Why do i need to cloak my affiliate link

tchashow

Power Member

Oct 27, 2009

606

267

• Oct 28, 2009

• #1

I dont understand why it is needed to cloak affiliate link. actually i dont even know what cloaking affilate link is but i guess it means to hide the affiliate link wont this work to hide it?
for example:
<a href:"hxxp://www.websitehere.com">this is what people will see</a>

 

showbizvet

Power Member

Oct 1, 2008

799

266

• Oct 28, 2009

• #2

Some people don't cloak their links, and it certainly isn't mandatory that you do so. Experience has shown that (sometimes) people are more prone to click a link if it SEEMS like it is merely taking to another spot on your site with more info, rather than to an advertiser. And as far as what you mention above, no that isn't cloaking, that would simply be changing the anchor text.

And if you are doing BH stuff, then sometimes it become mandatory to cloak you link, do double meta refreshes, etc.

 

kkhill34

Registered Member

Oct 1, 2009

89

11

• Oct 28, 2009

• #3

Affiliate links are long and ugly and consumers have associated them with being links to websites that are trying to sell them something. Products sold on Clickbank, with the hop, such as hxxp://affiliateid.hop.clickbank.com are easily recognized. When you cloak the affiliate link, you're making it look less salesy. For instance, hxxp://www.site.com/go/product looks better than hxxp://androezrs.net/akjfdiowkflewijls?affid=whatever. So, cloaking just gives the link more respectability and tries to hide the fact that you're trying to sell something.

 

tchashow

Power Member

Oct 27, 2009

606

267

• Oct 28, 2009

• #4

but if i use anchor text nobody would be able to see my link. right?

 

No1here

Regular Member

Aug 17, 2009

208

103

• Oct 28, 2009

• #5

tchashow said:

but if i use anchor text nobody would be able to see my link. right?

Click to expand...

Let me clear something up, if you hover your mouse over a link you can see where it leads to, in most browsers, it shows up in the lower left hand corner somewhere.

Try it for yourself, put your mouse over any link on this page without clicking it and look down towards the left lower corner of your browser and see if you can find that long ugly link.

 

B

BH_hustler

Newbie

Oct 23, 2009

3

2

• Oct 28, 2009

• #6

that's a backlink not cloacking.

cloaking is so that people cant see your link and report you for BH

 

No1here

Regular Member

Aug 17, 2009

208

103

• Oct 28, 2009

• #7

BH_hustler said:

that's a backlink not cloacking.

cloaking is so that people cant see your link and report you for BH

Click to expand...

Edit: Nevermind, I figured it out.

 

tchashow

Power Member

Oct 27, 2009

606

267

• Oct 28, 2009

• #8

@ BH hustler: report me for what? bh? what is that?
@No1here: thank you. i never noticed that. well yes i did but i never thought about what it was.
so can somebody recommend a way to cloak my links, please?
im new at this whole thing.

 

alexaassassin

Registered Member

Feb 9, 2009

97

257

• Oct 30, 2009

• #9

tchashow said:

@ BH hustler: report me for what? bh? what is that?
@No1here: thank you. i never noticed that. well yes i did but i never thought about what it was.
so can somebody recommend a way to cloak my links, please?
im new at this whole thing.

Click to expand...

If it is on your own domain website, I cannot.
If it is on a FREE page or you are sending in email, I use

Code:

http://www.budurl.com

...because it's free
...because I can customize the last part (eg. budurl.c0m/WhatIWantToSay )
...because it counts the clicks, so I can see how much traffic resulted in however many sales

Have fun with it.

 

nowimhere

Regular Member

Jul 7, 2009

262

2,065

• Nov 1, 2009

• #10

I heard some guys can steal your commissions if they saw your real link...

Anyone heard of this?

 

clubbhopp

Junior Member

Oct 28, 2009

122

81

• Nov 3, 2009

• #11

ninja affiliate cloak is best for hiding the aff links and make them look real and clean
​

 

Q

quinnie

Registered Member

Nov 1, 2009

59

23

• Nov 6, 2009

• #12

you can use pretty link for the same purpose i believe?

 

W

workinseo

Registered Member

Oct 7, 2009

64

183

• Nov 6, 2009

• #13

Why don`t use some services like u.nu or j.mp? Or just encrypt link with js?

 

H

howdoyou

Regular Member

Nov 17, 2008

289

58

• Nov 6, 2009

• #14

http://cloakedlink.com

 

KillerBee

Junior Member

Apr 24, 2008

160

17

• Nov 6, 2009

• #15

nowimhere said:

I heard some guys can steal your commissions if they saw your real link...

Anyone heard of this?

Click to expand...

Yes that's true, another reason to hide your affiliate link too.

 

CSalt2

Power Member

Feb 5, 2009

761

361

• Nov 7, 2009

• #16

KillerBee said:

Yes that's true, another reason to hide your affiliate link too.

Click to expand...

how do they steal your commisions through finding your affiliate link? that never really made sense to me but i've heard it said before.

I guess they could steal your campaign

 

The Magician

Regular Member

Nov 3, 2009

485

284

• Nov 8, 2009

• #17

How they steal you commission is (say its a Click Bank link) they could replace your affiliate ID with theirs so they get the commission.

-Beau Waddington

 

MikeHustle

Power Member

Mar 1, 2009

635

241

• Nov 8, 2009

• #18

I do this:

mydomain.info redirect to ugly link...

 

M

MrPartridge

Newbie

Oct 31, 2009

16

0

• Jun 22, 2010

• #19

Sorry for asking a really stupid question but is using a link shortening service like tiny .cc or bit.ly cloaking your links?

 

Last edited: Jun 22, 2010

lykathe

Regular Member

Oct 23, 2009

470

123

• Jun 22, 2010

• #20

Nope. Just redirecting it, making it look like something else aesthetically. Look up a double meta refresh script or a site with it. Specifically to "hide your referrer"