Some affiliate programs are cookie based, meaning when you get to the affiliate link, then all you see is the ownerproduct.com - why is CB not the same way...I think CB affiliates would get higher sales if their links did not look so damn obvious... and I keep hearing people say, hide your link, cloak your link so it does not get stolen...whats the point, they can just swap out your affiliate ID at the destination...am I wrong? is it even possible to get your link to its destination without showing your entire affiliate link, which nobody wants to see, and when they do, they just add theirs if they want to buy the product... I want to see: myproduct.com rather then: myproduct.com/myaffid.hoplink.morecrap (do not buy or swap my ID) what do you think?
You don't have to worry about your affiliate ID getting swapped, unless you're in MMO niche, because for example, people who buy weight loss products won't even know what is affiliate marketing... In regards of how the link looks like, you can get a domain and redirect it to your hoplink. Simple.
then you are saying you need two domains...one domain to redirect, then another domain to advertise the product with the redirect domain...?
If you have your own website, then buying a domain specially for redirecting your hoplink is not really necessary. In the case, when you have a hosted website, simply make a HTML or PHP redirect, like www.yoursite.com/goto/vendorsite and put your hoplink in the redirect file. Read this > http://php.about.com/od/learnphp/ht/phpredirection.htm
One can simply use one of the many url redirection services. like tinyurl for example. im not a fan but many use it... Another option would be to use the encrypted version of hoplink -i dont know if you are aware that clickbank added this feature a few months back. But still, the best option would be that suggested by bl4ckmaN^. Create a page for example "vendorsite.php" and use a redirection code such as below: <?php header("Location: YOUR-HOPLING"); ?> simple and easy
When I got to the hop link sheild it asks for aff id and vendor id...I am not a vendor... but anyway, let me ask this...when someone goes to a site via my hop link..lets say they do not buy, but end up on someone elses hop link to the same site, or they replace that hop with their own...because it went to my hop first...will it make a difference if they change the aff id, then check out? I think it would be much easier if you setup your affiid, and it just passes through a cookie so there is no tampering like many affiliate programs use...if there is no ID shown, then there is no cheating, no changing anything...
If you promote my product, I have added code that strips the affiliate info out of the url. The affiliate still gets the sale, but the url in the browser does not show it. Problem solved!!!
Yes I think this is all down to CB not being able to update it affiliate link system - millions of affiliates and if they were to update properly all the links might not work. There are ways of getting around it though, a html redirect works well.
A simple PHP redirect will solve it. Some thing like domain.com/go/vendor.php and enter the following code in it:
If you are truly tring to cloak your hoplink tinyurl isn't really effective. Those that can identify your URL as a hoplink can also identify the fact that you are using tinyURL to cloak it. A redirect through your website is the best way to do this!