James Bachini

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  • The Secrets Web3 Marketers Use To Launch New Crypto Projects

    The Secrets Web3 Marketers Use To Launch New Crypto Projects

    My previous background in digital marketing and now having worked in the blockchain sector for 6 years provides unique vantage point on the differences between conventional and web3 marketing. Successful crypto projects create communities of advocates who act as micro-influencers championing the cause. In this article I’ll discuss why “build it and they will come”…

  • Digital Marketing Overview | Beginners Guide

    Digital Marketing Overview | Beginners Guide

    In this beginners guide I provide a digital marketing overview of how to setup and run online marketing campaigns. Check out the video and there’s more detailed information below and in the digital marketing tutorials section. [Video] Digital Marketing For Beginners How Online Marketing Works Performance Marketing Process Analytics & Tracking Website, Landing Page Design…

  • NFC Marketing | 8 NFC Marketing Examples

    NFC Marketing | 8 NFC Marketing Examples

    In this article we look at NFC Marketing opportunities and how NFC chips can be used to merge online and offline marketing campaigns. Introduction To NFC Technology How To Write A NFC Chip Using Your Phone 8 NFC Marketing Examples NFC Business Cards NFC Billboards NFC Point of Sale Data NFC Stickers & Labels NFC…

  • Direct Linking | How To Set Up Quick Affiliate Campaigns 🏹

    Direct Linking | How To Set Up Quick Affiliate Campaigns 🏹

    In this article we look at how direct linking affiliate offers works including a real world campaign setup video. What Is Direct Linking? Benefits Of Direct Linking Finding Affiliate Offers Finding A Traffic Source Testing & Initial Results Optimizing Direct Link Campaigns Scaling Up Affiliate Campaigns 3 Tips For Direct Linking Video Example Direct Linking…

  • Website Competitor Analysis | 5 Steps To Research The Competition 🕵️

    Website Competitor Analysis | 5 Steps To Research The Competition 🕵️

    This article outlines the following five steps to carry out a thorough website competitor analysis. Assessing Competitive Landscape Analyzing Website Traffic Metrics Social Media & Content Analysis Web Technology & Tracking Analysis Personnel & Corporate Structure Research First let’s look at a video example of carrying out competitor research for a Clickbank product. Website Competitor…

  • Defining Key Performance Indicators | From 34 KPI Examples

    Defining Key Performance Indicators | From 34 KPI Examples

    In this article we look at Key Performance Indicators, how to define them, review them and how you can set up a KPI dashboard for your business. KPI’s in 90 Seconds What are Key Performance Indicators? What makes a good KPI? Categories of KPI and 34 Key Performance Indicator Examples Steps To Defining KPI’s Setting…

  • Analytics Strategy | Essential Guide To Data Driven Marketing 📈

    Analytics Strategy | Essential Guide To Data Driven Marketing 📈

    This module is part of a free online course where you can learn digital marketing. How to create an analytics strategy to track visitor metrics, provide actionable insights into performance and establish data driven marketing methodology for continuous improvement. [Video] Creating An Effective Analytics Strategy Why Analytics & Privacy Are Important Roadmap For Developing An…

  • Copywriting for Websites | Marketing Psychology Secrets

    Copywriting for Websites | Marketing Psychology Secrets

    This article is part of a free online course where you can learn digital marketing. This article provides original research on how copywriting for websites converts visitors to customers and how to write better sales copy on your next website or landing page. 32 Copywriting Tricks Learned From Analysing 210 Landing Pages Marketing Psychology Concepts…

  • Google Analytics Event Tracking | GA Events Setup, Tips & Examples

    Google Analytics Event Tracking | GA Events Setup, Tips & Examples

    In this article we will explore what you can do with Google Analytics Events, how to set them up, some example code for where they can be used and some tips for getting the most out of gtag events. Google Analytics Events in 90 Seconds What are Google Analytics Events? Breakdown of an Event Setting…

  • CRO | Conversion Rate Optimisation

    CRO | Conversion Rate Optimisation

    This article is part of a free online course where you can learn digital marketing. Conversion rate optimisation or CRO is the process of making a website, landing page or app convert more visitors into leads and customers. What is CRO and do I need it? What is the Average Improvement to Conversion Rate? How…

  • Setting up HTTPS (SSL) with Cloudflare and WordPress

    Setting up HTTPS (SSL) with Cloudflare and WordPress

    If you are just running a wordpress blog or simple website you can setup Cloudflare to manage SSL for you. Cloudflare acts as a proxy between your website and the user. I recently setup Cloudflare which provides a SSL certificate with their free account plan. Step 1. Setup Cloudflare Register for an account. Then select…

  • Progressive Optimisation

    Progressive Optimisation

    When looking at conversion rate statistics for a new traffic source it is important to use progressive optimisation to block non-converting sources as early and efficiently as possible. The first step is to work out what conversion rate is required and then put a progressive funnel in place to build up to it. So if…

  • Capitalisation of Links (www.MySite.com) CRO Test

    Capitalisation of Links (www.MySite.com) CRO Test

    I thought an interesting split test would be to test if text links on a landing page that are capitalised get more clicks than ones that don’t. For example: https://www.jamesbachini.com/ – standard (control) https://www.JamesBachini.com/ – Capitalised This was for a site that wasn’t a personal name and contained a full directory and page like http://www.MyGreatWebSite.com/example/page.htm…

  • PHP Redirect with Parameters | Passing GET variables in a Redirect

    PHP Redirect with Parameters | Passing GET variables in a Redirect

    Update March 2023 To do a 301 PHP redirect with parameters to another page we can use the following code: The entire query parameter string is stored in the following variable. Everything after the question mark. So for the URL: server.com/index.php?test=123&hi=hellothe $_SERVER[‘QUERY_STRING’] will contain this string “test=123&hi=hello” We can then pass this out when redirecting…

  • Wasabi AB Testing Platform

    Wasabi AB Testing Platform

    Update July 2020 – Wasabi is no longer maintained or supported. Check this article for more information on conversion rate optimisation. Wasabi AB Testing Platform Intuit have opensourced a enterprise grade A/B testing platform called Wasabi. This runs as an API on a separate server from your site/landers. It isn’t the easiest thing to setup…

  • A simple iOS / Android traffic splitter in PHP

    A simple iOS / Android traffic splitter in PHP

    The following basic PHP code will split traffic by device with iOS traffic going to the first out link, Android to the second and leftovers to the third. TIP: This uses a 301 redirect however you can do any type of programmatic variation based on the user agent. You can copy and paste this into…

  • Option to Disable Adsense Ads

    Option to Disable Adsense Ads

    In some cases it is beneficial to provide a link or option for visitors to a site not to see the adsense ads the first time they visit a page. Ads can sometimes be viewed negatively and for the first visit or under certain circumstances it is best to temporarily disable them. Here is the…

  • Dynamic Tracking Tokens For Major Ad Networks

    Dynamic Tracking Tokens For Major Ad Networks

    Google Adwords Search term insertion {keyword=”leather couches”} {Keyword=”Leather couches”} {KeyWord=”Leather Couches”} {KEYWORD= “LEATHER COUCHES”} {device} {devicemodel} {placement} {creative} {adposition} {target} {network} {matchtype} Facebook No tokens 🙁 Plenty of Fish pof.com {age:} {state:} {gender:} TrafficVance %KEYWORD% MSN Adcenter {KeyWord} = Order Fresh Fruit today {keyword} = Order fresh fruit today {Keyword} = Order Fresh fruit today…

  • Setting Up Retargeting Pixels for Adwords and Facebook

    Setting Up Retargeting Pixels for Adwords and Facebook

    Retargeting works by placing a image pixel or code snippet on your website. You can then launch advertising campaigns targeted at those specific users that have visited the page and “seen” the hidden pixel. This is how to set it up… Facebook Go to Ads Manager > Audiences > Create Audience > Custom Audience >…

  • Setting up Maxmind GEOIP2 Legacy Database with PHP or Javascript

    This is the php code I use to access geoip data from Maxmind’s geoip database: <?php $gpath = getcwd() . “/GeoIPCity.dat”; if (isset($_SERVER[‘HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR’])) { $myip = $_SERVER[‘HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR’]; } if (isset($_SERVER[‘REMOTE_ADDR’])) { $myip = $_SERVER[‘REMOTE_ADDR’]; } include(“./geoipcity.inc”); $gi = geoip_open($gpath,GEOIP_STANDARD); $record = geoip_record_by_addr($gi,$myip); $city = $record->city; $countrycode = $record->country_code; geoip_close($gi); echo ‘countrycode = “‘.$countrycode.’”; city =…

  • How To Optimise Online Affiliate Marketing Campaigns

    How To Optimise Online Affiliate Marketing Campaigns

    This is going to be another long post about a seemingly boring topic of optimisation. If you ask a hundred affiliates how they optimise a campaign 90% of them will tell you they just get a feel for it. Very few affiliates actually have a set process or mathematical formula they use when optimising. Whether…

  • Daily Calcs Profit And Loss Spreadsheet Download For Affiliate Marketers

    Daily Calcs Profit And Loss Spreadsheet Download For Affiliate Marketers

    Here is the spreadsheet I use to monitor my profit and loss accounts on a daily basis. It’s provided here as a downloadable spreadsheet but I would recommend setting it up how you want and then uploading to Google Docs so it can be worked on from anywhere by anyone. This document works by inputting…

  • Why postback pixels aren’t good enough

    What is it with the increase in use with global postbacks? This is where you send the network an id and they send it back to you if it converts. It seems that some affiliates are actually using this type of tracking and optimising on a single tracking system. For the love of god can…

  • Passing Through Landing Page Variables

    This was inspired by another post which is well worth a read at: http://affplaybook.com/blog/affiliate-marketing/the-ultimate-guide-to-landing-page-tricks/ So many traffic sources provide you with tags such as {keyword} {countrycode} {device} etc. You can add these variables to your url so it would look something like: http://www.myserver.com/landingpage.htm?kw={keyword}&device={device} Then in the code to your landing page you can access these…

  • Scalling Prosper202

    An excellent article from prosper202 on how to scale out to multiple servers efficiently: http://prosper.tracking202.com/blog/tutorial-how-your-current-server-setup-is-costing-you-big-time?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+prosper202+%28Prosper202+Development+Blog%29

  • Installing Prosper202 for Affiliate Marketing

    Things you’ll need to get setup with Prosper202 and affiliate marketing: > A webhost or VPS or Dedicated server (web host is cheapest, Dedi’s are most expensive, VPS is a good compromise) > A domain name, just use a .com in case you want to run international in the future. Godaddy are pretty good. >…

  • 346 million clicks handled by Prosper202

    Credit where credit is due, for free open source software, Prosper202 is great. I’ve had a few issues along the way but this software can be scalled to huge volumes relatively easily. If you aren’t using it to track your campaigns get it setup today: Some tips on running prosper at volume: 1) Check your…

  • Direct Linking and Retargeting

    Here is how to do it, you’ll still need a server and a domain. Point all your traffic towards a php file i.e. http://www.mydomain.com/trackandforward.php Then place all your retargeting pixels in to the trackandforward.php file and put a meta refresh at the the end. The page will load the retargeting cookies will be placed and…

  • Firing a S2S tracking url from an image conversion pixel

    Use this on your landing page: setcookie(“cid”, $_GET[‘accid’], time()+7*24*60*60, ‘/’, ‘.mydomain.com’); This sets up a cookie so you can track a click id in www.mydomain.com?accid=123 You could also set this up track any other data you want, subid, affiliate id etc. Then setup your conversion image pixel as <img src=”http://www.mydomain.com/conversion.php” height=”1px” width=”1px” /> This code…

  • Stupidly Simple AB or Multivariate Testing

    Stupidly Simple AB or Multivariate Testing

    Here’s a simple way you can setup a simple multivariate or A/B split test without any software just using the subid variables provided by an affiliate network and some really basic php. <?php $out = ‘http://www.myaffiliatelink.com/page1.php?affid=123&subid1=’; if (rand(0,1) == 0) { $out.=’g1′; $girlimg = ‘1.png’; } else { $out.=’g2′; $girlimg = ‘2.png’; } // this…

  • Redirection Methods and Referer Passing

    The following are some methods you can use to redirect users from one place to another. I generally use 301 redirects for anything where I want the referer passed through because this is the fastest. Double meta refresh for anything where blank referer is important and a custom script which incorporates the form submit redirect…

  • Lessons learned from writing a bespoke tracking platform

    For a recent project I wanted to develop a tracking platform which was specifically designed to suit my needs. It needed to be simple to use, capable of handling seven figure audiences daily and built on technology I understand so it can be customised on the go. I decided to build it arround php /…

  • Loading a conversion pixel on click through

    Mobile campaign optimisation throws up a number of issues in regard to tracking. One thing I’ve found really useful is to load a conversion pixel on click through from the landing page to the offer page. This can be a traffic source pixel which can then be used to give some indication of site/device/carrier quality…

  • Mobile Multivariate Testing with SubID’s

    Due to slow page load speeds it is advised to keep tracking software to minimum when running mobile campaigns. This caused me a problem when trying to develop and optimise a mobile landing page. Because I wasn’t using prosper or any other tracking software I couldn’t plug in my custom multivariate testing scripts. I was…

  • Prosper202 Mod – Set preferences before crashing server

    Had a bit of an issue with Prosper crashing once the database got too big. I would log out and leave the analysis preferences set to my biggest traffic source and when I logged back in the server would crash as it tries to pull a report before you can modify the search critieria. I…

  • Handling large volumes of data with Prosper202

    IMO the default version of prosper202 isn’t really designed to handle large volume media buys. The latest version 1.7.2 does make it easier with a simple click to clear click data button but it can still prove difficult to pull off reports once the ammount of data you are analysising exceeds a certain limit. The…

  • Rotating Offer Pages and Landing Pages in Prosper202

    It is really easy to setup rotation of urls in Prosper but if you actually want to track which url is doing better or you want to test different landing pages it can be a little more challenging. One way to do this is to set each url or landing page up separately and then…

  • Tracking CPS Networks With Prosper202 and CPV Lab

    In the UK alot of affiliate marketing is done through cost per sale networks. The big ones being Tradedoubler and Affiliate Window. Here is how to integrate their backend systems with a performance based tracking system such as prosper202. TradeDoubler add &epi=[[subid]] Affiliate Window add &clickref=[[subid]] Affiliate Future add &tracking=[[subid]] Commission Junction add &sid=[[subid]] nb.it…

  • Prosper 202 Mods 2012

    Prosper202 mods 1) increase session life – stops it logging you out every five minutes when you are trying to work add the following line just before session_start(); in 202-config/connect.php ini_set(‘session.gc_maxlifetime’,99999); 2) bypass adverts on first page – bit naughty but I prefer to jump straight into the spy section to see whats been going…

  • Prosper202 Hacks and Modifications

    Prosper202 Hacks and Modifications

    JiM’s Prosper202 mods 1) increase session life (stops it locking you out every few minutes) add the following line just before session_start(); in 202-config/connect.php ini_set(‘session.gc_maxlifetime’,99999); 2) Cchange the first page you see. edit 202-login.php line 80: header(‘location: /202-account’);  to   header(‘location: /tracking202’); or /tracking202/spy/ If you are doing email submits or any volume loging into spy…