What Is Link Masking and How Does It Work?

Imagine a mask. You wear it to conceal your real face from everyone and show them a different face. We’ve been wearing them since we were kids.

Link masking, when you think about it, isn’t really all that different.

Link masking is about covering up a link so that it looks like another link. There are a few reasons you may want to mask your links:

1. To cover up an affiliate link – Some people resist clicking on your affiliate links simply because they know you’re about to make money off them.
2. To shorten or beautify a link – Some long URLs are a pain to copy and paste anywhere else online, and a greater pain to dictate over the telephone.
3. To track clicks and stats – Link masking is often used with a reporting software (like LinkTrackr) that helps you keep track of who clicked on your links and where the clicks are coming from

Link masking is most commonly used by affiliates to cover up their long, ugly affiliate links. Instead of displaying an obvious affiliate link, you can use LinkTrackr to mask it and display a more eye-catching and less suspicious link.

Original: http://www.aweber.com/?213608

Masked: http://gobala.linktrackr.com/aweber

Plus, with LinkTrackr you can always use as many custom domains as you want, so you can mask the same affiliate link using various domains:

Custom Domain: http://gobalarecommends.com/aweber

If you’re using Twitter regularly, you can also use a shorter custom domain to fit your links into Twitter’s 140 character limit, like this:

Short Domain: http://gigurl.com/aweber

Every affiliate link you mask with custom domain drives traffic to the same affiliate link source, and all your stats are integrated within your dashboard for accurate reporting.

Should You Mask Your Affiliate Links?

A few years back, there would have been no debate as to whether you should mask your affiliate links or not. Every serious affiliate marketer did it.

Today however, some people are concerned with FTC recommendations that all affiliate links should be disclosed. However, FTC did not say that you cannot mask your links – they simply mean that you should inform people that the masked link is an affiliate link.

The easy way to do that is to have a visible disclosure policy on your blog that clearly states your affiliate relationship with products that you recommend. If you’re putting a masked link in emails, a short “This is my affiliate link” disclosure within the content of the email should be more than enough. How you do is is subjective, but just the act of disclosing affiliate links can save your ass from possible FTC inquiries.

I truly believe that people will still click on your link even if you disclose your affiliate relationship. In fact, they will click on it even more when you mask it and make more readable, as you’re actually doing them a service!

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