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Cloaking links & Redirects?

Choyt's picture
Submitted by Choyt on Wed, 12/13/2006 - 12:22.

Hello all,

I like the idea of testing for conversions using a cloaked PHP link that I’ve seen referenced before and had some questions about using this method.

I think I understand the concept of a “cloaked link”, but I’m afraid I don’t fully understand how to incorporate it? I would like to see if I have the general theory correct?

If I were to put together a small PPC campaign through Google Adwords for a “widget”, I write some ad copy for the widget along with my keywords. The widget that I’m interested in promoting would be something through Clickbank in this example, (but I’m assuming the methods would be similar for other affiliate networks).

So in my ad copy, I’m going to reference the “display URL” as well as the “destination URL”. Both the display and destination URL’s would “appear” to go to my domain, www.WidgetMania.com, but in reality, the destination URL is going to be cloaked so that it would cause the person to go to the real sales page or “pitch page” as they call it, correct? (If I’m right up to this point, the following is where it really gets fuzzy for me!) So would I have an actual landing page available at all at this point in the process? I assume there has to be someplace available to put the code that cloaks the URL, right? Can you tell I’m new to this?!?!

Here is how I envision it working in my mind…
The destination URL made available in your PPC campaign would take you to a real landing page…but there is some code there that automatically redirects you to the pitch page? Maybe I’m confusing the terms, “cloaked link” and “redirect”?

Primarily just curious as to whether my thinking is in line with the way this is supposed to be done? If I’m on the right path, I can figure out the details. Up to this point, I’ve thrown together several little sites that I’ve later determined aren’t doing much for me. I’m now trying to go with a method of working “smarter, not harder”!

Thanks for any guidance and valuable assistance!
Chris

‹ No Keywords In Ad Turning down / off PPC between now and Christmas ›

Cloaking links & Redirects?

Jeremy Palmer's picture
Submitted by Jeremy Palmer on Wed, 12/13/2006 - 17:23.

This is a question that comes up a lot. I'm putting together a comprehensive answer today that should help everyone out. I'll try and post it by tonight.

Best,

Jeremy

Cloaking links & Redirects?

Choyt's picture
Submitted by Choyt on Wed, 12/13/2006 - 17:48.

That would be awesome Jeremy! Thank you!

Chris

Cloaking links & Redirects?

Jeremy Palmer's picture
Submitted by Jeremy Palmer on Sun, 12/17/2006 - 01:14.

Hi Chris,

I'm doing the response a la video. I'll work on it tonight. Sorry for the delay, it's been a long week ;)

Best,

Jeremy

Cloaking links & Redirects?

Choyt's picture
Submitted by Choyt on Sun, 12/17/2006 - 01:21.

Thats even better!

Yes...I'm sure that with the Adcenter webinar it has been kind of crazy this week. I'm signed up for next Friday and certainly looking forward to it.

Thanks for all your help!

Chris

Cloaking links & Redirects?

Jeremy Palmer's picture
Submitted by Jeremy Palmer on Wed, 12/20/2006 - 17:50.

I just posted a video tutorial up on ScreenCast.com

http://www.screencast.com/users/JeremyPalmer/media/ca1e7496-428a-4431-bd3f-14d4dff3e42d

Best,

Jeremy

Thank you & File Download

ssmyth's picture
Submitted by ssmyth on Wed, 12/20/2006 - 21:00.

Thank you for a great screen cast! :-) Where can we Download the files?

Cloaking links & Redirects?

Choyt's picture
Submitted by Choyt on Wed, 12/20/2006 - 23:34.

Very informative Jeremy! I think I finally understand! :wink:

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. The video tutorial is a great way to learn!

Regards,
Chris

Cloaking links & Redirects?

rayd8's picture
Submitted by rayd8 on Thu, 12/21/2006 - 03:30.

ssmyth,

The links to the download files are at the bottom of the screencast page.

Cloaking links & Redirects?

Green Giant's picture
Submitted by Green Giant on Thu, 12/21/2006 - 04:07.

Thanks for the cloaking info Jeremy. My question is about tracking: How are you sending tracking through your php redirect pages? What does the code look like for this? Since my php knowledge is limited, I've been using meta refresh for my redirects since using the php $_GET function within the link is straightforward. I see the advantages of using php, but I'm not sure how to properly get the tracking string from the url and send it on to the merchant.

Thanks!

Mike

Cloaking links & Redirects?

barrrt's picture
Submitted by barrrt on Thu, 12/21/2006 - 11:51.

Mike, I use this for my clickbank redirects.

<?php
$location = "Location: http://www.myaffiliatelink.com";
if(isset($_GET['tid'])) {
    $location = $location . "?tid=".$_GET['tid'];
}
header($location);
exit;
?>

or replace "?tid" with "&sid=" for CJ links (and of course any 'tid' with whatever variable you are using).

This page would be linked to as http://www.mysite.com/recommended/my-affiliate.php?tid=ABCDE

Of course, using cookies might be even better, so that there is no need to show the link variables.

Bart

Cloaking links & Redirects?

Green Giant's picture
Submitted by Green Giant on Thu, 12/21/2006 - 17:29.

Great! Thanks Bart, I'll give that a shot.

Cloaking links & Redirects?

Jeremy Palmer's picture
Submitted by Jeremy Palmer on Fri, 12/22/2006 - 00:31.

Green Giant wrote:
Thanks for the cloaking info Jeremy. My question is about tracking: How are you sending tracking through your php redirect pages? What does the code look like for this? Since my php knowledge is limited, I've been using meta refresh for my redirects since using the php $_GET function within the link is straightforward. I see the advantages of using php, but I'm not sure how to properly get the tracking string from the url and send it on to the merchant.

Thanks!

Mike

I wanted to put that in the video, but my video was already 15 minutes long. I tried to keep this cloaking example as simple as possible.

I may do more advanced topics in the near future.

Best,

Jeremy

Cloaking links & Redirects?

Vlad's picture
Submitted by Vlad on Fri, 12/22/2006 - 23:56.

Jeremy Palmer wrote:
I just posted a video tutorial up on ScreenCast.com

http://www.screencast.com/users/JeremyPalmer/media/ca1e7496-428a-4431-bd3f-14d4dff3e42d

Best,

Jeremy

Great Job Jeremy as usual! I really thought of link cloaking as something so difficult that only advanced programmers can do. Now I know how easy it is thanks!

I think it's timely too. I am not sure how many of you have tried EI 7, but my logs show that increasing number of people are using it, so I went and downloaded it. Looking on my sites where I used CJ option to hide via "onmouseover" the affiliate link from the visitors, they still are shown in EI 7 even though I hide them with "onmouseover" attriute. I think it has something to do with the default setting so your tutorial comes in very handy.

One year later - video gone?

spiderman's picture
Submitted by spiderman on Mon, 12/24/2007 - 12:30.

Hi Jeremy,

I stumbled across this post a year later while searching for php redirects.

The url to the video is giving me a 404 error.

Do you have another copy of this video hosted elsewhere?

Thanks for any info and happy holidays everyone,
Spiderman

Cloaking links & Redirects?

DoxAdon's picture
Submitted by DoxAdon on Wed, 12/26/2007 - 16:26.

Yep, same for me. I was hoping to view this video as well :D

Thanks!

Scott <><

Cloaking links & Redirects?

Jeremy Palmer's picture
Submitted by Jeremy Palmer on Thu, 12/27/2007 - 00:40.

Let me dig through my archives. I believe it was hosted on an expired screencast account, which is why it's giving a 404 error.

I'll see if I can find the originals on my other laptop. If I track them down I will post them and reply with the new location.

Best,

Jeremy

Cloaking links & Redirects?

DoxAdon's picture
Submitted by DoxAdon on Thu, 12/27/2007 - 01:31.

Cool. Thanks!

Scott <><

Cloaking links & Redirects?

spiderman's picture
Submitted by spiderman on Thu, 12/27/2007 - 06:58.

Thanks for checking Jeremy...

Hoping you'll find the video.

Spiderman

Has the video been found?

developerz's picture
Submitted by developerz on Thu, 02/07/2008 - 19:52.

I'd really like to watch this video again. Does anybody have a copy of it? Jeremy, any chance you found it?

I'm in the process of trying to set up keyword/campaign tracking with numbers using Excel, and I believe this video goes through the process. So it would be awesome if it was reposted.

I'm also curious if the Secret PPC Classroom tool can be purchased, if your not a member of PPC Classroom (I see that membership is currently closed). Also is the Secret Tool compatible with databases besides MySQL, such as SQL Server 2005. And do you need to being using PHP, or can it be used with ASP.NET.

Thanks,
d.

Cloaking links & Redirects?

Jeremy Palmer's picture
Submitted by Jeremy Palmer on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 04:13.

Check out this blog post for more. I reposted the video on Google video:

http://www.quityourdayjob.com/blog/2008/02/04/whos-blocking-your-affiliate-links/

The links are about 3/4 page down.

Best,

Jeremy

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