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Protect your commissions

Associate Programs Newsletter #205

Today, a bit reluctantly, I'm discussing the theft of affiliate commissions and ways you can stop it.

I recommend different approaches - for merchants and for affiliates.

CONTENTS:

1. How affiliate merchants are failing us
2. Here's the bad news about protecting commissions
3. Affiliate Link Cloaker has flaw, too
4. The neat but imperfect solution I use - meta refreshes
5. Other anti-theft options
6. Why .htaccess redirects are better than meta refreshes
7. The best way to stop losing commissions?
8. NEXT ISSUE: More ways to use http://namesstick.com
9. Keep it simple when using SBI!
10. Popular articles you may have missed
11. Thought for today: Invest in self-education

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1. How affiliate merchants are failing us
=============================================

Affiliate merchants make it far too easy for some affiliates to hijack commissions.

I've mostly avoided this topic because I feared that writing about it would encourage more thefts of commissions.

At least four products aimed at protecting affiliate commissions are now being promoted on the Web.

The real action to deal with this problem should be coming from affiliate merchants.

One way for merchants to protect affiliates is to tell affiliates they're not allowed to buy a product through their own link. (Are you listening, ClickBank?)

And they should follow up by actually STOPPING such purchases from proceeding. They can offer their affiliates a discount instead. My favorite affiliate program does this.

Not convinced? Do you think you SHOULD be allowed to buy a product through your own affiliate link?

If so, I hope I can change your mind.

Here's how Alex Carroll of http://www.RadioPublicity.com explains why his affiliates aren't allowed to click on their own links to buy products.

He says that being able to earn commissions on your own purchases undermines the entire structure of an affiliate program:

"What if all your referrals were to sign up as affiliates just so they could get a 50% discount on their personal purchases?" Alex says.

"You'd never receive any commissions! It's pretty simple, but most people never think to look at it that way.

"It must be structured the way it is in order to protect the affiliates who put a lot of effort into generating referrals."

I hope that one day all affiliate merchants will see the sense in this.

While we're waiting, let's look at things affiliates can do...

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2. Here's the bad news about protecting commissions
======================================================

If you're an affiliate using new products designed to stop the theft of affiliate commissions, there's good and bad news.

The good news: The products WILL make commission thefts less likely.

The bad news: The techniques are not perfect.

In the last issue of this newsletter, I reviewed ClickBankGuard
- http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/protect-commissions .

It's a good system and I'm sure it will help you receive more of the commissions you've earned. That link above is "protected" using ClickBankGuard, which uses JavaScript to encrypt affiliate links.

Unfortunately, ClickBankGuard won't stop every thief.

In ClickBank-tracked programs, purchasers can still hijack the commission, depriving the affiliate of a commission and buying the product at a discount.

Jeff McCall of thesuccesslibrary.co.uk wrote to me pointing out a flaw which I hadn't noticed. There's still one stage in the buying process where the system is vulnerable.

Thieves don't need to be sophisticated to exploit this security hole.

I won't describe how, because I don't want to help people steal commissions from you.

I asked Ellery Coleman, who created ClickBankGuard, to comment.

"There is almost always a way around security measures," Ellery says. "The trick is to make it too much trouble, uninviting, and/or risky to do so. And Click Bank Guard does a good job of that."

Ellery says he has told ClickBank what needs to be done so that in conjunction with ClickBankGuard it will be nearly impregnable.

"With ClickBankGuard, it will only require a slight modification on their part. If they will cooperate, this hole can be closed."

Despite the chink in its armor, I like the way this web-based system works.

ClickBankGuard:

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/protect-commissions

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3. Affiliate Link Cloaker has flaw, too
==============================================

A similar option for affiliates is Jim Edwards' new Affiliate Link Cloaker, which uses hexidecimal code to encode affiliate links.

That's easier to decode than the Click Bank Guard system, but I imagine only a very small proportion of people would bother trying.

Like Click Bank Guard, it uses a zero-frame so, to the visitor, it appears as though they're still on your site.

Most - but not all - affiliate merchants will allow this. If you're planning to use either of these techniques, you'll need to check affiliate agreements to see if they ban framing the merchant's site.

Unlike the web-based Click Bank Guard, Affiliate Link Cloaker is software you download and install on your PC.

Jim says that in his testing his hexadecimal code was more stable than JavaScript.

He agrees with me that Affiliate Link Cloaker suffers from the same problem as Click Bank Guard. It's not 100 perfect.

However, it should stop most commission thefts and thus pay for itself many times over.

It comes with useful bonuses.

Affiliate Link Cloaker:

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/cloaker

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4. The neat but imperfect solution I use - meta refreshes
===================================================

For about three years I've been using meta refreshes to make affiliate links less obvious and to shorten long links.

A meta refresh is a simple bit of HTML code which automatically redirects your visitor to another page (your affiliate URL).

It provides a tidy way of presenting affiliate links in newsletters.

It probably helps reduce commission bypassing and commission hijacking.

A big advantage of using meta refreshes is that if merchants change their affiliate links, I can change links on dozens of pages quickly and easily by altering only one file.

One problem is that some search engines don't like meta refreshes because they're frequently used for unsavory purposes.

Although I have top rankings in Google and HotBot with pages that contain several meta refreshes, I haven't achieved good rankings at AltaVista for a long time.

I suspect AltaVista is penalizing sites that use meta refreshes.

If you use this technique, use it with caution.

I once goofed badly.

I placed a file in the wrong directory on the server. As a result, for about six hours all the traffic arriving at the AssociatePrograms.com front page was automatically whisked away to an affiliate merchant. Whoops!

Here's a good description of how to use meta refreshes:
http://www.davesite.com/webstation/html/chap15.shtml

This About.com article mentions some disadvantages:
http://html.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa080300a.htm

[UPDATE: I now use either .htaccess redirects or ad-tracking software.]

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5. Other anti-theft options
================================

Other options for affiliates that have an anti-theft element in
them include:

* URL redirection service. You can use free services or buy a unique domain name for each affiliate program you join. Try a search at Google: http://google.com/search?q=url+redirection .
URL redirection makes affiliate links less obvious, so this will reduce some commission thefts.

* A web-based ad tracking service such as Mark Joyner's ROIbot which is a whole suite of marketing tools. The ad tracking link initially hides the affiliate link, reducing thefts.
[UPDATE: ROIbot is no longer available.]

* An ad tracking script such as Prolinkz. That's the one we use at http://www.LifetimeCommissions.com . Like ROIbot, it hides the affiliate link as well as being useful for tracking. It has the advantage that it doesn't promote someone's else's domain. You can learn more here: http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/prolinkz .

* JavaScript redirect. Because this initially hides the affiliate link, it should reduce commission thefts.

* Here's a non-technical solution. Build a good rapport with your potential customers. Provide helpful, reliable information. If they like and trust you, they'll be happy to click on your affiliate link so that you earn a commission.

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6. Why .htaccess redirects are better than meta refreshes
==================================================

Here's a neat way to deal with affiliate links.

You've probably heard of using .htaccess files in connection with implementing custom "404 page not found" pages or password protected directories.

You can also use .htaccess files to redirect short, neat links to clumsy, long affiliate links.

Michael Campbell, who is the author of Clickin It Rich in which he describes how he earns $200,000 a year profit from affiliate programs, has been using .htaccess files for affiliate redirects.

An .htaccess file is a plain ASCII text file you place in the root directory of a Unix server.

Michael does continual experiments with search engine rankings, so I asked him if using an .htaccess file is better for search engine optimization than meta refreshes.

He says it is.

"The .htaccess is much easier than using meta refreshes, there's no HTML required. Everything is in one place, in one text file. If an affiliate program goes down, or a new one comes up, it's easy to open the file in a text editor, make the changes and FTP it up to the web. If your text editor is really cool like BBEdit, you can make the changes live, on the server, without needing to FTP.

"As for being better in search engine optimization, I would say yes. Due to abuse of meta and JavaScript refreshes, most engines give pages containing redirects a 'bait and switch' penalty. Pages using .htaccess for redirects are not penalized in the same way.

"Don't get me wrong though, the search engine knows when it has been redirected by an .htaccess file. It even gets a little note saying the file was found elsewhere. I have pages that contain up to five redirects (in among other regular links) and they still do very well in the search engines. Some even rank in the top 10.

"I'm sure if every link on the page was redirected by the .htaccess file, it would send up a few red flags and get penalized by the engines. The page would probably be tagged as having little value, if all links were found elsewhere. But used in moderation, the engines don't seem to mind .htaccess redirects as much as meta or JavaScript refreshes," Michael says.

Disclaimer: I'm not a geek. I've learned just enough techie stuff to be dangerous. If you're going to change an existing .htaccess file, please tread carefully. Make a copy of the original file and store it away safely. Then if you make any mistakes you'll at least be able to upload the original file.