Link Cloaking - What it is, and Why you need to do it

Alright, so by now if you've signed up for any affiliate program you realize that every sale is made through some sort of link, assigning your affiliate account to that program each time someone clicks it.

So the problem? Affiliate links, sometimes, are very ugly. Especially clickbank links. A lot of people won't click it because of this, and a few other people see that it is an affiliate link and decide not to click it. You need not cloak all links, some are very pretty, such as ones from Linkshare, which is another major affiliate network. It isn't even necessary to cloak a clickbank link, but it WILL increase conversions (sales). Another reason to cloak links, particularly in clickbank's case, is what is referred to as Link Theft. Link Theft is when somebody sees your link, and replaces your clickbank ID with theirs, so they can buy the product and get the commission as a sort of "discount". This is more common than you may think.

So that is why it is important to cloak your links.
The simplest link cloaker is the Add Me Link Cloaker, its free. Basically you enter your affiliate link, below that put the text you want it to display as, such as "Click Here" or something. Then below that put pretty much the same thing. Hit the button an some red code will appear, that is your cloaked link. Paste it anywhere on your blog or whatever and it'll appear as "Click Here". This is not very advanced link cloaking and if someone knew about affiliate programs already they could easily change it. But it will look pretty and people will be more willing to click it.

Your next option is better but more complicated. The Free Link Cloaker. Basically you must download that, and upload it into the root of your domain. If you do not have a domain you cannot even use it. Basically it forms a redirect at your domain, so you can assign your very own URL to use for affiliate purposes. I wouldn't call this a necessity especially for newbies, given the choice above, but maybe later huh?

The best option though, is the paid one, which is sometimes the case in internet marketing. So if you ever find you have the funds and want to optimize your campaigns to the max, and make sure there is no way for someone to hijack your links. Visit the Official Affiliate Link Cloaker Website.