Affiliate Links

Hi all,

I just have some thoughts about longterm whitehat affiliate links strategy. There seem to be so many ways to cloak, hide and track your affiliatelinks and I don't really understand why.

My strategy is that I simply create a subfolder on my website that I exclude in robots.txt. After that i just create one .php file per affiliate product in that directory and link to them. They simply consist of the usual: <?php header("Location: http://affiliatelink.com"); ?>. Then I use the statpress plugin to wordpress for tracking.

I also use some similar php jumpscripts, but i dont really find them easier to maintain. Is there any flaw to this strategy? Can my affiliatelinks be hijacked? Can some types of affiliatelinks get a problem when redirected like this?

Next question is what search engines think about this? I guess if a site is manually investigated they might not like it since it looks like the link point to your site but then redirects them. Is there a better strategy?

Last question is something ive been considering lately. Is it better to open affiliate links in new page or same page. I have mostly used the same page since I have noticed some adblockers stop it if it opens in a new page. Now it suddenly struck me that opening in a new page could be good since you keep the visitor on your page a bit longer and some of the search engines might count the time each visitors stays on your site?

Well sorry for long post, hope some of you have the energy to read it through and give me some input.

BR.
Steffo

Steffo if you google your question you will find your answers man!

Yes i find a different answer on every post i read

Next question is what search engines think about this? I guess if a site is manually investigated they might not like it since it looks like the link point to your site but then redirects them. Is there a better strategy?

Click to expand...

I think this depends on the way you present the link

h**p://w3.free-cat-food.c0m and the user ends up at h**p://w3.rent-an-wreck.c0m

Then I would say it?s a problem

But if the user ends up at a free cat food site all well and good apart from g00gle now knows you are an affiliate site

Also you may need to stop your affiliate company from seeing which site your traffic is coming from!

Hi Steffo - I was hijacked today... even as I was operating the computer for a neighbor - signing him up for some hosting (how much easier can it GET??) - I clicked on my link... but then made the mistake of cruising google for a coupon code - GOT STUFFED... didn't want to empty the cookies in front of this guy... not that he would have cared... so I went back to my site - clicked on the link again... reported the CStuffer... and got this back
SO... I guess they really could care less about OBVIOUS stuffing... as he stuffs EACH and every visitor. Needless to say, I'll be canceling that hosting option and we'll try it elsewhere! So I guess I should say - KUDOS to one stuffer out there - you are a bad ass!

I had similar thoughts about those that can peer into your files (your web host) - might be worthwhile to encrypt those puppies... one more layer. I suspect encrypting .htaccess would not be feasible.

Just one important addition - I suspect he was using a direct aff link to the site while my 'click' thru process was going through CJ - third party... got TRUMPED big time. Good lesson for all.