Affiliate link cloaking is not an obligation, but it is strongly recommended in order to ensure optimum success for your affiliate marketing venture. Today, commission theft is one of the most common fears among affiliate marketers. Those who are not aware of link cloaking or commission theft might just wonder why they are earning so low despite so many efforts. If you are using the right strategies and working hard to promote the product you are selling but are still not getting the desired income, you are probably a victim of commission theft or affiliate link hijacking.

Are You A Victim Of Commission Theft?

When you do not clock your links, anybody can easily recognize that it is actually an affiliate link - and this is where the problem begins. The common trend is that people do not want to click on an affiliate link. Even if you have done the best marketing and the user is convinced that purchasing the product will be a beneficial deal for them, they will hesitate clicking on the affiliate link. There are two reasons for this. First, they really don't like the fact that a middleman will get a commission because of the purchase they make. So, what they do is that they themselves sign up for that affiliate program and then make the purchase using their own affiliate link. This type of activity is nothing but a kind of commission theft, but you obviously cannot sue the user for it.

The second reason why most users hesitate in clicking on an affiliate link is that these links look ugly, unusually long, and very complicated. They find it very hard to decide whether it is a link to a genuine website or to a Spam one. They fear that clicking on such links will open the doors for viruses, spyware, or other malicious programs to enter their personal computer. They simply do not want to take any chance.

The only solution to these problems is to cloak your affiliate links. Cloaking gives your links, a better look. The links become attractive, inviting people to click on them. At the same time, cloaking makes it difficult for a person to identify whether it is actually an affiliate link. This way, the fear of commission theft is also substantially minimized.

However, make sure that you do not use any free scripts that are widely available on Internet to cloak your links. Most of them are Spams. In order to keep things smooth and secure for you, the best bet for you is to go for a reputed paid cloaker software program.