tracking "clicks"

[blue928]

for the past week I have been working on a project to track ad impressions on a website as well as track the number of times it has been clicked. I am able to track impressions fine, however, I just don't get how to track clicks. I want to be able to not only track the clicks of these particular ads, but I would like to be able to track the clicks for all my links so I can know who's going where.. but before that, lets just concentrate on how to account for the click.

Here is my theoretical solution:

create a query string that that passes information to a "secret PHP" page. ie, pass the info to a page on the site when it's clicked and THEN on that "secret" page, have a header redirect the person to the actual site.

is that it? am I on to something? Is there a better way? I read some of the articles here on phpbuilder.com, but they are more headache than they are worth, and I have learned that there is always a more simple way. if so, enlighten me 🙂

thanks in advance
blue

[Anon]

what about having a php file autoincluded on your whole site that would store http_referer, session id and url requested in a database ?

[[deleted]]

Remember the trusty old webserver logs?

They contain all the info you need. Clicks, time of click, who clicked, where did they click from, what browser did they use, what was their IP...

And it's all there waiting for you to access it.