How To Cloak And Redirect Affiliate Links

There are a few different techniques which can used to cloak and redirect affiliate links, some of them more complicated than others.

Firstly though, it is best to define the phrase ‘cloak and redirect’, to ensure that we are referring to the same thing.

This is a term used to describe the method of concealing affiliate links from the visitors to a web page. Generally speaking, affiliate links are big, long, ugly, links with lots of weird symbols and letters in there, and very often people recognise them as affiliate links and will just choose not to click them.

When we cloak and redirect an affiliate link, we are just replacing the big long link with a shorter, tidier, and more presentable link. The destination site will be the same whichever method is used, except that the actual link that the visitor clicks will look different. The new links also tend to look much more professional and help to add an air of respectability to the website.

Now back to the original question, how to cloak and redirect affiliate links.

One method is to use a WordPress plugin. If the website is built using the WordPress content management system, there are several plugins available to do this for you.

To see a list of the available ones, just do a search from within your WordPress dashboard area. Go to plugins, select ‘add new’, and type the term ‘cloak and redirect’ into the little search box, then click the button marked ‘search plugins’ (these steps may vary slightly depending on the version or WordPress that you have installed).

Next you will be presented with a list of choices, showing details about each one, as well as a rating about each one. These ratings are added by other users of the plugin, so they give you a very good idea about whether the plugin is a good choice or not.

Generally speaking, sometimes these plugins can be great, and work exactly as you want them to. The disadvantages are that unfortunately sometimes they will conflict with something else on your website, and you are restricted in that you can only do the cloak and redirect using the plugin’s way, which might not be the way you had in mind.

Another method that can be used to cloak and redirect affiliate links is to use special software. There are products that you can buy that will do the task for you. You could do a Google search for the above phrase to find a list of software packages that are available.

This method has a few advantages over the free plugin method.

The first advantage is that you have access to support from the writers of the software, meaning they will answer any questions you may have, and help you if you are having any trouble configuring the software. The second advantage is that a paid product will usually have a much greater range of options to control its behaviour.
This time there is a much more likely chance that you will be able to cloak and redirect using your own style.

Ryan King helps people to discover the benefits of using link cloaking software to your online business. As an experienced marketer with number of websites on the first page of Google, he would like to share his internet marketing journey.