Whod be an affiliate?
| Category: Affiliate Marketing - Development | Date: 2003-10-09 |
It's been clear for a while that the inclusion of an personal code in a URL gives affiliate hijackers all the visibility they need to do their dastardly work.
What is an affiliate hijacker?
Despite the somewhat romantic-sounding name, he or she is in fact a loathsome beast who chops the affiliate link off the URL that has introduced him or her to the product.
Consider the URL: http://www.mydomain.com/index/4251
To most savvy Internet users, it is clear that everything after the initial http://www.mydomain.com/ is superfluous and that index/4251 indicates this is an affiliate link. Most people know they can get to see and buy the product using just the shortened URL but, because most people are honorable, they click the link in front of them and proceed normally. The link hijacker will NEVER click a link without altering it first.
Generally this sub-species of humankind falls into two groups... those who change the URL in order to steal the affiliate commission from another person, and those who chop short the URL because they simply can't bear the thought of somebody else earning from their purchase!
The first group - the simple thieves - log onto the website in question (without using the full affiliate code). They then register themselves as an affiliate and use their own affiliate link to buy the product. Thus, despite the fact that they were introduced to the product by a genuine Internet Marketer, they have dishonorably stolen that person's commission for their own gain.
The second group of miscreants are even stranger than the first, who at least have a motive for their theft. The second group are those pathologically twisted souls who simply can't bear the thought of somebody else benefiting from their purchase - even though that person has spent time and money to make the introduction.
This second group will chop the URL and simply buy the product straight from the site. It's not as though they benefit from this action! The winners are the site owners who have factored affiliate commissions into their prices and find that they can now keep them in their own pockets.
In either event, the loser is ALWAYS the affiliate. And yet, for many hard-working affiliates, it's the least known yet most widespread Internet marketing problem. It has been calculated that up to 30% of all affiliate commissions are hijacked or bypassed.
To cloak links, there are some simple Javascript answers that can be used on websites and in HTML-version Newsletters. Unfortunately, for two reasons, this is not enough.
First off, Javascript leaves the true link in the "status bar" in the lower left of the Internet Explorer web browser. That means that surfers using Internet Explorer (estimated at more than 80% of all web browsers) can look at the lower left of their screen and see your affiliate code anyway.
And secondly, there are still many people who surf the Net with Javascript turned off, so such a 'cloaked' link will not work.
But the honest affiliates can now take heart because the signs are that the first big step to overcome this problem has already arrived. There is now software available that will help even the least technically-minded person stop the hijackers dead in their tracks!
Let me say straight off:-
1. It's not 100% sure to stop the thieves, particularly a determined one. But a 95% success rate is still pretty good, and is a great improvement on nothing!
2. Like Javascript, it's only operable if you have your own website.
This software is called "The Affiliate Link Cloaker" and is a very simple piece of technology that acts in a sophisticated way, encrypting your affiliate link, and hiding the browser status bar by opening the page inside an "invisible" frame. In just five simple steps that take only a few minutes, you can make any product you sell as an affiliate look like it has its own page on your site.
Your affiliate link will literally disappear. People won't even realize you're selling it as an affiliate! So the example I gave earlier of:- http://www.mydomain.com/index/4251 can become (for example) http://www.anydomain.com/anything.html and even the link theives wouldn't know where to start looking!
Plus, you can use the program for a whole bunch of other nifty things, INCLUDING listing other people's products (with your hidden affiliate link) on the search engines! (It sounds technically impossible, but is actually very easy with this software.)
It's not often that you come across a product that is so universally praised and so universally useful. Particularly at a price that doesn't hurt the pocket! If you are seriously promoting other peoples' products as an affiliate, you should not continue until you've taken steps to stop the hijackers.
About the Author
Graham Hamer produces the TopProfits weekly ezine of Internet Marketing. His ebook The Secret Goldmine can be downloaded from http://www.unique-book.com/ and a collection of some of the Internet's best names are listed on his site.
graham.hamer@noos.fr
http://www.www-websites.com
What is an affiliate hijacker?
Despite the somewhat romantic-sounding name, he or she is in fact a loathsome beast who chops the affiliate link off the URL that has introduced him or her to the product.
Consider the URL: http://www.mydomain.com/index/4251
To most savvy Internet users, it is clear that everything after the initial http://www.mydomain.com/ is superfluous and that index/4251 indicates this is an affiliate link. Most people know they can get to see and buy the product using just the shortened URL but, because most people are honorable, they click the link in front of them and proceed normally. The link hijacker will NEVER click a link without altering it first.
Generally this sub-species of humankind falls into two groups... those who change the URL in order to steal the affiliate commission from another person, and those who chop short the URL because they simply can't bear the thought of somebody else earning from their purchase!
The first group - the simple thieves - log onto the website in question (without using the full affiliate code). They then register themselves as an affiliate and use their own affiliate link to buy the product. Thus, despite the fact that they were introduced to the product by a genuine Internet Marketer, they have dishonorably stolen that person's commission for their own gain.
The second group of miscreants are even stranger than the first, who at least have a motive for their theft. The second group are those pathologically twisted souls who simply can't bear the thought of somebody else benefiting from their purchase - even though that person has spent time and money to make the introduction.
This second group will chop the URL and simply buy the product straight from the site. It's not as though they benefit from this action! The winners are the site owners who have factored affiliate commissions into their prices and find that they can now keep them in their own pockets.
In either event, the loser is ALWAYS the affiliate. And yet, for many hard-working affiliates, it's the least known yet most widespread Internet marketing problem. It has been calculated that up to 30% of all affiliate commissions are hijacked or bypassed.
To cloak links, there are some simple Javascript answers that can be used on websites and in HTML-version Newsletters. Unfortunately, for two reasons, this is not enough.
First off, Javascript leaves the true link in the "status bar" in the lower left of the Internet Explorer web browser. That means that surfers using Internet Explorer (estimated at more than 80% of all web browsers) can look at the lower left of their screen and see your affiliate code anyway.
And secondly, there are still many people who surf the Net with Javascript turned off, so such a 'cloaked' link will not work.
But the honest affiliates can now take heart because the signs are that the first big step to overcome this problem has already arrived. There is now software available that will help even the least technically-minded person stop the hijackers dead in their tracks!
Let me say straight off:-
1. It's not 100% sure to stop the thieves, particularly a determined one. But a 95% success rate is still pretty good, and is a great improvement on nothing!
2. Like Javascript, it's only operable if you have your own website.
This software is called "The Affiliate Link Cloaker" and is a very simple piece of technology that acts in a sophisticated way, encrypting your affiliate link, and hiding the browser status bar by opening the page inside an "invisible" frame. In just five simple steps that take only a few minutes, you can make any product you sell as an affiliate look like it has its own page on your site.
Your affiliate link will literally disappear. People won't even realize you're selling it as an affiliate! So the example I gave earlier of:- http://www.mydomain.com/index/4251 can become (for example) http://www.anydomain.com/anything.html and even the link theives wouldn't know where to start looking!
Plus, you can use the program for a whole bunch of other nifty things, INCLUDING listing other people's products (with your hidden affiliate link) on the search engines! (It sounds technically impossible, but is actually very easy with this software.)
It's not often that you come across a product that is so universally praised and so universally useful. Particularly at a price that doesn't hurt the pocket! If you are seriously promoting other peoples' products as an affiliate, you should not continue until you've taken steps to stop the hijackers.
About the Author
Graham Hamer produces the TopProfits weekly ezine of Internet Marketing. His ebook The Secret Goldmine can be downloaded from http://www.unique-book.com/ and a collection of some of the Internet's best names are listed on his site.
graham.hamer@noos.fr
http://www.www-websites.com
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