A small business owner I know recently said,
“I know how to tell my affiliates how to redirect their links but many of them have blogs on WordPress.com or Blogspot.com which does not allow them to create redirect pages or modify the .htaccess. So how do the redirect and track their links?”
That is such a fabulous question. There are many URL shorteners out there that can be used like TinyURL but they also have some flaws. Personally, I stay away from TinyURL because I cannot track clicks. My most recent favorite is Bit.ly which provides great stats. It’ll tell you how often the link is clicked, where they came from, the hour of day, the day of the week. Interesting stuff.
As much as I like it the problem I’ve recently found is, you can’t edit the URL. That’s not good because part of the idea redirecting affiliate links is so you can change out dead affiliate program links. But for quick redirects and tracking, I really like Bit.ly.
Another option, you can install your own URL shortener/redirect system just for your affiliates to use. There are plenty of scripts that can help you achieve this and you can find many of them at HotScripts.