Affiliate Link Cloaking

FACT: People prefer clicking on cloaked links.

Let me take you deep inside the sometimes twisted world of Internet Marketing and tell you how Internet users feel about links that look like this:

http://www.vendorsite.com?affid=myaffid&tid=1234

(1) The Internet Newbie is not so familiar with the Internet and he may be downright intimidated by an ugly affiliate link. They can't tell from the URL what site they're going to. They may even think it's a virus! In any case, they feel unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the link and they will NOT use it.

(2) The more Internet Savvy avoid clicking on ugly links like these... because it's a sure sign that they are about to be sold something. And people do NOT like to be sold. They will try to bypass the link, by "chopping off" the affiliate ID and going directly to the site, just because they can't stand the idea of YOU getting a commission.

(3) The VERY Internet Savvy know something that maybe you don't even know. An affiliate link like the one above can be easily modified to give the commission to someone else... maybe themselves, but certainly NOT you! This is commonly known as Affiliate link hijacking. Affiliate Link Hijacking is what happens when someone replaces your affiliate id with theirs in the affiliate link. In our example, the hijacker could substitute 'myaffid' by 'hisaffid' in the link. The fact of the matter is that YOU don't get your commission, and the hijacker puts YOUR money in HIS own pocket.

By now, you can imagine how you could be losing hundreds or even thousands of dollars every year due to affiliate link hijackers and bypassers.

But this hiding of links is only part of the Top Secret Information that will be unfolded to You.

FACT: Nearly all affiliate programs use cookies to track which affiliate is involved in a sale for commision payouts.

It is clear that the more visitors you cookie, the bigger chance you'll have to receive a commission, if one of those visitors decide to buy any of the products that you recommend them.

Imagine what it would be like if you could cookie ALL your visitors, even without them knowing...

In that case, you wouldn't even have to hide your links:
- You could leave them clear and lead them straight to the vendors' homepage.
- You could lead your visitors directly to anothe page of the vendor

It wouldn't matter, the visitor has been cookied already and you are entitled to the commission, if he ever decides to buy.

That, my friend, is what we call 'Cookie Stuffing' .

Know that there are different ways to do this, and one method is better than the other.

You can learn it all (and much more) in "The HitchHiker's Guide to URL Redirection & Affiliate Link Cloaking" Website, just as I did.


Boy, am I glad that I, not being blessed with a technical mind, finally understood all those cloaking tricks. It is much easier than I thought. I now realize I've wasted a lot of money buying all those cloakers. On the other hand, I was quite impressed by the Master Link Cloaker and can't wait when it will be available for the public. :-)

You can ask yourself now: And.... did you cookie me? ;-)