This is a week I am focused on expanding my fellow bloggers and guest authors’ posts here at Sparkplugging. Today, I read guest author’s reasons for redirecting her affiliate links. Those are the exact reasons I r
Image by miki kucevic
edirect mine too. If you don’t know why, read her post. Alice does give a simple way of making redirect links too.
I did that once too but later found it was a huge problem as the list grew longer. Having something that is more centralized with stats in a nicely formatted manner and the ability to search/categorize can be helpful too. There are many link redirect tools out there. These are 3 that you can get started with.
- Redirection – a WordPress plugin. Which makes sense especially if you are a blogger or using WordPress to manage your site content. It works well enough and is simple/straight forward.
- Pretty link – another WordPress plugin which I found recently and considering a switch to. It does lay out all the stats nicely, very attractive clean user interface. I like the ability to make links nofollow and the frame on top for special messages.
- Short URL script – installed on your web site. There are plenty of such stand alone scripts you can find from places like HotScripts.com. They allow you to create, manage and track clicks of each link. Some are free, some are not. May require a little bit of setup.
One thing I do not recommend though is to use third party short URL services. I think they are OK if you need quick stats that you probably don’t have to refer again or check history. But the whole idea is, keep affiliate links on your own site so you are always in control where your visitors end up.
FREE 21-Page Internet Business Idea Guide
Enter your name and email below and we’ll send you our unique 21-page guide chock full of Internet business ideas – for free! Your information will be kept private, of course.
Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them.
You can find also Lynette at her 
Excellent Lynette! I use the redirection plug-in but was worried that wasn’t good enough because Alice and Kelly were recommending the other (harder) way. But if you say it is ok, then I know it is
You’re welcome Christie, it’s just a tool. In this case it’s not important which you use as long as it does the job and it’s easier for you to manage.
Thanks for the links. I’m going to take a look at the two wordpress plugins – I’ve been using a custom script, but it’s kinda a pain to go through each time. Looking to keep it simple, and a little lazy.
I’m all for making it simple and keeping things in one place.