Is it necessary to cloak an affiliate link?

[Macthetrix]

About 99% of my affiliate traffic comes from a mobile device like Android or Iphone. Im pretty new to this and the way I understand it is that people have sypware software on their Pc and everytime they click on my link it redirects them to the refferal link of the spyware so I end up losing the commision. Is this how it works? Is there spyware software like that on a mobile device and does this only work with websites or is it safe to promote the links with for example twitter, facebook or Instagram or can those be hijacked too? :ranger:

 

[WayneInc]

If you really want to protect your commission then cloak it.. you can use free plugin like pretty link...

 

[Macthetrix]

If you really want to protect your commission then cloak it.. you can use free plugin like pretty link...

Well amazon for example doesnt allow cloaking and I only use a naked link on my social networks to promote it so it should be safe or?

 

[qo-op]

it may prevent spying from affiliate link

 

[RankSnatcher]

Try to cloak your affiliate link. For Amazon you can use bit.ly URL shorten...

 

[Cleann]

No it's not necessary, but it does help.
I use them. Whenever I send out affiliate or referrer links I cloak them.

I found a pretty good website to quickly cloak them linkmasker . co
ive been using it for a while, it works pretty well. For WP you can use a plugin called pretty links.

 

[netmoney1]

I always get an easy to remember/catchy domain - people are more likely to click on that rather than an affiliate link or a shortened link. GoDaddy has so many coupons daily for 99 cent domains, etc. I would suggest you go this route - I always see much better response.

Think about if you were promoting a product, lets just call it a "red widget" - what link would you click on:

A) www . theredwidgetofferyouarepromoting . com/aff/8q7yq3r2iufihwef7we7fewh7faewh7faewhi7faewhi7fiea7hw (affiliate link)

B) sh.ort/sdaf (shortened link)

C) www . bestredwidget . com (a domain you buy)

Just something to think about...

 

[tompots]

diffidently cloak all your affiliate links!