Goldfinger wrote:
However the neat little Javascript method doesn´t work in Firefox at all and I´m not sure wether a blank status bar is more trust inspiring?
Javascript only doesn’t work if the user has it disabled in their browser. I use firefox and it works fine. I don’t think its disabled by default. Go to tools > options > content and make sure Enable Javascript is checked. If it is checked and javascript still isn’t working the clear your cache. Firefox likes to load cached pages.
Also have you considered a click tracking script? Your links wouldn’t look like direct links but I don’t think users would consider them dodgy. For example your links could look like http://example.com/click.php?12345