I would say that 85% of all new affiliate marketers pick their affiliate ID without thinking about how it will look to others. They don't seem to realize that it will be seen by thousands of people.I have seen affiliate "handles" that have made me stop everything just for a good laugh! Only last week I saw "spankme" and "angeleyes." Well, one of them is a bit better than other. I'll leave it to you to decide which :)
I suggest that when you are given choice to pick your own affiliate name that you choose something a little more professional. Use a variation of your last name or even your first name with another word added on. Like "mynamebiz" or something similar.
Ideally, your affiliate link should not even be seen by newsletter ad or website readers. There are several disadvantages to letting your affiliate link be seen:
* The affiliate link is usually very long. If you advertise in an ezine, affiliate link may not fit within 60 characters allowed for line length. The newsletter publisher may not want to publish an ad for that reason, and normally will have guidelines allowing him to delete ad.
* For some reason, when a reader realizes that link is an affiliate link, they won't click on it. He will just select first part of link (http://affiliatesite.com) and leave off your affiliate ID. Result? No commission.
* When a savvy website visitor wishes to purchase your affiliate product, she will substitute her own affiliate ID in place of yours. Here result is that SHE receives YOUR commission - and purchases product at a discount!
Your best bet is to "hide" your affiliate link using one of following methods:
1. Create your own redirect pages. To do this, create a new blank page using your web page editor of choice. If program is "what you see is what you get," you'll need to switch to code view. Delete any code that appears and cut and paste following into your page:
Redirecting... One moment please while we redirect you...