, the rest shdnt be hard.

    Moving on ...

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    Stephen

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    Posted 3 months ago

    I think Mark is working on an integrated solution to this issue.

    Thanks for everyone's input.

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