The link cloaking I’ve added to the Stallion Responsive Theme and Stallion WordPress SEO Theme is a very cool feature. Why Hide/Cloak Affiliate Links? There are two reasons to hide/cloak affiliate links (any link). 1. Hide the source of the link from your visitors so they don’t know they are about to go to an affiliate site AND so other affiliates can’t easily steal your affiliate links (apparently it’s a problem). 2. To protect a sites link benefit, Google does not want us linking to affiliate sites and other sites we don’t recommend. Unfortunately Google took away the only way to tell Google etc… a link shouldn’t pass link benefit when it changed how nofollow links work (stupid Google). A […]
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WordPress URL Cloaking Plugin?
Hi David,
I would like to ask your help about URL cloaking. I’m having hard time to find a decent URL cloak software or URL redirection
Recently bought “Banner Cloaker Pro” but when I installed it can’t activate it as it says “There is no valid header for this plugin. I also found others, but they are 200$, which not what I want to pay for a URL cloaking software. I also tried CJB.net, but it’s crap as they put their own sales page on your redirected URL, you have to refresh the page 2-3 times to get your page up. I’m sure your customers won’t wait to keep refreshing the page, they just go away.
I want to ask you what kind of Cloaking plugin you use which works best with Talian 05 or what would you recommend?
Thank you for your help!
Regards, Gabor
WordPress URL Cloaking Plugin?
WordPress Link Cloaking Tutorial
Depends what level of URL cloaking you are after?
If it’s basic 301 redirect type cloaking where you put a link to something like
yoursite.com/awesomestuff
and it goes to
affiliatesite.com/mytrackingid.php (like a Clickbank link for example).
You can easily achieve this for free.
There are free WordPress plugins that do link cloaking though I’ve never used them as use a PHP script I found years ago. Spits out 301 redirected URLs
That goes to the MPP plugin sales page (affiliate link). The domain above is another one of my domains that I use for most of my single tracking affiliate links (Clickbank for example), easy to update/change them then.
The PHP script is called PHP Click counter and is free looks like there’s a new version (I’m using 1.1).
I also use some advanced javascript with these links to hide them from search engines. In Stallion 6 this advanced javascript is installed with the theme and works along side the Massive Passive Profits Autoblog Plugin to hide the affiliate and other links from articles posted by the plugin.
See Massive Passive Profits Plugin Stallion Theme SEO for more details. It’s all automated, click a few tick boxes and it works with the autoblog plugin.
The javascript installed with Stallion 6 is ready to work with PHP cloaking scripts like the Click counter script I’m using. You edit one js file (basically a text file) and paste the format of the cloaked links in once and it works.
After I release Stallion 6 plan to make a tutorial on how to use it for other affiliate links (it’s easy when you know how). I’m using it on plenty of affiliate sites, means links are cloaked and more importantly they waste no link benefit to affiliates.
For example I use Shareasale datafeed on around a dozen test sites and used a customised import script that imports the datafeeds to WordPress and adds the affiliate links in the right format so they are both cloaked (I use another PHP technique for the cloaking gives URLs like example.com/buynow.php?id=1234) and are hidden with the advanced javascript (all automated after setting up the format).
Will be real easy for you to get working when I release Stallion 6 (end of the month I hope).
David
WordPress Link Cloaking Tutorial
Best WordPress SEO Theme
Hi David,
Thank you very much for the info, it helps a lot! Looking forward to see Stallion 6. I love Talian 05, curious what can be better than that :)
PHP Link Cloaking Script
Hi David.
Am just trying to set up affiliate links for cloaking following your tutorial. Awesome stuff.
When I come to change the “tests.js” file your tutorial mentions change the line that starts with “case ‘tests2’: etc etc
When I look at ‘tests.js’ I see a line that says ‘testing2’ etc like this: (there’s actually a ‘testing’ line of code as well
case ‘testing2’: theURL = ‘http://www.45-year-old-millionaire.co.uk/tracking/track.php?id=’; break;
I’m guessing that this is the line but I just wanted to double check.
And just to confirm, having set up my first ID using ccount for Vipre Homepage the actual code that I’ll put into my page would be as follows:
“span class=”affst title=”testing2″ id=”1″>Vipre Homepage”
Would that be correct David?
Presumaly there’s no easy way to change the “testing2” without changing lots of other code is there?
Incidentally will I have to set this all up again when you release future updates of Stallion?
And finally re Shareasale datafeeds. I started to sign up so I could get auto link cloaking but then checked the pricing. It is $550 to join isn’t it?
Thanks in advance
Nigel
PHP Link Cloaking Script
PHP Redirection Script
Hi david.
Can’t quite get this working. I’ve created the PHP redirection and have ID 1 pointing to my Vipre Homepage. That redirection link works fine.
But whenever I hover over the link on my page it isn’t showing the Anchor text, it just shows the actual link that the Redirection php has created like this: “http://www.pctoolsinsights.com/ccount/click.php?ID=1”
My post is here (Hover over “VIPRE Products” paragraph 5
I’m now using “testing” not “testing2” as referred to in my earlier post.
I can email the tests.js file if needed.
Sorry about this David. Quite close though.
Nigel
PHP Redirection Script
Link Cloaking is Working
Checked the page and the cloaked links you added are working now.
BTW you don’t need target=”_blank” it’s built into the javascript.
David
Cloaking Links Tutorial
Thanks for prompt respone david.
Should it come up with “Vipre Products in the bottom left toolbar instead of the redirection code
Nigel
Hide URL of Link in Status Bar
You should see whatever is in the id=”” part of the link code, so if a redirected URL you see the redirect URL in the status bar. So it’s working.
There is a way to hide a link destination in the status bar, but not tried it with this script so not sure if it would work. Search in Google for “hide url of link in status bar”. I’ve no idea if it will work with the javascript added to Stallion.
I don’t use that type of technique on my sites, don’t see the need for it.
David
Hide URL of Link in Status Bar
Stallion Theme Cloaking Links
There are three lines of code in the test.js file
Looks like I was looking at another version of the test.js file when I copied the code. So yes test2 should have been testing2 (will edit the tutorial later).
The first line is for the redirection free link cloaking (doesn’t need a Php script) and the automated link cloaking built into the Massive Passive Profits plugin addon part of Stallion. So ideally you wouldn’t touch that line.
The other two lines are examples and can be changed (as described in the tutorial) or deleted if you don’t use them. Doesn’t really matter which one you change as long as you match it to the link code.
If you change the “testing” line in the test.js file and then use the “testing2” link code in your posts it won’t work. You can change testing2 etc… to anything you like as long as the string of text you use in the test.js file matches the link code (the title=”testing2″ bit). I’d suggest getting an example link working with the default code then change testing/testing2 to whatever you like.
When I update Stallion you would make sure you don’t overwrite the test.js file.
It’s free to join Shareasale, they are an affiliate network.
David
Stallion Theme Cloaking Links
Stallion Cloak Affiliate Links?
David,
I’m trying to cloak my affiliate link to go to offered affilate sale page and have turned on the “Cloak Affiliate Links” in the Promotion Options page but I’m still seeing the entire affiliate link in the lower left hand corner of my blog page when I hoover over the link?
This is the code I used per your Stallion instructions:
JOB CRUSHER TACTICS.
Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong please?
Thanks,
Randy
Stallion Cloak Affiliate Links?
Cloaked Affiliate Links Tutorial
It’s normal to see the URL when you hover over the Stallion Cloaked links.
If you’ve used the span type code described in the Stallion Theme Cloak Affiliate Links Tutorial above and it looks like the code above (when you edit the post it’s on) and when you click the link it opens in a new window you’ve got it right.
BTW you can’t post code into a WordPress comment. If you need to show code either use email or link to where the code is.
David
Cloaked Affiliate Links Tutorial
PHP Redirection Script Tutorial
David,
I do read your comments and if I don’t understand your answers I ask again. I’m sorry, I’m new to this and don’t have your programer type mentality. (I truly wish I did!) I’m from the old nuts and bolts school and if it’s broke you fix it with a hammer.
Back to a question regarding your tutorial… I already have read the tutorial on an earlier date and clicked your link to the PHP Redirection Script which goes to the phpjunkyard website and I see no PHP Redirection Script, you land on the Click Counter Script?
When you hover over your link this is the address it shows: http://www.phpjunkyard.com/php-click-counter.php. Okay, so I go there and nothing called PHP Redirection Script anywhere. However, I find a script called PHP Redirect 301 Permanently and this sure does not seem like the script you’re addressing in your tutorial.
If you can’t understand why Im confused then I’m very sorry but I’m not asking questions just to keep you busier than you already are.
Totally confused,
Randy
PHP Redirection Script Tutorial
SEO Cloaking Affiliate Links
If you ask a question in a comment which I respond to and you don’t get it, but weeks later ask the same question on another page (or another site of mine) do you expect a different answer?
I’m not counting how many times you’ve done this, but it’s at least 4 times and it is wasting my time. You asked about an error with a wpec_magic_template plugin, solved the problem, you responded to the answer saying you’d solved it, then weeks later asked the same question again???
If you do not understand instructions don’t ask pretty much the same question in another comment on another page, respond to my comment and explain what you tried and what went wrong. At the bottom of every comment there’s a link “Reply to Comment”, click it when your next comment is asking a question/follow up to a previous comment (the comments become threaded).
You do not need a redirection script to use link cloaking. Use the first example code on the link cloaking page and it will work for a Clickbank affiliate link.
Replace https://stallion-theme.co.uk/ with the affiliate link and replace Stallion Theme with the text you want for the link. That’s it, very easy to do.
If you lack the skills to do a simple copy and paste of that sort of code you are not ready for installing a PHP redirection script and integrate it into Stallion which takes theme file editing as described in the tutorial.
If what you are trying to do is stop wasting link benefit on affiliate links the basic link cloaking code is all you need.
The simple redirection script is the CCount script, the download link is on the page I linked to and you linked to (no idea how you aren’t seeing it: “Script name: CCount – click and download counter”). You can use pretty much any redirection script, that’s one example.
David
SEO Cloaking Affiliate Links
Clickbank Affiliate Link Cloaking
David:
Is it possible to cloak the links on the pre-built Clickbank Widgets? The customer made widgets seem easy enough to cloak, but I think it would be important to cloak the pre-built widgets as well. Please let me know.
Jamie
Clickbank Ads Use Javascript Links
Like the AdSense ads, and Chitika ads, Clickbank uses javascript to serve it’s ads, so they are already ‘hidden’ from search engines.
If an ads built using javascript in a way that there isn’t a URL shown in the code (view source) you can be reasonably confident Google and other search engines can’t see the links as text links (no SEO value is passed).
If you can see the links in the javascript there’s a possibility search engines can read a link from the code. The Clickbank ads network uses javascript search engines can’t decipher into text links.
David
Clickbank Ads Use Javascript Links
Autoblog Plugin Link Cloaking
Hi, I have a question about link cloaking. If i have 300 or so posts already posted from Massive Passive plugin, and I want to automatically cloak all url’s attached to the posts back to my main web site, is there a way this can be done automatically.
I cant see myself going through all the posts and copy pasting all links to re direct back to my page. I do not want my readers clicking on links from competition links in posts that MPP gathered. Thanks, Mike
Autoblog Plugin Link Cloaking
Automated Link Cloaking Script
Currently the Stallion theme has an extra options page (under the Massive Passive Profits menu : SEO) that cloaks all links the Massive Passive Profits plugin creates.
What this does is stop link benefit from being wasted through affiliate links etc… what it doesn’t do is stop your visitors from clicking those links: which is what you ideally want with affiliate links so you make money from Amazon sales etc….
I can’t think of a way to automatically redirect all links on Massive Passive Passive Profits content to a page of your choice.
David
Automated Link Cloaking Script
Breaking the Link Cloaking Script
After posting the comment above had a thought.
If you aren’t using the Stallion link cloaking script for anything else you could break it so the Stallion affiliate link code isn’t converted to a clickable link by the javascript.
The result would be all Massive Passive Profits links would turn into non clickable text and images (for the Amazon buy now image links will just be an image).
In the /stallion-seo-theme/ folder edit the file test.js and delete it’s contents (turn it into a blank file).
Not tested the above, but 99% sure it will leave you with all links created by Massive Passive Profits plugin becoming plain text that if you hover over a tool-tip with the word “tests” will appear.
This will mean you can’t use the link cloaking feature for other links on the site as you’ll have broken it.
David
Breaking the Link Cloaking Script