Link Shortener Tool Strategies

URL Masking refers to the process of hiding the actual domain of a site from the address bar of a users web browser. This really is commonly done by affiliate marketers to avoid site visitors from removing affiliate tracking codes from a URL to be sure the affiliate earns their commissions. Another reason affiliates do this is to keep other affiliates from replacing the tracking codes from the URL and "stealing" or "hijacking" the commission.

There are multiple ways you implement URL masking for your links. Some methods are certainly technical and require basic programming experience while other methods use software tools called link cloakers. For many affiliates, link cloaking tools will be the preferred method because they are simple to use and offer more features then just masking a URL.

Using iFrames - This technique is fairly easy and may also be accomplished by most website owners. Here's the way you do it: Make a web page and add the necessary iframe html coding. You will need to change the URL of the src attribute to the URL of the domain of the web page to be displayed within the browser. Then, upload this file to your web server and you are done. There are several downsides of this method including you won't get click tracking, sales tracking and you will have no way to meaure how well the link is converting. In addition, you need to own the site because you are going to need to upload this page to your web server for it to work. Next, just copy the link that goes to this page and then you can distribute it on blogs, social marketing sites, emails and any other location you typically place your links.

Using FRAMESETS - this technique can also be easy, but like iFrames, it lacks any added features like sales or click tracking, reporting and requires you to own the web page which hides the link. Here's how you do it: Make a web page and add the required frameset html tags and change the src attribute URL within the the short url of the net page to be displayed within the browser. Then, upload this file to your web server. Like iFrames, you are going to must have access to the web server to post this file. Next, just copy the link that goes to this page and after that you can distribute it on blogs, social marketing sites, emails and every other location you typically place your links.

Using Link Cloaker Software - this really is by far the best way to hide your URL because you usually will not need to edit code directly. When selecting a link cloaker, you definitely will want to find one that includes critical features including Intelligent cloaking, click tracking, sales tracking, a link command center to edit your links and has multiple cloaking methods to deal with all of your masking needs. You will find several popular tools you can get including SafeLinkCloaker.com which is quite popular among super affiliates.

Now that you have learned around three of the best URL Masking methods, you will need to ascertain which method or combination of methods work best for you. When you are struggling to choose which method could be best for you, I encourage you to consider a link cloaker tool. These are by far the simplest and fastest ways to mask your URLs.