How do you cloak Hoplinks in 2013?

I'm no ClickBank expert - but this is what I found on the CB website. Looks pretty straight forward:

https://www.clickbank.com/hoplink_encoding.htm

I've used the WP Shorties plugin on a couple of my blogs. It's free and you can set the cloaked name to whatever you want. It also keeps track of clicks and even lets you split test them.

You then just use the link that gets assigned, which will cloak to an extent.

Of course, if people then find out they've been sent to a Clickbank vendor, there's nothing to stop them going to the Clickbank marketplace and finding the product. But that's another can of worms completely!

You know that old thing about "Fast, high-quality, and low-cost: choose any two"? I suspect this may turn out to be choose any two/three from four (i.e. you might be asking a lot!).

I'm not a Wordpress user so I shouldn't really occupy the thread, and am here just to advise strongly that the one thing you shouldn't do is use an unnecessary third-party url-shortening/concealing service. As so many Warriors have found out, often to their great cost and frustration, those are extremely unwise. :p

I use a simple php redirect..., it gives me more control....

Danny

I have YOURLS set up and use it to shorten my links (and get good stats) and you could also try a plugin like Pretty Links.

Timely thread! I found it because I searched for link shorteners on here after reading this on tinyurl.com (been using them for awhile to cloak URLs)

"The URL you entered goes to a website that has an affiliate program which allows TinyURL to earn a commission if a purchase is made on it. We will therefore redirect each visitor to this TinyURL through this site's affiliate program and they will end up at the same page as the URL you entered. This helps cover the costs to run the free TinyURL service. Click here if you would prefer to have a TinyURL that does not go through as an affiliate link."

So they give you an option to not have their URL service behave this way, but what is this really saying? I'm still getting hits on all my affiliate links that were cloaked through tinyurl but are they stealing my commissions? Am I netting lower payouts due to using tinyurl?

A little frustrated that I just saw this on the bottom of the page today, but that's my own ignorance of course. Should have read more about it.

If you're using wordpress you can consider a free version of pretty link: WordPress › Pretty Link Lite « WordPress Plugins

They are great and easy to use. Several A-listed bloggers are using this as well (paid version) so I don't think you'll go wrong with it.

Do your own research and don't ignore the reviews

Also, don't ever go for bit.ly or any other URL shortener when promoting affiliate links. They are not meant to promote affiliate links.

Using cloaking or affiliate link masking won't stop affiliate theft.


Assuming you really do mean "masking" and not "cloaking" (which is against the TOS of most affiliate networks anyway), then the answer is the same as 2012, 2011 and 2010, ie: PrettyLink Lite