PHP & Google Analytics question...
 

If I use a php redirect to send my traffic to the destination url can I still include google analytics on this redirect.php to track the traffic or will it have no chance of loading since it redirects immediately?

depends where you do the forward and how

Not with a php redirect

creative (popup/text link/banner) -> redirect.php -> which redirects to the affiliate url

basically I just want to be able to track stats on my server for all affiliate advertising I do.

you will need to use javascript to redirect, not php
analytics javascript, then the redirect javascript

<script language="JavaScript"><!--
window.location="http://nextjump.com";
//--></script>

dont forget to set the metatag to for if they have javascript disabled

There's a better way, use event tracking...

On outbound links (anchor tags) add a onclick="pageTracker._trackEvent('blah', 'blah', 'blah');"

I don't even bother with a redirect any more, I just track the page it was clicked from, position of the click within the page, and the site it was sent to. Very accurate, very simple, and faster for the user not having to do some redirect BS :P

For this you would have to have control over the page your ad is displayed on, correct?