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How do you "HIDE" your affiliate link ?

by tanady
146 replies
Hi Warriors,

I'm wondering which ways is the most people used
when promoting an affiliate..

I've read all these ways that can be found from google:
How To Hide Affiliate Links | John Chow dot Com
How To Hide All Your Affiliate Links With Only One File DerekBeau.com
Ugly Affiliate Link: I Don't Click Them

Also, I understand some of these ways:
html meta refresh
php header
using frameset
'power link generator'
... more

Question:
Which one do you used ? and why ?

Thanks

PS. Preferable in our own domain -- not in other's domain, ie. tinyurl, or similar.
#affiliate #hide #link
  • Profile picture of the author charlesburke
    I use a simple little php file that goes like this:

    [?php
    $url =
    "http://www.somedomain.com";
    header("Location: $url");
    exit();
    ?]
    (naturally you change the 2 [square brackets] to <angle brackets>

    Learned it from Adrian Ling maybe three or four years ago, and it's been all I've ever needed.

    Cheers from warm and smiling Thailand,
    Charles
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    • Profile picture of the author Slippy
      Originally Posted by charlesburke View Post

      I use a simple little php file that goes like this:

      [?php
      =
      "http://www.somedomain.com";
      header("Location: ");
      exit();
      ?]
      (naturally you change the 2 [square brackets] to <angle brackets>

      Learned it from Adrian Ling maybe three or four years ago, and it's been all I've ever needed.

      Cheers from warm and smiling Thailand,
      Charles
      I use this as well...
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    • Profile picture of the author halcline
      Hi,

      Clickbank provides the following affiliate code

      http://ClickbankProduct.com/?hop=Myhopname

      I want to hide MyHopName so people won't steal my commission.

      How do I do that?

      Thanks.

      hal

      I'm
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      • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
        Originally Posted by halcline View Post


        Clickbank provides the following affiliate code

        http://ClickbankProduct.com/?hop=Myhopname

        I want to hide MyHopName so people won't steal my commission.

        How do I do that?

        I'm
        Hal,

        Some CB Publishers implement some code on their site (sales page) to remove the ?hoplink=xzy once the visitor arrives by redirecting them one more time.

        There is a way to do this and I am creating a redirect script to allow you to never show a ?hoplink=xyz at the destination page. Script will be released very soon. You can PM me if you want details.

        Wil
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    • Profile picture of the author halcline
      Thanks for the php tip.

      Question 1: Where on the server to do place this code?

      Question 2: will it hide my ClickBankName as in the example below?

      http://ClickbankProductName.com/?hop=ClickBankName

      Thanks.

      hal
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    • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
      I just do a simple php redirect script.. this way i can change the link very easily if required
      Signature
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    • Profile picture of the author um1001
      Originally Posted by charlesburke View Post

      I use a simple little php file that goes like this:

      [?php
      =
      "http://www.somedomain.com";
      header("Location: ");
      exit();
      ?]
      (naturally you change the 2 [square brackets] to <angle brackets>

      Learned it from Adrian Ling maybe three or four years ago, and it's been all I've ever needed.

      Cheers from warm and smiling Thailand,
      Charles
      Seconding this method. It's exactly what I do. Well, technically I add a small amount of link tracking to a local file too...

      [?php
      $url = "http://affiliateItemXURL.com"
      $fileName = "affiliateItemXClicks.txt";
      $fileHandler = fopen($fileName, 'w') or die(header("Location: $url"));
      $fwrite($fileHandler,$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] . date(DATE_RFC822));
      header("Location: $url");
      ?]

      Sorry if that isn't exact... doing this from memory
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      -- Jack Morrison / um1001

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  • Profile picture of the author Mgwolf
    What is the reasoning behind "hiding" your affiliate link?
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  • Profile picture of the author zeurois
    Originally Posted by tanady View Post

    Hi Warriors,

    ...

    Also, I understand some of these ways:
    html meta refresh
    php header
    using frameset
    'power link generator'
    ... more

    Question:
    Which one do you used ? and why ?
    1. html meta refresh is easy to hijack so I don't recommend it
    2. php header is the best. As long as you send people to yourdomain.com/affiliateprogram (having the index being a redirect) nothing could go wrong
    2b. same goes for htaccess redirection. It's your own server, you can mess with it
    3. frameset - although it seems more and more people are using it, it's like cutting your legs and then wonder why you can't walk. Any affiliate program will have to drop a cookie on your browser but that cannot happen because of security reasons (iframe cookie-ing in 3rd party domains are not allowed .. of course, there are a few exceptions, but you need to go deeper in programming) - not recommended
    4. power link generator - what's that?

    My conclusion: I'd go for server-side redirection if it's my domain. If I only want to send traffic to a specific site and get paid, then I don't even need a domain and I can use tinyurl or any other that does the same.

    Hope this helps
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    • Profile picture of the author tanady
      Originally Posted by zeurois View Post

      1. html meta refresh is easy to hijack so I don't recommend it
      2. php header is the best. As long as you send people to yourdomain.com/affiliateprogram (having the index being a redirect) nothing could go wrong
      2b. same goes for htaccess redirection. It's your own server, you can mess with it
      3. frameset - although it seems more and more people are using it, it's like cutting your legs and then wonder why you can't walk. Any affiliate program will have to drop a cookie on your browser but that cannot happen because of security reasons (iframe cookie-ing in 3rd party domains are not allowed .. of course, there are a few exceptions, but you need to go deeper in programming) - not recommended
      4. power link generator - what's that?

      My conclusion: I'd go for server-side redirection if it's my domain. If I only want to send traffic to a specific site and get paid, then I don't even need a domain and I can use tinyurl or any other that does the same.

      Hope this helps
      Thanks for the quick reply.. appreciate that.

      Power link generator is a "redirect" script
      by Mike Filsaime (quite some time already though).
      But still lots of people using it (i supposed).

      Cheers,
      Cornel Tanady
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  • Profile picture of the author Kesh247
    Create a php redirect using your hosting company and your primary domain name, on your C-Panel. That way it's hidden completely.
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    • Profile picture of the author FredJones
      I simply use what others said too - use a header location statement in PHP. So if my link in pageA.php shows href to pageB.php, then all my pageB.php will have is the header locatino code, and that will take to the affiliateproduct I am selling with my vendor link embedded.

      Hope that clarifies.
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      • Profile picture of the author tanady
        Originally Posted by FredJones View Post

        I simply use what others said too - use a header location statement in PHP. So if my link in pageA.php shows href to pageB.php, then all my pageB.php will have is the header locatino code, and that will take to the affiliateproduct I am selling with my vendor link embedded.

        Hope that clarifies.
        Hi all,

        So far php header is the winner.

        Thanks everyone!
        Cheers,
        Cornel Tanady
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        "A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words"
        http://www.FixPhotoNow.com/

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  • Profile picture of the author Akky
    All you need is to open up NotePad .

    <?php
    header('Location: http://www.youaffiliatecodehere.com/');
    ?>

    Paste the above code and then save the notepad as .php extension . Link the text or image with this php file which you upload to your server.

    Hope I helped you

    G'day,
    Akky
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    • Profile picture of the author Sipboy3000
      Originally Posted by Akky View Post

      All you need is to open up NotePad .

      <?php
      header('Location: http://www.youaffiliatecodehere.com/');
      ?>

      Paste the above code and then save the notepad as .php extension . Link the text or image with this php file which you upload to your server.

      Hope I helped you

      G'day,
      Akky
      I use this exact same method.

      Upload this file to your public_html folder and it will appear as Yourdomain.com/yourphpfilename.php.

      Works like a charm!

      I use it because it seems to get more clicks.
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      Nothing here to see

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    • Profile picture of the author aihamshujaa
      I'm not a computer whiz but I disguise affiliate links by one of two ways:
      1) I create a domain name based on my chosen keyword or product niche and set up a squeeze page. I put my domain name to my squeeze page and direct all traffic to my squeeze page. On my squeeze page I simply design a web form using Aweber. Within this web form you can quite easily embed your affiliate link; or
      2) if I'm just promoting an affiliate link I use the site tinyurl.com. On this site you simple enter your affiliate link the site gives you a much shorter but invisible link. It takes less than 10 seconds to do.

      Hope this helps.
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      • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
        Originally Posted by aihamshujaa View Post

        I'm not a computer whiz but I disguise affiliate links by one of two ways:
        2) if I'm just promoting an affiliate link I use the site tinyurl.com. On this site you simple enter your affiliate link the site gives you a much shorter but invisible link. It takes less than 10 seconds to do.

        Hope this helps.
        Using free URL shortening services is a horrible idea. If you post those links to lots of places and the service goes out of business or changes their terms, all you links could just stop working overnight!

        If you are serious about affiliate marketing, you should cloak your links on a domain that you own so that you can control them (forever) by going to one place so you can recover from changes quickly.

        Think about it this way. If you market web hosting offer and you publish tons of articles, hub pages, squidoo, etc with your affiliate links. Then the hosting provider affiliate program gets canceled. If you use a URL do you do control in those articles, posts, etc, then you either have to go back to all of them (and some you may not be able to modify) or you lose all that effort. If you control the links, you can simply go to one place, edit one redirect, and all those links continue working! All you really have to do is find a similar program to promote.

        This gets even better. If you find a higher paying program, you can switch the links in one place and you will make more money with 30 seconds worth of work.

        Bottom line, make sure your links working is NOT dependent on any external company. Although it may sound cool cause the URLs are short, and the services are free, etc, you lose control!

        Wil
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  • Profile picture of the author IM Biz System
    Yes, I use php redirect as well. It works well especially using the longer version as shared by Charles above. This way your affiliate ID will not be displayed as the destination url.

    Step 1: Save below code in notepad as ProductA.php
    <?php
    $url =
    "YourFullAffiliateURL";
    header("Location: $url");
    exit();
    ?>

    Step 2: FTP ProductA.php to domain.com public_html folder

    Step 3: Confirm it works by going to domain.com/ProductA.php You should see the display URL in your browser without your affiliate ID.
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    • Profile picture of the author iantrader
      Quick comment.

      If you're using php, many courses suggest something like:

      www.mydomain.com/go/product.php
      or
      www.mydomain.com/recommends/product.php

      which is fine.

      However, you can make the link even shorter and maybe a bit more appealing by simply using the file structure:

      www.mydomain.com/product/

      and rename the product.php file to index.php

      When you access www.mydomain.com/product/ the server auomatically looks for an index file.

      You might need to add a line to the .htaccess file to get it to pick up on index.php.

      Ian
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    • Profile picture of the author homejobcreator
      Thanks, I also needed and will try the above suggestions!
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      • Profile picture of the author melanied
        I generate encrypted code with this page -

        CBTool - Help

        and then I cut and paste it into an html file.
        Signature

        *melanie

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        • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
          Originally Posted by melanied View Post

          I generate encrypted code with this page -

          CBTool - Help

          and then I cut and paste it into an html file.
          Be careful with these types of tools. What they do is create an iFrame to "cloak" the link by loading the affiliate page while never leaving your domain. Here is the issue. Your COOKIE WILL BE BLOCKED by Internet Explorer 6/7/8 for a large number of sites due to security settings that do not allow cookies to be loaded from a domain that does not match what is in the browser's location bar. The exception are sites that use P3P headers where this would be allowed.

          I will be hosting a free webinar soon to talk about managing affiliate links and will cover the issue above. For now, you can search Google for additional information...or just simply STOP using this method.

          Wil
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    • Profile picture of the author AidenChong
      I saw Akky & IM Biz System both gave a PHP redirect code, but they were slightly different.

      Akky's code -
      <?php
      header('Location: h-t-t-p://www.YourAffiliateUrlHere.com/');
      ?>

      IM Biz System's Code -
      <?php
      $url =
      "YourFullAffiliateURL";
      header("Location: $url");
      exit();
      ?>

      Can anyone please tell me what's the difference between the two codes?

      Thanks a lot
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      • Profile picture of the author khtm
        They are practically identical and will do exactly the same thing.

        In the second one, instead of hardcoding the affiliate URL in the PHP header function, it's first assigned to a variable $url (the $ in PHP means variable). Then the header function simply calls this variable.

        Using exit(); at the end is optional. If you don't use it and there's additional lines the script will continue to execute.

        Originally Posted by AidenChong View Post

        I saw Akky & IM Biz System both gave a PHP redirect code, but they were slightly different.

        Hopefully that makes sense!

        Akky's code -
        <?php
        header('Location: h-t-t-p://www.YourAffiliateUrlHere.com/');
        ?>

        IM Biz System's Code -
        <?php
        =
        "YourFullAffiliateURL";
        header("Location: ");
        exit();
        ?>

        Can anyone please tell me what's the difference between the two codes?

        Thanks a lot
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        • Profile picture of the author AidenChong
          Originally Posted by khtm View Post

          They are practically identical and will do exactly the same thing.

          In the second one, instead of hardcoding the affiliate URL in the PHP header function, it's first assigned to a variable (the $ in PHP means variable). Then the header function simply calls this variable.

          Using exit(); at the end is optional. If you don't use it and there's additional lines the script will continue to execute.
          Thanks For your explanation given, khtm.
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  • Profile picture of the author powerspike
    i prefer the htaccess way

    RewriteRule $recomends/thisproduct.php^ http(colon)//rediret.url/?aff=blah [R=301]

    it's one of those set and forget type of settings, also it means that your software can't play with the files or content, or override them, because the htaccess files takes effect before the request even gets to the software.
    replace (colon) with a : (vb things i'm trying to post a link lol)
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  • Profile picture of the author ragnartm
    <head>
    <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="2;url=http://somesite.com">
    </head>
    for html and htm documents.
    Set up a folder named "likes" or "recommends" or "loves" or something else that you think fits better with your niche. Then you can either set up new folders with index.html files in them like this:
    "somesite.com/likes/someproduct/" and it will redirect, or you can set up files named after the product name -> someproduct.html -> somesite.com/likes/someproduct.html
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    Quality over quantity. Hire me to write highly shareable, user focused blog posts or articles.

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  • Profile picture of the author Igor Kheifets
    Hey Tanady,

    What I do, is just create a subdomain
    and forward it my affiliate link.

    so instead of getting www.mysite.com/myaffproduct
    I do http://myaffproduct.mysite.com

    I believe it to be way more proffesionaly looking
    and efficient.

    Igor
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    • Profile picture of the author zeurois
      Just that you may have problems with DNSs. Yesterday I think launch tree was launched. I got a few emails (just like everybody was getting at that time) but I couldn't open course.launchtree.com. I was able to hit launchtree.com (not sure if the domain name is correct).

      So.. is it more efficient?

      Originally Posted by igorhelpsyousucceed View Post

      Hey Tanady,

      What I do, is just create a subdomain
      and forward it my affiliate link.

      so instead of getting www.mysite.com/myaffproduct
      I do http://myaffproduct.mysite.com

      I believe it to be way more proffesionaly looking
      and efficient.

      Igor
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      • Profile picture of the author highhopes
        I was told this about hiding affiliate links;
        "If you do this Google will not see any of your content, only the frame html which is minimal.

        I would not recommend this as it would hurt your SEO measures".
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        • Profile picture of the author Akky
          Originally Posted by highhopes View Post

          I was told this about hiding affiliate links;
          "If you do this Google will not see any of your content, only the frame html which is minimal.

          I would not recommend this as it would hurt your SEO measures".
          Then How about using the "nofollow" and "noindex" attribute between the meta tags ? That would help..So Google will never see that particular page..

          G'day,
          Akky
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        • Profile picture of the author BurgerBoy
          Originally Posted by highhopes View Post

          I was told this about hiding affiliate links;
          "If you do this Google will not see any of your content, only the frame html which is minimal.

          I would not recommend this as it would hurt your SEO measures".
          A php redirect is not a - frame. It does not affect you with Google.

          Also - all of the php redirect examples on this thread are for one redirect.

          You can put all of your redirects on one page using the - if - statement in the code.

          I would give you an example of the code but I can't make a post with it until I have 15 post.

          Using meta refresh is also mentioned. Don't do it. Google does not like a meta refresh.

          Merchants don't like it either. It doesn't send the site page it's from to the merchant so they cannot see where the click came from.

          A php redirect does send the page so the merchant does know what site the click came from.
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  • Profile picture of the author InternetMarketingIQ
    Here is something to think about.

    Most people online have no idea what an affiliate link is... and those that know what they are ... well they will figure out a way to not use your link, so what is the point? Yes I understand your link can be lifted by malware/toolbars/etc. So maybe there is some logic in trying to protect from that.

    But even browsers like IE will kill your redirected links and strip out the Affiliate Cookie if you do it wrong.

    Here is a typical Amazon Link (Not an Affiliate Link) to their digital camera category:

    "http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=digial+camera&x=0&y=0]"

    Thats a long link... but it gets longer as you dig. And Amazon still manages to sell a lot of product.

    Do you think the average websurfer is going to notice your affiliate code buried in those long links?

    I'm more concerned with having links like this tinyrurl.com/525987 because to me that doesn't look legitimate compared to "http://www.amazon.com/whateverhowlongitis"..........

    It's pretty much 6's... should you choose to mask, cloak, hide, redirect, or however make sure you know it isn't actually killing your affiliate cookies!
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    • Profile picture of the author KatyaSenina
      Originally Posted by InternetMarketingIQ View Post

      Here is something to think about.

      Most people online have no idea what an affiliate link is... and those that know what they are ... well they will figure out a way to not use your link, so what is the point? Yes I understand your link can be lifted by malware/toolbars/etc. So maybe there is some logic in trying to protect from that.

      But even browsers like IE will kill your redirected links and strip out the Affiliate Cookie if you do it wrong.

      Here is a typical Amazon Link (Not an Affiliate Link) to their digital camera category:

      "http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=digial+camera&x=0&y=0]"

      Thats a long link... but it gets longer as you dig. And Amazon still manages to sell a lot of product.

      Do you think the average websurfer is going to notice your affiliate code buried in those long links?

      I'm more concerned with having links like this tinyrurl.com/525987 because to me that doesn't look legitimate compared to "http://www.amazon.com/whateverhowlongitis"..........

      It's pretty much 6's... should you choose to mask, cloak, hide, redirect, or however make sure you know it isn't actually killing your affiliate cookies!
      You're right... most people don't even know what affiliate marketing is, so they will never spot an affiliate link!

      Also links such as tinyurl/bit.ly don't look trustable to me, so when I see a link like that I will never click on it.

      I use Pretty Link. Do you know if Pretty Link kills cookies?
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  • Profile picture of the author Tony Shipp
    php header for those sneaky commission thiefs.
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  • Profile picture of the author WareTime
    Why don't people simply use a redirect in their .htacess file?

    So for instance. I'm gonna say I want my affiliate link to look like
    mydomain.com/recommendedThing.html

    All I need to do is put a redirect for that url in my .htaccess file. Any time someone clicks on it they end up at the product site via my affiliate link.

    redirect 302 /recommendedThing.html http://yourAffLink.con/stuff.html

    Am I missing something, but why would people pay for a script to do this?
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    • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
      Originally Posted by WareTime View Post

      Why don't people simply use a redirect in their .htacess file?

      So for instance. I'm gonna say I want my affiliate link to look like
      mydomain.com/recommendedThing.html

      All I need to do is put a redirect for that url in my .htaccess file. Any time someone clicks on it they end up at the product site via my affiliate link.

      redirect 302 /recommendedThing.html http://yourAffLink.con/stuff.html

      Am I missing something, but why would people pay for a script to do this?
      1. Using .htaccess is not a good option if you have a lot of links. It adds additional overhead to the web server because every time someone tries to reach one of your links it has to process the entire .htccess file.

      2. It is a time consuming process. If a script cuts the time in half, over time this can add up to a lot of wasted time

      3. THE BIGGEST ISSUE: It is error prone. Mess up your .htaccess with an extra character in the wrong place, an extra space, etc and ALL your links will be broken...in fact you can bring down your site like this. Why risk it?

      Wil
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  • Profile picture of the author IM Biz System
    With this topic on affiliate links, I realize now there are links generated with aweber or getresponse codes being used in email marketing to their lists. Does anyone has any takes on this form of links and how can these links be generated?
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  • Profile picture of the author FlashDriveDT
    I don't quite get this. I always thought that it's more engaging for visitors to know where they're actually being sent to when they see a link. In other words when a product link says "rover.ebay.com/long-tail" or "amazon.blabla" potential customers are more inclined to click than if it was some type of cloaked url. Even if it was the own domain. Because once the visitor clicked on that and finds out he or she actually gets send to a entirely different site then they must think the author is kind of deceptive, right? Granted, if the affiliate merchant is barely known vs ebay or amazon cloaking your links might increase conversions. But if it's a well recognized name I wouldn't do it. Mind you, I'm new at this all...I just like the fact that not cloaking is more ethical/transparent and I figure that's always more rewarding in the end. Now you can laugh at me...?
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  • Profile picture of the author BurgerBoy
    The thought is that cloaked links will help to stop parasite software that's been installed on people's computers from overwriting your affiliate cookie with their affiliate cookie and getting paid for the sale instead of you.
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    • Profile picture of the author One
      Don't forget there are people that are new to internet marketing afraid to click on the long and 'strange'-looking affiliate link too. In most cases, these people will consider it as virus-contained link. It happened to me more than once, when my customers contacted me and asked me if my affiliate link contains virus Since that, I always cloaking my affiliate links.

      So, hiding or cloaking or at least make your affiliate link shorter is quite important for your sales

      Oh, I'd go with php header too... thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author FlashDriveDT
      Originally Posted by BurgerBoy View Post

      The thought is that cloaked links will help to stop parasite software that's been installed on people's computers from overwriting your affiliate cookie with their affiliate cookie and getting paid for the sale instead of you.
      That's paranoid IMO and I have a hard time believing that's that the only reason why affiliates use cloaked links. But I'm eager to learn - did anyone here ever had a hijacking happen to them?
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert24
    I'd go with a php header redirect if you're not worried about concealing your traffic sources. Simple, easy, and works 100% of the time.
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  • Profile picture of the author dndoseller
    html meta refresh - because its free and easiest to use.
    I also use the wordpress redirect plug-in for the same reasons.
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    • Profile picture of the author BurgerBoy
      Originally Posted by dndoseller View Post

      html meta refresh - because its free and easiest to use.
      I also use the wordpress redirect plug-in for the same reasons.
      Google does not like meta refresh and will penalize your site.

      Do some reading at Google webmaster.

      Merchants don't like it either. They want to know which site a sales came from. Meta refresh does NOT send a referral page to the merchant.

      Use a php redirect. It does send a referral page header to the merchant.

      Some merchants will not pay you if they don't know where the click came from.

      Use this:

      <?php
      header('Location: http://www.youaffiliatecodehere.com');
      ?>

      If you just want to block what vistors see on a link on a mouse over - you can use a javascript link:

      <a onclick="x=window.open('http://www.YourAffiliateLink.com')" href="#">What You Want For The Link Name</a>

      The link will open a new window and on a mouse over will show the page the link is on instead of the affiliate link.
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  • Profile picture of the author BurgerBoy
    Why do you think some affiliates (fatwallet, ebates, onecause, and many more - for example) have toolbars for you to install on your computer???

    Their toolbars are spyware that monitor the links you click on in your computer.

    When you click on an affiliate link the toolbar intercepts the click - removes the original affiliates ID from the link - adds their affiliate ID to the link and THEN opens the Merchant's site which sets THEIR cookie instead of yours and they get paid for the sale instead of you.

    You really do need to do some searches on Google about spyware and toolbars. toolbars overwriting affiliate cookies - Google Search
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  • Profile picture of the author DrewG
    With Wordpress, you might find it easier to integrate a plug-in and use that to cloak your affiliate links (think MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate or GoTo Links)

    Otherwise, you might use a PHP header for a static site

    =)

    ~D.C.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brad Gosse
    I just wrote a tutorial on this very subject

    How to make your affiliate links pretty | Brad Gosse
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  • Profile picture of the author webgeek154
    yeah, php redirect is what i use. easy and effective
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  • Profile picture of the author khtm
    I use the php redirect method, but a different flavor than what others have described above.

    Here's the steps:
    1. Create a file called "redirect.php" and edit it with Notepad (or whatever text editor you use)

    2. Enter this in the file and save it:
    <?php

    $urls = array (
    'AffiliateLink1' => 'hxxp://youraffiliate1.com/id=xxxxx',
    'AffiliateLink2' => 'hxxp://youraffiliate2.com/id=xxxxx'
    );

    header('Location: ' . $urls[$_GET['go']]);

    ?>

    3. FTP the "redirect.php" file to your web server

    4. Any time you want to use an affiliate link in your website content, use this:

    <a href=redirect.php?go=AffiliateLink1>Affiliate Anchor Text</a>

    This of course can be used for image links, text links, banners, etc.

    5. Modify your "robots.txt" file and add this line underneath user-agent:

    Disallow: /redirect.php

    The reason we do this is so that search engine crawlers can't find your list of affiliates and have a reason to distrust you.

    6. The maintenance involved is modifying the "redirect.php" file every time you have a new link to add.

    7. I like this method because it nicely ties into geo redirects (ie. automatically detecting if your visitor is from Canada and sending them to Amazon.ca rather than Amazon.com)

    There's two primary reasons, in my opinion, to cloak/hide your affiliate link:
    • So search engines don't think you have a site with the sole purpose of generating affiliate revenue
    • So users don't get angry when they see your affiliate ID and either (a) not click the link or (b) manually remove the affiliate ID so you don't get a commision
    Hope that helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author profitgenie
    as the question of how to cloak link has been clearly answered, can i ask how many people have had affiliate commisions stolen and what difference it made after cloaking a link.
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    • Profile picture of the author FlashDriveDT
      Originally Posted by profitgenie View Post

      as the question of how to cloak link has been clearly answered, can i ask how many people have had affiliate commisions stolen and what difference it made after cloaking a link.
      Ditto. I had already asked if anyone here ever had this type of thing happening to them and since no one repsonds to it it seems clear to me that's its rather a form of paranoia. That the hijacking technology exists is not being questioned, I never doubted that. The question is how much of a threat it really is. Oh well, I guess that's always in the eye of the beholder.
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      • Profile picture of the author bigbearmarketer
        I use an affiliate link cloaker Viral Url it is free and also helps build your down line. This tool allows you to cloak your links and throws a viral twist on things increasing traffic to what ever site or product you may have.
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      • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
        Originally Posted by FlashDriveDT View Post

        I had already asked if anyone here ever had this type of thing happening to them and since no one repsonds to it it seems clear to me that's its rather a form of paranoia.
        There are four paths through this.

        1. Go to your link, hijack it, and don't buy
        2. Go to your link, don't hijack it, and don't buy
        3. Go to your link, hijack it, and buy
        4. Go to your link, don't hijack it, and buy

        The problem is that while you see everyone go to your link, you cannot tell the difference among the first three situations. In every case, they go to your link, and then you don't get a commission. The only thing you can see happening is people who go to your link, don't hijack it, and buy - because you get a commission. When you don't get one, it could have been any of the previous three things.

        So you can NEVER get a straight answer to that question, because all you can do is guess. Just like the RIAA's piracy statistics: they say "we sold X number of legitimate copies, and we think there are Y copies out there, so ( Y - X ) copies are illegitimate and that has cost us $Z." But they made up Y, so that $Z figure is just plain garbage.
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      • Profile picture of the author mikeyman120
        Hello,
        I hide my links by using a php redirect similiar to above:

        Paste this into notepad and save as index.php

        <?php
        header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
        header("Location: http://CLICKBANKID.VENDORID.hop.clickbank.net");
        exit();
        ?>

        upload it to your subdomain, which hopefully is a shorter and better looking link.

        www.mydomain.com/product

        Works great.

        Besides if another clickbanker see a product that is a clickbank product there is a good chance they will order it through their own link. It happens. So I always make redirects.

        Mike
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        • Profile picture of the author Mark Zimmermann
          Originally Posted by mikeyman120 View Post

          Hello,
          I hide my links by using a php redirect similiar to above:

          Paste this into notepad and save as index.php

          <?php
          header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
          header("Location: http://CLICKBANKID.VENDORID.hop.clickbank.net");
          exit();
          ?>

          upload it to your subdomain, which hopefully is a shorter and better looking link.

          www.mydomain.com/product

          Works great.

          Besides if another clickbanker see a product that is a clickbank product there is a good chance they will order it through their own link. It happens. So I always make redirects.

          Mike

          If i use this php redirect code like shown abouve do i have to create a subdomain for every affilliate Link i make stored in notepad with "index.php" or can i do all my affilliate links in one subdomain?

          THANK YOU
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          • Profile picture of the author Jays80
            Normally i do not hide affiliate links, even in MMO niche!!!
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      • Profile picture of the author dekac1
        Hi

        It's not the best idea to hide affiliate link...because of the serious customer don't live to be redirect on another site...
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      • Profile picture of the author andrew_writes
        Hi,

        First I use a tracking software such as dynatracker but you can get a free simple tracker and cloaker for free called ccount at Click counter and download counter.

        I put my affiliate links into that hosted script.

        In the case of many you will get a link that either creates folders or links that may look like yourdomain.com/click/?19

        I then take that link and put it into a frameset html page and put that page into a folder called something simple like, go, recommends, or even 1.

        Then I reference the link by its name such as yourdomain.com/go/nameofpage.html

        I put all of my affiliate links like this to have more control over them as well as being able to track them, cloak them and have them look as I wish.

        The example frameset page is below...

        <html>

        <head>

        <title>Your Page Title Here</title>

        </head>

        <frameset rows="100%,*" border="0" frameborder="0">

        <frame name="__main" src="your_affiliate_link_here" noresize frameborder="0">

        </frameset>

        </html>
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  • Profile picture of the author launch3
    I use Cloak and Tracker by Jay Jennings. I must have 500+ cloaked affiliate links for 10 domains/subdomains. So easy to manage & I even get stats.
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  • Profile picture of the author mmacken
    A simple meta refresh tag does the job, just as easy to use the php redirect, whichever takes your fancy I suppose.
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  • Profile picture of the author Warrior Markets
    Hi, does anyone know how to cloak a link that is a redirect, eg, from Namecheap, but without any hosting?

    In other words, if you have just a domain name (with option of redirecting to affiliate page), but don't have any hosting, what's the best way to redirect to a cloaked affiliate page?

    -WM
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  • Profile picture of the author kettlewell
    Also be aware that many affiliate programs TOS specifically forbids the use of framing technologies, and could forfeit your profits...

    Best bet is to use redirects from your server, or install software on your server that manages it for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author MyOnlineSuccess
    Best way is to "hard code" it on your landing page. What happens is that when someone lands on your landing page, regardless of the link that send them there, they get cookied by just landing on your site.

    The problem with cloaking links is that Google Adwords doesn't really like cloacked links and also when the link "lands" your affiliate details wil be displayed in the url.

    Some of the new affiliate platforms have a super amazing feature of hiding affiliate URL's completely. I just started promoting a product wher you install a small script on your domain and then you just send visitors there without any affiliate URL's - great and I am sure this will be the future for affiliates.

    It's the safest way as way too many people are now reverse engineering campaigns and I think it's time to put an end to it. Even ClickBank now codes hop links to strip your ClickBank nickname out of the url.
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  • Profile picture of the author paikus
    Link cloaker. It's can bring you to real website.
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  • Profile picture of the author pritesh
    php rediret its easy...
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  • Profile picture of the author herdster
    Hi,

    I am very new to this so please ignore my ignorance . If you use godaddy and use their masker is that any good as a cloaking device

    Herdster
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    • Profile picture of the author Greg Jacobs
      Originally Posted by herdster View Post

      Hi,

      I am very new to this so please ignore my ignorance . If you use godaddy and use their masker is that any good as a cloaking device

      Herdster
      Thats a whole different thing that uses a frame to keep your URL in the header, but actually load another site for the user to see.

      So it is basically 1 url for 1 affiliate link.

      This method can be used for semi-legibility spreading your affiliate link around the internet to places that affiliate links are traditionally not allowed.

      For example I believe that eZine allows affilaite links in the resource box if they are masked and you can then spread this link to other 2.0 creation sites as well.

      Though you should take care if dealing with CPA offers, as they don't like masking for good reason.

      Read this for more info on masking
      http://www.competespy.com/CompetePPC.pdf
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      • Profile picture of the author herdster
        Thanks for that Greg. I am loving this forum already people seem to be so helpful and tons of great info

        Herdster
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      • Profile picture of the author ptwain
        a php redirect is what I use to cloak affiliate links.
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        • Profile picture of the author khtm
          Refer to my post below where I explained all the steps you need to follow.

          http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...tml#post828289

          Originally Posted by senve View Post

          How does it look this "php redirect"

          is it a filename.php file that you put on your hosting, and what is the code that it contains?

          Thank you!
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  • Profile picture of the author Barry Walls
    I use a redirect...simply, fast and easy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Headfirst
    javascript redirect or .htaccess to php header redirect.
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  • Profile picture of the author emorrow23
    Well blanking the referrer isn't to difficult, you can use a double meta refresh. If you wanna get more blackhat you can spoof the referrer, some googling should give you sufficient know how on this.
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  • Profile picture of the author DanielFonda
    You could either use Proper202 or you can just use a redirect.
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  • Profile picture of the author Warrior Markets
    Sorry, but are all these redirects, etc, only if you have hosting? Is there anyway using Namecheap, WITHOUT hosting, to redirect to affiliate page, without having your affiliate link showing?

    -WM
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    • Profile picture of the author khtm
      Yup, use bit.ly, a simple url shortener. It's free AND you can track how many clicks you get.

      Originally Posted by Warrior Markets View Post

      Sorry, but are all these redirects, etc, only if you have hosting? Is there anyway using Namecheap, WITHOUT hosting, to redirect to affiliate page, without having your affiliate link showing?

      -WM
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  • Profile picture of the author mylootnow7
    the guy has good reason to be PARANOID cuz the fact is 40% of those thieves in the net world are making a killing off of affiliates who put blood, sweat, and tears in trying to make money online /:-( tanady by all means cloak your link & guard it for life :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author LFL
    Simple php redirects.
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  • Profile picture of the author emigre
    what about using the gocodes wp plugin
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    • Profile picture of the author khtm
      This plugin IS a PHP redirect; it's just wrapped up in a nice interface that you can access through the WordPress admin panel and it also stores all the URLs in the database.

      I sometimes use this because it's handy and tracks how many clicks you get on each link.

      The only times I *don't* use this is when I need to have full control over the redirect logic. I have a script that detects the visitors country based on their IP and then redirects them to different Amazon sites.

      Originally Posted by emigre View Post

      what about using the gocodes wp plugin
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  • Profile picture of the author Jem Crowne
    Yep, Charles Burke is right. A simple Php Script will do in your hosting account.
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  • Profile picture of the author khtm
    Hal, if that's all you want to do, I think it's best if you just use one of the many free services offered. I'd recommend one of these.

    #1 - ClickBank already has their own "hoplink shield"
    https://www.clickbank.com/hoplink_encoding.htm

    #2 - bit.ly - a free URL shortener that even tracks # of clicks
    bit.ly, a simple url shortener
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    • Profile picture of the author Lawrh
      For WordPress try the WPMarketer plugin. It has many features including internal looking links and link tracking. Best of all it's free.
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    • Profile picture of the author Warrior Markets
      Originally Posted by khtm View Post

      Hal, if that's all you want to do, I think it's best if you just use one of the many free services offered. I'd recommend one of these.

      #1 - ClickBank already has their own "hoplink shield"
      https://www.clickbank.com/hoplink_encoding.htm

      #2 - bit.ly - a free URL shortener that even tracks # of clicks
      bit.ly, a simple url shortener
      Am I right in thinking that the ClickBank HopLink Shield only changes the URL in this manner:

      - from http: //.vendor.hop.clickbank.net?=yourID

      - to something like http: //2de14oqj69s7oq8dml2kfgirdljxff.hop.clickbank.net

      Is this what the HopLink does? If so, I'd say that the cloaked link looked infinitely more ugly than the normal link, although, this doesn't mean it's any less useful in preventing commission theft.

      Just wanted to know if I've got the right idea about the ClickBank HopLink Shield - I'd have thought/hoped it was somewhat more 'refined'.
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      • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
        Originally Posted by Warrior Markets View Post

        Am I right in thinking that the ClickBank HopLink Shield only changes the URL in this manner:

        - from http: //.vendor.hop.clickbank.net?=yourID

        - to something like http: //2de14oqj69s7oq8dml2kfgirdljxff.hop.clickbank.net

        Is this what the HopLink does? If so, I'd say that the cloaked link looked infinitely more ugly than the normal link, although, this doesn't mean it's any less useful in preventing commission theft.

        Just wanted to know if I've got the right idea about the ClickBank HopLink Shield - I'd have thought/hoped it was somewhat more 'refined'.
        The only thing it does is hide the affiliate name and the vendor name by "encoding" those. However, when the user gets redirected to the destination, they still get to see the "?hop=AffiliateName" in the URL. Unless the vendor has put in some code on their sales page to remove it.

        Wil
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    • Profile picture of the author halcline
      Hi,

      Yes, this does encrypt the URL, BUT once I get to the Affiliate page, my Clickbank username is STILL hanging off of the URL for example,

      http://theAffiliateProduct.com/?hop=ClickbankUsername

      I DON'T want the "hop=ClickBankUsername to show up.

      How do I hide that???

      thanks.

      hal
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      • Profile picture of the author khtm
        Hal, I'm not aware of any way that you could hide that. It's up to the vendor to setup code on their website to hide affiliate IDs, and many of them don't bother or know how to.

        You can do all the masking/cloaking of URLs that you want to, but ultimately you need the visitor to end up at the vendor's site, which requires "?hop=xxxxx" at the end of the URL.

        Unless someone else knows a trick I'm not aware of? :confused:

        Originally Posted by halcline View Post

        Hi,

        Yes, this does encrypt the URL, BUT once I get to the Affiliate page, my Clickbank username is STILL hanging off of the URL for example,

        http://theAffiliateProduct.com/?hop=ClickbankUsername

        I DON'T want the "hop=ClickBankUsername to show up.

        How do I hide that???

        thanks.

        hal
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  • Profile picture of the author ShellySamuel
    I creat a subdomain name with my domain and redirects it to the affiliate link
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  • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
    All,

    PHP redirects are best for most situations, although sometimes a meta refresh or JavaScript redirect should be used.

    When you want to redirect the user to another destination (the affiliate link) in the fastest and most standard means possible, you should use a PHP redirect. This will send the redirect in the HTTP Header to the Web Browser. Nothing is loaded. There is no JavaScript requirement on the browser and the redirect attempt will never be blocked. If used with the appropriate options, a PHP redirect can be 301 or 302 redirect, thus allowing you to control the SEO value or your redirect!

    BTW, .htaccess redirects behave the same way as PHP redirects, and you can choose 302 or 301. However, I do not recommend this because it is error prone and you can mess up your entire site if you put an extra space or wrong character in the file. It is also not scalable, the larger the .htaccess file, the higher the impact on your web server's performance.

    A Meta Refresh redirect requires a page to be loaded and interpreted by the browser. It can be used when you want to display something to the user before actually redirecting them...such as a message that you are going to redirect them. Have you ever seen those messages saying: "If you are not redirected in X seconds, click this link?" This type of redirect can be blocked by the browser. It also does not allow you to control the SEO value of the link.

    A JavaScript redirect works much in the same way as the a Meta Refresh. It requires the browser to load the page with the JavaScript code on it and process the JavaScript code to redirect the user. This type of redirect can be blocked by the browser. It also does not allow you to control the SEO value of the link.

    Hope this helps clarify your options.

    Wil
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    • Profile picture of the author Jack Zenert
      GREAT answer - but a couple questions:
      - can you explain 'allow you to control the SEO value of your link'
      - how could you incorporate some type of tracking/counting of your links with the php redirect?

      Thanks
      Jack

      Originally Posted by Wilson Mattos View Post

      All,

      PHP redirects are best for most situations, although sometimes a meta refresh or JavaScript redirect should be used.

      When you want to redirect the user to another destination (the affiliate link) in the fastest and most standard means possible, you should use a PHP redirect. This will send the redirect in the HTTP Header to the Web Browser. Nothing is loaded. There is no JavaScript requirement on the browser and the redirect attempt will never be blocked. If used with the appropriate options, a PHP redirect can be 301 or 302 redirect, thus allowing you to control the SEO value or your redirect!

      BTW, .htaccess redirects behave the same way as PHP redirects, and you can choose 302 or 301. However, I do not recommend this because it is error prone and you can mess up your entire site if you put an extra space or wrong character in the file. It is also not scalable, the larger the .htaccess file, the higher the impact on your web server's performance.

      A Meta Refresh redirect requires a page to be loaded and interpreted by the browser. It can be used when you want to display something to the user before actually redirecting them...such as a message that you are going to redirect them. Have you ever seen those messages saying: "If you are not redirected in X seconds, click this link?" This type of redirect can be blocked by the browser. It also does not allow you to control the SEO value of the link.

      A JavaScript redirect works much in the same way as the a Meta Refresh. It requires the browser to load the page with the JavaScript code on it and process the JavaScript code to redirect the user. This type of redirect can be blocked by the browser. It also does not allow you to control the SEO value of the link.

      Hope this helps clarify your options.

      Wil
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  • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
    @zedbiz

    301 Reirects pass PageRank to the destination page...that's what I meant by controlling SEO value. 302 redirects, Meta Refresh, and JavaScript redirects do NOT pass PageRank.

    As far as click counting, it can be done in different ways. You can always use a web server log analyzer and see how many hits there were for the redirect URL. That is NOT the easiest, or best way to do it. It would be better to implement a little more PHP code (instead of just the redirect) to keep a click count for you, but this is cumbersome also.

    The best way is to have a tool that handles the redirect management for you and allows you to manage the type of redirect (301 & 302) as well as doing the click counting.

    I am sending you a PM with a link to a free webinar I am hosting on Sunday to cover this topic in great detail.

    Wil
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    • Profile picture of the author Jack Zenert
      Originally Posted by Wilson Mattos View Post

      @zedbiz

      301 Reirects pass PageRank to the destination page...that's what I meant by controlling SEO value. 302 redirects, Meta Refresh, and JavaScript redirects do NOT pass PageRank.
      So is the php redirect use the 301 redirect - or can you decide - if so how?

      Originally Posted by Wilson Mattos View Post

      @zedbiz
      As far as click counting, it can be done in different ways. You can always use a web server log analyzer and see how many hits there were for the redirect URL. That is NOT the easiest, or best way to do it. It would be better to implement a little more PHP code (instead of just the redirect) to keep a click count for you, but this is cumbersome also.

      The best way is to have a tool that handles the redirect management for you and allows you to manage the type of redirect (301 & 302) as well as doing the click counting.
      So give me the name of the tool . .. please . .

      Originally Posted by Wilson Mattos View Post

      @zedbiz
      I am sending you a PM with a link to a free webinar I am hosting on Sunday to cover this topic in great detail.

      Wil
      Looking forward to it - hopefully I will be free.

      Thanks
      Jack
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  • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
    @nicheGoober - it is important to know what type of redirect the plugin is creating (301 or 302) if you are linking to sites that you want to help rank in the search engines (ie. your own sites or web 2.0 properties).

    Wil
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  • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
    @joeman - lots of different ways of doing this. for example, a PHP script could redirect AND to the click counting for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Soflyy
    There's a WordPress plugin called LinkEngine (wplinkengine.com iirc) that does this for you if you use WordPress.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jay Jennings
    Free video at http://LinkCloakingExplained.com covers the most popular ways to cloak a link.

    Someone else mentioned cloaking *and* tracking, which is what my Cloak And Tracker software does (creative name, don't you think?). While a simple PHP redirect will work fine, I like the added features a more comprehensive script will give you.

    For example...

    This link: http://jayjennings.com/likes/cloakandtracker

    ...will send you to the CaT sales page.

    This link: http://jayjennings.com/likes/cloakandtracker/wf

    ...will send you to the same place but when I look at my stats I'll know the cloaked link was used in the Warrior Forum. I could use the same link, but tack on a different "tracking token" like this:

    http://jayjennings.com/likes/cloakandtracker/blog

    ...and I'll be able to see how many clicks came from the link on my blog, versus the link on the WF. And tracking tokens can be added on the fly -- they don't have to be set up ahead of time in the script.

    Not to turn this into a pitch, but CaT (and big brother Sonic Sneak) can also disguise the link even more, for example...

    http://jayjennings.com/likes/cloakandtracker.html

    ...is the same link, but looks like an actual web page because of the .html suffix.

    So while the PHP redirect code shown here will cloak and redirect your link perfectly, there are some good reasons to use an actual software program to do the job.

    There are good options out there besides CaT and Sneak -- find the one that's best for you and start using it for your links.

    Jay Jennings
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  • Profile picture of the author Web-Design-Company
    Click bank have recently introduced an automated feature for cloaking your links.
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    • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
      Originally Posted by Web-Design-Company View Post

      Click bank have recently introduced an automated feature for cloaking your links.
      All they do is hide the affiliate name and the vendor name on the redirect link. However, when you arrive at the destination, the usual ?hop=affiliate still shows up!

      Wil
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Zenert
    Jay - what method does cloak and tracker use to re-direct?
    php - - htaccess or ??
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    • Profile picture of the author Jay Jennings
      Originally Posted by zedbiz View Post

      Jay - what method does cloak and tracker use to re-direct?
      php - - htaccess or ??
      At the core of the script is a PHP header().

      Jay Jennings
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      • Profile picture of the author Jack Zenert
        Originally Posted by Jay Jennings View Post

        At the core of the script is a PHP header().

        Jay Jennings
        What is the main difference between CaT and Sneak???
        Thanks Jay

        Jack
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  • Profile picture of the author TravisOfferatti
    Just a side note...cloaking your link is not only good just to shorten it...it's also great considering some networks get their link sent through spam filters 100M times before lunch every day. After a while, 80% of your mail could be caught in spam filters due to the domain in the URL...

    We usually request all of our affiliates to mask...great thread!
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    • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
      Originally Posted by TravisOfferatti View Post

      Just a side note...cloaking your link is not only good just to shorten it...it's also great considering some networks get their link sent through spam filters 100M times before lunch every day. After a while, 80% of your mail could be caught in spam filters due to the domain in the URL...
      Absolutely! There are MANY reasons to cloak and this is definitely one of them. In fact, it is important to NOT use free shortening services because many corporate firewalls/proxy server block access to these.

      Wil
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  • Profile picture of the author engr.adeel
    why would like to hide affiliate link? For this purpose, word press redirect plug-in is used but easy to use is html meta refresh.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Zenert
    The various wordpress plugins that redirect - do any of them allow you to use them on multiple blogs.

    Otherwise if you have more than one blog, it means logging in to different ones for different links.

    Nice to have it all organized in one place.

    And can it be tied / connected to Google Analytics somehow? Will a php redirect show up in google analytics report?
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    • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
      Originally Posted by zedbiz View Post

      And can it be tied / connected to Google Analytics somehow? Will a php redirect show up in google analytics report?
      a PHP redirect will not show up in an Analytics report because it redirects the user without anything loading on the browser, which is requires for Analytics to work (JavaScript on the browser).

      You can, track the outbound click from one of your pages with GA when the user clicks on a redirect link, but this would only work for the redirects you post on sites you control.

      Wil
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Zenert
    So then how would you track - using Google Analytics - other links on sites you do not control (forums, signatures, articles, etc), and links in emails.
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    • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
      Originally Posted by zedbiz View Post

      So then how would you track - using Google Analytics - other links on sites you do not control (forums, signatures, articles, etc), and links in emails.
      The only way would be to use Meta Refresh or JavaScript Redirect and have the GA code embedded on those pages, but those methods are not always best.

      Come to the free webinar I told you about and you will learn about all the different methods.

      Wil
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Zenert
    yes - looking forward to the free webinar - but also want to learn before so can ask you intelligent questions on the webinar

    Thanks Wil
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  • Profile picture of the author innocent73
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
      Originally Posted by innocent73 View Post

      The method I used to hide and shorten my affiliate links is by using free cloaking services provided by third party websites. They will create a folder at their domain, which will be redirected to your original affiliate link. It takes only a few minutes to create a link.
      Read the posts above. Using free URL shortening services is a bad idea for many reasons!

      Wil
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    • Profile picture of the author BurgerBoy
      Originally Posted by innocent73 View Post

      The method I used to hide and shorten my affiliate links is by using free cloaking services provided by third party websites. They will create a folder at their domain, which will be redirected to your original affiliate link. It takes only a few minutes to create a link.
      This will ALWAYS be a BAD idea.

      I use to host my RSS Feeds at RSSPAD. I had over 1,000 feeds hosted there and guess what. It was a FREE RSS Feed hosting site.

      About one month ago they decided they were no longer going to host RSS Feeds and - poof - just like that they were all gone and now they all have to be built again.

      It is a real DUMB idea to host them with a third party. You should ALWAYS host them on your own site.

      Nothing is FREE. There is always a catch somewhere.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Zenert
    Thanks Jay - much appreciated.

    By the way guys - on WordPress Plugins to redirect and track links - I am trying Pretty Link. From the description it sounds awesome. Will tell you how it turns out.
    (thanks to Lynette Chandler for pointing this plugin out on twitter)

    Jack
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  • Profile picture of the author dlwebb610
    I have tried every suggestion on this page and none of them worked.
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  • Profile picture of the author Biggy Fat
    If you use Wordpress, this plugin will do the trick easily:

    ø Link Cloaking Plugin for WordPress | W-Shadow.com ø
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  • Profile picture of the author rwbovee
    urlfreeze.com hides your affiliate links for free, plus gives you statistics.
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    • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
      Originally Posted by rwbovee View Post

      urlfreeze.com hides your affiliate links for free, plus gives you statistics.
      It is a really bad idea to use FREE URL shortening/cloaking services!

      Wil
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by tanady View Post

    Which one do you used ? and why ?
    I use a custom script I wrote myself which looks like one directory per link, but is actually a mini-version of TinyURL that runs on my own site. Essentially, it does this:

    - Loads up a script based on rules in the Apache config file
    - Looks up the path in my SQL database
    - Redirects the visitor via PHP header

    It's a very simple script, but relies on an intricacy of the CGI standard that hardly anyone bothers to learn.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Dufresne
    I use a php redirect.
    It's simple and I can add hundreds of links to it.
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  • Profile picture of the author swiminsoda
    This works for me like a charm..it is if you are using cPanel.

    1) Find and click on Subdomains. Inside, create a subfolder like this:

    ______.yourwebsite.com

    Click Create.


    2) Go back to the cPanel, select icon Redirects.
    - Choose 'Permanent' (301) if you want google to track this page, or choose 'Temporary' if you want don't want spiders to track this page.

    - Select the subdomain directory and enter a name for this affiliate link like this:
    http://www.links.yourwebsite.com/myaffiliateA

    - redirects to: type in your actual affiliate link: http://affiliatelinkhere.com

    3) Finally to test it, go to http://www.links.yourwebsite.com/myaffiliateA

    Hope this helps/.
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    • Profile picture of the author zkalt
      Does anyone know how to track affiliate links with a redirect (php)? Here's a brief description of my problem. I can't find an answer anywhere:
      Ok, so I am running a PPC campaign on both google and yahoo with a landing page I created. I decided to cloak my affiliate links using a php redirect because they look awesome and professional. I have my google tracking ID and my a clickbank tracking id attached to the link but none of my tracking ids get picked up because of the php redirect (only my hop does). I am having great conversions averaging $100 a day net profit, but I don't know which keywords are converting or whether they are coming from yahoo or google. I've been profitable for 9 straight days now but I have no recorded data to optimize my campaign other than the basics google adwords tells me. Does this make sense?

      Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. If I could track my google conversions, that would be enough. HELP!
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      • Profile picture of the author Fors
        Originally Posted by zkalt View Post

        Does anyone know how to track affiliate links with a redirect (php)? Here's a brief description of my problem. I can't find an answer anywhere:
        Ok, so I am running a PPC campaign on both google and yahoo with a landing page I created. I decided to cloak my affiliate links using a php redirect because they look awesome and professional. I have my google tracking ID and my a clickbank tracking id attached to the link but none of my tracking ids get picked up because of the php redirect (only my hop does). I am having great conversions averaging $100 a day net profit, but I don't know which keywords are converting or whether they are coming from yahoo or google. I've been profitable for 9 straight days now but I have no recorded data to optimize my campaign other than the basics google adwords tells me. Does this make sense?

        Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. If I could track my google conversions, that would be enough. HELP!
        I am also wondering this, so far I haven't been cloaking since I thought it might screw all my tracking up. So what is the solution? Im planning on using a simple php redirect file either just blabla.php or index.php in a subfolder called blabla
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        • Profile picture of the author khtm
          Originally Posted by Fors View Post

          I am also wondering this, so far I haven't been cloaking since I thought it might screw all my tracking up. So what is the solution? Im planning on using a simple php redirect file either just blabla.php or index.php in a subfolder called blabla
          There's many different solutions, but they vary depending on what exactly you're trying to accomplish.

          If you're using WordPress there's plugins that can do a lot of this.

          If you're familiar with PHP you can write a simple script that can detect the source of the traffic and track click-through stats either in a flat file or a database. If you Google such scripts already exist as well.

          If you tell us a bit more about what you're currently doing for tracking that you don't want to screw up, it'll be easier to help you out....
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          • Profile picture of the author Catalyst eMarketing
            Most affiliates I know use .htaccess for redirecting links.
            Here's a good article on how to do it. Using .htaccess to Hide Affiliate Links

            GoTryThis, mentioned earlier is great too.
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          • Profile picture of the author Fors
            Originally Posted by khtm View Post

            There's many different solutions, but they vary depending on what exactly you're trying to accomplish.

            If you're using WordPress there's plugins that can do a lot of this.

            If you're familiar with PHP you can write a simple script that can detect the source of the traffic and track click-through stats either in a flat file or a database. If you Google such scripts already exist as well.

            If you tell us a bit more about what you're currently doing for tracking that you don't want to screw up, it'll be easier to help you out....
            Well I was actually planning on trying out Statsjunky as I have heard some good things about It and I just noticed they have a video describing on how to use statsjunky tracking for php landing pages, it shows how statsjunky adds some sneaky php code to the end of my aff link.

            Now I pretty much have no idea wth I am doing when writing php and usually just copy/paste and pray that it works like it's supposed to, but I am assuming I could just get my new affiliate tracking link for php based landing pages (I use wordpress blogs) , add that into my php redirect script and It'll track?

            Sorry if this is a stupid question but like I said, Im kind of an oldschool tracker and all these new fancy programs can be quite confusing ^^

            Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author actionplanbiz
    Whats the Benefits of hiding your link?

    Yahoo PPC & ClickBank?
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    • Profile picture of the author Rob Whisonant
      Originally Posted by actionplanbiz View Post

      Whats the Benefits of hiding your link?

      Yahoo PPC & ClickBank?
      So others can't just copy your link and remove your affiliate code so you don't get credit for the sale.

      Re's
      Rob Whisonant
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      • Profile picture of the author Wilson Mattos
        Originally Posted by Rob Whisonant View Post

        So others can't just copy your link and remove your affiliate code so you don't get credit for the sale.

        Re's
        Rob Whisonant
        There are many additional benefits to link "cloaking" when it is done right!

        For example, if you manage all of your affiliate links in one place and always use a redirect (or cloaked link) when you post that link anywhere, if the product you are promoting ever changes, you can simply go update that link in one place and your marketing efforts will continue to work for you.

        Wil
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        • Profile picture of the author Rob Whisonant
          Originally Posted by Wilson Mattos View Post

          There are many additional benefits to link "cloaking" when it is done right!

          For example, if you manage all of your affiliate links in one place and always use a redirect (or cloaked link) when you post that link anywhere, if the product you are promoting ever changes, you can simply go update that link in one place and your marketing efforts will continue to work for you.

          Wil
          Very good point!

          Re's
          Rob Whisonant
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  • Profile picture of the author medallion
    Hi there,

    My recommendation is Easy Redirect Script. from Affiliate Link Redirect & Cloaking Script - Easy Redirect Script

    The above link is an example of using it.

    It is a small program that you install on your own server, so it is much more secure, and you then add the links you want to go to (affiliate or other), and then you add a short name after your domain.

    It is very easy to use, you do not need to be a php script authority, and it is effective.

    It also look squite professional.

    My domain name here is hosting success dot com, and I then added after the ? the ers.

    This can apply to any other site you want to link to.

    In addition, there is a great copntrol panel for you to categorise your redirects, and the like.

    It is quite cheap, and is a one time payment.
    Let me knwo what you think.

    All the best

    PS: In my case, I have over 100 redirects already programmed into it.

    Martin
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  • Profile picture of the author ezeey
    Use a link tracker as it will mask your link to a tracking link e.g www.mysite.com/?wp_ct=2 (Wordpress Link tracker plugin) and it also counts how many people click on your link. I used to use the link tracker offered by the 30 day challenge it was free and i am not sure if they still offer this service though. of course you can just use a page redirect but I like knowing how many clicks certain links are getting.
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  • Profile picture of the author Frank Voce
    I myself use a paid program for some affiliate links and for other I get a whole domain
    that redirect to the affiliatelink. Much more professional.
    Just my idea
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  • Profile picture of the author sitemarketer
    Hi.

    GoTryTHIS what you want and much more. Check out the testimonials on our site. We're just letting people into the beta of version 2, where you can track and cloak all your marketing for all your sites in one place. Check it out at www.GoTryTHIS.com.

    Thank you,
    John.
    www.GoTryTHIS.com
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  • Profile picture of the author Randy Bheites
    redirect. I like the "MySite.com/JoeRecommends/Widget/" format best for the mouseover URL.
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  • Profile picture of the author TimTyus
    I just sub domain it I do all mine this way its easy and fast
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  • Profile picture of the author dollarware
    Here is a solution for you that installs on your website.

    Shorten URL's, Cloaks and Counts Hits for you. Everything together in an Admin area.

    Get the 23-page pdf that has full instructions with screenshots of the entire process.

    No charge, just your email address for the link.

    Shortens URL's, Cloaks, & Counts Hits, All Within Your Domain

    John
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  • Profile picture of the author dbarnum
    What works best here:

    Package your own unique offer, and tell your signs up what to do in short, simple steps:

    1) Sign up through my link

    2) Email your confirmation to ___________(set up autoresponder or support desk area or other to handle this)

    3) Get your Freebie / Bonus sent right to you


    Key: interact with your clients for long term growth, don't just go for 1 time sales. Get them into a free ezine subscription to follow up with other offers when possible, while you're at it.
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnPark
    I prefer to use a redirect link. It's simple. It looks nice when people hover.
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  • Profile picture of the author kckaz
    I read somewhere that the best affiliate marketing strategy is to get permission to copy the merchant's sales page and put it on your domain as is in...

    http://www.yourdomain.com/copiedsalespage

    Next, Strip out all the tracking code and put in your own code (if you want), then simply add this right before </body>

    <img src="youraffiliatelink" height="1" width="1">

    This hard codes your affiliate link and ensures your cookie won't be dropped.

    Anyone do this? Anything wrong with this?
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