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How to Do a Meta-Refresh Re-Direct?

by Nightengale
14 replies
Hi Warriors,

I'm a techno-dunce and need some help with a re-direct since I don't know how to do it.

Suppose I'm driving traffic (for a CPA offer) to Domain A. How do I redirect the traffic so that the affiliate network doesn't see exactly where it's coming from? I want to protect my campaign but I don't know exactly how to do this.

A while back, I was part of a membership site that taught me how to do it and I didn't understand it and didn't save the post in detail. All I know was that it was something about driving traffic to Domain A (where you had placed the CPA offer), then re-directed it to Domain B. All the affiliate network saw was traffic coming from Domain B.

Of course, the trick would be making sure the pixel, tracking pixel or whatever it is that makes sure you get credit from the network for that lead gets passed through.

Can someone help me with this? I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Michelle
#redirect
  • Profile picture of the author Miguel Oliveira
    You can do this from your domain management panel. The way you do it depends on your provider, but there should be an option to "redirect domain" or something like that. Turn that option on and enable masking.

    Alternatively, you can post in your index file the following line:
    <?php
    header ('Location: http://your-redirect.com');
    ?>
    Where "your-redirect.com" is the affiliate link. You can't have anything else written on that file, only that php call.

    If you need help setting this up, feel free to PM me.
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  • Profile picture of the author aj-simon@live.com
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    • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
      Thanks for the advice guys, but I'm still confused.

      As I said, this is for a CPA offer. I want to rotate 3 different offers on the same landing page AND use either a single or double meta-refresh to hide my landing page from the networks. (I want to keep my camapign and traffic sources confidential.)

      I've got the rotator script in the landing page working correctly. But I'm confused about how to integrate a meta-refresh re-direct with this. I asked someone else and he told me how to set up a double meta-refresh but seemed to give me contradictory info when I clarified it with him.

      Me: "So drive people to my landing page on Domain A. As soon as they fill the CPA offer out and click submit, it re-directs to Domain B and then Domain C?"

      Him: "Yes."

      But then later, in the IM conversation, he said:

      Him: "from domain A to B you would do a javascript meta refresh

      CPA offer is Domain C

      you could go with one domain too if you wanted

      site & Rotator on same domain -> Domain B -> network"

      There was a little more to it, but quite frankly, I don't understand and am thoroughly confused! Can someone help me out with this? I'd greatly appreciate it!

      How do I set up a landing page which rotates 3 different CPA offers (to reduce my risk with each network) AND integrate a single or double metarefresh so the networks can't see my offer????

      I'm including the rotator script I'm using below so you can see it. Also, these are not the offeres I'm using. They're from an old campaign which is no longer active and are just there for the sake of example.

      I'd GREATLY appreciate any help you all can give!

      Thanks,
      Michelle

      $counthandle=fopen("count.txt","r");
      $getcurrent=fread($counthandle,filesize("count.txt "));
      fclose($counthandle);
      $getcurrent = trim($getcurrent);

      switch($getcurrent){
      case "1":
      $link = "http://login.tracking101.com/ez/arvsklpwolls/";
      $offer = "Target $500 Gift Card -- CPA Empire (6757)";
      $getcurrent = "2";
      $offer_text = "Vote Now For a Chance To Win A Cool Gift<br><br>Enter your e-mail address on the next page to continue.";
      break;
      case "2":
      $link = "http://login.tracking101.com/ez/dxwymhcsrhsk/";
      $offer = "JC Penney $500 Gift Card -- CPA Empire (6762)";
      $getcurrent = "3";
      $offer_text = "Vote Now For a Chance To Win A Cool Gift<br><br>Enter your e-mail address on the next page to continue.";
      break;
      case "3":
      $link = "http://login.tracking101.com/ez/bvdgyqflsqek/";
      $offer = "Sears $500 Gift Card -- CPA Empire (6764)";
      $getcurrent = "1";
      $offer_text = "Vote Now For a Chance To Win A Cool Gift<br><br>Enter your e-mail address on the next page to continue.";
      break;
      }

      //update the file
      $counthandle=fopen("count.txt","w");
      fputs($counthandle,$getcurrent);
      fclose($counthandle);
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    • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
      Thanks Jeff!

      I think I'd like to do a meta-refresh. But does that re-direct code go BEFORE or after the rotator script in the landing page? Assuming the landing page/CPA offer goes on Domain A which re-directs to Domain B, do I need to have a site/landing page on Domain B in case the affiliate manager goes looking? How do I know the tracking pixel will carry through? Do I need to put another meta-refresh on the Domain B page to make it go back to the network?

      Sorry for all of the questions! I know it's a simple task, but I've never done it and and am still confused.

      Michelle
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  • Profile picture of the author sevenish
    Instead of using DMR or any other tactic to hide my referrer, I'm using Prosper202 or Tracking202. All traffic will present to your network as referred by Prosper or Tracking.

    It's easy and free.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
      So if the affiliate manager goes looking, they will see the Prosper 202 site?


      Originally Posted by sevenish View Post

      Instead of using DMR or any other tactic to hide my referrer, I'm using Prosper202 or Tracking202. All traffic will present to your network as referred by Prosper or Tracking.

      It's easy and free.
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      • Profile picture of the author sevenish
        Originally Posted by Nightengale View Post

        So if the affiliate manager goes looking, they will see the Prosper 202 site?
        Yep. Plus, the AMs are used to seeing it as the referrer.

        Since you describe yourself as a "techno dunce", you might want to use Tracking202 since Prosper202 requires that you install it on your own server.
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        • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
          And the AM'S don't throw a fit about seeing a tracking site as opposed to an actual domain and landing page?

          Originally Posted by sevenish View Post

          Yep. Plus, the AMs are used to seeing it as the referrer.

          Since you describe yourself as a "techno dunce", you might want to use Tracking202 since Prosper202 requires that you install it on your own server.
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          • Profile picture of the author sevenish
            Originally Posted by Nightengale View Post

            And the AM'S don't throw a fit about seeing a tracking site as opposed to an actual domain and landing page?
            Not yet. I called my AMs prior to running my first campaigns through it. If you're worried, give your AMs a call and discuss it with them. The tools' key benefits are the tracking stats.

            I learned about it on a forum that also has a fair few AMs posting there as well as publishers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Miguel Oliveira
    Ok, the rotator is in domain A and it will display on the page the name of the offer ($offer) plus the text ($offer_text)? And then it redirects to the address you have specified on $link, which is a page inside the same domain?

    If that is the case, then you can put the line I suggested in that page, pointing towards Domain B, and then at domain's B domain manager set a redirect towards your CPA (or create the meta redirect). You would have to have 3 domains B, one for each CPA, unless you are using the meta redirect, in which case you would only need one page for each redirect. The CPA would only know that the traffic came from Domain B, and if they went to that site they would be sent to their own landing page and would have no way to know that traffic was actually coming from Domain A.

    I'm not sure if I understood if that's what you want, or what each of the variables in the rotator does (I understand how the rotator rotates between offers, just not what is done with the information put into the variables inside the switch expression).

    And the meta redirect goes at the header, after the rotator code.

    I understand this can be quite confusing, so let me show you:

    Code:
    DOMAIN A
*** rotator code ***
<head>
 <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=<?php [assuming the rotator you use is php based] echo link(with $ before it); ?>">
 ***more head code ***
</head>
<body></body></html>
    Code:
    DOMAIN A, SUBPAGE (where you sent them through the redirect)
<head>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=domainB.com/offerpage">
</head>
    Code:
    DOMAIN B, OFFERPAGE
same things as before, except that now the url is your CPA offer
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    • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
      Originally Posted by Miguel Oliveira View Post

      Ok, the rotator is in domain A and it will display on the page the name of the offer () plus the text ()? And then it redirects to the address you have specified on , which is a page inside the same domain?
      Almost. You have it correct up until "...which is a page inside the same domain?" The link it re-directs to is the CPA offer on the network's landing page. It's my affiliate link.

      Originally Posted by Miguel Oliveira View Post

      ...unless you are using the meta redirect, in which case you would only need one page for each redirect. The CPA would only know that the traffic came from Domain B, and if they went to that site they would be sent to their own landing page and would have no way to know that traffic was actually coming from Domain A.
      This is what I want to do.

      I'm not sure if I understood if that's what you want, or what each of the variables in the rotator does (I understand how the rotator rotates between offers, just not what is done with the information put into the variables inside the switch expression).

      Basically, I was building landing pages for PPC campaigns. To make it fast and easy, I put all of the variables in the PHP info at the top of the page. The PHP echo commands just instructed the page to display the unique variables in the proper places further down the page. This allowed me to build landing pages quickly which were nearly identical in design and format but with different content.

      The rotator script allowed me to rotate different offers (3 in this case) which helped spread out my traffic and manage my risk with the networks (which have a bad habit of "scrubbing" offers.)

      Hope that makes sense!

      Michelle
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  • Profile picture of the author Miguel Oliveira
    Let's say you wanted to promote three CPA offers: Acme, Doe and Ultra. All your visitors would land on the page index.php in domain A (domainA.com), and the rotator would rotate between acme, doe and ultra.

    So, let's say it a visitor lands on your page and the rotator decides it is time to send him to Acme. It would put inside $link the value "http://www.domainB.com/acme.html".

    This should all happen at the top of domainA.com/index.php, something like:

    Code:
    <?php
  /* rotator code goes here
   * and for this run it picks Acme
   * and assigns domainB.com/acme.html
   */
?>
<html>
<head>
  <!-- Put here all the usual head stuff and in addition the line below -->
  <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url="<?php echo ($)link; ?>">
  <!-- 
     -- it would not be ($)link, but the forums don't allow me
     -- to write variables inside a code block to prevent cracking
     -->
</head>
<body>
<!-- put here all the usual body stuff and echo out the other variables (name of the offer, etc) --!>
</body>
</html>
    Then the user would be sent to page domainB.com/acme.html. Only at this page would you have the affiliate link - not in domainA.com. On the other hand, the rotator would only exist in domainA.com/index.php!

    The decision of what CPA to use would be made at domainA.com/index.php by the rotator. Then it would send the users to different pages under domain B, or to different domains, according to the CPA chosen: domainB.com/acme.html; domainB.com/doe.html; and domainB.com/ultra.html.

    Then, at domainB.com/acme.html you would have a redirect to Acme's CPA. At domainB.com/doe.html you would have a redirect to Doe's CPA. And at domainB.com/ultra.html you would have a redirect to Ultra's CPA.

    For instance, let's say the visitor was sent to domainB.com/acme.html, the page would have the following code:
    Code:
    <html>
<head>
  <!-- Usual head code, plus: -->
  <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url="http://acmesCPAlink.com">
</head>
<body>
  <!-- Usual body code -->
</body>
</html>
    For Acme's AM it would seem like the visitor had come from domainB.com/acme.html, not domainA.com. They wouldn't know about domainA because the rotator code + campaign was kept separate from the domain that actually handled affiliate links.

    Hope that was clear
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    • Profile picture of the author sOliver
      Hi,

      sorry for bumping this old thread but I have a question.


      Here's how I do that and I would like to verify that my way is "safe":

      I use Tracking202 (not for cloaking) and a combination of my own tactics:

      AD => Landing Page => Link to domainA.com/page.php
      => PHP Redirect to sub.domainA.com (Tracking202)
      => PHP Redirect to domainB.com (my Url Shortener)
      => PHP Redirect to Offer page

      This looks like a lot of redirects but is ten times faster than the built-in cloaking via Tracking202.

      To me it looks safe, because they will only see my URL Shortener listed as referrer. I know that Javascript is the "safest" method, but I don't see how they possibly could figure out "domainA.com".

      Thanks for any input,
      sOliver
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