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Cloaked links - how can you tell that they are working properly

by ed22
7 replies
Hi all

Using bitly links to get traffic to affiliate offers

When you use a normal hop code, you can see at the top of the destination URL your affilaite id; e.g. www.xxx.com ed22

Not getting this with my bitly link;

How do you tell if my account is associated with any ongoing sales? ie. is this the right way to go about it?

Many Thanks
Ed
#cloaked #links #properly #working
  • Profile picture of the author nixproxy
    What do you mean by cloaked link? I know what cloaking means in general but never heard of it in a link.
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  • Profile picture of the author Peter May
    If it is clickbank hit the buy now button then at the bottom of the payment page should be your ID if not it will say none.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Peter May View Post

      If it is clickbank hit the buy now button then at the bottom of the payment page should be your ID if not it will say none.
      You need to clear your cookies, too, of course, for this approach to be valid, otherwise you'll still have the cookie there from the last time you looked, and learn nothing. What matters is what happens on your customers' computers, rather than on your own.

      (Sorry, posted at the same time as Norb, who got in before me! ).
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  • Profile picture of the author ncmedia
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author ameerulislam10
      Originally Posted by ncmedia View Post

      Don't cloak, don't use third parties, simply use local redirects.

      *Also remember to clear your cookies otherwise you'll see your aff ID on the bottom of the pay page on each test you do.
      You might be right but I have seen big marketers use third party cloaking site like bit.ly . So I think it's safe to use it.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by ameerulislam10 View Post

        I have seen big marketers use third party cloaking site like bit.ly . So I think it's safe to use it.
        You might just change your mind about that, when you read this recent post on Ben Metcalfe's blog: The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe | :Ben Metcalfe Blog.

        The best URL shortening service to track click-throughs and conceal affiliate links is any one that you own and control yourself.

        To put it mildly, it's not sensible at all to rely on the continued availability, goodwill, reliability and changeable terms of service of any third-party URL-shortening service. There were a few hundred Warriors here in 2009 who would have told you the same (and in fact did) when all their Tinyurl links suddenly disappeared overnight.

        Sometimes copying what "big marketers" do leads to the same "big mistakes" to which their size actually confers them no immunity at all. Call me a skepchick, but I've often thought you're better off with those nice small marketers, myself.
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      • Profile picture of the author ncmedia
        [DELETED]
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        • Profile picture of the author ed22
          Wow. Stuck the post up, whizzed down to Halfords to buy a lightbulb and when I get back all sorted.

          Thanks all!

          (For our non Brit friends, Halfords is a bike and car spares shop that always smells of oil and rubber.

          Dreamy.)
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          “If you don’t know what port you are sailing to, no wind is favourable” Seneca 4BC-AD65, Roman philosopher and poet
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  • Profile picture of the author konradbraun
    Personally I would never ever use a third party redirect - especially if there is money involved (like affiliate sales etc).

    If you use and have a wordpress blog, simply use the "pretty link" plugin. That way you at least have control over it.

    It has happened to me a time or two where I did not put the right link in to the redirect, and after mailing it to my list, I realized I screwed up, and there was no way for me to fix the error... but with the "pretty link" plugin (which is what I mainly use aside from my very own redirect script), I can always change the link later on when I realize that I screwed up... or when I find a better product to redirect to.

    Don't trust thirdparty redirects!
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