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Cloaking your affiliate links is a fairly debatable topic. On the one hand, people will cloak their affiliate links because they believe that a link like www.buybuybuy.com/affiliate.php?id=12312 is really obvious, and people will instead just go directly to the site instead of clicking on the link, therefore robbing you of your commission. On the other hand, some people believe it’s more honest and better to fully disclose your affiliate links and let the visitors choose whether they want to give you a commission or not.
The Yimto Verdict?
I personally believe that cloaking affiliate links is the way to go. That’s because if people learn about something or make a purchase after reading your recommendation, you SHOULD get a commission, because that’s what affiliate marketing is all about!
I don’t believe its “dishonest” to do this at all either, in fact it’s totally fair! I use affiliate links on this site, I can tell you that right off the bat, but it’s not like I sugar coat everything or make wild sales pitches. I give you the best information I have, and if I think a product will help you, then I will recommend it!
At the same time, if I think a product is crap, I’ll sure as hell let you know, no matter how amazing the conversion rates or commissions are!
Ok, that’s what I “think”. Here’s what I “know”
There is an even better reason for cloaking your affiliate links though, and it really trumps the entire debate. By using the redirect link cloaking technique, which is the easiest and most common, you can change all of your links’ destination urls with one simple change, instead of going through every single link you’ve ever used.
You never know when an affiliate program may change some aspect of their tracking links, or stop selling all together. You should be prepared for this, and that’s why I highly encourage cloaking your affiliate links.
I mentioned redirection as a cloaking technique, and there are 2 easy ways of doing it:
1. HTML Meta Refresh Redirect
Right Click -> Save As Here to download an HTML template I’ve been using for a while to make my links.
With the HTML redirect, you can insert Google Analytics code and track all your clickthroughs, which is a great help for tracking conversion rates.
The only problem is that I’ve heard there may be an issue with some people not getting redirected, and being left at a blank screen. I believe this may have something to do with the super fast meta refresh speed, so you could either put a 1 second delay (at content=), or add a “If you are not automatically redirected, click here.”
2. PHP Header Redirect
Right Click -> Save As Here to download a basic PHP template I’ve been using to make my links.
This one is as basic as it gets, and I think it’s may be the most efficient. The only problem is that I have not yet found a surefire way to track clickthroughs with Google Analytics yet, so I will let you know if I find out more about this.
Your Redirect Link URLs
Once you’ve created your links, you could link to the file itself, but if you use your .htaccess to set a default file for your folders, for example index.html, or index.php, you could link to a folder. I have not experimented with this yet, so unfortunately I can’t give you instructions, but I believe this explains it (I just haven’t tried it :P) http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess6.shtml
So, your link could be http://www.test.com/recommends/amazingproduct.html
or http://www.test.com/recommends/amazingproduct
And remember, you can put these links all over the place, and if you ever had to change them, all you need to do is edit the one file that is on your server! It really is the best way to get the most out of your affiliate marketing campaigns.
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If you want to track your links through analytics, and still use the php header redirect I know some people use the onclick script method.
Patrick @ Blogstorm blogged about it a while back. Here is the link:
http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/adv.....analytics/
Actually I have heard of this, but for some reason I haven’t been able to get it to work yet.
I’ve also been thinking that if you use this link, and have to change something in terms of the analytics call or whatnot, you would have to go back and change all the links you’ve created.
Like fore example, Analytics just recently implemented a whole new tracking code.
Anyways Thanks a lot for the link though! To all who read this, you should check it out
It could be useful.
Yea I’ve never installed the analytics code for that very reason, too much work for each link. I’ve found that since Feedburner stats already tracks outgoing links, I haven’t really looked into getting another stat watcher myself. If someone does find something easy to use for a php redirect I’m all ears.
Automatic Affiliate Links
http://selfmademinds.com/20070.....ks-plugin/
Properly rediredts affiliate links. It works, and is quick to add links, hard to find and change links later.
More improtantly, you miss one MAJOR reason for cloaking links. There are scumbags out there that will scrape your affiliate site. Then they will take all your affiliate urls and add them to a spyware program. When an unaware buyer clicks on your link, the spyware will stuff the scumbag’s cookie into their browser instead of yours, and you lose the sale.
Even so, I rely on the bad behavior plug-in to keep most of the scrapers out. Cloaking the links was too much of a pain.
Great wordpress resources Turnip, thanks.
Too bad I use Drupal >< LOL I don’t mind manually cloaking though, it’s not too bad. And it seems that a combo of DirectoryIndex and an html redirect works very well for now. Can track it too.
BadBehaviour looks sick, but it seems the Drupal version has not been updated in a very long time, pre the latest big version update.
I’ll keep my eye on it, thanks!
Thanks for sharing some redirect methods. I use the meta refreash and the domain redirect in cpanel.
But Have you guys considered flat out telling the viewers if they buy through your affiliate link that they will get xxx product for free as a bonus?
I’m starting to test this out. In fact many of the big ticket items I have bought in the past were from affiliates promoting but offering killer bonuses to buy through their affiliate links.
I basically put up a page with the affiliate product I’m promoting and say ‘buy throuhg my link and get my DVD and CD’
You guys experiment with this??
Frank Bruno
Oh yeah of course, I know a lot of people use this method quite successfully. Of course this is a whole other topic of discussion
I have not experimented with this yet, but I’ll definitely bring news of my results when I do.
Thanks for commenting!
Nice article you have here. I’ve also written a step by step guide on link cloaking.
Check it here:
http://richbeaver.com/webmaste.....tep-guide/