Link Cloaking

[melvinm]

Hi all,

What link cloaking techniques do you guys use? I saw couple of link cloakers which require your FTP password to be revealed, dont know if I want to do that. Can someone help me with step by step link cloaking or point me to the right direction pls?

Thanks heaps

[abelacts]

If you are wary of disclosing your FTP details. try this:

Affiliate Link Cloaker - How the Affiliate Link Cloaker Works

Hope this helps.

[Ricky Parker]

Just use a simple htaccess redirect.

It's quick and easy.

Name a file on your host what you want and then use the redirect to the correct aff. link.

[kazmagic]

Have a look at Track-That-Ad, it's awesome and you can get a free account.

Karen

[Jared Alberghini]

Here is a very simple & free online tool with step by step instructions to cloak your affiliate links:

FREE & SIMPLE Affiliate Link Cloaker

Let me know if that helps.

- Jared

[magentawave]

Originally Posted by webdesignhq

Here is a very simple & free online tool with step by step instructions to cloak your affiliate links:

FREE & SIMPLE Affiliate Link Cloaker

Let me know if that helps.

- Jared

I tried that and couldn't get it to work. When I create the text document with notepad and name it 'whatever.html,' what folder would I upload it to in my cpanel if I'm using Wordpress?

Thanks.
Steve

[Markus Wahlgren]

I am not sure how well it works these days, and supposedly it does not work if you have video on the page, but you can load the affilaite url in an iframe on your page. Known as an invisible pop. Then you can just link to the site's main page instead of teh ugly affilaite url.

[magentawave]

Originally Posted by Markus Wahlgren

I am not sure how well it works these days, and supposedly it does not work if you have video on the page, but you can load the affilaite url in an iframe on your page. Known as an invisible pop. Then you can just link to the site's main page instead of teh ugly affilaite url.

I build my own sites but couldn't figure this out, and I don't even know what an 'iframe' is. Does this method work with Wordpress sites?

Steve

[getsmartt]

get a free account at viralurl.com

choose a "folder" name once you account is active (make sure it is short)
login to viralurl
create a new cloaked link - paste your affiliate link in the box, choose a name for the link (or let it create a set of random numbers)
click ok
it will generate a cloaked link that looks like

http://www.viralurl.com/yourfoldername/yourlinkname

you can paste this anywhere you can paste a link
you can also login into viralurl anytime and see you stats for that link.

I put together an ebook you can get here
http://www.scruffymind.com/products/viralurl.pdf

[magentawave]

Originally Posted by getsmartt

get a free account at viralurl.com

choose a "folder" name once you account is active (make sure it is short)
login to viralurl
create a new cloaked link - paste your affiliate link in the box, choose a name for the link (or let it create a set of random numbers)
click ok
it will generate a cloaked link that looks like

http://www.viralurl.com/yourfoldername/yourlinkname

you can paste this anywhere you can paste a link
you can also login into viralurl anytime and see you stats for that link.

I put together an ebook you can get here
http://www.scruffymind.com/products/viralurl.pdf

Yes I joined but didn't realize that 'viralurl.com' would appear in all my links and I don't want that.

Thanks.
Steve

[Martha Richardson]

I need a cloaker that will work in an iframe and will not show the url of a download location in the status bar or address area. I've tried a few cloakers that didn't hide the link once it was clicked on. Anyone know anything that will work?

Thanks,
Barry

[Greg Cooksley]

Hey guys,

Do a search for Andy Fletcher - he has a Free Link Cloaker
tool available.....

If I find the link I will post it here....

EDIT: here's the link:
http://www.freelinkcloaker.com/

Regards

Greg

[magentawave]

Originally Posted by Greg Cooksley

Hey guys,

Do a search for Andy Fletcher - he has a Free Link Cloaker
tool available.....

If I find the link I will post it here....

EDIT: here's the link:
Free Link Cloaker

Regards

Greg

I must be retarded because I've tried a few link cloakers like that one and I can't get it to work with Wordpress. And regardless of which one I've tried, they all seem to assume that I understand what they are talking about in their instructions...or...I'm leaving out a very important step. All I get is a 404 error page every time I've used it. I have a seohosting.com (hostgator) reseller account and the domain I'm trying to set this up with is a subdomain. Does anyone know where I can find DETAILED instructions for 'tards' like me...and it will work with Wordpress?

Thanks.
Steve

[Mike Bogowski]

Hi magentawave... This is the simplest option in my opinion.

Access your site via ftp and make a folder/directory in there called 'more', 'product-name' or whatever you feel like calling it.

Inside that directory create a file called 'index.php' with the following code:

<?php
header('Location: http://YOURAFFILIATELINK');
?>

From then on you'll be able to go to

http://www.yoursitename.com/more
http://www.yoursitename.com/product-name

Or whatever you called the directory and it will redirect you.

Its not the cleanest solution but its probably the easiest for you at the moment.

Hope this helps

[Didi]

Hello Steve,

I was looking for some post and information about link cloaker myself and I came across a few solutions on Yahoo Answers. Just go to Yahoo Answers and type in "free link cloaker". There will be lots of answers and when you click on the second solution (Free Link Cloaker Installation), click onto the DIY box.

You will find detailed information about uploading html files onto Hostgator server. I'm not too sure about Wordpress (sorry, can't help you much there) but since you mentioned about having Hostgator, I think this could help you a bit. Most of them use Hostgator server as an example in their tutorials (not sure why) and they do include pictures in their tutorials as well which makes it easy for you to understand.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Didi

[mikeyh]

There is a free WP plugin which you can get here:

ø Link Cloaking Plugin for WordPress | W-Shadow.com ø

I can't vouch for it in any way as I use a different, more comprehensive (paid) plugin, but it might suit you.

[magentawave]

Originally Posted by mikeyh

There is a free WP plugin which you can get here:

ø Link Cloaking Plugin for WordPress | W-Shadow.com ø

I can't vouch for it in any way as I use a different, more comprehensive (paid) plugin, but it might suit you.

Mike,

Thank you very much for that plugin! I searched everywhere for a Wordpress plugin and the only one out there doesn't work with the latest WP version...and the one YOU recommended does work! Very cool!

Everyone else: I will check out your information in case this plugin blows up. I think the problem I was having is that I need to create a subdomain like: mydomain.com/recommends in order to make those link cloakers work. I'm still experimenting here.

Thanks again.
Steve

[Andy Fletcher]

Hi guys,

Free Link Cloaker is completely free, I haven't even put any advertising on it. It's so free that people complain to me that they *want* me to run a mailing list associated with it telling them about other similar great stuff.

Go to Free Link Cloaker
Sign up
Tell me about a domain or subdomain that you have spare to point to my servers (this is the step that gets everyone, so if you have a problem then support@freelinkcloaker.com and I'll help you get it up and running)
Add the (sub)domain to Free Link Cloaker and start created cloaked links

It's really easy once you know how and it won't cost you anything except the domain

Cheers,

Andy

[magentawave]

Originally Posted by Andy Fletcher

Hi guys,

Free Link Cloaker is completely free, I haven't even put any advertising on it. It's so free that people complain to me that they *want* me to run a mailing list associated with it telling them about other similar great stuff.

Go to Free Link Cloaker
Sign up
Tell me about a domain or subdomain that you have spare to point to my servers (this is the step that gets everyone, so if you have a problem then support@freelinkcloaker.com and I'll help you get it up and running)
Add the (sub)domain to Free Link Cloaker and start created cloaked links

It's really easy once you know how and it won't cost you anything except the domain

Cheers,

Andy

Hey Andy,

I'm sure Free Link Cloaker is a great product and its totally my fault that I couldn't get it to work. I suspect you are probably spending a ton of time dealing with the same "customer service" questions over and over again. I almost sent you some questions but said "screw it" and moved on to something else. So to save your time and make it a better experience for your users, I suggest you compile all the questions and answers you've gotten and put them on your website. Also, please put specific instructions for how those of us with cpanels and add-on domains (host reseller accounts) should set this up, and how to use it with Wordpress sites too.

Thanks very much.
Steve

[magentawave]

Originally Posted by mikeyh

There is a free WP plugin which you can get here:

ø Link Cloaking Plugin for WordPress | W-Shadow.com ø

I can't vouch for it in any way as I use a different, more comprehensive (paid) plugin, but it might suit you.

That plugin worked great for about two days, and then it started sending the click to a 404 error page. Oh well. Back to the drawing board.

Thanks anyway.
Steve

[magentawave]

Originally Posted by getsmartt

get a free account at viralurl.com

choose a "folder" name once you account is active (make sure it is short)
login to viralurl
create a new cloaked link - paste your affiliate link in the box, choose a name for the link (or let it create a set of random numbers)
click ok
it will generate a cloaked link that looks like

http://www.viralurl.com/yourfoldername/yourlinkname

you can paste this anywhere you can paste a link
you can also login into viralurl anytime and see you stats for that link.

I put together an ebook you can get here
http://www.scruffymind.com/products/viralurl.pdf

Thanks but that "free" account at viralurl.com is now sending me TONS of spam even though I quit it two days ago and even deleted my account with them.

Steve

[AskJesusLeon]

There is a cloaking function built into my tracking software, I can't remember the name of the software right now off the top of my head.

[4morereferrals]

would gocodes plugin work fo the wordpress user who was requesting?


what about the .htaccess method?

[4morereferrals]

What else goes into the html of that index.php page? head elements?nada?

Would this still work if you called a .php page directly, but had that in the header ...? Like

http://www.yoursitename.com/go/aff-product-name.php

with

<?php
header('Location: http://YOURAFFILIATELINK');
?>

in the header of the page named aff-product-name.php Or is it only good on index.php pages?

Will give it a go and see - I suspect yes. Im using a free cloaker/encrypter from Jarid ... affiliate niche monster site ? for most of my cloaked aff urls and its great - but I have one site where its not working. I like his because the link stays pretty much cloaked the entire time - even when the user gets to the destination URL - it shows as MY site in their browser nav bar up top.

Originally Posted by Mike Benkovich

Hi magentawave... This is the simplest option in my opinion.

Access your site via ftp and make a folder/directory in there called 'more', 'product-name' or whatever you feel like calling it.

Inside that directory create a file called 'index.php' with the following code:

<?php
header('Location: http://YOURAFFILIATELINK');
?>

From then on you'll be able to go to

http://www.yoursitename.com/more
http://www.yoursitename.com/product-name

Or whatever you called the directory and it will redirect you.

Its not the cleanest solution but its probably the easiest for you at the moment.

Hope this helps

[4morereferrals]

neither way is working for me at this time

productnamedir/productname.php

nor

/productname folder with index.php with the recommend location syntax code in the page.

[clarissa25]

It's easy to redirect with godaddy.com. They have this place on the domain menu called "forward" . It's te simplest redirect I've ever seen.

[RichOnlineCEO]

<html>
<head>
<metahttp-equiv="refresh"content="0;URL=insert affiliatelinkhere">
</ head>
<body>
If youarenot redirected, <ahref="insert affiliatelinkhere">clickhere.</ a>
</ body>
</ html>

[Max Soto]

I had this on my mind for awhile about Link Cloaking. All the information here is great.
The only problem I found with Fowarding feature with godaddy which I do use is it puts the Name of the Sub Domain first then the website. which would look like Example.website.com
If you can do a script that fowards the domain to look like website.com/Example looks more professional IMHO.
If you just have the domain name and no hosting you can Foward your affiliate link and mask it to look like they never went to another site. But if you have hosting with them it won't work unless you do a subdomain or Setup link cloaking with scripts .

[michellegreen]

I use Andy's Free Link Cloaker and found that moving the .htaccess file (in accordance with the instructions) caused all sorts of problems, so I left it where it was and it works, although I am unable to create words at the end of my url instead of a number (hard to explain).

I vaguely remember Andy telling me how to fix it but it was too much effort, and I use hyperlinks anyway, so it really isn't an issue for me. So what I get is something like http://myurl.com/link.php?id=1 and it works fine.

Once it's installed it is really easy to use and I've received emails from Andy directly in response to my questions, so am happy with the support I received.

It's also hosted on my own server, so I have no issues with signing up to dodgy stuff either.

I hope that helps!

[CPAmethods]

A simple redirect will do most of the time.
Try tinyurl or dwarfurl.

[Steve Sanchez]

Originally Posted by Jared Alberghini

Here is a very simple & free online tool with step by step instructions to cloak your affiliate links:

FREE & SIMPLE Affiliate Link Cloaker

Let me know if that helps.

- Jared

I followed the instructions and uploaded a webpage with the code, now what?

[Steve Sanchez]

Originally Posted by Jared Alberghini

Here is a very simple & free online tool with step by step instructions to cloak your affiliate links:

FREE & SIMPLE Affiliate Link Cloaker

Let me know if that helps.

- Jared

I followed the instructions and uploaded a webpage with the code, now what?

[Alan Petersen]

I've tried a lot of them. Manual, free, and paid. My favorite is Cloak and Tracker. It even works on a Mac! Thanks Jay for making Mac compatible IM software.

My favorite free link cloaker is Andy Fletcher's FLC.

I also use Simple Link Manager plugin for Wordpress from Teli Adlam but she only makes it available to customers but she is no longer selling her ebook so that might not be a viable option.

[Zubair Zm]

Hi
There is WSO on link cloaking script at http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...ack-stats.html
rgds
Zm

[jon99]

You guys should be careful because certain type of cloaking will damage you seo rank.

[TimRobinson]

Check out Cloak N Rotate (http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...easy-fast.html)

Cloaks Links
Rotates between offers
and tracks stats

Doesn't hurt your SEO rank
Doesn't require mysql / databases
Doesn't require htaccess modification

Only one upload required, no uploading for every single link like other solutions.
All your links are stored in the one easy to use location.

AND cloaks behind a frame, full stealth.

Cheers, Tim

[NewbiesDiary]

Originally Posted by getsmartt

get a free account at viralurl.com

choose a "folder" name once you account is active (make sure it is short)
login to viralurl
create a new cloaked link - paste your affiliate link in the box, choose a name for the link (or let it create a set of random numbers)
click ok
it will generate a cloaked link that looks like

http://www.viralurl.com/yourfoldername/yourlinkname

you can paste this anywhere you can paste a link
you can also login into viralurl anytime and see you stats for that link.

I put together an ebook you can get here
http://www.scruffymind.com/products/viralurl.pdf

I see a problem with these types of link cloakers -

I used offto.net when I started affiliate marketing - I setup all my links and spread them far and wide on the net - a couple of months later I clicked on one of my links and an error message came up saying that site had been marked as containing a virus - so did all my links.

People use these sites to cloak their trojans and viruses and all sorts of nasty stuff - then the whole site gets marked as the same - not good!

We've just brought out a fantastic software that's really easy to install and use - doesnt use MySQL or Databases etc - just upload using ftp.

It also rotates up to 20 affiliate links so you can test which affiliate products convert and which ones dont.

The link is my my signature

[magentawave]

Originally Posted by jon99

You guys should be careful because certain type of cloaking will damage you seo rank.

I wasn't aware of that. Please tell us more.

Steve

[teleam]

Has any one tried Affiliate Cloner? I hear that is pretty good.

Tom

[Jason Cunningham]

Here's what i use for clickbank; a simple redirect.

Open notpad/wordpad:

paste:

<html><head>
  <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0; url=http: //warriorforum.com/">
</body></html>

Save as example(.html)

-> upload to your directory. examplesite com/example(.html)

[jon99]

Originally Posted by magentawave

I wasn't aware of that. Please tell us more.

Steve

I am not really sure too and looking for advice on this.

You can track any answers here in future
warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/60201-what-type-affiliate-cloaking-will-result-google-ban.html#post557174

Waiting for replies now..

[spoiledpups]

I use Power Link Generator from Mike Filsaime, it works.

[Robert Herrie]

wow quite impressive .I must subscribe to this thread

[Bad-Boy]

Hey guys,

Why you all worrying...Just search the Warrior forum and look for Cloak-n-Rotate job done. It's Link Claoking and affiliate/product rotation software all in one and it's at a special Warrior price too ;-)

Alan B.
@ Red Rocket Marketing

[michellegreen]

I use acloaker and it's free.

Just type in your affiliate link, click on the top button and save the item to a folder on your computer (it defaults to "redirect.html", so you might want to change it to "productname.html" or whatever.

Upload this file to your root directory.

Using the example above, the new URL will be www.yourdomain.come/productname.html

Easy peasy!

[TheWealthSquad]

I started using Pretty Link last week. Using the free version though considering the paid version. Works with wordpress, easy to create, can block the final site address completely. Can create a toolbar as well.

For an example of the tool bar Make your First $1000 on the internet

Takes you to Mark Joyner's recent offer. I have liked it so far. Lets me track hits as well and I can change the address later when something else comes along to take advantage of the backlink I have created.

[Sylviane]

As mentioned above Viral URL's is a great FREE tool, fast to use and gives you stats as well. I love it. You can read more about it here:
ViralUrl - Cloaking For FREE And Cashing On Your Commission!

[sashas]

If you use Hostgator, you can set up redirects from the cPanel itself.

Otherwise, just use the .htaccess file

[dollarware]

To shorten urls, cloak urls and count hits to each link with all the info in one place.

Here is a free solution that runs on your webserver. If you have CPanel hosting, it is an easy, automated install.

Then you run it from an Admin area.

Can setup links like: http://myname.com/recommends/BestMoneyMaker1

You can also choose likes, uses, prefers, suggests instead of recommends.

23 page pdf with full instructions and shows screenshots through the entire process.

http://ultimatelinktracker.com

John

[Raphael1]

there are many out there - just check some and go with the 1 that you like... - Cloaking isn't complicated, but you should definately do it