Clickbank Affiliate Shortened Links Blacklisted By Bitly

by Tony Marriott

Posted: 13 years ago 21 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Hi Guys,

Surprised I haven't seen this already on the forum but a search drew blank.

I noticed that any Clickbank hop links that have been shortened by Bitly now flash up a warning page that generally intimates that the site you are heading to is bad news.

I know url shorteners are not the best way to cloak links but many send links to twitter and the like done like this.

The point here is, if you have shortened clickbank hoplinks for any reason then the will not be working and worse they flag up a warning message that may reflect on you.

This has been happening for a couple of days and I contacted bitly who stated:

"Thanks for inquiring about your Clickbank url. Bitly takes the security and the trustworthiness of our links very seriously. We're working with Clickbank security to help them resolve a spam attack utilizing their service, and when they have resolved the problem we'll reevaluate the block. In the meantime, you can contact abuse@clickbank.com with any issues"

So the issue is real. I also checked the new Google URL shortener and that does the same, I suspect others may also. So now is a good time to change the way you cloak your links if you are still using URL shorteners.

A quick search on Warriors found this

http://www.warriorforum.com/plug-pro...ng-domain.html

just a heads up

#affiliate #bitly #blacklisted #clickbank #links #shortened

WholesalerJoe 13 years ago

Your better off making landing pages and not using a shortner as these services are blocking clickbank more and more
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- myob 13 years ago
  
  It has never been advisable to use shortener services for affiliate links.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  John Hocking 13 years ago
  
  You can use scripts like Super Affiliate LINK MANAGER from your own site to quickly make friendly urls from sites you control to mask the hoplink urls.
  
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Murt@gh 13 years ago

Good think I use my own redirects, they are easy to do and you know that pretty much no problems can occur once it is set up and on your server
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Chri5123 13 years ago

Yep, saw this as well - all people using bit.ly with Youtube change your links lol
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- 1 reply
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- William Steven Wells 13 years ago
  
  Well I'll Be
  
  This is just one of several methods of protecting affiliate links that I have learned. I guess I'll take this one out of my tool bag and chuck it into the dung heap.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Alexa Smith Banned 13 years ago
  
  This recent post on Ben Metcalfe's blog may be of interest: The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe | :Ben Metcalfe Blog.
  
  Really, it's good to be in control of your own business and not dependent on unnecessary third-party services and their reliability and longevity.
  
  [ 1 ] Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  k0nfident 13 years ago
  
  I just wanted to say that I successfully found another URL shortener service on ow.ly!
  
  Enjoy
  
  Thanks
  
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bestrevenueshare 13 years ago

Yeah, I did not know that, but it is really not a good news, because I promote my hop links through twitter. But so many url shortener out there, so we need not to worry.
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- 1 reply
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- shaunyb1 13 years ago
  
  I just checked out a bit.ly link on twitter from one of my followers. That link is working fine now, and doesnt seem affected - maybe it was temporary?
  
  Thanks
  
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wfstin 13 years ago

Honestly, I'm not all that surprised. It seems like the general web is tired of all the junk and hype on clickbank and is washing it's hands of it. Which probably explains why clickbank has been taking a more proactive approach.
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immarket 12 years ago

I just tried bit, google, and tiny they all are blocking clickbank. So I use one that is totally free and also brands me. Also I don't promote just any clickbank product I do my research to make sure the product is real and works. You can get it by contacting me
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riken 11 years ago

There is a way to shorten the links with bit.ly and don't get banned, it is double shorten, first go to tinyurl, shorten your link, take the new link and then shorten it in bit.ly, this little trick is very usefull for many things!

hope this is usefull for you guys!
- Thanks
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ocaswiz 11 years ago

I noticed this problem before. It is advisable to use your own url shorterner but in case you want to use a free service, tinyurl.com will be your choice. I used this one too without a problem
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albertfox985 11 years ago

Hmmm... I don't think shortened links are needed. I might shorten my landing pages links but definitely NOT my affiliate links. I prefer to use the encrypted version of the Clickbank affiliate links so it would be harder to hack my links by just changing my affiliate ID with theirs. :p
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icoachu 11 years ago

This is a step in the right direction. If you're going to redirect, use your own domains. Besides, using a bit.ly link allows people to REVERSE ENGINEER your traffic sources. I do that all the time
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OnlineAddict 11 years ago

Anyone using URL shorteners on affiliate links or any links could as well throw money into the toilet. How long does it take to set up a link re-direct on your domain? 30 secons with the FTP upload? And its there to stay! Why some people risk so much is beyond me.
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Troy_Phillips 11 years ago

It doesn't look like anyone uses a 307 redirect anymore. Well .. besides me. This also gives you tracking options through awstats.
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- kindsvater 11 years ago
  
  I do not understand why anyone would use a third party link shortening service. Certainly not one with a Libya domain.
  
  Use your own domain for redirects so you have more control over links, what they look like, changing them on a whim, etc., without being dependent on someone else.
  
  .
  
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mikeye 11 years ago

I've now started using my own link shortener from yourls.org (free) and don't need to worried about this problem any more. Too many affiliate links are banned by bit.ly or other free link shorteners.
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GarrieWilson 11 years ago

This thread is from a year ago.
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