Mastering Google Adwords?

Lets be honest here, Google is certainly one of biggest players as far as search engines go. The results returned by Google are fairly accurate, and while we take them for granted we cannot forget about all days of work that must have gone into algorithms that sort wheat from chaf. As this must have cost them some serious money, it would have been unfair to expect Google to keep paid advertisers from their site and it was only a matter of time before paid advertising became an option.

Getting Balance Right

One of problems associated with adding paid for listings to search results is that you can't simply hide paid for links into results of a search term. In early days of cost per click searches it was often companies with deepest pockets that were guaranteed top spot for a term. The only thing such companies had to prove was that keyword was relevant to term, if of course advert had to be reviewed before going live.

Search engines that offer paid for and free listings should really differentiate between two types of link. I know that whenever I've used a traditional pay per click search engine top few paid for terms aren't always relevant to what I was looking for, so I like to know before I click on a link if it was paid for or not.

Paid for results are fine, so long as visitors are aware they are paid for. Any pay per click engine that clearly makes distinction between two keeps some of its credibility by declaring its interest in a particular link.

Google Adwords Select

I'll admit I wasn't surprised when I heard that Google was offering a new cost per click program (Adwords Select); it was only a matter of time. However, having read through way program works, I was pleasantly surprised. Google's approach to their pay per click program is way forward, not only does it filter out obvious spammers in real time, but it can cut needless costs to advertisers while maximizing their own revenue!

There is a $5 setup fee if you want to use Adwords Select program, and minimum charge for a click is 5 cents. While this can work out cheaper than normal Adwords program that is based on cost per number of impressions, it is still enough to keep some of much smaller web site owners out of game as it were.

You've most likely seen them in ezines, websites, etc. and quite possibly clicked on a few of them. If you've been in affiliate marketing you might have even used them yourself... or at least you should have. Because it can save you both time and money.

What I'm talking about are cloaked affiliate links. That is, small HTML files that hide your referral ID, username, member #, etc... and/or shorten full URL.

How Do They Work? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Usually HTML file you use to cloak your affiliate URL forwards user to actual affiliated website just moments after clicking your cloaked link (or entering it into web browser). The HTML file can also be frame-based, meaning that it will put affiliate URL in an invisible frame so user will only see URL to your cloaked link and not URL of website you are directing user to.

What Is The Purpose? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many dishonest people will do anything they can to prevent affiliate marketers from getting their commission for their hard work. When people see a link that they recognize as an affiliate link they might cut your username off and buy directly from website or even worse, they might replace your username with theirs and take your commission.

Also, some people might be uncomfortable clicking on a link they recognize as an affiliate link.

What link would you rather click on: http://www.madisondynamics.com/index.php?13523.artcl or http://www.workathomemadeeasy.net/recommended/madison.html

Tests have shown that up to 30% of all affiliate commissions are STOLEN by people who replace with their own link to "buy at a discount" and it's a serious problem.

How Can You Prevent That? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If service you are affiliated with uses cookies or other tracking devices using a cloaked link that refreshes to affiliate URL should make sure that you get commission/ referral you deserve. Because once user clicks your cloaked link and is redirected to your affiliate URL a cookie with your referral ID is saved on user's computer and user should be less likely to succeed in stealing your commission.

Here is a sample of HTML code you can use to create a HTML file that refreshes to your affiliate URL:

<#html> <#head> <#title>Loading... please wait<#/title> <#meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.YourAffiliateURL.com"> <#/head>

<#body> <#p><#b><#font size="+1">Loading... please wait<#/font><#/b><#/p> <#p>If you are not redirected in 10 seconds <#a href="http://www.YourAffiliateURL.com" rel="nofollow">click here<#/a>.<#/p> <#/body> <#/html>

Just replace "http://www.YourAffiliateURL.com" with referral URL your affiliate program gave you.

However, if your affiliate service/program doesn't use cookies or if you're not sure, it would be safer for you to use framed cloaked links because then user won't see your full affiliate URL and won't be able to cut off your referral ID.

Here is a sample of HTML code you can use to create a HTML file that puts your affiliate URL into an invisible frame:

<#html> <#head> <#title>Name of your affiliate program<#/title> <#/head>

<#frameset rows="100%,*" frameborder="NO" border="0" framespacing="0"> <#frame src="http://www.YourAffiliateURL.com" name="mainFrame" border=0> <#frame border=0 scrolling="NO" noresize> <#/frameset> <#noframes><#body> <#/body><#/noframes> <#/html>

(Note from author: In order for HTML code to be seen correctly I've added "#" signs. If you intend on using this code just remove "#" signs.)

Just replace "http://www.YourAffiliateURL.com" with referral URL your affiliate program gave you. You should also change title to actual name of your affiliate program or something else you think is appropriate.

You should know though that people will always be trying to get passed cloaked links so there is never a 100% way of ensuring your rightful commissions. But using cloaked links will definitely decrease chance of you losing out on a commission.

But How Can It Save You Time? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now that we have seen how cloaking your links can save you money how can it save you time?

Well, I realized this recently when I decided to drop out of a certain affiliate program. I had been promoting this program on several places on internet and URL I was promoting was a cloaked link I had created on my domain.

You can understand that I no longer wanted to promote a program I was not affiliated with any more. So I was looking forward to at least a half hour of searching internet for places where I had put a link to this program and either change it or delete it.