When I was making the LinkMaster plugin, the idea was to make a sort of advanced link cloaker. I wanted to not only cloak my affiliate links, I also wanted to have the option to actually pull the sales page of the product I was promoting into my own website.
But while I was creating it, I realized that
there was a potential for something much cooler.
I realized that I can make this in such a way that it can actually stop one of the biggest things I personally don't like about affiliate marketing.
As affiliate marketers we have to learn to accept that when we send traffic to a sales page, if that traffic buys the product we are promoting, that person will then end up on the vendors email list. This makes sense because that person is now the vendors customer. It's not such a big deal though because you were compensated for your efforts and for sending the vendor that lead in the form of the affiliate commission you received.
They make their sales pages in such a way that even if the potential customer you send them does not buy, and you don't get a commission, they can still get that customers email address for themselves, for free. In short they are snagging your most valuable asset as an affiliate marketer, your email list and your traffic.
You use your email list, ads, your blog, or some other method to send traffic to the sales page of an affiliate product you are promoting. For one reason or another the potential customer decides not to make a purchase and goes to leave the sales page. But just as they do, the vendor hits them with a freebie offer that they can get if they just opt in with their email address.
When the potential customer does, they go on the vendors email list and you have not earned one red cent. You sent them traffic to build their list, costing you time, effort, and in some cases money, and got absolutely nothing for it.
Well I realized I could do something about it when I was creating the LinkMaster affiliate link cloaker. I realized that since one of the functions of this plugin is to pull the sales page into my site, I could make the plugin edit out any pop up code!
Then I realized that I could not only edit out the vendors pop up code, preventing them from being rewarded with free list building if the offer does not convert, but I could also automatically put my own code into their sales page, that will redirect the traffic where "I" wanted them to go if they decide to leave without making a purchase.
With LinkMaster any traffic you send to an affiliate promotion stays yours, and the vendors will only get the chance to add them to their own email list if they actually make a purchase and you get compensated with a sales commission.