Cloaking an affiliate link just means that you are creating URLs on your website that redirect to an affiliate link. For example:

You don't have to use a plugin to create cloaked affiliate links. You can do so with this method detailed out by Yoast or by using your .htaccess file. However, you should never touch your .htaccess file unless you're well versed in using it because making an error within it could take down your whole site. Using .htaccess or the Yoast method for manually...