Why You Should Cloak Your Links And How To Make Money By Using This Cloaking Tool
Posted by Derek Robson on Wednesday, September 8, 2010 Under: Affiliate Marketing
I'm sure by now you must have heard about affiliate link cloaking, but maybe you still do not fully understand the implications, or worse still, you don't know how to do this.
If you are not already cloaking all your affiliate links....you should be!
Some people may consider cloaked links to be a little dishonest, in thinking that you’re trying to deceive your customers. I assure you it is the opposite – If you don't...you will lose out!
It is a well known fact that most people, for whatever reasons, see your affiliate link and then do one of three things:
1. Lose interest immediately and close the page down.
2. Remove yor affiliate ID from the link and go straight to the main program homepage.
3. Replace your affiliate ID with their own and steal your commissions.
By cloaking (scrambling, encoding or hiding) your affiliate ID, you not only ensure you are eligible for any earnings from a resultant sale, but you also disguise the fact that it is an affiliate link. Viewers will probably click on the link, thinking it is your own domain or sub-domain. The link looks more professional and user friendly because it can be shortened and even branded i keeping with your niche, website etc.
Here are a couple of valid reasons to seriously consider cloaking your links.
1. Affiliate links can be hijacked - this occurs when someone, usually another affiliate, uses their own affiliate link to purchase the product you’re promoting. For example, let’s say I read about a product on your site and decide to check out the product’s main sales site by clicking on your link. I then decide to purchase the product, however I copy the URL and then substitute my affiliate link in place of yours. When I buy the product using this new link, the commission is mine even though you did all the work to get me to buy the product.
2. Affiliate links can be bypassed - this happens when a visitor simply navigates directly to the product’s main sales site by removing the affiliate link. Some people may do this because they do not want you to receive any commission for the purchase they’re about to make, even though you’re the one that directed them towards the product.
3. You can condense your affiliate links - many affiliate links can appear long, ugly, and uninviting for visitors to click on. People may avoid clicking on links that look unattractive so you may want to condense your link by cloaking it.
Now that you’re aware of the various problems plaguing affiliate links, you may be asking yourself if you should actually use this method.
There are some that feel affiliate link cloaking is a little dishonest, while others feel they’re simply protecting their sales and maximizing their marketing efforts. Ultimately, the choice is yours, but it boils down to a simple case of "do you want to make money, or do you want to take a chance".
There are dozens, if not hundreds of services available for shortening or cloaking your links. Some are paid and some are free. Usually, you need to join up and you use their servers. Your inks are redirected from their servers to the relevant page. The trouble with this is, if they are down or out of business - so are your links! Often you are required to log in to create new links and sometimes they display ads on your page in return for the service.
We have tried many of these services over the years, but lately we have changed to a very easy to use service. Not only can you shorten and disguise your links for free, but you can customise your own branded links! This service is viral, which means you benefit from additional traffic and even better, you can earn from giving it to others. A small ad is displayed in the browser and if someone clicks that link, you get paid for that too!
This service is great! As they say "Get paid to shorten links". This program is easily integrated into Firefox and Wordpress. There is a small toolbar, that includes advertisements for their products, with your affiliate ID embedded in them! They also throw in a link brander, which you can use to turn "ugly" links into "nice" links. Plus, you get full stats and reporting tools, to show you exactly how well your links are doing!
Use these new cloaked, embedded links every time you post a link in your articles or blogs and watch your income increase dramatically and effortlessly! If you want to find out more and start using this service right away, just click here. You can also copy the link into your browser.
By way of example, the affiliate link is like this: www.this cloakingprogram.com/affiliate-id=654, my branded link is www.Dersalsites.com/Bitly and the cloaked link looks like this: http://bit.ly/bRksT9 Big difference hey!
Derek Robson has been a successful Internet marketer since 2003. He has a vision of empowering others, particularly fellow South Africans and other non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success on the internet, by finding solutions to the many obstacles facing them. He is a syndicated article writer. He and his wife Sally, have started a string of sites, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. For informative articles on making money, setting up a simple business that actually makes money, Internet marketing, South African online business, list building, affiliate marketing, article marketing, blogging, seo, the law of attraction, rugby and other general topics, such as gardening and fitness, visit Derek and Sally at their blog, part of http://dersalsites.com/
If you are not already cloaking all your affiliate links....you should be!
Some people may consider cloaked links to be a little dishonest, in thinking that you’re trying to deceive your customers. I assure you it is the opposite – If you don't...you will lose out!
It is a well known fact that most people, for whatever reasons, see your affiliate link and then do one of three things:
1. Lose interest immediately and close the page down.
2. Remove yor affiliate ID from the link and go straight to the main program homepage.
3. Replace your affiliate ID with their own and steal your commissions.
By cloaking (scrambling, encoding or hiding) your affiliate ID, you not only ensure you are eligible for any earnings from a resultant sale, but you also disguise the fact that it is an affiliate link. Viewers will probably click on the link, thinking it is your own domain or sub-domain. The link looks more professional and user friendly because it can be shortened and even branded i keeping with your niche, website etc.
Here are a couple of valid reasons to seriously consider cloaking your links.
1. Affiliate links can be hijacked - this occurs when someone, usually another affiliate, uses their own affiliate link to purchase the product you’re promoting. For example, let’s say I read about a product on your site and decide to check out the product’s main sales site by clicking on your link. I then decide to purchase the product, however I copy the URL and then substitute my affiliate link in place of yours. When I buy the product using this new link, the commission is mine even though you did all the work to get me to buy the product.
2. Affiliate links can be bypassed - this happens when a visitor simply navigates directly to the product’s main sales site by removing the affiliate link. Some people may do this because they do not want you to receive any commission for the purchase they’re about to make, even though you’re the one that directed them towards the product.
3. You can condense your affiliate links - many affiliate links can appear long, ugly, and uninviting for visitors to click on. People may avoid clicking on links that look unattractive so you may want to condense your link by cloaking it.
Now that you’re aware of the various problems plaguing affiliate links, you may be asking yourself if you should actually use this method.
There are some that feel affiliate link cloaking is a little dishonest, while others feel they’re simply protecting their sales and maximizing their marketing efforts. Ultimately, the choice is yours, but it boils down to a simple case of "do you want to make money, or do you want to take a chance".
There are dozens, if not hundreds of services available for shortening or cloaking your links. Some are paid and some are free. Usually, you need to join up and you use their servers. Your inks are redirected from their servers to the relevant page. The trouble with this is, if they are down or out of business - so are your links! Often you are required to log in to create new links and sometimes they display ads on your page in return for the service.
We have tried many of these services over the years, but lately we have changed to a very easy to use service. Not only can you shorten and disguise your links for free, but you can customise your own branded links! This service is viral, which means you benefit from additional traffic and even better, you can earn from giving it to others. A small ad is displayed in the browser and if someone clicks that link, you get paid for that too!
This service is great! As they say "Get paid to shorten links". This program is easily integrated into Firefox and Wordpress. There is a small toolbar, that includes advertisements for their products, with your affiliate ID embedded in them! They also throw in a link brander, which you can use to turn "ugly" links into "nice" links. Plus, you get full stats and reporting tools, to show you exactly how well your links are doing!
Use these new cloaked, embedded links every time you post a link in your articles or blogs and watch your income increase dramatically and effortlessly! If you want to find out more and start using this service right away, just click here. You can also copy the link into your browser.
By way of example, the affiliate link is like this: www.this cloakingprogram.com/affiliate-id=654, my branded link is www.Dersalsites.com/Bitly and the cloaked link looks like this: http://bit.ly/bRksT9 Big difference hey!
Derek Robson has been a successful Internet marketer since 2003. He has a vision of empowering others, particularly fellow South Africans and other non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success on the internet, by finding solutions to the many obstacles facing them. He is a syndicated article writer. He and his wife Sally, have started a string of sites, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. For informative articles on making money, setting up a simple business that actually makes money, Internet marketing, South African online business, list building, affiliate marketing, article marketing, blogging, seo, the law of attraction, rugby and other general topics, such as gardening and fitness, visit Derek and Sally at their blog, part of http://dersalsites.com/
In : Affiliate Marketing
Tags: link cloaking cloaking links affiliate lnks hijacking affiliate links
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