"Would affiliates using link masking software eliminate the link popularity
benefits of using Ultimate
Affiliate Package and Little
Salesman affiliate programs that point toward an affiliate program
on the merchant's site? -- Paul Willard, Advanta
Corp.
Affiliate link cloaking programs (see Doctor
Ebiz, 3/19/03 issue), such as Jim Edwards' Affiliate
Link Cloaker, probably do prevent search engine robots from
indexing an HTML link to the merchant's site. The link masking program
that I use employs several techniques to protect the link from visibility
and tampering:
Converts all URLs to their equivalent hexadecimal codes.
Employs JavaScript rather than standard HTML to execute the webpage.
Places the affiliate site within a frame, effectively hiding the destination
URL from view.
Both JavaScript and frames can disrupt search engine indexing. I sympathize
with merchants who have affiliate programs, since this can lessen their
link popularity. But affiliates are desperate to keep their commissions
from being hijacked. A merchant's main consolation is that most affiliates
probably don't employ affiliate link cloaking -- only those who
are serious about earning affiliate commissions.
