Link Dilemma

January 20, 2008 on 12:48 am | In Questions and Comments | 3 Comments

Tony,

As a ‘newbee’ I am confused (even though I have read your book thoroughly) about how to reconcile the dilemma of DISPLAY URL vss DESTINATION URL.

I do not have a website of my own, but I am trying to follow your point that you really don’t need one to make this system work.

Most of the advertisers that I have looked at (and tried to write ad copy for) clearly state that you CANNOT use any of the URLs that would link your ad to a specific page on their website (by using the URL that is directly relevant to the ad you just wrote). How can I rectify this issue? In your book you said that nothing frustrates a would-be customer more than to be shuffled around back and forth on a website and never find what they are looking for. I don’t want to put the code that CJ provides to track my traffic (i.e. http://www.xxxxfrw.com/click-1234567-1234567) at the bottom of my ad copy because it really doesn’t TELL the person anything…it doesn’t seem legitimate to me…In fact, as a shopper myself I would shy away from a link that didn’t ’sound’ like it’s what I’m looking for. Maybe I’m just not getting how this all works.

I hope that I am clear in explaining this issue. I have been wracking my brain (and losing sleep, I might add) over this for about two weeks.

I really want to have long standing business relationships with the advertisers that I am interested in, but I certainly DO NOT want to even hint at trademark or copyright issues.

I want to make this business succeed, so how can I proceed?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Craig

3 Comments »

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  1. Craig,

    I am not sure which of three common problems you are having, so I will describe and solve all three.

    1. Affiliate Programs Not Allowing Direct Search – Since writing Affiliate Millions, a number of websites – but not all, by any means – no longer allow you to link to their sites directly from search engines or content networks, and instead expect you to run their ads only on a site of your own. If this is the problem you are having, you will need to find a different program.  Amazon.com still allows direct search, for instance, and I highly recommend them to beginners as an excellent program to learn about selling all kinds of products, with all your diverse efforts contributing to a combined performance goal.

    2. Affiliate Programs Allowing Direct Search, but Prohibit use of Main Landing Page – A small number of programs (Monster.com used to be one of them, I’m not sure if they still are or not) allow direct search, but prohibit the use of their main domain name. Monster.com, for instance, once insisted I use MonsterHiring.com or MonsterBoard.com in my ads, instead of Monster.com. If this sounds like what the program you are working with is trying to tell you, you need to find their alternate address or addresses.

    3. Confusion Between Tracking Domain and Final Destination Domain – Some people I have talked to erroneuosly believe that because the destination URL is something like http://www.xxxxfrw.com/click-1234567-1234567, that the display URL must then read: http://www.xxxfrw.com. It is the domain which the link code leads to, however, that actually belongs in the display URL. Google will allow this, don’t worry. They are interested only in the user perspective, i.e. that a user who clicks on an ad for Amazon actually winds up at amazon, as long as any tracking domains visited first are fast re-directs that the user doesn’t see.

    If your problem didn’t call into one or more of these three catagories, or if my answers aren’t making sense to you, please email me at affiliatesupport@affiliatemillions.com with more details and I am sure I can help you out.

    Tony

    Comment by Administrator — January 21, 2008 #

  2. Tony,
    Thank you for responding so quickly to my concerns. I believe that my situation is most like number 3. Only, I could use a little more clarification…perhaps I’m ‘thick’, so please bear with me. When I’m putting the infomation in Google for my ad (I’m going to use MacMall as my subject, since I’m currently running an ad for them). They have (at least as I see it in their “Usage Recommendations”) very strict guidlines about what they will and will not allow in ads. And I have had a heck-of-a-time trying to figure out just how a person could write an ad that makes any sense to someone looking for Macintosh products without using any Macintosh verbage. If you look at their usage recommendations they mention in #2 that “Affiliates cannot use MacMall.com, http://www.macmall.com, http://www.MacMall.com, or any domain owned by MacMall.com for any URL listings within paid search placement or mask URLs with the MacMall.com URL.” Does that mean that I cannot use the MacMall.com in the “Display URL” box? but only the obscure http://www.Anrdoezrs.net/click-1234567-123?

    Also, when you bid on a keyword how many times do you pay that bid price? I have looked in your book and can’t find anything that addresses that particular question. Do you pay it over and over, depending on click traffic?

    Thanks again for your patience with all of us new guys.

    Craig

    Comment by craigpfall — January 21, 2008 #

  3. Craig,

    Your situation actually sounds to me most like #1. MacMall basically wants you to place their ads on a site you own, and not on search engines.

    As for how many times you pay the bid price (or less) it is on a per click basis, up to your budget amount.

    Tony

    Comment by Administrator — January 27, 2008 #

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