Watch out for commission theft

Certain affiliate link formats are not 'protected'.

In other words they have a simple format such as

http://www.abc.com/123

and if you display that in an email type message, for example in a newsletter, then your reader can substitute his own affiliate code and claim commission on his own purchase.

So you need to protect (or disguise) your link, and there are a few ways to do this

• Use a redirect file
• Use a 'short URL' service
• Use an ad tracking link

These may only partly eliminate the problem, the affiliate code might still be visible at the affiliate site.

The ideal solution therefore is to use an affiliate cloaking tool.