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Link cloaking

by Caragui
5 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Hi guys,

I was wondering if it is possible to cloak affiliate links in html sites? If yes, what the best way to do it?

Thanks.
#cloaking #link
  • Profile picture of the author James Danh
    If you google "url shortener" you'll get a list of sites that allow you to cloak your affiliate link with a shortening link.

    Or if you're using cpanel hosting you could use the redirect function in the control panel.

    There are many ways to go about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Caragui
    Thanks for the replies....I'll go check them out.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve Wells
      The quickest way to Cloak Links Using Your Own Domain
      --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      Method 1: Partial Cloaking (redirect only with .htacess file)
      If your web host has .htaccess and mod_rewrite enabled (majority of hosts have this by default), you can easily create a link cloaker. Here's how:

      1. Create/Edit your .htaccess file using a text editor like Notepad and enter the following code:

      Code:
      RewriteEngine On
      RewriteRule ^dummy-text-1/?$ Sell Products - ClickBank
      RewriteRule ^dummy-text-2/?$ Sell Products - ClickBank replace the text in red with whatever catches your fancy and the blue text with the actual affiliate link. You can add as many as you want, just enter it in a new line.

      2. Save the filename as .htaccess and upload it in the root directory of your site's public_html folder.

      3. You can now access the cloaked link(s) like these:
      http://yourdomain.com/dummy-text-1
      http://yourdomain.com/dummy-text-2

      Tip: You can also use formats like "product-name.html" or "recommends/product-name.html" as the cloaker text.
      Note: The actual affiliate link/destination will still appear in the user's browser address bar since this is only a redirect. If you like to hide that too (full cloaking), you would need a different method using frames:

      Method 2: Full Cloaking (frames)
      This method doesn't require you to do the above method, it's completely different. This time you will have to create an HTML page manually for each affiliate link you want cloaked. Type in the following code in your new HTML page:

      Code:
      <html>
      <head><title>Product Name</title></head>
      <frameset border="0" rows="100%,*">
      <frame src="Sell Products - ClickBank" />
      <frame />
      </frameset>
      </html>Save/access it as http://yourdomain.com/product-name.html.
      Using this method your own domain/page will remain in the user's browser address bar while showing the actual affiliate page.
      So to summarize: Use Partial cloaking if you're feeling lazy, Full cloaking otherwise

      Method 3: The One I Use (simple redirect with php)

      Step 1.
      Open up notepad or something similar, add the following text/code thats below, then save the file as whatevernameyouwant.php, meaning you name the file whatever you want, then save that file as .php, upload that file to the folder associated with your website page (www.yourdomainnameexample.com) that you are selling the product from.
      <?php
      header("Location: http://www.PUT YOUR AFFILIATE CODE HERE");
      ?>

      Step 2.
      Then make a link on your website in the html code that is associated to the product you want to promote, it should look like this:
      <a href="http://www.yourdomainname/XXXX.php">Put Your Product Promotion Here</a>
      The first file (the XXXX.php file) that you put into your domain directory.

      Step 3.
      If you want to link a image to a cloaked URL you need to make your link look like this;

      <a href="http://www.yourdomainname/XXXX.php"><img src="http://www.yourdomainname/yourimagef...image.jpg"></a>

      When someone then clicks on either your text or your image, they will be redirected to the .php file which will in turn redirect them to the product that you are an affiliate for.

      I think I put all of this in the right order, at least this is how I have mine set up and it works fabulously.
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