[EmDub]

I know that, in general, frames are a bad idea. However, when a customer clicks on a coupon, it's sometimes nice to have the coupon information (code, expiration date, etc.) listed in a frame on top of the merchant's frame. I've seen a lot of coupon sites do it this way, and a lot go without it. What do you all do?

This, of course, only works for dynamically-created pages. It also only works with some merchants. Some of mine launch in a frame, while others don't. Just curious what everybody else does, and whether it affects conversion rates.

Michael

[EmDub]

Bump. C'mon--I thought this would have been a hot topic! Just curious what others do.

Michael

[ahugedeal]

I used to frame all my outbound links to merchants, but I stopped about 3 months ago. After working with andy for a bit and having him tell me, I just clicked this link and it did not track, that was all it took!

We've actually noticed a little bump in conversion here recently also.

[Andy]

Some merchants don't allow their sites to be in a frame, so it seems like a lot of bother to do it for some, but not others.

I think everyone is past the "frames are so cool" stage now, so unless you have a really good reason for using them, I'd say avoid them.

Andy

"If you were born to be shot, you'll never be hung." -Unknown

[happypoon]

I'm no couponer but I can tell you I've had many of my links framed for some time. At the middle of this month I took the frames off one merchant with disasterous results! This merchant had big sales going on for much of the second half of the month when frames were removed. The results 1-15 $8,600 16th - 30th less than 5K with the sales heavily promoted.

You tell me should I reframe them? Ughhh - don't answer that http://abw.infopop.cc/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif. I suggest you run your own test in similar fashion. Despite the negative nonsense you've heard, you may just be surprised!

[eggerda]

Wow!

That is a big difference...did you have anything similar happen when the links were in place for a whole month in the past? For example, could it just have been coincidence?

Danski

[happypoon]

Sales for the 1st - 15th were in line with previous months where links have been framed. The 16th -30 was the worst I've ever seen in a two week period (even on much lower traffic levels).

[eggerda]

Wow - does anyone else have any other data to suggest that link framing make a difference one way or the other?

I am planning a new site, and am wondering about whether to frame all of the links or not.

Happypoon - you probably have the links so that when a user clicks to go to the outbound site, it hits a click tracker, then goes to another one of yourpages where a framed redirected link is initiated? That how it works?

Danski

[TI Master]

Well, I can tell you that putting the merchant into a frame can be good or bad. Its good in that Topmoxie (i.e. ebates et al) will not hijack the links, since the merchant site isn't what is in the address bar. So it may help you with some of the parasites.

On the other hand, it can impair the cookies for some sites, especially for IE 6.0.

Best bet is to test it where possible, if you have a big parasite problem, you may suffer without the frames. If you don't, the cookie issues may give you better revenue if you drop the frames.

Just some food for thought.