So I guest blogged at Shoemoney. So I included an Affiliate link (with written consent from the Shoe himself). So they complained, they flamed, they did it all. They even suggested people’s social status should be set based upon how much whoring they do on people’s comments. Last time I checked, typing “I agree” and “great post” 30 times a month, day in, day out, meant you were unemployed, as opposed to president of the United States. Go figure.

Then you’ve got some great guys, who’re leaving constructive criticsm, something I appreciate. They’re telling me where I went wrong and how I can improve it. Constantly Peter from The Common Sense Marketer is leaving helpful, insightful comments on my posts - helping me improve. Next eBiz Guy approached the whole situation cooly and explained maybe how I could change next-time and gave me advice on dealing with the flames and ‘critics’.

There’s always the minority who refuse to believe… “I don’t believe that this author is 13. If whoever wrote this can come up with all of this stuff about link cloaking, then they could probably come up with the thought that others would think it was neat that a 13 year old kid knows it. It’s a good marketing strategy because you get an instant wow effect coupled with “it’s so easy a kid can do it”, plus it makes the rest of us feel dumb. I think it’s annoying.” But I presume anyone reading this blog has seen the proof for themselves… If not, just comment and I’ll get back to you.

And then there’s the people wondering why Shoe is letting a “13y old **** up his blog” which simply isn’t helping the situation. If they read the post - listened to the two key words ‘GUEST’ and ‘BLOGGING’, then maybe it’d help. Or am I just having too high expectations of people… Hoping they’ll actually read as opposed to flame? It’s people going round calling me a punk, claiming I’m a serial e-mail spammer (what the hell?) and claiming my sole purpose in life is to deceive others. All-in-all, I was pretty shocked. Check out the post for yourself and feel free to comment here, or at Shoe’s blog where I originally posted the article. (Apologies to readers who have already seen this post!)
—— Link Cloaking - The Why, The Where, The How ——

Link cloaking, or plain old affiliate link redirection. You might have heard the buzz about how you can ‘increase your sales by up to 400%’ or something equally ridiculous, but what can link cloaking actually do for you as an affiliate?

Imagine the situation. You’re a complete Internet newbie who’s been searching away for some time, trying to find a viable way to earn money online. All of a sudden, this fantastic opportunity pops along (courtesy of you, the affiliate). You’re about to click through to check out the product, when all of a sudden you see an affiliate link, something the stupid ‘Internet 4 Idiots’ book (or whatever they’re calling their silly little franchise now) earned you NEVER to click on. The end user, or Internet newbie, having seen a blatant affiliate link, and now in the knowledge that there’s a chance you’re only promoting a product for it’s excellent commissions is in serious doubt whether to buy or not.

Except the problem is bigger. If the newbies know, then chances are the more ‘advanced’ people up the Internet food chain will know too. Infact, everyone on the Internet who knows what an affiliate link is will immediately have second thoughts about your trustworthyness. The product could be world class, your presell could be so fantastically convincing, that Bill Gates would drop backwards off a Christmas tree on reading it. But at the end of the day? If they don’t buy… If they have second thoughts… If they doubt your opinion and your integrity… Then you will NEVER make a sale online.

Long 30-character affiliate URLs in themselves are quite naturally not the prettiest things in the world, either. If you can disguise your links by making them a simple short snippet such as…

http://www.affiliatedefined.com/recommends/djk.html

as opposed to…

http://zimedia.dayjobkill.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=shoe123

…then you’ll find yourself in a better position when dropping links around forums and such, as well as when targeting a general audience as your affiliate link will now be in the most part hidden. The real advantage of using cloaked links though? The bit that will actually save you money in the long run? All the nasty affiliate snipers out there (people who save money on purchases by switching your affiliate ID with their own) will be in the most part stumped. If they were desperate, even with a cloaked link, they could view your source code, but if you use fancy encryption techniques such as the ones at the heart of Ninja Link Cloaker (a product from Matt Haslem whom which I personally use), then you’ll be covered by all manner of fancy MD5 code encryption and super-fast execution script implementation. Complicated stuff, eh?

I’ve explained to you the ‘why’ and shown you the ‘where’ (when promoting products), but the real bit that stumps most people is the plain and simple ‘how’.

How can you create a cloaked affiliate link? How can you protect your earnings? How can you make a link redirect? There are hundreds of options out there, but I’ll narrow it down to my favourite, top-performing three.

The TinyURL re-direct. Free, though less effective than the options to come, it has no server demands and is externally hosted on TinyURL.com.

The PHP re-direct. Free and effective, though it requires your own server to upload said PHP file to.

The Ninja Cloaking method. Super-advanced, ninja-style, uber-sleek protection and cloaking.

TinyURL. It’s free. It’s quick. It perhaps doesn’t give the world’s best impression either, but all the same. It gets the job done nicely and there’s not much more to say. You simply go to the TinyURL website, pick a link to re-direct to and wham. Link is done and live on the TinyURL server. Just point your links that way and re-direction is instant. You can start cloaking right away at TinyURL.com.

PHP Re-direction has obvious advantages over TinyURL. If you make a typo and have already published a TinyURL link on your blog, there’s no much you can do in the way of changing where the TinyURL points. With PHP on your own server, you have full control over where your links go and what they do. A PHP re-direct isn’t powerful, but it is effective and for a novice affiliate marketer I’d highly recommend it. You can learn how to create a PHP re-direct at the About.com website.

Ninja Link Cloaking. I’ve already mentioned how I prefer to use Ninja Link Cloaker for many reasons. The sheer power in the software is remarkable. It runs straight from your desktop and boots up at the click of a button. On startup, you’re presented with two options. Do you want a ‘normal link cloak’ (basically an affiliate link in a full-page iFrame as permitted by most major affiliate networks) or a Ninja Link Cloaker special ‘ninja’ link? The ninja link has all the fancy encryption methods in place, coupled with fancy (yet ‘usually’ permitted) cookie dropping tactics, goes in for the big double-whammy.

I use link-cloaking all the time when Affiliate Marketing. On my blog, in e-mail campaigns, on forums, everywhere… Without them I’d be losing a serious chunk of my online profits and you believe me - I wouldn’t be the happiest ‘little’ kid on earth.