There are a lot of ways to sell somebody something online. You can sell through banners, through links, and through ‘buy now’ buttons. Some Marketers are selling through affiliate programs so they’ll need that link to contain a tracking code that tells the product seller which affiliate generated that sale.
Sometimes these codes are funny looking and don’t look like regular codes. The code needs to be clicked so that the Affiliate gets their commission payment but there are ways to make the code less obvious looking.
Why Cloak Your Affiliate Links
To Cloak, or not to Cloak? That is the question. The answer varies among various internet marketers.
A lot of successful marketers do Cloak Affiliate Links for simplicity’s sake. It’s not that they’re being dishonest but Affiliate Links can be obvious and if you’re selling to someone, and they can tell it’s an Affiliate Link, they may either:
- Not buy it at all.
- Try to strip the affiliate code out of the link.
In scenario “a”, some people might feel like they’ve been “sold” and then even if they actually believed a product would give them what they need, they suddenly become distrustful because they think that just because someone is making a commission, that somehow they’re about to be scammed. For this reason, it might be wise to hide your affiliate links in a way that still lets the supplier know who generated the sale.
In scenario “b”, some people simply put the sale through without the link so that they can cheat the affiliate out of the sale. Why people do this isn’t really known but it is common. Or, someone might decide to sign up as an affiliate and replace your code with their own so that they get a commission instead of you.
Not all Affiliate Marketers Cloak Affiliate Links but some find that they can thwart attempts to steal their commission away after their hard work by doing the following:
a. Using a program like TinyUrl which takes any link such as http://www.seanrasmussen.com and turns it into: http://tinyurl.com/seanr.
b. Creating a permanent redirect from your website. This can be done with your webhost and provides a solution. With this method, you could take an Affiliate Link and turn it into www.yoursite.com/recommends/product.
c. Purchase and use an Affiliate Link Cloaking software program which can quickly re-create links for you that also don’t look like affiliate links.
Again, whether you decide to Cloak your links or not is a personal choice. In affiliate marketing, it is important to test whatever method you are using to ensure your code is still getting through so that you can be assured you’ll get proper credit for all your sales.
About Sean Rasmussen
Hi Sean,
To cloak an Affiliate link by creating a permanent redirect from my website is another solution that I was not aware of. Not until reading this blog. I personally believe it’s too risky to not cloak an affiliate link. The risk is not worth losing out on a commission so, having a few options on how to cloak an affiliate link is good to know.
But does this come into the realm of black hat in the eyes of the search engines
Update
Sean has answered this elsewhere and it’s not black hat. Whew!
Hi Sean,
If you have built a website around a specific affiliate; and you have badges that recognize you as an official affiliate; is it better to use them and disclose upfront that you are an affiliate for that product?
Also, which do you prefer; a permanent re-direct or cloaking?
If the website is specifically for one affiliate product, I don’t see the harm in using the badge and disclosing your connection. In fact, in the US, FTC laws now state that you must disclose this information and most affiliate programs will require you to do so. For link cloaking, there is a plugin called “pretty links” that is fantastic, check it out.
Great advice here I think cloaking your affiliate link is necessary , never mind about possible. I was not aware of the permanent redirect either Jill. I’m really enjoying going through these posts. I find myself learning so much more. At times even coming across little missing pieces along the way.
Hi Sean
This affiliate link stuff is really cloak and dagger (pun intended).
It is amazing what goes on in cyberworld, quite fascinating actually. It’s like a sci-fi with thwarting of affiliate links, redirects, code replacing etc. I wonder if there is a Link Skywalker running around out there to fend off these terrible affiliate stealing androids! I will be cloaking, that’s for sure.
I am really enjoying all that you are teaching us as it is all very important and integral to our becoming professional, successful and profitable internet marketers.
Blessings
Elly
Most of the time I cloak my affiliate link but I’m wondering to the ‘normal’ consumer, do they even look at the browser when searching for something? I know before I got into internet marketing, I would type what I wanted into the search bar and just wait for it to come up. I never looked at the browser to find out if it was an affiliate product or not.
Hi Jackie,
That’s a great question. I’m not sure they would. In my pre-internet marketing days; I’d just search for what I wanted without thinking about whether it was an affiliate product or not.
You’d think it would only be people used to using affiliate links that would know. It would be really interesting to know what Sean thinks of this one.
It never hurts to cover your bases with affiliate links. Why risk the chance of losing sales
I like the idea behind affiliate marketing, but i’m worried about people hijacking affiliate commissions. I want to promote an affiliate link for a real estate website. How do i cloak this affiliate link so in the case i post it somewhere it doesn’t get changed and i lose commissions. I have a yoga website. How do i upload this file to my web server for my yoga site. After i cloaked the affiliate link what do i promote.
You can try a WordPress plugin called “Pretty Link” James, it works quite well. You can also try services like bit.ly and tinyurl. You can also cloak links via PHP, this is too advanced to explain here, but doing a Google search should give you the info you require. As for what to promote, you would be promoting the product that you are an affiliate of wouldn’t you? Not sure I understand that part of the question!