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Saturday, July 22, 2006

Protecting Yourself From Affiliate Link Thieves


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So, you have worked really hard to build a fabulous affiliate site. You took the time to add your keywords and relevant information about the products. Your pages load quickly, and your site is even listed in the search engines for specified terms. You look at your stats, and you see a regular flow of traffic coming into your site. You get really excited! You log in to your affiliate program manager, and.... WHAMO! You have very few commissions from sales, and your click-throughs are extremely low. Suddenly, you are asking yourself, "what the heck happened here??" The answer... You might possibly be the victim of affiliate link hijacking!

In this revolving world of the Internet, we are constantly being bombarded by spammers, spyware, viruses, and hackers. Now, we have to worry about link hijackers stealing commissions that are rightfully ours. So, what is link hijacking and how do you prevent it?

Fine. Your intense drive to explore more would be rewarded further. Get an added advantage by reading further.

In the simplest terms, link hijacking occurs when someone replaces their affiliate ID with yours. The result? They get the commission instead of you. You did all that work, but someone else is getting paid? Yes! You may be wondering how this happens. Let me explain. I first heard about this phenomenon while visiting various discussion boards on affiliate marketing. Many affiliates had experienced a decline in sales while their site's traffic stats remained high. Common discussions found in affiliate forums include various software programs which "steal" information. Many of these programs download themselves onto a person's computer, either knowingly or unknowingly. These programs can override your affiliate links each time the customer visits your site, therefore giving credit to someone else. Many times, people download packaged programs that contain these types of software. The innocent surfer may not even realize they have a program running in the background. Anyone who takes part in the Internet community, whether it be a webmaster or a surfer, should stay informed about these programs by visiting parasiteware.com on a regular basis.

Link hijacking comes in various forms... not just from downloads. Let's say your affiliate link looks like this: www.url.com/?123456 , where 123456 is your affiliate ID. A link hijacker is interested in the product and wants to purchase it. He also wants the affiliate commission from the product. He takes your ID 123456 and replaces it with his ID 999999 to look like this: www.url.com/?999999 . The result? He gets the commission from the product purchase. He modified the link to benefit himself. You lose.

Here is another example of link hijacking: A customer comes to your website and sees a link to the product that he wants to buy. When he moves the mouse over your link information, he sees your affiliate url in the status bar of his computer. Instead of clicking your affiliate link, he decides to manually type it into his address bar, leaving off the affiliate referral code: www.url.com. This results in no affiliate tracking information and no commissions for you. You lose again!

Fine. The later lines may be an embellishment. If you continue to read further, we assure that your enthusiasm in this would be reinforced.

So how much money could you be losing? I have read that an estimated 10-30% of commissions are lost due to affiliate link hijacking. Can you imagine the kind of potential revenue that you might be losing right now?

Take Action by Protecting Yourself From Revenue Loss

Okay. You could feel rewarded to examine the consequent paragraphs. Your additional curiosity in this report would be an added leverage for you.

In the constant search for new scripts and software to improve my websites, I have run into several affiliate cloaking devices. Most of them cost around $50 or more. However, I did run into one cloaking script that is free. It is called Affiliate Link Cloaker (ALC). The site owner simply asks that you subscribe to their newsletter. By golly, I love free stuff, don't you! If you are interested in learning about this script and how it works, you can visit their site at webmasterinabox.net/affiliate_link_cloaker.html . They have other scripts that you might find useful as well. Now, get out there and protect those links!

About the Author

Stephani Richardson is a work at home mother of 4 who has been actively involved with affiliate marketing and home business opportunities since December 1999. She owns and operates several business related websites including 1 Work At Home Dot Com and Business-Oppurtunities.

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The Ultimate PR Edge: Getting Reporters To Open Your E-Mails


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The Ultimate PR Edge: Getting Reporters To Open Your E-Mails

by Bill Stoller, Publisher
Free Publicity, The Newsletter for PR-Hungry Businesses
http://www.PublicityInsider.com/freepub.asp

You know that getting publicity is vital to the health of your
business. You probably also know that e-mail is the way most
publicity seekers get in touch with reporters to score that
precious coverage. Here s what you don t know: The vast
majority of e-mails sent to journalists never get read.

Bottom line: if your e-mails don t get read, you have no shot at
getting the publicity you so desperately need.

Here's how to beat the odds:

Avoiding the Spam Trap

To a spam filter, your humble e-mail pitch may appear to contain
an array of trigger words and suspicious phrases. A server that
relayed your message may be on a blacklist - a "do not open"
list of known spammers. Or perhaps the filter s having a tough
day and has decided to start blocking things arbitrarily. You
can t prevent every instance of spam blocking, but you can take
some steps to help lessen the chances of your e-mail ending up in
a black hole.

The most important step is learning how spam filters think, and
creating e-mails that avoid the usual pitfalls. Fortunately,
you ll find that -- once you can do this -- many spam triggers
are easily avoided.

Rather than taking up space here with all the how-to s, allow me
to simply direct you a terrific site on the subject:
http://www.wordbiz.com/avoidspamfilters.html

Getting Your E-Mail Opened & Read

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The stuff is meant to cater to those individuals who were all hot for newsletter. To few, it was Greek!

As a connoisseur who is looking for newsletter, only you can rather find out if this benefits. Just chew and digest all the words to get the importance of this piece of information.

After beating the spam filter, next up is getting your e-mail
opened and read. The key: the subject line. No matter how on-
the-money your pitch, a subpar subject line will kill any chance
of getting the reporter s attention. You ve got one shot at
getting your e-mail opened, make the most of it with a killer
subject line.

Here s how to do it: 1) Place the word "News" or "Press Info" or
"Story Idea" at the beginning of your e-mail subject line, in
brackets e.g.: [Story Idea]:

2) Try to incorporate the reporter's first name also at the
beginning of the subject line.

3) If you know the name of the reporter's column, for instance
"Cooking with Linda", also try to incorporate that. One more
thing -- if the reporter doesn t write a regular column, try to
at least include their beat (e.g. Joe, re: your future pieces on
the wi-fi industry).

Very well. Now that you have read till this point, we promise that furthermore you will have something exciting. Your additional curiosity in this piece of literature would be an added vantage for you.

With these three tips in mind, a successful e-mail subject line
might read:

[Story Idea]: Linda, Here's a Tip for Your "Cooking with Linda"
Column

That s a heading that will stand head and shoulders above the
rest.

Here are a few more e-mail do s and don'ts: Do:

* Make the information you place in the subject line short and
to the point. Often, reporter's e-mail software cuts off the
subject at only a few words.

* Don t get cute or be too vague in your subject line. For
example "Here s a Great Story!" is vague and sounds like spam;
"This Will Win You A Pulitzer!" will make you look silly (unless
you re delivering the scoop of the century, of course!).

* Try to make your most newsworthy points at the top of your e-
mail message - don't expect a reporter to scroll down to find the
news.

Well. Can you feel an improvement to your wisdom on newsletter? I'm sure, you must have felt it.

We have many articles on which you could read. Carry on your search to comprehend more as towards the end you'll notice more contents on .

* Include your contact information, including cell phone, e-mail
address, regular address, fax number & website URL at the
beginning and end of the e-mail.

* Include a link to your website if you have additional
information such as: photos, press releases, bios, surveys, etc.

Don t:

* Include more than a short pitch letter or press release in the
body of your e-mail.

* Allow typos or grammatical errors.

* Include an attachment with your e-mail. In this day and age of
sinister viruses, reporters automatically delete e-mail with
attachments.

* Place the following words (by themselves) in the subject line:
"Hi", "Hello" - the media's spam filters will pounce and
destroy.

* Send an e-mail with a blank subject line.

A cool tip: Use Google News (www.news.google.com) to search for
recent stories that have appeared relating to your industry or
field of interest. Then, e-mail the reporter directly (use a
subject line such as Re: Your July 5th piece on electric cars).
Give positive feedback on the story and let him know that, next
time he s working an electric car story, he should get in touch,
as you re an expert with provocative things to say. Give a
couple of supporting facts to back up the assertion, include your
phone number and web link, and ask if he d like to see a full
press kit. This technique really works!

About the Author

Bill Stoller, the "Publicity Insider", has spent two decades as
one of America's top publicists. Now, through his website, eZine
and subscription newsletter, Free Publicity: The Newsletter for
PR-Hungry Businesses http://www.PublicityInsider.com/freepub.asp
, he's sharing -- his secrets of
scoring big publicity. For free articles, killer publicity tips
, visit Bill's exclusive new site:
http://www.publicityInsider.com

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