Link Cloaking question

[Paul]

I've read Phil's post about link cloaking, but could I
just use Link Brander to cloak my links?

For instance, both links below go to my Survey Scout page.
Could I just use the link brander link, or would it not give me
credits for my signups?


Prism2006.surveysc.hop.clickbank.net
www.linkbrander.com/go/57832

Paul

[troyzone]

Hi Paul,

I've moved this thread to the Designing & Developing Website board of the forum since it is a bit technical in nature and is more related to redirects and web page design than it is to the Phase 3 instructions themselves.

As you know, link cloaking is basically something that webmasters do to hide special links (such as affiliate links in our case) that they don't want unscrupulous people to manipulate, which could result in the webmaster losing referrals or other traffic.

For example, if someone didn't have an affiliate link cloaked and an individual visited their site, copied their link into a new browser, and edited off the referral ID before opening the link, then the originating webmaster would lose out on that referral.

There are many link redirection sites or services available these days, plus you can easily create redirect pages on your own web hosting account as well, giving you full control over how those redirects behave depending on the type of redirect code that you use.

As long as your Link Brander link redirects to your actual affiliate link above and does not open it into a frame on an existing page (i.e. to keep the original URL in the browser's address bar) then it could be used. Clickbank links can't track your referrals though if your Clickbank hoplink doesn't open into the top frame of a page or a new page.

Please note that I just tried your Link Brander link above and it stayed in the address bar, so that tells me that it is likely loading your affiliate page into a lower frame on an existing page hosted on the Link Brander site. In other words, since Clickbank doesn't work well with frames-based pages, it won't likely track your referral.

It is better to use a simple php or http meta refresh type of redirect page hosted on your own domain for Clickbank links, as described in the thread that you mentioned started by Phil regarding redirects. For reference, it can be found here:

erichw33.proboards53.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=web&thread=1176248868&page=1

You can find more info about Clickbank hoplinks in their hoplink FAQ here:

www.clickbank.com/hoplink_faq.html

FAQ # 10 mentions how hoplinks won't work with frames-based web pages, such as those that display one page's contents in the main browser window while displaying a different page's URL in the browser's address bar.

In this case, a Link Brander URL is displayed in the address bar, while a page from the SurveyScout site is actually displayed in the main part of the browser window. This is basically one web page framed inside another.

Other affiliate links *may* work with Link Brander, but Clickbank links likely won't, at least not while giving you credit for the referral. Losing all those sales isn't worth the risk...it is better to use a redirect method that is sure to work. Hope this helps.

Troy

[Paul]

Thanks Troy, and thanks for moving the post to the correct forum--sorry

Paul

[Tom "CloudHand"]

As Troy said, the biggest problem with using a cloaking program is if the affiliate information gets properly transferred to the parent site so you get the credit you deserve.

Another problem I see with using programs like Link Brander is that the links do not look professional.

If you go to a web site or get an email, what link would you rather click on or what links look more professional?

Links from programs like Link Brander or just straight out affiliate links?

Prism2006.surveysc.hop.clickbank.net
www.linkbrander.com/go/57832

Or links that represent your web site and look like this?

thehomebusinessweb.com/best-survey
thehomebusinessweb.com/top-survey
thehomebusinessweb.com/top-programs
thehomebusinessweb.com/top-pick


Links like this are very easy to create for free using PHP, and there is a low chance of losing commissions because PHP redirects will pass on the affiliate information just fine.

There are even programs out there that can create links like this that give you tracking and stats... some of the best are GoTryThis and AdTrackz. If you know a bit of programming, you can even program in link tracking and stats using PHP and MySQL.

I personally do not click on many links that are just plain affiliate links or those stupid links from tinyurl or Link Brander. If the link is not professional looking, then I tend to just ignore... but that is just me.

Tom

[mpatton]

prism2007 said:

I've read Phil's post about link cloaking, but could I
just use Link Brander to cloak my links?

For instance, both links below go to my Survey Scout page.
Could I just use the link brander link, or would it not give me
credits for my signups?


Prism2006.surveysc.hop.clickbank.net
www.linkbrander.com/go/57832

Paul

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Cloak I use:


<html><title>Loading Page</title><meta name="Loading page" content="true"><meta
name="robots" content="noindex"></head><frameset border=0 rows="100%,*" frameborder="no"
margintop=0 marginleft=0 marginright=0 marginbottom=0>

<frame SRC="http://Affiliatelink.com" scrolling=auto

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
place your affiliate link where I have
<frame SRC="<frame SRC="http://Affiliatelink.com" scrolling=auto" scrolling=auto
be sure it is between the " "

then save it to your host

let say it is sfi

your new link would then be:

http:// yourdomainname.com/sfi.html

I have used this cloak for 4-5 years works fine
for anything including Clickbank... It meets their pass through
requirements.

Keep it So Simple

Hope this helps

Michael

[sheba]

Hello

I am have trouble link cloaking. When I use php it goes to my photo parade. Not sure what to do . I am using notepad.

Sheba

[troyzone]

Hi Sheba,

Can you give us the code you are using for your php redirect page, as well as the code section in your home page that links to it? We need to look at your code in order to troubleshoot it.

If you're not sure how to find the exact code section, make sure the pages you are having trouble with are uploaded to your web host and give us the links to the pages, and of course specify where on the page the problematic link can be found.

If you're using a php redirect page, the code for it should look like this:


<?php

header( 'Location: this-is-my-link.com/' ) ;

?>


Just change the link inside the code above to match your own affiliate link and save the page as whatever-you-wish.php (rename this accordingly). Your web page would then link to whatever-you-wish.php, rather than directly to the affiliate link.

Please also note that php redirect code needs to be run on a web server that supports php (which most do), and that clicking on such files stored on your own computer will not likely work. You have to upload php pages to your web host and load them from there in order for them to function correctly.

Troy

[sheba]

Hi Troy

O.k I will start with what I have done. I have tried to follow Phils way. My website is lonepinecash4u , using trafficpayouts
I opened file in note book and typed:
<?phphttp://stats.trafficpayouts.com/z/22/CD15555/;?>

saved as trafficpayouts22
uploaded to Ipower public html
then opened my website to source mode and changed my links to
http:lonepinecash4utrafficpayouts22, saved then uploaded to I power public html

It did not work, not sure what I am doing wrong

Thanks

Sheba

[troyzone]

Hi Sheba,

The PHP code has to be *exactly* as indicated above, complete with the line breaks and so forth, or it may not work. Scripts are very picky...sometimes you can't even change one single character or line break, other than the link itself - it has to be exact. I have the following in a separate file as a PHP redirect page:
<?php

header( 'Location: this-is-my-link.com/' ) ;

?>Copy the code *exactly* as above above in the code box and paste it into your Notepad file, then replace the this-is-my-link.com/ link between 'Location: and ' ) ; with your own link.

I would advise copy/paste rather than retyping it as you might miss a space or something if you type it manually and cause the script not to work. Make sure you don't accidentally delete one of the single quote ' marks, spaces, or anything else. Also include the http:// part of your link...I didn't include it in the code box above because when I did, the forum tried to change the code displayed by inserting BBCode (forum code) and made it even more confusing.

The file then has to be saved with a .php filename extension. If you don't have this extension on the filename then it won't likely work either. In your case, you could call it trafficpayouts22.php if you wish and then link your web page to trafficpayouts22.php or www.lonepinecash4u.net/trafficpayouts22.php (I prefer the former, relative link format as it's shorter and just as easy to use, but either format would work).

This is of course assuming you place your trafficpayouts22.php file in your web site's root directory...if your redirect files are in a separate directory like what is commonly done with images then link to them accordingly. Speaking of which, once you get your redirect pages working then you might want to consider placing them in their own directory or folder to organize things better like you did with your images, because you'll likely end up with a lot of them and having too many files in your root directory can clutter it up.

Hope this helps.

Troy

[Sandi Moses]

Dec 4, 2008 2:29:29 GMT -5 troyzone said:

Hi Sheba,

The PHP code has to be *exactly* as indicated above, complete with the line breaks and so forth, or it may not work.
Troy

Actually, it won't work. Don't ask me how I know this!

Sandi

[sheba]

Hi Troy/Sandi

I still cannot get it to work, I believe I am close ,but am missing some little thing. Troy, I am not sure I understand this:
Please also note that php redirect code needs to be run on a web server that supports php (which most do), and that clicking on such files stored on your own computer will not likely work. You have to upload php pages to your web host and load them from there in order for them to function correctly.
This may be my problem. Not sure if you are familiar with I power, But when I load code I hit browse then notepad opens up and I click on yhe php file and then load. Hope I am explaining this right .

Thanks

Sheba

[sheba]

Hi Troy/Sandi

the code would look like this exactly?


<?php

header( 'Location: stats.trafficpayouts.com/z/84/CD22222/' ) ;

?>

[troyzone]

Hi Sheba,

Dec 4, 2008 22:04:47 GMT -5 sheba said:

Troy, I am not sure I understand this:
Please also note that php redirect code needs to be run on a web server that supports php (which most do), and that clicking on such files stored on your own computer will not likely work. You have to upload php pages to your web host and load them from there in order for them to function correctly.

This means that unless you have some sort of web server application installed on your own computer that supports PHP, you cannot just double-click on a .php file saved on your own computer and have it work.

Double-clicking on a .htm or .html web page on your own computer will usually display the web page in your browser because your web browser knows how to interpret and display these types of files, however PHP is a server-side scripting language, meaning the web server has to interpret the code and help the browser to display it. Just double-clicking on a .php file on your own computer will not generally work because the browser alone does not know how to understand .php files.

If you load it from your web server like this: www.lonepinecash4u.net/trafficpayouts22.php then your web server will retrieve and process the file, then send the results to your web browser in a format that it understands. In this case, it just tells your browser to redirect to the link specified inside the .php file.

Dec 4, 2008 22:04:47 GMT -5 sheba said:

This may be my problem. Not sure if you are familiar with I power, But when I load code I hit browse then notepad opens up and I click on yhe php file and then load. Hope I am explaining this right .

I had iPower for a couple of years until this past spring when I switched to BlueHost so I am familiar with iPower in general, although I hadn't used the newer vDeck control panel version a great deal and it's been months since I looked at it.

I'm not sure if I'm understanding you correctly...are you browsing in vDeck's File Manager for your .php file and choosing to edit it on there, at which time it opens in Notepad for you to edit? In any case, no matter what you use to edit the file, the content has to be exactly as I specified above (with the exception of the destination link itself, of course) and then saved with a filename that ends in .php, then your home page would be linked to that page, just like you would have done with your Privacy or Terms of Use pages.

Dec 4, 2008 22:07:27 GMT -5 sheba said:

the code would look like this exactly?


<?php

header( 'Location: stats.trafficpayouts.com/z/84/CD22222/' ) ;

?>

Yes, that is correct. As long as the content of your .php file matches what I gave in the code box above exactly, with just the sample link I gave being substituted for your own link, then the file saved and uploaded to your web host, then it should work, as long as the page is loaded from your web host in your browser and not run from your own computer as explained above.

Troy

[sheba]

Hi Troy

I am having no luck at all. I will try to give you detail on what I am doing then maybe you can see what I am doing wrong.
1- Open notepad( not connected to internet)
2- cop & paste code=

<?php

header( 'Location: stats.trafficpayouts.com/z/84/CD22222/' ) ;

?>

3-save as traffic22.php
4. Open I power go to public html upload file traffic22.php
5. open Nvu replace stats.trafficpayouts.com/z/84/CD22222 html code with lonepinecash4u.net/traffic22.php, save go back to ipower and load.
Should be done, but does not work and link does show up in browser window (bottom left)
I am not sure what I am doing wrong , but I am sure it must be one simple thing.

Hope this makes sense and that you can help me. once I get it figured out the rest will be easy. I hope

Thanks
Sheba

[troyzone]

Hi Sheba,

It would be very helpful if we could directly view the problematic code in your web page in order to determine exactly where the problem is. I took a quick look at your home page linked from your forum profile and it does not seem to contain the code section described above, so I assume that you did not keep a copy of it saved after it didn't work, at least not online.

The best way to get help with web page-related issues is to have a copy of the malfunctioning page uploaded to your web host and available online so that we may view it and then be able to troubleshoot it directly.

If your page is actively receiving visitors then I can understand you not wanting to have a malfunctioning home page live for your visitors to see. However, a copy can be made under a different filename and uploaded to your web host , then the direct link to this alternate page can be provided here so that we may view it.

For example, your problematic page can be saved as something like index2.html and uploaded to your web host's public_html directory, then a link to www.lonepinecash4u.net/index2.html posted here so that we can view it and determine where the problem is. In this case, your .php file should also be uploaded and its filename (such as traffic22.php) provided as well.

From your description above, I would say that your problem lies in step 5:

5. open Nvu replace stats.trafficpayouts.com/z/84/CD22222 html code with lonepinecash4u.net/traffic22.php, save go back to ipower and load.

Using the above link as an example, it would appear in your source code as href="http://stats.trafficpayouts.com/z/84/CD22222". If you just replaced it with href="lonepinecash4u.net/traffic22.php" by itself this would not work. You would have to include the http:// at the front of the link as well if you wish to use the full link format. Alternately, you can use the relative link format and just create the link code as href="traffic22.php" if the traffic22.php and your index.html home page files are in the same directory or location relative to each other (public_html).

If this does not help, please post your code online and describe where on your page the problem is located so that we can take a closer look directly at the code to determine what is causing your redirect link not to function properly.

Troy

[sheba]

Hello Troy

Thanks for the info, hope this will bw more helpful.

Ok website is lonepinecash4u.ipower.com//index2.html

The code is =
<?php

header( 'Location: stats.trafficpayouts.com/z/84/CD13825/' ) ;

?>

The page # 1242

Thanks

Sheba

[sheba]

Hi Troy

The website lonepinecash4u.ipower.com//index2.html
is work in progress so there may be some errors,but for the moment I am concentrating on cloaking.

Thanks

Sheba

[troyzone]

Hi Sheba,

I'm not sure what you mean by page # 1242...is the the line number in your source code view of your editor? It would be better to give a description of the page's contents in that area or a quote of the source code in that area, as line numbers vary depending on the viewer used and you can't really go by them between multiple computers and browsers.

I did see an area in your home page with the following line, I'm not sure if this is the link you are referring to in this case or not:

href="http://www.lonepinecash4u.net/traffic84.php"

I apparently posted src= earlier in this thread when I should have posted href= to refer to a hyperlink. The src attribute is for images. I fixed my post accordingly...sorry for any confusion from this. It's been a while since I've done html coding... The link above should work fine if there is a traffic84.php file uploaded to your public_html directory containing the php code with your link as given in an earlier post.

Troy

[sheba]

Hi Troy

I have Loaded this code to my public html in ipower;


<?php

header( 'Location: stats.trafficpayouts.com/z/84/CD13825/' ) ;

?>

I have changed my links to:

www.lonepinecash4u.net/traffic84.php

It still does not work, my website = lonepinecash4u.ipower.com//index2.html

The link is on the right at the top of page

Top Choice
Data Entry Made Easy

the text is :

Are You Retired !!
Are You A Mom That
Would you like to earn an extra $200 every day?, for just 45 minutes work? You could quit your job and make double the money at home working for yourself. Companies are currently looking for data entry workers worldwide to enter data online. Rates of pay are excellent!!


Click Here

Hope this helps

Is it possible that I have loaded it wrong in I power, i think i did it right

Thanks

Sheba

[troyzone]

Hi Sheba,

The link on your web page looks fine, however it gives me the following error when clicked on:

Page not found
The page you are looking for might have been removed,
had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

This indicates to me that the traffic84.php file is not present in the public_html directory on your web host. It seems you have not uploaded it to your web host, it is in the wrong location, or it has the wrong name.

Make sure that the name of your redirect file matches what you have in your page's link *exactly*, as most web servers are case-sensititve. For instance, if you called your redirect file Traffic84.php or traffic84.PHP then it would be considered a different file and your link to it would not work since it doesn't match.

Also watch that Notepad or whatever text/html editor you use does not append an extra filename extension, such as .txt or .htm, otherwise that will prevent your redirect from working as well. If this happened, just rename the file as traffic84.php accordingly. Sometimes Windows hides these "known" filename extensions depending on its settings (more on this in an old post here), so you should look at the redirect page's filename in iPower and confirm that it is correct.

I'm not sure the source of your problem, but it could be one of these things. Please note that the .php redirect page is created, uploaded, and linked to in the same manner as any other web page for your site, such as your home page, privacy info page, or terms of use page.

In a nutshell, you simply create a new page, paste in the five provided lines of code, change the link, save it as traffic84.php, and then upload it to your web host's public_html folder. Once the redirect file is in place, you then change the link in your web page to point to this new file, rather than directly to your affiliate link. The latter part seems to be already done, it is your .php file itself that appears to be missing.

Once you have uploaded your traffic84.php file correctly into the public_html folder on your web hosting account, then clicking on the link below or in your web page (or entering it directly into your web browser's address bar) should load your redirect page and take you to the destination link that you had specified in it:

www.lonepinecash4u.net/traffic84.php

Troy

[sheba]

Hello Troy

Thanks for the Info, I seem to be on the right track,but I am still a bit confused. I believe the problem is the file name for the code.

<?php

header( 'Location: stats.trafficpayouts.com/z/84/CD13825/' ) ;

?>


As I have said I named this file traffic84.php when I load it to ipower it loads as traffic84.php.txt I have read the link you had from the other post, but no matter what I do I cannot get rid of the txt. I renamed and it still came up with .txt at the end.

Still confused, I will sleep on this and try again tomorrow.

Sheba

[troyzone]

Hi Sheba,

It appears that your Notepad is adding an extra .txt filename extension onto the name of your traffic84.php redirect file when you save it, and quite possibly your Windows Explorer settings are hiding this extra filename extension from you. This can be corrected via the directions given in the older post linked to above.

Also, when saving with Notepad, just below the box where you type the filename you want to save it as, there is a drop-down box with the words "Save as type:" next to it. Go into that and choose "All Files" to prevent it from adding a .txt extension to your filename.

If all else fails, you should just be able to rename your redirect file and remove the .txt at the end of it via iPower's File Manager after you have uploaded your redirect file.

Since you gave the exact name that your redirect file is currently being saved under, I was able to view its code at www.lonepinecash4u.net/traffic84.php.txt and it appeared as below:
<?php.txt

header( 'Location:http://stats.trafficpayouts.com/z/84/CD13825/ ' ) ;

?>




The first line of this code has .txt at the end of it for some reason...this will need to be removed before the redirect code will work properly even after the filename is corrected.

Also, in the third line I would insert a space between Location: and your link since there is a space here in the original php redirect code we're using as a template. I'm not sure if this space is essential or not, but I wouldn't change a single character from the original php redirect code just to be safe, other than the link itself.

There are also a few extra blank lines at the end of the redirect code after the closing ?> that could be removed as well. These probably won't cause any issues but are not needed so you might as well get rid of them.

Once you have corrected these issues, then I don't see any reason why your redirect page would not work. Fixing the above-mentioned items should solve the problem.

Troy

[sheba]

Hi Troy

I have made some progress ,I think. The redirect works , but I still end up with the text at the bottom left corner.

lonepinecash4u.ipower.com//index2.html

Top 3 online ad
Top choice
Data Entry Made Easy

It looks like I am making progress, the links do open up properly. It is just the text showing in the bottom left corner.

Thanks

Sheba

[troyzone]

Sheba,

I'm not seeing any text in the bottom left corner...is this happening on your redirect page itself? If so, my computer is generally being redirected to the target link so fast that I don't even really see the redirect page. I tried it a few times, and one time it took a bit longer than usual to redirect and I didn't notice any text on the redirect page that time either. Perhaps you had fixed this already before I attempted to view it.

The redirect is working for me now, and because of this, it is being correctly processed and sending me to the target link immediately. As a result, I can no longer view the redirect source code since my browser is no longer stopping on that page.

If you have any extraneous characters in your redirect page beyond the provided PHP code then you can simply remove them. Your PHP page should only contain the following (with your own link of course):
<?php

header( 'Location: this-is-my-link.com/' ) ;

?>If there is anything in your PHP redirect file that you're not sure about, just copy and paste its contents here so that we can see what is now in it. It should pretty much match the above however.

Troy

[sheba]

Hello Troy

Thats good that everything seems to be working right. At least that tells me I am on the right track. I may be looking at something different, but when I open up my website

lonepinecash4u.ipower.com//index2.html

and hover my mouse over
Top choice
Data Entry Made Easy the text www.lonepinecash4u.net/traffic84.php comes up in the bottom left corner. This may not be a problem as it does not have my Id # attached.

Hopefully I explained this right

Thanks for your patience and understanding

Sheba

[troyzone]

Hi Sheba,

That is the way your link is supposed to appear, assuming you are using Internet Explorer. IE has a status bar at the bottom (unless one has it switched off under View menu / Status Bar) that shows the link you are hovering over.

Many people here have used Javascript mouseover code (included with the original TOPS website) to display different text of their own choosing in the status bar rather than the link, but by default, the link is displayed. You do not need to add any mouseover code unless you want to...doing so can further complicate matters however.

If you are cloaking your links by creating redirect pages then the link to the redirect page will show up down in the status bar, which doesn't have your ID anyway. As a result, there's no need to hide the links with your IDs from being displayed in the status bar by adding mouseover code to the link code unless you want to display something specific, and even then it won't work in all browsers. What you have now is fine and appears to be working correctly, so I would leave it as-is.

Troy

[sheba]

Hi Troy

Thanks, now I can go about doing all my links and getting my new and improved site up and running.

Thanks again Troy

Sheba