What is link cloaking?

It is generally advised that if you are using affiliate links that you cloak them so that they are not obviously an affiliate link.

Some not very nice people out there will notice by hovering over the link and checking the task bar at the bottom of the screen, then change your link to theirs, and then of course collect the commission.

Also, some people just don’t like clicking on affiliate links for various reasons. Cloaking the following way will make it seem as if the link is part of your site.

When we talk about affiliate links Clickbank links come to mind as not only are they ugly but they are also very obvious.

Here is an example:

http://h30b2bgi19sb5v5ayu84uu7q85.hop.clickbank.net/ (Note: don’t click on this as it is not an active link but an example)

Here is a cloaked alternative:

http://yoururl.com/uses/xxxx.php

How do you make that cloaked link? Here is one way to do it that most people can do.

First, open up Notepad.
Copy and paste the following link into Notepad

<?php $URL=”http://www.youraffiliatelink”;
header (“Location: $URL”);
exit();
?>

Then enter your affiliate link where it says http://www.youraffiliatelink.

Leave the commas in there!
Then save the Notepad document, naming it whatever you like, such as “product name” or similar… and so on.

Make sure you save it as a .php document, NOT a .txt

You now have to upload this saved document to your web space.

Log into your cpanel i.e. http://yoururl/cpanel.

You will be asked for your username/password.

You got this when you received your hosting details. If you can’t find it ask your hosting company to provide these details.

Make sure you create a new folder and call it “recommends” or “uses” or whatever is best for you, and upload the above .php document to this folder. This can be done via your CPanel/File Manager.

In file manager you will find that you can create the new folder and that you can upload the .php file to this folder.

You now have your cloaked link for example: http://yoururl.com/uses/productname.php

This is the link you will enter as your affiliate code.

Test it by entering this url into your browser and if done right you should then see the page of the site you are affiliated with. If not just go through the procedure again.

HOWEVER, please note this!
This procedure can be found in various places on the net and they are usually given via someone’s blog. Most blogs are Wordpress blogs like this one.

I had a lot of problems with this and could not get it right despite talking to “experts”, until I stumbled upon some comments on another blog.

To cut a long story short, when you copy from Wordpress  the ” ” are in Wordpress format. This does not translate.

Not sure why and nobody else seems to know.

No problem!

So, what you need to do is when you have put the link into Notepad is delete the 4 inverted commas “” and then do them again in the text document.

Alternatively, you could open Notepad and retype the link code but you would have to get it right.
First option worked best for me.

I hope this is not too confusing but it is just one of those strange things!

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Filed under: Internet Marketing • Tips

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