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The Importance Of Affiliate Link
Cloaking
Affiliate programs are
agreements between the affiliate merchant and the affiliate whereby the latter
would pre-sell or promote the products of the former. The affiliate stands to
earn some generous commissions every time he manages to refer a person who
decides to purchase the affiliate merchant's products. Every time the affiliate
decides to pre-sell an affiliate product, he'd be given an affiliate link. The
number of people the affiliate would be able to refer to the affiliate
merchant's sales page would be gauged by how many people would click on his
affiliate link.
But there could be a problem, particularly link theft.
Pre-selling, you see, involves the display of an affiliate's affiliate
link in as many places in the World Wide Web. But by displaying the affiliate
links as they are, the pertinent details of the affiliate's accounts would be
revealed, most notably, as often is the case, his affiliate number.
This allows some unscrupulous people (and you should know by now that
there are many of them on the Internet) to take advantage of them by replacing
some variables so that they would reap the benefits of all the time and effort
you will invest. The exact extent of the damage that can be brought by link
theft is immeasurable. It may be small, if you don't manage to drive enough
traffic to the affiliate merchant's sales page. Or it could be big, if you're
generating millions of referrals to the said affiliate merchant's sales page.
The breadth of the damage aside, link theft is a reprehensible act that
should not be condoned. All measures should be taken to avoid link theft, as
quite literally, it's your livelihood at stake when it comes to this concern.
Aside from link theft, you also have people who simply detest affiliate
marketing. Though this isn't really vile compared to link theft, it could
nonetheless steal some potential earnings from you. These people would copy the
main URL of your link and leave out your affiliate number. They'd be redirected
to the affiliate's sales page, but such won't be credited to your account. They
have a variety of reasons for doing this. Nonetheless, it is their prerogative
and we just have to respect it.
But does this mean that you're
completely powerless against them?
Not necessarily. You could always
try link cloaking.
Link cloaking is made possible through the use of a
script that would conceal your affiliate links from plain view. This means that
your affiliate ID number would remain unseen, even if the mouse cursor would
pass through the link. The entire process of redirection is carried out
invisibly.
There are many ways by which an affiliate link is cloaked.
Some scripts allow you to use a dummy URL with a slash and the product's code
accompanying it. Some allow you to create a custom URL. While others generate
random addresses every time your affiliate link is displayed.
There
have been few complaints about link cloaking, and most of them are about the
confusion on their own cloaked links at that. This is testament to how
magnificently link cloaking has curbed the perils of link exchange. If you want
to protect your affiliate earnings, do avail of link cloaking today. It is an
investment worth making for the serious affiliate marketer.
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This
article is written to provide accurate and authoritative information with
regard to the subject matter covered in it. It is provided with the
understanding that the author and publisher is not engaged in rendering legal,
or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is
required, the services of a competent professional person should be
sought.
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