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Links in e-book - how to redirect through my website?

by Ventus
11 replies
So I wrote an e-book and I recommend several products - In the beginning I didn't thought much about getting paid for those referrals but I guess it would be stupid not to do so... :rolleyes:

I don't want to put links that goes directly to each product, because of the risk of future broken links. I want each link to point to a website, that I create (I use Wordpress), so I have a chance to change expired links (I also want to make it less obvious that I get paid for referring products). So how do I make it work? One problem is that I don't want anyone to actually see this "link-redirecting-site". The readers have to be able to just press a link in the pdf-file and then the link points to my site where it gets it real address without my readers noticing anything strange.

Any suggestions?
#ebook #links #redirect #website
  • Profile picture of the author Gary King
    Sure Ventus...

    You can buy software to do it, but if you can edit a little html, you can do it yourself too.

    So let's say your site is www.ventusrulestheworld.com

    You are recommending a product called JV nightmare

    Your affiliate link is http://www.jvnightmare.com?affid=1234

    You create a new page on your web site called jvnightmare.html

    On that page, put a link to your affiliate link - something very simple with a click here to continue kind of text.

    Put no other content on that page, but DO put what's called a META refresh tag on it.

    Here's the syntax:
    Meta refresh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    (look at the example for redirecting immediately)



    The code, using the examples above is:

    <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://www.jvnightmare.com?affid=1234" />

    Then, your link in your ebook goes to http://www.ventusrulestheworld.com/jvnightmare.html

    Readers click that link, hit the jvnightmare.html page and it (because of the meta refresh) redirects them to your affiliate link.

    If that product goes away, edit the redirect and you're promoting something new.

    Hope it helps.

    Gary
    Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    Well, I don't think you want to use wordpress for that... not sure even if you can use wordpress. What I would do is make a .php file for each link you want to redirect.

    Inside that file, put this:

    <?php
    header("Location:http://Your Affiliate Link Here");
    exit();
    ?>

    Then link to the file and it will redirect to the url that you put in the "Your Affiliate Link Here" space. Upload the file to your server using ftp.

    So if you create a file called irecommend.php then upload that to your server, the inside your ebook put the link to irecommend.php

    Lee
    Signature
    Gone Fishing
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  • Profile picture of the author wdywft
    Hi Ventus,

    I don't use wordpress, but this works for me:

    I have a domain registered with godaddy.com.
    In godaddy, I create a subdomain.

    "Click here" link (in your .pdf) links to subdomain.mydomain.com

    subdomain.mydomain.com is 'forwarded' to - wherever you tell it to go (and you can always change that - easily).

    If it's forwarded with masking, the url shows up as subdomain.mydomain.com
    If it's forwarded without masking, the end url should show up.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ventus
    Thanks to all of you, you are being very helpful! Different methods so I am not sure which one would be the best one to use when my site is based on Wordpress (not even sure if that matters...) I will take a look at your suggestions and return later on - I am sure I got a few questions by then!

    One question I do got is that I don't want people to see/open those extra sites - are they easy to find if they know my main domain and how do I avoid that? Thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by Ventus View Post

      Thanks to all of you, you are being very helpful! Different methods so I am not sure which one would be the best one to use when my site is based on Wordpress (not even sure if that matters...) I will take a look at your suggestions and return later on - I am sure I got a few questions by then!

      One question I do got is that I don't want people to see/open those extra sites - are they easy to find if they know my main domain and how do I avoid that? Thanks.
      Yet another option is to set up redirects via your control panel and bypass Wordpress altogether. You tell the form in the control panel what you want the link to look like and where you want it to point. The panel writes a rule in your server setup that redirects any request for the page to the new url. Need to change the url? Just edit the redirect.

      As for the question you asked here, if you set it up properly someone who knows what you are doing may be able to retrieve the page, but the average user will never notice it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ventus
    Thanks JohnMcCabe! All the suggestions above is good but I think your suggestion is the easiest one for me. I guess that also means that I won't have additional pages that could be viewed by other people, hacked etc. - that is a good thing!

    So I just use the redirect function in cPanel? Should I use permanent redirect (301) or temporary (302)? I don't want my readers to get any notice about updating booksmarks etc. so my guess would be temporary (302) - am I right? (not sure why it is called temporary...) Do you know if there is a limit on how many redirects you can make?
    Thanks very much for your help!
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by Ventus View Post

      Thanks JohnMcCabe! All the suggestions above is good but I think your suggestion is the easiest one for me. I guess that also means that I won't have additional pages that could be viewed by other people, hacked etc. - that is a good thing!

      So I just use the redirect function in cPanel? Should I use permanent redirect (301) or temporary (302)? I don't want my readers to get any notice about updating booksmarks etc. so my guess would be temporary (302) - am I right? (not sure why it is called temporary...) Do you know if there is a limit on how many redirects you can make?
      Thanks very much for your help!
      I would use the 301. Your viewers won't get any message about book marks. I've never really come up with a good use for a temporary redirect.

      As for the number you can make, that's a question for your web host.
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  • Profile picture of the author InternetSuccess001
    Hi,

    I do it already.

    I use php with a mySQL database backend. Works for me.

    But there are 1000's of ways of doing it.

    Easiest way for you right now is do a meta-refresh with a straight HTML page on
    your website.

    i.e.,

    say http://www.samplewebsite.com/sample_offer.htm

    and in "sample_offer.htm", you just include:

    <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://www.affiliateoffer.com/?affiliateid=12345">

    This takes 10 seconds, is easy, and you always have the most up-to-date offer.

    John
    Signature
    Pick a product. Pick ANY product! -> 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
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  • Profile picture of the author Ventus
    Thanks to both of you - I can see that there are several ways to do it... I don't want anyone to actually see or be able to find this "link-redirecting-site" on my website - 301 redirect seems to take care of that because I don't have to have any dedicated website or file for the links (not sure I understand it correct but I hope that is the case).

    Could I simply make links in my pdf-file named mysite.com/1 (and 2,3,4 etc. or something similar for each product) and then make redirects to the real addresses for each product, and is it right that I actually don't have to have a page on my website named "1", "2", "3" etc. (because it redirects instantly when I use 301) - is that right?
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by Ventus View Post

      Thanks to both of you - I can see that there are several ways to do it... I don't want anyone to actually see or be able to find this "link-redirecting-site" on my website - 301 redirect seems to take care of that because I don't have to have any dedicated website or file for the links (not sure I understand it correct but I hope that is the case).

      Could I simply make links in my pdf-file named mysite.com/1 (and 2,3,4 etc. or something similar for each product) and then make redirects to the real addresses for each product, and is it right that I actually don't have to have a page on my website named "1", "2", "3" etc. (because it redirects instantly when I use 301) - is that right?
      Choo got it, amigo...:p
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      • Profile picture of the author Ventus
        Great! Thanks! I would prefer not to have any files/subpages so I just hope I can make enough redirects in cPanel... Must admit I know very little about affiliate/referral links so may I ask how I get those aff. links? I found a couple of products that I recommend in my ebook but I don't know if I can make money on referring those products - is there a list/page on the internet I can search or do I have to contact each shop to get those links?
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