Trackers for newbies... Self hosted or Cloud hosted ???

[GriD]

Trackers... No point starting anything without them...

For newbies, I suspect self hosted might be the better option, as this is one piece of software less to admin...
Then again some might prefer to run and 'own' the software (and all data) themselves, especially as it seems like on shared hosting the data is not kept for longer periods (but maybe can be downloaded?)...

So what tracker seems sensitive for a newbie, cloud or self hosted... Which one do you use and would you recommend it to someone starting out?

One thing to keep in mind I suppose is that we newbies will want to keep fixed costs as low as possible until we see results

@Strickland pointed me to Kintura, "it has a free plan which gives 1 million impressions a month." Unfortunately it seems that this tracker is now available by invitation only I contacted them asking if they accept newbies, no feedback yet but I will update if they do reply to my request...

 

[Paid Affs]

@GriD if you are a newbie then good to go with cloud and I can recommend Bemob.com there are free plan available for starting any type of campaign.

 

[Demii]

يعد موقع سوق اوليكس هوا افضل واكبر الموقع في مجال البيع والشراء عبر الانترنت تحت مسمي موقع اعلانات مبوبة ما يعني ذالك يمكن لاي شخص بيع او شراء عبر هذا الموقع بكل سهوله تامه ويشمل الموقع العديد من الاقسام الرئسيهوالاقسام الفرعيه الذي يوجد بها كافة الاشياء فيما حولنا له طابع خاص ومميز جدا ايضا لدينا سهوله تامه في ادارة الاعلانات الخاصه بك بكل سهوله وفي اي وقت يمكنك اضافة عدد لا نهاية في اليوم الواحد من الاعلانات الخاصه بك في اي وقت ون اي مكان يمكنك ايضا تنزيل تطبيق سوق اوليكس من المتجر.

مميزات موقع سوق اوليكس
ما يميز سوق اوليكس هوا سهولة التحكم في الاعلان المضاف في اي وقت ايضا كافة الاعلانات مجانا بدون اي رسوم يمكنك اضافة اي عدد من الاعلانات عبر هذا الموقع بكل سهوله يمكنك تعديل علي اعلانك في اي وقت حتي بعد نشر اعلانك يوفر الموقع كافة الاقسام لدينا اكثر من مليون زائر يوميا يمكنك اضافة طابع خاص لمنتاجاتك زو جودة عاليه وسهوله تامه في بيع منتاجاتك بطريقه اسهل واسرع

الاقسام الرئسية لموقع سوق اوليكس

عقارات عربيات وقطع غيار الكترونيات واجهزة منزلية

موبيلات واكسسواراتها خدمات وظائف

اثاث منزل وديكور هويات رياضية وكتب مستلزمات اطفال

الموضة والجمال حيونات اليفة واكسسوراتها تجارة, صناعة, زراعة

Gtfo spammer
Nobody likes you.

 

[Graybeard]

Cost of doing business.
Even if you can write your own code to track;

--things are often revised and updated
--especially when you are dealing with multiple third parties
--as in networks offering different vendors.​

That being the case --you will be working forever to keep you own tracking updated.

So, in that light $50~ /mo is not so expensive as the alternatives.

 

[GriD]

Cost of doing business.
In that light $50~ /mo is not so expensive as the alternatives.

Absolutely true, nobody should mind paying for tools that make life easy...

As newbies we need to identify what tracking possibilities are important for our use cases, this obviously means going through a learning curve? Hence the advantage of free (even limited) programs...

There is a reason there are cloud trackers and hosted trackers... What makes someone choose one over the other?
Even though some tools might have the same functionalities, some might be easier to use / suit someone better...

Some learn from reading, others needs hands-on experience...
The free plans offered by bemob and kintura make me believe they are newbie friendly (ast least this allows us to explore the system while learning - and it is smart because as soon as one learns a system one tends to stick to it unless major shortcomings show)
Free trials as offered by some of the other trackers seem less newbie friendly to me. It feels like this is better suited to allow testing for people already knowing exactly what they require...

Let's see if I get some feedback from kintura... If not this shortlist might become very short

As for self hosting, budgets of under $50 are even possible...
Clickervolt is the only free self hosted tracker I've seen so far. Cost would be limited to a single VPS so it can run on its own dedicated server. But sadly with the unfortunate departure of @JackySan this project is now orphaned... This makes me doubt this could be a viable option...
Another example of a hosted tracker is keitaro starting at $25 plus the cost of the VPS...

So for now it seems like a newbie would benefit from the free bemob offer just to learn hands on about tracker functionalities. Obviously at some point a switch to a paid option will become the way to go!

 

[T J Tutor]

One thing to keep in mind I suppose is that we newbies will want to keep fixed costs as low as possible until we see results

Unfortunately many take this too far and try to do the job of an 18 wheeler with a pickup truck!

In the beginning, many of us used our own alternatives as there wasn't any choices for trackers. I built mine with Visual Basic for Applications as it was an option in Microsoft Office. I was already a developer in VB, SQL, C, and a few others. But then CPV Lab and Voluum made a splash on the scene, and that changed things in the industry in a big way.

Today we have an abundance of tracking choices. Of course Voluum is near and dear to me and the rest of our members here, but so are many of the others (the Voluum reps are always helping members (Justyna Voluum DSP & Karolina Voluum)). CPV Lab is now a very improved CPV Lab Pro. FunnelFlux just came out with their newest version called FunnelFlux Pro and I have to tell you it is pretty damn nice, especially easy for anyone from Newbie to expert. Zeno (FunnelFlux) is around most of the time and very responsive to members. I like it and I will be doing a full review soon!
BeMob is a nice tracker and their rep Maxim Denisov is around here frequently, I really like RedTrack.io as well and they have some history with us and both have a good history with our members. Let's not forget Binom Tracker. Kintura was once popular here, but they got mad at me because I wouldn't promote them above all others and because I wouldn't offer any free advertising. WEIRD! There are many more represented here, you can find them all in our Resources area, Tracking.

When a Newbie wants to learn tracking and choose a platform, contact the reps listed above and have a conversation with them about the features and benefits of their respective trackers. Ask about training videos and materials. Most all have that now. As well, I highly recommend choosing one that is active in the forums as that is an indication of efforts to support the prospective users and the current users. Support is one of the very important factors in addition to form and function of the platform.

As for self hosted or not, it is a coin flip, but most will just want to login in and have onsite support that is easy to access.

In the end, MAKE YOUR TRACKER YOUR BEST FRIEND!

 

[GriD]

Have you already conducted the direction of this one? or is it still possible?

Hello @Qurinnea,
Can you please elaborate on your question as I do not understand it...

The general direction has been given, if you have the technical expertise to install/maintain a a tracker on your own servers then this is an option. But take into account this adds to the learning curve.

So going for a cloud hosted tracker as a starter is the most sensible option, a few ones have free plans (bemob, Kintura, CliXtrac,...) From these the clixtrac free plan seems too restrictive for real newbie testing (100 clicks per link). Kintura has not even bothered replying to any of my requests so I will not choose them (not even their paid plans!)
So for the trackers with a free plan bemob would get my vote for now. This is also the only one with a free plan that is represented here on the forum which is a big plus...

Once you have learned how tracking works for you there is a large offer of paid trackers.... See @T J Tutor 's post above...

 

[Graybeard]

Without the walls of words:
If you are not technically competent (or have staff on hand that is) to fix and alter a tracker's coding buy a maintained **and supported product.