Cloaking / Affiliates links being stolen

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CalendarGirl

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Jun 10, 2009
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I have been reading alot about link cloaking and why this should or should not be done. Since I don't know much about affiliate marketing yet, I have to ask what the deal is about people talking about cloaking their links so that they are not stolen. At the risk of sounding like an idiot, uhm.....how is the theif getting paid of he/she steals the affiliate link? :uhoh2:
 


If someone wants to steal your link then they would be a dumbass because you would get paid. The reason people cloak their links is because when someone sees a crazy URL that looks like an affiliate link they for the most part don't want to click it. There are other reasons but that is one of the main ones.
 
lmao! That's what I was thinking too. I did also read about the crazy URL's, which is understandable, but I HAD to ask about the link theft thing....thought maybe there was some sort of logic there that I was missing, but obviously not. Thx for your reply, one less thing for me to worry with.
 
Right, totally understand what you're saying. I definitely don't want some goober looking link posted all over the place.
 
Heres the HTML code if you need it:

<a href="url">Link text</a>

Most site-builders usually cloak it for you in a "insert/edit link" button.
 
lemons884 said:
Heres the HTML code if you need it:

<a href="url">Link text</a>

Most site-builders usually cloak it for you in a "insert/edit link" button.
Click to expand...


Well that won't hide the url really, it will still show in the status bar. What is most effective is to set up a redirect so instead of setting up a regular link with an anchor text, you can set up something like this :

www.xxxx.com/visit/thisproduct/ <<<---- This will redirect to your affiliate link
 
Cloaking is generally done to hide referrers, if I'm not mistaken. Maybe you mean something else, like using an HTML redirect or php redirect.

As far as stealing the link, I think you might mean hi-jacking the link. Hacking (somehow.. i hear a lot about sql injects) and changing your links by inserting theirs instead.
 
So, is it best to cloak the link, can someone explain the redirect in some detail. I need to use it and am confused. Also, what is the no follow and how to use it? great thread
 
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