The Majority of Affiliates Do Not Cloak Links
Affiliates were asked “Do you cloak/redirect links?” for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.
The majority of respondents, at 59%, said no, and the remaining 41% indicated they do cloak their links.
I’ve been cloaking affiliate links for as long as I can remember – first through meta redirects, then via an .htaccess file, before I moved on to using a WordPress plugin called Pretty Link.
I also came across another useful affiliate redirect WordPress Plugin called ThirstyAffiliates last fall.
Additionally, I use bit.ly Pro, which is a free service that enables me to use my own domain to make redirect links. I use aff.bz there.
Over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.
More details on AffStat at http://affstat.com/.
View full post on Affiliate Marketing Blog
Cloak has negative connotations for sure, redirect would be more neutral, and would be a more well known terms IMHO. You could even split test the language showing half of respondents one question and half the other.
Maybe a lot of newbies answered the survey. Maybe I’ll change the wording next time to just redirect and drop cloak. I wonder if people think cloak sounds sinister?
That result surprises me because when I’m out and about I find more cloaked links than straight links on affiliate sites. I truly had the perception that well more than half of affiliates were cloaking.