Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Nick Smith on 28th of October, 2008

Promoting any product or service will require that you serve an affiliate link somewhere on your website or other online presence. Affiliate marketing links can actually range from text based links to banners and flash advertisements although literally the text link is a true affiliate link. All affiliate marketing programs offer one sort of link or advertisement and the most preferable solution is a selection of good, creative advertisements as well as the capability to create your own deep affiliate links that direct to very specific pages and products.

An affiliate link can be cloaked in order to hide the fact that it is an affiliate link. Visitors will, on visiting the resulting page, more than likely realise it is an affiliate marketing link but cloaking the link can prove beneficial because it prevents affiliate click fraud and there are some reports that the major search engines do not like affiliate websites as much as they do information or direct sales websites; these reports may not be true but the action of redirecting a link is a simple one and considered ethical so it doesn't hurt to do it.

Getting your website visitors will be a major part of your affiliate marketing battle and while the affiliate program will be partially responsible for how well those visitors convert into sales, your own pre-selling techniques will also determine the conversion and profit rates for a link. Different affiliate link types can prove more or less effective depending on the type of product you offer as well as the visitors your website receives.

For more info, see our affiliate marketing blog.