As an affiliate you have probably received an affiliate URL to your program that looks something like this:
http://www.youraffiliatecompany.com/cgi-bin/w.cgi?67487
To the consumer this link does not look very appealing. Also, your affiliate code is right there in the open for someone to remove and place in their own affiliate number effectively stealing your sales. This is very possible with popular affiliate programs like SFI or ClickBank. But with cloaking you can turn that ugly URL into something more appealing like:
http://www.thenameofyourchoice.com/widgets
The benefits to this more appealing affiliate URL are:
1. Your affiliate id is now cloaked and your commissions are protected
2. This URL looks much more clickable to the consumer thus increasing your click through rates
3. If your customer decided to bookmark this site they bookmark your domain address and not the affiliate company address increasing your chances of a repeat visit.
4. With your own URL you are able to tack where you are getting visitors easier than with the generic affiliate link.
So how do you create this affiliate cloaking URL?
Here is what you do:
1. Connect to your web server using your FTP client (or other file management program)
2. Create a directory that properly describes the product you are affiliated with. In this example lets say your product is called "The Best ebook Ever" so I would create a directory called "best-ebook-ever".
3. Create a single index.html (or index.htm) file. If you don't have HTML Notebook will work.
4. Edit the index file so that it contains this exact code:
To make your page and the affiliate page look identical I suggest you copy the affiliate page's title to see this just click on your affiliate link and copy the phrase on the top of your browser's window.
Don't forget to double check your affiliate URL it MUST be correct!
5. Place the index.html file in your new directory ("best-ebook-ever" in my example).
That's all it takes. Now your affiliate link is cloaked and you gain credibility in your consumers mind by having a much more professional looking link.
Now that you know how to cloak your affiliate URL go spend 10 minutes and protect your commissions before you lose another sale to a affiliate URL thief. Chris Stirling is the owner of stirls.com and his internet marketing website is designed to help other people achieve their goal of having their own work at home business. To recieve his free newsletter and several valuable bonuses click here
