On the post “Why Do We Hate Affiliate Links?” I said that I where going to show you how to hide your affiliate links. So here I go.
Basically you got some different metodes which you could use. On VikingBlogger I use 301 redirects, which I make easy with a plugin.
URL Redirection
The plugin I use for Wordpress is called “Redirection“, and works perfectly for my needs. What it does is making 301 redirects. I type in what the url should look like, and what link it should point to. (see image below)
It’s really simple, and doesn’t take much time. The link is actually live, and does work. Test it yourself: http://www.vikingblogger.com/go-to/Adtoll
As you can see you get redirected to the frontpage of Adtoll, and most probably didn’t even notice that you went through a affiliate link. 
Meta Refresh
An easy way to do redirection is meta refresh. What you do is create a simple html page containing the following:
<meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0;url=http://theaffiliatelink.tld”>
Shoes Guide to Link Cloaking, Masking, and Url Redirection
Just a couple days ago Jeremy over at Shoemoney wrote a post where he explained the differences between cloaking, masking and redirection. Instead of writing it myself, I provide you with a link. Shoes Guide to Link Cloaking, Masking, and Url Redirection
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I use something like the first plugin that you showed. But i make a separate folder in my public_html section as /go/sponsoredreviews.php
and those redirect to the affiliate page.
Check my blog for example. Cant explain it correctly here.
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I just get super lazy and use tinyurl to mask all of my links. I doesn’t look as pretty but its quick and effective
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Good post; I’m with Chris I normally just use tinyURL but who knows what could of been…
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To both my above commenters i have to say frankly that many people including me dont like tinyurl links as affiliate links.
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Chetan; are you saying you prefer the method mentioned above?
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TinyURL defeats the purpose. People don’t like clicking external links, especially when they never heard of something before. TinyURL is sometimes seen as spam, and is an external link as well. Double wammy.
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Yep Bloggeries, i use a similar method like the mechanism of the URL Redirection plugin of wordpress.
Tinyurl just looks odd actually.
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I use a simple html page that hides my affiliate urls
so the address bar looks like blog.com/recommends/adtoll
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I don’t use Tinyurl, for two main reasons:
1. For the newcomer the link looks weird enough for not to click on.
2. The expert will go to their website and trace the link.
What I do is PHP redirect, which is a fairly simple idea, but now I will definitely install this plugin. Looks very useful.
Thanks,
Alex.
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I simply love this idea. Does it affect your SEO in any way? Still, thanks for the heads up. I’m downloading it right now…
Yan
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I was considering writing my own WordPress plugin to do this but after reading your post I’ve installed “Redirection” and it works perfectly.
The only problem I had was that I could not find the “Manage -> Redirection” option to add a redirection and it was later pointed out to me that in WordPress 2.7 this is under “Tools -> Redirection” instead.
This has saved me quite of bit of work.
Many Thanks.
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