The Almighty link popularity

I've been a long time reader of the forums, 1st time poster.

Link Popularity - I run an affiliate program using a 3rd party, links from my affiliates are redirected for tracking purposes and therefore do not add to my link popularity. Is this correct?

Also, links from comparison shopping engines like shop.yahoo or shopping.com (formerly DealTime) are redirected for tracking purposes - do these add to my sites link popularity?

Basically - different advertising / promotional links that are redirected for tracking - besides the traffic (and sales) that I receive as a result is there any added benefit?

Thanks for your help.

No. All re-direct links are not counted by google (and all the major SEs i know of) as link popularity.

The only links that are counted are plain html links with no redirect. HTH