Can you like redirect your domain url to the clickbank hoplink so that when they go to www.example.com it goes to the vendor landing page?
Of course! you can set redirection from your domain registrant if you are using something like godaddy. Or else you can make a redirection script in php or whatever language you use...
Many of our affiliates have redirected their domain URLs to our landing page. It is very common here.
Yep people do that all of the time, either use a 301 redirect or just add a meta refresh into your index page. Example: <html> <head> <meta name = "robots" content = "noindex,nofollow"> <meta http-equiv='refresh' content='0; url=http://publisher.vendor.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=trackingcode'> </head> </html>
Which is best, 301 redirect, php redirect, or meta refresh? I've been using php but wondering if maybe the search engines don't like it. Also thinking I would like to capture some stats - can you stick Google Analytics code in the meta refresh or will it never actually load and run?
You can use a frame, or a php redirect. But you don't really need a 301 redirect. 301 technically you are moving one domain/web page to another permanently. And in terms of SEO that tells the search engines this page/site is going to move to a new place and please bring forth *ALL* the link juice to it. Certainly you don't want that to be happened if you later decide that you want to get some free search engine traffic for this domain or web page.
Since you are just masking an affiliate link it doesn't matter how you do it, for something as basic as that I would just use a meta refresh, it takes no time whatsoever to set up. The analytics code won't load with a meta refresh, I don't know of a good way to get stats for a page that is being redirected.
Thanks to all the replies. Now my is with daddy, how long do they take to make the redirect happen? LOL its been done for over night and still showing godaddy park page.