PSU Advertising

Hamma · 2011-08-12, 10:32 AM

We have added a new feature on the forums that turns various product links (Such as Newegg) into automatic affiliate links.

This new links is non obtrusive and still appears as a normal link, the only difference being if you were to right click one of the links and do "Copy Shortcut" you would see an affiliate link such as "go.ps-universe.net/blah" you can see examples to this in Goku's Recommended Parts Thread.

Only links to affiliates will be changed in this way. These advertisments help to support hosting on the site as well as various charges such as licensing, domains, and software. This allows you to support PlanetSide Universe without even having to think about it!

I will also be testing a feature that turns certain words into affiliate links. Right now that is off in all forums as I am not so sure it is a good fit for this site but I will be testing it in select forums over the next few days.

If you have any questions, concerns or flames please let us know by sending me a PM or replying to this thread.

Edit: If you used the previous Newegg link that has been up the past couple of days please clear your cookies to remove the old affiliate ID.

NewSith · 2011-08-12, 01:21 PM

Originally Posted by Hamma

We have added a new feature on the forums that turns various product links (Such as Newegg) into automatic affiliate links.

This new links is non obtrusive and still appears as a normal link, the only difference being if you were to right click one of the links and do "Copy Shortcut" you would see an affiliate link such as "go.ps-universe.net/blah" you can see examples to this in Goku's Recommended Parts Thread.

Only links to affiliates will be changed in this way. These advertisments help to support hosting on the site as well as various charges such as licensing, domains, and software. This allows you to support PlanetSide Universe without even having to think about it!

I will also be testing a feature that turns certain words into affiliate links. Right now that is off in all forums as I am not so sure it is a good fit for this site but I will be testing it in select forums over the next few days.

If you have any questions, concerns or flames please let us know by sending me a PM or replying to this thread.

Edit: If you used the previous Newegg link that has been up the past couple of days please clear your cookies to remove the old affiliate ID.

At least don't make it so it breaks a forum chain. I was just about to start a thread named "WTF?", Because I pretty much lost an OP 2 times because of this feature... Although, it looks innovative =)

EDIT: You can place the thing right under "notices", I guess.

Ghryphen · 2011-08-12, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by NewSith

At least don't make it so it breaks a forum chain. I was just about to start a thread named "WTF?", Because I pretty much lost an OP 2 times because of this feature... Although, it looks innovative =)

EDIT: You can place the thing right under "notices", I guess.

I have no idea what you are talking about...

This just changes links in threads after the page has loaded, there is nothing to place.... this certainly shouldn't have had any effect on your posting.

Hamma · 2011-08-12, 03:09 PM

Aye

Should have no effect on the way the forums operate.

NewSith · 2011-08-12, 04:03 PM

No, I don't mean it's technical issue. It's aesthetic... I mean, ad follows 1st posts of any page (sort of comes as a second post). This makes it notable, but quite intrusive.

Hamma · 2011-08-12, 04:31 PM

Ah I see you are talking about the small ad between the first and second post of every thread page.

Goku · 2011-08-15, 01:44 PM

Is still this up and going? I cannot seem to get any kind of referral link going with my links in that thread.

Hamma · 2011-08-15, 02:00 PM

Yes it should be, basic Newegg links should turn into referral links. But they will appear normal. If you right click and copy shortcut they should give a different address than displayed.

Goku · 2011-08-15, 02:09 PM

No dice on. Can you confirm it works? Maybe something wrong on my end.

Hamma · 2011-08-15, 02:11 PM

I just confirmed it looked ok on a couple of your links - which ones are you talking about?

Goku · 2011-08-15, 02:17 PM

I do not notice a difference in any of them actually. What is the full link look like for the referral? I was getting this to work last night odd.

Hamma · 2011-08-15, 02:47 PM

Right Click | Copy Shortcut should give you something similar to this on an affiliate URL:

Code:

http://go.ps-universe.net/?id=19668X770041&site=planetside-universe.com&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newegg.com%2FProduct%2FProduct.aspx%3FItem%3DN82E16814130613&sref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.planetside-universe.com%2Fforums%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D36754

Hamma · 2011-08-15, 03:02 PM

I tried a few of your links and they all seem to be affiliate links, let me know which ones specifically appear broken on your end. Just remember, all you have to do is put in a regular newegg link and it becomes an affiliate link.

Ghryphen · 2011-08-15, 03:12 PM

The link changes are done by javascript, so if you have any adblock etc, it will probably not work.

Goku · 2011-08-15, 04:21 PM

Nope I do not have ad block on my browser, none of the sites I visit are that heavy on ads. The links work in IE, but not Opera that is my primary browser. That must be the issue, though not many people use this so I doubt its a major issue. It does work in FF and Chrome?