'Cloaking' Affiliate Links - Redirection vs Encoding vs Encryption

[xiaophil]

Hi everyone, I think this is important enough to deserve its own thread.

Here's a posting I made earlier in response to someone asking about 'cloaking' affiliate links.

What you you think? In a non-IM niche does it really make any difference? And in an IM niche how much trouble would you go to to 'cloak' your links?

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Hi folks let's clear up a common point of confusion : the difference between encryption and encoding.

If you were to number the letters of the alphabet a,b,c... = 1,2,3... etc and then write down something as a list of numbers instead of the letters then that is a form of encoding and certainly not encryption.

I would be very skeptical of something which claims to encrypt links for you and fail to see the point of doing so anyway.

Of the two methods linked to above (which mention encryption), one simply encodes the link (which is then actually opened in a frame!). The other goes to a little more trouble by using the ROT13 cipher, which I guess strictly speaking is a form of encryption, but then so is a child's secret decoder ring. The output just performs a meta-refresh to your affiliate link!

Recovering an affiliate link from either is a trivial exercise.

Also, these methods use JavaScript. If you're affiliate marketing then I guess you're already hoping that cookies are enabled and now you are also at the mercy of ad and script blockers!

Why do people even bother with these things? Please tell me what's the big deal?

Your customers are going to fall roughly into two groups:
1) What's a cookie?
2) Enough tech savvy to figure out your affiliate link because you have to tell their browser to go there somehow anyway!

So what is wrong with a simple redirect?

It completely encrypts the link so it is impossible to get around your affiliate link.

Unless they have moderate tech skills and a spare five minutes.

Best Regards,

Phil

[Droopy Dawg]

'Zactly!

If you have your own domain just create a folder called "friends" or something... and create html pages with the redirect in the heaa... makes way too much sense