Pretty Link alternative

Mike Baker

13 years ago

I have found the GoCodes plugin is very useful at cloaking affiliate links.

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2 replies

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JackieLee 13 years ago

I use subdomain redirects. It's kind of a pain, but I don't have to worry about a plugin not working anymore.
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lioncirth 13 years ago

Originally Posted by mikescos

I have found the GoCodes plugin is very useful at cloaking affiliate links.

Second this, I have used GoCodes a lot and I like it
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VegasGreg

13 years ago

Originally Posted by danleigh57

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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Danny McConnell 13 years ago

Thanks for your replies, I will have a look at Gocodes. I got my information from the prettylink site. Maybe it was just an upgrade shill, but it seems best not to chance it.
Dan
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x3xsolxdierx3x 13 years ago

Originally Posted by VegasGreg

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

Because it still works

It still works for me, as well. :rolleyes:
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zomex

13 years ago

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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XRay

13 years ago

Originally Posted by danleigh57

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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Danny McConnell 13 years ago

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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txconx

13 years ago

I've found the Pro version well worth the money.

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1 reply

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Danny McConnell 13 years ago

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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Ouroboros

13 years ago

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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Christie01

13 years ago

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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bcturner

13 years ago

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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Danny McConnell 13 years ago

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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elliec

13 years ago

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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archivefive

13 years ago

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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OpticalOut

13 years ago

I use pretty link all the time and it still works. I think that it doesn't cloak links anymore. Or something similar.

Thanks

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Battra

13 years ago

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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ybaff 13 years ago

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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Valentin Yonte

13 years ago

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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Lyanna

13 years ago

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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Luke McCormack

13 years ago

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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dagaul101

13 years ago

One way you could just do a 301 redirect using .htaccess

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mianriz

13 years ago

I am also looking wordrpess plugin to manage content for custom seo

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1 reply

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clouded 13 years ago

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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alanross

13 years ago

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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denharsh 11 years ago

I'm using Gocodes for 3 years now and it does what we need...No fancy stuff..
Simple redirect, nofollow link and hit counts...
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trevord92

11 years ago

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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gordian

10 years ago

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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1 reply

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BrianMI 10 years ago

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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- gordian 10 years ago
  
  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?
  
  Thanks
  
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egadgetsguru

10 years ago

Gocodes Wordpress plugin work best for me .Nofollow and hit counts is good

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muhammadkhalid

10 years ago

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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1 reply

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abs007 10 years ago

Working perfectly fine for me -
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vishwa

10 years ago

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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Torreylee

10 years ago

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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Aaron0669

10 years ago

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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Pretty Link alternative

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