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> On 9/13/96, Melody Winnig wrote:
> >I am looking for ad tracking software for a  large magazine publisher.  Can
> >any of  you suggest specific commercial packages?
> >Or could you put me in touch with folks at your publication that work in
> >marketing that have already gone down this path? 

Frankly, much of the commercial ad tracking software out there isn't
worth its weight in bits. It can screw the publisher out of
impressions, mess up clickthroughs and skim undue portions of
revenue. And for what purpose? A good ad tracking system can be 
written in a day or two by even a relative novice Perl programmer 
like myself. Some Perl resource sites offer pre-written shareware 
scripts that can be a good starting point.

The need for third-party tracking is largely overstated. Contrary to
what you may have heard a few months ago, big advertisers aren't
insisting that sites use someone else for tracking. Many large sites 
have, in fact, argued successfully that their own accounting is 
better. 

If you do do your own, make sure the system offers open
accountability. One way to do this is to include in the script a
password-protected way for the advertiser to check impressions and
clicks in real time.
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