DirectTrack: Why do you hate it?

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the Big L

the Big L

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Feb 25, 2008
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OK, I've been wanting to post this for awhile now.

It's no secret there is a lot of hate when the word DirectTrack gets mentioned.

I wanted to know, what is it exactly that you hate about DirectTrack ?

Is there some people here that actually like DirectTrack ?

Personally, I dislike it and I don't use it. To answer my own question: When I first ever laid eyes on that system, I just thought it simply wasn't user friendly. Too many features, I felt that it's not STRAIGHT TO THE POINT in your face giving you the info you need fast.

Why do you guys mainly hate/dislike it ? And do you have the same thougths about LinkTrust ?
 


Honestly, I don't think DirectTrack is perfect but there's really no quality alternative for networks unless they build a custom system which requires a pretty serious short and long term investment. This topic seems to come up just about every other day on WF and it always ends up coming to the same conclusion: For now, DirectTrack is it.

If anyone wants to get into development, this market is wide open and could be pretty damn lucrative I'm sure.
 
Unless things have changed, it is a hosted solution. So, when their servers are down, your entire business is down. We started with them about 4 years ago and quickly started the process of developing our own system which, for us, is much faster and more accurate. I couldnt stand it when affiliates were calling up saying were down, and the only thing we could say in our defense was that everyone on DT was down. Thats sounds pretty lousy to me.
 
I don't find it hard to use. It does have a lot of features which is good. The hate (or rather, my hate) for it is that it is buggy buggy buggy. Leads mysteriously go missing (Good thing we have other ways to track that and keep an eye out. Otherwise our affiliates would be mad), there are days when it is slow and sluggish it is practically impossible to use.
 
Fugly interface. Networks who run it tend to slow down over time. Sometimes horrendously slow. From both the backend interface and occasionally the affiliate links themselves.

The way to pull links from the offers is stupid.

SubID tracking is retarded. They've got subID vars from subID0 - subID5 and in the end they're all worthless and you need to use the 'o=' variable.

From the stats screen, you can see how your offer performs. You decide you want to check something on the offer page (perhaps a new banner, or campaign rules). So you click on the offer name from the stats screen, thinking it would take you to the offer page, but no... it takes you to this useless offer-stats screen that often shows no values anyway.

I can go on and on. Neverblue, Hydra, Advaliant and MaxBounty have much better interfaces. Yep their custom. Yep I"m sure they were expensive. And yep they're lightyears of head of direct track.

I always use DirectTrack offers as a last resort if none of the above networks have the offer in question.

And finally - I don't know why, and this probably isn't DT's fault, but networks who run DirectTrack often will set the payouts to 75%-90% of what non DirectTrack networks run at for the same offer. Now granted I can request a paybump and almost always get it, I'm more inclined to run an offer if its already at a higher value, saving me the trouble of asking for a paybump.


Edit- and one more thing. Networks: Your affiliates will run one of several links:

Search, Contextual, Banner, Email, Incentive/CoReg. Why not have 5 effin text boxes with my affiliate links. I pull the link that is appropriate for my traffic. Done. They all kinda have this, but none are clear on it. Especially direct track networks. Neverblue got this right.
 
The thing I hate about direct track is the way you get affiliate links and how they show campaign descriptions.

WHY in the world would you want the campaign description (which generally includes VERY important information) inside a popup instead of directly on the page. That makes NO sense.

Next is how you get links. The entire system that I have to click through to find the search link is full on idiotic. Put a search link right under the campaign description and allow those who want creatives to search through them.

In MANY networks, it's unclear even which link to use when you are running search. Annoying.

</end rant>

These two things have caused me to almost always go with a non-direct track system when possible. (The exception has been convert2media because they made it clear which link is for search)
 
I personally don't have any issues with links, descriptions, etc. If it were done better I would be much, much happier, but it's shit I can live with.

What I can't live with is the occasional shoddy tracking. If I sent through a lead, I deserve to be paid for it, and DT screws that up from time to time enough to make me want to avoid DT networks.
 
goddfadda said:
SubID tracking is retarded. They've got subID vars from subID0 - subID5 and in the end they're all worthless and you need to use the 'o=' variable.
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Can you explain this, Goddfadda. I have been trying to get subid to work on C2M network but it still does not work. C2M has been responsive and opened tickets with directtrack but none of them have resolved the subid issue for me. I am tired of complaining.
 
hannahmcintyre said:
I personally don't have any issues with links, descriptions, etc. If it were done better I would be much, much happier, but it's shit I can live with.

What I can't live with is the occasional shoddy tracking. If I sent through a lead, I deserve to be paid for it, and DT screws that up from time to time enough to make me want to avoid DT networks.
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Don't think that is always Direct Track. The advertisers and the networks might have a hand in the shaving/scrubbing going on. I have run DT networks and not seen problems. Although with any pixel placements there is going to be misfires.

That being said I hate DT from a user interface standpoint. IMO
 
webtrend said:
Can you explain this, Goddfadda. I have been trying to get subid to work on C2M network but it still does not work. C2M has been responsive and opened tickets with directtrack but none of them have resolved the subid issue for me. I am tired of complaining.
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you can use the subID vars but the most effective one is the &o= variable. For example, if you are using tracking202, you'd get your link from DT, then move the &o= variable to the end of the link. Now all subID's will be assigned to 'o'.

When you want to check your conversions, you can choose 'download additional info' (or something like this) from the stats screen. A CSV will download of your subIDs that were passed to 'o' as well as which ones were leads.

Archaic imo but the only real way that I know of. For more info check tracking202's site. They have a video on this somewhere I"m pretty sure.
 
The funny thing about this post is that OP has one of the best affiliate setups ive ever seen. Clean, solid, reliable, to the point. If BigL resold his affiliate software to networks he'd probably put DT out of business.
 
narsticle said:
The funny thing about this post is that OP has one of the best affiliate setups ive ever seen. Clean, solid, reliable, to the point. If BigL resold his affiliate software to networks he'd probably put DT out of business.
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Yeah I agree 100%.

I LOVE the YEP setup and as soon as I get my cashflow problems solved (I'm making too much money damn it) I'm definitely going to be back promoting them!
 
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