I have come to the realization that many new affiliate marketers are really confused about link terms, such as URL, domain name, affiliate link and hoplink. Believe me I understand the confusion and I can still remember when I didn’t know what a URL link was myself.
This article will give you a quick easy clarification on what those terms mean, and you should not be confused about them any further.
What is a URL?
A URL is simply the address of a web page on the World Wide Web. It looks something like (http://www.thesite.com). If you have a website, the link that you enter on the browser to get to your site is your URL. This is the most common link term, and you will run into it quite often.
What is an affiliate link?
An affiliate link is a code that is connected to an image or text placed on an affiliate’s web page.
When you join a company to sell their product, or when you sign up to sell a product directly from Clickbanks or any other digital product providers, you will get a link that will link YOU to the sales that you generated. This link is called an affiliate link.
It usually starts as a normal URL with http://www.the productname.com/ Followed by a series of letters, numbers and punctuation marks.
What is a domain name?
A domain name is exactly the same thing as your URL. It is basically another link term for it. It is the specific URL that you might have purchased such as http://www.yoursite.com or .net, .info, etc… Each website’s URL is also its domain name.
What is a hoplink?
A hoplink works pretty much the same as an affiliate link and it is used by companies such as Clickbanks which are dealing with over 100,000 affiliates. Hoplinks are links that transfer hits from your website to the website of the product you are working with as an affiliate.
These links quickly transfer the individual through Clickbank (without their knowledge) giving you credit for the hit and eventually the sale.
These hits are then logged in Clickbank’s system, so that even if the individual does not purchase the item that day, and purchase the item within 30 days you will still receive the credit.
Hoplinks work pretty much the same as affiliate links, but they are just a bit more sophisticated.
Understanding link terms is essential if you want to start an affiliate marketing business. Once you do, there will never be any confusion again.
Tags: affiliate links, domain name, links, url
