Link cloaking and link tracking are often confused with each other. Though both are useful tools to maximize your profits from affiliate marketing, yet they are two entirely different things.
Link Tracking
Link tracking, as the name suggests, is mainly about tracking the activity of the user who clicks on the link. That is the reason why it is sometimes also referred to as ad tracking. The link tracking script or software program allows you to track whether the user clicking on the link is making the purchase or not. The advanced programs will also let you know complete detail about that user, such as the IP address, the geographical location, and other such things. This type of information will assist you in improving your strategies to increase your profits.
Link Cloaking
Affiliate link cloaking also helps to maximize your earning, but in a different way. It is in fact more about protecting your earning than increasing the same. As the term suggests, it is a process to cloak the link so that the users do not realize that they are actually clicking on an affiliate link. If the link is not cloaked, a user can easily recognize that it is an affiliate link. When they click on the link, they can see in the address bar that they have been redirected to a different website. What is more, if the user has a little of technical know-how, he/she can also go to the source code and see your affiliate links.
Nobody can ever resist the temptation to earn easy money online, especially when the opportunity is right there. For example, if you are a Clickbank affiliate and the user is also an affiliate from the same network, he/she will simply replace your affiliate ID with his/her own ID. When they make the purchase this way, the commission goes into their account rather than yours. This is more technically and commonly referred to as link hijacking.
You can protect your income by choosing to clock your affiliate links. When a link is cloaked thoroughly, it can never be hijacked. However, it entirely depends upon which type of link cloaking technique you are using. If you are trying to save some bucks by using the free scripts, you are probably still at risk. If you are serious about your affiliate marketing venture, you should always use a paid link cloaking software program from a reputed company.

Commission theft is one of the most traumatic things that an affiliate marketer ever faces. Link hijacking is a serious problem where the buyers replace your affiliate link with their own. However, the importance of link cloaking is not confined to only this. There are several others issues that may be eating into your commissions. They include “link bypassing”, “link blocking”, and the ugly look of the links that make them simply “unclickable”. Link cloaking takes care of all these issues. Here is a brief rundown on how to protect and increase your profits.
It Plugs The Holes The Hijackers Enter From
The greatest advantage of link cloaking is that it closes all the doors the hijackers enter from. If another affiliate from the same network decides to purchase your product, he/she is very much likely to use his/her own affiliate ID instead of yours in the URL. Even if the user is not an affiliate, but when he/she will get to know that buying that product will help you make some profit, they will immediately sign up to create their own affiliate account and then use their own affiliate ID to make the purchase. In both the cases, you are deprived of the commission that you deserve. This is more commonly referred to as commission theft through link hijacking. Link cloaking offers you the best solution to deal with these hijackers. When the links are cloaked, hijackers will never be able to track your affiliate link – no matter how tech savvy they are.
It Helps You Produce Links That People Will Click On
Some people do not care about the look of their affiliate links, as they do not know that a better look can boost their profits. Cloaked links look attractive, inviting people to click on it. Uncloaked links look horrible. Will you ever click on a link that includes lots of special characters and is unusually long? You will definitely hesitate. That’s what happens with most users, as well. On the other hand, cloaking gives your links, a much simpler look. Once the users are convinced that they must buy that product, they will never hesitate to click on a cloaked link.
If you want to enjoy all the advantages that link cloaking has to offer, it is very important for you to find a reliable link cloaker program. Obviously, the free ones are not something you can rely on. Freewares can be as dangerous as spywares and adwares. The best bet for you is to buy a paid cloaker from a reputed company.

If you are into affiliate marketing, you must have heard about affiliate link cloaking. It is a process that helps you protect your affiliate links from hijackers. As an Internet marketer, you obviously do not want your commissions to get stolen. If you do not cloak your affiliate links thoroughly, they can easily be hijacked and all your commissions may get transferred to someone else’s account. The easiest way to protect your links is to use a good affiliate cloaking software program. Here is a brief rundown on some of the reasons why you should cloak your affiliate links.
Link Protection From Hijackers
Hijacking of links is very easy if they are not cloaked. For example, if you are using the affiliate program of ClickBank and another user of the same affiliate merchant decides to purchase the product you are promoting, he/she can easily replace your username in the URL with his/her username. This way, the commission will actually go into his/her account and not yours. You worked so hard to promote products and in the end when it was time to get your commission, you are deprived of that. This is definitely a very disappointing situation. That is the reason why you are strongly recommended to use a link clocking software program.
The Problem Of Link Condensing
Another problem with the uncloaked affiliate links is that they are very long and look quite uninviting and ugly. Spamming is one of the biggest threats on the Internet today and users think twice before clicking on a link. If the link looks ugly and unusually long, they will probably avoid clicking on the same. Besides that, some people who after getting convinced by your website to purchase the product may not click on your link if they recognize that it is actually an affiliate link. They will assume that you are selling product only to earn a commission. On the other hand, when you clock the link thoroughly, it will appear more inviting for the user and they will not be able to recognize whether it is an affiliate link.
There are plenty of link cloaking software programs available on Internet – some are free while others come with a price tag. The free ones might sound alluring, but considering the threats that uncloaked affiliate links bring, you probably might not like to take a chance. Free cloakers ’suck’ because they involve complex programming with no guaranteed results. If you go wrong with the programming stuff, it will be all one big mess for you. On the other hand, the paid cloakers are not only easy to use but also guarantee optimum protection for your links.

Affiliate link cloaking is not an obligation, but it is strongly recommended in order to ensure optimum success for your affiliate marketing venture. Today, commission theft is one of the most common fears among affiliate marketers. Those who are not aware of link cloaking or commission theft might just wonder why they are earning so low despite so many efforts. If you are using the right strategies and working hard to promote the product you are selling but are still not getting the desired income, you are probably a victim of commission theft or affiliate link hijacking.
Are You A Victim Of Commission Theft?
When you do not clock your links, anybody can easily recognize that it is actually an affiliate link – and this is where the problem begins. The common trend is that people do not want to click on an affiliate link. Even if you have done the best marketing and the user is convinced that purchasing the product will be a beneficial deal for them, they will hesitate clicking on the affiliate link. There are two reasons for this. First, they really don?t like the fact that a middleman will get a commission because of the purchase they make. So, what they do is that they themselves sign up for that affiliate program and then make the purchase using their own affiliate link. This type of activity is nothing but a kind of commission theft, but you obviously cannot sue the user for it.
The second reason why most users hesitate in clicking on an affiliate link is that these links look ugly, unusually long, and very complicated. They find it very hard to decide whether it is a link to a genuine website or to a Spam one. They fear that clicking on such links will open the doors for viruses, spyware, or other malicious programs to enter their personal computer. They simply do not want to take any chance.
The only solution to these problems is to cloak your affiliate links. Cloaking gives your links, a better look. The links become attractive, inviting people to click on them. At the same time, cloaking makes it difficult for a person to identify whether it is actually an affiliate link. This way, the fear of commission theft is also substantially minimized.
However, make sure that you do not use any free scripts that are widely available on Internet to cloak your links. Most of them are Spams. In order to keep things smooth and secure for you, the best bet for you is to go for a reputed paid cloaker software program.

Commission theft is the biggest fear for most affiliate marketers. Link cloaking software has emerged as a great solution to protect your affiliate links and the subsequent commissions. Think of a situation where the user gets convinced to buy your product, but the moment they recognize that it is actually an affiliate product and purchasing the same will help you earn some commission, they will simply sign up for that affiliate program themselves and use their own affiliate URL to make the purchase. This way, all your efforts go in vain. The amount of commission that you deserve to get goes into someone else’s pocket. The use of an affiliate link cloaking software program will protect your link form hijacking and bypassing.
Protection From Affiliate Link Bypassing
Bypassing is the term that is used when a person directly uses the website address instead of your affiliate URL to make the purchase. Affiliate links are very easy to recognize. It is a common tendency for people to hate clicking on suspicious links. They do not want the products to be sold out to them. Even if they are convinced with the benefits of buying the product, the moment they recognize that it is an affiliate link, they consider it as a sales pitch. In that case, they go directly to the product’s main selling site instead of following your affiliate link. This way, you are deprived of the commission you deserve to get. But, you can secure your commission by using a good affiliate link cloaking software program. The program will hide the link’s actual identity and the user will not be able to recognize that it is actually an affiliate link.
Convert The Uninviting Links Into A Click-Able Link
Most affiliate links are usually very long and look quite ugly. With the help of a cloaker, you can easily change the look of your link by making it simple and highly inviting. For example, an affiliate link may look like this – www.productsite.com/affiliatepage.asp?affid=prodaffid4653. On the other hand, once you cloak the link, it will look something like this – www.yoursite.com/productsite.
Hijacking of affiliate link is also very common where the person uses his/her own affiliate id instead of yours to make a purchase. This way, they get the commission that you were supposed to get. The majority of the Internet community does not want to lose any opportunity to make some easy money online. Therefore, if you have not properly cloaked your affiliate links, you are actually creating a threat for your own commissions and providing the users an easy opportunity to hijack that commission. So, make sure you use a good affiliate link cloaking software program. Also, do not go for the free programs. Most of them are spam and those that work do not provide sufficient protection to your affiliate links.