Hi Barry,

Don't worry - htaccess files and their RewriteRules (the rules that "cloak" URL's) are quite complex to get your head around at first. I still get stuck from time to time, and I've been using them quite a lot!

Anyway, to answer your question, you'd need to create a file called .htaccess, and store it on the public html root folder on your web server i.e. the FTP folder where you would upload your web site to.

In the .htaccess file, you can use the following code
http://www.sourceurl.com/affiliates/affiliateprogram1 would forward to http://www.destinationurl.com/affiliateprogram1

http://www.sourceurl.com/affiliates/anotheraffiliateprogram would forward to http://www.destinationurl.com/anotheraffiliateprogram

Of course, I'm not exactly sure what URL's you currently have, and where you wish to forward them to. Feel free to drop me a PM with further details, and I can provide a more specific htaccess file, and assist setting it up on your server, if needed.

I take a much different approach but it's also a lot more technically advanced (Although still very simple)

You can use the htaccess to push through a simple php redirect so that you can log your clicks and also control your affiliate redirects using a database. This is probably a bit out of the realm for how simple you want to keep things but I like to show people the potential options available.

Here's what I do:

This htaccess rewrites a friendly link to your redirect so you can have a like like:

Now it goes to

The simple way to write your redirect.php would be like this:


if ($_GET['offer']=='A-Really-Cool-Ebook')
{
header('Location: );
}

if ($_GET['offer']=='Some Other Offer')
{
header('Location: link);
}


With this structure in place you can realize more complicated possibilities. You can store your hoplinks and offer names in a database, then you can change the hoplinks for certain offers across your entire site should you need to change the link.

You can also log each click and information about the user before you redirect them. For instance you can pull down their IP address, what browser they're using, and the exact time they clicked. I use this data to cross reference with my own analytics that I track server side so I can see the path that each person took on my site.

These are all complicated things you would need assistance with setting up. A good coder would be able to understand this post and build exactly what I just described. Although I already have all this built, I'm not taking on any new work until my current contracts are finished. I just thought I'd lend a hand in finding the best direction possible

Happy New Year!

You can also use "Redirect" menu from CPanel.
It makes folder and generates .htaccess file


For link cloacking i prefer using simple php:
make a folder /public_html/offer1

put this index.php there
<?php
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: http://www.affiliatelink.com/");
exit();
?>

Final cloacked link is http://domain.com/offer1/

Hi I am new and I thought I would start off by asking a question relating to this post as I can see there are a few people here who understand regular expressions.

If I have files that reside in folders as follows.

/nr/rdonlyres/2069656a-f68e-4563-b9a5-4b9a9922f7a4/0/transferform0809.pdf


/nr/rdonlyres/86e6a9ab-1633-4e4b-8790-bff74df03487/0/lamslistpublishedweb11november08.pdf

How could I rewrite the URL to look like the below examples without having to chang the source location of the file.

/attachments/transferform0809.pdf


/attachments/lamslistpublishedweb11november08.pdf

bearing in mind that the folder that contains the numeric alpha mix may vary look different for each pdf.

Any ideas?

Thanks
zeroanarchy