If you are spending either your time or your money promoting your iGrOOp, you will want to keep track of where your members are coming from.  iGrOOps provides a way of doing this by allowing you to pass tracking variables through in the URL.

Tracking will allow you to pinpoint where your hard earned advertising dollars are paying off and where they are not.

The Tracking Code (Tracking ID)

The tracking ID is a string that is appended to your iGrOOps URL.  This tracking ID will be set as a cookie, then saved in the member database profile when the member joins.  The cookie is saved for 3 years or is deleted if the member deletes his or her cookies. 

If you are using your own domain with your iGrOOp, use the following URL for tracking:

http://[YOUR-DOMAIN]/?[AFFILIATE_ID]+[TRACKING_CODE]

Breakdown: "YOUR-DOMAIN" would be the domain your have pointing to your iGrOOp -- include the "www" or if you are using another subdomain in place of "www" use that.  After your domain comes a forward slash, then a question mark -- this is how arguments are passed to the script.  If you are not using the affiliate module, you can leave this blank.  If you are using the affiliate module, this where where the member's nickname would go who is using this URL.  Then add a plus sign, then the tracking code. 

The tracking code cannot contain any spaces or odd characters.  Only letters, numbers, the dash ( - ) and/or the underline ( _ ) are allowed.

If you are using the iGrOOps domain, use the following URL for tracking:

http://www.igroops.com/[FOLDER_NAME]/igroops+ID+[AFFILIATE_ID]+[TRACKING_CODE]

Instead of using an affiliate ID, you can use another tracking code.  For example, use "GOOGLE", then the tracking code can be the keyword.  'GOOGLE" would show up as the affiliate ID, but you would know that it was a search engine.  To be 100% sure you are not using an actual member nickname, include a dash or underline in the affiliate ID since those characters are not allowed in nicknames.

Testing Your Tracking Codes

For a sanity check, log off your iGrOOp.  Now click on the URL you create with the affiliate/tracking information appended.  This should set both the affiliate ID and the tracking code.  Now click on your join now icon.  On the first page of the registration, view the source using your browser's "view source" command.  About half way down you should see the variables.  In the below example, we used "GOOGLE" as the affiliate code and "your_own_membership_website-E" as the tracking code:

Monitoring Your Tracking Codes

Once a member signs up to your group the tracking code will be saved in the member database.  This field is available to administrators when looking up members in the member database.  It is also searchable under advance options.

If you are using the Affiliate Module, your affiliates can use the tracking code as well.