How to Hide your Affiliate Links Using .htaccess
In the last post, we talked about how to use a PHP redirect and an HTML redirect in order to hide your affiliate links. Those are some fantastic ways to go about it, but they also have some downfalls.
Here is another way you can hide your affiliate links:
Using a .htaccess 301 Redirect
**BEWARE** Don’t go messing around in your .htaccess file. Just do what you need to do, save, and upload.
First, go through your FTP and find your .htaccess file. (If you don’t have one, you may need to create one. Fantastico WordPress installs will always have one.)
Download it and open it up using Notepad.
You may see some code and markup you are unfamiliar with. Just go to the blank lines underneath it, hit enter a few times, and begin with the following code.
A 301 redirect tells the search engines that the page has moved, and to find it’s new address at the place you link to. It’s like snail mail forwarding or e-mail forwarding.
On a blank line on the .htaccess file, type the following:
redirect 301
That’s what we will use to start the redirect.
Next, think of a fake page name for what you want the redirect to be. For this example we’ll link to Niche Titans. So, we’ll make up a fake page name called: niche-titans.php So, add: /niche-titans.php to the redirect. It should look like this:
redirect 301 /niche-titans.php
You DO NOT need to have a /niche-titans.php file on your server for this to work.
Lastly we will add the site we are linking to (your affiliate link).
redirect 301 /niche-titans.php http://nichetitans.com
Now, save and upload the file back to your server.
Now, if you create a link to: http://your-website.com/niche-titans.php it will automatically direct anyone who clicks on the link to http://nichetitans.com … Easy, huh?
This will give you control over the link people see in the status bar, and yet another way to hide your affiliate links for your niche sites.
Hope this helps!
How to Hide Your Affiliate Links using a PHP or HTML Redirect
Using a PHP redirect or HTML refresh to hide your affiliate link is something you should get in the habit of using. A redirect that masks your affiliate link is extremely important when running an email marketing campaign and your sponsors usually request that you do so to prevent their links being marked as spam.
Here are the basics:
1. How to Setup a Domain Redirect
Example: http://mymassagecareer.info/
All you do after you purchase the domain is host it on your webhost and change it to redirect to a different URL. This will redirect to one URL and only one URL.
2. How to Setup a PHP Redirect
Example: http://usenet-tutorials.com/nichetitans.php
This is all the code you need:
<title>nichetitans</title>
<?php
header( ‘Location: http://nichetitans.com/how-to-hide-your-affiliate-links-using-php-or-html-redirects/’ ) ;
?>
This will redirect directly to the URL specified in (‘Location:http://domain.com/‘) and this is all the code you need in the .php file. Literally copy and paste this code, change the URL and save as a .php. Once you’ve done that all you need to do is upload it to your web host and type in the URL as you created it, for example: hxxp://domain.com/nameofphpredirect.php
3. How to Setup a HTML Refresh Redirect
Example: http://googlegivesmecash.com/google-money-tree.html
<html> <head> <title>Google Money Tree</title> <META http-equiv=”refresh” content=”1;URL=http://www.adsjmp.com/track.asp?a=CD4613&b=14193&d=0&l=0&p=0&o=”> </head> <body bgcolor=”#ffffff”> <center> </center> </body> </html>
This is the exact code you need in the .HTML and the only code you need. Just copy and paste this code in to a new document, change the URL=http://domain.com/ and save it as a .HTML. Once you’ve done this all you need to do is upload the redirect to your webhost and type in the URL as it was created, for example: hxxp://domain.com/nameofredirect.html
These are the easiest ways to hide your affiliate links. So which one of these methods is the best? The answer is it really depends on what you’re using it for and what you need to accomplish.
1. Using a Domain Redirect
- This is best if you want something short and easy to remember.
2. Using a PHP Redirect
- This is best if you want to redirect to another page quickly without the target affiliate link showing up in the address bar like it may if you’re using an HTML refresh.
3. Using a HTML Redirect
- This method is best if you don’t want your affiliate sponsor to see where your traffic is coming from and can be quite effective in hiding your landing page. It basically pauses for the amount of time you specify and enters the exact URL in to the browser.
Easy and Effective – I hope this everyone hide their affiliate links if they aren’t hiding them already!
Why Businesses and Consumers Choose to Screw Each Other for Profit
There are a lot of people in this world and a certain percentage of them will purchase just about anything because they want it to be true. They really don’t understand money, products, or services and how they are provided. Most go to work, earn a paycheck and spend it the best they know how to maintain or improve the quality of their life.
Almost every company in the market today has developed a way to get extra money out of every consumer and however unethical it appears it’s as legal. They ripped me off and mislead me, what do you mean it’s legal? Well they got you to sign a contract, user agreement, privacy policy or something of that nature that basically screws you in the fine print.
Americans have come to expect 100% satisfaction on every single product or service they purchase. If they find any reason they are not satisfied or think the product / service can be better they want to return it for a refund regardless of whether they have used it or not. This American consumerism has created a chain of events that makes it difficult for businesses to profit.
Now almost any customer that has the opportunity to screw a business and save money will take that opportunity. They will say “oh well, it’s their own fault for allowing me to get away with it” or something along those lines. If a consumer sees a product that has been mismarked, a coupon that doubles, or a chance to receive a discount on a product for subscribing to a service they know they can just cancel; almost every consumer will take advantage of it if they are aware.
It’s ok for a consumer to screw a business if they can get away with it because “it’s the businesses fault” for mismanagement. Of course if the consumer gets screwed they’ll ask for a refund. If they don’t receive a refund they’ll contact their bank or credit card company and dispute the charge using any means necessary. According to the average person it’s not ok to screw the consumer but it’s ok to screw a business if they give you the opportunity.
It’s so easy to fail in a legitimate business and it takes a lot of work to be successful. The sheer amount of work and customer dedication it takes to run a successful business is a deterrent to running a legitimate business when a scam product or service has such amazing short term gains. The best example is that gardening tool they were selling on TV that sold for only $19.99 and you got all these free accessories, just pay the shipping. Well this company automated the telephone
I’ll give you an excellent example of how even a legitimate business chooses to screw consumers every month of every year just because people refuse to read the fine print.
A business will offer 0% interest for 12 to 36 months on large consumer purchases such as a TV through Best Buy or mattress through Mattress World. Now if you purchase a $1,200 TV at 0% interest for 1 year and decide not to pay off the TV within that one year because you’ve only been making minimum payments… you get screwed.
Most 0% interest financing options allow you to pay off the entire purchase within the 0% interest time frame and receive 0% interest. However, if your entire purchase is not paid off within the time frame they will charge you interest at the rate specified (ie: 31.75%) for every single month during that time frame.
In this day in age most consumers do not care about businesses and most businesses don’t care about consumers. They care about profits and their own well being which become the American way. It’s a constant battle because to most people doing the screwing than being screwed.
Here is an example of ComplaintsBoard.com, and website for consumers to complain and inform others when they have a complaint about other businesses. This site, ComplaintsBoard.com, is advertised as a consumer advocate against poor business practices but it’s only out for profit just like any other business. I just took this screenshot tonight as an example:
acai berry scam
Tons of Consumer Complaints about Acai Berry Scams and ComplaintsBoard.com is littered with Google Ads linking to those exact same products that consumers are complaining about. They are supposedly advocating against scams and unsatisfactory products but they receive money from Google Advertisers for advertising the exact same products or services their visitors are complaining about!
Just like any other business ComplaintsBoard.com is it in for the money by any means possible.
