309 New Posts Today

[amysolovay]

I generally "nofollow" most of my affiliate links. I am thinking I want to give geotargeting a try, but I'm pretty clueless about what to do with javascript. Can these javascript links be "nofollow'ed"? If so where do I stick the nofollow?

Thanks in advance!

[simcat]

My understanding is that "nofollow" links don't pass PR (link juice) and neither do javascript links, so theres no need to nofollow them.
(if it's even possible, I doubt it).

Never heard of geo targeting links tho... )

[amysolovay]

Originally Posted by simcat

My understanding is that "nofollow" links don't pass PR (link juice) and neither do javascript links, so theres no need to nofollow them.
(if it's even possible, I doubt it).

Never heard of geo targeting links tho... )

Thanks for the info.
Geotargeting is one of the new features of the ebay partner network. Apparently you can use it with searches but not with custom URLs.

[amysolovay]

Apparently this is going to be more of a challenge than I thought. The Javascript links don't show up in my wordpress blog. I just found this link, for anyone else who might be having the same problem:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Javascript

(why can't things ever just be easy???)

[simcat]

URRRgh, you just brought up a sore spot of mine. Javascript in wordpress.
I've tried using what was suggested on wordpress long ago. ....no luck...
If you can get Cj text links to work, please report.

[amysolovay]

Originally Posted by simcat

URRRgh, you just brought up a sore spot of mine. Javascript in wordpress.
I've tried using what was suggested on wordpress long ago. ....no luck...
If you can get Cj text links to work, please report.

ACK! Well thanks for letting me know. I appreciate it. Glad to know it isn't just me.

Progress report: I stared at all that code for awhile before I took action. The action I took: switching out as many links as I could to products from shareasale merchants. This is something I should have done a long time ago but was just too lazy to get moving on it.

I still have a lot of links left where I haven't yet found a suitable replacement available through shareasale. So I will have to get help with this I think. Luckily my husband is a good programmer, but he much prefers PHP to Javascript so I am thinking the javascript is probably going to get nixed in the end.

[bobby131313]

Blogger is reporting similar issues.

[amysolovay]

Originally Posted by bobby131313

Blogger is reporting similar issues.

Thanks for the info.
You just reminded me that I have some blogger blogs that need updating too.

[writerguy]

I just found this thread, and it's exactly what I was wanting to ask and didn't know whether to ask here or in the "Blogging" forum -- is there any way to get javascript to work in WordPress?

I've Googled myself nearly blind the last couple of days hoping for a little "magic" here. With the tens of dozens of WP plugins people are creating -- is there none that will allow you to run javascript in a WordPress post or on a WordPress page??

I know there are WP plugins like exec-PHP that allow you to run PHP on pages and in posts. I read something about using the Adsense Deluxs plugin to put javascript into posts as sort of a work-around.

And I know javascript will work in WP templates if you hard-code it or use a widgetized theme.

But hasn't anyone created such a thing? (Related -- I think in a thread here at ABW some months ago loxly or someone pointed me at a WP plugin that addresses this problem, but as I recall that one doesn't directly solve the problem.)

BTW -- I have found a great WP plugin for using eBay autions in a post or page -- phpBay Lite. The creator just updated it to handle EPN as well as CJ. The "Lite" version is free; he has phpBay Pro for a price. I found the "Lite" version works great in a WP 2.5 blog.

[amysolovay]

I'm a big fan of PHPbay and I thought the Pro version was well worth the $$. The lite version might get the job done for some people, but I'm dealing with some pretty complex search strings and, frequently, hard to find items. So the free version didn't cut it for me.

The support is fantastic and I've been very satisfied with my purchase. I think there is an affiliate program for the plugin too, although I am not currently promoting it as an affiliate. I'm just a happy customer.

[writerguy]

Originally Posted by amysolovay

I'm a big fan of PHPbay and I thought the Pro version was well worth the $$. The lite version might get the job done for some people, but I'm dealing with some pretty complex search strings and, frequently, hard to find items. So the free version didn't cut it for me.

The support is fantastic and I've been very satisfied with my purchase. I think there is an affiliate program for the plugin too, although I am not currently promoting it as an affiliate. I'm just a happy customer.

Amy, I just sent you a PM asking a couple of specific questions about the phpBay Pro -- then I realized you may not have enough posts to get a PM yet?

I would love to work out a way we can exchange some info here on the matter. Would you email me at gsfreelance at gmail dot com with an email address where I could contact you?

Thanks. (And if you CAN get PMs, that's fine to reply that way instead.)

[Tech Evangelist]

You can use the nofollow attribute with JavaScript links, provided that the JavaScript link uses an anchor tag. The problem with doing anything with JavaScript is that it does not work if an Internet Explorer user sets the security level to High. This disables active scripting, which includes JavaScript.


For anyone who is interested, you can find phpBay here: phpBay eBay Auction Software

The new version using eBay's new affiliate program was available on April 1 and the support is the best I have ever seen.

There are two versions. One is a WordPress plugin and the other is an API version. You can get both in the Pro version for a very reasonable price.

[amysolovay]

Originally Posted by Tech Evangelist

You can use the nofollow attribute with JavaScript links, provided that the JavaScript link uses an anchor tag. The problem with doing anything with JavaScript is that it does not work if an Internet Explorer user sets the security level to High. This disables active scripting, which includes JavaScript.

Thanks for this info! I really really appreciate your post. Wow, I did not know that, about the security setting on IE. Very interesting. Makes me wonder, would the ability to geotarget make up for all the people who don't even see the javascript at all? Hmmmmmmm.

[bobby131313]

Wow, I did not know that, about the security setting on IE. Very interesting.

Don't panic, my biggest site had 1.8 million views last month and only 1.1% has JS disabled.

Makes me wonder, would the ability to geotarget make up for all the people who don't even see the javascript at all? Hmmmmmmm.

Absolutely use it. When you generate the code it asks you for a default. Put your biggest money making eBay site there. It takes that selection and uses it for the <noscript> tag. So the 1.1% that have JS turned off will automagically see a link for the ebay site that your highest percentage of converting visitors use. Therefore I would take an educated guess that your actual conversion loss would probably be 1/10 of 1% or less. It's a no-brainer.

[amysolovay]

Originally Posted by bobby131313

Don't panic, my biggest site had 1.8 million views last month and only 1.1% has JS disabled.



Absolutely use it. When you generate the code it asks you for a default. Put your biggest money making eBay site there. It takes that selection and uses it for the <noscript> tag. So the 1.1% that have JS turned off will automagically see a link for the ebay site that your highest percentage of converting visitors use. Therefore I would take an educated guess that your actual conversion loss would probably be 1/10 of 1% or less. It's a no-brainer.

Thanks Bobby! That is helpful info.

I was initially really excited about being able to geotarget, but I am having a hard time making the javascript work at all in my wordpress sites. So far I've done nothing but waste time, it seems, and I am getting nowhere fast with it. I shall keep trying!

[KirkMcD]

Originally Posted by Tech Evangelist

You can use the nofollow attribute with JavaScript links, provided that the JavaScript link uses an anchor tag.

You don't need to "nofollow" javascript links, since the search engines don't read and execute javascript when indexing a page. So they'll never see the link to begin with.

[bobby131313]

You don't need to "nofollow" javascript links, since the search engines don't read and execute javascript when indexing a page. So they'll never see the link to begin with.

If you don't want them followed use nofollow, Matt Cutts has been hinting on various blogs and such for a while that Google may, in the future, follow JS.

[Tech Evangelist]

Originally Posted by KirkMcD

You don't need to "nofollow" javascript links, since the search engines don't read and execute javascript when indexing a page. So they'll never see the link to begin with.

That is only true for pure JavaScript links that don't appear in the client-side code. Although theoretically they cannot execute JavaScript, I have repeatedly seen Yahoo follow and log links in AdSense ads, which are JavaScript. I have even found links to my sites from Amazon.com, but when I view the page, there are no links to my sites but there are AdSense ads.

I have also seen both Google and Yahoo follow JavaScript links if they contain fully formed URLs, such as the ones you might typically find in anchor tags like this.

<a href="javascript:var handle=window.open('http://www.mydomainname.com/mywebpage.html')">ANCHOR_TEXT</a>

These links do not pass PageRank, but they are spiderable.

Spiders keep getting smarter all of time.

[Drewbert]

Originally Posted by Tech Evangelist

The new version using eBay's new affiliate program was available on April 1 and the support is the best I have ever seen.

I misread that for a moment and thought you were claiming eBay's support during their migration was the best you'd ever seen.

I nearly had a myocardial infarction.

[Drewbert]

Originally Posted by bobby131313

If you don't want them followed use nofollow, Matt Cutts has been hinting on various blogs and such for a while that Google may, in the future, follow JS.

FWIU, nofollow has nothing to do with spiders following links.

It's a badly named tag to stop the linked website from getting PR from having links from your website. nofollow has no affect on your own site's ratings.

[bobby131313]

nofollow has no affect on your own site's ratings.

It stops PR leakage, which absolutely affects your site.

It also stops outgoing aff links from being counted which some experts argue are, or will be soon, detrimental to SEO.

[Tech Evangelist]

Originally Posted by Drewbert

FWIU, nofollow has nothing to do with spiders following links.

It's a badly named tag to stop the linked website from getting PR from having links from your website. nofollow has no affect on your own site's ratings.

Originally Posted by bobby131313

It stops PR leakage, which absolutely affects your site.

It also stops outgoing aff links from being counted which some experts argue are, or will be soon, detrimental to SEO.

IMHO, both statement are very true. You want to use the nofollow attribute on any questionable links. It doesn't stop spiders from following the links, but it can prevent the inheritance of penalties that you may pick up from links to penalized sites.

Inheritance works both ways. A page inherits PageRank or "link juice" from a page that links to it. With Google a page also inherits penalties from penalized pages they may link to.

The nofollow attribute basically prevents the inheritance factors.

[amysolovay]

Originally Posted by Drewbert

I misread that for a moment and thought you were claiming eBay's support during their migration was the best you'd ever seen.

I nearly had a myocardial infarction.

Toooo funny!

[amysolovay]

Thanks everyone for all your posts. I am learning so much from this thread!

I do seem to remember reading that google can follow javascript, but, I do not remember the source of that info.

With regular HTML affiliate links, if I don't "nofollow" them I am buried in the SERPS but if I do "nofollow" them I am much higher up. Also, I noticed that when I wasn't "nofollowing" my links, my merchants were appearing in the SERPS ahead of me for some specific terms but when I do "nofollow" then I appear higher in the SERPS than those merchants for those specific terms. I don't really like the whole theory behind the "nofollow" tag at all, but I grudgingly use it.

[amysolovay]

Originally Posted by Tech Evangelist

That is only true for pure JavaScript links that don't appear in the client-side code. Although theoretically they cannot execute JavaScript, I have repeatedly seen Yahoo follow and log links in AdSense ads, which are JavaScript. I have even found links to my sites from Amazon.com, but when I view the page, there are no links to my sites but there are AdSense ads.

I have also seen both Google and Yahoo follow JavaScript links if they contain fully formed URLs, such as the ones you might typically find in anchor tags like this.

<a href="javascript:var handle=window.open('http://www.mydomainname.com/mywebpage.html')">ANCHOR_TEXT</a>

These links do not pass PageRank, but they are spiderable.

Spiders keep getting smarter all of time.

Thanks for taking the time to post this. Very interesting info!