Best way to cloak affiliate links on my new site

I dont have much experience with cloaking affiliate links so I thought I would ask the experts. My new affiliate site is www.loosefigures.com - It features all of my own ebay auctions. The site is set up like this

- ebay RSS parser PHP file
- that file feeds into a configure php file that I have all of the configuration it. Takes the page?= and creates RSS links that the parser uses. Also contains all of the settings and is doing some minor preg_replace and str_replace. This is also were I use str_replace to attach my affiliate links infront of the ebay links.
- index.php contains all of the page html and does a basis include of the configure php file.

 

That should be fine. You could use short urls by tiny urls if you want to hide link even more.

 

i can also suggest you to add your aff link to a web directory and use the results link as your cloaked one. this works every time

regards
Maurice

 

Right now I'm not hiding them. Trying to figure out how to - the links in the ebay RSS come through without the rover link on them. I add it in the configure php file. Just wondering how I should configure everything so they cannot be seen.

 

Several ways you can do this

1. Use mod_rewrite to handle it (assuming you're using apache as a web server)
2. Use header() function on a page to direct (after you de-cloak)
3. Encrypt the rover on the display, then decrypt on the redirect (look into crypt functions if your PHP is compiled with it)

HTH
hanji

 

Thank you for your suggestions. Right now I just ended up doing a simple str_replace off of the RSS feed. I having some heavy usage of the site right now because I just sent out an email to my newsletter list. After the traffic dies down, I'll start experimenting with the other methods. Can you explain how I would use htaccess with dynamic/changing ebay links and adding my rover id to the front of it?

Here is the quick and easy way that I did it just to get by for now

$roverHide1 = '101">';
$roverHide2 = '102">';
$roverHide3 = '103">';
$roverHide4 = '104">';

$roverReplace1 = "101\"onmouseout=\"window.status=\'';return true;\" onmouseover=\"window.status='http://www.ebay.com/';return true\">";
$roverReplace2 = "102\"onmouseout=\"window.status=\'';return true;\" onmouseover=\"window.status='http://www.ebay.com/';return true\">";
$roverReplace3 = "103\"onmouseout=\"window.status=\'';return true;\" onmouseover=\"window.status='http://www.ebay.com/';return true\">";
$roverReplace4 = "104\"onmouseout=\"window.status=\'';return true;\" onmouseover=\"window.status='http://www.ebay.com/';return true\">";

$buffer= str_replace($roverHide1, $roverReplace1, $buffer);
$buffer= str_replace($roverHide2, $roverReplace2, $buffer);
$buffer= str_replace($roverHide3, $roverReplace3, $buffer);
$buffer= str_replace($roverHide4, $roverReplace4, $buffer);
return $buffer;

PHP:

 

Why bother with hiding the link when users mouseover it? Either way they see an ebay link, and if they just see "http://www.ebay.com" for every link, they might not click on it - they'd be more likely to click if they see a long link directing them to an auction, I'd think.

 

Well that was just a quick fix. Ideally I would want it to show just the direct link to the auction.

 

Personally, I don't think you need cloaking. If you're looking to use cloaking for SEO related purposes (which I don't know if it works or not), you'll want to do php header location redirects & probably tie in your links with a database. So, http://www.yoursite.com/auction.php?item=12345 would look up item 12345 in your database, and then redirect to http://rover.ebay.com/blah/whatever .

 

i know this is an old topic, but i would like to ask you guys something, how do i get this on my website? Is there a php code? Do i have to edit my htaccess?

thanks

 

PHP code is the easiest - use the header function to specify the redirect location (http://www.php.net/header). You can integrate this in a database, do static page redirects (one redirect per php file), or define variables in the file.

 

In my opinion hiding the ebay links from users is a bit ott. in the end if they click it the fact that ebay slaps them strait in the face is enough for them to realise that they just clicked an ebay link, then chances are they will feel tricked.

Personally I am yet to see the benifits of cloaking the links, even for seo purposes. I nofollow them in my homemade parser, as well as adding an SID, but thats enough...IMO

 

the problem is that people say that google is deindexing cause of the rover links, at the moment i havent had that problem but if it will happen at least ill know what to do.

 

I don't see why google would?

 

Still don't see a consensus here.

Is it good to cloak when SEO is important?

Just php redirection is the best way for aff links when SEO is important?

not cloaking is best??
If so, how do you do "nofollow" on Wordpress??

thanks