Affiliate Link Cloaking – Quick, Easy, And Free

Written by Susan on April 30th, 2009

You know already that it’s probably a good idea to cloak your affiliate links. The more savvy surfers become about affiliate marketing and the links that represent your “paycheck”, the greater the likelihood that someone unsavory is going to hijack your affiliate ID and substitute it for their own. If they’re truly bloodyminded, they could choose to bypass it altogether and simply cut you out of your hard earned commission.

So a variety of solutions have appeared over the years to make it harder for the bad guys to win. There are a number of free services that will cloak your link for you, like TinyURL, KlasLink, and others, which serve the dual purpose of hiding your ID and shortening a very long link into a tidy bit of more manageable code. While handy, surfers are becoming more familiar with them, and jump to the instant (and understandable) conclusion that clicking on one of these links is going to take them directly to a sales page. Unless their credit cards are already out of their wallets and poised for service, most people are going to choose to forego the sales pitch, and your persuasive copy will never have a chance to work its magic.

There are also several small software programs that will cloak your link – of variable usefulness and stability. Although you can download them for free, you’re left with the same problem of not being able to customize the code to de-emphasize the fact that the link is a sales tool.

The best solution I’ve found is a bit of php code that will give you everything you want, with a single initial setup and no cost involved. You don’t even have to know anything about php coding. As long as you know how to upload a file, you’re gold. Here’s how to do it:

Begin by logging in to your host account. Create a directory/folder under your main domain name and call it “recommends” (or any variation you prefer: “likes,” “suggests,” etc.). Whatever you call this directory will be viewable by your visitors, so pick something pithy and upbeat.

Let’s say your domain name is http://marketersdream.com. In your FTP program or on your cpanel, whichever you’re using to access your site files, right click on marketersdream and select ‘create folder’, then give it the name you’ve decided on. Let’s say you name it “recommends.”

Now you have a path that looks like this: http://marketersdream.com/recommends.

Let’s say you now want to promote a product called “winzip.” You create a directory under the recommends directory and call it ‘winzip.’ Now you have a path like this: http://marketersdream.com/recommends/winzip.

Nearly done! Now all you need is an index.php file that redirects the user to your affiliate link. Here’s how you do that:

In Notepad, make a file and name it index.php. Here is all that should be in that file:

header("Location: YOURCOMPLETEAFFILIATELINK");
exit();
?>

Whatever the affiliate program you joined gave you as your unique affiliate link, just paste it over the capital letters above, making sure it includes the http:// part. If you wish to take the cloaking one step further, you can cloak your affiliate link with something like TinyURL, then paste THAT code over the capital letters. That way you ensure that your affiliate ID can’t be seen at any step during the redirection process.

So, in our example, you would paste your complete affiliate link for the “winzip” product over the capital letters in the code, save the file as index.php, then upload it into the http://marketersdream.com/recommends/winzip directory that you just created.

You’re finished. Now, whenever anyone clicks on the link http://marketersdream.com/recommends/winzip, they will be redirected to your affiliate page at Winzip. In future, with each new product you’re promoting, simply create a new folder under “recommends”, name it after the affiliate product, and upload the index.php file with the new affiliate link. Quick setup, easy solution, no cost. Just like it says on the box!

Safe Passwords In A Dangerous World

Written by Susan on January 29th, 2009

Well, I seem to be in a “protect yourself” state of mind these days – from avoiding plagiarism to testing your site in multiple web browsers. But hey, there’s no question it’s dangerous online. If you’re anything like me, most of your life is probably embedded in the web. Gift buying, food ordering, bill paying. You might not care if someone discovers you prefer dark chocolate over milk, but imagine how you’d react if they found your bank routing number and helped themselves to a handful of your hard earned savings? Face it – you need a safety net while surfing the ‘net.

So yeah, this post is all about defending those passwords. Lemme give you some tips on just how to do that.

Safe passwords start with a safe PC. Don’t store all of your login and password information in just one place on your computer. You need to make sure your precious info is protected behind a good firewall. If you are using Windows XP or Vista, you can use the Windows Firewall, or you can go check out Symantec (Norton), Kaspersky or McAfee. There are other, less expensive programs available too – do a cost comparison and see what suits your needs. There are even some free services out there, like Zone Alarm or Online Armor. If cost is a real issue, they’re an option. But how important to you is your medical and financial information? Just be sure of what you’re getting.

Spend any time at the library? If you ever use computers in public places, you need to be aware that when you log in to certain sites using a password, that information can be stored on a temporary file on that computer’s hard drive. The next person to sit down at that computer can easily retrieve this information and do you some damage, if they’re so inclined.

It shouldn’t have to be said, but if you receive an email asking you for personal information, don’t respond to it! A reputable company will almost certainly identify you by name if they are asking you for this kind of information. And they will never, ever ask you for your PIN code. If you are suspicious about an email, better you should go to the site itself – not by clicking on any links in the email, but via a fresh browser window – and check it out for yourself.

Change your passwords often.  I know, I know…I don’t do this either. But it’s worth keeping in mind, at least on your most important sites, as it will minimize how much damage can be done should someone unscrupulous guess or hack into your passwords.

You’ve probably encountered sites that require you to answer a security question – which you yourself set up initially – in the event that you’ve forgotten your password. You may be limited as to the nature of the security questions, but do your best to pick one that isn’t going to be easily researchable. Mother’s maiden name, city of birth are two common questions that are probably not the best ones to choose, as they are matters of public record. Stick with ones like the make of your first car, where you went on your first date – things only you know that can’t be readily discovered by others.

Websites that request your password should be encrypted with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), the state-of-the-art for providing security and data integrity in online communications. You can ensure that the page you’re on is so encrypted by looking at the bottom of your browser screen. If you see a padlock symbol, you’re ok.

Finally, one of the most important and least regarded methods for keeping your passwords safe is simply choosing strong passwords. Determined hackers just point and laugh at people who use stuff like their birthday, their name, or basically any English word. If you know Polish, maybe that would help – but I’m betting there are Polish hackers out there somewhere. So make it hard for them. Use at least 8+ characters, and mix it up a little. Include upper and lower case letters, toss in a few numbers and special characters. Basically make it look like a big long comic book swear word.

And must I point out that it’s never a good idea to write your passwords on a sticky note and post it on the side of your monitor?

Happy blogging!

Plagiarism – And How To Prevent It

Written by Susan on January 28th, 2009

You’ve spent more time than you know you should have on getting a good, useful, meaningful bit of content on your blog or website.  After much thought, several drafts, and a tech glitch or two later, you’ve gotten a nice article written and posted, joining all the other articulate and thoughtful pieces of your heart, soul and experience that you’re sharing with the world.

Then someone comes along, steals it, and passes it off as their own. Ouch!

But it’s not just your time, expertise and hard work that’s taken a hit – it can affect your bottom line as well. Good content brings in traffic, and you want to be sure your own handcrafted words are bringing the traffic exactly where you want it - to your site. After all, people get paid to write articles, and you don’t want to give your time and talent away for free on anybody else’s terms but your own.

So I have some tips to help you keep on top of what’s happening to your content.

Firstly, there’s some debate on where the line between protecting your content and annoying the hell out of your visitors should really be drawn. There’s a plethora of free javascript code available to make sure a potential thief doesn’t have an easy time of stealing your text and images, but the fact remains that most of the people visiting your site are people you want to remain on good terms with! So making it impossible to right-click and save an image, for example, should only be used if you have proprietary images of your own that could potentially cost you income if copied. People rely on right-clicking to do a lot of things, and finding this handy tool has been disabled on your site is a guarantee that you’ve seen them for the last time. As for disabling the back button, well…you can just kiss goodbye to any potential customers there and then.

It’s even possible to make viewing the source code hard to do. But notice I didn’t say impossible. If someone is determined to steal your content, they will always find a way to do it – even someone with a modicum of tech savvy probably knows a way to get something they really want off your site.

So what can you do to protect yourself?

I recommend you visit Copyscape, a free service that lets you type in your URL and find out where else on the web your material might be showing up. You can get banners for your site, warning that you are paying attention to what happens to your content. They also provide lots of good information on what constitutes plagiarism, what the laws are regarding it, and what recourse you have if you find yourself a victim of it. They also have a premium (paid) service that will allow you a more powerful and unlimited search of the web for your content – not just your URL, but cut-and-pasted text from your site you’d like researched.

Personally, I do like to use a code that at least prevents people from highlighting and copying text from some of my sites. If you’d like to get a copy of that code for your own site, comment and I’ll be happy to send it along! Just beware, it could impede the ability of people to fill out any opt-in forms you may have, so just use this on sites or pages where you don’t have such a thing.

Test Your Blog Or Website In Different Browsers

Written by Susan on January 13th, 2009

I submit this information specifically for those Alex Jeffreys students whose blogs I’ve visited while using IE 6.0.2. Lots of people haven’t yet upgraded to IE 7 – I personally hated IE 7 and deliberately chose to go back to my previous version. And it broke my heart to see how many of your otherwise lovely blogs weren’t rendering properly. The potential sales you’re losing because people visit your blog, see an incoherent mess on the screen, and scramble to hit the back button is just mindboggling.

You know having an online presence is a must for your business. So you spend hours of time and fistfuls of dollars on your blog or your website – maybe you hired a web designer, a graphic designer, a WordPress expert, made sure the meta tags were in order, created landing pages, plugged in your plugins and Aweber forms, aaaaand so forth. After untold hours and days of agony, tired eyes, hair-pulling, and out-of-pocket expense, you see the final draft. How thrilled are you!

You fire up Internet Explorer (or whatever you’re using) and look at the results. They look great, don’t they? Fix this, tweak that, whoops! minor typo there…and then you’re ready to send your labor of love out onto the ‘net, for all the world to see. You can just hear their collective jaws dropping. But I’m betting you didn’t think to do one vital thing before you went live. Did you test your lovely site on different browsers?

Different Browsers?
Ok, I can hear your heads being scratched all the way from here. But this isn’t the first time you’ve cranked up a computer and hit the web – you know that Internet Explorer (or even Firefox) is not the only web browser in use out there. There are over 15 browsers with respective versions for a number of operating systems. How do you know if your website is going to render properly in all of them? You don’t know what browsers your visitors and potential cash paying customers might be using to visit your page – so you have got to test your website against all of them.

How do you test the browsers?
Relax! You don’t have to research every browser and download them all, one by weary one. Browsershots will test your web design in different browsers for you. It is a free website service that will take a snapshot of your website on a number of different browsers. After it uploads the results, you get to see on one page how your site looks in each of them.

Like I said, it’s free. So don’t waste another minute spitting and polishing a site that might still be unviewable to a significant number of potential customers. Why drive anybody away? Make ‘em feel welcome with a well designed, working site for them to want to hang around in.

Making A Private Page In Your Blog

Written by Susan on December 30th, 2008

Tip O’ The Morning

Maybe you want to give access to certain pages on your blog only to those who know the exact URL to get in? Or perhaps you want to maintain the integrity of your theme’s nav bar, which in my case only allows for links to 5 pages – beyond that, and any new pages I create show up in nasty places on my header, messing up my lovely symmetry, and making me crazy. I start creating lists of all those people I’d like to whack. It isn’t pretty.

Whatever your reason for wanting to create pages on your blog that either only a select few can see, or that you choose to link to elsewhere than the WordPress default, after much searching I finally figured out how to do it. Benefit from my hours of agony! Go on, I don’t mind.

1. When you go into your dashboard, you start by choosing Write/Page. In the right sidebar, under the Publish Status field, you will see a check box labeled “Keep this page private”. Check it.
2. Name your new page whatever you’d like, and add the content.
3. When you’re ready, click on “Publish”.

When WordPress creates a new page, it assigns it a page ID number. Take note of what number is assigned to your new page. The URL will look something like this: http://yourblog.com/?page_ID=#.

What you’ll find now is that your page exists, and you can get to it if you type in the exact URL (or click on whatever link you have made manually and put somewhere on your page), but the new title will read: “Private title). If you intend for your customers or other visitors to your blog to have access to the page, you don’t want them to think they’ve landed somewhere they weren’t supposed to be. So how do you get rid of that unwanted “Private” text on your title?

Easy peasy.

1. Go back to your dashboard, and into Design/Theme Editor.
2. On your right sidebar, you’ll see the list of your theme’s templates.
3. Click on functions.php. In the window, paste the following code:

function remove_private_prefix($title) {
$title = str_replace(
‘Private:’,
”,
$title);
return $title;
}
add_filter(‘the_title’,'remove_private_prefix’);

Voilà! You’re done! Now your new page looks just like all your other pages, but you retain the power over where the links to it show up. If you want it to be in your existing page list, add the html code pointing to it in a text widget, or place a more prominent link elsewhere on your page if you wish. Or, just leave it private. Point is, you get to decide.

Happy blogging!