How do I mask affiliate links like a pro?

Hey DP'ers,

I have really been looking hard as to how I can mask those pesky affiliate links on my blog site.
I have seen tools like WP Affiliate Pro, but all this does is make a link like: "domain.com/affiliate.php?z=1" ... which is really messy

I have seen most professional blogs linking to affiliates with links looking like: "http://www.domain.com/go/website.php"
How do I make my links look like this?

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.
-Jim

 

If youre using wordpress check out this plugin:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/gocodes/

Thats what I'm using for the Hostgator Hosting link in my sig.

 

You could edit do it manually by making a php file and using php redirect function.

Or you could make the task a lot easier by getting PowerLinkGenerator. It even lets you track hits and conversion rate. I've been using it for long and its really awesome. Highly recommend for any affiliate marketer to have.

 

I use :
http://www.freelinkcloaker.com/

 

It's pretty easy if your on apache server,just a piece of code in htaccess.
http://www.affiliatebeginnersguide.com/links_guide/htaccess.html

 

Thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately, none of these are really what I am looking for. It seems like they are all just short-url scripts and thats really not what I am looking for.
If anybody knows how to get the /go/file.php format of redirecting please let me hear. Thanks for the help

 

I think I am just going to do this manually by creating some php redirect scripts.
Thanks for all the help users

 

With PowerLinkGenerator you can create stuff like /go/file.php. It won't create a php file, but would just make use of .htaccess. But with it you can even track stuff which you can't when redirecting manually unless you use a tracking script.

 

I often use javascript hide over.

 

Hmm,didn't you see my post?

You'll just need to create another folder/directory named go and put a htaccess file there,that's the trick ...

 

i dont quite get it.
so I have edit the htaccess file every time whenever I have a new AffiliateUrl?

 

yeah of course,you have to...and it'll just take a few sec's to add a new affiliate url..however i think you don't join a new aff. program everyday,eh?

 

<?php
header( 'Location: [COLOR="Red"]insert affiliate link here[/COLOR]' );
?>

Code (markup):

Save the file as affiliate.php on your preferred folder. If you saved it on the folder "/go", you may access it through yourdomain.tld/go/affiliate.php



Hope it helped! To the others who want to know more methods to mask affiliate links, check my post here.

~BW

 

Affilitrack will do exactly what you're looking for, and will keep track of how many times each link was clicked:

http://www.jwrmedia.com/store/affilitrack/

 

Try using this...can be used for redirecting pretty much anything in WP.

http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/redirection/

I use it myself, really easy to use. Not just for affiliate links but redirecting old permalinks to new ones, etc.

 

Thanks, Fish! I was following this thread but wasn't about to start messing with my htaccess file for each link.

I didn't even think of using the Redirection plugin I have already installed. This seems like the simplest way to accomplish affiliate cloaking for those of who don't like to play with code "under the hood".