How to double meta refresh (affiliate cloak linking).

[Sharksfan]

I had to learn this today so I thought I'd explain how it works in newbie talk.

Keep in mind this is explained elsewhere but if you REALLY are new to this whole thing this should help you a bit more.

Double meta refresh both...

• hides your referred
• cloaks your links

Here's how to do it.

Let's say you have a site name Website Hosting - Mysite.com

1. Create a directorly at the root called something like /go or a generic sounding name
2. Create two files and upload them to that directory. For the sake of demonstrating I'll call them 1.php and 2.php

Contents of 1.php are:

<?php
echo "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;url=http://mysite.com/go/2.php\">";
?>

Contents of 2.php are:

<?php
$referer = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
if($referer == "")
{
echo "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;url=http://LONG-ASS-AFFILIATE-LINK-GOES-HERE\">";
}
?>

Obviously your long ass affiliate link goes where LONG-ASS-AFFILIATE-LINK-GOES-HERE is. Leave the \ at the end.

In your HTML code instead of an affiliate link then just put this:

<a href="www.mysite.com/go/1.php">Linky</a>

 

[juntao65]

Kewl beans. Thanks bro

 

[Raevinn]

I have read guides where people use different domains for double meta refresh. Does that make a huge difference in how hidden the referred link is? Also, what is your take on using an ssl certificate for you're tracker instead of double meta refresh?

 

[sleepylee]

Not really relevant, but instead of writing this:

{
echo "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;url=http://LONG-ASS-AFFILIATE-LINK-GOES-HERE\">";
}

and as long as you're not trying to evaluate any variables inside the string, then you could write this:

{
echo '<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://LONG-ASS-AFFILIATE-LINK-GOES-HERE">';
}

It's marginally quicker to parse and, imo, much easier to read. And you're less likely to have problems missing /escapes in complex strings.

Back on topic.