Hello, over the last week i did a lot of research and tested scripts as well as commercial programs in regards to link cloaking, hiding affiliate links, redirecting URLs. There is actually a lot more to it than what the common assumption is. Example: Many, many tools and scripts use the method of loading a site (eg. an affiliate site) into a frame so it looks like its a site of yours. This is a very common method of cloaking and redirecting. What many dont know is that most of those methods have problems with IE and proper settings of cookies....resulting in a loss of commission! (Yes, i did some research there and also read some interesting threads over at another (cough) forum regarding this topic, that is various ways of redirecting using PHP, frames, META refresh etc. I came across one tool which i find outstanding which is called CovertLinks. I reviewed it here CovertLinks by Perry Wolf who is also a member on the "other" webmaster forum. I did test many free scrips and programs over the last days and i think if you need a link-cloaker this is hands down the best ! Forget all other llike "Affiliate Link Cloaker", "Ninja Link Cloaker" and whatever we have out there. Read my review Here just short why i think this is the best Link Cloaker: * uses techniqes which absolutely asure that cookies are properly set on IE and Firefox (no other cloaker uses those techniques!) * comes in versions for HTML and PHP * PHP version allows a true 1:1 clone / copy of a website! That is: The target site (eg. the site for the product you want to promote via your afflink) is 100% complete downloaded and created on your host. So it automatically creates a copy and content of ANY site for any product you want to promote! * Comes with additional scripts and support to prevent against parasite software * allows entering of page title, description, keywords !! (For the HTML links it creates !) So..instead of just making some lame redirect you get a pseudo-site which has your own title, description, keywords...AND it redirects properly without the problem off losing money/cookies *links are all encoded (of course) So..this is an affiliate link-cloaker, ID-hider, URL redirector and site-cloner all in one. Check it out, i love this program..converting all my afflinks with it right now. Once i read on "the other forum" some posts from the guy who wrote the program i knew that he knew what he was talking about...and it was clear that this was just not another link-cloaker software with some lame frame-redirect or similiar but a tool by someone who really knows his ****...and that's why i purchased it and reviewed it shortly after! Georg.
talking with the programmer right now since there are very minor bugs. The PHP cloaker is just amazing since it pulls another site 1:1 and hosts it on your server. Means: Say you want t promote a product, say "butterflymarketing" or whatever.... So...you enter the url (or whatever url you want it to display)...as well as your aff-link. It pulls the whole site upon execution of the script and you have a 1:1 copy on your server...fricking awesome. You can have hundreds of true clones of whatever affiliate site you promote and this all with the tool without you having to really put a site up...it does that all dynamically on the fly. The funnything is i wanted to write a program like that, a "site cloner". Say...you want to promote an amazon product on your OWN url...so the program would pull and host the whole amazon site on your URL....and thats exactly what this little utility does ! So..the HTML version is already very cool, you can add your own keywords, description and title...but the PHP version is the shiznit !
Why don't you be open and honest with your "review" and disclose that you are an affiliate of this wonderful covertlinks instead of being "covert" (secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed)
of course i am an affiliate, i would be stupid not to <--- look, i am that honest ! Doesn't change the fact that it beats all the other outdated cloakers, and also doesnt change the fact that this is a real review since i cpmpared it to MANY other cloakers and scripts.
i want to add something so people really get a grasp on the power of this tool: (In the below example "M." stands for "marketer" that can be me or you and i use "pms-cure" as an example for a product. Its not a real product/site, this is an example !) 1) M. sees an interesting thread on DP forum about someone claiming he has a a very profitable product "pms-cure" which converts like crazy. Sales-page looks really great too. 2) M. decides to market this too, but he is lazy 3) I start covertlinks, enter the destination URL and my affiliate URL. 5) 5 seconds later i press a button and save the pms-cure.PHP file to my HD 6) i upload the pms-cure.PHP to my server 7) i create a new subdomain on my site, calling it "pms-cure.mydomain.com". I do some minor tweaks in .htaccess, upload "pms-cure.php" to the server. I now have a fully workng site pms-cure.mydomain.com which took me 2 minutes to make ! Note: This is not only a redirect, it's a FULL copy of the target-site and it has content !! 8) Go on my Adwords and get me keywords...2 minutes later i shove those keywords in a new AdGroup which points to pms-cure.mydomain.com 9) Clicks ---> Profit ! I just checked one site and the quality score is GREAT.. Screw landing-pages..it takes me 5 mins MAX to make a full 1:1 copy of any sales-page i want. I now could show some examples but i found some very good products by people here in the forum and i dont want more competition One Adgroup already reached its budget limit in less than hour...so people clicking like mad ! Now i have to monitor how the things convert...
I have a dumb question, you state in your original post re Ninja being no good, yet on the camparisons page it does not get a mention at all. I do not claim good or bad for any as i could not tell you, but from what i have read is it that ninja does not load the cookie on most ie6 browsers or what is the downfall with ninja comapred with this product as there is no further supporting examples other than your quote at the the top. could you further clarify or support this statement please.
Georg, On my server, the html version works but the php version doesn't. It gave me the following error (affiliatehome.com is the targeted URL): Warning: include() [function.include]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/test/public_html/go/test.php on line 18 Warning: include(http://www.affiliatehome.com) [function.include]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/test/public_html/go/test.php on line 18 Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://www.affiliatehome' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/test/public_html/go/test.php on line 18 Any advice?
Georg, I'm using an affiliate tracker to track all my marketing campaigns. I need to pass <php echo $tid; ?> that contains the "keyword" to my affiliate links. How can I do it?
Angel..yes ! i am in talks with the coder..there is workaround for this you replace the "include "http://www.whatever.com" in the PHP file by $t= file_get_contents('http://www.whatever.com'); print $t; The problem is a setting in PHP with including an external URL....and i worked and experimented with this a lot but couldnt get it to work either...so i hope to get an updated version soon. I emailed the author already so he fixes this. It might appear only under certain PHP versions and depending on server security settings.
DU, i had Ninja L.C. But it uses also a frame-method AND it doesnt allow specifiying keywords, description and title. I really only wanted to review CovertLinks...if i would review and compared all scripts and programs i tested...this would be a very, very long comparison, but basically useless since the others are all way below what covertlinks does....so the result of the review would be the same...that CovertLinks is way better than any other out there.
"keyword" for tracking my traffic source. Eg. If a visitor search using "golf tips" as the keyword and come to my site, my affiliate tracker will include "golf tips" to my affiliate link. That way, I know which keyword result in a sale. =)
Georg, Appreciate your help on this. I'm eagerly waiting for the answer to my other question. The one related to affiliate tracking. It will be great is we can combine our keyword conversion & affiliate tracking software with this link cloaker. Do you mind PM me the author email so that I can ask for his support directly? Appreciate it!