Cloaking Affiliate Links
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Q: Is .htaccess better than Jim Edwards’ Affiliate Link Cloaker for cloaking affiliate links?
A: I have been using .htaccess redirects for years. I know there are a number of programs out there to cloak affiliate links, but I haven’t used any, including the Jim Edwards’ Affiliate Link Cloaker.
It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. I use .htaccess as an efficient way to change out multiple links for a merchant at once, as well as to create short URLs for print material or text newsletters.
I don’t use .htaccess for the purpose of cloaking, but it does accomplish that objective, too.
Also, it’s free to set up the .htaccess redirects, while those programs cost various amounts.
Personally, I don’t see a need to pay for it when it’s pretty easy to set it up yourself.
Visit http://blog.affiliatetip.com/archives/affiliate-tip-use-htaccess-redirects/ for details on how to use .htaccess redirects.
- Posted in Affiliate News
Interesting… I've never used either of them. I use PHP redirects, I just make a new directory on my server (inside a “recommends” or “likes” folder) for each product or whatever and put a .php file in there named index.php, so the actual link ends up like http://website.com/recommends/product/.
Thanks,
reply to this commentLinus
I use a piece of software to manage PHP redirects – it's the same method that Linus uses, but the software just automates the process. I do this instead of using .htaccess because I work mainly with products that are unique and can't be swapped out for another merchant. I suppose I could use the .htaccess method, but lacking a tool to make it easy, I decided to go the PHP route.
I cloak my links because these days, people who are concerned about security will look at a CJ link (for example) and may decide not to click. When the url looks like a random assortment of nonsensical letters and numbers, that doesn't instill confidence.
The Affiliate Link Cloaker software is strange to me. Why it tries to put the links in hex in the source code is bizarre. Anyone with access to Google can “decrypt” it. Copy/paste a line of hex into a Google search box and Google will spit back plain text. Just weird.
reply to this commentI've created a PHP link cloaker that I give away for free, and which doesn't require you to create a new PHP file for each product — instead, your put the product ID in the link, like this:
http: //example.com/go/a/1838ajd8
To (somewhat) deal with the “random assortment of nonsensical letters and numbers” issue that HecticDMC mentioned, you can add whatever you want to the end of the link, for example:
http: //example.com/go/a/1838ajd8/the+product+name
You can get it at http://WhiteHatCrew.com/affilicloak/
reply to this commentI've created a PHP link cloaker that I give away for free, and which doesn't require you to create a new PHP file for each product — instead, your put the product ID in the link, like this:
http: //example.com/go/a/1838ajd8
To (somewhat) deal with the “random assortment of nonsensical letters and numbers” issue that HecticDMC mentioned, you can add whatever you want to the end of the link, for example:
http: //example.com/go/a/1838ajd8/the+product+name
You can get it at http://WhiteHatCrew.com/affilicloak/
reply to this comment