I’m sure by now, many readers have noticed many sites using cloak link plugins to hiding their links when they point out to another site.
When I heard for first time about this cloaking to hide affiliate links, I’m was wondering whether it’s a good idea and why, there was need to mask my own links.
I’ve already talked about a cloack wp plugin that allows you to mask your affiliate link, but today I want give you a few possible reason why people using these software to redirected their link.
Why People Using Link Cloak Plugin?
First to all, we need define what is link cloaking. well, an affiliate link on a Web page looks like this:
http://yoursite.com/refer.php?id=34573
These type of link, sometimes, can be too long which can make them ugly and difficult to work with, and many people(especially affiliate marketers) want to mask the link in order to simplify the URL and make it more friendly. Here that link cloaking come into play.
Clearly, like anything else, there are pros and cons, so here, a list of reasons why people do (or don’t) cloak links on their sites.
1. Link can’t be visible – The downside is that the readers when they hover their mouse over a link, they can’t see where they’re going to go once it’s clicked. For example put your cursor over these words. This link tell you where you’re going.
2. Ease of change - It’s useful when you link your pages to sites with related articles. Can happen that for some reason a few of these sites disappear without warning. In this case, all you have to do is to change your link url and point elsewhere, in pages with the same information.
3. Get Short URLs - Thus, people do not chop off your affiliate ID.
4. Url easy to remember – If someone ask you something about your website (for example the url of a page of your site), it more easy give out the affiliate link, than the original affiliate link.
There are no doubt other reasons why people mask their link, but I believe these are the main. However, if you have other points to add, please feel free to leave any comments.
