I now know how to cloak links manually via index.php

Time to check out prettylinks and check out this other cool site with free link cloaking plugins for wordpress http://www.freeaffiliatelinkcloaking.com/

Thanks again for your thorough, easy-to-follow video

Mark

First, make sure you link to the folder, not the index.php. So, your link should look like this:
http://www.website-kept-private.com/recommends/… (Leave off the index.php).

Second, I think what you're talking about is a whole other type of redirection where you display a different url in the browser address bar than the page you are actually sitting on. For example, I'm on http://www.amazon.com, but my browser's address bar tells me I'm at http://www.123website.com. Is that what you're asking about? If so, you will need to look up how to do that as I don't utilize that form of cloaking.

I'm not sure why your affiliate id is being displayed. I use ClickBank and none of my affiliate link ids display in the browser, even after someone is redirected to the affiliate's site. As long as you set up your folders/files correctly and link to the folder, this form of cloaking should help to make your links look nice.

This is a great opportunity, so forth and so on

Your video is great but I still can not get the cloaking to work properly.

I have a Website that has several affiliate links that I would like to cloak. More specifically, when a user clicks on one of the links,
I would like the Web Browser to reveal a URL that does not have “affiliate” in the name. My Website is http://www.website-kept-private.com, which is
a fictitious Website (I have kept the true name of the Website private to keep in accordance with the terms of this forum). I wish to use PHP coding
to employ a link (not an entire page or Website) redirect.

One of the lines of coding on my site is:

This is a great opportunity, so forth and so on

Obviously, I created two sub-directories in the Website:

The 1st is “recommends”, and the 2nd is “software-mobile”. The file “index.php” is placed under the “software-mobile” sub-directory.

The entire coding for “index.php” is:

<?php
header(“Location: http://Affiliatexyz123.Product-To-Sell.hop.clic…
exit;
?>

Of course, Affiliatexyz123 is a fictitious Affiliate I.D.
Of course, Product-To-Sell is a fictitious product.

This shows up on the bottom when you mouse over either the link or the picture:

http://www.website-kept-private.com/recommends/…

Unfortunately, this shows up in the URL address when you click on the link or the icon:

http://Product-To-Sell.com/?hop=Affiliatexyz123

This is a link associated with ClickBank.

The goal is that when the user clicks on the link, that “http://www.website-kept-private.com/recommends/software-mobile”
shows up in the URL address, instead of revealing the Affiliate I.D. (which is Affiliatexyz123).

Unfortunately, it doesn't.

I have Linux hosting through GoDaddy. It seems as though GoDaddy only supports entire page redirects or entire Website redirects.
Maybe I'm wrong. If GoDaddy does not support single link redirects, who does?

Also, I sell more than one product on each page, so doing an entire page redirect or entire Website redirect is not desirable.

I would appreciate the help.

Your video is excellent, but I can not get my link to cloak properly.

I have a Website that has several affiliate links that I would like to cloak. More specifically, when a user clicks on one of the links,
I would like the Web Browser to reveal a URL that does not have “affiliate” in the name. My Website is http://www.website-kept-private.com, which is
a fictitious Website (I have kept the true name of the Website private to keep in accordance with the terms of this forum). I wish to use PHP coding
to employ a link (not an entire page or Website) redirect.

This is a great opportunity, so forth and so on

Obviously, I created two sub-directories in the Website:

The 1st is “recommends”, and the 2nd is “software-mobile”. The file “index.php” is placed under the “software-mobile” sub-directory.

The entire coding for “index.php” is:

<?php
header(“Location: http://Affiliatexyz123.Product-To-Sell.hop.clic…
exit;
?>

Of course, Affiliatexyz123 is a fictitious Affiliate I.D.
Of course, Product-To-Sell is a fictitious product.

This shows up on the bottom when you mouse over either the link or the picture:

http://www.website-kept-private.com/recommends/…

Unfortunately, this shows up in the URL address when you click on the link or the icon:

http://Product-To-Sell.com/?hop=Affiliatexyz123

This is a link associated with ClickBank.

The goal is that when the user clicks on the link, that “http://www.website-kept-private.com/recommends/software-mobile”
shows up in the URL address, instead of revealing the Affiliate I.D. (which is Affiliatexyz123).

Unfortunately, it doesn't.

I have Linux hosting through GoDaddy. It seems as though GoDaddy only supports entire page redirects or entire Website redirects.
Maybe I'm wrong. If GoDaddy does not support single link redirects, who does?

Also, I sell more than one product on each page, so doing an entire page redirect or entire Website redirect is not desirable.

I would appreciate the help.

I used to do my redirects with htaccess/301, but for the past year or so I've been using Pretty Link. I love, love, love it.

I started with the free version but actually bought the pro when I was merging two blogs into one. The pro version converted all the internal links, including all the cloaked links, to my new site.

If you'll allow a link, I wrote about Pretty Link Pro in early February. Huge timesaver for me.

As Antti said, if it ever becomes a compatibility problem, I can just export the info.

One other reason I like it is that many of my clients are brand new bloggers. Coding is out of their comfort zones, but they can easily master a plugin!