There are many ways to earn an honest buck using the Internet, while others just try to find the best deals possible. There was a time when people that were surfing the Net were more prone to click on the affiliate links and buy stuff without thinking too much of it. Not it seems that the things are a little bit different, due to the fact that the prices are higher than they were before and some people try to “Hijack” the commissions by replacing the ID of the affiliate links with their ID.

There are also cases when the hijacker will replace your ID from the link. The visitors will be redirected to the plain URL and buy the products they find there, without even seeing your ID (it would look like www.productdomain . com). In both cases, you will loose your commission.

Here are few tips that could help any affiliate business to fight back those "hijackers" and prevent them to ever "chop" your affiliate link. Those are great tips, but if someone really tries to steal your commission, it might succeed, finally.

TIP #1
You can use a java script redirect page in order to hide the affiliate link. Here is where your affiliate link can be found and the customers can have access to your products. This is a great way to avoid a maximum exposure of your affiliate link in emails or ezine ads, until the customer is redirected to the true affiliate link, where your ID is also viewable.

Even if the hijackers can finally access your affiliate link, they will not access it directly from your websites or newsletters.  The free redirect scripts are available usually with free java scripts.

TIP #2
You can also use a zero-frame that will hide the affiliate link and give the impression that you redirect people to one of the pages of your website.  This method is used by the redirect services as “sub-domains” and you will be given an URL. 

TIP #3
The most effective way to protect you affiliate links is to use affiliate link cloaker software. Visitors will be redirected to something that looks like your web page but pulls in the affiliate link such as the sub-folder services.

Therefore, never send a “naked” link through the affiliate programs. There are always hijackers waiting for this, and they might take your commission without you eve being aware of it.

About the author: Jon Benson is a web hosting specialist whose latest ecommerce project is green hosting.