Considering how much time and effort you’ve put into your affiliate marketing efforts, what have you done to protect your hard work?

For example, take into account the following URLs. Be honest, which one would you click on?

http://www.dog-trainers-guide.com/?affiliate_id=joeblow
or
http://www.dog-trainers-guide.com

Affiliate links are easily recognizable by many people, which may cause them to avoid clicking the link because they don’t want to be ‘sold’ or ‘tricked’ into anything.

Another issue is link hijacking. Affiliate link hijacking is an unethical practice where someone replacing his your affiliate ID with theirs, stealing your commissions.

Cloaking your affiliate links will help prevent link hijacking, link bypassing, and encourages your visitors into clicking your affiliate links. Affiliate link cloaking has become an indispensable part of affiliate marketing and is one of the best ways to protect your affiliate sales, conversions, and commissions

If you don’t cloak your affiliate links, you are opening yourself to being robbed and losing your hard earned commissions.

There are many ways to cloak your affiliate links. Here are a few ideas:

1. URL Redirecting Services

Tiny URL and Short URL – Both of these services can shorten and hide an affiliate link. For example:

http://dog-trainer.com/?affiliate=joeblow
would look like this
http://tinyurl.com/2jgn6v

2. Using Subdomains
If you own your own domain and web hosting that allows you an ‘X’ amount of subdomains, you can redirect using a subdomains. So, instead of this:

http://dog-trainer.com/?affiliate=joeblow
would look like this
http://training-dogs.my-website-url.com

For more information on subdomains and how to redirect your subdomains, check with your web host provider.

3. WordPress Plug-In
If you are using a WordPress blog, there is a brand new Link Cloaking Plug-in that will automatically cloak all external links, including affiliate links. It is easy to install and configure. If you are using WordPress, you should check it out.

How wonderful is that?

For example, what if you wanted to start an online business in web hosting. Imagine the start up costs involved with such a business. The cost of the equipment, staff, and advertising. Starting a web hosting company would be a very challenging thing to do for an individual on a limited budget. With affiliate marketing, you can make a pretty penny selling web hosting without owning a website, web company, or a single server. Instead of starting a company yourself, you can find an unlimited number of existing web hosting companies that offer affiliate programs. Some companies pay up to 100 dollars per sale! All you do is promote your special affiliate URL, or the web address that uniquely identifies that a lead or a sale came from you.

How can you promote an affiliate link without owning a website? The most common way affiliate marketers promote their links is by using Google Adwords. In the web hosting example, all you would have to do is start an eye catching Adwords campaign. Anytime a web surfer clicks on your Ad, it will go through your affiliate link to the company’s web page. If one hundred people click on your ad and one of them purchases web hosting, you pocket an easy $1oo dollar commission.

Many super affiliates make thousands just by promoting their affiliate URLs on Google Adwords or similar paid advertising campaign. Still, even more super affiliates turn a BIGGER profit by advertising their affiliate links on their websites, forums, or blogs. But how do they find the right affiliate programs to promote?

A lot of online retailers and service providers offer affiliate programs to help them grow, and why shouldn’t they? Imagine how well a company would do if they had hundreds of thousands of salesmen promoting their product. Companies can offer their own independent affiliate program or outsource the program to a third party whose sole purpose is to manage and track affiliate sales and payouts. Three of the most popular affiliate companies include Clickbank , Commission Junction , and Linkshare .

Clickbank deals primarily with info products and info services. Most commission rates per sale runs between 10% to 75%.

Commission Junction Represents major online businesses including GoDaddy.com, Weightwatchers.com, eBay.com, Bargain.com, and much more. Having an affiliate account with Commission Junction, also known as CJ, will allow you to sell mostly physical products, with exception to Web hosting and Domain companies.

LinkShare – Similar to CJ, most of Linkshare’s businesses deal with actual physical goods which have to be shipped to
the buyer.

One of the primary benefits of dealing with a third party affiliate company such as Clickbank, Commission Junction, and Linkshare is that your performance statistics are handled by an independent third party. You don’t have to worry about anybody ‘messing’ with sales numbers or commissions.

But which affiliate program is the best to promote? How do you know which product is a hot seller and which one is being “over promoted”? Click Ad Equalizer is cutting-edge, state-of-the-art software that can give you the advantage you need when choosing which affiliate programs to promote and profit from. Click Ad Equalizer will show you exactly which products affiliates are selling, which are the most popular, and which are the least popular for every related keyword for that product. You instantly know what’s working and what’s not. Click Ad Equalizer let’s you know exactly what products are hot and which products are selling for each related keyword. The keywords are displayed in an easy-to-read pie graph so you can quickly determine whose affiliate program to join, which affiliates to contact, or who is your competition.

In other words, for any keyword you look up, Click Ad Equalizer you can find the right affiliate program to promote for any niche product or service.

One of the best ways to promote an affiliate program is to write about it. Many affiliate marketers use their blogs to write reviews on the affiliate program they are promoting. Why is this an effective way of promoting an affiliate program? Simply put, writing product reviews if a form of targeted advertising. When a person does a search for a particular product they typically look for a consumer review first. The more detailed and descriptive the review, the more likely they will purchase the product.

Want to try it out?

First, find a unique product that is not too well known. If the product is too popular then chances are there are a lot of other affiliate marketers competing with you. Second, choose products downloadable products or online services. Examples include ebooks, software, and online membership sites.

How do you write a review without knowing anything about the product. The first and most logical answer would be to purchase and try out the product yourself. If that’s not possible, email the program’s support and request additional information about the product. Lastly, you could research the particular product and write a review based on your research.

When writing a product review, do your best to be as detailed about the product as possible. For example, you would want to explain what the product was, pros, cons, and user opinions based on past user’s testimonials. Remember to place emphasis on the value of a product, the more valuable a product becomes in the reader’s eyes, the greater the chances they will purchase the product regardless of product cost. It is important NOT to make your review sound ‘salesy’. In other words, your review should be as objective as possible, allowing the reader to make up his/her own mind whether or not to purchase the program.

If done correctly, writing affiliate product reveiws can be one of the smartest techniques to increasing your monthly commission. Product reviews produce targeted traffic that are willing to buy.

In a nutshell, an affiliate marketer makes a living promoting one or more products for a business. Every time the affiliate makes a sale, the business rewards him or her with a cut of the profits, or a commission.

Rewarding, But Not Easy.
Like with any business, becoming a successful affiliate is not an easy thing to do. Money doesn’t pour out of your computer overnight. Many “supper affiliates” spend long hours at the drawing board, planning their strategy for success. They stay motivated through success and failure. They are always learning, looking for that advantage that will give them an edge over the competition.

Finding Potential Buyers.
Basically, it is your job as an affiliate to find potential buyers for the product you are trying to sell. In other words, you need to find a target audience. Where can you find these people?

Create Your Own Website.
Many successful affiliates create their own website to promote the products they are representing. You should too.

Your website doesn’t have to be fancy and you don’t need to know complicated web code to get one up and going. Your website can be a simple as a WordPress Blog or a Joomla content website. The bottom line is that it is easier to draw in targeted buyers to your products by having them visit your website.

The biggest benefit to owning your own website is that you reap the rewards of free organic traffic to your site. You will get traffic from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Forums and Blogs
Try this simple exercise: Open up a Google search window and type in your ‘niche market + forums’ or ‘niche market + blogs’. If you are promoting a diet program, type in ‘diet forums’. You should receive many results. Remember, the first page of Google results are the most popular sites people frequently visit. You’ve found a target audience! Now, sign up with the forum or blog and place your website link at your signature. The next step is to get involved with the community! The more you discuss the current topic or issue, the more of an ‘expert’ you will become, and the more people will trust you.

A word of caution! Make sure you read the forum’s terms and agreements before adding a link to your signature, some forums forbid certain links. What ever you do, make sure you follow the rules! You don’t want to lose credibility and have your reputation damaged.

Writing Articles and E-books.
Another way to find potential buyers is by writing informative articles or e-books. If submit a well written, thoughtful, and useful article into an article directory, people will read it. Better yet, they might place your article on their personal website.

Adding your website link or affiliate link on your article is an added bonus. Imagine how many potential buyers you will have if your article is picked up by 1000 readers, and they share that article with their visitors.

Just remember the quality of your article speaks volumes. If you submit blatant sales articles, with poor grammar, spelling, and no useful content, nobody will take you seriously. In fact, most people will stop reading after the first sentence and move on. Remember what you learned in high school English class. Pre-write, write, and rewrite.

It takes effort to take your affiliate marketing venture to the next level. It’s not as easy as signing up with a high paying program and waiting for the money to come in. When you arm yourself with the proper tools and techniques, your income potential can be limitless.

Resources:

• Build Your Own Website
  
• How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog)
• Tips for a Good Article

Every professional has a bookshelf of useful books they turn to as a reference. Listed here are three of the best online resources that can teach you how to excel as an affiliate marketer.

The Affiliate Masters Course: Heralded as “the best info on succeeding as an affiliate”, The Affiliate Masters Course is an intensive free 10-day course that is designed to teach you how to be a high earning affiliate. This complete guide leads you step by step how to develop a site concept, brainstorm profitable keywords, build a themed site full of money earning content pages, and attract targeted traffic that buys from the merchants you represent. List Price: Free Download!

The Affiliate Commandments is a comprehensive guide to affiliate marketing success. You will learn why affiliates fail and how you can learn from their mistakes. This guide shows you how to pick the right product and how to promote it. You will also learn how to find profitable keywords and how to write a winning Adwords Ad. List Price: $19.97 $9.97

The Affiliate Handbook: Considered the affiliate marketer’s bible, The Affiliate Handbook is a 63-Page Step-by-Step Guide that walks you through every detail on how to become a full-fledged affiliate marketer and earn hundreds of dollars a day at home in your spare time. List Price: $59.95 $39.95