A standard ClickBank HopLink has the next format:
http://affiliateID.vendorID.hop.clickbank.net/
You can easily create such HopLink if you know a vendor’s ID.
But, in April 2009 ClickBank announced ClickBank HopLink Shield. It produces an encoded version of HopLink that has no vendor ID in it. Since May 2009, it is only possible to create encoded HopLinks on the ClickBank website. However, you still may create unencoded HopLinks as specified above.
As stated on the ClickBank website:
"* Please note that all older formats of HopLinks are still valid and will continue to be tracked."
Why did people at ClickBank have decided to encode HopLinks?
The most common reason is to secure affiliates from their commissions to be stolen.
When another affiliate or even a customer (it is easy to create a ClickBank account) sees unencoded HopLink, he knows which vendor is being promoted and can buy through his own HopLink. In this case, the initial affiliate won’t receive the commission.
But if the initial affiliate used the encoded HopLink, it would be harder (however, still possible) to "stole" his commission.
Until ClickBank HopLink Shield was implemented, smart affiliates used another services to cloak their HopLinks. So, it is good that ClickBank has created its own:
- ClickBank HopLink Shield is free
- You don’t have to worry about your links’ expiration and uptime
How to create an encoded HopLink with CBGraph?
Step 1. Find a vendor.
Step 2. Click on the link "shield" near to the ClickBank ID.
Step 3. Specify your ClickBank Nickname and optionally some Tracking ID, click on the "Create" button.
Step 4. And you will get your encoded HopLink.
The field "Tracking ID" is optional. But you should fill it if you want to track the sources of your sales. You don’t have to create different HopLinks for many Tracking IDs. Create only one HopLink and you can replace "?tid=" part in it as many times as you wish.
It is the end of my review of ClickBank HopLink Shield. I strongly recommend you to use it to encode your HopLinks.
Category: ClickBank
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