Check Out Noob Affiliate Tip #1: Start Making Lists
Check Out Noob Affiliate Tip #2: Use Google Webmaster Tools
I’ve got a simple question for you. Do you often hover over a link just to see where the link is sending you before you actually click it? You too? Well, congrats. You’re not the only one. As a matter of fact, tons of people (especially the more experienced internet users, give yourself a pat on the back) often test a link before clicking it.
credit: Señor Codo
So let me ask you another question.
Would you be more likely to click a link that lead you to this URL:
Or this one:
The choice seems obvious to me.
The second option is much cleaner, and I’d be much more likely to click it than the former. Wouldn’t you? It just has a trustworthy ring to it. You could actually say it out loud in one breath without fainting.
There are two ways to hide your links and make them look more attractive like I did above. One option is free, and the other will cost you money, but it’s well worth the price.
Option 1 (FREE) PHP Redirect:
I did it this way for the first few months until one of my sites started making some money, so you shouldn’t feel any pressure to pay for the product that I’m going to suggest in “Option 2” (below) until you feel like you can afford it comfortably. The option that I’m about to describe works just fine, and if you’re broke like I used to be, use it.
Overview:
Even if you have a very limited knowledge of how to code stuff, as long as you know how to upload files to your server, you should be able to do this very easily.
Instructions:
1. Open your favorite html/code editor. (This could be notepad; doesn’t matter).
2. Copy the following code:
<?php
header( ‘Location: http://your-messy-affiliate-url-goes-here.com’ ) ;
?>
3. Paste the specified code into your code editor.
4. Remove: “http://your-messy-affiliate-url-goes-here.com” and place your affiliate link in it’s place.
5. Save the file as “whatever.php”. Make sure that it is saved as a “.php” file and not an html file.
6. Upload “whatever.php” to the root of your server, and now link to the “whatever.php” file.
Now, assuming I really did this, I could send you to the whatever page (note: when you hover over this link with your cursor, it shows the nice clean URL in your browser URL preview: http://eliteeternity.com/whatever.php) and it would really (redirect) take you to: http://your-messy-affiliate-url-goes-here.com.
Does that make sense? If not, comment and I’ll help you out.
Option 2. Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate WordPress Plugin.
$97 Bones. Worth Every Penny. (Buy It Here)
You know, the free, manual process shown above works fine and dandy, but it sure gets old busting out the HTML editor, plugging in the link, and uploading the file to your server every single time you want to promote a new product! With Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate, you can take care of everything within your WordPress Admin panel. In other words: It takes about a quarter of the time it used to take me to crank out a pretty (hidden) affiliate link. Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate is awesome!
Now, before I say anything more about this plugin, be aware that I bought and have tried (and still use) this tool, have found it extremely useful, and would recommend it to anybody that can afford it without breaking their bank account. I use this tool on my website that is currently making me anywhere between 6K – 8K a month in pure profit.
Digression: Yes, that’s $6,000 to $8,000+ a month on one site – consistently.
You should definitely use this tool if you promote any products on a WordPress blog. I heard about this product every day for nearly 2 months before I broke down and bought it. You should too when you can afford it.
Quick Benefits:
- Professional redirects.
- Promote links all over the web with no fear. You can always redirect the link to a similar offer if your best advertiser closes up shop.
- Easy, Flexible link management.
- Manage your links by groups.
- Make your links No-Follow.
- Cloak links. (Note: a lot of affiliate companies don’t allow this)
A Quick Preview:
The below image is what you will see when you need to create a new (pretty) affiliate link. Beats the heck out of creating a new .php file every single freaking time!
Buy Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate | Watch How It Works
- The “Link Name” Field is just for your records. Doesn’t matter. Nobody will see it but you.
- The “Affiliate/Destination Link” is the link that you want your users to ultimately end up at. Don’t forget your subid for tracking!
- The “Ninja Link” is the URL that you want people to see when they hover over the link.
- “Cloak It” allows you to specify a URL that your users will see in the actual address bar after the user clicks your link. Be advised: Most advertisers do not allow this, and it will most likely break your affiliate link if you try to cloak it. A broken affiliate link = zero commission. Keep that in mind.
- “Convert Keywords to Ninja Links” is an awesome feature. If you tick this box, you can specify keywords that you want to always be linked to the URL that you just created. This comes especially in handy, say, if you talk a lot about a certain hosting company on your blog and you don’t want to go back to your old posts to manually add your affiliate link. Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate will automatically take care of it for you!
Buy Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate | Watch How It Works
That should pretty much wrap up the awesomeness of this plugin and why you may find it useful. It has saved me tons of time, and it has made me more efficient overall. Hiding my affiliate links is no longer a hassle now that I’ve got this bad boy installed!
Do you already use this plugin? Do you like it as much as I do? Share your comments!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s a good tip. I guess you could then use the link on other sites if you’re doing any article marketing?
Do you think it could be an alternative to registering different domains to cloak each affiliate link?
Hey Tina,
Yeah, you could place the link anywhere. What’s cool about MBP Ninja Affiliate is this:
Say you wrote an article for product A, and your affiliate link to product A was http://blablablablasomething.com/youraffiliateID324423blabla. Instead of putting that link in the article, you could link to your website. You would make the link something like http://yoursite.com/productA, and using MBP Ninja Affiliate, the link would redirect to your messy affiliate URL.
Doing this would 1. Make the link look a whole lot more professional in the first place; and 2. Give you control over the actual destination URL itself without having to change the physical link on the respective article sites.
This is definitely a better way to mask your affiliate links than buying a new domain to cloak links (if I understand the question). A whole lot cheaper too!
Can you explain the concept of affiliate link theft and how it works? How somebody would steal your link?
.-= Dimas´s last blog ..US Cities and State SQL Dump =-.
Hey Dimas. I’ll probably write a more in depth post about this in the next day or so, as I used to have some of the same questions I’m sure you have about link hijacking.
Basically though, its a process by which dirty affiliates sniff out affiliate links, then replace the original affiliate identity with their own, thus robbing the commission from the original affiliate. I think its mainly done automatically by rogue robots with cruel masters commanding their actions.
hope that helped a little.
I have been contemplating purchasing this plugin for about 2 months.
I have a question that you might be able to answer:
Are you able to use it with a PPC tracking software such as Tracking 202 (or similar)?
If not 202, what product are you using to track your PPC and/or organic keyword campaigns with the plugin?
Hey Cam – I’m not sure about using the plugin with Tracking 202 or any other tracking software as I just use sub-id’s to track my sales, but I don’t imagine why you wouldn’t be able to.
Plus, I believe the plugin has like a 30 day money back guarantee (which is through clicbank, so it’s legit), so you may just want to give it a try to see what you think.
{ 2 trackbacks }