Internet Business Blog

Text Link Ads have quietly switched from using TinyURLs as affiliate links with a JavaScript-based solution that obfuscates your raw affiliate URLs. I say quietly because I’ve not yet received any communication about it from Text Link Ads informing me about the changeover, but they’re right there in the TLA control panel as graphical banners, text links and RSS buttons.

To an affiliate, obfuscation can be a useful tool as it disguises raw affiliate links and prevents hijacking (when people remove or replace your referral ID before making a purchase meaning you don’t get any credit for the sale), but this particular implementation seems pointless as the raw affiliate URL is displayed in plain text in the web browser’s status bar when you hover over one of these new links.

Up until a few days ago, your TLA affiliate links were presented to you as TinyURLs. Now, logging into your Text Link Ads affiliate section, you’ll be presented with a variety of different options for where your affiliate links actually lead to. Choices include the TLA home page, $100 promotion page or the package details page of one of your own inventory websites.

Whilst this might seem like an improvement, the format of the links restrict them to being displayed in web pages only. I can’t figure out why an option for a plain text link allowing the affiliate some modicum of control has been omitted. This new JavaScript-based system isn’t email friendly, has to be displayed on a web page, doesn’t prevent hijacking and obviously isn’t going to work very well in a non-JavaScript environment.

Here’s the code for a typical, new-styled TLA affiliate link:

<script type="text/javascript">
function affiliateLink(str){ str = unescape(str); var r = '';
for(var i = 0; i < str.length; i++) r +=
String.fromCharCode(7^str.charCodeAt(i));document.write(r);}
affiliateLink('%3Bf%27ouba%3A%25ossw%3D%28%28ppp%29sb%7Fs*
knil*fct%29dhj%28tsfusbuXlns%29wow8uba%3A40127%259%23677%27
ni%27AUBB%27Knilt%3B%28f9');
</script>

I would have used one of my new TLA affiliate links in this post, but they don’t appear to display properly in WordPress either however, I did manage to extract the link by right-clicking on the above when it’s displayed in a browser and copying the link.

If you fancy $100 of free text link advertising, give Text Link Ads a try.

If you had to update all of your old style TLA links on your WordPress blog to the TinyURL format using SQL then it’s time to start controlling your own links with your own redirects rather than relying on third party services.

Technorati Tags: Text Link Ads, TLA, Affiliate Marketing