Selecting the Best Link Cloaking Program for Your Affiliate Marketing
More often than not, you’re going to run into a situation (as an affiliate marketer) where a product or service you are selling is withdrawn or the website suddenly closes. If you’ve used a direct link to the product, service, or the website that’s not there anymore, you’ll be sending traffic to something that no longer exists causing you to lose credibility and ultimately commissions. When you have a link cloaking program installed, you can quickly correct the situation by changing the destination page.
If you have decided that link cloaking is one of the techniques that you want to employ in your internet affiliate marketing endeavor in order to be more profitable and protect your commissions at the same time, you’ve probably been shopping around for a program already. The problem is that there are dozens of these programs to be found on the internet. Suffice it to say, it can be challenging, even overwhelming. This is especially true if you’re not exactly sure what you are looking for. Here are 10 features and benefits to look for when shopping for a good link cloaking program.
First and foremost, the program needs to enable you to hide your affiliate links, buttons, etc., which prevents anybody from clicking through and signing up for affiliate programs themselves, and then buying from themselves later. This feature helps prevent link bypassing and link hijacking and is by far the most critical one in that it protects you against the loss of commissions which means that you will make more money.
Another valuable feature to look for is that it should remove HTTP headers so that Adware, Spyware and all the other forms of parasitic software that exist have no clue as to what sites you may be visiting while you’re browsing and surfing the internet. You won’t have to worry about all those “prying eyes” that have become so prevalent on the internet or about becoming a victim of identity theft and other threats to your privacy and online security.
The program will enable you to hide your Merchant Service Program, including its HTTP headers, so that you don’t fall prey to and get victimized by that same parasitic software that was mentioned in point #2. So as you can see, these first three features are all about protection and security.
The program should give you the capability of designing shorter, more professional looking links/URL’s that will entice more clicks and in turn, result in more sales and more commissions from all of your affiliate marketing efforts.
From an advertising standpoint, make sure the program enables you to create pop-ups and pop-unders so that you can actually promote an entirely new product, therefore creating the possibility of getting two sales from only one promotion. Increased sales equals increased commissions and that is one of the things you are trying to achieve by using a link cloaking program.
Ad tracking and link tracking are two critical components of internet marketing, especially when you’re involved with affiliate programs. Tracking features enable you to see necessary stats regarding all the clicks you’ve received at each affiliate program. This is a critical feature that the program should also have. This is need-to-know information. Not all of your links or marketing methods may bring you the best ROI. And if you don’t know which ones are effective and which ones aren’t, then chances are you’re losing money on some of your efforts.
Some of the features should include being able to track how many clicks you’ve received and where they are coming from. It should also let you know whether or not those clicks are unique (first time) or repeat visits. The better tracking features even show you what time of the day you received each one of your clicks as well as what period of the day had the most activity.
Where framed redirect methods of cloaking are concerned, there are no reliability issues when it comes to dropping affiliate cookies. The better programs give you ensure that your visitors are getting “cookied” and sent to your website each and every time. They also store their information which is useful with future promotions.
One of the features that I have always looked for is a step-by-step set-up wizard that has been simplified enough so that “non-techies” have no difficulties in getting started with the program. Additionally, there shouldn’t be any problems customizing the program to fit your individual needs. Since everyone is different, this is a key feature that enables the user a lot of flexibility.
Installing any new program should not be difficult or time consuming and have a built-in automatic installer. As I’ve always said, it needs to be simple enough to install that even a beginner can handle it.
The best program that I have found features a customizable 404 Error Page. What this feature does is that it allows you to monetize your 404 error page so that you can actually earn money off the page from someone who lands on it. If someone were to click on a link that no longer existed, the user would land on your customized 404 error page. It would then redirect them to a link or site where you could still earn money by selling them a different product or service.
In addition to these 10 features, I have also seen programs have a script which can be continually updated and upgraded to keep it current and usable for as long as you own it. Updates and/or upgrades enable you to stay in step with what is going on in the internet marketing arena, so a program that includes this feature is of great benefit to you and your affiliate marketing endeavor.
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