How I Track Every Click on My Newsletter Links (Open-Source Setup)

Every week I send a newsletter to ~2,000 subscribers. For months I had zero idea which links people actually clicked. Open rates? Sure, my ESP gives me that. But click-level data per link? That was a black box.

I fixed it with a lightweight, open-source-friendly setup that takes about 15 minutes. Here's exactly how.

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The Problem With Newsletter Link Tracking

Most email platforms (Substack, ConvertKit, Beehiiv) give you aggregate click counts. But they won't tell you:

• Which specific links get the most engagement
• Click velocity (how fast people click after open)
• Geographic breakdown per link
• Device/browser split per link
• Long-tail clicks days after sending

If you're promoting products, writing sponsored posts, or just trying to figure out what your audience cares about — you need per-link analytics.

The Stack

Here's what I use:

1. A link shortener with analytics — I use Dub.co (free tier is generous, API-first)
2. A simple Node.js script to auto-generate tracked links before each send
3. A JSON file that logs everything for my own dashboards

Total cost: $0. Total setup time: ~15 minutes.

Step 1: Generate Tracked Links via API

Instead of manually creating short links, I wrote a script that takes my raw newsletter URLs and returns tracked versions.

First, grab a free API key from Dub.co. They have a free tier that covers most newsletter use cases — custom domains, analytics, and API access included.

// track-links.js
const DUB_API_KEY = process.env.DUB_API_KEY;

async function createTrackedLink(url, tag) {
  const res = await fetch('https://api.dub.co/links', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${DUB_API_KEY}`,
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      url,
      tag,
      // optional: set a custom short slug
      // key: 'my-custom-slug',
    }),
  });

  const data = await res.json();
  return data.shortLink;
}

// Usage: convert all links in your newsletter draft
async function trackNewsletterLinks(links) {
  const tracked = {};
  for (const [label, url] of Object.entries(links)) {
    tracked[label] = await createTrackedLink(url, 'newsletter-issue-42');
    console.log(`${label}: ${tracked[label]}`);
  }
  return tracked;
}

// Example
trackNewsletterLinks({
  'main-article': 'https://myblog.com/post/scaling-postgres',
  'sponsor': 'https://sponsor.example.com/promo',
  'twitter-thread': 'https://x.com/me/status/123456',
  'tool-recommendation': 'https://some-saas.com',
});

Run it before each send:

export DUB_API_KEY="your_key_here"
node track-links.js

Output:

main-article: https://dub.sh/abc123
sponsor: https://dub.sh/def456
twitter-thread: https://dub.sh/ghi789
tool-recommendation: https://dub.sh/jkl012

Replace the raw URLs in your newsletter with these. Done.

Step 2: Pull Analytics After Sending

Here's where it gets useful. After your newsletter goes out, pull the click data:

// pull-stats.js
async function getLinkStats(linkId) {
  const res = await fetch(
    `https://api.dub.co/analytics?linkId=${linkId}&event=clicks&interval=7d`,
    {
      headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}` },
    }
  );
  return res.json();
}

async function getClicksByCountry(linkId) {
  const res = await fetch(
    `https://api.dub.co/analytics?linkId=${linkId}&event=clicks&groupBy=countries`,
    {
      headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}` },
    }
  );
  return res.json();
}

I run this 24 hours after each send and log the results:

const fs = require('fs');

async function logStats(issueNumber, links) {
  const stats = {};
  for (const [label, linkId] of Object.entries(links)) {
    stats[label] = {
      clicks: await getLinkStats(linkId),
      countries: await getClicksByCountry(linkId),
      pulledAt: new Date().toISOString(),
    };
  }

  const filename = `stats/issue-${issueNumber}.json`;
  fs.writeFileSync(filename, JSON.stringify(stats, null, 2));
  console.log(`Stats saved to ${filename}`);
}

Step 3: Spot Patterns Over Time

After a few issues, the data tells a clear story. Here's what I learned from mine:

Link Type	Avg CTR	Insight
Tutorial links	12.3%	Audience wants hands-on content
Tool recommendations	8.7%	Good, especially with context
Twitter threads	2.1%	People don't leave email for X
Sponsor links	5.4%	Better when placed mid-content

This completely changed how I structure my newsletter. I moved sponsor links from the footer to the middle of the content and saw a 2.5x increase in sponsor clicks.

Why Dub.co Over Other Options

I tried Bitly, TinyURL, and a self-hosted YOURLS instance before settling on Dub.co. Here's why:

• Free custom domain — your links look professional, not like generic short links
• API-first — everything I showed above works because the API is clean and well-documented
• Real analytics — geographic, device, referrer, time-series data out of the box
• Open source — the core is on GitHub, so you can self-host if you want full control
• Tags — I tag every link with the issue number, so I can filter analytics per newsletter

Bitly charges $35/mo for features Dub.co gives you free. YOURLS works but requires server maintenance. Dub.co hit the sweet spot.

Bonus: Automate With a Cron Job

I have a cron job that pulls stats for every issue automatically:

# crontab -e
0 9 * * MON node /path/to/pull-stats.js --issue latest

Every Monday morning I have fresh click data waiting in my stats/ folder. I glance at it with my coffee and know exactly what resonated.

Wrapping Up

If you're sending a newsletter without per-link tracking, you're flying blind. This setup is:

• Free (Dub.co free tier + Node.js)
• Fast (15 min setup, <1 min per issue after that)
• Private (your data, your JSON files, no third-party dashboard lock-in)

Grab a free Dub.co API key at dub.co and start tracking. Your newsletter strategy will thank you.

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Have questions about the setup? Drop a comment — happy to share my full config.