12 replies
Hey guys this is my first post. May I ask, when submitting articles should I put my affiliate website url or my clickbank affiliate link directly cloaked by tiny.cc ?

Thanks.
#question
  • Profile picture of the author Adrian Int
    Hello thedeadend,

    You can use either. Cloaking is a good idea, generally, but be careful with the URL shortening services.

    Many of them reveal link stats publicly, and depending on your audience some of those services may actually reduce the click throughs.

    Cheers,
    -Adrian
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    ATTENTION: Improve your list building. Free report and mp3
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  • Profile picture of the author JasonWestwick
    If you are looking to direct link you can simply purchase a .info domain for $0.99 and then set up a redirect in your Cpanel straight to the offer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by thedeadend View Post

    when submitting articles should I put my affiliate website url
    Yes - always your website rather than your hoplink! You need the traffic to visit that first, so that you can (a) have a chance of doing the necessary pre-selling before anyone visits a ClickBank sales page, and (b) to build your list, without which ClickBank sales (apart from maybe the very occasional semi-random one) can hardly be made at all.

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5210243 <---- "key concepts"

    Also, sending traffic to your own url keeps you in control, when things change or go wrong. Your articles will lose all their value if that product disappears, or turns out not to be appropriate, or its sales-page changes, if you've sent traffic to a hoplink. As a general rule of thumb, it's not a good idea to put your affiliate-links on sites you don't own or control yourself - it's just a way of ending up being dependent on other people, and of having accidents.

    Also, some article directories (understandably) won't accept ClickBank hoplinks, anyway, whether they're cloaked or not.

    Originally Posted by thedeadend View Post

    or my clickbank affiliate link directly cloaked by tiny.cc ?
    This isn't a safe or appropriate cloaking method, for all the reasons explained in many threads like this one, this one, this one, and so on. Much better to use something like "Prettylink" or just a redirected .info domain-name for the purpose, and avoid all the risks. Many potential customers will be unwilling to click on a "tiny.cc" link, anyway, and it's a good way to lose people. But all of that comes after getting the traffic to your own site, of course.

    Don't forget to post the articles on your own site first, before submitting them to any article directories: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5068872 <----- this post will help you, I think.
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  • Profile picture of the author thedeadend
    thanks guys Will get .info domains for my hop links, I wont put my main web because i really dont care about list building, and backlinks etc, i have article marketing robot and autoplilto commision software so directly to the offer is better + the sales pages are better then my website
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by thedeadend View Post

      i really dont care about list building
      Then ClickBank is perhaps really not for you? Have a look at all the threads here on subjects like "What's the one thing you'd do differently if you were starting again?" There are plenty of them. They're full of posts from experienced, successful Warriors explaining all their shared reasons why "Starting to build a list right at the beginning" would be the single most productive, most important and most helpful thing they could possibly do, given everything they've learned. There are reasons for that. Failure to start off by building a list is one of the biggest and most significant mistakes you can make, in this context.

      Originally Posted by thedeadend View Post

      the sales pages are better then my website
      One would hope - better or not - that the vendors' sales pages serve a totally different purpose from your own website. This is about the difference between selling and pre-selling: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5210243
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    The problem with direct linking is that you turn every visitor/reader into a one-shot deal.

    They either click through or they don't. If they don't, they are gone forever.

    Once they do click through, they either buy or they don't. No real second chance. You could rely on the cookie, but you are totally at the whim of the prospect with no way to influence their decision. The cookie itself isn't all that reliable, either. Too many ways to either lose it or have it overwritten.

    Contrast that with sending people to an affiliate site with an attractive opt-in offer for a list. Over the next days, weeks, sometimes months, you get the chance to build a case for that product and additional products after that. Each email, containing your affiliate link, start the meter running again.

    You still have to get the click and the buy, but every email they read is a new chance to do that. Not the 'one and done' you get with direct linking.

    I don't do a lot with Clickbank anymore, but I do agree that cloaking your links can be a good idea. Especially if you are promoting IM type products where many of your customers have CB accounts of their own and no second thoughts about trading your user ID for theirs to get a back door discount.

    I don't like the idea of using public services. Not only are the stats public in many cases, but the services themselves do go out of business. When that happens, all of your article links are effectively dead.

    Better to buy a short, generic domain and use it for redirects you control. If you decide to promote a different product, you can simply change the destination of the redirect.
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    • Profile picture of the author thedeadend
      Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

      You could rely on the cookie, but you are totally at the whim of the prospect with no way to influence their decision. The cookie itself isn't all that reliable, either. Too many ways to either lose it or have it overwritten.
      What do you mean, what is the cookie?
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by thedeadend View Post

        What do you mean, what is the cookie?
        You really are a newbie, aren't you? No worries, we were all there once.

        A cookie is a line of computer code that a site - a ClickBank sales page in this instance - plants on the computer of someone who visits the page. The cookie can be blocked, but most people don't bother.

        In CB's case, the cookie contains the date of the visit and the affiliate ID embedded in the hoplink.

        This cookie serves two purposes.

        First, the checkout page will look for the cookie and insert the appropriate ID for crediting commissions. There's a small line of print at the bottom of that reads something like "Affiliate ID =" and either the affiliate's ID or the word 'none'. If it reads 'none', the vendor pays no affiliate commission.

        Second, if the visitor leaves the sales page without buying and returns at a later date, the sales page will check for a cookie. If it finds one, it will check whether the cookie has expired or not, and read the affiliate ID if one exists. If that returning visitor makes a purchase, the affiliate whose ID is in the cookie will get credit for the sale.

        From the affiliate's point of view, several things can go wrong, causing the affiliate to lose out on commissions.

        > The person can clear, or erase, all cookies on their computer.

        > They can revisit the sales page from a different computer, one without the cookie on it. I believe the most common instance of this is people using the web from work and then making the purchase from home.

        > The person can visit another affiliate's page. This will over-write the cookie on their computer with the more recent affiliate's ID.

        > In less common instances, the vendor can over-write the cookie with their own ID, either through ignorance, carelessness or outright commission theft. Usually this happens when the vendor offers an opt-in list of their own.

        Any of those can cause you, the hard-working affiliate, to lose your commission.

        By having that prospect on your own follow-up list, you have additional chances of re-establishing that tracking cookie so that you get the commission that you've earned.
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  • Profile picture of the author Eutaw
    Yeah no hop links best to use a cheap domain or tiny url the domain name looks more professional and should get more clicks.
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  • Profile picture of the author thedeadend
    BTW, I am a newbie. Can someone recommend a WSO that will really help me?
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  • Profile picture of the author pizzatherapy
    Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't using an affiliate link against the TOS of Article directories such as e-zine articles?

    Even if you are using a redirect, isn't that considered using an affiliate link?

    And of course Alexa nails it:
    "Starting to build a list right at the beginning" would be the single most productive, most important and most helpful thing they could possibly do, given everything they've learned. There are reasons for that. Failure to start off by building a list is one of the biggest and most significant mistakes you can make, in this context.
    I try to send all of my article links to a squeeze page...or at least to my site which has a sign up form on the page...

    This seems to make the most sense...you want to send visitors to your site first...you want to work on building a list...then you can sell to them again and again...
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by pizzatherapy View Post

      Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't using an affiliate link against the TOS of Article directories such as e-zine articles?
      Well, yes ... it's against the TOS of some of them, anyway.

      Originally Posted by pizzatherapy View Post

      Even if you are using a redirect, isn't that considered using an affiliate link?
      Yes and no ... at EZA, for example, it is an affiliate-link if you just mask it with a url-shortener/concealer, but it isn't (necessarily) if you use a TLD which you own as a redirect. :rolleyes:

      Then again, what EZA will typically do with that (a TLD redirected) is "let it through" if they like the article, but if they think it's all a bit old-hat and not very original and looks like 30 other articles already in their database, then they'll decline it on the grounds that the site you've linked to "doesn't contain adequately informative content for our readers", i.e. it's a sales page!

      ("It's worse than that, Jim - he's dead"!).

      Other directories have their own policies, again not always consistently applied. :p

      But the bottom line here, as we obviously agree, is that doing this is, in any case, a pretty ill-advised way of trying to make sales. :p
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