Add-on: Outlinks

$49/year

Tracked redirects and affiliate links — with episode-level click attribution.

Know which episodes drove every click.

Outlinks adds tracked redirects to Benecaster’s episode references system. Create one clean redirect URL per reference — yoursite.com/go/lean-startup — and Benecaster automatically handles the episode attribution. The redirect dashboard shows total clicks broken down by episode: The Lean Startup → 212 total clicks — Episode 1: 50, Episode 12: 40.

You manage one URL per reference. Benecaster tracks which episode each click came from, where the visitor was geographically, and whether the link is still working — without any episode-specific URL management on your end.

Compared to Pretty Links Pro ($99/year): Outlinks is podcast-aware. It knows which episode the listener was reading when they clicked. Generic link shorteners can’t give you that — you’d need a separate URL per episode per reference, which is unmanageable at scale.

Everything a podcaster needs from link management.

One redirect per reference, per-episode attribution automatic
→ Track button in the episode editor: next to any reference URL, creates a clean redirect at yoursite.com/go/[slug] in one click; shows click count inline once created
Affiliate URL per redirect — update once, all episodes citing that reference point to the new URL
Geographic routing — per-redirect country-specific destination URLs (US → amazon.com, UK → amazon.co.uk, default for all others); uses the site’s local GeoIP database, no external API call per redirect
Link expiry — set an expiry date per redirect; routes to a configurable fallback after expiry; useful for seasonal sponsorships and limited-time course enrollments
Automatic affiliate disclosures — when any reference in an episode has an affiliate URL, Benecaster auto-inserts a configurable FTC disclosure line into show notes; default: “This episode contains affiliate links — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.”
Link Health — weekly background check on every redirect destination; admin notice when broken links are detected; expired links shown separately from broken ones
Bot filtering — known crawlers excluded from click counts; bot traffic logged separately as “filtered clicks”
Forward URL parameters — query params appended to the redirect URL are forwarded to the destination (required by some affiliate networks)

Click dashboard:
Table of all redirects with total human clicks, per-episode breakdown (expandable), last clicked, and status (healthy / broken / expired). Sortable by total clicks, activity, and status.

One click to start tracking any reference.

The → Track button appears next to every reference URL in the episode editor. Click it, confirm or edit the auto-suggested slug, and the redirect is created. The button changes to show the running click count — 47 clicks — inline.

Tracking is retroactive: you can track any reference in any episode, old or new. Every episode that cites the same reference feeds into the same total, broken down per episode in the dashboard.

Data captured (no PII).

Per click, Outlinks records: redirect slug and episode context, timestamp, referrer category (page, RSS, email, or other), country code (from local GeoIP — raw IP discarded immediately), and bot flag. No personal information stored. No individual subscriber identified.

Pairs well with

Analytics Dashboard — Outlinks data surfaced within the Analytics Dashboard when both are active; no separate screen needed
Transcription Service — reference links in transcript show notes are trackable with Outlinks

Requires / Works with

Requires: Benecaster with any paid plan
Requires: The enhanced References field (ships in core — Outlinks adds the → Track button on top of it)
Works with: Any affiliate network that supports URL parameter forwarding