Tracking outside links to pictures

sheepie

Is it possible to track links to our pictures from outside smugmug? (Direct links)
I have outside linking turned on for a lot of my galleries, as I post to a forum. What I would like to see is if anyone is taking advantage of this without my permission.

Thanks!

Andy

sheepie wrote:

Is it possible to track links to our pictures from outside smugmug? (Direct links)
I have outside linking turned on for a lot of my galleries, as I post to a forum. What I would like to see is if anyone is taking advantage of this without my permission.

Thanks!

Hi Sheepie, Welcome to Dgrin!

I hate saying "no" to a first post question but, I'm sorry, there's not a way to track who is linking to your pics.

Power or pro users can add Statcounter and / or Google Analytics, there's a wealth of info on who's visting your site as a result of those forum posts

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1092794
http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1092684

SteveM

Andy wrote:

Hi Sheepie, Welcome to Dgrin!

I hate saying "no" to a first post question but, I'm sorry, there's not a way to track who is linking to your pics.

Power or pro users can add Statcounter and / or Google Analytics, there's a wealth of info on who's visting your site as a result of those forum posts

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1092794
http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1092684

Unfortunately, to use Statcounter and Google Analytics the counter code has to be on a webpage, and when externally linking, there is no webpage to place the code on, so in this instance Statcounter and Google Analytics are useless. Maybe in the future as Smugmug becomes a huge monster in the photo sharing business they'll log the external hits to our photos and make that info available to us as well. I've had a couple of providers that regardless of if it was an external link or a direct webpage hit, any accessed page or file would be logged. Maybe someday.

Although it's not super inclusive, http://www.wholinkstome.com is a neat tool to see if there are any hard links to your files, pages or galleries in blogs, forums or webpages, but it'll again, do little to show you individuals who could be downloading and saving hundreds of your images and reposting them/reusing them.

Steve
http://www.downriverphotography.com

Andy

SteveM wrote:

so in this instance Statcounter and Google Analytics are useless.

I was referring to being able to see where the hits are coming from, which is good poop for some folks to have.

SteveM

Oh, absolutely! Stat Counter at least is a must-have! I can't imagine doing without it now, which of course, is probably what they're hoping for. Stat Counter and Google Analytics are a great compliment to SmugStats. But it leaves the potentially most malicious usage unaccounted for. But if you think about it, those aren't the people we'd be selling to anyways, so maybe a case of "What we don't know won't hurt us"? Unless of course my wife's head is floating on some phone sex operator's body in a smut ad. Hmm. Naahhhh.

Steve

ivar

sheepie wrote:

Is it possible to track links to our pictures from outside smugmug? (Direct links)
I have outside linking turned on for a lot of my galleries, as I post to a forum. What I would like to see is if anyone is taking advantage of this without my permission.

Thanks!

welcome to Dgrin sheepie

This could be helpful for you: http://www.wholinkstome.com

mrcoons

I like the wholinkstome, it told me a couple of things. Thanks Steve & ivar.