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Hiding affiliate links

Gerae Lindsey — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 21:48:23 +0000

I have to admit, this is something I don’t always do. Call me lazy. It can really eat up my time having to add the cloaking code to all links I add to my sites. But I’m working to be better about it.

Why should you hide your affiliate links?

The two reasons that come to mind include:

Avoiding commission stealing (someone seeing the affiliate code in your link, and then opting to enter their own affiliate ID and collect the commission on their own purchase)
Turning off potential clickers (would you rather click and order from this link www.domain.com or www.tracker.com/domain.com&aff=123456?)

The benefits to cloaking your links are not limited to discouraging the behaviors above. It can also save you time IF you cloak your links in a particular way. So what am I talking about? Normally, I use the following code to hide my links:

a xhref=”AFFILIATE LINK” target=”_blank” onmouseover=”window.status=‘LINK PEOPLE SEE’;return true;” onmouseout=”window.status=’ ‘;return true;”

(I removed my beginning and end tags so you can see the code)

But this becomes a hassle if my link changes or I drop the program later because I have to go back in and change all my links. Instead, you can cloak your links using actual pages. Here is how:

Create the page (example: mydomain.com/affiliateproduct.html)
Then insert this html into the body of your page: (again, I am NOT using the first or last “<” “>” tags)

html

head

meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0;url=http://AFFILIATE LINK”

/head

body

/body

/html

Then you just send your visitors to the page you created and it automatically sends them to your affiliate link (which they never see).

Setting up your links this way makes it easier for you to manage. Should your link change, you update the ONE page. You could also download AffiliateJump. It’s a free program that will cloak your links for you. And when I say “for you” I mean that you enter the affiliate link, and then it creates the redirect page for you.

I’ve added this task to my to-do list for the week. Cloak my links.

AffiliateManagerPro Software

Gerae Lindsey — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 06:09:19 +0000

When I first started promoting affiliate programs many moons ago, I belonged to less than 5 of them. Keeping track of usernames and passwords was no problem for this sometimes forgetful professor (if you know me, you know my memory lasts about as long as “Ten Second Tom” from 50 First Dates).

Now that I am promoting 60+ programs, it has become much trickier to remember things and I am continually clicking the “I forgot my password” link at login pages.

So the other day I get an email from someone about AffiliateManagerPro and I’m wondering if anyone out there uses this before I take the time to download the free trial. The price is reasonable (currently $26.95) and the software itself performs the following (from the website):

Stats Login and Promotion links
Pay type and frequency information
Multiple-tier program information
Forum link information
Usernames and passwords
Store the signup email right in the program
Cloak your affiliate links in 4 different ways
Quickly sort and view your program information
Visit your links, right from the program!

If you have tried it, I’d appreciate your feedback

Search Engine School for Affiliates

Gerae Lindsey — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 02:23:09 +0000

I have had this ebook saved to my computer for over a year now. I have been promoting affiliate programs since I started my first website over 7 years ago, but have never considered myself an affiliate marketer. Sure, I made a couple hundred dollars a month (between a variety of programs) but I have never bothered to pursue affiliate marketing full-time. So when I was first given this ebook, I just saved it in a folder and never gave it a second look.

The last few months I have been reading more up on affiliate marketing and decided I should get my behind in gear and make more from the programs I have been promoting. So I opened up that old folder and began reading through the many ebooks I have acquired over the years. I started with this book mostly because I am familiar with the author Shawn Collins, an affiliate marketer since 1997 who ran the affiliate program for ClubMom for years.

The ebook is titled Search Engine School and was originally written for ClubMom affiliates to help them get their websites listed in search engines and directories.

The ebook (which is free to download here) is not for experienced affiliate marketers. It is for real beginners to search engine optimization covering topics like choosing your keywords, creating door way pages, using title and meta tags correctly, and other related topics.

If you are totally new to search engines and need a guide to getting your website optimized, this is a great start and well worth the time to read.

I printed it out and read it while the kids played

Affiliate marketing networks

Gerae Lindsey — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 04:28:35 +0000

I am often asked by clients who are looking to join affiliate programs – where do I find good programs to promote? Because I use these myself, I recommend they look into joining either one or all of the following:

Commission Junction

I have been with CJ for 4 years now (since 2003) promoting domain registrars, web hosting companies and other businesses that target small and home business owners.

In my personal opinion, CJ is the best place to find good paying affiliate programs.

Finding and joining programs to promote is easy and they provide you with multiple ways of doing so, including banner, text links, and content like articles, etc. I like their tracking system better than any other program I belong to. They pay monthly (on or around the 20th) by your choice of check or direct deposit. The downside to CJ? I have no complaints except for the time my payment never arrived. I had to wait 30 days before they would do anything and they deducted $25 from my check to issue a new one. That stunk but otherwise, I recommend Commission Junction to everyone.

oneNetworkDirect (formerly Digital River)

I have been with OneNetwork for a few years now, ever since one of my top earning programs moved from CJ over to them. Their selection of programs is limited but includes Symantec, Pinnacle, and LiveChat. I don’t care for the admin area compared to others, but tracking clicks and sales is very easy. I like that I receive notice when sales are made via email. I have never had a problem receiving payment, but they do hold payments longer than CJ.

LinkShare

I am new to LinkShare, having signed up to advertise a program on another one of my websites. LinkShare, however, is not new to the affiliate marketing scene having been around since 1996. They have a huge selection of programs to choose from and I have so far found their tracking system to work very nicely.

While I have not personally joined ClickBank, I know many people who have had success with them. Like the others above, sign-up is free. ClickBank specializes in digitally delivered products like ebooks, software, music, etc.

In addition to using the above companies to find affiliate programs, many businesses run their programs themselves. So if you find a product that compliments your website and you would like to earn money promoting it, look for a link (usually up top or at the bottom) to join. Make sure you read over all of their terms of use and find out how they pay you and how often.

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