I become rather frustrated with leading Internet marketers when they insist on using free URL shorteners as it sets a bad example.

I recently received an email which contained a link that had been shortened using the Google URL Shortener. Because it was from an Internet marketer that I know, like and trust (and because I was also curious) I clicked on the link and saw a message that stated that the URL had been disabled.

This highlights the danger of using free URL shorteners – even Google’s. When you do this you don’t have control over your links. Even if your shortened links work in the initially there’s no guarantee that they will continue to work and, generally, you have no reliable way of testing and tracking your links.

Fortunately, this Internet marketer discovered his error and send a second email with an apology: “Sorry, in my earlier email I tried Google’s link shortener, apparently, they don’t like marketers too much. ”

However, this error could have been avoided by using a product like Easy Redirect Script.

Easy Redirect Script offers you a variety of ways to cloak your URLs both quickly and securely. When you use free URL shorteners you run the risk of people not being able to access your content and you almost certainly lose sales. When you use Easy Redirect Script you don’t run the risk of Google disabling your links or individuals not clicking on your link because they are wary of clicking shortened URLs.

Click the link below to see the variety of ways in which you can use this software:

Easy Redirect Script

And, be warned, if you insist in using free URL shorteners you will end up, needlessly, leaving money on the table.

Easy Redirect Script can be used to create what are called “Promo Redirects“.  What this allows you to do is to display additional content before you send someone who clicks on your link to the final destination.

With Easy Redirect Script this is very easy to do as the video below demonstrates.  However, I’m sure you can appreciate that this is a sophisticated affiliate marketing tactic.  This advanced affiliate marketing tactic is by the top affiliate marketers.

Done effectively, using this tactic can really help to enhance your marketing campaigns and boost your conversions.  You can use it for any page and you can edit it in seconds.

Check out the video below for a quick demonstration of how to set up and use a Promo Redirect.

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And remember that with Easy Redirect Script you have access to link clicking statistics so you can monitor the performance of your links.  Among other things this can help you to determine which of your campaigns you should focus on to get the maximum return on your investment of time.

Click below to add the Easy Redirect Script to your affiliate marketing arsenal:

As mentioned in the last post, Easy Redirect Script can be used for stealth redirects. For instance, there are some affiliate marketers who are happy to promote a particular product but don’t always want to send their subscribers to another marketer’s squeeze page. After all, they worked hard to build their mailing list and they may not want to give away their leads. This is an example of when you can use a stealth redirect.

There are even times when you might want to link directly to the order form. If you’ve done your marketing so that an individual is ready to buy why would you send them to the sales page?

With the Easy Redirect Script you can chose the precise URL you want to send a potential buyer to, cloak your links and, most important of all, get credit for any sales that occur when someone makes a purchase through your link.

For a demonstration on how stealth redirects work and how easy they are to set up using Easy Redirect Script see the video below:

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Use Easy Redirect  and Stealth Redirects  to Resolve Upsell Hell

If you’ve ever purchased a product/service online (or offline for that matter) you would have no doubt at some time been offered an upsell.

Offline, a classic example is when you buy a burger at McDonald’s and you’re asked:

“Would you like fries with that?”

And an example from the online world is GoDaddy.com.  If you’ve ever made a purchase on that site before you can complete your transaction they will offer you the chance to purchase Private Registration, email accounts, hosting and much more.

It actually is an excellent selling model and, when applied sensibly and sensitively, can dramatically boost your revenues.  However, some Internet Marketers don’t seem to have heard of the expression “less is more“.

So, when you’re in the process of making a purchase or even you just want to leave a particular website you’ve just visited you’re made an offer.  But sometimes, this process of offer after offer just goes on and on.  You just want to take your product and go or just leave the website.  I’ve perhaps experienced a series of 6-7 upsells (one loses count after the first two!).  It’s a situation that expert Internet Marketer Armand Morin describes as “upsell hell”.

Internet Marketers can and do significantly increase their revenues using upsells but when applied relentlessly I believe that marketers may gain in the short-term but lose in the long-term.

If I’m presented with too may upsells I lose interest in the product and I won’t recommend it to others because I don’t want others to go through the same upsell hell and I may be turned off wanting to purchase anything else from this product owner in the future.  But product/service recommendation is the essence of Affiliate Marketing.

And, in the same way that I won’t promote a product if I don’t like the sales process, other Affiliate Marketers feel the same way and they may decide not to promote a product to their subscribers which, fundamentally, is actually quite good.

But what if you could customize the experience that a potential buyer of that product has when they visit the product’s website?

And what if you could by-pass the tortuous sales process all together?

Well, using the Easy Redirect Script you can create a Stealth Redirect to bypass the product owner’s sale’s page.  In this way you don’t risk alienating your subscribers by putting them through upsell hell, the product owner still makes more sales and you earn more commissions.

Visit the link below where you can see a free Easy Redirect Script video that shows just how easy it is using Easy Redirect Script to create a Stealth Redirect.

The screenshot above summarizes why you should avoid using free URL shortening services.

Someone in the Web Applications forum asked about the message that the free URL shortening service Shrinkster had on its home page:

“We’ll be back soon! We are temporarily offline due to abuse by spammers.”

This message was still being displayed at the time of writing this review.

The person then goes on to ask:

Does anybody know:

If it will come back online to make its URLs available?
Or if the existing short URL codes were transferred to another service?

What do you think?

This is what you risk happening when you use free services to shorten your affiliate links.

The services that such websites provide can, for whatever reason, be withdrawn at any time rendering your links useless.

People think of websites and domains as Virtual Real Estate.  Your affiliate links are just as valuable and so should be protected.

Using a free URL shortener, is like giving your savings to a stranger and asking them to take care of your savings for a while.  You don’t control the service.

Another reason why you shouldn’t use these services is because many ISPs (Internet Service Providers) don’t like them and can shut them down if, as in the case of Shrinkster, and many others, they are overrun with spammers.

And spam is a big problem with free URL shortening services.  Because they’re free it’s very easy to abuse these services.

Not only are these services sometimes being shut down by their hosting companies, major websites such as Wikipedia, Facebook, Craigslist, MySpace can and do block certain URL shorteners.

And there’s just a host of other issues regarding the use of these services.  To start a discussion about this is really like opening a can of worms but here’s another reason why you should avoid these services.

When you use these free services you’re promoting that company.  You are denying yourself the opportunity to brand yourself and products/services you offer.

But what many people forget is that these services are only URL shortening services and so if you use your naked affiliate link, it will be revealed.  These services are not link cloaking services.

Now, I admit, I’ve used services such as Bit.ly and TinyURL.com but that was before I understood the potential consequences of my actions.  In the long-run, it just isn’t worth it.

However, when you use the Easy Redirect Script you’re in the driving seat.  It’s a script that you upload to your domain and so you have complete control.

It’s very easy to use.  In fact, you can be up and running in just 3 easy steps:

1. Download the Easy Redirect Script
2. Upload to your desired domain(s)
3. Create your user name and password

Once you’ve completed these 3 steps you’re all set to create your redirect scripts in a matter of seconds.  And you can relax knowing that you can edit your links when you want to, check your statistics and brand your links.  Being able to do these things will help to dramatically boost your income from affiliate marketing.  Click the link below for full details.

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