The affiliate link strategy that John Chow has been using on his blog has paid off nicely. John Chow uses PHP files to cloak his affiliate links. He has all those PHP files in a folder called “go” and links to them this way :
- Text Link Ads : http://www.johnchow.com/go/tla.php
- ReviewMe : http://www.johnchow.com/go/reviewme.php
This has now become useful, for Text Link Ads changed their affiliate link URL today. Today morning, i received the following email from TLA :
Shrihari,
As a Text Link Ads affiliate we’re pleased to let you know that we’ve begun using tinyurl.com to shorten and secure our affiliate referral links. We encourage you to update your affiliate links using the following:
- Homepage URL — http://tinyurl.com/2ukyfz
- Starter Promo URL — http://tinyurl.com/3botzy
** Please note that our old affiliate urls will no longer work in one week so please update today. Thank you!
As far as i know John Chow was the first to start this method of Affiliate linking. So, if you are not already following it, start doing it now. John Chow has written a detailed post on how to do this and how useful it is over here.
That’s quite a clever idea for getting people to click the links. :)
Do you think it’s deceiving your readers though?
Actually i don’t think that this is much of a deceiving. After all, a link would be present only at a place which mentions about TLA or ReviewMe (whatever it is linking to).
And there’s a valid reason behind doing this. Easy to change affiliate links all over the blog.
Late pass on that one, this method is nothing new, sorry, had to burst your bubble.
I have written an in depth article on using sub-domains to re-direct affiliate links that also provides full reporting and statistics that your readers may find useful as well. This method also solves some long-tail issues some people are having with Amazon, Linkshare, and the like.
Yes, using a Subdomain is a great idea.
Awesome! I’m going to have to try this on my site http://www.onetweak.com
I’m finding your blog very useful
cheers
Ah! The legendary Link cloaking strategy. After I’ve started to use this technique, my affiliate sales went up by 30%. Amazing how many people would oppose another person earning a buck or two right?
Adding something, I’d say, an important thing to keep in mind is to nofollow the links. Bots don’t like the redirects that it generates.
Cheers.
Well that’s a quite kool idea. I’m still new at this so I haven’t come across this yet. But after reading your post and John Chow’s I think I’ll start working on this tonight. Thanks for the tip Hari. Awesome blog by the way. Cheers
Great article. I’ve been using affiliate links for the past few months now and my personal blog traffic has doubled since I was not using it. nice job with your blog too. Keep it up.
Insightful post. I’m still new to blogging and this was one valuable tip. John Chows article was really informative. And thank you for pointing us there. Awesome work
I guess the point is to make the url shorter and less like an affiliate sales link. I heard about people using this successfully….will have to check it out. Thanks for the tip!
Yes, I too believe it is to make the URL short and sweet. But now its gone big and many are doing good with it as an affiliate sales link. Need to try it out my self. Nice post. and loved John Chow’s article too. Thanks for the link
The affiliate link strategy has directed me more traffic as well. The strategy in tandem with twitter is a huge boost and really does work very well.
I see you really love John Chow huh? Anyway, nice post!
Interesting. john Chow has been an inspiration for most bloggers. And the affiliate link strategy is a really awesome thing. Anyway, great article. Keep up the good work with the blog. Cheers
Interesting article there Hari. Certainly the affiliated link strategy is a real wonderful idea. And yes, it does pay off. Thanks again for the article. cheers
Nice write up. Your blog is a really good information source to new bloggers. And yes, the affiliate link strategy is a really great strategy and it does work great. Good job again with the article. Keep it up. Cheers
Really interesting information Hari. Affiliate links are used by basically everyone nowadays. It certainly is an effective method to get traffic to your blog. Thanks for the information.
Nice article there. You bet the affiliate link strategy pays off. Certainly did wonders for me. Traffic blew and it really was awesome. nice blog here man. Keep it up.