View Full Version : Is Anyone Using Revstats?
sharky
11-12-2002, 10:43 AM
I'm just curious if anyone is currently using revstats, http://www.revstats.com , to monitor their click income?
If so, what is your thoughts on it?
If Not, what do you do to track the clicks/ratio/income from different sponsors? Spreadsheets?
What works best for you?
Mike AI
11-12-2002, 11:20 AM
Sharky we have an in house system, that we use with Excel...
It is not fancy, but this is not rocket science...
I'm not real big on giving my usernames/passwords out to a 3rd party.
sharky
11-12-2002, 11:41 AM
I figured as much, Mike.
It does seem like a good system to use for comparing stats between sponsors, etc.
I am no Excel Guru(BUT I am an Internet Guru!.. ahahah), so I am looking for alernative options to give me better stats.
Monk - Very good point. I have been watching these guys for over a year.. and I haven't heard anything bad about them...
hmm..
Sharky, Stats Remote (http://www.probilling.com/pos/affiliateDispatcher.cfm?mwn=3372&awn=13873&apn=2709) is used by a lot of webmasters - in fact, a webmaster told me today they wouldn't sign up to our program until we were in there! :unsure:
This combines stats the way most webmasters want to see it ... the demo is really good if you want to take a peek
Mike AI
11-13-2002, 03:59 AM
It looks interesting.... what it the catch? Are you charging for this product? OR are you giving it away and going to watch where our traffic comes from, or put up ads and banners for sponsors?
Are you charging for this product?
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Its $29.99 per month, no ads, just your information presented in the same format for every sponsor
Mike you don't remember me telling you over a year ago this is what i wanted to do?
I started working, ok working is a stretch, with Opti on making something exactly like RevStats, but then one day i was out surfing and i saw RevStats was on the market, i don't know when they actually hit the market. Then i found StatsRemote. So no point in re-inventing the wheel.
StatsRemote is different than RevStats in that it's client software i think.
mutt, correct
its desktop software so the information only lives on your computer ... its a nice interface too ...
opti and i went over that idea heaps, i loved the concept
i have a few problems with it though, want to see if anyone else raises it first ... what do program owners think of this software republishing your data to webmasters in their own format?
yup i know Opti had talked to you about it cj.
i think it could have been one of the best free tools ever, cuz it would have been advertiser supported, no monthly charges. But i'm no programmer, Opti had a guy working on it, i think it was going to A LOT of work. Then i saw the two products that appeared on the market in the middle of it.
Opti still has a good little tool for webmasters who want a nice simple web based way to track their clicks and stats but it's not automated.
Stat-O-Matic was going to be its name.
LOL
i did give opti another concept for free use, there's a market to milk the webmasters who like the concept ... but are tight asses with their cash ;-)))
<---------------------- My balls are smoother than Lee Noga's
I FINALLY GET TO 125 POSTS!!!!
about fucking time. this board is a time sucker!!!
Hooper
11-13-2002, 08:42 AM
How weird.. i was just thinking about this stuff yesterday.
Stats remote seems good but 30 bucks a month seems silly for software.. i would much prefer to spend a few hundred bucks upfront and not continue to get billed forever. Revstats.. same thoughts as ya'll.. dont wanna give my passwords to anybody else.
As a sponsor, when stats remote approached us for quickbuck they wanted to include us in their program but they told me that ever webmaster using it would be getting stats updated every 15 minutes.. that seems a bit excessive.. i dont check stats every 15 minutes and dont particularly want all the quickbuck webmasters hitting our system every 15 minutes either...
Additonally... the other main problem with these programs is that you're comparing apples and oranges.. i mean, some programs count less than half the clicks of other programs... so when looking at cpc, numbers get skewed in stats remote because they are sponsor counts.
Which brings me to what i was thinking about yesterday.
I have a good programmer who still owes me a lot of time and work so i've been considering having something like this written..
what do ya'll think about the possibility of a program much like stats remote, however it updates every 3-6 hours... and in addition to the sponsor's click counts, for a nominal monthly fee you get a "bounce" url.. or "redirect" page that counts raw clicks out to each individual sponsor so that you get a truly non-biased cpc at the end of the day?
Fuck.. now that i've typed it it looks like a lot of work... so i doubt i'll do it.. but somebody else should feel free to take these ideas and run with them ;-)
that was what Stat-O-Matic was going to do Hooper. Also count out clicks.
Well if anybody wants to do it in partnership with Oprano, including Opti, he would have first dibs on it cuz he was first to help me, let Mike or Serge know.
It would be pretty much what Hooper just said.
slavdogg
11-13-2002, 09:15 AM
what ? statsremote and revstates done count outgoing stats ?
thans what the point of it ?
I like Hoopers idea, i'll pay for that.
But that would require 100% uptime garante. Can i trust some software to be working 100% of the time or an affiliate program to work with no downtimes ?
One more thing, if the traffic is going through a 3rd party's servers.. whats stoping them from redirecting a small % of traffic their own pay. Even if 1% of traffic gets stolen thats 10,000 clicks out a million. Fuck that, i'll keep counting clicks on my fingers instead the old school way
Hooper, i just killed your idea :)
Actually i just gave you a better way to inovate.
Last edited by slavdogg at Nov 13 2002, 09:23 AM
hooper, good concept .... i think it would work best as a 'commission junction' for adult ... sponsors plug in sites and affiliates can promote 100's of sponsors in the same place with same stats, same count etc. its the only way to compare apples to apples
no there is a way to compare apples to apples without having to use a central server. Opti's script gets installed on your server, so you don't have to send your clicks through a third party's server.
what we were talking about though is having people willing to participate uploading their stats to a central server once a day, encrypted maybe so people could participate without feeling like Big Brother was watching, then we'd have a BIG database of numbers for people to look at and compare programs by niche etc.
the bottom line is RAW OUT CLICKS TO A SPONSOR and TOTAL REVENUE from those raw clicks. everything else is bullshit.
Hi... I'm JB from StatsRemote.
Stats remote seems good but 30 bucks a month seems silly for software.. i would much prefer to spend a few hundred bucks upfront and not continue to get billed forever. Revstats.. same thoughts as ya'll.. dont wanna give my passwords to anybody else.
Well, usually when you buy software for a few hundred bucks you still need to pay for major upgrades. In our case you pay 30 bucks a month and get new updates weekly or bi-weekly.
As a sponsor, when stats remote approached us for quickbuck they wanted to include us in their program but they told me that ever webmaster using it would be getting stats updated every 15 minutes.. that seems a bit excessive.. i dont check stats every 15 minutes and dont particularly want all the quickbuck webmasters hitting our system every 15 minutes either...
I offered you to setup Quickbuck in a way so that StatsRemote only checks your stats every hour... 2 hours... 4 hours... etc... we did the same for other programs that didn't want their webmasters hitting their system every 15 minutes.
Additonally... the other main problem with these programs is that you're comparing apples and oranges.. i mean, some programs count less than half the clicks of other programs... so when looking at cpc, numbers get skewed in stats remote because they are sponsor counts.
Well, you have this problem whether you use the software or not. The main reason why people use our software is that they save a lot of time. They have all their numbers right in front of them without having to login to all stats areas manually and can export everything into e.g. Excel to further analyze their traffic.
You still have to use common sense when analyzing your traffic. It always amazes me when people compare the ratios of two sponsors that count hits totally differently and base their decisions only on these ratios...
and that's why the tool we were working on had raw outclicks counted, simple, pick a starting date, a finish date, see how many raw clicks you sent in that period, see how much total revenue, calculate price per raw click.
thanks jb ;-)
I think $30 a month is a bit excessive a fee for the level of webmasters who use the service. A 6 monthly or yearly package with a bulk discount would encourage a lot more people to spend the cash ...
Originally posted by Mutt@Nov 13 2002, 06:55 AM
and that's why the tool we were working on had raw outclicks counted, simple, pick a starting date, a finish date, see how many raw clicks you sent in that period, see how much total revenue, calculate price per raw click.
We were thinking about the same thing from the very beginning but the problem I see is the following... you would need to change 100% of your links... if you don't you won't get accurate figures either... now, tell that to somebody that has thousands of domains listed in search engines :)
jb, and webmasters will NOT change their links
that is a problem. easy solution would be to set up new accounts so you can start fresh tracking of the sponsors you want to track.
Hooper
11-13-2002, 10:06 AM
---
Hooper, i just killed your idea
Actually i just gave you a better way to inovate.
---
yeah.. i think that the only way it would really appeal to enterprise level people (and by enterprise i dont mean 500 employees or more.. just heavy hitters) would be if they hosted it themselves.. otherwise you're right, i would absolutely not trust anybody to not shave my traffic.
To me it would make more sense to charge 500-1500 bucks once.. a few hundred bucks for upgrades every so often and instead of being a hosted script, you buy the scripts and host them on your own servers.
Originally posted by cj@Nov 13 2002, 07:00 AM
thanks jb ;-)
I think $30 a month is a bit excessive a fee for the level of webmasters who use the service. A 6 monthly or yearly package with a bulk discount would encourage a lot more people to spend the cash ...
Well, when I look at our member list I don't see that problem :)
Just think about it this way... if it only saves you 15 minutes a day, that's up to 7.5 hours a month... and many of our members are obsessive stats checkers, so they save a lot more time...
sharky
11-13-2002, 10:11 AM
Well, I did sign up to Revstats -- however I am waiting for them to add a few of my sponsors to the loop. Quickbuck is one of them.
If they don't, I will definitely pull out before the end of the month.
Stats remote looks pretty good too.. but does it provide the graphs, etc that revstats does? How about a breakdown of daily stats?
I can't seem to find anywhere in revstats where it does that.
Originally posted by sharky@Nov 13 2002, 07:19 AM
Stats remote looks pretty good too.. but does it provide the graphs, etc that revstats does? How about a breakdown of daily stats?
Right now you can have StatsRemote save your numbers daily and export them into e.g. Excel.
We're working on a major update though... in the future you will have daily stats, graphs, and many other new features...
sharky
11-13-2002, 10:43 AM
when do you expect the update to be launched?
We plan to launch it in the beginning of next year... until then we will release quite a few minor updates though... it's really amazing, we already support more than 250 programs and still get requests to add new ones daily...
RichC
11-13-2002, 11:25 AM
Get me a counter that does this!
Counts out going raw to money generated and then busts that performance count up based on traffic type.
extremely targeted click, semi targeted click, targeted click, not so targeted click, forced clicked ganked click etc. etc.
and then bust those types of click apart yet again from type of traffic source.
primary se's, second rate se's, tgp, link lists, relevant type in, not so relevant type in, mailers, exit etc etc.
And you might just have something that could allow me to sleep! :awinky:
oh and please make sure it can calculate projected revenues for % partnership proggies...and we'll be styling :)
Is this too much to ask?
LOL rich
the only question is ... how much are you prepared to pay for all that?! ;-)))
RichC
11-13-2002, 12:06 PM
not much, cause it's still inefficient....not even close.
also please make sure the out counter does not result in any lost clicks due to script failures....and also make sure it doesn't result in slowing down the speed in which the surfer gets from point a to point b (load time is money) or I'll be really pissed :awinky: :)
Mike AI
11-13-2002, 04:58 PM
It is important to compare apples to apples....
The bounce page idea while good, could lead to cockholsters skimming traffic. Maybe software that is set up on your own server that would do everything like this. That way there is no games being played.
As with everything in this industry it is impossible to set "norms" for this industry. To many programs and people want to mislead webmasters to confuse them into sending more traffic. So there is no Standards... it is ashame.
Hey the fruit are up now!!
:bdance: :bwave: :bjump: :cdance:
The way we do it is as follows:
For every sponsor we use we send a few thousand hits through our out going script. We compare our numbers to the sponsor's numbers and get a ratio. Then we put this ratio into our Excel sheet and everytime we import our data the real conversion ratios and $$$ per click are calculated automatically.
After a few months we repeat the tests. Sometimes the results are really amazing. One particular sponsor changed the counting from 1st page raw (per site) to 1st page unique (per site) to 2nd page unique (per site) and in the end to 2nd page unique (system wide for all their sites)... and all that within one year.
Well, there are more than enough webmasters that only look at ratios, so I guess it works :(
slavdogg
11-14-2002, 05:10 AM
ok you guys sold me.
so i got statsremote, and man this stuff is like crack if not better.. i'm now addicted more than ever to stats watching.
thanks cj :)
now gotta ask, how seccure are things programs ?
slavdogg
11-14-2002, 05:13 AM
Originally posted by Hooper@Nov 13 2002, 08:50 AM
As a sponsor, when stats remote approached us for quickbuck they wanted to include us in their program but they told me that ever webmaster using it would be getting stats updated every 15 minutes.. that seems a bit excessive.. i dont check stats every 15 minutes and dont particularly want all the quickbuck webmasters hitting our system every 15 minutes either...
Hooper, actually you're missing out on something more important by not letting statsremote have access
think about it ? free advertising to stats addicts.
Last edited by slavdogg at Nov 14 2002, 06:06 AM
Originally posted by slavdogg@Nov 14 2002, 02:18 AM
now gotta ask, how seccure are things programs ?
Mainly because of security and privacy reasons we developed StatsRemote as a desktop application, so that you don't have to give us your personal (login) details... I would never do that myself...
Everything is stored encrypted on your hard drive. The only thing that is sent to our server is your StatsRemote username and password in order to check whether you are authorized to use the software.
Everybody can check that with a network monitor so it would be kind of suicide if we gathered any personal information...
think about it ? free advertising to stats addicts.
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exactly ;-)
i mentioned before that an affiliate wouldn't use us until we were in there :rolleyes:
Slav, glad you like ;-)
Originally posted by Mutt@Nov 14 2002, 01:56 AM
that was what Stat-O-Matic was going to do Hooper. Also count out clicks.
Hey Mutt.. did you get my recent email about http://www.stat-o-matic.com/ ?
I like RichC's post... virtually asked for stat-o-matic!! :)
Maybe we could morph it into an add-on to revstats? That was what it was eventually going to turn in to so it shouldn't be too hard!
Could be free if data goes to the bank... subscription service if not ;-)
:bdance:
hi Opti ...... yep i got that email. I'm sure i replied to it. u didn't get a reply?
Originally posted by Mutt@Nov 15 2002, 12:29 AM
hi Opti ...... yep i got that email. I'm sure i replied to it. u didn't get a reply?
no :(
Opti i did reply to that e-mail.
You asked if i wanted the stat-o-matic domain which you had on your server.
I replied something like you should keep it because i'm in no position to do anything with it since i can barely install a messageboard, that if you and Peter developed it more maybe we could still partner it with Oprano or something.
Seems like a lot of people are concerned that RevStats necessitates giving out your username/passwords........... couldn't this 'problem' be overcome with some kind of encryption scheme?
Originally posted by Mutt@Nov 15 2002, 01:02 AM
Opti i did reply to that e-mail.
You asked if i wanted the stat-o-matic domain which you had on your server.
I replied something like you should keep it because i'm in no position to do anything with it since i can barely install a messageboard, that if you and Peter developed it more maybe we could still partner it with Oprano or something.
Seems like a lot of people are concerned that RevStats necessitates giving out your username/passwords........... couldn't this 'problem' be overcome with some kind of encryption scheme?
Thanks Mutt .. I dont doubt you did... in fact that rings a bell so maybe I am just going senile :\
Revstats doesnt require the giving of passwords.. they are stored on your own PC.. I guess they have to go via revstats to the sponsor though.. is that an issue too?
a few people in this thread have voiced concern over RevStats. Maybe the concern is not valid but it's RevStats job to make sure people's concerns are addressed so they are reassured and might become a subscriber.
I'd be interested to know which company has more subscribers, RevStats or StatsRemote.
Opti's thing was going to be installed on people's own server, with an option to send stats to a central server on an 'anonymous' basis.
I'd be interested to know which company has more subscribers, RevStats or StatsRemote.
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well, i only see 1 rep out here answering questions so i'm sure it will become obvious soon enough ;-)
Originally posted by cj@Nov 14 2002, 05:25 AM
I'd be interested to know which company has more subscribers, RevStats or StatsRemote.
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well, i only see 1 rep out here answering questions so i'm sure it will become obvious soon enough ;-)
Well, I don't know how many subscribers RevStats has. They launched their program about 9 months before we launched StatsRemote, so they might have more than we do... they might have less though... who knows? :)
Anyway, if you need more (background) info about both programs, here are a few links...
http://www.pornresource.com/article.php?aid=583
http://www.pornresource.com/article.php?aid=441
http://www.webmasterjoint.com/articles/050...statsremote.php (http://www.webmasterjoint.com/articles/0502/statsremote.php)
the articles at PR aren't dated. When did you product launch JB?
i started thinking of this idea about 9 months before I saw Opti's thing, which i guess is a little short of 2 years ago cuz Opti's thing is a bit over a year ago.
I didn't know what to do with the idea since i'm not a programmer and I didn't know if the processors/programs would allow a program to do mine their data. It looked like a big cluster fuck. My idea was more like RevStats than yours which is a Windows client.
So do programs and processors have to ok this or do something on their end to allow your software to work with them or it's not necessary?
Mutt... we launched StatsRemote in May this year, beta testing started in February with about 50 people.
AFAIK RevStats was launched in fall last year... might have been earlier though, I don't know.
We contacted all sponsors and cc processors that were included in the first release before we launched it. Actually quite a few helped us beta testing the software and also made sure that we don't collect any personal data and don't have access to their webmasters' accounts.
Usually the programs and processors don't have to do anything to be included. StatsRemote just logs into the stats areas and gathers all relevant data.
After we released the software many sponsors actually contacted us because their webmasters asked them to make sure to be supported by StatsRemote :)
slavdogg
11-14-2002, 08:24 PM
Mutt, i always found it interesting how so many people can come up with nearly identical invention at around the same time.
I personaly first heard of such a thing about 2 years ago from Koko http://www.softwarebucks.com/
i know slavv. the key is to get your idea out of your head and get it on the market before anybody else. most good ideas are fairly simple. i just thought one day how cool it would be if you could hit a button on some software and it would go off and pull all your stats from all the affiliate programs and then let you sort them, do some comparisons, $ per click.
Was Koko also working on something like this?
I know when i got the idea - i was looking at a price comparison shopping site and in real time this bot would go off and get prices from about 40 different stores. Then i started surfing for sites with info about this bot technology and thought how cool it would be to get all your affiliate stats with a push of a button.
If StatsRemote and RevStats become popular you can bet there will be copycats and somebody will put out a free one supported by advertising.
slavdogg
11-14-2002, 09:16 PM
mutt, you should make a free version :)
its pretty easy to do, i'm only looking at statsremote.
take that and add a rotating banners at the bottom of it, kinda like icq.
but than again, why buy the cow when you've got the milk.
The free version with banners was already implemented half a year ago. That was our backup plan... fortunately it doesn't look like we need it :)
but than again, why buy the cow when you've got the milk.
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exactly
all these ideas in this thread are great, but what it comes down to is that someone else has done it already so why bother
I've just started setting up my stats in my revstats program and its awesome ;-)))
Slavik, purvebucks will be in there as of next week if you'd like to test some traffic ;-)
your revstats program cj?
i thought you were promoting stats remote? it's in your sig. :blink:
i meant stats remote ;-)
i can't even use the 'its late at night' excuse for my slip! ;/
slavdogg
11-15-2002, 05:14 AM
cj, i'd love to but i wouldnt know how to promote Fem sites.:)
i dont even like promoting gay sites, i just know to send traffic to Jonas
cj, i'd love to but i wouldnt know how to promote Fem sites
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http://www.pornelle.com
this is one of our most successful test webmasters so far .....
traffic is sent to this page from a search engine page built to promote general sex keywords with a link that says 'ladies, porn for women here'
we tried a womens keyword targetted search campaign and it converted 1/600 ... the above page converts 1/150
its just numbers, not rocket science ;-)
its just like any other sponsor, you'll either make money off this niche or you won't ...
DynaMite
11-15-2002, 06:18 AM
Ok I´m a bit late but I use revstats since january last year for one of my
sites which is a paysite review site. We monitor over 1500 different
programs with it......and I´m a very satisfied customer.
If we signup for programs which are not on the list we fill out a form on
their website and within the next week it´s added. Hank and his crew
have their shit together on this one... I have checked out other programs
aswell....some seem nice but this gives me a lot of detailed info and is
maintained for me.....all I do is login and check realtime or read my reports
that are being sent by email....
We use it for 11 months now and it has not let us down.......so for whoever
cares.....I can say....revstats rocks!
DynaMite :)
Originally posted by Mutt@Nov 15 2002, 02:03 PM
I know when i got the idea - i was looking at a price comparison shopping site and in real time this bot would go off and get prices from about 40 different stores. Then i started surfing for sites with info about this bot technology
Mutt, any chance that site was call http://clicksguide.com ?
The developers put a LOT of cash into the idea.. sounds very cool
http://www.gracematthews.com/news/articles/bj3.html
The domain dropped recently.. ;)
you picked up the domain Opti :bdance:
no that wasn't it. this site went out in real time and got prices from many many stores.
some of these comparison stores data mine these online stores probably once a month and then create their own database to pull comparison results from. Other sites do it real time, bot goes off and retrieves the prices. At least i think that's how it works.
One guy who i was talking to, ran a bunch of price comparison sites, one was called adultdvdshopper.com(looks like he gave up), he told me he had to manually build his database of thousands of adult DVD titles and prices.
I said to him 'you gotta be kidding me. that is insane, there has to be a way with Net technology so you don't have to hire people to manually do this.' he said well since all these stores used different SKU codes it had to be done that way.
I looked at other shopping bot technology and it appeared to me that a good bot could do this without too much manual labor. But what do i know ....i'm not a programmer so i don't know what the limitations and challenges are in doing that kind of web app.
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