Affiliate marketing is good. Affiliate links are not so good. Some of them are long and ugly. Some of them are too easy to hijack. So I did what I thought would be a good solution. I used a free software application that would take an affiliate link and convert it into a shorter, neater looking link.
A few months ago, I decided to use redirect pages instead. I decided to do that so I could use my web stats to see how much traffic each link was getting.
Today, I found out, quite by accident, that all of the links that I shortened using the software application didn’t work anymore. Even though I had started using redirect pages, I still had web pages and articles with the altered affiliate links.
I had to spend the time to go through my sites and update all of the dead links. I’m now convinced that I will never again rely on another site or software application to create cloaked links.
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t use link cloaking/shrinking sites or software. It’s a good solution if you don’t have a web site. But it could be a real problem if you are using these links in your autoresponder messages, or if you have created a special report or software that you give away to promote affiliate products.
You can fix your web site and autoresponder messages. But if you have reports or software that you gave away to market a product, you’re out of luck if the link changes.
If you already use redirect pages, if an affiliate link changes, or if you decide to promote a different but related product, all you have to do is edit the redirect page. Your links will still work, and they will go where you want them to.
If you’re interested in using redirect pages, there are several free resources available online. You can find the code you need to create your redirect pages. You can find out what redirect pages are and how to use them.
If you do decide to use the link cloaking/shrinking method, just make sure you test your links on a regular basis. I didn’t, and I have no way of knowing how much money I lost, and I don’t want it to happen to you.
