Add a Standard Text-Ad Link to Your Mom Blog Post

By Wendy Piersall from Mom Blogging For Dummies

Text links that are a standardized written ad created by the merchant generally point to the merchant’s home page or a category page. They aren’t quite as effective as product catalog links, but still perform better than banner ads do. Because these links tend to be written in sales speak, you can’t use your own natural voice when you post them.

Nothing is stopping you from changing the ad’s words, though you should read through the merchant’s program terms to ensure that it allows its affiliates to change its pre-determined text links. If you change it and the merchant has a rule against this, it could void the commission, though this is rare.

Here’s how to create a standardized text link in Commission Junction.

From your CJ Publisher Home page, scroll to the bottom of the page and select the merchant you want to link to under the My Advertisers drop-down list, and then click the Go button.
Under the Get Links box on the upper right of the page, click Text Link under the By Type heading.

If that option is grayed out, then this merchant doesn’t offer standardized text links.
Choose the text ad you want to use.
Click Get HTML under the Get Links heading in the last column.
Set your link options as shown.
- If you have multiple websites, use the Web Site drop-down list to select the site that you’re going to place the text link on.
- Select the Yes check box next to Encrypt Link. Encrypting a link disguises your standard affiliate number in the link URL. This prevents other people from putting their own affiliate numbers in place of yours and stealing your commission.
- If you want the link to open in a new window, select the Yes check box beside Set Link to Open a New Browser Window.
- Select the Yes check box beside Hide Tracking Code in Link. Hiding the tracking code displays the final destination URL rather than the unreadable tracking URL, which can be confusing to readers.
  
  The tracking URL sends the reader to the right destination; it just does it by first linking through one of CJ’s domain names. This doesn’t work in all browsers, by the way, so if you test it when you’re done and it doesn’t seem to work, try using a different browser to view your page.
- The SID field is a place you can put your own additional tracking ID into the link. You may want to do this if you want to track more specifically where the final sale came from.
- Enter a URL in the Destination URL field if you want to change the default page that you’re linking to. Not all links have this option.
- Click the Update Link Code if you’ve made any changes.
Place your cursor in the link code box, click the Highlight Code button, and copy it by pressing Ctrl+C or Command+C.
Go to your blog post, place your cursor where you want the link to go, and paste the code into your post by pressing Ctrl+P or Command+P.

Make sure you’re viewing the post in HTML mode and not the WYSIWYG mode.
Test your link by clicking on it and ensuring it directs your browser to the intended page.