Broken Affiliate Links - Help!

[pullitup7]

I was hoping someone could tell me if broken links to my products are a common thing. I spent a good bit of time marketing a product, and suddenly the link is down....it has been 48 hours now. It is very frustrating.

Anyone have any ideas on how to avoid this? Are there certain networks where this happens alot or never?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sounds like you have checked before and it was up? Just suddenly went down?

Yes this can happen and for a variety of reasons. Temporary glitch either at the network or merchant end, the offer was pulled or ended, the merchant didn't pay and the network suspended their ads or you added some type of new firewall or internet security software that is blocking the network's links.

If a network is down for more than a couple hours you'll see complaints on some of the forums. See if other network links on other affiliate sites work, if so it may just be that merchant. So check to see if other affiliates for that merchant have working links. If you've changes any software setting and think the link may be blocked on your end, ask a couple friends to check your site to see if the link works for them.

Do some checking and try to isolate where the problem is then try to reach the network or merchant (as applicable) if it persists.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Oh and yes it can happen with any network or merchant. Hopefully not too often but it is a problem that comes up occasionally.

Usually links are fixed quickly so it doesnt hurt too bad. UNLESS you are doing PPC and the clicks go to dead links. THAT hurts! So if you ever do PPC, you need to pause your ads if links stop working.

 

[Daniel08]

I would write that merchant and frankly, I would lose a lot of trust in the merchant. You shouldn't have to worry about monitoring your affiliate links.