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Link Cloakers and Affiliate Commission Theft

Link Cloaking - Different Approaches to Link Cloaking

Link Cloaking is basically when you 'cloak' or disguise your affiliate link to resemble a unique one. For example, an affiliate link like www.pqrbusiness.com/?affiliate=lenard could be cloaked to  show www.pqrbusiness.com/productname or just www.pqrbusiness.com. 

Link Masking is sometimes used as a link cloaker, though it works differently from actual link cloaking, and does not hide the link in the address bar. 

While using an actual link cloaker software prevents your affiliate link from being displayed in the address bar where it actually counts, link masking only blocks the affiliate link being exposed in the browser's status bar.

Link masking is achieved through java script.  Here's an example of a link masking script.

<a href="http://www.youraffiliatelink.com" target = _new onMouseOver="window.status='http://merchant's site.com'; return true" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true"> anchor text</a>

'Replace youraffiliatelink' with your actual affiliate link
Replace merchant's site' with the merchant for whom you are marketing

On mouse over you will see a direct link to merchant's site.com instead of your affiliate link.

Link cloakers and URL Redirection.  These two are absolutely different. Redirects use a jumpscript to 'redirect' a URL. You can buy software that will do this for you or, you can create redirects yourself if you're familiar with php. Here's a php redirect script:

First create a TXT file that contains the code given below and save it as 'yourproductname.php' [without the quotes.]
 
Here is the code. It's called a '301 redirect'.

<?
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://YourClickbankID.yourproductname.hop.clickbank.net" );
/?>

Note: Follow all spaces and punctuation exactly. Replace 'yourproductname' with the product name you are targeting. Then upload the file 'yourproductname.php to your site.

Now when marketing your product, use http://www.your site.com/productname.php as your affiliate link, and it will be redirected. Note this is not a link cloaker. It gives you control over your link but does not cloak it.

Affiliate Link Cloaking using HTML Link cloaking with standard html redirects.

To use redirect scripts you need a domain name and hosting service. HTML redirects are necessary when the hosting service supports HTML, but not PHP scripts.

However, if used for link masking, redirects won't work if users disable "meta refresh" in their browsers, so instead of being redirected automatically they have to click manually. They will then be able to see your affiliate id when they mouse over the link on your main page.

Still, if you want to use this method as your link cloaker, here's how. Prepare a coded html document (see below) and name it 'Redirect' (or whatever you prefer) in your websites' root folder. Then just specify a link to this HTML document as your affiliate link whenever you're promoting the product ascribed to this link.

For example:

    * www.yourdomain.com/redirect.html, or
    * www.yourdomain.com/foldername/redirect.html

[where 'foldername' is the folder where you placed the document, if you did not use the root folder.]

Here's the script:

<html>
<head>
<title>YOUR PAGE TITLE</title>

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://YOUR AFFILIATE URL">
</head>
<body>
<p>
Redirecting, please wait. If you're not redirected within a couple of seconds,
click here:<br />
<a href="http://YOUR AFFILIATE LINK URL">PRODUCT REFERENCE</a>

</p>
</body>
</html>

"Your Page Title" is however you want to describe it
"Product Reference" is your affiliate product
"Your Affiliate Link URL" is the URL to redirect to.

While the above may suit your objective to some extent, they presuppose a familiarity with scripts and html. If you don't have such knowledge or want an literal link cloaker,  you need to download and install  the right software. There are many software programs available on the internet for link cloaking,  but not all link cloakers are created equal so review the features carefully before you buy.

Affiliate Link Hijacking and Affiliate commission theft. 

This involves affiliate link hijackers who 'steal' your affiliate commission, either by substituting your ID, deleting it, or using parasite software.

. which brings us to the subject of Link Cloaking.

Affiliate Commission theft| Link Cloakers

How do Link Cloakers Protect Your Commissions?

Affiliate commission theft happens when a prospective buyer bypasses your affiliate link, or malware installed on you computer whips away the money you should have earned. Affiliate links [without a link cloaker] are so obvious even a nitwit can spot it. There's even software that simplifies the stealing process, known as parasite software.  (For a list of parasite malwareclick here)

Lets say you are marketing a ClickBank product. Your affiliate link will look like this when you mouse over it:

YourAffiliateID.ProductID.hop.clickbank.net

If the person is also a member of ClickBank he can simply copy your link instead of clicking it, then paste it to the address bar and replace your Affiliate ID with his. He or she then gets your commission and you get zippo.

How does this Parasite Software pose a threat to Affiliate Marketers?

Parasite software tend run in the background on your computer, and when the web surfer visits your web page and the Parasite Software is affiliated with product being promoted, it'll serve up Pop-ups ads or directly send the surfer to the Merchant's sales page through it's own Affiliate URL that will then set Affiliate Cookies for it's owner. 

Without using a link cloaker, affiliate commission theft occurs when the Parasite Software overwrites your affiliate cookies with it's own, making you lose your affiliate commission should a sale be made, even though you sent the visitor to the Merchant's sales page first.

Using a link cloaker:

The advantages of using a link cloaker are three-fold:

1. Since your affiliate ID is not visible, it cannot be bypassed or replaced

2. The cloaked link is clean and direct. Visitors do not realize it is an affiliate link.

3. You choose your own name when creating the cloaked link, and can tie it to your own website if you have one.

Never use the following as a link cloaker or link cloakers:

1. Redirect scripts, while free, merely provide a neater link, but do not cloak your ID.

2.Some free scripts use frames, which do not work properly in some browsers.

3. Some may hide your link but fail to tie it in to the product so you do not get credited with the sale.

Using free web-based redirects as a link cloaker is one of the worst ways to 'cloak' your link, as not only is your link not hidden, but the server which hosts your redirect could simply delete it after a while, or shut down - and your hundreds or thousands of links you may have sent out in your marketing campaign now point nowhere, or to an error page. Remember, you have no way to recall and correct this disaster.

If you're familiar with inserting scripts into your page's html, there are free scripts you can download and try to see how well they work. [See above].

If you're a serious affiliate marketer and want to protect your commissions as well as make your links look professional, you need to use a Link Cloaker. 

There are many choices available, depending on your needs. When I last checked, Google returned more than 57,000 redults, so do shop around first. There are free scripts and offers that you may find adequate for your application.

For more sophisticated cloaking and protection against malware, or if  you're into serious affiliate marketing and want even more sophistication, take at look at Amazing Link Cloaker. This software is, however, more expensive than most, but offers some really neat features with ease of use.

Another software that  can flip the switch, and is cheaper than Link Cloaker is Easy Link Manager. Check it out too and see if it's more than adequate for you.

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Authored By Dan Jeremiah. All contents C Copyright vmsbonline 2010. No Copy.