Jun 06 2008
Keeping Track of Link Sales
If you’re planning on attempting to sell direct links on your sites and are successful at it at some point you’ll have to come up with a system to keep track of them all. Doing this sooner rather than later will save headaches and lost sales down the road. I thought it might be handy if I share with you what I do to get you thinking about how you might want to keep track of your own sales.
Set Up a Paypal Subscription
The easiest way to keep tracks of links is to not have to keep track at all. Paypal has a subscription option that completely removes the need to keep track of link expiry dates and chase people for payment. If you can get an advertiser to agree then this is the way to go but it’s not always possible either because companies want to pay by cheque or bank transfer, or because links are sold on a longer term basis and they’ll want to reassess before renewing.
Setting up a subscription is simple. Log in to Paypal and click on the ‘Merchant Services’ tab and then on the ‘Subscriptions and Recurring Payments’ link which is on the right hand side under the ‘Useful Links’ title. Click on ‘Get Started’ and then follow the instructions from there to create a subscription button. Upload the code to one of your sites, send the URL to your buyer and that’s that. I think there’s a way to email them the link too but I’ve never attempted it.
Links Tracking Spreadsheet
If you can’t convice your advertiser that Paypal subscriptions are the way forward then you’ll have to come up with a system to track the expiry dates yourself. When I only had a few links to keep track of I just kept the emails in a separate folder and checked it every month to see which ones would be expiring. It only took a second but often I would forget to put emails into that folder and managed to completely lose touch with some people, and therefore the sale.
Once I had more than a couple of links to keep track of, I needed to come up with a new system and whipped up this handy spreadsheet:
It’s a simple thing, but it’s a lifesaver to be able to glance at the spreadsheet and know exactly how many links I have due for renewal, what dates they expire, where on my sites they’re located, what sites they link to and the contact details of the person who bought it the first time around.
In the ‘Expiry and Duration’ column I’ve got things like ‘11th - 6′. That means that the link was sold on the 6th of the month and is valid for six months. I put the price that was paid in the appropriate month’s column and then highlight the box for six months away so I know which months I need to collect renewal payments. Having the contact and link details on the spreadsheet means I don’t need to look for old emails. All the information I need to send a chaser email is right in front of my which is a huge time saver.
Most importantly, no more advertisers are lost in the abyss that is my Yahoo email account.
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I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go. 
I’d totally do that if i actually got money from my advertisers….im totally shit at making my adverts known and easily utilized…
I think create processes sooner rather than later is the key to managing your online business: I used to be a Business Analyst is the corporate world so this stuff I can do! Openoffice calc (or excel if you already bought it ) is the best tool out for tracking stuff! I find I now have spreadsheets tracking websites: keywords I’ve found that are looking for me to buy a domain: domains I’ve bought that I haven’t done anything with yet; as well as the obvious income/expense stuff which I’ll need when I make enough money to admit that this a business to the taxman!
Great info there Kirsty. Will use something similar for my first recently sold link
Matt what kind of PR does your site have? If you want to get the ball rolling, head to http://forums.digitalpoint.com to the links sales board there. You probably won’t ge tmuch interest unless you’re a PR4 but it’s something to aim for if you want some quick cash.
Lissie I agree! I didn’t really start keeping track until December 2007 and I have to go back for months. I’ve been avoiding doing my taxes for a couple of months, I think I have until October. But I should do it sooner rather than later and get it out of my hair. I know I owe money so it’s a lot easy to procrastinate!
Fab you were the reason I thought this post might come in handy. Goo luck with gettin gmore sales!
Great post! Thanks for the screenshot of your spreadsheet - would you ever consider sharing your template? I have the unfortunate problem of thinking in 3 dimensions when it comes to spreadsheets so I never come up with easy solutions like you have here - I just end up with about 30 different and related sheets!
Also- I use Google Spreadsheets for a lot of my stuff because then it doesn’t matter what computer I’m on, I can access them without software.
Ya of course I can share the template. Do you know how I put a file up for download? I can clear off my current Excel sheet, upload it and anyone who wants it can download it. Is it just a matter of uploading the file and then providing a link?