Comments on: Text Link Ads Changes Affiliate Links

By: Patches and Hacks

Patches and Hacks — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:55:23 +0000

You might want to take a look at a plugin for wordpress I wrote that will let you manage those hidden affiliate links from one place in a nice web interface using ajax inside wordpress admin
Here’s the plugin page:

http://patchlog.com/wordpress/hidden-affiliate-links/

By: Text Link Ads Adjust Affilaite Links: Give my My Affiliate Link! | Ian Fernando

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 16:14:31 +0000

[...] thatedeguy says: Now, why would a large advertiser network such as TLA change all their URLs? Well, the reason that they use in the email is that the old ones were too long and they wanted to use tinyurl to shrink them down to a nice size. I suppose that’s a valid reason. I suppose that another reason could be that they want to eliminate some of the link/paid link bit pointing at them. Yet another reason could be the very same reason that many people use redirects in the first place. To hide the affiliate link. Many people are hesitant to click a link that has an obvious affiliate link in it. [...]

By: SarahG

SarahG — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:50:46 +0000

It’s certainly a bit of a strange move on TLA’s part. I can understand introducing a nice short URL but why deactivate the old URLs as well?! Luckily I have my TLA set up on a subdomain redirect, but if I hadn’t then I’d be a bit miffed on having to change any links. It’s bad enough when an old post links to somewhere that doesn’t exist (especially when you’re the reader and want to see what was behind that link!).

I wonder how many people will seriously update their links, also what will happen with the old affiliate links? Will they just redirect to TLA without any referral. Most likely.