The affiliate space has been dominated by a small number of tracking tools over the years. The most popular being Prosper 202, CPV Lab, Imobitrax, & Bevo. Those are all great trackers. Affiliates have, and will continue to make millions using them. There’s a new tracker on the scene now that I think has the potential to be the ultimate affiliate tracking solution.
You might have heard about Voluum – a new tracking solution for affiliates that’s generating a ton of buzz. It’s currently in beta, and free so I highly recommend checking it out.
I was first made aware of Voluum in a thread on the forum called Ditch CPV Lab for what? If you’re on the forum you should definitely read that thread. The poster is a long time forum member who does a lot of volume, and was frustrated with the lack of scalability in the current commercial tracking solutions. Many possible solutions were discussed and implemented in that thread. A few of which include:
- Server upgrades (RAM, SSD, various MySql/database tweaks and upgrades)
- Multiple tracker installs spread out across servers
- Using Imobitrax, or a modified P202
- Building a custom tracker (which he did)
- Multiple tracker installs spread out across servers
- Using Imobitrax, or a modified P202
- Building a custom tracker (which he did)
After testing most of these ideas, there was nothing that would let him rack up views without a significant slowdown. When I say ‘rack up views’ I’m not talking about a few hundred, or even tens of thousands of clicks. I’m talking a lot of volume – millions of clicks. Again, I really suggest you read all 16 pages of that thread – there’s some great info there!
ENTER VOLUUM
Voluum was created to be a technologically advanced tracking platform built specifically for affiliate marketers. Here are a couple key ideas behind Voluum according to one of their creators, Robert:
- Our technology. We’ve spent close to a year developing our proprietary database technology. Whereas our competitors use outdated database technologies, we’ve created our own. The result? Infinitely scalable campaigns & fast loading reports, even if your click figures are in the billions.
- Our team. Our dev team is composed of very experienced Java developers. These are people who’ve worked on building hardcore banking applications, aerospace tech and telecom software. We currently have 12 developers who are here to pump out functions and features based on your needs.
- Our approach. Voluum is a tool that will continue to evolve based on our clients needs (You!). We take all feedback very seriously – there have even been cases when our users have asked for features and have had them live on our production environment days later.
- It’s free while in beta Pricing after the beta period.
Yes Voluum is hosted (not self hosted) – you just have to get over it. Someone probably isn’t going to sink tons of money into building a tracker and build up a great reputation just to steal a few affiliate campaigns. It’s natural to want to protect your data, but you need to think logically about it. Any tracker that wasn’t open source could potentially steal your campaign data (even self hosted). Hosting companies could easily see your campaign data on any tracker too. Something I’ve noticed over the years is that the affiliates most worried about people stealing their campaigns are the ones not even spending/making that much to begin with. The affiliates making the most money don’t give much thought to people stealing their campaigns. Why? They know that campaigns are easy to steal with spy tools, etc. but it’s knowing how to scale and optimize those campaigns that makes the real money.
When you start doing a lot of volume, it becomes extremely difficult to rely on a self hosted tracker. This isn’t a knock at any of the current tracking tools on the market, it’s just the reality of the technology. Try running millions or billions of clicks and trying to load reports. One of the huge advantages of Voluum is the ability to scale without having to worry. They have a user who does over a billion clicks per month, and the system is still lightning fast. This would be a nightmare to manage on a self hosted tracker.
Voluum tracks both web and mobile traffic which is another huge plus. Prosper and CPV Lab are great tracking tools, but not for mobile traffic. Voluum is a great mobile and web traffic tracking solution.
I got to meet the people behind Voluum at my ASW 14 party earlier this month. I learned more about the technology behind it and what they have coming up. Good stuff in the works for sure! 
I’m not associated with Voluum in any way, nor am I saying the other trackers aren’t good. I simply think Voluum is a great tracking tool, and arguably the best out right now. Does this mean you should throw P202, CPV Lab, etc. in the garbage? Of course not. Voluum isn’t some magical tool that will turn your campaigns profitable, and if you’re just starting out I recommend Prosper 202. It’s free, and will take you pretty far into your affiliate career.
Voluum is currently in beta, and new features are being added. There are some custom views/reports people have been asking for that are currently being implemented. When you test it out, just remember this is the beta version and is still being improved. Voluum has been great about listening to our suggestions and implementing. If there’s a feature you want that they don’t have, don’t hesitate to make a suggestion!
Voluum is free while in beta and I highly recommend you check it out!
