Affiliate Links - Why You Need to Change Yours

Even after many months of telling people about this, it is still one of my biggest gripes with so many affiliate marketers and when I find my teams or people I am coaching making this same old mistake, I insist they consider rectifying it before they move on.

There is so much income lost because of this simple and very common mistake.

Ok, so when you join an affiliate program, you get what is called an affiliate link, which will be something like yourusername.theopportunityname.com or theproduct.com/yourusername

Something along those lines anyway and the thing is, not only does it look messy and unprofessional, it can lose you sales for a number of reasons.

1) your prospect will see you as an amateur and will not want to work with you for that reason.
2) your prospect will just remove your username and go straight to the main merchant page, meaning you lose the sale.
3) your prospect will type it wrongly and get someone else's affiliate landing page.
4) your prospect will simply forget it as it was too long and difficult to remember.

Whatever the reason that you lose your sale, the bottom line is the same, you lost it.

I always tell my mentees that before they put an affiliate link infront of any prospects, they must get themselves a domain that is relevant and catchy. One that has a name that will create interest in their prospects and get them to click on it.

Your ability to choose a domain name that will entice prospects to take action is something that will improve with practice.

The most important thing to do, is get that domain and forward and mask it so that when a prospect sees your domain and clicks on it, they are directed to your affiliate landing page but they never get to see your affiliate link.

So how do you do this ?

First you need to create your account at Godaddy, I use www.Cheapest4Domains.com and once you’ve created your account, use the search box to find a related domain name that you like.

Then buy it and once the purchase has gone through go to your account link and then to your Domain Manager link where you will see your new domain listed.

Click on the domain name and you’ll see a link somewhere in the middle of the page that then opens that says ‘forward and masking’.

Click on this link and enter the destination url that you want this new domain to point to and select permanent forwarding.

Then go to the masking tab that is there next to the forwarding tab and put in the name of what you want your visitors to see in their browser window.

Click Ok.

Give it maybe 10 minutes to communicate this new instruction around the World’s servers and check it’s done by typing your new domain name into your browser until it successfully points to your destination url. Done.

Godaddy offers a wonderfully easy to use and understand service with excellent customer service. I buy all my domains there and have been entirely satisfied with the service they have provided.

My Personal Experience.
This is what happened to me. I started just like so many do, not really knowing what I was doing but being absolutely convinced that I had to do something online, it fired me up far too much to just ignore it.

So I carried on regardless and had very little success in the way of affiliate sales. I did get members into my network marketing teams, but affiliate sales were at a standstill really.

Then someone said I should buy a domain and explained it looked more professional.
So that's what I did, while kicking myself for having been so blind to a very obvious mistake.

Then things changed, literally there and then and I've never promoted or displayed an affilate link anywhere since. Sales went up and now I stand by domain forwarding as being a key move towards affilate success. And So I head to Godaddy everytime I need to mask another new affiliate link now.

Here’s what a subscriber of mine said about this information:
Very Good information Roger. It is very important in this business to not only be professional but you need to appear professional also. As referrers work to improve their online presence, following the step you advise taking will be a step in the correct direction.

Keep up the good work.
Carol Goering

Any questions, just email or Skype me as usual.

Your Guide,

Roger Blackman
RogerBlackmanOnline.com