Stealing affiliate sales has become the "silent" Internet
crime, stealing sales and products from the honest guy (or
gal) who is trying to grow an Internet business.
I did not think that this crime would affect me, until I
noticed that there were 3 times as many downloads of my
ebook than there were actual sales. That was a wakeup call
that I needed to correct the problem or risk losing
hundreds of dollars.
The problem was that within my purchase page HTML, the
download page URL that the purchaser would be directed to
was posted in the HTML script like a sitting duck, saying
"Why pay when you can download for free". From the HTML
text anyone could copy the download page URL into their
browser and download my product without making a purchase.
Well, this was not good news.
So, I quickly located a program that would mask my download
page URL. There are a number of these programs available
online, simply go to a search engine and type in "link
cloaker" or "affiliate link cloaker". The programs are
really very similar. You type in the URL that you want to
mask.
example:
http//www.myaffiliate.com?ID2345
and the program generates a cryptic single line of numbers
and letters, which you put into the HTML script to replace
the easy to read URL
example:
w.homemone&
#121;today.com"
target"blank"
The download page URL is now masked and much more difficult
for thieves to steal my product.
However, this does not work when posting an affiliate web
page URL to classified ads, sales letters or Solo Ads
(unless written in HTML, but not all email programs read
HTML text). The "masked" URL is extremely lengthy and could
easily turn off a reader and/or potential customer.
But, you can get around this hurdle by using a free URL
direct service like the one offered by Bravenet
(http//www.bravenet.com). You simply place your affiliate
web page URL into the service.
example affiliate ID link:
http//www.myaffiliate.com?ID2345
and it will generate a shorter URL redirect URL
example:
http//clik.to/affiliate
that you can publish in newsletters, classified ads, or
anywhere your affiliate web page URL would be seen publicly.
Your affiliate link is not visible, so no one can alter it.
When someone clicks on your short re-direct URL, your
affiliate web page will open in their browser.
The same can be achieved by creating an affiliate web page
on your server (if you have a website), recreate your
affiliate web page on your own web site by copying the HTML
from your affiliate web page
(example) http//www.myaffiliate.com?ID2345
to a page on your web site:
(example) http//www.mysite.com/affiliate.htm
When the surfer opens the web page on your web site, there
is your affiliate web page.
Be sure that you cloak the links on the recreated affiliate
page on your web site.
Both your affiliate linking URL and your affiliate ID are
masked from potential thieves.
The similar can be achieved, if you do not have your own
web site and you link directly to your affiliate supplied
web page. Go to the Bravenet Fast Redirect URL, enter the
URL of your affiliate supplied web page. Then use the
Bravenet redirect URL (which points to your affiliate
supplied web page) to post to classified, sales letters,
Solo Ads and newsletters, etc.
By masking your affiliate ID URL or links to your products
will detour possible thieves from stealing from YOU.
About the Author
Dustin Rhodes has written several Internet Home Business books
and publishes the weekly home business e-zine:
The Power Marketeer E-zine. For more information about Dustin
visit the web site: http://www.powermarketeer.com