Tracking Facebook Links Outside of Notes

By now you may have already read the post on Facebook Link Trackers in Facebook Notes. There are a couple of other places on Facebook where you can place link trackers. Basically, you'll find that wherever you can post an URL, you can post a Link Tracker, since a Link Tracker is really just an URL. The catch is that outside of the notes, you'll probably only be able to enter the actual URL -- you won't need to enter actual HTML like you do with the notes.

There are 2 ways to get the straight link tracker URL. The first way would be to follow all of the same steps you followed in the original tutorial. Just copy/paste the URL (which is everything between the double quotes ("). The other way is to use the Adwords Tracker. Don't let the name throw you off -- it works.

1. Log in to your WunderCounter Account
2. Choose Adwords Tracker from the Generate HTML menu
3. Enter the URL of the page you're linking to. I'll use http://www.wundercounter.com
4. Give the tracker a name you can remember. I'll use fb_tracker/wundercounter.com
5. Take the URL which you're provided with and use it in your Facebook account as a tracker URL

Now, where can you place these URLs? I don't claim to be a Facebook expert, but here are a couple of places that should work:

1. Wall posts
2. Share a Link (under the Wall tab on your Profile page)
   
3. In comments on notes
4. In comments on status
5. In the website box under your Contact Information
6. You can experiment with the other boxes of the Contact Information area (under the Info tab on your Profile page). Many of them may accept tracker URLs as well.
   

If I've missed anything or gotten something wrong, please comment back and let me know.

Previewing Facebook Notes

While we're on the topic of Facebook notes, I just wanted to pass along a tip. When creating a note, it's handy to preview it before you post, but that's not always an option (or one that's easy to find) when you're creating a note. Here's what you can do:

1. Log in to your Facebook account
2. On the top of the page, beside your profile photo you'll see a series of tabs. If you see Notes as one of the options, click it. If you don't see it as an option, click the + tab at the far right and choose Notes as the tab you'd like to add
   
3. Now, if you select the Notes tab and then click the Write a New Note button you'll find a large note editor with Publish, Preview and Save Draft options. This is a good editor to use when adding a Facebook Link Tracker to a note. It'll help you get it right before you decide to make the post visible on the site.
   

Facebook Link Tracking in Facebook Notes

You may have read an earlier article where I told you that Facebook note tracking was no longer working. This is true, but all is not lost. You can still track links which are clicked in Facebook notes and you can track some other Facebook links.

If you're logged in to Facebook, you should be able to see this working demo:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=51745236539

Interested? Let's have a look at how to do this.

(Please note that this technique requires a feature which is only available to Premium accounts.)

First, let's create a new Facebook note:

• log in to Facebook
• click the Profile tab
• click the Write Note link that's on your wall subtab
• give the note a title (note that you cannot put a tracker in the note's title)
• put your message in the body of the note. make sure you have room for a link in the note somewhere, as the link tracker (naturally) tracks links

Now, log in to the WunderCounter and create your link tracker code. There is only one bit of information to enter on each page. After that you click "continue to the next step" to keep moving. I'm saying this now in order to avoid repeating it many times below. :)

1. Select Counter & Tracker Code from the Generate HTML menu
   
2. Select Link Tracker
   
3. Select HTML only
4. Now, enter the link that you want to send people to. In my case, I'll enter www.wundercounter.com
5. Select text link
6. Enter the text which people will actually see when your link is posted. In my case I'll enter The WunderCounter tracks links in Facebook notes
7. Select either Yes or No when you're asked about a new browser window. Facebook takes care of this, so it's actually not relevant here
8. When you're asked for a page name, just give it a name that will help you remember where your note is. I'll enter fb_note/wundercounter.com
9. Now you'll get a page with the code. Just copy the main code. You can ignore the HTML comments. That's the stuff between the <!-- and the --> tags.
   

That's pretty much it. Now, just take your link tracker code and copy/paste it into your Facebook note. Whenever someone clicks on the link, you'll find an entry for it in your WunderCounter logs.

API Watcher Feeds: Now With Tagging and Pretty URLs

If you're using the API Watcher RSS feeds, you will have noticed that IP tags were not appearing in your RSS feeds. This has now been corrected. Originally, I thought that I had not done the tagging work for the Watcher feeds. Upon closer inspection it turns out that I had, in fact, done the work, but that my work was just buggy. ;) If you're tagging your IPs, hopefully you'll find these feeds much more useful now.

I've also updated the display of the referring URLs in the Watcher and Tripwire feeds. You'll now see that those ugly, long search engine URLs have been cleaned up, just like they get cleaned up in your daily log files. For example,

www.google.com/search?q=wundercounter&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7SKPB_en

now gets cleaned up like this:

www.google.com/search : wundercounter

The links still go to the same place, but they're now much easier to read.

I hope you are having as much fun with these feeds as I am. Right now the feeds are my favourite thing about the WunderCounter. Let me know what you think of the API. I'm happy to hear all kinds of feedback, positive and negative.

Myspace 2.0 Profile: Headline (and other) Trackers

If you have a Myspace band/music site, please see this post for instructions on how to track your page.

If you've upgraded your Myspace Profile to 2.0 and you had placed your WunderCounter code in the headline, your WunderCounter code may no longer be tracking. Here's how to get the WunderCounter code back into your headline with Myspace Profile 2.0.

Please note that the headline tracker only works when your profile is set to public. If you use a headline tracker in private mode, the tracker will not work and it will also get exposed in your headline -- it's ugly! So, if your profile is private, put the code somewhere else, like your "about me" section. See below...

• Log in to Myspace
• Select Profile -> Customize Profile
• You'll find a pencil icon on the top right of the Basic Information box. Click this icon.
• Under Visible Items there is a menu which allows you to show Headline or Status/Mood. Select Headline.
• Click the yellow Publish button on the top right of your screen to save your changes

This will now allow your headline to be visible on your Myspace profile page. Now, if you need to edit your profile:

• Select Profile -> Edit Profile
• Select Basic Info
• Edit any fields and then click Save Changes

If you don't wish to have the WunderCounter in your headline, you can add it to one of several other places. For example:

• Select Profile -> Edit Profile
• Select About Me or Interests
• Add the WunderCounter code to one of the boxes on any of these pages
• Save your changes

Just make sure that wherever you put your WunderCode, you decide to make this area viewable when you customize your profile.

List Your Site on WunderCounter.com

Did you know that you can list your site on WunderCounter.com? To create your free WunderCounter page, simply choose Directory Listing from the Options menu on your Dashboard page. Just fill out and submit a simple form and you're page will be live immediately. You can use this listing to link back to your site, your Myspace page, your blog, an eBay auction etc. You'll be able to preview your live listing and you may update or disable the listing at any time.

It's one more way to drive traffic to your site. It's included in all packages -- even affiliate accounts -- and it's totally free.

Myspace Bulletin Tracking

Just yesterday, a WunderCounter user asked me about whether you could track Myspace bulletins. I said something like, "I don't know. If you try it and it works, please let me know".

Well, it turns out she tried, it works and she did let me know. (Thanks, Lori!)

So, what's the secret? I'd be lying if I said there was a trick to it.

• Just create a Myspace style tracker (which you can choose from the Generate HTML menu on your dashboard).
• Post that WunderCounter code into your Myspace bulletin.
• Preview and post your bulletin as you normally would

That's it!

If you know of other sites that can be tracked which I haven't mentioned in help articles or previous blog posts, please let me know. I'll post info on new sites as I learn about them, but it really is a big help to me and everyone else who uses the WunderCounter when people are able to share this sort of info. It can take a long time for me to discover this sort of thing on my own. :)

Now Available: Invisible Free Trial Accounts

I'm happy to let you know that free trials are now available for Invisible accounts. If you're sitting on the fence as to what sort of account would be best for you, feel free to test drive the Invisible account in addition to the Premium account.

Creating a free trial account requires no billing information and there is no obligation to purchase. The trial period is 14 days, which gives you enough time to kick the tires and see what it's all about. As usual, if you have any questions at all about your free trial account call or email using the contact info at http://www.wundercounter.com so that I can help you decide what best suits your needs.