Stop Losing Money! – The Importance of Masking Affiliate Links & How to do it Right
Author: Jim | Filed under: Blogging 101
If you are running a blog or website and are trying to get some added profit by advertising a service, you may be missing out on huge amounts of added profit! Why? Well first of all, when you sign up as an “affiliate” for a service or product, you will typically be given a link that looks like “http://www.website.com/?ref=29458″ to send to friends. This is basically a link that a website can use to track who is sending them new subscribers and reward them for their efforts. But if you are actually using that link… you are a bigger fool than me!
Put yourself in the eyes of a reader. If you come across a link in their website that looks as shifty as “http://www.demoproduct.com/?ref=3994d&d=229″ you are going to say hey, forget him, I’ll just go to “demoproduct.com” directly! I know what you are saying, “oh, they won’t do that… my readers want to help me!”… WRONG! It’s human nature, sorry. If they click on the link at all, which they probably won’t, you will lose a lot of income from those people that just take the ID# out altogether. So let’s guard against this, and I’ll show you how I currently have tons of active referrals earning me money while I sleep! 
What you DON’T need
First things first, don’t fall for trap products that claim to do all of the work for you. I had the misfortune of buying “WP-Affiliate Pro” myself, and it was basically just throwing away $100, it stunk. All this software did was
instead of making a referral for “http://www.demoproduct.com/?refID=3949″ it changed it to a link on my site that now looked like “http://www.Jimvesting.com/?refID=23″. Well that was helpful… I think not! People see these referral id numbers and warning lights go off.
Also, don’t try to be sneaky and use a different link text than your link url (e.g. http://www.example.com), you need to realize your readers are smarter than that. We need to get away from numbers & letters and do it for ourselves completely free!
Learn Jimvesting’s Masking Method!
I’ve tricked you guys long enough . The fact of the matter is that you need a better way to display links than what these affiliate websites give you as a default. Notice when you click on my link to sign up for SWATcash, it looks like it is a normal page on my website (“http://www.Jimvesting.com/recommends/page.php”)! Convincing, eh?
Here’s a little secret: all it is, is a redirecting script…. and that’s all you need!
Here’s what you do. First, make a new folder (I called mine “go”) to put all of your links inside. Then, just make a new .php, .html or .htm file for each website you want to advertise and use the following code:
<html> <head> <title>WebSite Name</title> <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow"> <script> window.location="http://website-referral-link.com/ref=you"; </script> <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1; url=http://website-referral-link.com/ref=you"> </head> <body> <p align="center">You are being taken to the correct page. <br>If the page doesn't load after 5 seconds, <a href="http://website-referral-link.com/ref=you"> click here</a>.</p> </body> </html>
Not bad eh? Just switch out the link they give you into the three URL’s and put in the name of your website. Whenever someone clicks on your disguised link (http://www.yoursite.com/recommends/website.php), they are going to be redirected to your real referral link… and you have your first sale!
The Power of Masking Affiliate Links
Does this really work? Absolutely. Since changing up all of my links to this “stealth” method, I have had great success
getting referrals that earn money for me. Using SWATcash as an example, I currently have $15.78 earned from 36 referrals this month alone, and I am getting a new referral active about once every two days!
By using this new method of redirecting affiliate links, you will make more money from your readers, guaranteed. People are much more likely to click on a friendly link pointing to your website, than a sketchy link with the dreaded question marks and numbers tacked onto the end.
People complain sometimes that this is essentially “tricking” your users. I say, why not? If you make the sale, you deserve to have your piece of the pie. Bottom Line: Mask your links to get the most revenue out of all your readers! 
-Jimvesting
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Jim, that is an excellent little trick. Thanks for sharing and I will be sure to implement it on my blog.
Fidel Betancourt JR’s last blog post..5 Wordpress Plugins Every Blogger Should Have
nice post. I use this method, once I learned how, just a header redirect. it does the same thing and it has worked wonders for my affiliate sales/referrals. Each link gets it’s own file. Even though you can get quite a few files, it’s still well worth it.
sukosaki’s last blog post..New Look for Bidvertiser Ads
Any ideas for forum posting? I think a zillion people stepped over my link (as text), and forum etiquette, out on the forums. What is it? Selfishness, stinginess, reluctance to benefit another? Great tip for blogs. I don’t believe people are as concerned with the link when you use banners, even though the link is there. That tells me that if you create excitement around the link – which is what banners do – you’ll have a better chance of capturing the click. I need to remember to make graphics/photos clickable too, people will click them almost on autopilot.
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@ Jacqueline: You can do the same exact thing with forum posts. All it is, is a new file stored on your website that redirects when clicked. So if you made a new file “cashsite.php” in a folder /recommends/ on your website… you would just link up to “yoursite.com/recommends/cashsite.php” in your forum as well. Depending on the forum software, you may or may not be able to modify the text… but it will look better regardless
@ MindBlogger: I’m liking the evil smiley, its fine to go a bit against the grain when it comes to taking what’s yours
Oh, just found the surprising result, maybe I need to try aff. marketing on my blog, do you think so? Nice blog you own, envy!
Franca Richard’s last blog post..Shock Google Easter Egg: Black Interface!!
Great tips Jim. I will be using this from now on! Thanks.
Mike’s last blog post..Stats After 5 Days
I’ve been doing this for awhile as well – well, a slightly different version, but with the same effect. Besides the potential for trust / extra cash, you have less chance of ticking Google off. It’s no secret that Google really doesn’t want you to use anything other than Adsense, regardless of what they say. Hiding affiliate links helps keep them off your back.
Llama Money’s last blog post..Prosper and Selling Loans
@ Llama: Good point on the google-eluding strategy. I really didn’t consider this effect and I think that it is a valid point
Thanks!
Good script, I’ve been using HTML meta refreshes as well, but I know that there can be issues with a refresh time of 0 on older browsers.
Quick question, when I click on your redirect links, I don’t see the “If the page doesn’t load”; does that only pop up when there was a problem? And also, do you/can you use Google Analytics code with this?
Thanks Jim
Tim’s last blog post..NeverblueAds Review – Affiliate Network Review
That looks nice simple and easy to use.
I assume you can use a stat counter code in the body for tracking.
Thanks
John
How to Make money being online with the Internet.
Chitchatt’s last blog post..Make Money Being Online – A Rocky Road
Good post, been doing this for years. I learned this from John Chow, which made a post about this a loooong time ago (back when he used to provide valuable content).
Hi,
Thank you so much for the direction!
I’ve placed it on my site and it works great. I didn’t know this was possbile?!
Andy
http://www.paidsurveyguide.org
Why not using tinyurls instead?
Louis Liem’s last blog post..Let Readers Discover Your Content – Lead Them With Proper Categories and Tags
Hi,
This is an excellent trick that helps us to make easy money online. I am using shorturl or tinyurl for my referral link. But it is not working so heavily. This is a perfect idea to mask your referral link. Thanks for sharing!!!
Excellent trick mentioned…..will surely try it out
Prems last blog post..Radiohead nails down Digital Distribution
Hi,
I did this but I still see my affiliate ID in the url. Did I do something wrong.
Thanks!
@ Bobby: If you are talking about after you click on your file, it transferring to your target website with the referral ID in the URL… then you are correct. Different websites have different settings, and after you click through, your affiliate ID may or may not become visible in the URL area.
@Louis Liem, It’s better to link off from within a in blog referral than to link off through tinyurl. I’d also name the *.php file to closely match the referral program – Jimvesting.com/recommends/SWATcash.php.
By the way good tip. I enjoy your writing style.
Robert MacEwans last blog post..What is self esteem
@ Robert: Thanks for helping out Louis, I agree… using tinyurls is suspicious enough. Personally, I wouldn’t be any more inclined to click a shorturl than I would be to click a link with numbers on the end. Making things look like they are coming from your website is a good idea
Great job. I’ll definitely look into this.
And yeah, I’m guilty of doing that, lol.
[...] was one of the winners of Jimvestings’ blogging contest that just ended last April. I have also seen his footprints on John Chow, RHYAN.NET, Jimvesting, [...]
I just came over here from your recent post where you were answering reader questions.
This is a great method indeed. I’ve been using a redirect for a while but not one of this nature. I can see value in it though and will give it a try.
What bugs me to no end is that there is this need to mask them to begin with. Someone who will actually take the time to remove your referral ID and thus cheat you out of a commission is the equivalent of the bully who trips you as you pass him by in the cafeteria causing you much embarrassment. Why did he do it? No reason other than to show you he can.
The bottom line is that if he bought the product using your referral link or not, the fact still remains he bought the product. The price doesn’t change. He’s getting the same product. So in my opinion he’s stupidly thinking he’s getting some benefit out of it, when all he’s really doing is screwing someone over just because he can.
I’m Mark Sierra and I approve this message.
Mark Sierra at MeAndMyDrum.coms last blog post..Earn $10 Just For Signing Up With Pepperjam
Hmm, two questions though. I just implemented this on a link on my blog. The text doesn’t show up for me when the link is being redirected. Second, when I reach the destination, how can I confirm that my referral ID is actually identified?
The URL doesn’t seem to have it, so either I’m not supposed to and it still works, or I’ve done something wrong.
Please advise.
Mark Sierra at MeAndMyDrum.coms last blog post..Earn $10 Just For Signing Up With Pepperjam
@ Mark: Great to hear you decided to implement this! By “The text doesn’t show up for me when the link is being redirected” do you mean that you can’t see anything saying “you are being redirected…” or something like this? In the coding, redirects are automatic. There is just a fail-safe in the coding so that if for some reason someone’s browser doesn’t allow X, it will try redirecting using Y. This is just to ensure that it redirects!
As far as seeing the code in the url, most websites have things set up so you can’t tell (take hostgator for example). Only less professional websites still have the referral ID evident when you click over with a referred link.
By the sound of it, you have it right!
@Jim
Thanks for responding!
Correct, I am being redirected just fine, I just thought that part of the action taking place was to have the text show up, thereby making the user “feel” that things were operating normally. I’m fine with it working the way it is; I just wanted to make sure I had it right.
Have a good weekend!
Mark Sierra at MeAndMyDrum.coms last blog post..Earn $10 Just For Signing Up With Pepperjam
I agree, I like to use redirects as well. However, I know I don’t use them on everything, for example, all my banners and blatant advertising, I don’t. Some things I do.
I use affiliate defender, which does pretty much the same thing, except I don’t have a folder between my domain and the pages. It will look like http://imwithjoe.com/Jimvestingowesmemoney.html
JK Swopess last blog post..Non-cash cashflow and indirect profits. How much are you really making?
I have seen this explanation at least (50) times in the past. I understand the importance of doing this, but STILL don’t understand how to do this!!
I do however, use services similar to tinyurl and others. Unfortunately, I’d rather use something like what you have. But as stated before, I haven’t figured it out yet. When I do however, I am going to build a blog, where I can explain this in terms that anyone can understand.
JEEEEEZZZZZ!!!
p.s. not being disrespectful, but you’re talking to someone that has been around long before computers, internet, html, javascript redirects etc. etc.
Great trick! Many people delete the referral code of the links…
Mr. Javos last blog post..Recognizing Your Work Can Help Yourself To Work Harder
Nice
…I’ll be using this on my blog.
I know what you mean. I spent a few hair-pulling hours. Listen up ‘cos this is straight English. If I’m wrong, please somebody correct me.
Take the code you use for an affiliate text link, as an example. I use Kompozer to create my web pages, so I want to change a link I already did, if I click on ‘link properties’ it will give me the http: part all the way to my affiliate ID leaving out all the other incomprehensible junk. Put that in the 3 spaces as he tells you above. In the Title section (above) put the name of whatever the website is, or product that’s in your text link, as usual.
All this is done in a plain text document and then saved as something.html or something.php. The ’something’ should be the name of the website or product because it’s going to show up in the link.
Put this in a folder called whatever you want to name it. That name is also going to show up in the link. Then go back to your webpage that you’re building, and link from your text ad to the file you just created. Upload both the folder (with your new file) and the web page (that has your ad on it) as usual to your server.
The reason for having a folder is that there needs to be a file like this for every affiliate link you change so there could be alot of them.
Essentially, what you’re accomplishing is that when some-one clicks on the link, it goes to the file you created which then sends it to the website you want it to go to carrying your affiliate link along with it.
As an intermediary it looks different than an affiliate link and it also hides it from the search engines that might ding your page rank for using affiliate links.
What I’ve found from testing is that although the given code hides affiliate links from your visitors, it does not seem to hide it from Google. So I don’t think you’ll see any benefit in your Adwords Quality Score or Page Rank for instance. I’m wondering if there’s any foolproof way to hide the links from Google.
Thanks, very simple. I was thinking about the same thing.
Colins last blog post..Dell partnership brings Download-to-DVD movies
This is a nice trick as that. But then, why should I mask my affiliate links anyway
I have found that it is much easier to sell stuff when you point out that this is a third-party product, you tell your visitors about it and then they just go and buy it.
For example, if I advertise an e-book, I will write a review and include a link. Who are we going to fool by masking links? Would any of my visitors think that I link to my grandma’s site if I mask the link?
They know very well that I’m trying to sell stuff and if they want it they buy it… if they don’t they just don’t…
Good explanation of masking affiliate links and the method you are using works very well. For the less technical minded, Cloaker Buzz is an excellent piece of free software that cloaks links very securely and will even set cookies if you want to. Very very simple to use, and ensures your commissions stay safely where they belong. Highly recommended and if you download it you’ll get resell/giveaway rights too so you can share it with anyone
If you don’t mind the link in your comments field my subscribers can download a free copy from:-
http://www.thecaymanhost.com/cloakerbuzz/
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People who already know about affiliate links wont even click your links since they know that we are trying to sell the product.
This procedure can be helpful with newbies who don’t know much about affiliate links or referrals.
If they understand that we place an affiliate link or a referral link, they might understand but if we mask it they may refer us.
Even though google bot can crawl it
Since the code has nofollow relation, it will not affect you.
[...] at Jimvesting uses a self coded method to mask affiliate links. <html> <head> <title>WebSite [...]
[.]..Jim’s self generated affiliate plugin method..[.]
This is very new to me, do you have a demo on the actual way of changing out my affiliate link to masking my affiliate link?
Hey Bryan, you can grab the code and put it directly into a text file in a text-editing program on your computer. Simply save it and upload it to your website and it should work fine! An example of me doing this is http://www.Jimvesting.com/recommends/oiopublisher.php
Nice explanation, found it useful and implemented it on my blog
When it redirects it still showes the old affiliate add….I copied the html and added the affiliate address… do you know why it would not have worked? Am I missing something?
Thanks to Jim for this good piece of code…, but wait (no, I won’t to promote anything to you
).
In addition to this little, but effective trick, I’ll advise you not just to create some redirecting page like this http://tripperish.com/test_product/redirect.html. In Firefox for example, it is easy to any selfish-computer-familiar user just to right click on redirection link and “Save Link As…”. Then all your hardwork to mask an hide (& seek
) the aff-link is vain.
That I advise you is to create separate directory for each product and place your redirection link in index (default) file, but when you point to it just point to product directory (let browser to seek himself for redirection link
) like this: http://tripperish.com/test_product. If you try to “Save Link As…” you’ll save just the page that is point of masking/redirection…, but wait (even now I won’t to promote anything to you 
).
The mentioned trick isn’t work in IE, even you are masked aff-link in index file. Right click and “Save Target As…” will expose your aff-link unfortunately
.
placed again in index file (index.php) on any product directory. This will protect redirection content to be exposed, if someone try to “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As”. Against search engines you just have to ban redirection link in robots.txt file on your site:
User-agent: *Disallow: /anyproduct/index.php
Oops, sorry but php code isn’t visible in
tag.
"?php
header( 'Location: http://somesite.tld/youraffID' ) ;
?"
placed again in index file (index.php) on any product directory. This will protect redirection content to be exposed, if someone try to “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As”. Against search engines you just have to ban redirection link in robots.txt file on your site:
User-agent: *Disallow: /anyproduct/index.php