Add-on: Outlinks

$49/year

Every link you mention. One URL. Total control.

Own every link in your show — forever.

Every time you mention something — a book, a tool, a resource, a sponsor product — that reference appears in show notes, transcripts, newsletters, and maybe 30 more episodes before you’re done. Outlinks gives each reference a clean URL at yoursite.com/go/[slug] that you control forever.

Update once. Every episode fixes itself. The destination URL changed? The affiliate program migrated? The sponsor relaunched? Update one URL in Outlinks and every episode that cites that reference updates instantly — web show notes, podcatcher show notes, transcripts, everything. No hunting through years of old episodes.

Know exactly which episode drove every click. Your Outlinks dashboard shows total clicks broken down by episode: The Lean Startup → 212 total clicks — Episode 1: 50, Episode 12: 40, Episode 44: 122. You can see which episodes make listeners act — not just aggregate totals. Route listeners in different countries to the right regional URL automatically. Get notified before your audience hits a dead link.

It works for any reference you want to manage: sponsors, affiliate products, recommended tools, books, your other shows, resources you’ve linked repeatedly. The affiliate use case is where Outlinks earns its keep most visibly — but the underlying problem, references scattered across dozens of episodes that are impossible to maintain, applies to every link you’ve ever put in show notes.

Where Outlinks really pays off: affiliates.

Affiliate link management is where “update once, fix everywhere” has the most dramatic impact.

Your affiliate link to a tool you’ve recommended across 40 episodes just changed — new network, new URL. With plain links in show notes: 40 manual edits, some inevitably missed, some episodes pointing to a dead link for months before anyone notices. With Outlinks: one update. Done.

Your affiliate dashboard shows 847 clicks last quarter. Without episode context, you have no idea which conversations drove them. With Outlinks, you see exactly: Episode 12 drove 340, Episode 44 drove 80. Now you know which topics make your audience act — and you can deliberately create more of those moments.

Automatic affiliate disclosures handle FTC compliance passively. When any reference in an episode has an affiliate URL set, Benecaster inserts a configurable disclosure line into show notes — default: “This episode contains affiliate links — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.” No per-episode action required.

Show notes on your site — and in the podcatcher.

Outlinks redirect URLs appear in both web show notes and RSS feed show notes. Listeners see the same yoursite.com/go/slug link whether they’re on your site or reading show notes in Overcast, Pocket Casts, or Apple Podcasts. Clicks from each surface are tracked separately — so you can see whether your audience is clicking from the web or directly from their podcast app.

Everything in one place.

One redirect per reference — per-episode attribution is automatic
→ Track button in the episode editor: click next to any URL to create a clean redirect at yoursite.com/go/[slug] in one step; shows running click count inline once created
Retroactive — track any reference in any episode, old or new
Affiliate URL per redirect — update once, all episodes update automatically
Geographic routing — per-redirect country-specific destination URLs (US → amazon.com, UK → amazon.co.uk, default for all others); resolves using the site’s local GeoIP database, no external API call per redirect
Link expiry — set an expiry date; routes to a configurable fallback after that date (seasonal sponsorships, time-limited offers, course enrollments)
Link Health — weekly background scan of every link and image across your site: redirect destinations, episode show notes, descriptions, pages, and posts; broken images detected alongside broken links; email digest of new issues; exclude specific domains, post types, or categories to reduce noise; fix broken items inline — update, unlink, or convert to a tracked redirect
Bot filtering — known crawlers excluded from click counts; bot traffic logged separately as “filtered clicks”
Forward URL parameters — query params appended to your 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, referrer type (site / podcatcher / email), 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.

Every episode that cites the same reference feeds the same total, broken down by episode in the dashboard.

Data captured (no PII).

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

Even More Powerful With

Analytics Dashboard — Outlinks click data surfaces within the Analytics Dashboard when both are active; per-episode attribution alongside subscriber growth, feed engagement, and email open rates on the same screen.
Sponsor Manager — assign your sponsor’s Outlinks redirect to their Sponsor Manager record; every click from show notes, podcatcher, and email flows into the sponsor report automatically. Show sponsors link clicks alongside download counts.
Transcription Service — reference links in transcript show notes are trackable with Outlinks; transcript timestamps identify exactly which moment in the episode drove the click, not just which episode. When both are active, Outlinks can scan completed transcripts for URL mentions and named references you haven’t tracked yet, and surface them as one-click suggestions in the episode editor.

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