subject: Affiliate Marketing - The Importance of Link Cloning and Redirecting [print this page] If you are researching link cloning and redirecting as it relates to affiliate marketing, you undoubtedly know how profitable that particular field of internet marketing can be. We all hear of the big bucks some affiliate marketers are being paid. And believe me, those huge payouts actually do happen. But sadly, there are many affiliate marketers who aren't doing all they can to protect their business and therefore are not maximizing their earnings potential.
The Problem: Lost Commissions
Lost Commissions by Link Bypassing
You invest considerable time and money to create your own affiliate marketing website. You carefully choose which products and services you will promote and do everything you can to build an awesome website and build your traffic. It's all about the goal of getting traffic that can lead to sales and thereby your commissions. But all your hard work might be for naught.
Would you believe that most people who find your site through Google, Yahoo, Alta -Vista or MSN see your link, click on the link to go to your site, but then erase your affiliate id from the URL address before going over to the merchant site? By deleting or erasing your affiliate id from the end of the link URL, they have denied you any commission. If they go to the merchant website now and purchase anything you won't get a dime, even though you helped fuel their decision to buy it in the first place. This is called Bypassing. Some people do it maliciously, wanting to deny you your commission and others are just wary. Many people don't trust sites with an affiliate URL.
Commission Theft by Link-Hijacking
Not only are your affiliate links susceptible to the actions your visitors' perform on them while at your site, but they are also vulnerable to theft from fellow affiliate marketers. Some in the affiliate marketing field might see your awesome website and after taking into account all of your hard work and the information you readily relate about the products and/or services you are promoting, they decide they want to promote the same things too. Since they can see your affiliate link, they can simply erase your affiliate id and go to the affiliate program or merchant's website and sign up for their own account. Now they are your competition!
The Solution: Link Cloning and Redirecting Programs
Link Cloning or Cloaking
Link cloning or cloaking is one of the best ways to prevent someone from stealing or denying your commissions by hi-jacking or bypassing your affiliate links. Cloning is the process by which your affiliate links are stored in a software program that generates and displays a simple URL instead of your affiliate URL.
This type of software allows you to create unlimited redirection and is the best protection for keeping your affiliate commissions. There are many cloning or cloaking programs out there. Some are free and others are not. It's up to you which you prefer. Most are completely reliable and easy to use. I would suggest trying a free program first and then evaluate if you need something more. An example of a free link cloning program is Web Traffic Juggernaut, but there are many more out there.
Redirecting Links
Some people use link redirection as a means of protecting their affiliate ids and possible future commissions. Redirecting is also used because of ascetics. Often affiliate links are incredibly long and not so pretty to look at when you mouse-over them. Sometimes prospects are hesitant to click through on an affiliate link because all the letters and numbers which are typically tacked onto the ends of these types of URLs look confusing or suspicious. Internet surfers prefer short and clean URLs.
There are many free and paid programs you can use to help redirect your links and there are also numerous articles and posts out there about how to just do it yourself by creating blank webpages on your website. There are many options, just choose the one that works best for you.
There is a lot of money to be made in affiliate marketing; you just need to take steps to help protect your affiliate links from possible bypassing or hijacking. After all,
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