Dan is a writer, trainer and internet marketer and is actively involved in internet business research, marketing strategies and useful tools and utilities. He offers proofreading and editing services at http://www.fogfactor.com and helps maintain http://www.vmsbonline.com as a niche topics content center.
Using A`Link Cloaker To Prevent Affiliate Commission Theft
>What Exactly Is Affiliate Income?
An affiliate is a free-lance business partner to a merchant. Affiliates earn their income or commission by promoting the merchant's product or services for a certain percentage of the selling price. The affiliate merely sells the product or service; the merchant is responsible for billing, delivery, returns, warranty claims and all other backend aspects of running a business.
>How Does The Merchant Track Affiliate Sales and Affiliate Commissions?
On signing up, each affiliate is given a link to use when promoting the merchant's product. Included in this link is an ID that is unique to each affiliate. When a prospect clicks on this link, he or she is directed to the merchant's sales page.
>What then is Affiliate Commission Theft?
When the merchant's sales page is displayed to the affiliate's prospect, the full affiliate link is displayed in the address bar, including the affiliate's ID. Take a look at a typical affiliate link - 'http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com/cmd.php?af=823466' - . Everything after the php is part of the affiliate ID. If I simply don't like the idea of someone earning a commission from my purchase or sign-up, all I need to do is delete ?af=823466 from the address bar and hit reload. I'm then taken directly to the merchant's website, totally bypassing the affiliate ID.
In the case of clickbank, I can simply replace the 'hop = xxxxx" with my own ID
There are other ways of losing your affiliate commission, either through unethical merchants or parasite software that is installed on your computer without your knowledge, and which redirects your commission to another account.
>What Are Redirect Scripts? Do They Prevent Affiliate Commission Theft?
Redirect scripts are simple scripts that you create and give a name of your choice, then upload to your website. The script contains instructions to redirect and click it gets to the merchant's website. There are two major limitations with redirects:
1. You need to have your own website and be able to create and upload files
2. The script you create can be named after the product you are promoting. For example, here's a typical clickbank affiliate link - 'http://XXXXX.carlmarl.hop.clickbank.net'. [where XXXXX is your clickbank ID.]
Now, I create a redirect script to upload to my website and name it htttp://www.mysite.com/carlmarl.php When promoting this product, I will use the php script I created, which does not show an ID and doesn't look like an affiliate link at all. So far, so good. Unfortunately, when someone clicks on this link and is taken to the product's sales page, the original address is displayed in the address bar, with the affiliate ID fully displayed. This is obviously of no use at all, as my affiliate ID is not cloaked at all.
>So What's The Use Of Redirect Scripts Then?
Redirects serve two purposes.
1. The create a shorter, more attractive and pertinent link than the ugly and cumbersome affiliate link from the merchant
2. By creating your own redirect link on your website, you retain full control of the URL at all times. So, if the merchant goes out of business, or you find a better source for the product you have been promoting to your list, forums, or on classifieds, all you need to do is go to your website and change the URL to the new source.
Remember though that redirects do not cloak your links and therefore have very limited use in preventing affiliate commission theft. Also, unless you have your own website, you cannot use redirects.
>How About Online URL Shortening Services? Should I Use them?
These are the same as redirect scripts, but with serious limitations. You can use them to shorten a long URL you want to include in a email for a short term. That's it. Never ever use them to shorten URLs for business purposes. They are unreliable, you have no control over them and the website hosting your redirect script could go out of business or simply remove your script after a certain period, and if you have used that link on articles, forums or online classifieds, they are toast.
>Can I Use Free Link Cloaking Services?
There are many such services available on the internet as a google search will show. However, most, if not all of these services host the cloaked link on their own servers. You have zero control over these links and how long they will remain active. The word 'free' sounds attractive, but the commissions you could lose make such 'free' options a very costly decision ultimately.
Besides, in all my years in the business arena, I have never found a 'free' anything that doesn't have a catch somewhere. And I can't understand why anyone will pay for servers and hosting services only to cloak your affiliate links for free. Maybe I'm missing the big picture somehow.
If you're still not convinced that free redirects hosting or redirect scripts could actually increase you risk and escalate your losses, you'll have plenty of choices simply be typing 'free link cloaking' in your search bar.
However, if you do not have your own website, you will need to use a free service. In this case, I would suggest you use the free software you can download from Ed's Link Cloaker to create your links. This will not cloak your link, but, by helping you create relevant and attractive text links, may help reduce affiliate commission theft and link bypass.
>How Do I Fully Prevent Affiliate Commission Theft?
The most effective way is to use link cloaking software that makes your affiliate ID invisible to your visitors, prospects and potential customers. However, to use link cloaking software, you will need your own website, and be able to upload files to your website.
There are numerous software programs available, but not all are created equal. One of the most complete link cloaking software is CovertLinks, which offers complete protection against affiliate commission theft. Covertlinks link cloaking stops link bypass as well as theft through parasite software. You can review the full description and download the software at CovertLinks
Copyright Dan Jeremiah: This article may be reproduced provided all content and links are retained nedited.
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- Your Cloaked Link May be Hurting Your Page Ranking
- Cloaking Your Links/tracking Your Hits is Essential if You are Promoting Affiliate Products
- Affiliate Link Cloaking – Should you Use It?
- Using Link Cloaking to Prevent Affiliate Commmission Theft
- There are Ways of Losing Your Affiliate Commission, Either Through Unethical Merchants or Parasite Software
- 5 Ways to Shorten and Protect Affiliate Links With Free Software
- Why Should you Cloak your Affiliate Links?
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