Credit Affiliate Programs
So, you have worked very hard to build a fabulous Affiliate Site. You took the time to add keywords and relevant information about the products. Your pages load quickly and your site is listed in search engines for specified terms. You look at your stats and you see a regular flow of traffic coming into your site. You get really excited! You log into your affiliate program manager, and …. WHAMO! You have very few sales commissions, and your click-throughs are extremely low. Suddenly, you're wondering, "What the hell happened here?" The answer … You can eventually a victim of hijacking affiliate link!
In this rotating world of the Internet, we are constantly being bombarded by spam, spyware, viruses, and hackers. Now we have to worry about link hijackers stealing commissions that are rightfully ours. So what is link hijacking and how to prevent?
In simplest terms, link hijacking occurs when someone replaces your affiliate ID with yours. The result? They get the commission instead of you. You did all this work, but someone is being paid? Yes! You may be wondering how this happens.
Let me explain. I first heard about this phenomenon while visiting various discussion forums on affiliate marketing. Many affiliates had experienced a decline in sales, while statistics of your website traffic remained high. Discussion common found in affiliate forums include several software programs that "steal" information. Many of these programs transfer to the computer of a person, either consciously or unconsciously. These programs can override your affiliate links each time the customer visits your site, so give credit to someone.
Many times, people download software packages that contain these types of software. The innocent surfer may not even realize they have a program running in the background. Anyone who participates in the Internet community, whether a webmaster or a surfer, should stay informed about these programs, visiting parasiteware.com on a regular basis.
Link kidnapping comes in many forms … not just downloads. Let's say your affiliate link like this: http://www.url.com/?123456 , Where 123456 is your affiliate ID. A link hijacker is interested in the product and want to buy it. He also wants the affiliate commission product. He takes your ID 123456 and replace it with your ID 999,999 to look like this: http://www.url.com/?999999. The result? He receives a commission of purchase. He modified the link to their own advantage. You lose.
Here is another example of kidnapping link: A customer comes to your site and see a link to the product you want to buy. When he moves the mouse over the link information, he sees your affiliate URL in the status bar your computer. Instead of clicking on your affiliate link, he decides to manually type in your address bar, leaving out the reference code of the branch: rel = "nofollow" href = "http://www.url.com"> http://www.url.com. This results in no affiliate tracking information and no commissions for you. You lose again!
So how much money you could be losing? I read that an estimated 10-30% of commissions are lost due to sequestration the affiliate link. (In a recent article in "revenue" magazine, the estimate was as high as 40-50%). You can imagine the kind of revenue potential you may be losing now?
Act for Protecting against loss of revenue
In constant search of new scripts and programs to improve my site, I have run into several affiliate cloaking devices. Most of them cost about $ 50 or more. However, I did run into one cloaking script, which is free. Is called Affiliate Link Cloaker (ALC). The site owner simply asks that you subscribe to your newsletter.
Heck, I love free stuff, not is! If you're interested in learning about this script and how it works, you can visit their website at webmasterinabox.net / affiliate_link_cloaker.html. They have other scripts that you may find useful as well. Now, get out there and protect those links!
Stephani Richardson is a work at home mother of 4 who has been actively involved with affiliate marketing and home business opportunities since December 1999. She owns and operates several business related websites including 1 Work At Home Dot Com.
Credit Card Affiliate Marketing – Easy Way To Make Money – Top Credit Cards, High Commission
