To Cloak or not to Cloak

Hi, Im still new to clickbank and affiliate marketing. Mostly been absorbing all the info from these forums and other areas to learn as much as i can before i jump totally in.

Queston. I have read from people on here that I need to cloak (hide) my hoplink Id...others i have heard I shouldnt do that.

Which is best? I understand people do this so others wont still your ID or change it. But is this legal? Will I get banned from adwords or by clickbank for doing this? I would like to to keep me protected from those who steal other's ID but not if I will get penalized.

thanks in advance

 

click bank recommends you to cloak your hoplink

 

Most in the internet marketing circle should hide their hoplinks, those that aren't promoting that type of product (i.e health products or similar) don't need to worry about it as most the general public have no idea what a hoplink, clickbank or affliate commissions are anyway.

 

and how is the best way to do this? tinyurl i hear about..any suggestions

 

If you're using cPanel, you can hide your clickbank ID / affiliate link by deploying an .htaccess redirect. It looks clean and professional.

 

.htaccess is a good solution.

I also saw people coming out with http://www.myname.com/recommends/clickbankproduct

That's a pretty good way. Anyone knows how to do it?

 

Hi all I am also new to affiliate marketing so I want to ask you a few questions.
I also heard that i must cloack my link but what do you suggest java,html frames or PHP redirect?
and one thing more that i don't understand how to add a link to my signature in forums and cloack it?
thanks

 

Buy a URL and redirect it. You really cannot afford to be cheap if you really want to make money.

 

I find php redirect to be the easiest, but to each his own

 

Cloaking your affiliate links is always a good idea. I personally don't recommend using Tinyurl or url shorteners like that because I've personally seen links redirected and the affilaite links changed. Think about it, a URL shortener is a perfect way to capture somebody elses sales.

I just posted an article on cloaking your clickbank affiliate links using a php script after reading this thread. Hope this helps any of you wondering how or why to do this..

 

i always cloak any link/offer i run

I been using a new service called OfferCloak does the job well. Has a bunch of other features that you guys may find to your liking

 

I cloak, or else people will steal your commissions.

 

I agree. I never use tiny urls and other third-party sites that provide redirection. I have been suspicious of these services though I don't have any evidence to offer to back up my suspension.

 

Cloaking and PHP/htaccess redirects are different...

What you guys are talking about are just redirects... Cloaking is much more then just a redirect.

 

I cloak using meta-refresh redirect. You just paste 1 line of code in a notepad
and save it as a php file. Then upload it to your server and done.

 

yeah, but if you have hundreds of affiliate links, you end up with hundreds of php files.

 

How do you cloack your affiliate links in your signature?I am using Tiny URL.

 

<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://www.yourlinkhere.com">

Just create a file names whatever.html and then put that line at the top. You can also use whatever.php. Change the url to your clickbank url.

 

I believe you're talking about cloaking entire websites with like black hat SEO stuff. A different kind of cloak mate.

This is cloaking, if you're talking about having the url remain the same up in the url bar that would be masking.

 

Check my sig for software that does all the link cloaking you want. And it's only $9.95 for unlimited sites. PHP/MySql based with a password-protected admin area. I'm loving it.