Whats the best way to hide affiliate links?

I am not sure where I should post this thread, but, I am trying to do the bum marketing thing and need to know how do I hide affiliate links on squidoo, wordpress, and in articles that I submit. Since I have no money I dont have the means to pay for a website or domain name. I am trying to figure out how I can do this without looking unprofessional. Oh, let me know how I can prevent affiliate theft too!

Thanks

 

You can't prevent affiliate theft, you can only monitor for it and adapt as needed.

The best way to mask affiliate links is to create a redirect page (and robots.txt out the redirect page) and have your links point to that instead. If you have a lot of redirect pages place them all in a folder with a simple name like "go" or whatever.

yoursite.com/go/affiliate name works much better than affiliatesite.com/?ref=iaeurhbgiuewrniugvnertuiogvneovfneuintwr9pi IMO.

 

Thanks for your opinion it'll be interesting to see if others differ

 

since you said you don't have money for a website or domain you could try a tinyurl type service or similar free redirect service. Just be careful who you choose as some of these sites are fly by night and/or could just decide to steal your traffic at any point in the future.

it would suggest getting your own domain when possible

 

Yeah I have tried to use tinyurl in the past, it either didnt work, or, I just didnt like it as my link. I didnt get any sales so I am not sure. I will get a domain whenever I do get money. I just have to work with what I got right now, (which is computer access for the time being).

I appreciate your input

 

You can use Tinyurl

 

Dude, forget article marketing unless you're going to be very dedicated. Get yourself a domain and hosting, and build yourself a decent site. The domain'll only cost you ~$3/year or so, and the hosting won't be much more than $5/month. You can afford that, right?

 

You fucking mask it using a different URI from a different domain:

e.g. userpcoolaffliatemarketinc.com/?aff_id=dog_the_booty_hunder3233

to

e.g. me.com/resoruces/dog/

inside the dog folder, index.php file you add header("Location: http://userpcoolaffliatemarketinc.com/?aff_id=dog_the_booty_hunder3233");

Hope this helps BTW it's not "bum" marketing, it's keeping a good impression

 

Never assume someone has money. NO Money means just that....Besides, even if I could afford a domain who's to say I am going to get it right this time. IM is a learning curve and it has taken me a long time to get to that realization. Some people actually believe you can make money in a week or less, with no money, doing bum marketing. I am sure they already have the skill though. I gotta do what I got to do.

 

on the landing page (i.e. squidoo or wordpress)wont the link look like this: http://userpcoolaffliatemarketinc.com/?aff_id=dog_the_booty_hunder3233");

instead of,

http://userpcoolaffiliatemarketinc.com

in other words it will redirect but it wont look like the domain page it is redirecting too. Also, how does this affect search engines if at all.

Apologize if I dont totally understand, I am slow when it comes to the actual technical aspects of a page.

 

Addme.com has a really convenient link cloaker that will disguise the link in the status bar as well. You can type anything you want into the cloaker and it will direct the user to your affiliate URL. I would recommend you make sure that you type in what would be expected for the status bar which will help give the appearance of a clean link.

It's free to use, web based, and provides a simple 'copy and paste' result:

http://www.addme.com/linkcloaker.htm

The downside to using a TinyURL type service is that their URLs are a dead giveaway that your promoting an affiliate link. By using a cloaker like addme, you can give the appearance of a clean link.

Never mask or stealth an affiliate URL. Most affiliate software needs to be able to read the URL in the address bar to apply credit to your affiliate account. I have several hundred affiliates with my DCM project that I have to send constant reminders to.

 

Use any Free redirection url sites like Tinyurl.

 

I just tried this...didn't work. Still shows the affiliate link on mouseover...

 

try www.tiny-url.org

 

design blending.

 

Personally, when I'm clicking out of a site I look at the link address in the bottom and I would NEVER click on a tinyurl. Ever. Too many people sending you to bad sites these days and I know that changing that address isn't that hard but if someone is using tinyurl I'd think they were hiding something dangerous for my computer not an affiliate link.

 

lets see how you feel when you have a link with a few hundred characters in it. that tiny-url.org looks better and better.

 

try using .co.cc and redirect the pages

 

Why hide the links anyway? Web-savvy users can't spot them easily and others don't even care.

 

I'd rather see that than tinyurl. Again, it may just be me but if what is supposed to be a professional website is using tinyurl for it's links it makes me nervous. It looks dodgy and I won't click them. Makes me wonder what they have to hide. I'd rather see an affiliate link.

To me it's the same as 'businesses' that use free website hosts, blogger/wordpress accounts and free email (gmail/yahoo/etc.). Seems too fly-by-night to me.