I know when using a domain to redirect to an affiliate you can mask the domain but im wondering is there a way so even if you look at the page source the affiliate link will not show up?
That's pretty sly. You should always let your customers know if they're using an affiliate link imo, or at least make it obvious to anyone with common sense. Tricking people into signing up to your affiliate is dishonest. But hey, it is a dog eat dog world.
It's been estimated that up to 90% of all affiliate sales made online are lost to commission thieves.
do you mean this? use a php file to redirect and link to the php file. if (!strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], 'bot')) header("Location: http://youraffiliatelink.com/?refid=abcd"); PHP: so your links will look like http://www.discountcouponcodes.net/recommends/godaddy.php and that php file will redirect with your affiliate id
Who says its 90%? That does not sound right to me. Think about it. How do you pinch commission? (Asuming you would want to and ignore conscience...) By putting your affiliate ID into the URL? In which case you are already an affiliate yourself. If it really is 90%, then maybe it is just affiliates who cannot be bothered to get their own link set up and buy the product from themselves (not that I would do that either)! But, the point is, if you are the victim in this circumstance, you would not have got their sale anyway. I think a re-direct is really neat. You can choose a really good URL (get creative) and put you link on the 'index' page. That way, it goes straight to the main site. If you the sales letter is doing its job, where do commission thieves come in?
the thieves are the bots that infect your computers and alter the urls to be their urls via the code they have running ont he hijacked user's pc. So when the user surfs to your page, instead of your links appearing, they will actually be the botmaster's links.
well I can imagine it would help if you didnt have the domain name in the ad if the domain name is there they will just type it into the address bar, I dont have that much experience with affiliates though I just recently signed up for cj
So how do we stop these botmasters from hijacking our links ?? Does cloaking of links protect us from them ??
<html> <head> <title>Your Title</title> </head> <frameset cols="*,1" frameborder="0" framespacing="0" border="0"> <frame src="http://youraffiliatelink.com" border="0" frameborder="0" name="main" noresize scrolling="auto"></frameset> <noframes></noframes> </html> This code only works for ClickBank and PayDotCom. If you want to cloak other affiliate program, you need to test this code.
There are quite a few ways to mask an affiliate link. One would be to use a javascript, another would be to use hexadecimal coding of the source and a third would be to use a URL shortening service such as TinyURL, ClickAudit or HopURL. The advantage of the latter two over TinyURL is that you can track the number of clicks and you can modify the target URL once made. Have a look at the cloaked affiliate links that John Chow uses on his website.
This is the kind I like to use too. as well as the PHP re-direct. I don't think the 90% is correct either but, i know there is upposed to be alot of theft going on. plus, you want to look like the originator in some cases of your "product" not like some sales person. I say its a good thing! I use this alot for answers on Yahoo - they wont let you "do" tiny url or some others so you have to get a little sneakier on them! Good luck!
There are programs that can encrypt the code on the page when masking a URL. I'd recommend one of these I gave one out on my blog as part of the Super Scripts (Can't remember which day). Check it if you want. Its the Learn SEO link in my sig
I thought you can get penalized with the search engines or lose your affiliate account by cloaking affiliate links?
Thanks MoneyMoose, the direct link to that article on how to mask your affiliate links for free is here: http://www.thenetfool.com/masking-affiliate-links/ Hope this helps
If you are trying to mask affiliate links on wordpress blogs then check out the wpaffiliatepro Or the other most easiest way is php redirect which I use on most of my sites.