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Cloaking Multiple Merchant Links
mamtrader
Posts: 46
Joined: 16 Aug 09
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23 Apr 10 12:38 am

Cloaking Multiple Merchant Links

Hello All,

Can anyone provide the answer? This is my first site and I'm trying to find out how you cloak/hide multiple merchant links on one page of my site, I'm using XsitePro to build my site.
I've watched Mark's video and he shows how to cloak/hide one merchant link per page of the site. I've asked this question in the premium membership section andI still don't really understand (must be something to do with my age!). Perhaps you guys can shed a little more light on the subject?

My website is built on the subject of tattoos and on each page I have a number of links pointing to different merchant sites on each page. On the 'creating redirects' page do I enter the page name and then in the 'redirect URL' box enter my affiliate link for one of the eight links and then save it? Do I then repeat the same process for the other seven affiliate links on the landing page? Is each link saved separately under the same page title?

Do I then continue with the same process for the remaining page titles/keywords even though I'm using the same affiliate links on each page?

I don't know if I'm confusing you but I think I've confused myself. I just can't work how to do this, help anyone?

Thanks

Mike
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Site Admin
mikeantiga
Posts: 753
Joined: 28 Mar 10
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27 Apr 10 6:24 am

 Perhaps you can try a PHP redirect instead. In this way you just have to create a single PHP file which stores your affiliate links. The code below is stored into a file called 'redirect.php'



If I want to create a link that redirects to my affiliate link for BlueHost, I just enter a URL like this

"http://www.mydomain.com/redirect.php?linkid=bluehost"

..where "mydomain.com" is my domain name, "redirect.php" is the file that has my affiliate IDs, "bluehost" is the company or website to which I want the link to go into.

If I want to create another redirect to Hostmonster (to which I am also an affiliate in this example), I just use the URL:

"http://www.mydomain.com/redirect.php?linkid=hostmonster"

This not only hides my affiliate links but also saves me a lot of time since I just need to modify the last part of the URL and every affiliate code is hidden on the 'redirect.php' that I created.
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faradina
Posts: 1895
Joined: 01 Jun 09
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28 Apr 10 8:32 am

 The PHP code of Mike is indeed a very good way to have all your affiliate links redirected using just one file instead of creating many folders and index.php files. If you do not like the filename redirect.php, you can use recommends.php or whatever else that you would like the file name to be.
But you need to make sure that you have all the values for the linkid variable correct so that it will redirect to the correct merchant site.
If you are feeling a bit overwhelmed by the PHP code for the single redirect file, then stick to the method described on "https://www.affilorama.com/site-building/creating-affiliate-redirects"
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hnypuf
Posts: 23
Joined: 03 Nov 08
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27 Jul 10 3:33 am

 Hi guys

I am finding this a bit hard to grasp. I have just started to use ShareASale and I would like to redirect my links. I only want to hide one merchant link so would I change the above code to this

<?

$linkid = $_GET['linkid'];

if ($linkid == "bluehost") {$link = "http://www.bluehost.com/myaffiliateid;}

header("Location: $link");

exit();

?>


I have tried doing my redirect using the php code we were given by Mark and Aletta but I cant get it to work (not sure if its for Clickbank only). I could really do with some advice on this

Thanks
Natalie
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Site Admin
mikeantiga
Posts: 753
Joined: 28 Mar 10
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29 Jul 10 8:53 am

 Hi hnypuf,

The code above is useful if you need to create multiple redirects. If you'll just be creating a single share-a-sale link, I advise that you use Mark's code instead. That code should work not only for Clickbank URLs but all affiliate links as well.

If you're still having issues, just PM me your affiliate link and then I'll create the code for you instead. :)
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dvdv882
Posts: 3
Joined: 11 Aug 10
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11 Aug 10 8:23 am

 The “Cloaking mode” section determines which links will be cloaked. Again, there are two options :

* Cloak All Links: In this mode the plugin will cloak any and all links it encounters. You can prevent individual links from being cloaked by adding the domain name(s) to the exception list (see below), or by adding the <!--nocloak--> tag to each link like this : <a href="http://example.com/" ><!--nocloak-->Link Text</a>

* Selective Cloaking: In this mode the plugin will only cloak the links that match one of the domains on the inclusion list (see below) and links that you explicitly tag for cloaking using <!--cloak--> : <a href="http://example.com/" ><!--cloak-->Link Text</a>
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robinjackman
Posts: 90
Joined: 18 Aug 10
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18 Aug 10 9:31 am

 What is cloaking merchant links?
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This topic was started on Apr 23, 2010 and has been closed due to inactivity. If you want to discuss this topic further, please create a new forum topic.

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