Best to cloak your affiliate links yourself

Simon71

14 years ago

Thanks Alan!

Do you know a good way of disguising affiliate links on a FB fan page?

regards,
Simon

Thanks

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Andy Money

14 years ago

Another good way to cloak for a Word Press blog or something is to use the Pretty Link Lite plugin, it works really well and tracks the clicks.

At the end of the day it makes more sense to cloak. It can't hurt and it just looks better on your site.

Thanks
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alanross

14 years ago

Definatly cloak, 1) stops people changing your affiliate link to theres.
2) looks better for the buyer when they click.

Regarding pretty link, i heard they only cloak links on the pro version now, since last month?

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Alexa Smith

Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by alanross

Definatly cloak, 1) stops people changing your affiliate link to theres.

It really doesn't, Alan - this is a bit of a fallacy, and isn't the purpose.

I cloak all my affiliate-links, for several reasons, but not for that one, which isn't too valid: first, if someone is going to replace your affiliate-link with theirs, cloaking yours won't stop them because they'll see on the payment-page - in the case of networks like ClickBank - what's going on anyway, even if they don't see it on the sales page; secondly, you can't in any case conceal your own affiliate incentivization without breaching FTC regulations regarding "affiliate disclosures".

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alanross

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

It really doesn't, Alan - this is a bit of a fallacy, and isn't the purpose.

I cloak all my affiliate-links, for several reasons, but not for that one, which isn't too valid: first, if someone is going to replace your affiliate-link with theirs, cloaking yours won't stop them because they'll see on the payment-page - in the case of networks like ClickBank - what's going on anyway, even if they don't see it on the sales page; secondly, you can't in any case conceal your own affiliate incentivization without breaching FTC regulations regarding "affiliate disclosures".

Hey Alexa, Your right in the the fact that it doesn't stop clickbank affiliates from changing your affiliate link if they want, nothing in my opinion can. I wasn't talking about clickbank affiliate, sorry should have been more clear

.
Seems that when you mention affiliate everyone assumes you mean clickbank.

Anyway back to cloaking your own links, ( and as Alexa stated this is not black hat cloaking, this is hiding the horrible way affiliate links look, they are of putting to customers, and not pleasing on the eye. So people try the php redirect, 3rd party plugins are ok, but do you really trust them with your link especially clickbank, as its to easy for them to change to there's? Be interested to know what other warriors think, and have you been stung?

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UMS 14 years ago

Originally Posted by alanross

Regarding pretty link, i heard they only cloak links on the pro version now, since last month?

Depends on your definition of "cloak".

Pretty Link Lite (the free version) will still allow you to set up redirected links.

Pretty Link Pro (paid version) allows you to do "cloaking" (in the grey/black-hat sense) that hides the destination site in an iframe so to the user it looks like they haven't left your site.
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- alanross 14 years ago
  
  Ok, sounds like the pro version is a bit naughty then.
  
  I personally would touch software that is grey hat. not worth upsetting king google
  
  thanks for the share
  
  Thanks
  
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NikkiBlue 14 years ago

Is this like me having my own tinyur or bit.ly ?
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- alanross 14 years ago
  
  Hey Nikkiblue, it is , the php redirect is the same basis as using tinyur or bit.ly, but with the benifit of it looking more pleasing.
  
  tinyur or bit.ly look ugly, think of yourself as a customer, if i saw a link like tinyurl i wouldn't click on it, you can tell its hiding something, maybe virus!
  
  But with php redirect the link will look like this
  
  yourdomain.com/recommends/and the product name your promoting.php
  
  This looks alot better.
  
  Thanks
  
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Nino Rostomashvili

14 years ago

thanks for interesting info.
But as I know Cloaking is a black hat seo practice and this term is defined as practice of giving a different page to search engine robots than to actual website guests.
While cloaking affiliate links, won't the site be penalized by Google?

Thanks
1 reply

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Alexa Smith

Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Nino Rostomashvili

But as I know Cloaking is a black hat seo practice and this term is defined as practice of giving a different page to search engine robots than to actual website guests.

That's a different use of the word "cloaking", Nino - not what we're discussing here.

Originally Posted by Nino Rostomashvili

While cloaking affiliate links, won't the site be penalized by Google?

No.

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m0majik

14 years ago

Doesn't Google penalize you FOR using affiliate links? Like if they see loads of them?

Thanks

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Gregory Campbell

14 years ago

Does cloaking still work?

Thanks
1 reply

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RAMarketing 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Gregory Campbell

Does cloaking still work?

In the legit sense: changing 'afgaergfasdfngadf.hop.givemecash.com' to yoursite.com/awesome yes it still works

In the blackhat sense: having a frame display the target page... You will be banned by not only the product that you are promoting, but the entire network. Not worth it.
- Thanks
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Arthur Barn

14 years ago

I am happy i stumble in this thread. Alexa is really great. You always post a very informative ideas. Thanks!

Thanks

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gypsy

13 years ago

Thanks for sharing this technique. I did a few tests but I keep getting the following error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ':' in /home/myusername/public_html/myurl.com/recommends/test.php on line 2

This is what is in the test.php:

<?php
header("location: http://http://www.google.com");
?>

I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated!

Originally Posted by alanross

Hey Warriors, A few years ago I used to use a wordpress plugin to cloak my links, I remember checking my click count it was high but i had few sales, then I thought about clocking my links myself. I didnt trust a third party plugin to mess with my links. So I now use a php redirect, it is easy to set up, and I control my link cloaking.

I thought I would share this with anyone that wishes to do this as well who doesnt know how to.
(Please note im not complaining about cloaking plugins in general, I know this forum has some good ones to use, I just prefer to be in control.) Anyway heres how:-

1) create a folder on your desktop, name it recommends.
2)open note pad and insert this code-

<?php
header("Location: Your Affiliate Link | YourAffiliateLink.com");
?>

3) (Replace with your affiliate link)
4) save this in note pad name it what ever the product is your selling, add php at the end. ex loseweight.php

5) Upload this folder via ftp to yourcpanel, website folders.
6) thats it! your link will now look like this yourlink/recommends/loseweight.php
hope this helpslet me know
Ps my sales improved aswell, so I believe the plugin was no good.

Thanks
1 reply

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mrtreyk

13 years ago

Originally Posted by gypsy

Thanks for sharing this technique. I did a few tests but I keep getting the following error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ':' in /home/myusername/public_html/myurl.com/recommends/test.php on line 2

This is what is in the test.php:

<?php
header("location: http://http://www.google.com");
?>

I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated!

You have "http://" twice in your URL.

Thanks

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gypsy

13 years ago

Doh! I definitely need more coffee!
Also, I noticed that the " was a either a curly or a straight and a simple retype did the trick.
Thanks for the embarrassing catch mrtreyk and for this very cool trick alanross!

Thanks

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Coby

13 years ago

There is also an easier to remember html way to make "redirects" - doesn't really cloak - but will do the trick for cosmetic reasons (and for when sites change - its easier to change the links)...

here is the html code...

<html><script>location="your aff link here"</script></html>

then just rename this "product.html" and upload to your site or name it "index.html" and create a folder named "product" and upload it to that...

Cheers,
Coby

Thanks
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Estelle4131

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Coby

There is also an easier to remember html way to make "redirects" - doesn't really cloak - but will do the trick for cosmetic reasons (and for when sites change - its easier to change the links)...

here is the html code...

<html><script>location="your aff link here"</script></html>

then just rename this "product.html" and upload to your site or name it "index.html" and create a folder named "product" and upload it to that...

Cheers,
Coby

Please elaborate more! I am not following what you are doing.

Thanks

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Best to cloak your affiliate links yourself

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