Many email marketers use a URL shortening service to track the clicks on their links and bit.ly is one of the most common choices.
Let me surprise you from the very beginning…
Always using a click tracker is a wise decision. But… sometimes such a tool can alter your results very much.
And I’m not referring to click reports that show figures different from the real number of clicks.
When I say that a click tracker can alter your results… I mean it. Some trackers can damage the actual email marketing campaign.
Have you ever heard of blocklists?
A blocklist is a database of website domains found in spam messages that is queried in realtime by Internet mail servers.
Usually such a database can also be queried manually by any Internet user, free of any charge. I just queried the famous Spamhaus database for bit.ly and here’s what I got:
The immediate question that pops up is…
How can a blacklisted domain name affect an email marketer?
Any major email service provider (ESP) installs spam filters. They are software programs that scan incoming mail and based on various criteria identify the spam messages.
One of these criteria is whether a domain name included in the body of the message is found or not in the blocklists used by the ESP that installed the spam filter. Once such blacklisted domain name is found in an email, the spam filter proceeds according to the settings established by the ESP. Possible settings:
a) that email message is tagged as spam and delivered to the intended recipient’s Inbox;
b) that email message is routed to the intended recipient’s spam folder;
c) that email message is rejected and sent back undelivered to the sender.
Very unpleasant for the sender, isn’t it? It’s not only the spammers that have their email messages considered as being spam. No software is perfect. We have to deal with it!
Q & A Session
Anonymous: But I used bit.ly in my emails and I got good results. What are you talking about here?
A: Not all email service providers use the same blocklists. Some blocklists don’t include bit.ly. If you’re lucky, maybe only 5 out 100 email addresses are hosted by ESPs who use Spamhaus. But that’s gambling… You don’t know what your subscribers’ ESPs do and what the settings of their spam filters are.
On the other hand, blocklists are “living” databases. A domain name can be OK today, may be listed tomorrow and may even be delisted the day after tomorrow. Using this very example, if you send your emails today or the day after tomorrow, everything is fine.
Branko Zecevic: Since I’m risking problems with spam complaints, shall I stop using click tracking services in my emails?
A: You’re not risking any spam complaint. Only messages received in the Inbox can be reported as spam. There is another problem… When your message includes a link that has the domain name blacklisted, most of the times the intended recipient doesn’t receive your message in the Inbox.
As for stopping the use of click tracking services in emails… No way. An email marketer who doesn’t track the clicks is a blind marketer.
I’m not saying, “Don’t use this or that service”. Nope. The purpose of this article is to show you the potential problems and to give you some pieces of advice. Here they are…
Recommendations
1. Don’t assume that spam filters block only the real spam. Even if your emails were never reported as being spam, some of your emails may be considered spam due to the wording, the links included or other issues not related to this article.
2. Always use click tracking systems for your emails. But don’t use the ones that have their domain names blacklisted.
3. Before sending any email or before buying an email ad, check whether your marketing message includes links that have domain names blacklisted by major blocklists. If there is such a blacklisted domain name, don’t hesitate… replace it. You don’t have to risk getting poorer results only for the sake of being able to measure them.
4. Nothing is permanent. For example, if a domain name was clean yesterday, don’t assume that today it’s still OK. Check it!
To Your Email Marketing Success!
Adrian Jock
Thanks for the info and for mentioning me in the post! :)
These are really nice tips for people interested in email marketing and especially for those interested in buying solo ads. It’s really wise to check the url tracker’s domain name on the Spamhaus you mentioned every time before you send an email to a list.
As marketers we want to test always our actions in order to be more effective and successful and this is the way to do it correctly.
You’re welcome, Branko. And… thank you! Your article and comments have inspired me to write this blog post :)
Useful information – thanks, Adrian.
Assuming the email IS delivered, it is also important to
realize that people are more likely to click on a link if they can see where the link will take them and they trust the sender.
New subscribers who do not know you may be less inclined to click on non-transparent links in your emails.
I usually think twice before clicking on a shortened link, unless I know the sender. In my experience, links where the domain name is visible attract higher click-through rates.
Jude
Hi Jude, thank you for your comment. I fully agree with your point :)
It’s also worth checking whether the URL shortening provider is going to syphon off or take a cut from any affiliate commissions you might be expecting for yourself. Apparently TinyUrl practice this and I’m sure they’re not the only ones.
Hi Patrick. Thank you for your comment. It’s the first time when I see someone claiming that TinyURL steals affiliate commissions. Do you have any proof for your claim?
Hi Adrian
My suspicions were aroused by the following post on the Warrior Forum: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/657403-warning-using-tinyurl-com.html I hope it’s not true but having seen large numbers of clicks through tinyurl but no commissions in recent months when I’ve used them I can’t help but have suspicions.
Oh, I’m sick of WF posts regarding ClickBank commissions stolen by ClickBank itself, by TinyURL, by… etc. WF is a great forum but has also an expected disadvantage: is populated by tons of people who don’t know what they’re talking about.
Actually I was pretty sure that you refer specifically to ClickBank commissions and not to any affiliate commissions.
What all these complainers don’t seem to understand is that CB system itself is the problem, not someone else.
No matter how you hide your affiliate link, an internet marketer who wants to buy the product will see that it’s a CB product. He will find out what his affiliate link is and then buy that product after he clicked on his aff link. The commission goes to that person, you get nothing. Since CB allows such purchases a lot of affiliates lose money.
This is how the commissions are lost. It is obvious, but sometimes the people don’t see the obvious things. They look for conspirations :-)
On the other hand, “assuming” has no value. Make this test: cloak one of your CB aff links. Then during a few days, click at random hours on your TinyURL link and see if someone has changed your link. I’ve made such tests long time ago. All results were identical… No one from TinyURL steals my commissions. What do you think? Am I working for TinyURL? Am I somehow protected by TinyURL? Nope ;-)
I hardly use Clickbank myself, preferring to promote physical products and services when it comes to affiliate marketing. Some affiliate programmes such as Affiliate Window have their own in-house URL shortener which are very good while others such as Tradedoubler don’t, thus leaving you to choose between sticking with an untidy looking URL or an appropriate shortener. Hence my interest in your post rather than wanting to debate the merits or otherwise of Clickbank.
Hi Adrian,
Your blog post definitely caught my attention. I just recently started using Bitly in hopes of being able to track the clicks that I got to the links.
However, I may have to re-think that as I never really knew that about Bitly.
I think that I will stop using it. The last thing that I want is for my links to get blocked.
I think that if you offer valuable things that help people, they are more likely to buy. Thanks for sharing this information it definitely helped me. Have a great week.
You’re welcome, Susan. Thank you for taking the time to comment :)
Click tracking system is important in email marketing campaign I believe. Its one way we can understand whether the recipient like our news or not. If not then we can change the marketing campaign to find the most suitable one.
Great post
When it comes to email marketing, it’s something I’ve never delve in to or tried before but this is one post which is some sort of an eye opener for. Thanks for this!
Hi,
There are worthy tips for me as I am going to start online marketing to grow myself. I really thanks to for sharing these tips.
Hi,
for someone like me who wants to know more about email marketing campaign and how my messages to arrive on customers Inbox folder all tips from this post are great.