Affiliate safeguard your commissions
I am sure when you surf the internet, you will come across many url links. A url, or Uniform Resource Locator, is the location of a file on the web. It is similar to an address of a house. Therefore, url is an address, which people will enter into the browser to reach your website.
Most of the time, internet marketers, who are promoting products, redirecting traffic, writing emails or blogs, need to include a link or two together with the content. Some of these links are actually a substitute of the original links.
Why is there a need to cover up the original link?
Sometimes, the url maybe a long string of alphanumeric, which looks unpleasant to the eyes and a chore to type in.
Or it could be a sale affiliate link with your username or ID in it, and you want to keep it out of sight from the public eyes. You would not want someone to swop your name or ID, end up losing your hard-earned commission to someone else.
Or perhaps you do not like your current url.
Or your prospects knew that they are buying through an affiliate link. And they do not feel comfortable with the idea, somebody is earning a commission from their purchase. They might just rip away your username or ID and buy straight from the vendors.
Whatever the reason is, it is always a good practice to either cloak your important links or create a substitute link.
There are some methods which I felt is useful in covering up your precious url link.
The first method is by using the services likeTinyURL.com. Their address is http://tinyurl.com/. There is a box on main page that say, “Enter a long url to make tiny:”. Just type in your url and then click the button.
Let me show you my sample.
I have this url,
http://www.surefiresolution.com/thinkngrowrich/index.html.
Just imagine typing this long sentence, you could miss an alphabet anywhere. I used TinyURL and it converted it to
Very neat, isn’t it.
And there you have it. Your very own short url.
The second method require you to own a hosting account and a domain name. Go and log into the cpanel account.
You will notice a Domains section and from the section, you will see Redirects.
Just follow the blank and enter the details. However, not all hosting account provide the option to redirect link. Make sure you ask before you sign up. And one last tip, do choose your domain name with care. A good, sound name will give you an added advantage.
The third method that I normally do is to cloak my links. I use the Webmaster Tools with the link cloaker option to create a html code. Then I saved the code in a html format and upload the file into the server.
This prevents any affiliate commission theft from happening. If you are looking for a quality cloaking software, I recommend Affiliate Link Cloaker. It does the same thing, but only better.
Ultimately, the internet is filled with opportunities but there are always spoilsports lurking around.
