Work At Home

Redirect Your Affiliate Site Links for Efficiency and Better Results

Here’s a question I received from one of my subscribers recently:“ I notice that you redirect your affiliate links through your own domain. Why do you do this?”Yes, I definitely do and for a number of reasons. A lot of people do redirects to avoid people "stealing" commission. For example, if it is a ClickBank link, someone can see that and they can easily enter their own affiliate ID and collect the commission on their own purchase. I honestly don't worry too much about this aspect. People who want to collect commissions for themselves will always find a way to do it...so let him. Besides, if you don't sell to other Internet marketers, the chances of your referrals even knowing what affiliate programs are is pretty slim. Here's the reasons I redirect:

Saves time - I make one easy-to-remember redirect link on my domain (ex. aliceseba.com/seobook.html) and I can use it over and over again. I don't have to hunt down my link all the time. Of course, if I'm using special tracking, I may set up another link, but in most cases, this makes it a simpler process

Easy to change - If an affiliate link is no longer valid or the company goes out of business, it's easy to change to an alternate product. If you use the link provided and you paste it all over your website, into ebooks and other places -- those links won't work anymore. If you redirect, you can simply change the link you are redirecting to on your server and there's no need to update your pages or ebooks.

Tracking - I like to see what my visitors and subscribers click on from. If the company doesn't provide tracking, I can see my clickthrough stats this way. - Shorter URLs - Many long affiliate links will break up in email and many of your subscribers won't know why the link won't work...and most probably won't bother to ask. I also use this for ebooks in case people print them out. It's easier to type in a short URL then a long cumbersome affiliate one. If you want to do a redirect, there are many ways to do it. I use a simple javascript redirect (but realize if your users don't have javascript installed, the links won't work).

Alice Seba is an online entrepreneur that has been earning a full-time income from affiliate programs since 2003. She thrives on helping people get ahead in their Internet businesses. If you’d like tips to help you increase your affiliate income, sign up for free here - Affiliate Marketing Sweetie