What is the best way to put an affiliate link on youtube videos?

by RupamD
19 replies
Hello, this seems like a noob question but I would like to know what is the best practice for putting affiliate link on youtube videos? Is it okay if I just cloak the link? I have a subscription at clickmagick. Or do I have put the link to a landing page otherwise I will get banned? By the way, I will be using creative commons youtube videos to start with, maybe edit them a little bit.
#affiliate #link #put #videos #youtube
  • Profile picture of the author karlamoreniche
    You can add your affiliate link at the description area, ideally in the first one or two sentences because this is all that's shown initially and in the search results. You can use tools to shorten links as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author RupamD
      Originally Posted by karlamoreniche View Post

      You can add your affiliate link at the description area, ideally in the first one or two sentences because this is all that's shown initially and in the search results. You can use tools to shorten links as well.
      I don't think youtube will allow a naked affiliate link. Are you sure the video will not be taken down?
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  • Profile picture of the author VidasVegas
    "What is the best way to put affiliate link" sounds ???? You just cloak this aff link or make it shorter and then add to description box of youtube video.
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    • Profile picture of the author RupamD
      Originally Posted by VidasVegas View Post

      "What is the best way to put affiliate link" sounds ???? You just cloak this aff link or make it shorter and then add to description box of youtube video.
      Sorry I meant to say what is the safest way to add affiliate link so that youtube doesn't ban my videos.
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      • Profile picture of the author danieldesai
        Originally Posted by RupamD View Post

        Sorry I meant to say what is the safest way to add affiliate link so that youtube doesn't ban my videos.

        What I did (and still sometimes do, where relevant) is use a domain name and forward it to my affiliate link. More info on that here: https://www.namecheap.com/support/kn...t-for-a-domain

        The safest thing to do, however, is to build an email list from your YouTube traffic and then promote affiliate products to that list.

        There’s something else you need to know…

        Even if you do absolutely NOTHING wrong, you can still get your account shut down.

        See, YouTube officials don’t actually make that much of an active effort in looking for videos to ban, so YouTube has a flagging and reporting system instead.

        This allows regular folk (like you and I) to give YouTube feedback and report material that shouldn’t be allowed on the site.

        The problem is, this system is easily abused and innocent people are getting their accounts shut down.

        Ray Higdon had a channel with over 20,000 subscribers and millions of views, and it got shut down within a day of getting multiple flags:

        The Manipulation of YouTube #youtubefail - rayhigdon.com

        My Problem with Youtube and Why I'm Leaving

        Competition or people who just don’t like you can flag your videos and get your account shut down, and the worst part of it is, YouTube doesn’t care to review the actual flagging and see if it’s legitimate:



        My advice is simple; use YouTube but never RELY on it.

        Daniel
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  • Profile picture of the author entrepreneurjay
    I would send your leads to a blog post which will have an affiliate link to the product that you are promoting.

    Try to capture the lead first I would send your youtube leads to a squeeze page and then sell them later.

    This builds repeat business and a long term business strategy instead of one off affiliates sales where the vendor builds the buyers list.

    Get the lead, make the sale, and build your business.

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author 199domain
    "My advice is simple; use YouTube but never RELY on it."
    Yes, I totally agree with this statement. Use it and don't just depend on it.

    One the best ways to promo on YouTube is to borrow people hands. Buy few Gigs to promo your YouTube, so, you don't even need to create a YouTube account.

    Although no more engagement from your end, however, your videos still inside YouTube channel everywhere.

    Back to topic: Any affiliate link won't matter. Go to WordPress, add "pretty link plugin" to add your affiliate link.

    Easy life!
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  • Profile picture of the author fredi
    It depends on what product you're promoting.

    Unlike television advertising, YouTube video could reach more non-targeted audiences and luckily these traffic cost you nothing.
    YouTube is a passively social network. The best way to utilize it is to cling to the right strategy. I don't recommend to simply redirect traffic to your unique links - that won't be effective. Be patient, my suggestion, to build some reputation there. When you have a good volume of followers, it's your time to spin it to your usage. Your followers will help you spread your content, to maximize your efforts
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    Do you want to get access to a simple method that will allow you to earn First Affiliate Commission ?Get the exact step-by-step method designed to transform you into a super affiliate!

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  • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
    I think the best way to do it is to link from your YouTube video to a blog post and have an opt-in form at the bottom of your blog post. I have heard lots of complaints recently that YouTube has been ripping down videos lately that link directly to sales pages and squeeze pages, even if those pages are not affiliate links but belong to the person who posted the video.

    You have to understand that YouTube is Google, and Google is only concerned with the "user experience." They could care less if you want to use them to get traffic and they could care even less if you want to try and make money using their services. In fact, they HATE when people use them to make money UNLESS they are taking a cut if the profits.

    The safest thing to do is to put a link to your blog post in the video description, or you can even link your YouTube account with your blog's domain and that will allow you to put annotations in the video that link out to your blog as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author kazimuhith
    It is better not to use direct links to affiliate offers. Redirect to a simple blog page and then direct visitors to the affiliate offer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mattj84
    Hey!

    So you should definitely put the link in the description area...just be sure to start with http://....that makes it so the link is clickable. Also, make sure that the url is the first thing you put in the description so it's the first thing people see when they go to your video.

    Also, you can use annotations to put the link IN the video as well!

    I hope that helps and best of luck to you!
    Signature

    Moderator's Note: Affiliate sig not allowed. Please edit.

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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    Originally Posted by RupamD View Post

    Hello, this seems like a noob question but I would like to know what is the best practice for putting affiliate link on youtube videos? Is it okay if I just cloak the link? I have a subscription at clickmagick. Or do I have put the link to a landing page otherwise I will get banned? By the way, I will be using creative commons youtube videos to start with, maybe edit them a little bit.
    Get your own domain and use a redirect (.htaccess, php)
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  • Profile picture of the author rashedpwd
    Very good & important discussion. It would better to use the link in the description area. Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
    If you associate your YT channels with your website, you can add clickable links directly in your videos using annotations and cards. However, it is against YT's TOS to use redirects "across domains" when using links in annotations.


    People are watching your video. Have links to your site in annotations and cards. It's much MUCH better to tell people to "click here" where their attention is than to tell them to look away and "click down there in my description".


    Anyone serious about YT marketing will put in the time and effort to learn about annotations and cards and learn how to verify their own domains. IMO, if you aren't willing to do this, find another way to market.


    I'm not sure what YT's policy is for links in descriptions and whether it's OK to use redirects or not. Either way, I don't like direct linking to affiliate programs. Instead, send folks to a landing page on your site that presells, tries to capture an email address and has a retargeting pixel.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    In the description.
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    All The Real Marketers Are Gone. There's Nothing Left But Weak, Sniveling Wanna-Bees!
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  • Profile picture of the author Edwin Torres
    In the description and if you use a service like PrettyLinks you can add your website to YouYube as an associated website and link them to your affiliate link with an annotation aswell.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kurt
      Originally Posted by Edwin Torres View Post

      In the description and if you use a service like PrettyLinks you can add your website to YouYube as an associated website and link them to your affiliate link with an annotation aswell.
      I'm not sure if you're saying to use links in annotations and then redirect them to affiliate pages or not. This is against Youtube's terms. I'm not telling you not to do it, but I think that people reading this should know the risks and I pointed out the issue with using redirect links in my post just above.


      https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2887282?hl=en
      Don't use annotations or cards to further redirect to unauthorized sites from your associated website. Make sure that your associated websites comply with our Community Guidelines, Terms of Service, and other policies for this feature. Violations can result in your videos being removed, strikes against your account, and/or termination of your YouTube account. Refer to YouTube’s policies for more information.
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      Discover the fastest and easiest ways to create your own valuable products.
      Tons of FREE Public Domain content you can use to make your own content, PLR, digital and POD products.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    use bitly or redirect domains

    the second is far more professional. I think.

    Just my 02 cents.
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  • Profile picture of the author bassem
    Just use tools to shorten links , that's all i do .
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