STOP ‘Internet Pickpockets’

From Stealing YOUR Money

Here is part two of How to cloak your affiliate or clickbank hoplinks

Ok so you want to stop other affiliates or merchants or whom ever winds up on your website from stealing your commissions

You do this by applying a few different types of cloaking your hoplinks.

Below is a rather detailed set of methods for doing this 

1. Directory Redirect

Connect to your web server and create a properly named directory. Then create an index.html and put a

redirect code in it.

2. Sub-domain Redirect

Most web hosting providers allow you to have several sub-domains. Simply log on to the control panel,

set up your sub-domain and then set up the redirection.

3. Redirect Script

Several scripts are available out there that you can install on your web page to protect and redirect your links.

You may need to put the code between the head section.

4. .htaccess

This is only recommended for advanced users because it involves modifying the .htaccess file on your server.

Here’s how to do it. Create a properly named directory. Put a file called .htaccess by creating it using a text editor.

This file should contain the Redirect command, the location of the directory you want redirected relative to the root

of your site and the full URL of the location you want that request sent to.

You can find all the above mentioned codes for free. Do your research and then implement it to see how it works.

I have put a link for downloading a free e-book containing these codes on my blog.

Besides creating redirect pages, you can cloak your affiliate links using commercial software programs or services.

Listed below are popular ones on the market.

5. Software Programs:

Affiliate Link Cloaker (aff) and LinkGuardII. These two programs take your long, ugly link and mask it with a redirect link.

6. Services:

NameStick turns long, ugly affiliate ,clickbank hoplinks or website links and turn them into a short, clean links

(cloaked or not cloaked).

It allows you to set up domain forwarding and unlimited sub-domains. NameStick forwarding domains and

sub-domains are bookmarkable, and you can customize the title visitors see in their bookmark listings.

I use NameStick service to create many neat and clean affiliate links to make my business look bigger.

If you’re serious about your business, you need to take action right away. Redirect or cloak your links to

make them more clickable. You may be surprised by how a little effort on your part can make a big

difference to your online business.

Here are some examples of how to cloak your affiliate links and anything else you don’t want seen by

humans or scumware

Here is the nofollow tag for links.

ie:

<a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.site.com/page.html” >Visit My Page</a>

This just keeps the se’s from crawling that link.

Google gave this to us, MSN and Yahoo joined in shortly. So, because they gave it to us, they can choose to

ignore it. And you know Google wants to catalog the whole www . I like more control than that.

Dynamic linking

refers to doing it with styles.

ie:

To make dynamic text links, put this in your head tag:

<style>.NAME {cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;text-decoration: underline;color:blue;}</style>

Then paste this line into your body tag, where you want the link to go.

<span class=”NAME” onclick=”window.location=’http://www.your-url.com/your-page.html’”>your link text</span>

Note: The need for both cursor:pointer and cursor:hand is to satisfy both standard and IE5 browsers.

OR : To make dynamic text links, put this in your head tag.

<style>.yadda {cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;text-decoration: underline;color:blue;}</style>

Then paste this line into your body tag, where you want the link to go.

<span class=”yadda” onclick=”window.location=’your-href.html’”>your link text</span>

About the onmouseover technique

The onmouseover technique doesn’t work with all browsers, like firefox, for keeping the link from displaying

in the status bar. One way you could do this, however, is like this:

In the webpage head you can insert a simple function like this:

<script language=”JavaScript”>

function moreInfo()

{

window.open(”http://yoururl/go/redirected url”) ;

}

</script>

Then in the body, where you want your link you can insert something like this:

<a href=”javascript:moreInfo()”>http://www.yoururl.com</a>

Now the viewer sees the link that you want them to see, but when they click on the “yoururl.com” displayed

“link”, they are actually routed to yoururl.com address. The status bar in the browser only shows “moreInfo()”.

This works in both firefox and IE.

This works because the “yoururl.com” is not the actual link, it just looks like a real link. In reality, it’s simply your

link text made active with the real link embedded via the moreInfo() function.

If you are not cloaking your afilliate ID then you can put your “yoururl.com/?username=mysite”

link inside the moreInfo() function which will prevent it from displaying in the status bar, but it can

still be read in the page source.

This is why Using a cloaking solution is always best, then you can put your cloaked link into the moreInfo()

function and if someone reads your page source, they only see the reference to your cloaked redirect page…

(mySite.com/myCloakedPage.html).

Using the same strategy, you could simply create a link funtion for each link. Personally I would create the

link functions in a separate “.js” file, so they can be easily called from any page you create without having

to re-insert the functions in each new page, and if you have the same links in several pages, you can update

all the links at the same time by simply modifying the “.js” file. To illustrate, it would look like this:

you make a text file and name it for example, “links.js” and edit this in your favorite editor. (notepad is just fine)

and create your link functions like this:

function link1()

{

window.open(”http://www.link1.com/go/redirected url here”)

}

function link2()

{

window.open(”http://www.linkbrander.com/go/yyyyy”)

}

function linkbrander3()

{

window.open(”http://www.link2.com/go/zzzzz”)

}

Then save, and remember that in the “links.js” file - do not insert any html script tags.

Only javascript code, such as in the example above.

Now on your html page you can simply call to this file by inserting this in your head :

<SCRIPT SRC=”links.js”> </SCRIPT>

Now when you call your links, just insert this in your body:

<p><a href=”javascript:link1()”>http://www.whatever.com/product1.html</a></p>

<p><a href=”javascript:link2()”>http://www.whatever.com/product2.html</a></p>

<p><a href=”javascript:link3()”>http://www.whatever.com/product3.html</a></p>

Now you can modify and share links across multiple pages and you only have to modify the “links.js” file,

which makes things much easier and saves a lot of time. Another side benefit is that by not putting all that

script into your html (especially in the head), you won’t be watering down your keyword ratios and possibly

affecting your search ranking. Have you considered the format,

http://www.yoururl.com/recommends/whatever?

I think his example is a very good format. This same format could also represent a cloaked link page generated

by a cloaking script, which redirects you to the actual product page while showing your own product page and domain

in the address bar of the browser, rather than some other domain. Plus a cookie is generated so if they decided to go

directly to the product site afterwards, you’ll still get the credit.

I also agree that the javascript link functions can be a bit of a clunky alternative to a good cloaking solution.

Avoiding Javascript dependent links will also prevent you from losing customers who either don’t have javacript

enabled browsers, or that simply have it disabled.

In my opinion, Affilliate Link Cloaker is the best way to go, and is the only way I would do my own affilliate links.

It’s worth checking out for Affilliate Link Cloaker .

Personally, I would absolutely not use anything with my affilliate ID in the link, if this is what you have with

“http://yoururl.com/?username=yourusername”

Another person can easily remove your ID and bypass your commission, or insert their own ID in place of yours,

and get the credit. I’m sure you already know that, but I thought I’d throw it in for the benefit of any other reader

that may not realize the risks of exposing your affilliate ID.

To use an “onmouseover” script to show a different link in the status bar other than the actual link, you can do this:

<a href=”http://www.link.com/go/redirectedlink” onMouseOver=”(window.status=’http://www.whatever.com/Product’);

return true”>Your Link Text</a>

To make the onmouseover and onmouseout codes work with firefox,

Determines whether the text in the browser status bar may be set by non-chrome JavaScript.

True (default): JavaScript access to window.status is disabled

False: Opposite of the above

Note: In Firefox v1.0, this can be changed via “Tools → Options → Web Features → Enable JavaScript / Advanced →

Allow scripts to change status bar text”

In Firefox v1.5, this can be changed via “Tools → Options → Content → Enable JavaScript / Advanced → Allow scripts to change status bar text”

The above option (ie. Firefox v1.0) worked for me. Hope this helps !

HTML Redirect code

For those unfamiliar with creating an HTML redirect, here is the code I use for Clickbank to redirect to a clickbank product:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN”>

<html>

<head>

<title>Click bank product </title>

<meta http-equiv=”REFRESH” content=”0;url=http://www.affiliatelink”></HEAD>

<body>

</body>

</html>

save this page as “index.html” and upload it to a directory called ‘cb’ at http://www.myrul.com.

The actual URL is http://www.myurl.com/cb/index.html

That full URL is then listed as the “Hoplink target URL” in my Clickbank account.

Notice how it redirects to the homepage when you click it?

The same thing happens when someone clicks on one of your affiliate’s CB links for the whatever Cb product your use.

The visitor doesn’t see the affiliate ID, but the cookie is preserved… which makes everyone happy!

See how easy that is?

Using a PHP Re-direct

I use a PHP re-direct page. Three lines of code and it takes about a minute. You don’t need to buy any link cloaking

software or even know PHP. Just use the code below:

<?php

header(”Location:http://www.youraffiliatelinkgoeshere.com”);

?>

Make sure it’s exactly as above, the only thing you will change is to replace the bogus URL link with your affiliate link.

Use your HTML editor or notepad, dreamweaver, Frontpage 2003. OR what ever it is you use.

If you use DreamWeaver, FrontPage, etc. take out any default coding so you just have a blank page like in notepad.

Copy and paste the above code, replace the fake URL I have in there with your affiliate URL. Name the file whatever you want,

I use the name of the program I’m promoting. Use .php as the file extension and save.

For example, I enter my affiliate link above, I named the file CBproduct.php. (choose your ownname) save it.

Then ftp the CBProduct.php file to your website server. Done. My link to promote this great product now is:

http://www.myurl/cbads.php Hypothetical link

Instead of:

http://longugly.com/yackityyack/all kindsofotherstuff.cgi

It looks nicer, won’t scare potential customers away, and it does protect you from link hijackers and

commission thieves like the other stuff does but this is free.

I just keep a file named link cloaking.php with the above code so I just open it, replace the fake URL

with my affiliate link URL, re-name it, save it, and FTP it. Done.

Here is another method of cloaking your links

</script>

<!– !STOP! WARNING: you are not authorized to view this

Code - Close your text editor immediately –>

<html><head><script>window.status = ‘ ‘;</script><meta http-equiv=”Content-Language” content=”en-us”>

<title>–TITLE–</title><meta name=”keywords” content><meta name=”description” content></head>

<frameset border=”0″ frameborder=”0″ marginleft=”0″ margintop=”0″ marginright=”0″ marginbottom=”0″

rows=”100%,*”><frame src=–URL–” scrolling=”auto” frameborder=”no” border=”0″ noresize>

<frame topmargin=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ scrolling=”no” marginheight=”0″ frameborder=”no” border=”0″ noresize><noframes><body></body></noframes></frameset></html>

The big space is done by hitting enter about 50 times to get the code far down the page so it isn’t seen.

Some more General Methods of cloaking links



METHOD ONE: By creating redirecting pages:

1. Open your note pad or html editor.

2. Copy and paste this code in your note pad and save as ‘.html’ file with a catchy name.

<*HTML><*HEAD><*TITLE>Redirecting to youraffiliatesite.com…<*/TITLE> <*meta http-equiv=

“refresh” content=”0; url=http://www.youraffiliate link here”> <*/HEAD> <*BODY> <*P>

You will be redirected to youraffiliatesite.com.<*/P> <*/BODY> <*/HTML>

TIP: Second line of this code (”refresh” metatag) should be in SINGLE line. Take out all

* characters from the html code.

3. Upload this file to your server. Send this URL in your emails or keep on your website.

4. When your subscriber or visitor clicks on the link they will be redirected to your affiliate page.

METHOD TWO: A cool Html Trick that works on your webpages:

Usually you will keep your links in this format-

<*A href=”http://www.youraffiliatelink”>clickhere

In this way when you keep your cursor over the link, you can see your long affiliate link.

Instead of above code, you can keep this code-

<*A href=”http://www.youraffiliate link” onMouseOver= “window.status=’your text here!’; return

true” onMouseOut= “window.status=”; return true”*>Click here<*/a><*BR><*BR>

(Take out all * characters from html code)

Whole of the above line should be in SINGLE line. When you keep cursor on the link,

you can see the text that you put in the status bar.

http://www.ultimatewealthpackage.com/?hop=shaners

METHOD THREE: Producing Frame pages: Not recommended but included for info purposes:

Actually your visitor sees a link like - http://www.yoursite.com/product/index.html.

But when he clicks on the link he will be taken to a page where top frame showing links to your site

and lower frame showing your affiliate product page.

<*html> <*head><*title>your title<*/title><*/head> <*frameset rows=”20%,*” border=0>

<*frame name=”top” src=”http://www.yoursite.com/yourlinks.htm” marginwidth=”10″ marginheight=

“10″ scrolling=”Auto” frameborder=”no” noresize> <*frame name=”bottom”

src=”http://www.affiliatesite.com/youraffid?12345″ marginwidth=”10″ marginheight=”10″ scrolling=

“Auto” frameborder=”no” noresize> <*noframes> <*body> <*p>This page uses frames, but your

browser doesn’t support them.<*/p> <*/body> <*/noframes> <*/frameset> <*/html>

You can also use cgi scripts to make this happen -

http://www.webmasters-central.com/Server_side_Coding/CGI_and_Perl/Redirection/Frame_based_Redirection/

Basically these scripts retain a link for your site but your visitor goes to your affiliate site.

He can come back to your site anytime by clicking on the links in the top frame.

<a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.site.com/page.html” >Visit My Page</a>

<span class=”NAME” onclick=”window.location=’http://mydigitaldispatch.com/?a_aid=4ceb3ddc’”>My Digital Dispatch</span>

There you have a whole bunch of methods for hiding, cloaking, masking your affiliate, clickbank hoplinks or website links