Competitions Discussion Thread Part 11

Amilucky?

Hmm just been reading the threads on https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2640163 and it appears that a lot of mse'rs are saying that if you click on a Skimlinks generated cashback link on mse it could actually cost you money

this particular post caught my attention at http://www.insiders-view.co.uk/moneysavingexpert-increases-userbase-and-earnings-potential/001026

a lot of forum posts on mse are for discount codes. People will click through not realising the link is affiliated, apply the discount and purchase. When the retailer matches the use of a voucher code with an affiliate link it will decline both commissions. This happens already on forums like hotukdeals with retailers like Littlewoods. Discount codes are posted on forums, people use them then months later the retailer contacts them and says you were not the intended recipient of that code and you owe us money.

looks like moneysavers.com could be turning into cost you Money[STRIKE]savers[/STRIKE].com

furndire

Is it time on competitions to get rid of the clicky, and just post the full address to make it easy to copy and paste into another tab - to get rid of the Skimlinks. I am sure that we will soon be penalised for clicking through the referral link - especially on the magazine comps.
Is anyone else finding it often quite difficult to work out which site the comps are coming from now. I used to be able to hover above the links and site name would pop up at bottom of the page, but that no longer happens.

weeowens

I see where you are coming from slightly furndire
I've just tested Amilucky's tip on drag/drop on quite a few clickys and it works well.
For the reasons you mention I post the site name as the clicky rather than "Clicky" or "Enter here".
Each to their own & we are a broad church as they say.I have mentioned this on here in the past as when a comp is looked at in page view & my method is used,with the promotors name as the first line,it can be seen without actually clicking the comp.This makes it easier on sites that I or others may have issues with eg I do not enter "Bliss" comps as I have never managed to sort the log on properly.
I'm very grateful for all the hard work that we all put in posting comps & who is to say my method is the right one,but I like it :-)

Amilucky?

furndire wrote: »

Is it time on competitions to get rid of the clicky, and just post the full address to make it easy to copy and paste into another tab - to get rid of the Skimlinks. I am sure that we will soon be penalised for clicking through the referral link - especially on the magazine comps.
Is anyone else finding it often quite difficult to work out which site the comps are coming from now. I used to be able to hover above the links and site name would pop up at bottom of the page, but that no longer happens.

you don't need to copy and paste any of the links just [STRIKE]right[/STRIKE] left click on the link and drag and drop into a tab or the address box in your browser (IE and Firefox)

the copy and paste or drag and drop method will not work in IE as it still sends the referrer it only works in Firefox

if you cannot see the links at the bottom of the browser page click on view and tick status bar in Firefox or view-toolbars-statusbar in IE

mollylou

Amilucky? wrote: »

you don't need to copy and paste any of the links just [STRIKE]right[/STRIKE] left click on the link and drag and drop into a tab or the address box in your browser (IE and Firefox)

unless you're on a mac?

Amilucky?

mollylou wrote: »

unless you're on a mac?

if it doesn't work on the Mac

you could install the add-on Refcontrol if your using Firefox which stops the referral link from being sent available here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/953/

Best of Luck

Amilucky?

Amilucky? wrote: »

Not quite sure that the commercialisation of MSE is a good thing they have always been proud of the fact that MSE was free from advertising and affiliated links

I have been told on another thread that MSE has always used affiliated links but they have never applied them to the forums before,

I have to say that as a user it hasn't impacted on the way that I use the forums (if anything MSE seems more smoother now) and if it makes MSE financially more viable and means that they can continue to invest in new infrastructure and the upkeep of the forums then it can only be a change for the good,

the only downside is the cash-back problem which I am sure MSE will soon address now that they are aware of the problem

Sell0tape

Hmm.. just tried clicking on a comp which has the referral link, and did it 2 separate ways to see if there was any difference...

First way was to just drag and drop in to the tab bar as suggested earlier in the thread - this didn't go through the re-direct and loaded the page straight away.. with Refcontrol stating that there was no referrer page..

Second way was to enable Refcontrol and click the link - this time it went through the re-direct page first before landing on the correct site, although once the page had loaded, Refcontrol again said there was no referrer...

So while both methods appear to have the same outcome, using Refontrol doesn't appear to stop you going through the re-direct it seems, but does appear to give the same outcome in that it states that there is no referral once on the intended website - I wonder though if MSE still gets paid for the link though seeing as it did go through the re-direct even though Refcontrol then blocks the referrer from the intended website?

emmajayne1982

Amilucky? wrote: »

You don't need to copy/paste in Firefox you just [STRIKE]right[/STRIKE] left click on the link and drag and drop into the tab bar to hide the referral link,

a lot of comp organisers are anti MSE and will drop competition entries from people who enter from MSE when they disclose the referral link

I never enter a competition without hiding that I have come from MSE and have been doing so for approximately 18 months now, it may be just pure coincidence but I seem to be winning more since I adopted the drag and drop method

Can I just check I am doing this right (I have Firefox)...
When a competition thread says 'click here to enter' I simply drag this link into a new tab?

I have been entering hundreds of comps a day but not won anything for ages, wondering if this may help
Thank you to everyone for your help x

Amilucky?

emmajayne1982 wrote: »

Can I just check I am doing this right (I have Firefox)...
When a competition thread says 'click here to enter' I simply drag this link into a new tab?

I have been entering hundreds of comps a day but not won anything for ages, wondering if this may help
Thank you to everyone for your help x

Yes it's that easy

if you click on a link and go to Firefox tools and click on page info you will see the referral link if you drag and drop into a tab you will not see the link