I would definitely love it if the publisher takes steps to provide a clean url to the affiliate. It just takes away those nagging doubts and boosts confidence which translates to more efforts to push the product by the affiliate. I'm presently trying to figure out how to go straight to the order page with my aff link intact.
That is easy....the format is: hxxp://[ITEM].[YOUID]_[PUBLISHERID].pay.clickbank.net Notice the underscore in the link, and don't leave it out! Example: hxxp://1.xxxxxx_slappy.pay.clickbank.net There is a problem with doing it this way though...it doesn't set the cookie. Which means that you don't get paid if they decide to come back days later and buy the product. AND...if they had already clicked a link from another affiliate for the same product, that affiliates cookie will take precidence over you, and THEY will get the sale credit, not you. So use it wisely. It is still good for certain situations. They other option would be for the publisher to offer a certain link code that would go straight to the order page via a redirect after the cookie is set. But again...that is something the publisher would have to code and offer. EDIT: Hmmm....it looks like, as of last night, this link format is not working. perhaps Clickbank decided to disable this function??? Until we find out more, don't use the above link format.
If you have a website hotel or hosting, simply create a folder, paste a redirect script with your affiliate link on it. It hides your affiliate link but it is clear to user that its a redirected page. Then the rest depends on the sales pitch of clickbank vendors. Its easy!
ClickBanks FAQ section says the following: 10. Can I send customers directly to the URL that ends in "/?hop=nickname"? No. The "?hop=..." is just information we pass along to the publisher's web site AFTER recording a legitimate referral via hop.clickbank.net. If you bypass hop.clickbank.net there is no way for us to track your referral.