In order to implement SSL-based security on your own website, there are a couple of technical terms you should know. The one you will see most often is called HTTPS. HTTPS is a way to transfer encrypted data over the Web using SSL-based security.

Look at any Web URL in the address line of your browser. The first four characters will normally be “http” which stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. If the website concerned has established a secure connection with your browser however, you will see that the characters before the colon sign are actually “https”, with the “s” standing for Secure Sockets Layer.

The difference between the two is that HTTP sends information as plain text whereas HTTPS encrypts the data sent and received using SSL technology. What that means is that the website server and the visitor’s computer can exchange email or purchase transaction data safely without it being intercepted.

This is very important for affiliates, because many Web customers already know that they should look for the https in the URL and the lock icon in their browser before making a transaction. So, if your online store is not using HTTPS, it is likely that you will lose customers.

There are still a lot of websites around that don’t use SSL. This means that they are encouraging their customers to send their credit card details via plain text – a very bad practice indeed because the technology to intercept that data is commonly available and cheap to acquire.

Use SSL to take care of your customers and to make more sales. It really is that simple.