TelePong alternativeDirect answer
Velvet is the option to evaluate against TelePong when the paid link itself is the product rather than a side feature. A Velvet link keeps working after its title changes because the public URL resolves the immutable link id as well as the editable slug, delivers content through URLs signed for 15 minutes inside a buyer session that lasts 30 days, and records six funnel events per offer with no personal identifier attached.
A paid link looks like a trivial object until it is the thing paying the rent. Then three properties decide whether it earns: whether the URL survives an edit, how long the buyer can come back, and what you can learn from the ones that did not convert.
Those are mechanical questions with mechanical answers, and they are worth asking of any link tool before a creator sends a thousand of them.
What follows is how Velvet answers each. Ask the same of anything else on your shortlist.
Link mechanics, criterion by criterion
The Velvet column describes behaviour in the product today. The right column is the matching question for any other link tool, asked without assuming its answer.
| Criteria | Velvet | Ask the other tool |
|---|---|---|
| URL stability | A public link resolves either the immutable id or the editable slug, so retitling an offer never breaks a URL already sent. | Does the shared URL change when the creator edits the title of the offer? |
| Delivery of the file | Storage URLs are signed for 15 minutes each time the buyer opens the content. | Is the file behind a permanent URL that works for anyone it is forwarded to? |
| How long access lasts | A buyer access session runs 30 days, so a fan who closes the tab can come back without paying again. | Does the buyer get one download, or a window they can return in? |
| What is measured | Six events per offer: sent, viewed, checkout started, paid, unlocked, repeat. | Can you see where an offer stalls, or only whether it sold? |
| What is stored about the buyer | A one-way server-keyed digest. No raw user id, email or IP address is written to the funnel record. | What identifier does the analytics table hold about the person who clicked? |
| Per-link reporting | Clicks, unique visitors, unlocks and revenue for one link over 7, 30 or 90 days, with a daily breakdown. | Is revenue attributed to the individual link, or only to the account total? |
The URL outlives the title
Creators rename offers constantly. If a link tool builds its public URL only from a slug, every rename silently kills the links already sitting in DMs, bios and scheduled posts. Velvet resolves the public path against both the link id and the slug, and the id is immutable and always present, so an edit is an edit rather than an outage.
- The app copies the id-based URL, which cannot rot.
- A slug-based URL that a creator published earlier keeps resolving alongside it.
- Deleting an offer that has already sold archives it rather than breaking the buyer's access.
Fifteen minutes to open, thirty days to come back
Paid content is served from a private bucket through URLs signed for 15 minutes. That is long enough to watch or download and short enough that a forwarded URL is dead by the time it arrives. Separately, the buyer holds an access session for 30 days, so returning to the content is a matter of opening the page again rather than repurchasing.
- Signing happens per open, so the short window never costs the buyer a second purchase.
- Entitlement is checked against the buyer's record before anything is signed.
- Attached assets are signed under the same check as the primary file.
Six events, no personal identifiers
An offer records sent, viewed, checkout started, paid, unlocked and repeat. The value is in the gaps: a high viewed count with a low checkout started count is a pricing problem, while a high checkout started count with a low paid count is a payment problem, and those need opposite fixes. The buyer is represented by an irreversible server-keyed digest, so the funnel can count people without naming them.
- Repeat is tracked separately from paid, which is what makes a second purchase visible at all.
- Event identity is itself digested, so a replayed event does not inflate the count.
- No raw email, user id or IP address is written to the funnel record.
A link with its own profit and loss
Per-link reporting covers clicks, unique visitors, unlocks and revenue over a 7, 30 or 90 day window, with a day-by-day breakdown underneath. Revenue is read only from purchases that actually succeeded, using the creator's net, so a link's number is what it earned rather than what it was listed at.
- Every query is scoped to the owning creator in SQL, so one creator's numbers cannot appear in another's report.
- Money is handled as integer cents throughout, with no floating-point drift between the report and the wallet.
- The reporting path never reads or writes wallet state, so opening a dashboard cannot move a balance.
Questions about paid links
What happens to a link a creator already sent if they change the price?
The URL is unchanged and the landing page shows the current price. The amount charged is always the one the backend holds, never a value carried in from the browser.
Can a fan forward the content to a friend?
They can forward the page, and the friend will be asked to buy. The storage URL behind the content is signed for 15 minutes, so a copied media link stops working almost immediately.
Why measure viewed and checkout started separately?
Because they fail for different reasons. Views without checkouts point at the offer or the price. Checkouts without payments point at the payment step, and no amount of rewriting the teaser will fix that.
Does the funnel identify individual buyers?
No. It stores an irreversible digest keyed on the server, which is enough to count unique buyers and repeats without holding an identifier that could be joined to a person elsewhere.
Does this page describe TelePong's link handling?
No. It describes Velvet's, in enough detail to be checked, and gives you the six questions to put to any other tool.
Publish one link and watch the six events
A creator account is free to open. Publish a single paid offer, send it once, and read the funnel it produces.