As one of the leading affiliate hubs available, Clickbank needs to keep track of over 100,000 affiliates selling over 10,000 different products. With so many different hits to keep track of, in order to successfully create an effective and easy to use affiliate system, Clickbank created special links known as “Hoplinks.”

Hoplinks are links that transfer hits from your website to the website of the product you are working as an affiliate to sell. 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, if they purchase the item within 30 days you will still receive the credit.

In addition, Clickbank keeps track of hits so that you, as the affiliate, can see conversion rates of the products you are selling under the Clickbank ID. This allows you to get rid of items that are not selling or promote an item more that is converting more heavily.

Clickbank has received some criticism over their hoplink program; not because there is anything wrong with the way it works (Clickbank’s affiliate system is one of the fairest and most efficient affiliate systems available) but because the links themselves are aesthetically displeasing. They tend to be a large number of letters and digits, several periods, and the links do not contain the web address of either the site you are coming from or the site you are going to.

This creates valid concerns that sales are reduced because people do not trust the links. Scrolling over the links (as many people do now for safety) would lead one to believe that you may be being misled – especially if the website was a review site and the link does not point to the site being “reviewed.”

However, it is estimated that the effect that has on sales is minimal. Most people still do not scroll over links, and overly cautious individuals tend to not buy the digital products that are offered on the actual websites.

Another thing to consider before utilizing the Clickbank hoplink program is that your user ID is embedded in the hoplink, as well as tacked on to the website itself once the redirect is complete. Clickbank, to continue to ensure proper tracking, adds a “?UserID” to the end of the website address which the visitor will be able to see on the top of the page. Because of this, you may not want to use your name as your user ID, and you do not want to choose a user ID that is inappropriate as all of your potential customers will see it.

However, as long as you are able to overlook the aesthetics of the Clickbank hoplink program, the system itself is one of the strongest and most efficient affiliate systems in the business. If you are going to become an affiliate for digital products, as long as you are using the Clickbank hoplinks you can be sure that all of your sales are properly tracked and you will get the credit you deserve.