How to mask my affiliate link?

yordanov

Regular Member

Oct 26, 2013

358

65

• Jan 13, 2014

• #1

Hello, friends.

I have an affiliate web site (well, it is blog really) and I need to know how to mask my affiliate link. I do not want when a visitor put the mouse on the link to see "affiliateprogram.com/?id=username". Will be great to be link mysite.com/product-name and redirecting to the affiliate program. I saw it on some site. I think they were dating review site. But I am sure the link (because I saw it after clicking on it) is affiliate. Would appreciate some help here.
Thanks a lot.

 

Web Echo

Regular Member

Jr. VIP

Apr 5, 2012

497

1,065

• Jan 13, 2014

• #2

Use PHP.

Code:

<?php
error_reporting(0);
header("Location: http://www.blackhatworld.com/AffiliateID=OO7");
?>

Store the above code in somefilename.php file and link it. Remember, you need a server that support PHP

 

dewaz

Regular Member

Nov 27, 2011

413

51

• Jan 13, 2014

• #3

use shortlinks like goo.gl

or mask it using decode encode, or md5

 

T

tdivan

Newbie

Aug 12, 2013

46

16

• Jan 13, 2014

• #4

If you want a plug in you can pay for easyazon or you can get pretty links lite (pro will cost you 37) I have seen thirsty affiliates but I have not used it. With pretty links you need to understand link structure so you can take apart links that have a img and substitute in your shortened version. I was thinking of buying easyazon personally but pretty links is free and able to be used on multiple sites.

 

lucasbraydon

Supreme Member

Nov 9, 2013

1,252

1,580

• Jan 13, 2014

• #5

Use the "redirection" plugin, its free and very easy to use, I use it on all my affiliate sites.

 

yordanov

Regular Member

Oct 26, 2013

358

65

• Jan 13, 2014
• Thread Starter Thread Starter

• #6

Thanks for the answers! Which is better - goo.gl or bitly.com?

 

stretch361

Junior Member

Aug 16, 2010

175

129

• Jan 13, 2014

• #7

You could also do actual 301 redirects in your htaccess file. But yeah, pretty links lite and redirection plugin both work well for wordpress.

 

elviswong

Senior Member

Nov 8, 2011

983

276

• Jan 13, 2014

• #8

1) You can use 301 htaccess files (google it)
2) You can use what is called: "Url shortener" (your own url shortener as a script or using free ones like goo.gl)
3) You can use scripts that do hide referrers and/or fake referrers (see sig)

 

divok

Senior Member

Jul 21, 2010

1,071

656

• Jan 13, 2014

• #9

I use YOURLS as I have basically hundreds of links for this domain . I have created a subdomain for hosting this script like ww2.domain.com or wwww.domain.com etc . Works great .

 

TimothyEyton

Junior Member

Dec 30, 2013

129

63

• Jan 13, 2014

• #10

yordanov said:

Thanks for the answers! Which is better - googl or bitly?

Click to expand...

I would suggest that you use Bitly as the Google shortener can be a stickler sometimes when it comes to affiliate links.

I usually just use PHP/htaccess instead, but the shortener sites will work too. There's a lot of different options.

 

A

arionaver

Newbie

Apr 6, 2010

19

8

• Jan 13, 2014

• #11

You can use PHP + MySQL to redirect AND to see all related stats like # of clicks, original referers etc

 

lucardk

Registered Member

Nov 25, 2013

77

39

• Jan 13, 2014

• #12

If your blog is based on wordpress there is a great plugin called "affiliate link cloaking" which does exactly what you are looking.

 

F

FlatBenched

Newbie

Jan 9, 2014

12

3

• Jan 15, 2014

• #13

Sup, this is likely a stupid question so i thought I'd slip it in here, can you redirect a domain with no hosting? That's obviously a cheap way to mask an affiliate link if you can.

 

Last edited: Jan 15, 2014

yordanov

Regular Member

Oct 26, 2013

358

65

• Jan 15, 2014
• Thread Starter Thread Starter

• #14

Thanks to all! Very good advices, i wish you good luck to all!

 

Gintoki

Regular Member

Mar 24, 2012

248

173

• Jan 15, 2014

• #15

Web Echo said:

Use PHP.

Code:

<?php
error_reporting(0);
header("Location: http://www.blackhatworld.com/AffiliateID=OO7");
?>

Store the above code in somefilename.php file and link it. Remember, you need a server that support PHP

Click to expand...

I usually do this, with a twist. I name it as "index.php" and place it in a folder that has a name related to the site I'm promoting. So for example if you are using a hostgator affiliate link, you can use the link mysite.com/hostgator. index.php will be loaded in the browser from any folder you are visiting by default, that is why you only need to link to the folder. It looks clean this way and most people will be unable to tell what is happening while they get redirected to hostgator

 

lucardk

Registered Member

Nov 25, 2013

77

39

• Jan 15, 2014

• #16

FlatBenched said:

Sup, this is likely a stupid question so i thought I'd slip it in here, can you redirect a domain with no hosting? That's obviously a cheap way to mask an affiliate link if you can.

Click to expand...

Some registrars do offer this option, some allow you to even mask the URL. (I know internetbs does)

 

SEO LORD

Junior Member

Nov 20, 2013

132

21

• Jan 15, 2014

• #17

it is pretty effective method and highly recomended for if you want to some body redirected seamlesly.

 

TZ2011

Senior Member

Jun 26, 2011

1,095

1,131

• Jan 15, 2014

• #18

You can use

Code:

<a href="http://www.original-site.com/" onclick="this.href='http://www.affiliate-site.com/';" target="_blank"></a>

on mouse hover will show original site, but on click goes to affiliate site.