I am new to affiliate marketing.(and digitalpoint as well) It is indeed hard to make a sale, with a big ugly looking clickbank link, so some people suggested me to mask the clickbank affiliate link with a domain name(i mean to redirect) But i came accross 2 types of redirect #In one case the clickbank link appears in the address bar after the redirect # In the second case, the clickbank link, doesnt appear, my domain name stays on the address bar and the clickbank affiliate page content loads. I know the 1st method just works perfect, but i wanted to do the second method, its better than the 1st method i guess. But then i have a doubt whether if i make any sales using the 2nd method, will that count as a sale for me ? Note: But in both the methods i have my affiliate name in the sales page [affiliate = myaffilatename]
If you see [affiliate = myaffilatename]at the bottom of the order page, then you will definitely get commission for your sale.
You will make sale with 2nd method but I my opinion 1st one is more appropriate. Because people check the domain name before they buy, and if its not relevant they close the page. e.g. If you are promoting fat loss 4 idiots and your redirected domain with second method is fatlossforidiot.biz then your visitor will close the site and re type fat loss 4 idiots in SE to reconfirm.
If you use the second one, the browser will not show that it's on a secure site when the customer get to the order page (I think, correct me if I'm wrong). But that's a huge turn off for many people making online purchases.
I agree that Cloaking your Clickbank link is good, but I do disagree with this statement: "It is indeed hard to make a sale, with a big ugly looking clickbank link" Most of my blogs have the raw form of the Clickbank link, and I make tons of sales daily. There are more things your should concentrate on doing! Trust me. all these things are just super hyped by Internet marketing gurus who are trying to sell all sorts of products, or who just want to frighten you. Don't get me wrong here. Cloaking your links may sometimes increase your conversion rates, But it greatly depends on the niche, and it is no the most important thing to do in internet marketing. I did a split test on one of my blogs and really did not see any difference with cloak and un-cloak links. Like i said, it depends on your niche. I mostly use cloaked links when i am direct linking form article directories, since most of them do not accept raw affiliate links. If they did, then I should readily use the raw links all over for my campaigns. The niches I promote, people do not have a clue on these things and do not care so much. Judging from your CALL TO ACTION, they just click and see what it on the other side of the page. if it is interesting, then stay there are read through, if not, they hit the back button and leave! Anyway, to answer your question: you should use the second method. It is far better than the first.
Thank you all for the replies. I have started using the second method. But every time i create a domain for any product. I make sure that, the domain name is nearly same as the product title.