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hide clickbank affiliate id from address bar

by wesker777
40 replies
Sorry to create yet another topic about this, but i already spent a lot of time scouring the forum for the answer but couldn't find it.

Some people have asked this question but never got a clear response to it.

I understand how to use the simple php redirect line,

<?phpheader("Location: clickbank url here");
?>

But my clickbank ID still shows up at the end of the url like, "?hop=clickbankid"

I've read and seen people remove this from the url and still get the affiliated commission for the sale. But no ones clearly demonstrated what php or html code you have to use in order to get this done.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, when you use GoDaddy's forwarding and masking option, is godaddy essentially 'framing' your website which is against the CB TOS? Or is it doing something else?

Best,
W
#address #affiliate #bar #clickbank #hide
  • Profile picture of the author IndigoJack
    I think these are tactics that Google specifies you do not do - cloaking, masking etc. - or you will be removed from their search.
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    • Profile picture of the author woonkiat
      Hi,
      Have you try "cloak referrer" , I don't know if that will help!
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    • Profile picture of the author scrofford
      Originally Posted by IndigoJack View Post

      I think these are tactics that Google specifies you do not do - cloaking, masking etc. - or you will be removed from their search.
      First of all, that's not true. The OP is talking about cloaking their affiliate link. There are a few reasons to do this. Google has nothing to do with this. To the OP, this is a php cloak so you need to create the cloak in notebook like you were showing in your post and then upload it to your server. Then it will not show in the address bar. The cloaked link needs to be on the same server as your website or the website you are putting your link.
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      • Profile picture of the author JaniG
        Originally Posted by scrofford View Post

        First of all, that's not true. The OP is talking about cloaking their affiliate link. There are a few reasons to do this. Google has nothing to do with this. To the OP, this is a php cloak so you need to create the cloak in notebook like you were showing in your post and then upload it to your server. Then it will not show in the address bar. The cloaked link needs to be on the same server as your website or the website you are putting your link.
        your Join Date: Aug 2009

        i been marketing on Clickbank since 2006 - so i think i know what im talking about
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        • Profile picture of the author Datingport
          I change urls all the time. But I use a very different method since I use the aff links on multiple sites and have the ability to change the link from my console. I change them all in one shot.

          I installed Propsper202 on a subdomain. Set up my sponsor under "Aff Networks". I place the aff link under "Aff Campaigns". Then I skip over to get links nd it generates a new link for me to place.

          Mine looks like "http://subdomain.mydomain.com/tracking202/redirect/dl.php?t202id=5183&t202kw=TRACKING

          No matter what site I place this link on, the referrer will always be my subdomain because the link sends the click there and the script then resends with the new referrer. The Vendor sees his original linkcode. The User sees the above link.
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  • Profile picture of the author spudnick
    If you are using the Wordpress platform you can use a plugin called 'Pretty Links'. This allows you to perform the clacking you want really easily, and for free.

    Hope this helps,

    Spudnick
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  • Profile picture of the author Kalpana Iyer
    I've heard of something called 'Get-Shorty' but it's not a wordpress plugin. I don't know how to install it though. Help would be appreciated!
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    • Profile picture of the author wesker777
      Pretty-link and cloak referrer both work the same way where the affiliate id is shown in the address bar at the end of the url you are trying to promote.

      I've come across Phantom cloaker which masks the affiliate site with my domain with a weird javascript code i believe. I'm not sure if this will effect my referral or worse, not get paid for the commission if this is frowned upon by clickbank.

      At the moment i'm just using a simple 301 redirect using php. However, i was wondering how i could add a tracking code so i can see exactly which videos are converting in clickbank.

      Is this all I have to do in order to manually create a tracking id with my hoplink,

      <?php
      header("Location: hxxp://affiliate.vendor.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=xxx");
      ?>

      Will the tracking id also show up in the address bar once they click the url?
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      • Profile picture of the author spudnick
        Originally Posted by wesker777 View Post

        Pretty-link and cloak referrer both work the same way where the affiliate id is shown in the address bar at the end of the url you are trying to promote.

        I've come across Phantom cloaker which masks the affiliate site with my domain with a weird javascript code i believe. I'm not sure if this will effect my referral or worse, not get paid for the commission if this is frowned upon by clickbank.

        At the moment i'm just using a simple 301 redirect using php. However, i was wondering how i could add a tracking code so i can see exactly which videos are converting in clickbank.

        Is this all I have to do in order to manually create a tracking id with my hoplink,

        <?php
        header("Location: hxxp://affiliate.vendor.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=xxx");
        ?>

        Will the tracking id also show up in the address bar once they click the url?
        Actually there is an option in Pretty Link that completely cloaks the URL.
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  • Profile picture of the author FSchmieder
    I think most people are misunderstanding what the OP is asking for

    To answer your second question first, godaddy is essentially making a giant iframe of your website when you forward it like that. While generally masking in that manner is not a bad thing to do, it can and will affect CB's tracking system and you will lose sales over it.

    As far as removing the hop id from the address bar, I don't think it's really possible unless the merchant has set it up that way
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan Bainbridge
      Originally Posted by FSchmieder View Post

      As far as removing the hop id from the address bar, I don't think it's really possible unless the merchant has set it up that way
      Correct. This is something the merchant has to do on their end. Setting up an intelligent form of redirect for incoming affiliate links, but as just an affiliate sending hops to a vendor this isn't something you have control over.

      I don't know why more vendors don't do this to be honest, it does seem to help us, and makes things a bit more professional I think.
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      • Profile picture of the author wesker777
        I understand now guys thanks a lot for the super quick feedback.

        I won't waste any more time trying to find a solution for this anymore.

        As nice as masking your site to the affiliate site is in the sense of 'professionalism' and possibly increasing sales. But, the possibility of losing sales because clickbank can't properly track your sales because of masking is not worth the risk. Either way it seems like you have the potential of losing sales it seems.

        Thanks again for answering my questions.
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        • Profile picture of the author Michele Miller
          There is so much misinformation in this thread.

          You should try Affiliate Cloner - Best Solution To Protect Your Affiliate Links which is endorsed by Harvey Segal, who is well known here at the forum and a Clickbank expert.
          I always use it.

          You can also get a really great free program that I have used before.
          Free HTML Tool - Profit Protector Affiliate Link Cloaker
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          • Profile picture of the author FSchmieder
            Originally Posted by Michele Miller View Post

            There is so much misinformation in this thread.

            You should try Affiliate Cloner - Best Solution To Protect Your Affiliate Links which is endorsed by Harvey Segal, who is well known here at the forum and a Clickbank expert.
            I always use it.

            You can also get a really great free program that I have used before.
            Free HTML Tool - Profit Protector Affiliate Link Cloaker
            Again, you misunderstand the question. You can shorten an affiliate link on your website, without any sort of program mind you, to say "www.mywebsite.com/awesomeproduct" instead of saying "www.merchantwebsite.affiliatehop.394evouxzciu76t2 .com"

            However, regardless of what you do, you simply cannot change what the website address will look like in the address bar

            Now the second tool you posted there is a very nice work around, admittedly I didn't even think of that. You can essentially just copy the vendor's landing page, upload it to your own website and then have all your "buy now" buttons linking directly to the order form page

            You can use a free program like httrack
            HTTrack Website Copier - Offline Browser

            and then link to the checkout
            Direct Link to ClickBank Order Page - Shay Amar Blog

            You might want to double check with the vendor to see if they care that you're doing that. Realistically, it's hard for them to find out and most won't care if you're trying to make them more money
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            • Profile picture of the author wesker777
              I forgot one of my other questions wasn't answered so i'll re-ask if anyone knows the answer.

              At the moment i'm just using a simple 301 redirect using php. However, i was wondering how i could add a tracking code so i can see exactly which videos are converting best using clickbanks analytics.

              Is this all I have to do in order to manually create a tracking id with my hoplink,

              <?php
              header("Location: hxxp://affiliate.vendor.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=xxx");
              ?>

              Will the tracking id also show up in the address bar once they click the url?
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              • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
                If you're referring to hiding you're affiliate's hoplink from your URL (if you are the product vendor), then this little bit of Javascript will do the trick...

                HTML Code:
                <script type="text/javascript">
var yourdomain="http://www.XXXX.com";
var url=top.location.toString();
if(url.indexOf('hop')>-1){
   top.location.href=yourdomain;
}
</script>
                Just change the XXXX to your website's URL, and paste the code into the <HEAD> section on that page.

                I use this on all my CB product sites, and it works great.
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              • Profile picture of the author FSchmieder
                Originally Posted by wesker777 View Post

                I forgot one of my other questions wasn't answered so i'll re-ask if anyone knows the answer.

                At the moment i'm just using a simple 301 redirect using php. However, i was wondering how i could add a tracking code so i can see exactly which videos are converting best using clickbanks analytics.

                Is this all I have to do in order to manually create a tracking id with my hoplink,

                <?php
                header("Location: hxxp://affiliate.vendor.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=xxx");
                ?>

                Will the tracking id also show up in the address bar once they click the url?
                Yes to the php direct, no to the tid in the address bar
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                • Profile picture of the author wesker777
                  Awesome, thanks for the reply.
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                  • Profile picture of the author wesker777
                    Sorry to creep back into here again.

                    But, I added my tracking id to the end of my hoplink and when i go into the order form and scroll to the bottom to see if my clickbank id is working it shows up like this,

                    [affiliate=yournickname.trackingID]

                    Is this normal if you are using a trackingID?

                    Before when I wasn't using a trackingID and the bottom of the order form would just have this,

                    [affiliate=yournickname]

                    But I haven't seen anyone mention having the trackingID beside it before, so I just want to avoid any potential mistakes here.

                    I apologize for asking so many questions, still new to the game and I always search around before posting a question to find the answer.

                    Thanks.
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                    • Profile picture of the author FSchmieder
                      Originally Posted by wesker777 View Post

                      Sorry to creep back into here again.

                      But, I added my tracking id to the end of my hoplink and when i go into the order form and scroll to the bottom to see if my clickbank id is working it shows up like this,

                      [affiliate=yournickname.trackingID]

                      Is this normal if you are using a trackingID?

                      Before when I wasn't using a trackingID and the bottom of the order form would just have this,

                      [affiliate=yournickname]

                      But I haven't seen anyone mention having the trackingID beside it before, so I just want to avoid any potential mistakes here.

                      I apologize for asking so many questions, still new to the game and I always search around before posting a question to find the answer.

                      Thanks.
                      It will have your TID at the bottom of the order form page; it's normal
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                      • Profile picture of the author wesker777
                        Cool, thanks for the quick help.
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    • Profile picture of the author Fazal Mayar
      it's impossible, you can just shorten or cloak your affiliate link...thats it and there is a few wordpress plugins that can do the trick ( I use link hopper).
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      • Profile picture of the author johnnycat
        this thread is a bit confusing, everyone seems to have their own opinion and not two people getting along with each other.
        I thought the php thing I learned from george brown in the sniper site product was fine.
        didn't know about the wp plugins though, which might make the thing faster and easier.
        anyways from my newbie point of view hiding an affiliate link is more of a concern in the IM products world.
        I really don't think it should be a worry on my panic attack site, people interested in panic attack products, like many other niches, I don't think they bother in recognizing an affiliate link and stealing a commission.

        but maybe you are referring to those that hack websites to steal commissions from all over the place, maybe this is the issue, hackers.?
        but also in this case, once you find out about it and report it to clickbank let's say, they would be tracked down and banned so its just a matter of time.

        or am I just blabbermouthing here???-)
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  • Profile picture of the author iRunThis
    It should tell you on the clickbank website..
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    • Profile picture of the author wesker777
      I looked around on clickbank and couldn't find the answer.

      Although i did come across one thread here with the same question and it seems that's what should be happening.

      warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/10316-quick-q-clickbank-tracking-id-tid.html
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  • Profile picture of the author JaniG
    Firstly, are you the owner of the product ?

    or are you an affiliate ?

    as an affiliate there is nothing you can do to hide the end of the URL
    displaying your CB ID

    BUT

    if you are the vendor ( the product owner )

    then you CAN do this

    there is a script that I HAVE , which will allow your affiliates to still direct
    people through their affiliate link,

    BUT

    when people go to it, after it redirects to the domain, it wont show the ?hop=cbid

    It will just show the plain domain

    is this what you are talking about

    if you want the script just INbox me and ill give it to you

    thanks

    Jani G
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    • Profile picture of the author wesker777
      Hey Jani,

      Thanks for your helpful info.

      I am an affiliate and I now understand that there is no way of hiding your CB ID within the url unless you are the vendor/owner of the product.

      I may need that script of yours in the near future for a product I am currently working on and will give you a PM soon.

      Regards.
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      • Profile picture of the author sanhal
        Originally Posted by wesker777 View Post

        Hey Jani,

        Thanks for your helpful info.

        I am an affiliate and I now understand that there is no way of hiding your CB ID within the url unless you are the vendor/owner of the product.

        I may need that script of yours in the near future for a product I am currently working on and will give you a PM soon.

        Regards.
        There used to be a link cloaking service at offto.net owned by Jonathan Leger which prevented the CB ID appearing in the browser bar but he sold it and it just seemed to disappear after that. I think there were some problems with firewalls blocking it as a possible spam or phishing site.

        You would think that there would be some system that would do it for affiliates.

        Sandy
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    • Profile picture of the author scrofford
      Originally Posted by JaniG View Post

      Firstly, are you the owner of the product ?

      or are you an affiliate ?

      as an affiliate there is nothing you can do to hide the end of the URL
      displaying your CB ID
      This is absolutely FALSE. You can cloak your affiliate link a number of different ways. One way is using the php cloak the OP originally addressed. They just have to upload the cloaked php file onto their server.
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  • Profile picture of the author Slam
    Phantom Link Cloaker will do that for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author amujtabaa
    Search Affiliate Link Magic. This tool is magic.
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  • Profile picture of the author ncmedia
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by ncmedia View Post

      So much misguided info here.

      I'll try to break it down for you.
      Thanks for posting here, Norb! The extent of misinformation in this thread was giving me palpitations: truly the blind are leading the partially sighted.
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  • Profile picture of the author designerjack
    Use the WordPress Plugin Ninja Affiliate. It's a great tool to cover the id.
    Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author vkdjk
    @Brandon Tanner . Thank you so much for that affiliate id hiding script, just added to my new vendor site Get Rid of Tattoo Naturally | How to Remove Unwanted Tattoo Using Natural Products
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    • Profile picture of the author jaystelenerberg
      Read entire thread and still seems no solution from hiding clickbank id in address bar.
      But there was solution for exact same situation and I know it's possible as I used it for months. But site which offered that now is down
      (so don't tell that only vendor can do that!!!)
      So on my review site is link in format:
      http://mysite.com/redirect.html
      when visitor clicked on that link he was taken to vendorpage.com clean without any my hop=blabla I also don't want that vendorpage.com is masked with mysite.com

      So no solution really anymore???
      If so maybe it's time for me to ask my programmers to do such program....
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  • Profile picture of the author jaystelenerberg
    here is real solution G-Lock Affiliate Link Cloaker hides your clickbank ID from address bar
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    • Profile picture of the author luboff
      Looked a good solution - but didn't work for me - maybe got the code wrong!!
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  • Profile picture of the author dengkane
    Just checked Pretty Link, the free version doesn't support cloaking, and the pro version supports.

    Here's a simple way I recommend if you don't want to use other software programs.

    Saving following codes to one file_name1.html file, and change the Google to your affiliate link, then upload file_name1.html to your hosting account, now you can access it via : http://www.youdomain.com/folder_name1/file_name1.html

    <html>
    <iframe src=http://google.com width=100% noborder height=100% no scroll>
    </html>
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