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Link Cloaking

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 24Oct2010
Word count: 546
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There's a lot of confusion about link cloaking. The term itself sounds suspicious, like it's a black hat method of marketing or a way to disguise your identity. The fact of the matter is, it is nothing like that. What it is is something that any internet marketer should be aware of and use, for a variety of reasons.

When you have an affiliate relationship, you install widgets or code to your affiliate ads. That way, when people click on the link, they are directed to the affiliate site. Your details are embedded in the link, so, in theory at least, you should always get the commission on the sale. If your link is not cloaked, however, many things can go wrong.

First of all, many people who may be genuinely interested in the products or services you are affiliated with think they will get a better deal if they go to the site directly, instead of through you. The web address that they are given has your affiliate link attached to the end of it. These people deliberately remove it before proceeding to the site and your commission is lost.

Secondly, sophisticated hackers can use the information on your link to steal your commissions. The commission gets paid, but not to you. While hackers are usually trolling for high traffic affiliate sites and usually are savvy enough to steal only a portion of sales, even small enterprises are at risk.

Link cloaking substitutes a unique URL in place of the one you have been given and then redirects back to your affiliate link without revealing it to the user. By cloaking the link, you have accomplished a number of things.

First of all, the customer will not have the opportunity to remove your affiliate ID from the URL. Most customers don't do that anyway, so it's only a minor problem, but it has been entirely eliminated. Many other potential customers are put off by that strange looking link and it can cause them to grow suspicious and not purchase the product or service you are advertising. Your cloaked link gives you the legitimacy you deserve in their eyes.

More importantly, you have just made your affiliation hack-proof. Hackers need that affiliate ID before they can even begin to infiltrate your affiliate account.

As you can see, link cloaking has nothing to do with shady black hat marketing techniques. On the contrary, it is a legitimate tool you can use to protect yourself and enhance your online credibility. If you do not cloak your links, in fact, it makes you appear amateurish in the eyes of both your customers and the companies you are affiliated with.

Many internet marketers take it one step further and create an iframe page on their website. This is a page that looks exactly like the page that the customer will be directed to when they click on the link. In the eyes of the customer, this assures them that you have a direct and legitimate connection with the company.

If you are in doubt about cloaking links, contact the company you are affiliated with and ask them first. If it is against their policy, they will tell you and be grateful for your honesty. Usually, however, they will encourage it.

Learn more about how you can increase visits to your website and click-through traffic using link cloaking. When you use a conversion tracking system, you will be able to improve your marketing and advertising efforts and increase your thriving business.

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