Link Cloaking Importance?

by Rashida Qureshi

Posted: 4 years ago 11 replies

BEGINNERS AREA

Hi everyone!

I'm new to this platform and I'm trying to start off with affiliate marketing.

In my email content, I plan on including the odd affiliate link. I read that it is important to cloak the affiliate links to avoid an email going into spam or the promotion folder. However, my budget is limited and I've seen that link cloaking can be quite expensive.

Would anyone be able to tell me how important is it to cloak these affiliate links and is there any alternatives?

Thanks a lot!

#cloaking #importance #link

culpetm 4 years ago

This tutorial will show you how to do this for free using .htaccess (assuming you have your own domain and self-hosted website).

https://crunchify.com/what-is-affili...dpress-plugin/

And this tool will help you test your emails to see how "spammy" they are.

https://www.mail-tester.com/

Note: I have no affiliation with either of those resources.
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- Rashida Qureshi 4 years ago
  
  Thank you so much! Super helpful and exactly what I needed
  
  Thanks
  
  Reply
  
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  culpetm 4 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Rashida Qureshi
  
  Thank you so much! Super helpful and exactly what I needed
  
  Happy to help!
  
  [ 1 ] Thanks
  
  Reply
  
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ChrisBa 4 years ago

Just to make sure I am understanding. Cloaking links can mean a few different things, are you looking to use a HTML/php/.htaccess redirect to hide the fact it's an external link or are you looking to hide the referrer? Or something else completely?

Also, why do you want to do this? If we can better understand the why behind it, we can give better feedback.
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- Rashida Qureshi 4 years ago
  
  I've just started with email marketing and I've read that external links in emails tend to end up in the spam folder, which is exactly what I'm avoiding! I wanted to cloak affiliate links to hide that they are external links.
  
  Thanks
  
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- Rashida Qureshi 4 years ago
  
  I'm using it to hide the fact that it is an external link. I've just started with email marketing and read that affiliate links in emails can often send them straight into the spam folder, which is exactly what I'm trying to avoid!
  
  Thanks
  
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SiteNameSales 4 years ago

If lack of money is the issue than do a search for 'free link cloakers.' There are plenty. Some services will allow you to use a custom domain as well.
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SiteNameSales 4 years ago

Have you done any experimenting with this? Send some emails with affiliate links to family and friends and see the results. If it were true for everyone than almost every marketer I know would be sidelined permanently. It most likely concerns those who send out so many emails that they are considered a nuisance.

Additionally, it would be rare indeed to not have some of you messages end up in somebody's spam folder and an affiliate link would have nothing to do with it. That's just part of any business messaging program.

It's great to keep learning about affiliate marketing. But I'd take everything I read with a grain of salt.
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- Rashida Qureshi 4 years ago
  
  Yes I was sending these emails to a few people I know and only some emails went into spam.
  
  Instead of using clocking the links, I used buttons in the emails and that seemed to do the job.
  
  Good to know, I'll keep that it mind! Thanks a lot!
  
  Thanks
  
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abbe77 4 years ago

Why don't you use Pretty Links wordpress plugin?
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- Rashida Qureshi 4 years ago
  
  I want to cloak links within my email content and not on my website! Either way, I'll have a look at the plugin
  
  Thanks
  
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Link Cloaking Importance?

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