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Cloaking links - when do you do it and why? (23)

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I am getting ready to test a small email campaign with some Commission Junction ads. Any reason I should cloak ads?

When do you cloak and how do you go about it?

Thanks.

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define cloak, do you mean making the url appear less sketchy to the person receiving your email, do you mean blanking your referrer from the network / advertiser?

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The ads look like this http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-11111111-11111111 or http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-111111111-11111111

It looks like CJ uses a few domains like that.

keepitsimple, what is the main reason for cloaking usually? To hide the link from the user or hide the source from the network?

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I'm assuming you are talking about cloaking in order to blank referrer, or to show ad network staff something different than users are seeing.

People cloak for three main reasons:

1. They are running shit on an ad network that are against the guidelines.
2. They are running an offer in a way that are against the guidelines.
3. They are protecting themselves from prying network eyes.
4. They are protecting themselves from prying affiliate eyes

You should cloak if you:

- Use a unique lander.
- Use a unique traffic source, or use a traffic source that leaks relevant data.
- If you do anything shady.

If you are direct linking a compliant offer on a mainstream traffic source like FB then there is no reason to cloak.

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Thank you, that's exactly what I wanted to know. I've used OpenX for the past few years for traditional ad traffic and I was thinking about putting affiliate stuff there but it would be a pain.

Mr. Green, do you usually do any form of cloaking? I know that most or all networks run competing ads of their own and that you'll naturally want to hide details of your most successful campaigns. Am I correct? There are also other affiliates trying to snoop. How do you protect your campaigns?

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Yep, I use cloaking to protect my campaigns, because I create a lot of landers from the ground up. I've seen my stuff been shared/ripped way too many times, to leave it out in the open.

I protect my campaigns by creating a bunch a rules. All the rules have to be met in order for someone to view the lander. E.g needs to be from x country, x referrer, can't visit twice, and a few other more specific saucy rules.

On top of that I design a dummy lander (it will be unique and nice design) that people think is what I'm actually using.

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any reference how to cloacking?? I using search box but didn't find it..

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How does CJ feel about cloaking?

I had my account frozen there in 2008 just because I was using T202. They told me I should not be using any tracking software but should just run the links naked.

I know they've eased up on tracking software but I doubt they'd be happy with blank referrers.

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Lol? Don't use tracking system... why not also drive around town with a sleeping mask on? Whatever was happening in 2008 with you and CJ sounds retarded. Blanking referrers and hiding your stuff is your choice, and your prerogative, not theirs. If there are compliance issues or strict approval guidelines you should certainly be transparent about what you're doing (only giving away the minimum of course), since it would only hurt you in the long run to not play nice with your affiliate network (traffic source is another story...). But otherwise, you can hide all you want. If they ask they ask.

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Mr Green can you write a guide on how to put those rules into code eg only for visitors from x,y,z referres, cant visit twice and the other saucy things ? :P

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+1, this would be a baller guide!

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Haha ok ok, I can't personally write the guide since I paid to get those things added. But I will see if I can get my programmer to document it all, I don't have a clue how easy it would be to implement.

I know Tijn touched on a couple of relevant things in his "Protect Your Nuts" 3 part tutorial thread series.

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http://fitaffiliate.com/2012/10/prot...s-prying-eyes/

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^^^ Thanks for this! good stuff

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Awesome! been looking for something like this, and your solution is pretty simple that even a tech moron like myself can implement it

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Yep. You're welcome. Only thing I might be careful of and it's something I just thought of recently is that mobile-ip addresses could potentially be pooled through a proxy and thus the IP check may be flawed. Might be safer to use this on web-traffic only, and implement a cookie-based check instead. I may update my blog post to ammend that.

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@Andy - That would be great!

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always be cloaking

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Ok I updated my post... http://fitaffiliate.com/2012/10/prot...s-prying-eyes/

You can see what the update entails down the bottom the post.. and the new code includes more commenting.. might wanna take the time to check it all out.

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@andy_d : Wish you can clarify your written code, how does the country based check works in your code snippet ?

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Wow @andy_d thanks man!

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You specify the country (one country only supported, you'll have to extend the code further if you want to support multiple.. or simple, create a separate landing page for each) in the code that you place at the top of your lander (as mentioned in my blog post).

It's requires the GeoIP database to be installed on your server.. which I also mentioned.. in my post..

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You're welcome dude! Show some love on my blog :-)

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