If you're interested in making money online through affiliate marketing, one of the more popular places to search for products to promote is the Clickbank marketplace. There are many ways to promote Clickbank products, and you're about to find out how to create a special hoplink, or referral link, which can help you earn affiliate commissions.

For example, what if you want to refer people directly to the merchant's Order page? Here's how...

Usually, a Clickbank hoplink brings your visitors to a merchant's salesletter or sales page, which is typically the homepage of a web site. Sometimes, however, you might wish to send people directly to the order page, because:

  • You don't like them to see the merchant's salesletter.
  • You've already pre-sold them and would want them to go straight to the order page.

Here's how such a direct-to-order-page hoplink would look like:

http://1.affiliateID_merchantID.pay.clickbank.net/?detail=Name-Of-Product

(In the above example, the number 1 refers to Product 1 of the merchant's list of products. Please note the underscore between affiliateID and merchantID.)

If you're the one referring customers, then you replace affiliateID with your Clickbank ID.

Please note, however, that if someone else has already referred people to that Clickbank merchant's salespage (via the usual hoplink), and that visitor's hard disk already has a copy of the cookie that identifies the referring affiliate, you will not get a commission if you use the direct-to-order-page hoplink.

If the visitor, however, does not have any Clickbank cookie stored in his or her hard disk, then if they go directly to the order page using your direct-to-order-page hoplink, then you will earn the affiliate commission.

The usual link that most Clickbank merchants use to send visitors to their order page is:

http://1.merchantID.pay.clickbank.net/?detail=Name-Of-Product

Now have a look at this direct-to-order-page hoplink, and tell me what you think?

http://1.merchantID_merchantID.pay.clickbank.net/?detail=Name-Of-Product&af=merchantID

Kind of makes you wonder what the merchant has in mind when the merchant himself codes his Order Page links with merchantID_merchantID. ;-)

Just to clarify, if your referred visitor has your Clickbank cookie, then the merchantID_merchantID hoplink will not take away your commissions. And if there is no Clickbank cookie? The merchantID_merchantID simply treats the transaction as a direct (not referred or affiliate-less) sale.

In other words, what is the point of merchants using merchantID_merchantID in their code? What was their intent? What were they trying to achieve?

No, I will not identify the merchant/s. You can easily check their order links anyway.

What's the easiest way to know the ultimate destination of the merchant's Order link, no matter how much he tries to cloak the link? Well, if you click here and get a copy of 20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online, and forward the receipt to ManuelViloria@GMail.com, then I will share with you that Uncloaking Tactic as soon as I verify your transaction. Please note that this bonus cannot be claimed together with any other offer or bonus related to the 20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online ebook.

What's the lesson here? If you're interested in affiliate marketing, please go through the merchant's order process. Examine the links and ask yourself if the merchant is being fair with you, the affiliate.

Please also review Escaping Affiliate Marketing Traps for other ideas.

I hope you're able to use these Clickbank hoplink secrets not only to increase your affiliate commissions, but to also protect yourself against certain types of merchants who appear to want to hijack your commissions while you help them build their mailing lists.

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"Clickbank Hoplink Secrets"
First Posted: May 25, 2008 | Filed in: Make Money Online

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