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Using A Link Cloaker To Prevent Affiliate Commission Theft

What Exactly Is Affiliate Commission? Why use a link cloaker?nk cloaker, link cloaking, affiliate income,
An affiliate is a self-employed, independent free-lance business partner to a merchant or several merchants. Affiliates realize their income or commission by advertising the merchant's product or services, and earns  a certain percentage of the selling price for each sale. The affiliate merely sells the product or service, and is not involved with  billing, delivery, returns, warranty claims and all other backend activities of running a business.

How Does The Merchant Track Affiliate Sales and Affiliate Commissions?

On registering, each affiliate is given an ID link to implement when promoting the merchant's product. The ID  is unique to each affiliate. When a prospect clicks on this link, he or she is directed to the merchant's sales page, and the sale is recorded and credited to that affiliate's account. Without a link cloaker, this ID is fully visible and can be manipulated.

What  is Affiliate Commission Theft? Can a link cloaker prevent this?nk cloaker, cloaker, hide affiliate links
Affiliate Commission theft happens when a link cloaker is not used. The affiliate's link is manipulated such that the sale is not credited to the affiliate but to someone else or to no one.

How does affiliate commission theft happen?

Not Using a link cloaker to cloak affiliate links makes it easy for anyone to bypass the affiliate link or go directly to the vendor's website. The affiliate is then taken out of the loop.

When the merchant's sales page is displayed in the prospect's browser, the full affiliate link is shown in the address bar, including the affiliate's ID. Let's look at a typical affiliate link - 'http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com/cmd.php?af=893466'.  The ?af=893466 is the affiliate ID. If I plainly don't like the thought of someone earning a commission from my purchase or sign-up, all I have to do is delete ?af=823466 from the address bar and hit reload. I'm then taken straight off to the merchant's website. The affiliate is now out of the loop and earns nothing.

If I am registered with clickbank, I can simply replace the 'hop = xxxxx" with my own ID. That's why it's very difficult to sell a clickbank product to another clickbank affiliate.

This is not the only way affiliate commissions are lost. There are other ways affiliate commission theft can happen, either through dishonest merchants or parasite software that may be installed on your computer without your knowledge, and which 'steals' your commission. A reliable link cloaker not only cloaks uour Id but prevents theft by parasite software

Can I use free redirect scripts as a link cloaker?
 Cloaker, link cloaker
No, you cannot. Redirect scripts are simple scripts that you create and choose a name for, then upload to your website. The script displays your chosen name in the status bar, not your affiliate link, contains instructions to redirect the click it gets to the merchant's website. However, there are two major limitations with redirects:

1. You must have your own website, as you will need to upload the redirect scripts you create to your root folder.

2. Now, here's a typical clickbank affiliate link - 'http://XXXXX.carlmarl.hop.clickbank.net'. [where XXXXX is your clickbank ID.]  I now create a redirect script to upload to my website and name it http://www.mysite.com/carlmarl.php When promoting this product, I will use the php script I created, which does not show an ID and doesn't look like an affiliate link at all. So far, so good. Unfortunately, when someone clicks on this link and is taken to the product's sales page, the original address (not the script address) is almost always displayed in the address bar, with the affiliate ID fully exposed. This is obviously of no use at all, as my affiliate ID is not cloaked at all.

What's The Use Of Redirect Scripts Then if they do not cloak links? redirect scripts and link cloaking. Cloak your links.
Redirects serve two purposes.

1. The create a snippier, more pleasing and apt link than the ugly and cumbrous affiliate link from the merchant.

2. By creating your own redirect link on your website, you retain full control of the URL for always. So, if the merchant whose product you are promoting goes belly up, or you find a better source for the product you have been recommending to your list, forums, or on classifieds, all you have to do is go to your website and change the URL in your reditect script to the new point source.

Remember that unless you have your own website, you cannot use redirect scripts. Also,  redirect scripts do not cloak your links in the address bar, and therefore have very restricted use in precluding affiliate commission theft.

Should I Use Free Online URL Shortening Services for Cloaking?ng with short URLs

Most emphatically not. These are similar to redirect scripts, but with serious hold-downs. By all means use them to shorten a long URL you want to include in a email for a short term . Nothing else. Never ever use them to try and cloak your affiliate links, or for any  business purposes. Free URL shortening services are unreliable, and you have no control over them. The website hosting your redirect script could cease operations or simply bump off your script after a certain period, and if you have used that shortened URL on articles, forums or online classifieds, they are toast.

Can I Use Free Link Cloaking Offers?

These have the same limitations as URL shortening services. There are many such services available on the internet as a google search will show. However, most, if not all of these services host the  link on their own servers. You have no control over these links and how long they will remain active. The word 'free' is appealing (we all like free stuff), but the commissions you could drop off make such 'free' options a very pricey decision in the end.

Besides, in all my years in business, both online and offline, I have yet to find a 'free' anything that doesn't have a catch. And I can't imagine why anyone will incur servers and recurring hosting costs only to cloak your affiliate links for free. Why the heck should they? Maybe I'm not tuning in to the profit potential somehow.

If you still want to take the 'free' route, and are still not certain that free redirects hosting or redirect scripts could actually amplify your risk of income loss, you'll have plenty of choices simply be typing 'free link cloaking' in your browser search bar. Take your pick.

What If I Do Not Have My Own Website?  Limited cloaker opportunities or link cloaking

If you do not have your own website, you can use free link re-wording software. However, avoid free redirect services.  A viable option would be for you use the free software you can download here to create your text  links. The software does not need installation. While it will hide your affiliate link in the status bar, it will not cloak your link.  However, by creating pertinent and fetching text links, it may help reduce affiliate commission theft and link bypass.

How Can I Fully Prevent Affiliate Commission Theft? Link cloaking, link cloaking software, cloaker

The only effective way is to use  link cloaking. This is  software that totally cloaks your affiliate ID in both the status bar and the address bar, and makes it  unseeable to your visitants, prospects and potential customers. However, to use link cloaking software, you will need to upload the cloaked links to your own website. Since all serious affiliate marketers have their own website, this is not a problem.

There are many link cloaking software programs available, but not all work as well. One of the most complete link cloaking software is CovertLinks, which offers complete protection against affiliate commission theft. Covertlinks link cloaking stops link bypass as well as theft through parasite software. You can review the full description and download the   Genk cloaker today.


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