guys I'm running a URL shortener service http://truncurl.com and I like some ideas in this thread here. Do you think it would be a good idea to make a subdomain for each redirect ? At the moment a shortened URL will look like http://truncurl.com/keyword But wouldn't it be great if it was "keyword.truncurl.com" . If you like that idea I will implement it.
Yes, exactly how i do it. Yeah i got a tiny URL site and implemented wildcard somdomains, but even i don't use it for affiliate links. It still brings another domain in to the equation, not to mention relying on another site being online or else you loose affiliate sales. Really using mysite.com/product.php and controlling it with a 301 doesn't get much simpler. It's all done on the one domain, you can promote dozens of products on the one site and name the page whatever. To modify an affiliate link you just need to open .htaccess
I'm doing it this way as well, why complicate it more than necessary. A simple php redirect works fine.
You could download a free affiliate cloaking software from my download page... I got it when I bought a product. The original owner of the software uses it as a promotional instrument, but do not care about it. Just use the software.
Why did Avast just find a virus when I tried downloading that program? As soon as I clicked - Avasts' alarm went off.
I have tested it and several of my friends have as well. A domain name that is similar to the product name will usually outpull a redirect like "MySite.com/product.php" by almost double. But it still may not be worth the extra trouble unless it is a product you are seriously concentrating on making money from for a long time.
Really? I've found the exact opposite and this is why. If a user is browsing MySite.com they feel more comfortable clicking MySite.com/order.php rather than hovering over the link and seeing SomeOtherSite.com When they get redirected from MySite to SomeOtherSite to AffiliateSite people become wary because SomeOtherSite may of changed since MySite put the link up and could now just be a spam domain. Personally if i get thrown from site to site i won't order a thing. Using MySite.com/order.php cuts out the outbound links to external domains Google is cracking down on. Everything is contained on the one domain, a simple line in .htaccess and your can add another "virtual" subpage for each affiliate product. If you are promoting several products with the one site, it would mean owning 8 domains total in order to pull off this second domain redirect. Each to their own i guess.
I think you're right in that context. I was just going back and looking at some actual numbers since I like to do that instead of just going by how I feel and, for instance, when linking from blog pages the redirects with product names work better by double at least, probably because they make sense there. But when placed in ads, or emails, or even viral ebooks, or on sites like squidoo a direct link pulls more than 3x better. Probably because everyone by now recognizes the redirects as affiliate links a regular domain name similar to the product name looks like it could be an official link. As an example, Joel Comm promotes widgetbucks as an affiliate. He got a domain name that just added "my" before their own domain name and people click on it right away thinking it is just a link to the official site.
Take a look at Manage Affiliate Links, its a new software out that checks your links and redirects dead, expired, or broken links to a backup link of your choice. Great if you are running a campaign from a network that has very similar offers like all those diet offers available. The software has lots of other great features too. Also, for the stats bar mouseover code, try this: <a href="http://www.youraffiliatelinks.com" target="_blank" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.merchentssite.com';return true;" onmouseout="window.status=' ';return true;">Click Here</a> Code (markup): This will make "merchentssite.com" appear in the status bar on mouseover.