Affiliate Link Cloaker Cloaking Brought to you by Bob  Jenkins http://www.BobTheTeacher.com/

Feel free to pass this report on to a friend or give it to your subscribers as a gift!

If you promote affiliate programs, especially through ClickBank, you need  to read this quick report…

Although I’ll be brief, what  I am going to share  with you in the  next 3 pages will be the  difference between mediocrity and super  success!

It’s easy  for people to hijack your commissions by simply changing your affiliate links. And ClickBank affiliate links are the easiest to change.

Affiliate Link Cloaker

Here’s  why…

When it comes  to cookie tracking, there  are two types  of affiliate programs: “first in” and “last in.”

“First in” means the  person who first refers  a prospect will get  credit for the  sale. In other  words,  if Jack clicks on an affiliate link that  Jill is promoting and then later clicks on an affiliate link for the  same  products that  Fred is promoting, Jill will still get credit for the  sale.

Likewise, if Jack changes the  affiliate link by replacing Jill’s affiliate ID with his own, Jill will still get credit for the  sale – unless Jack was smart  enough to clear his cookies first.

“Last in” is just the  opposite. In the  above  scenario, it would be easy  for Jack to cut Jill and/or Fred out of the  picture and get  commission on his own sale by simply changing the  affiliate link.

Affiliate Link Cloaker

ClickBank’s affiliate cookie tracking system is “Last in”, so it’s easy  for anyone to hijack your commissions when  you’re  promoting ClickBank affiliate programs

Affiliate link cloaking masks your affiliate link and helps prevent affiliate link hijacking. It can also increase your affiliate sales by giving people a link that doesn’t make  it obvious that  you’re  making money  off their purchase.

Affiliate Link Cloaker

Now that  you know why affiliate link cloaking is important, let’s take  a look at some  of the  methods you can use  to cloak your affiliate links.

Method #1: The first method is simple and  uses  a feature called “click tracking” that  is standard with most  popular autoresponders. Click tracking converts any link in your email to a tracking link – thus  masking your affiliate links and tracking your clicks on each  link.

This affiliate link: http://nickname.covert.hop.clickbank.net

Is converted to: http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/3XH0FJN3

The downside is, this method will only work in the emails you send  through your autoreponder service.

Method #2: The second  method is also simple to impliment and will work in emails and on web pages, blogs, or online ads.  You can use  a service like TinyURL.com to cloak your affiliate links and  get a shorter URL.

This affiliate link: http://nickname.covert.hop.clickbank.ne

Is converted to: http://tinyurl.com/385kxg

Method #3: The third method is a little more  complicated, but only requires a text editor and FTP software. To start, open  a text editor like NotePad  and  paste the  following code  at the  top of the  page.

<? header(“Location: http://nickname.covert.hop.clickbank.net”); exit; ?>

Note: this method requires that  PHP is installed on your server. Most modern hosting companies have  PHP installed. But if you don’t,  you can use  the  next method

Affiliate Link Cloaker

For the  final step,  you have  two choices

Choice#1: save  the  page  as “covertlinks.php” or whatever you want  to call it and upload it to the  home  directory on your server. You link would look like this: http://yourdomain.com/covertlinks.php

Choice#2: save  the  page  as “index.php” and upload it to a new directory on your server. For example, if you created a directory (same as folder) called “recommends,” you could then  create a subdirectory within the  ”recommends” directory called “covertlinks” and then  upload the  index.php file to the “covertlinks” directory.

In this case,  your link would be: http://yourdomain.com/recommends/covertlinks

Method #4: This fourth  method is similar to method #3 except  it does  not require PHP. The downside is, it doesn’t work with all browsers and it’s possible to view the  source  of the  page  which would reveal your affiliate link. PHP does not reveal the  source  code of a page.

Affiliate Link Cloaker

Open a text editor like NotePad  and paste the  following code  at the  top of the page.

<html><head><meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0;url=http://nickname.covert.hop.clickbank.net“>

</head>

</html>

Save and upload this file using choice #1 or #2 above.

Affiliate Link Cloaker

Method #5: The final method uses  link cloaking software to automatically create PHP redirects like the  ones  illustrated in Method #3, Choice #2. But instead of creating directories for each  link, it stores affiliate links in a database and uses  the  .htaccess file and a single script to emulate the  process.

The end result is, you get professional-looking cloaked links in seconds without all the  hassle of creating and uploading files to your server.

This sounds a lot more  complicated than  it is.   The truth  is Method #5 is by far the  easiest, and most  repeatable method for cloaking your affiliate links.