Linking Formats
Find / Replace | Quick Build | Search | Skip Affiliate Redirect | Short Links (georiot.co)
Overview
There are several GeoRiot link styles: Find/Replace, Quick Build, Search, and georiot.co (short links). Why more than one? Depending on your website or app’s links when you start integrating with GeoRiot, one of these link styles will be the easiest way for you to convert existing links and build new ones. See Getting Started: Create GeoRiot Enabled Links for additional help choosing a linking format.
Whichever linking format or linking tool you choose, ALL GeoRiot links offer the same benefits.
Find/Replace - This style of link is best when your website or app has existing affiliate links. This link style gets its name from the conversion process—using find/replace. Doing a find and replace is all that’s needed to convert your affiliate links into GeoRiot links.
Quick Build - This style of link is best when you already have a library of raw landing page links and are looking for a programmatic way to convert the links to GeoRiot links. This is also the format outputted when using our custom link building tools, such as the Link Maker, Encoder, RSS, and Widget tools. If you are pulling data from iTunes via their API, or plan on storing raw iTunes links in your system, this will also be the best link format to use.
Search - This style of link is best when you don't have an existing link for the landing page, but rather have a list of attributes. For example, if you want an affiliate link to iTunes for the band "Pearl Jam" and the song "Jeremy" from the album "Ten" you would use a Search style GeoRiot link.
Skip Affiliate Redirect - Adding an additional parameter allows you to build GeoRiot affiliate links that skip the affiliate redirects, processing faster.
georiot.co - Formerly the domain "glob.ly", georiot.co is our short link service built on top of GeoRiot's geo-target, translate, and encode service.
Find/Replace
The Find/Replace link style is easiest if you have hardcoded affiliate links in your website or app. This style of link is named after the tool you use to create one: Find and Replace. A quick find and replace is all that’s needed to convert your existing affiliate links into GeoRiot links. We also offer a Javascript Snippet for webpages that leverages the Find/Replace style as well as Quick Build formats to automate the process. If you have several pages in your site with regular iTunes/App Store links or affiliate encoded links, then it may simplify your conversion.
The first step is to get your GeoRiot base URL. See What's My Base GeoRiot URL?. Your base URL will look something like:
http://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=5&Replace 5 with your TSID (Traffic Source ID)
Next, you will do a find/replace on existing affiliate links, replacing the affiliate network's base URL with your GeoRiot base URL.
The following table shows the text you will find in a link, by affiliate program.
Depending on the affiliate program used, you should replace the corresponding text with your GeoRiot base URL.
| Affiliate Program | Text to Be Replaced |
| LinkShare (US, MX, CA, JP) | http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click? |
| TradeDoubler (EU, BR) | http://clk.tradedoubler.com/click?
http://clkuk.tradedoubler.com/click? |
| DGM Performance (AU, NZ) | http://t.dgm-au.com/c/30099/31316/1152? |
| DGM Pro (Old for AU, NZ) | http://www.s2d6.com/x/? |
Any EPI and Signature tracking you may have initially used with your original affiliate links can be left alone. GeoRiot will include these tracking strings when it translates the links. See information about tracking affiliate links with GeoRiot.
Example: Converting a US/LinkShare affiliate link for iTunes
An iTunes affiliate link for the US program managed by LinkShare, prior to integrating with GeoRiot, looks like:
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=CBIMl*gYY/8&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1 =http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Falbum%252Fblack %252Fid331012810%253Fi%253D331013723%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30
To convert the iTunes affiliate US/LinkShare link from the above example you simply replace the base section of the affiliate URL
(http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?) with your GeoRiot base URL. The converted URL will look like this example:
http://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=5&id=CBIMl*gYY/8&offerid=146261 &type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252F album%252Fblack%252Fid331012810%253Fi%253D331013723%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30
Again, you simply replaced "http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?" with “http://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=5&” (inserting your own TSID value) to convert the link. It’s really that easy!
Quick Build
The Quick Build link style is best if you want a programmatic way to build GeoRiot links from a catalog of raw landing page links.
This approach is best if any of the following are true:
- you have a database of raw links
- you programmatically build links
- you are just getting started
The Quick Build style uses your base GeoRiot URL, example, http://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=5&, then adds "GR_URL="
with a URL Encoded raw landing page URL attached to the end.
For example, if your target raw landing page URL is:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ten/id425465247
That is URL encoded (see url encoding (aka percent encoding)) to:
http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Falbum%2Fonce%2Fid331012810%3Fi%3D331013504
Given your base GeoRiot URL (see What's My Base GeoRiot URL?), that will look similar to the link below:
http://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=5&
Add GR_URL=, followed by the encoded version of the raw landing page URL in the previous step to yield the Quick Build style GeoRiot link:
http://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=5&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Falbum%2Ften%2Fid425465247
Search
The Search link style is typically the best route for your GeoRiot integration when you:
- don’t have an existing affiliate link or you are just getting started
- don't have a landing page URL
- do have some information or meta data about the item you wish to link to
- are building a GeoRiot link to music (for now, this feature is only available for music)
In addition to being an easy link to build, this linking style offers another significant benefit: if iTunes changes the ID of the item you link to, your link will not break and you will not have to update it.
The currently supported parameters include:
| Parameter | Accepted Values |
| vendor | iTunes |
| type | Music |
| ArtistName | URL encoded text |
| AlbumName | URL encoded text |
| TrackName | URL encoded text |
For each of the examples below, you would replace the "{TSID}" string below with your own TSID value. See What's my base URL? for directions to find your TSID value.
1: A link for a user to download the Pearl Jam song “Jeremy,” from the album “Ten" from iTunes:
http://target.georiot.com/Search.ashx?tsid={TSID}&vendor=iTunes& type=Music&ArtistName=Pearl+Jam&AlbumName=Ten&TrackName=Jeremy
2: A link for a user to go to the artist page for "Lady Gaga" in iTunes:
http://target.georiot.com/Search.ashx?tsid={TSID}&vendor=iTunes&type=Music&ArtistName=Lady+GaGa
What's My Base GeoRiot URL?
When building a GeoRiot link, you need your GeoRiot base URL to start. All you need is your TSID, or Traffic Source ID. Log into the GeoRiot dashboard and navigate to Account > ManageTraffic Sources. The ID for each traffic source can be found in the table, to the left of a traffic source.
Build your base URL by replacing the TSID in the link below (5) with your TSID.
http://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=5& (replace 5 with your TSID)
Skip Affiliate Redirect
Add this flag to your GeoRiot links when you require the fastest possible link resolution times. Doing this cuts out between one and three hops, depending on the affiliate network. However, by skipping the affiliate redirect you will sacrifice the click and user level tracking provided by the affiliate networks. Click tracking is still available from GeoRiot when affiliate redirects are skipped.
A GeoRiot link built to skip affiliate redirects will resolve directly to an iTunes link with affiliate parameters attached during the "encode" phase, rather than resolving to a traditional affiliate link. A traditional affiliate link first goes to the affiliate network where clicks are recorded and user level tracking information (Signature/U1 or EPI) is processed. A link that has been flagged to skip affiliate redirects goes directly to the iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore or Mac App Store with the proper affiliate tracking parameters attached. Apple dubbs this type of affiliate link as a "Short Link."
In order to skip the affiliate network redirects, special parameters are necessary for GeoRiot to auto-magically build the "short link." These tracking values (outlined below) will need to be added to your account via the GeoRiot dashboard. You can add new parameters to existing affiliate program info on the Affiliate page.
- For the programs, managed by LinkShare and LinkShare Japan, the necessary parameter is the "siteID" and is the same value as the LinkShare ID ( more info here).
- For the affiliate programs in Europe plus Brazil, managed by TradeDoubler, the necessary parameter is the "TDUID" and must be requested directly from TradeDoubler. Send an email to itunesaffiliates@euro.apple.com with your TradeDoubler "program ID" and "website ID" that can be found in the settings tab of the TradeDoubler dashboard (more info here).
- For the programs managed by DGM, the necessary parameter is the "affToken" and has the same value as your DGM "Affiliate Company ID." You can find this in the DGM dashboard under My Details > Company Details (more info here).
To skip the affiliate redirect, simply attach the parameter &DIRECT=1 to the end of any GeoRiot link.
The Encoder tool, found through the GeoRiot dashboard under Account > Traffic Sources, in the Create Links menu, can generate GeoRiot links that already contain the parameters to skip the affiliate redirect. All you need to do is select the "Skip Affiliate Redirect" check box. Further, the Encoder tool can wrap that link into a "short link", georiot.co, which is great for social posting if you check the "georiot.co" check box.
GeoRiot.co
georiot.co is a a short link service built on top of GeoRiot's geo-target, translate, and encode service.
While a click on a georiot.co link will perform just like standard GeoRiot link, georiot.co links are significantly shorter (26 characters or fewer) and less cumbersome than traditional affiliate links or GeoRiot links (potentially 260+ characters). We at GeoRiot built georiot.co to simplify the process of posting geographically-aware links to social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. But, georiot.co links can be used anywhere- in apps, websites, etc.
Using a georiot.co link instead of encoding a GeoRiot link with a shortening service (E.g. bit.ly, ow.ly, tinyurl.com) will reduce the number of hops, minimizing the time necessary to resolve the URL to it's final destination.
Currently, georiot.co based links can be built with the Encoder tool found in the GeoRiot dashboard under Account > Traffic Sources. Note: georiot.co links can also be built to skip affiliate redirects.
georiot.co links can be tested by forcing the link to resolve for another country by adding /iso2/XX where XX is a valid
ISO 2 Country Code.
For example http://georiot.co/2yWE/iso2/DE.
Read more about testing GeoRiot links here.
