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Cloaking affiliate links... (19)

11-28-2016 04:20 PM #1 madjunior (Member)
Cloaking affiliate links...

Hi guys, i want to cloak my affiliate links, in case if the advertiser comes from my ads, i don't want my aff id or any infos to show up since i'm blanking the referral so he will not have any proof...if you know what i mean! So it is possible? If you can't talk about it in public please send me a DM.

Thank you so much.

11-28-2016 07:36 PM #2 manu_adefy (Veteran Member)

Hey there,

There's already kind of a similar discussion going on here: http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...er-or-a-hassle

The answer is that just about nobody will go into detail in public and even in private, they won't share the information for no good reason.

I know it's not very helpful for your problem but that's the reality of the issue.

Manu.

11-28-2016 07:40 PM #3 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

I'm not exactly a cloaking ninja, but the way I understand it, a click is either identified as something that needs to be cloaked - in which case it is sent to a safe page or it's identified as a real surfer and it's sent to the actual LP and to the offer. In order to get credited for a sale, the aff info has to be there. So when a network rep actually finds an ad of yours and clicks it, he will most likely be identified as a real surfer and all info will be revealed. Good cloaking scripts keep DBs of known reviewers IPs of course, but no cloaking solution is 100% bulletproof, it's not possible to achieve this.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how I understand the process.

11-28-2016 07:43 PM #4 manu_adefy (Veteran Member)

Quote Originally Posted by matuloo View Post
I'm not exactly a cloaking ninja, but the way I understand it, a click is either identified as something that needs to be cloaked - in which case it is sent to a safe page or it's identified as a real surfer and it's sent to the actual LP and to the offer. In order to get credited for a sale, the aff info has to be there. So when a network rep actually finds an ad of yours and clicks it, he will most likely be identified as a real surfer and all info will be revealed. Good cloaking scripts keep DBs of known reviewers IPs of course, but no cloaking solution is 100% bulletproof, it's not possible to achieve this.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how I understand the process.
Well, if someone from the advertiser surfs as a user of the websites you are targeting, you can't cloak them. They are, technically, a real user that you want to advertise to. It just happens that they are an advertiser. That's something you cannot cloak against.

11-28-2016 08:45 PM #5 madjunior (Member)

I know that no one can reveal something on this subject But what i'm talking about is not cloaking a whole landing page or something like that, here is what i'm trying to achieve. For example here is my aff link:
https://www.X.com/CLogin/registersFo...4&aff_sub2=900
Can i change it to something else? Just customizing the appearance of the destination of the link...without click loss or any problem!

11-28-2016 09:09 PM #6 madjunior (Member)

I got it right now guys
Thank you for the replies.

11-28-2016 09:41 PM #7 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by manu_adefy View Post
Well, if someone from the advertiser surfs as a user of the websites you are targeting, you can't cloak them. They are, technically, a real user that you want to advertise to. It just happens that they are an advertiser. That's something you cannot cloak against.
Exactly, in case he's not surfing from a known IP that is flagged as one to cloak, there is no way to cloak him.

11-28-2016 09:42 PM #8 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by madjunior View Post
I know that no one can reveal something on this subject But what i'm talking about is not cloaking a whole landing page or something like that, here is what i'm trying to achieve. For example here is my aff link:
https://www.X.com/CLogin/registersFo...4&aff_sub2=900
Can i change it to something else? Just customizing the appearance of the destination of the link...without click loss or any problem!
If you change it to something else, and strip out your affiliate ID, you will not get credit for the sales. I understand what you want to do, but by breaking the ties to your affiliate account, you are also loosing the commission

11-29-2016 12:36 AM #9 madjunior (Member)

Still we are not talking about the same thing
I've found a plugin that can do what I'm looking for and some iframing methods...

11-29-2016 01:17 AM #10 erikgyepes (Moderator)

You probably talking about masking the URL?

You could in that case use .htaccess to do so on your server (better to use a plugin) or a shortening service like bit.ly.

If I understand you correctly what you mean by "cloaking" here.

11-29-2016 05:12 AM #11 clickspark (Member)

You could use Voluum to redirect traffic from everyone in your Affiliate Network's city to a different lander or black list their city in your traffic source.

11-29-2016 08:54 AM #12 madjunior (Member)

Eric, yes I'm talking about masking the URL in the source code or the link bar at least. Bit.ly or any shorten links service cant do that in both: Landing page and offer page!

11-29-2016 08:56 AM #13 madjunior (Member)

@clickspark I'm talking about if the advertiser came from the ads as a real surfer, what I'm trying to do is masking my aff id and all these stuff...

11-29-2016 08:30 PM #14 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by madjunior View Post
Still we are not talking about the same thing
I've found a plugin that can do what I'm looking for and some iframing methods...
Obviously we are hehe

I don't understand one thing tho, when the advertiser actually clicks the CTA link, they will see the affiliate ID when it takes them to the offer ... so how is this gonna help you?

11-29-2016 11:49 PM #15 madjunior (Member)

It's possible to mask also the link of the offer page

11-30-2016 01:58 AM #16 erikgyepes (Moderator)

Yes as @matulo pointed out once the link will be redirected it will be "unmasked".

This method is mostly use on blogs where bloggers "hide" their links so the reader doesn't see the ugly affiliate link, but it's also easier for remembering when you give away your aff link.

So is your problem now solved?

11-30-2016 03:03 AM #17 thuglife (Member)

Your AM's can still see your ID in their tracker's backend.

Don't bite the hand that feed you bro.

11-30-2016 10:39 AM #18 madjunior (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by erikgyepes View Post
Yes as @matulo pointed out once the link will be redirected it will be "unmasked".

This method is mostly use on blogs where bloggers "hide" their links so the reader doesn't see the ugly affiliate link, but it's also easier for remembering when you give away your aff link.

So is your problem now solved?
Yes, but the redirects are slow as hell:3

11-30-2016 10:39 AM #19 madjunior (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by thuglife View Post
Your AM's can still see your ID in their tracker's backend.

Don't bite the hand that feed you bro.
I'm not going against the network

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