What is link cloaking?

It is generally advised that if you are using affiliate links that you cloak them so that they are not obviously an affiliate link.

Some not very nice people out there will notice by hovering over the link and checking the task bar at the bottom of the screen, then change your link to theirs, and then of course collect the commission.

Also, some people just don’t like clicking on affiliate links for various reasons. Cloaking the following way will make it seem as if the link is part of your site.

When we talk about affiliate links Clickbank links come to mind as not only are they ugly but they are also very obvious.

Here is an example:

http://h30b2bgi19sb5v5ayu84uu7q85.hop.clickbank.net/ (Note: don’t click on this as it is not an active link but an example)

Here is a cloaked alternative:

http://yoururl.com/uses/xxxx.php

How do you make that cloaked link? Here is one way to do it that most people can do.

Read the rest of this entry

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I recently wrote about using Jing for screen capture  - “Use Jing And Capture Anything You See On Your Computer Screen and Share”

TechSmith, the makers of Jing have been improving their product and you can now create HD screencasts, very easily, and upload that HD quality direct to YouTube.

This is so easy and takes away most of the technical problems of getting a video on YouTube, and of course your blog, website etc.

This is for users of Jing Pro but as I mentioned before is only $14.95 a year.

You can watch the very short video about this here:

Create HD Quality Video For YouTube

As before, this is not an affiliate link (TechSmith don’t do affiliate).

I like this and I hope you find it useful.

Technorati Tags: Affiliate Link, Affiliates, Blog, Computer Screen, Hd, Jing, Screen Capture, Share Tips, Upload, Youtube

Last Thursday was the latest (4th) of the Alex Jeffreys modules which was about Social Media and how to drive traffic to your blog.

Start time for me is at midnight and to make things a little more interesting we were out in the forest having a weekend family gathering (compulsory!).
So, a bit behind at the moment  but the boss said no computer business this last weekend (you know how it is).

However, with the help of my old laptop and the G3 “dongle”, I managed to make contact over the high trees and join the Live Coaching call.

And I am very glad I did as the content of this call from Alex was first class.

This call was all about getting traffic using Social Media.

As we all know no traffic means no list and no list means no business, so this was definitely worth listening to.

First point made was that blogs do attract Traffic.

Suggested ways to build traffic are :-

• Show an interest in people
• tell them what you are doing
• tell people how to do it
• provide good content
• leave comments on other blogs
• provide value on other peoples’ blogs and get some of their traffi
• JVs
• get involved with Twitter
• use Youtube
• review other blogs.

Alex used the analogy of oil rigs and fish. Man made structures(oil rigs) attract small fish, which in turn attract bigger fish, which also attract…………….and so o

This was used to explain that traffic building starts small and builds up over time.

This is started by taking a look at other blogs in your niche and making VALUE comments. By adding your signature to your comments, which should include a link to your blog, you will also receive traffic in return, if your comments are VALUE COMMENTS.

You can also add comments to the “big blogs” as well but you must, yes you’ve got it, add VALUE otherwise your comment will just be deleted.

Technorati Tags: Alex Jeffreys, Analogy, Blog, Boss, Build Traffic, Computer Business, drive traffic, First Class, Fish Man, G3, Internet Marketing, Last Thursday, Live Coaching, Niche, Oil Rigs, Old Laptop, Signature, Small Fish, Traffi, Traffic Building, Trees