CovertLinks Review and Link Cloaking Updates

CovertLinks Review - Latest Link Cloaking Software

I promised after my last post to give an update on the affiliate link cloaking complications caused by certain browsers not accepting cookies from "third party sites". In simple terms, if you are using frames to cloak your affiliate links, Internet Explorer may well not accept your cookie if the domain in the browser address bar is different from the URL where the cookie originates. On standard privacy settings, which most users probably won't ever change, this should supposedly only apply to third party cookies that do not have a compact privacy policy but in practice it doesn't always seem to be the case.

After pretty exhaustive testing, I've found a couple of things that work in the majority of cases - however, the problem still means that after cloaking your links you should check every one to make sure your cookie is indeed being recorded correctly. 

1) The stealth cloaking option in Samurai Stealth Cloaker still delivers the goods and will normally set your cookie in IE. Check each link to make sure - I have tested using Clickbank and Commission Junction links and most were fine. However, occasionally a vendor's link may throw things off for some unknown reason.

If you use use the masked frame option in the script to cloak anything be sure to check very carefully in as many browsers as you can because you may possibly lose commissions from anyone using IE6 and above - the vast majority of internet users.

2) There is some software available that promises not only to ensure your affiiate cookies are correctly tracked in Internet Explorer and all other browsers but also to protect you entirely from link hijacking by parasite software intalled on your vistors' computers.

I've been trying this on Clickbank and Commission Junction links and in the vast majority of cases it works fine. I've also used it with some less well known networks without problems. However, once again, I would recommend users check their links to make sure. Keep reading for a review of the software below.

I have also been trying out cloaked links for programs using scripts such as Rapid Action Profits and the 7DollarSecret - these are affiliate programs that pay affiliates instantly, normally via PayPal and it appears that the construction of these links makes them a little trickier to cloak correctly. If you are promoting anything using either script, I would advise you to make doubly sure that you are going to receive credit and you may have to settle for using the raw link or a simple PHP redirect in some cases.

Review Of Covert Links - Affiliate Link Cloaking Software

CovertLinks is one of the latest cloaking solutions on the market from Perry Wolf and, credit where credit is due, it was his sales page that woke me up to the whole Internet Explorer cookie issues, which will teach me to keep up with the affiliate forums a little more as it has been discussed at length in several places.

However, CovertLinks goes a fair bit further than just solving that one problem and Perry claims that his methods of cloaking can also prevent parasite software from hijacking your links too. He explains how all this works, in layman's terms on his website, but here is a summary of what CovertLinks can do - there are two methods available to you as an affiliate, HTML and PHP versions:

a) The CovertLinks HTML Version: An Advanced Framing Technology is used that displays the Merchant's sales page on your    website in a Frame but uses additional methods to ensure your cookies get set. 

b) The CovertLinks PHP Version : The PHP version uses an advanced method to "pull" the content from the merchant's page and display it on your website without using frames. This ensures your affiliate cookies are set and provides additional security against Parasite Software.

Full explanations can be found on Perry's website and even if you're not convinced that you should be cloaking your links it's worth reading.

So far my tests of the software have proved that it does exactly what it says on the tin, at least most of the time. Once again, it is not perfect and seems to struggle when dealing with more unusual affiliate links. If you are working mainly with the well known networks, you should not have too many issues. When faced with certain types of affiliate links though, just like SSC, CovertLinks is not immune from the occasional "brain fart", or perhaps, more accurately, the links themselves are not. 

Update : after a bit of back and forth with the man behind the software it seems to me, despite my non technical background, that the software can fail to pass cookies in IE. I have now tried it with all manner of affiliate links and with the default privacy settings in IE8 (based on the assumption that most users will not alter these) and CovertLinks does not always manage to get the cookies set. Reverting to a straight redirect solves the problem, but this means having to do that manually or with other software. So, here I am, using both CovertLinks and Samurai Stealth Cloaker in tandem and testing every single cloaked link I create.

This is not ideal obviously and it's time consuming. I'm hoping that my feedback and examples of the software's shortcomings will enable the developer to address them and remedy them in future releases, even though I got the impression that my suggestions that there were some issues didn't go over that well.

There is one other aspect of it that I don't like very much and that is the appearance in the title bar of the browser of "Covert Links - Show Page http://www.ehateverthelinkis.com" This doesn't appear to happen on all links so I'm unsure if it's intentional or if it's a bug. IF it is intentional it is a rather silly flaw in my opinion - after going to such lengths to produce a secure link cloaking software you give the game away for the sake of advertising in the browser's title bar? This particular issue really needs attention because, intentional or not,  it spoils an otherwise competent and good value product.

Now, as far as the protection from parasite software goes, I'm taking Perry at his word because I'm not technical enough to understand how such nasty trickery works. I'm not sure that SSC provides such protection, it doesn't claim to, but that's not to say it doesn't when using the stealth mode.

I'm keen to use CovertLinks, as it does solve, at least in the main, a couple of pretty serious problems for affiliates. Sadly, unlike SSC, which is a script that resides on your server, CovertLinks is software that runs on your computer. I say sadly because in terms of ease of us, convenience and tracking, it is far less user friendly than the script. Each cloaked link has to be created using the software's interface - basically a box filling and checkbox ticking exercise - which is pretty simple. You will then need to upload the resulting file to your server, either via FTP or through your hosting control panel.

This is a gripe that I probably wouldn't have if I had never used SSC - it's not really a big deal, it just seems laborious because with SSC you can create your links far more quickly and keep track of them far more easily using the simple admin panel which also gives you basic tracking facilities.

Having said that, CovertLinks certainly seems to be a more up to date method of cloaking and the way things on the web progress, it's a good idea to keep up with current technology. If parasite software is as big a problem as some people are claiming, anything that can beat it is a good thing in my book.

The good news about CovertLinks is that it is pretty cheap, certainly compared to many other cloaking solutions, many of which are actually pretty useless in any case. As to whether it is better than SSC or equally as good, both methods have their advantages and disadvantages and choosing between the two is going to come down to what each individual considers more important to them, and perhaps budget. In terms of price, CovertLinks is a clear winner, but when weighing up the differences, SSC might still edge it out for some users. The choice, as they say, is yours.

TCH 

Affiliate Link Cloaking, Internet Explorer and Parasite Software

My last post gave a detailed look at some link cloaking software for affiliate marketers and having written it, I thought I ought to expand a little more on the whole issue of link cloaking and the menace of parasite software.

Parasite software is a program installed on a user's computer that can do some very underhand things. Basically, if the software recognizes an affiliate link, it can insert its own cookie in replace of yours, effectively stealing your commissions from right under your nose and neither you, or your visitor/referral will know a thing about it.

That is pretty serious and perhaps far more of a real threat than someone manually altering or stripping out your affiliate link. The problem is, that even if you use redirects, such parasite software can still do its dirty work.

I am currently evaluating some software that claims to overcome this problem using a whole new way of cloaking links.

The other thing I wanted to mention is Internet Explorer. I've never been a fan of this browser; it gives webmasters more headaches than any other browser out there - it messes up the appearance of websites and I recently discovered, by chance, that if you redirect a link using a frame, which is a very common way of handling affiliate links, IE will potentially block cookies, (supposedly ony third party cookies that do not have a compact privacy policy) robbing you of your referrals and commissions! This sucks big time as the vast majority of internet users who don't know any better still use this crappy piece of software because it came installed on their computer.

Having said that, Clickbank and CJ links should be OK.....however, when testing in IE8, results are inconclusive - some cookies were set when using a frame and some were not. Why? I have no solid explanation but whatever, if you are using frames to cloak your links, it would pay you to check them in various browsers to ensure your cookie is being set correctly.

If you are using masked frames to redirect your links, go and check them in IE now. Once your page loads, look in the bottom of your browser for a small eye shaped icon - if it's there, double click it and you will probably see that your affiliate cookie has been completely stripped out. If it has, you may need to change all those masked frame links to a simple PHP redirect - the least secure redirect there is, just so that IE users will be credited as your affiliate referrals. Alternatively, try the stealth cloaking option in Samurai Stealth which seems to solve the issue most of the time

Can you imagine how many sales you may have lost because of Microsoft and their decision to implement such a feature in their browser? When I found out I was more than a little mad - thanks a bunch Microsoft for screwing affiliates the world over.

The problem of parasite software is made even worse when using simple PHP redirects because your cookie does not get processed until your visitor actually lands on the page - the parasite does its work before this happens meaning you have no chance whatsoever!! 

Now, the product I am currently evaluating claims to have all the answers to these problems but I'm not ready to share it yet because in early tests, I'm not convinced and IE8 still seems to be blocking cookies on my redirects, whether HTML or PHP. Having said that, the testing process is a bit of a complicated one and I'm hoping that after some dialogue with the program owner, these difficulties can be resolved. If or when they are, I will publish my findings here.

In the meantime, the best advice for all affiliates would be not to use masked frames as a form of redirect, certsinly not without ntesting them fully in the major browsers,  and to check all your existing framed links and redirects very carefully, in particular in Internet Explorer, because you could be cutting your own throat and losing commissions as a result of trying to do the exact opposite! Thanks Microsoft.

TCH 

Cloaking Affiliate Links With Samurai Stealth Cloaker Script

Samurai Stealth Cloaker Review Updates

I wrote a review of Samurai Stealth Cloaker some time ago and hailed it as the best link cloaking script on the market at the time. To date, I have still not seen anything better and I finally got around to doing a demo video which shows the script in action.

There are many good reasons to cloak affiliate links - more professional looking URL's from your own domain, shorter URL's, disguising your affiliate status and to a degree, helping you avoid the stripping of your affiliate ID by visitors who don't want  you to get paid for their own unfathomable reasons.

Up to a point, the claims of commission theft are true and they also make for sensational ad copy but let's be realistic. Average internet users wouldn't know an affiliate link if it bit them on the a**, so if your selling something not related to internet marketing or SEO for example, it's doubtful they are going to bypass your link. On the other hand, particularly with Clickbank products, no matter what you do, once a savvy Clickbank affiliate lands on the payment page they can easily clear their cookies and return to buy through their own link, so cloaking does not protect you from those folks at all.

One of the most valid reasons for using redirects is the management aspect of your links. Let's say you promote a product related to Wordpress - you may link to that product in a huge number of blog posts and articles, perhaps using an automatic linking plugin for instance, meaning that you could have hundreds of links on countless web pages. If that product becomes outdated, or is withdrawn from the market, or goes away for any of a variety of reasons, you either have a load of broken links to fix by trying to find and amend each one, or you just leave the broken links littering your content - not a great option.

If you use redirects, all you ever have to do is change one link and all the instances of that redirect will automatically be updated. Using a script like Samurai Stealth Cloaker enables you to login to your admin panel and with a couple of mouse clicks all your redirects are changed in seconds. That is a very worthwhile plus point, and the more affiliate links you generate over time, the more important it becomes.

SSC is very easy to install on your server and once it's done, you can see from the video how easy it is to use. We've chosen a complicated scenario in the video, basically to show the power of "stealth" redirects and the fact that once you have placed your affiliate cookie, you can send a visitor to absolutely any page you like - great if the sales page is crap, or you've maybe done all the preselling in a review on your own site for example. In our example we show how you, the affiliate, can send someone to your own opt-in page, capture the lead, and then send the visitor straight to the sales page as opposed to the merchant's lead capture page, or even straight to the order page. 

The script can also handle simple PHP redirects or mask your link in a frame (we would not recommend using frames however - see this post on cloaking links and Internet Explorer which explains why) but the stealth option is what makes the script most powerful. In rare cases however, the stealth link may break an affiliate link so it's always wise to double check your redirect before publishing it to the world. In my experience with SSC it has handled various networks with no problems at all and I've only ever had a couple of affiliate links where it broke something along the way. Just be aware that it can happen.

Here's the video demo of Samurai Stealth Cloaker

I'd also like to mention another redirect script that I use in certain circumstances, particularly when I'm sending customers or visitors to a download - you'll see how you can add one time offers and instead of just seeing a click to download box pop up, your visitor views another offer or offers while they wait for their product delivery. It seems to work pretty well if you keep the offers relevant.

Here is the video demo of Interstitial Links Manager

So, two great products, well tested and used by yours truly and a worthwhile investment for anyone marketing online as an affiliate.

Have a great weekend!

TCH

Link Cloaking and Tracking Questions Answered

Some of the information and links contained in this article are now deprecated and I ask you to refer to my later posts for up to the minute link cloaking advice and tips so....

PLEASE READ MY LATEST POSTS ON LINK CLOAKING FOR UP TO DATE INFORMATION

1) Affiliate Links and Internet Explorer

2) Link Cloaking Updates & Covert Links

UPDATE: The Cloaker Script Of Choice - Samurai Stealth Cloaker

Not long ago I wrote a post about cloaking affiliate links, but it's still a subject that I am asked about more frequently than almost any other. This surprises me because there is a lot of information out there if you go looking.

When someone asked me the other day what system I use myself, I didn't really have a simple answer because I test and use various methods depending on what I'm doing. In the spirit of helping others out, here are just a few more tips and tools you might find useful. (all of which I use or have used myself).

1) Doing it yourself with PHP (described in the earlier post, if you want to check it out) for those with a web hosting account.

2) Free Third party services offering cloaking and tracking. There are a lot of these about and I can't claim to have used them all, but I have tried ClickAudit and still use it from time to time, and Viral Link Tracker which I also think is worth a look.

NOTE: Clickaudit has been closed and is no longer available.

Another possible option would be Jon Leger's service called OffTo.net which, like Leadsleap, combines link cloaking with viral advertising on a credits based system.  

Third party services like this are the easiest option for those who don't have a hosting account of their own. Both are simple to set up and fine for anyone wanting basic click count. Personally I don't think any of them come close to a proper cloaking solution on your own domain, but if you're stuck on not having a hosting account they are all you have left. Viral Link Tracker has several additional features, the usefulness of which will depend a lot on what you are up to, but it does have a viral element.

There are several others but some I would not recommend because they have been overused by too many people pushing too much rubbish and as a result, to my mind, look rather "spammy" and obvious. That's just my opinion though and I'm not naming names.

The new kid on the block, which I only read about today, is a new service from the excellent LeadsLeap program. If you don't know about LeadsLeap, it's an interesting take on viral promotion and advertising. You can read all about it in my previous post on The LeadsLeap Traffic and Listbuilding program. Don't be too put off by the landing page, it is actually a very effective viral tool.

Anyway, the program owner continues to refine it and introduce new features, (a viral blog and a private messaging facility to name a couple) the latest being a link cloaker. Just so you can see how it works, I have taken one of my raw affiliate URL's -

http://wwkiosk.com/members/mosnell/

and applied the LeadsLeap effect like this:

http://www.leadsleap.com/go/10229

If you click on the cloaked link you will notice the "countdown" advertisement at the top of the page. (It can also be placed at the bottom) This can be turned on or off with each cloaked link you create - it has the potential to be annoying and distracting, so I would think carefully about how and when you use it. I just included it for the purposes of this demo. The address bar in the browser will not show your affiliate link, only the Leadsleap shortened URL.

3) Cloaking your links using software that is capable of encrypting the redirect and preventing even the most dedicated snoopers from viewing your page source. This is for those with a hosting account only.

Once upon a time you paid for these things, but they are now freely available. I've been using a couple of them in recent months - one is Cloaker Buzz. Download it, install it, run it, type in your URL, press a button and it turns out the HTML required. Save it, upload it to your server inside your chosen directory and name it "index.html" and you will have a fully cloaked link, like this one, where snoopers that view the source of your page will come up empty handed and where the URL in the browser address bar appears as you dictate.

http://www.thecaymanhost.com/passive_profit_robot/

If you like this idea, you can get a free copy of the software through this link - Cloaker Buzz Link Cloaker

Another free option can be found at this membership site, and will do the same thing. All you have to do is sign up for a free account and the cloaker is just one of the tools you get to enjoy.

PLR Wholesaler Sign Up Page

OK, that about covers cloaking, but what about tracking if you don't want to use a third party service? Well, I only usually bother with tracking clicks in my email campaigns, and here's how I do it.

I cloak the link using a software application as described in 3 above. I then convert that link to one that I can track from within my autoresponder service. Let's take the example I used for Leadsleap - my cloaked link www.thecaymanhost.com/kiosk/ then becomes this

http://kioskcities.ws/cgi-bin/t.cgi?k=caynews2:2

I use an autoresponder service provided by my host, but if you use one of the third party sevices they will usually offer full tracking of your links as well as more detailed stats on delivery rates, and mails opened etc. which, as users will tell you, is a great benefit for tracking and testing their campaigns.

The final option is to install a tracking and cloaking script on your server. There are several available but this one is free, simple to set up, very effective and works on both Linux and Windows servers. You will require an available MySQL database.

The Ultimate Link Cloaker Download Page

OK, that about covers it, I hope you will find that one or some of these solutions fit the bill for you.

Remember, there are plenty of paid options too, ranging in price from a few bucks up to nearly $100, and there are even people selling the information contained in this post. Save your money, because there really is no need to buy link cloaking software, and you now have all the information you need.

More On Cloaking and Tracking Your Affiliate Links

Some of the information and links contained in this article are now deprecated or broken and I ask you to refer to my later posts for up to the minute link cloaking advice and tips so....

PLEASE READ MY LATEST POSTS ON LINK CLOAKING FOR UP TO DATE INFORMATION

1) Affiliate Links and Internet Explorer

2) Link Cloaking Updates & Covert Links

Much has been said about the importance of securing affiliate links and there are various ways of going about it.

Although popular opinion agrees that it is, without doubt essential to disguise affiliate links if you want to maximize your conversion rates, there there are conflicting ideas about the best way to do it.

I'm going to give you what is in my opinion, the best way I have found to achieve secure affiliate links and show you, by way of demonstration, how it works in relation to various cloaking options. I'm going to look at just three options, and show you the benefits and pitfalls of each, using a popular affiliate program offering cheap caribbean vacations.

1) PHP redirects - the most obvious benefit of this method is that it's free and easy to use. Here's how it works:-

Our raw affiliate link looks like this: 

http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-2392857-10426292

It's pretty obvious and pretty ugly, and by using a php redirect we can turn it into something like this -

http://www.thecaymanhost.com/caribbean-vacations2/

This is simple to do. Create a new directory on your server, called whatever you like - in this case we have created a folder called "caribbean-vacations2". Then, create a file within that directory called "index.php" and use the following code

<?php header('Location: http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-2392857-10426292'); ?>

There is no need for all those spaces between php and header - just one will do but my blog engine seems to want to put in those spaces!! 

As you can see, we've used the original affiliate link in the code, and you would change this to your own link of course. Click on both links and you will see that they both now take you to the same place. However - and this is a big however - you will notice that once you get to the web page in question, the address bar in the browser will still show an ugly long affiliate link. So, PHP redirect works - but only up to a point!

2) Free cloaking services are plentiful and some are better than others. I'm going to illustrate with a new free service called ViralLinkTracker.com which is free and offers some pretty cool features.

Here is the cloaked link generated - quickly and easily from the members area -

http://www.virallinktracker.com/vlt/links/7570

The important thing to note here is the address bar in your browser - it still shows the link that your visitor clicked on. The program also offers a secure cookie option and the ability to promote the cloaking program itself if you so wish. On the face of it, as a free solution it's pretty good and definitely one of the best free services released in quite a while. However, it can't be ignored that the link still looks like an obviously cloaked affiliate link. Many savvy surfers will know this, and maybe go back to the website after clearing their cookies and just buy through their own affiliate link or just to ensure that they don't buy through an affiliate link at all!

3) Here is my solution of choice - an encrypted redirect which for this example looks like this -

http://www.thecaymanhost.com/caribbean-vacations/

Looks like the PHP option right? Yes, it does, but now, when you click on the link, you will see the important difference in the address bar - it shows the link exactly as clicked. I'm not a techie, but I achieve this using the excellent Web Army Knife program. This software is not free, but contains a collection of great marketing tools and I think it's worth the price for this encrypted cloaking tool alone.

I should also add, that even viewing the source code of the page won't do a snooper any good - try it and see for yourself. I've tried other cloakers in the past, but this one is still the best by far. If that changes anytime I'll update you here on the blog.

Whatever option you choose, there is really no excuse for leaving your affiliate links as naked as the day they were born any longer. If you do you are inviting the loss of commissions on a daily basis.

TCH

Web Hosting | Marketing | Autoresponders 

Tiresome Affiliate Bashing Is Illogical

I have a couple of things to say today about affiliate marketing. Not so much for affiliates, more for the people who have somehow made the giant leap in their imaginations that it is somehow seedy or evil or somewhere in between those two extremes. What I want to know is - why is that? Discounting a lot of the unethical marketing proponents and people selling rubbish and of course the ever hated spammers, what do people have against affiliates?

Let’s take hosting. As an affiliate for various hosting companies I am forever encountering the argument that "you only promote it because you stand to get a commission" - therefore, "any review or comment written by an affiliate is worthless". Then there is the sweeping statement that "finding reliable reviews of hosting companies is impossible because of affiliate marketing". So, let’s examine those beliefs a little more closely. It is obvious that affiliates do what they do to make money, there is no argument there. It is also possible that some affiliates will write or say some things that they can’t back up with personal experience - also true. However, there is a big gap between that and the assumption that all affiliates are dishonest or only out for a quick buck or all the other misinformation out there about affiliate marketing. Tarring every affiliate with the same brush is hardly a balanced or reliable metric.

How Do I Make Money Online Part One - Kiosk.ws Affiliate Program

I often find when reading blogs about making money online that the information provided falls some way short of really telling people anything they don't already know, or skirts around the edges of  a subject leaving you unfulfilled and in many cases, suspicious of the author's true knowledge. Before starting this post, I was thinking of talking about how I made my first money online, but a friendly blogger only recently made a similar post so I decided to save that for another day. Instead, I've decided to talk in depth about one of the most successful revenue generators I have worked with.  Now, this is a long post, and my aim is to preempt a lot of questions and give people a thorough insight into one of the ways I currently earn money online.  I hope you will find it worth the read and that it will inspire you to continue your own efforts.

I have tried to write this so that it will be helpful to both beginners and the more experienced, so if some sections seem a little obvious, please bear with me and remember that you may know a lot more than some readers. 

If Andy Beard Says It's Cool...

......then DealDotCom must be worth looking into right? OK, that was a shameless piece of name dropping for which I hope he'll forgive me, particularly as I'm now one of his DealDotCom Queen Bees :-)

The program is set to launch on September 18 and offers a two tier affiliate program. I think a lot of savvy marketers will jump on board simply because once an affiliate signs up, they become "yours" for life. Any sales you make whether a week from now or five years from now, will ensure you a commission - no 30 day cookies here.

I don't plan to give this a huge talking up, just head over to the site if you're interested and read what they have to say - hopefully you'll want to join before everyone else does. It won't cost you anything to become an affiliate and could see you making some good commissions in the years ahead, particularly if you're able to get in nice and early.