Cloaking

[Ted]

Hi everyone

Okay...I know this has been asked a million times, but being new to Ros' forum, I need to ask.

What is the general concensus regarding cloaking your affiliate links? Is it safe.. i.e. do we get penalized by the search engines or what? I have always had the feeling that some of my sales have been hijacked (for lack of a better term) because in some instances I have had great traffic.

If it is "safe"...anyone have input as to the better cloaking programs? Any kind of input would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Ted

[Glimmerman]

Hi,
yes, I use cloaking whenever possible.
You don't need to spend money on a tool either just do it manually...its quite easy to do.
This will show you how http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/web1/affiliate_link_cloaker.htm


Remember to test everything once you've got it done


Adrian

[Ted]

Thank you, Adrian,

Going to your link and try it right now!

Ted

[greenie]

In some other posts, we were given a method of page redirection as a means of cloaking by using the html META/REFRESH commands as well as the PHP version of it.

Given that there are several methods to 'cloak an affiliate link, it would be nice and educational to have a discussion of the advantages and shortcomings of all these cloaking method.

Incidentally, I think link hijacking and such selfish practises are not the way to go as I think ClickBank has a policy of not paying commissions for people who sign up as affiliates just to buy products for themselves with their own account and thusly have the commissions on their purchases. With this policy in place, I don't see the benefit of hijacking and such, as I think the purpose is to encourage only serious affiliates to participate in the business.

Those who hijack links maybe are not aware of this ruling. Which makes it necessary for this information to be made common knowledge.

[Rosalind Gardner]

Hi All,

My take.. I think link cloaking is really only necessary on sites with Internet-savvy, marketing-savvy audiences.

Don't worry so much about those markets where people are looking for non-IM material, ie. dating services. I don't cloak many of my links on my affiliate sites... just at http://www.netprofitstoday.com/.

You can always use the mouseover trick too. Just add the following to your links, and add something between the quotes in onMouseOver="window.status='';

rel="nofollow" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true" onMouseOver="window.status=''; return true" target="new"

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
Ros

[greenie]

Hi Friends,

Yup, I totally agree with Ros that cloaking should only be considered if one's products are promoted to i-savvy IM people. However, as more of the ordinary masses move to the Web, this group only make up an insignificant portion of the market. In any case, the IM people who are i-savvy will find a way to bypass your affiliate 'protection'. So generally speaking, the benefit of cloaking is doubious at best.







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