How to Shorten Your Affiliate Links

Your default Affiliate Link URL^{[URL meaning]}, as discussed in the previous lesson, consist of 2 parts. Being as it is, can be a long line of text characters. However, it can be shortened (while preserving the purpose) as illustrated below:

In actual fact, a shortened URL is just a “forwarder” that forwards people to the intended web address –which is in this case is your Affiliate Link URL.

Why Shorten Your Affiliate Links?

There are 4 important reasons why shorten your Affiliate Link:

1. To hide the main web address.  Your default Affiliate Link shows the core web address where, if your prospect will prefer, can just type it in without your Tracking Script (instead of clicking it). This is called, “by-passing.” As you already know, without your Tracking Script when they visit AimGlobalProducts.com site, it can be impossible to associate you as the referrer of the resulting sale. 
2. To fit it in your offline campaigns. Your default Affiliate Links can be quite  long for a particular strategy that you’d want to do. For example, your default Affiliate Link is too long to be printed on your business card, flyers, posters and bumper stickers. Besides, you can’t really  expect your prospects to type all the characters of your Affiliate Link  just to see the details of your offer.
3. To make it easier to remember. In case your prospects lose your business card, you’d like them to still remember how to get to your offer.
4. So you can track clicks. There are URL Shortener services over the net that also allow you to see how many clicks your offer is getting. This feature will make way for you to do split testing, where you have 2 or more campaign formats for a particular offer, and identify which campaign is the most effective one.

How to Shorten Your Affiliate Links

There are basically 2 options to shorten your Affiliate Links:

1. By purchasing your own domain name
2. By using a free URL shortener service

Method 1:  By Purchasing Your own Domain Name

You can buy a domain name from a domain name registrar, such as Namecheap.com, and have your domain name point/forward to the Affiliate Link of your choice. For example, I have purchased the domain name www.AimGlobalPower.com and have it point to my affiliate link for the Main capture page.

Since it’s a top domain name, it also looks more professional –and short enough to fit as car bumper sticker!

Image is a derivative of photo by Bill Abbott, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Here’s how to buy a domain name from Namecheap.com:

Buy Domain Name using Brian’s link here.

Here’s  how you can forward your domain name, with Namecheap.com, to any URL, like your Affiliate Link URL:

Buy Domain Name using Burhaan’s link here.

Method 2:  By Using a Free URL Shortener Service

With a URL Shortener Service you are allowed to use their own short domain name to create short links that forwards to any web address like your Affiliate Links, for example. Most URL Shortener Service out there provide you the basic service for free, with the option of paying premiums for additional features, like click tracking or link branding. For a more detailed illustration, watch the video below, from Rebrandly.com:

With Rebrandly.com you can signup for a free account –which has all the features that you will need for your Affiliate Links.

URL shortening is a very straight forward process. All you need to do is specify any of your Affiliate Links that you want to shorten –as the Destination URL, and then specify the trailing text of your shortened URL. 

Below are some samples of the shortened URL I have created within Rebrandly.com:

The Wrap Up

1. The 4 important reasons why you would want to shorten your Affiliate URL links are:
   1. to stop people by-passing your links; to make it fit in your offline campaigns like in your business card;
   2. to make it easy to remember for your customers; and
   3. to allow you to track clicks on your links.
2. In creating your shorten URL links, it is preferable to go for the shortest possible text.
3. There are 2 main ways to shorten your Affiliate Links, namely:
   1. buy a domain name and create redirects to your Affiliate Links; or
   2. use a URL Shortener Service like Rebrandly.com
4. The most professional way and the best for your branding strategy is to buy a domain name to shorten your Affiliate Links.