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Pretty Link alternative

by Danny McConnell
38 replies
Hi, I was using Pretty Link Lite to mask my affiliate links, but apparently it has stopped working unless you upgrade to the Pro version.

Is there another Wordpress plugin that does the same thing? If not, what is the best alternative.

Thanks,
Dan
#alternative #link #pretty
  • Profile picture of the author Mike Baker
    I have found the GoCodes plugin is very useful at cloaking affiliate links.
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  • Profile picture of the author VegasGreg
    Originally Posted by danleigh57 View Post

    Hi, I was using Pretty Link Lite to mask my affiliate links, but apparently it has stopped working unless you upgrade to the Pro version.

    Is there another Wordpress plugin that does the same thing? If not, what is the best alternative.

    Thanks,
    Dan
    Who told you it doesn't work anymore?? Did you try it?

    Because it still works
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    Greg Schueler - Wordpress Fanatic... Living The Offline Marketing Dream...

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  • Profile picture of the author zomex
    You could always use simple 301 redirects for this. Alternatively you could create a HTML page for example: domain.com/link.html and then redirect it that way. It will also allow you to track traffic with a service such as Google Analytics.

    Jack
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  • Profile picture of the author XRay
    Originally Posted by danleigh57 View Post

    Hi, I was using Pretty Link Lite to mask my affiliate links, but apparently it has stopped working unless you upgrade to the Pro version.

    Is there another Wordpress plugin that does the same thing? If not, what is the best alternative.

    Thanks,
    Dan
    Dan,

    I was using Pretty Link Lite too. But after it stopped working, I found another free plugin called Simple URLs and switched to it. Basically works the same as Pretty Links Lite. Here's the link: WordPress › Simple URLs « WordPress Plugins.

    Ray
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    • Profile picture of the author Danny McConnell
      Thanks for the link. I'll check it out as well.

      I haven't checked to see if the cloaking is still working on my older sites.

      Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author txconx
    I've found the Pro version well worth the money.
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    • Profile picture of the author Danny McConnell
      To be honest, I would consider the pro version, but I have reached the stge of being very careful with my spending until I begin to see some success.

      Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author Ouroboros
    The original pretty links lite still works, just don't upgrade it!

    The new version was changed to meet certain requirements so they could keep it listed with the wordpress folks, but the old version still works fine.
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  • Profile picture of the author Christie01
    What's not working for you with Pretty Link Lite? Mine seems to be working fine, and I have the latest version.
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  • Profile picture of the author bcturner
    Is the pretty link pretty - or rather plain? Dont forget that some links need to be ugly to get noticed - I mean look at me.
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    • Profile picture of the author Danny McConnell
      So anything I have installed on my old site should still be working?
      That will be a help.

      I went back and found the post from the developer that said the lite version wasn't working and the post is a couple of months old. I can't seem to find any update. I wonder if something might have changed again?

      Think I'll still check out the alternatives.

      Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author elliec
    My understanding is that Pretty Link (Lite) still works for shortening links for Twitter for example, but will not work for cloaking affiliate links unless you upgrade to Pretty Link Pro. I am going to try gocodes for this as recommended above.
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  • Profile picture of the author archivefive
    The redirects on PrettyLink seem slow to me. Are GoCodes or Simple URL's any faster?

    I want to use good looking and trackable URL's in pdf ebooks.
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  • Profile picture of the author OpticalOut
    I use pretty link all the time and it still works. I think that it doesn't cloak links anymore. Or something similar.
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  • Profile picture of the author Battra
    Pretty Link is still working, but the latest version removes cloaking and Pretty Bar to comply with WordPress' rules for all plugins to be hosted on WordPress. Apparently WP doesn't allow plugin that is 'deceiving users' such as cloaking. If the owner kept the cloak feature, he couldn't put the plugin on WP's server (or anything that allows you to search from the dashboard).

    If you don't need the cloak feature, there should be no problem upgrading to the latest version.

    If you need the old version that still has cloak feature, PM me and I will email it to you.

    You can read about it here --> Where Did Pretty Link Cloaking Go? | Blair Williams
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    • Profile picture of the author ybaff
      I've been using the latest Pretty Link Lite version since right now I only want the redirecting and tracking functionality and it's working fine. I don't use cloaking anyway.

      But this brings up a question. What happens if I decide to switch to a different plugin in the future? Say I decided to switch to GoCodes like previous posters have mentioned. What happens to all the links I created with Pretty Link?

      If I disable the Pretty Link plugin all the redirects stop working so what happens if I want to move to a different plugin? Will the new plugin find all the Pretty Link redirects and keep them working or will I have to update all my links manually?
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  • Profile picture of the author Valentin Yonte
    I have not found anything like Pretty link so far. The plugin has a lot of features that not all has. I don't know if the developer team continue with the project.

    ybaff
    What happens if I decide to switch to a different plugin in the future?
    Pretty Link Pro has the option to export to CSV format your links. Here a picture:
    Import/Eport Pretty Link Screenshot
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  • Profile picture of the author Lyanna
    OMG! You scared me so badly. LOL. I use pretty link on all my urls, not for cloaking but just for tracking and to shorten the super long affiliate links.

    Don't panic guys, it still works. Phew!
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  • Profile picture of the author Luke McCormack
    I find GoCodes very easy to use if you are looking for an alternative but it seems that Pretty Link Lite still does the job
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  • Profile picture of the author dagaul101
    One way you could just do a 301 redirect using .htaccess
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  • Profile picture of the author mianriz
    I am also looking wordrpess plugin to manage content for custom seo
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    • Profile picture of the author clouded
      Pretty Links still works on my site, however the plugin can not be found anywhere in WP now. I saw it a few days ago but now it is gone. If you were using pretty link lite you can still cloak your url.

      When you create a pretty link create a subfolder, in this example its called /see/ and then block the subfolder in your robots.txt.

      Pretty link : h t t p ://url(dot)com/see/nameyoucreate
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  • Profile picture of the author alanross
    I find its better to use a php redirect on your links, using third party links doesnt always work well and i dont trust companys with this.

    use the php redirect code below:

    <?php
    header('Location: your affiliate link here');
    ?>

    place that link in notepad call it the what ever the product name is with .php at the end.

    place this in a folder on your desktop name it recommends, then place the notepad folder into that. upload this to your cpanel via ftp. then your link cloak will be
    www.yoursite.com/recommends/productname.php
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  • Profile picture of the author trevord92
    I've recently been using WP Shorties and that's working for me.

    There are various options with it and some reporting.

    It uses a separate directory for the redirects (useful because it means you don't accidentally clash with a page name). On first install you have to set this - it doesn't remind you about this when you install the plugin or do it automatically but it's a one-off thing so not much of an issue.
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  • Profile picture of the author gordian
    I know this is a bit of an older thread but I didn't want to start a new one since the topic was already created.

    I've been using Pretty Link Lite for a site of mine and I really like it. It gives me complete control over my affiliate links–I know some plugins add a "go" to the URL which can't be removed easily.

    The trouble is, now my site has close to 9,000 Pretty Links and the plugin substantially affects my site's response time. I'm using caching AND Cloudflare.

    When I disable Pretty Link Lite my site absolutely flies.

    If anyone has a current favorite alternative to Pretty Link Lite I'd love to hear about it. It would also be awesome if it were platform independent (i.e., works on Apache or nginx) because the site is currently running on nginx but might switch back to Apache hosting soon.

    Thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author BrianMI
      It might be too late for this because you've already got so many pretty links up and running...

      But what could work well if you are using Wordpress is to upgrade it to a multi-site install and create a subdomain called "m" as that's often used for "mobile" or whatever. Use a different letter if you already use "m" for a REAL mobile version of your site.

      So it should look like this: http://m.koolsite.com/

      Make sure you go into site settings from Networking Dashboard and check the box that allows the sub-blogs to access their plugin control.

      Then install the redirection plugin in the multi-site network dashboard. Don't "network activate" it though. Alternatively, you can use any other plugin you want. Maybe even prettylinks.

      Anyway, you just use the "m" sub-blog for nothing other than running the redirection plugin. Thus only if an operation is done on the subblog does the plugin have to run through the list of 9,000 URLs to see if there is a match. As you have it going right now it has to do this query-and-check process every time you visit any page (url) on your site. Thus your main site should be freed up to run nice and fast.
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      • Profile picture of the author gordian
        BrianMI, that's definitely an awesome idea!

        I'm not sure my current hosting provider will allow that kind of setup and I know it will be an additional monthly fee to run an additional WP install (currently using WP Engine). Thanks for the idea!

        I am handy with data migration and manipulation though, so changing to a new solution that loads faster but requires my links to be re-added shouldn't be a problem.

        Anyone have suggestions for a better solution without relying on another WP installation? Would I experience the same slowdown with something like ThirstyAffiliates? How about another plugin? Recommendations?
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  • Profile picture of the author egadgetsguru
    Gocodes Wordpress plugin work best for me .Nofollow and hit counts is good
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  • Profile picture of the author muhammadkhalid
    Its not working on my end neither pretty link nor gocode

    both occurring error of 404

    "Not Found

    The requested URL /wp/go/xxxxxx/ was not found on this server.

    Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request."
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  • Profile picture of the author vishwa
    I am also using Gocodes for masking my affiliate links and never had a problem with it so far. Works Perfectly
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  • Profile picture of the author Torreylee
    THIS PLUGIN: http://wordpress.org/plugins/redirection/

    +

    THIS ARTICLE: How To Cloak Affiliate Links - Quick and Dirty WordPress Tutorial

    =

    Your best solution, not the easiest but THE BEST.

    Those other cloaker plugins leave a footprint, this redirection plugin does not, cloaking isn't it's original purpose, it was made to manage 301 redirections and keep track of 404 errors without requiring knowledge of Apache .htaccess files.

    You're welcome.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron0669
    I use a plugin called Redirection. It is the same as a 301 re-direct, only difference is you do it all within Wordpress.
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