Got an email today from HomeClick.com’s affiliate program announcing that they are leaving CJ to another affiliate program management:

Dear Homeclick.com Affiliates –

We would like to inform you that a decision has been made and HDPI has decided to move the Homeclick.com affiliate program from Commission Junction to Performics.
All of your Homeclick.com links will no longer be active, and no commissions will be paid on any clicks after June 6th, 2008.

…

Well, we are all too familiar with the recent announcement of eBay leaving CJ and moving to its own affiliate platform (Good for them!).

When I got that email from eBay, I was devastated! I have so many web properties out there I don’t even know where to begin to look for those links! Let alone the web properties, what about those free PDF reports that I have written that are just floating out there? How the heck would I be able to update those links?

Luckily I thought ahead and used URL forwarding AND luckily I didn’t use TinyURL.com! In fact, I got a TinyURL clone script written so that I have full control of going into the database and chang the destination URL for the shortened URLs I made in the past.

So, webmasters, affiliate marketers listen up, DO NOT rely on TinyURL or any other URL shortening/direction service out there. Have your own solution, just like eBay is doing its own in-house affiliate management.

Here is a good ????????TinyURL clone script that’s free-of-charge. Enjoy!