Just the other day I read a blog post on a fitness blog. The title was interesting and the article itself was decent. But at the end, there was a blatant hoplink (affiliate link) to a ClickBank product.
Now, I’m not against affiliate links. I promote affiliate products often here on my blog.
What I am against are blatant “raw” affiliate links, especially when they point to a ClickBank product.
You see, ClickBank doesn’t have any rules against using your own affiliate link to buy CB products. You can basically give yourself the commission on any personal purchase — which usually amounts to a 50% to 75% discount on the product.
I know people do this because I’ve seen obvious examples of it in my own ClickBank account.
And so I wonder: How much commission is a person losing by blatantly pitching a ClickBank product — and then posting a raw hoplink for people to click on?
Probably more than he or she thinks.
Just like you wouldn’t go fishing without concealing the hook, so you shouldn’t promote affiliate products without concealing the link.
I don’t mean that you should try to hide the fact that you’ll get a commission, but rather that you should make the link more attractive to click and more difficult to circumvent.
To conceal your affiliate links, I strongly recommend LinkTrackr. I’ve been using it about a year now, and I love it. My affiliate commissions began going up the same month I started using it.
This is one affiliate marketing tool that gets my highest recommendation.
If you’re interested, you can read my review of LinkTrackr here. (Note: The free version is no longer available. I’m still using the Basic version, which is $9 a month.)
-Ryan M. Healy
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About Ryan M. Healy
Ryan Healy is a direct response copywriter. Since 2002, he has worked with scores of clients, including BoostCTR, Alex Mandossian, Terry Dean, and Pulte Homes. He writes a popular blog about copywriting, advertising, and business growth, has been featured in publications like Feed Front magazine, and is a regular contributor to WordStream.com, BoostCTR.com, and MarketingForSuccess.com.
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{ 2 comments }
Cloaking the affiliate links is a great way to save commissions. People buying products through their own affiliate links is a problem in the internet marketing niche. It is not a big problem in other niches because people don’t know about Clickbank or affiliate marketing :)
Nikhil recently posted..Hostgator Coupon Codes 2012 – Try Hostgator for a Penny
Nikhil – You said, “It is not a big problem in other niches because people don’t know about Clickbank or affiliate marketing”
I generally agree with that statement, but I’ve noticed that markets become sophisticated fairly quickly. When I started using LinkTrackr in a B2C market, my commissions went up.
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