The ABCs of Affiliate Marketing Success: Chapter 9
Previously
Chapter 1: Becoming an Affiliate Marketer
Chapter 5: Digital Product Promotions
Chapter 6: Enhancements to Earnings
Chapter 9: Hyperlink Tips
Here Are Some Hyperlink Tips for Affiliate Marketers.
Many affiliate marketers know how to get their link, but not how to necessarily use it properly. Some wonder if they should cloak their link. This is a gray area that may or may not be right for you.
In fact, there are some affiliate programs that will ban you if you cloak their link, so you want to make sure that you are abiding by whatever rules the program has set in place so that you don't lose your commissions and your entire account.
Cloaking a link is simply masking it so that the consumer is not able to see the exact destination that they are going to. It can also shorten the URL to make it less messy for the reader.
Some people cloak their link so that they can track different elements of the traffic they are sending and how it is converting. A lot of people cloak them so that it is branded, such as using their name/recommends/product as the format.
There are different tools that can allow you to cloak your link and add different tracking elements. Pretty Links and Tiny URL are two options, but there are others if you want to use them for your affiliate marketing campaigns.
Another thing you want to know about hyperlinks is using them with anchor text. Some people don’t realize that they don’t have cloak the link itself if they use it in anchor text instead.
For example, some people simply use a call to action like, “click here” but you can also use strategic sales lingo to send people to the offers you’re promoting. This includes wording like, “check availability,” or, “price compare here.”
You can also use the exact name of the product as your anchor text. Or you can use other wording, such as bestselling (product type) or other verbiage. Make sure that the platform you are promoting for allows you to use anchor text to send traffic to their offers.
Recent Comments
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Thanks for the clear explanation. I use anchor texts a lot. It does work to obscure, I don't use Pretty Links, but another kind, but both work the same way or TinyURL.
The thing I like about Pretty Links is that it turns your affiliate link into an internal link. But I don't bother cloaking my links any more. Just use anchor text or a button or a linked image.
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I do have a paranoid side to me (surprise, surprise) and when I see a tinyurl it can make me back away from clicking it. I like your ideas for good text in a link.
That's an interesting comment, Rosana. Yes, the question always flashes "Is this spam?"