Affiliate Link Cloaking with Joomla

Written by Steve Burge

This is a quick how-to requested by two SEO Club members.

The problem? Affiliate links are normally ugly and easy to spot: http://productsite.com/affiliates/affiliatelink?youraffiliatenumber=324. This means that:

Some websurfers are reluctant to click on affiliate links. They may be naturally suspect of someone linking to a product for money or they may just resent generating money for the writer they're reading.
If the affiliate link is obvious, its easy to hijack. If you remind me they have an affiliate program, I could easily go to productsite.com, sign up as an affiliate and take the commission when I purchase there.
There is actually spyware out there that can automatically hijack links for some of the most popular affiliate programs.

The solution? Disguise affiliate links so that they look much more innocuous. Here are three ways to do that:

1) Affiliate Link Cloaker Plugin

Download: http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/core-enhancements/site-links/1075/details
Method: Install the plugin and place your link in betweeen [cloak][/cloak]
Pros: Works well on both Joomla 1.0 and 1.5
Cons: You need to enter all your links manually, for every page and every link.

2) iJoomla.com Redirect

Download: http://www.ijoomla.com (actually a demonstration of #3 below)
Method: Install Redirect. Take your affiliate link and enter it into the component. It will come out looking like this: index.php?option=com_ijoomla_redirect&id=1. Then you can use it enter it manually or use Simply Links to link every occurance of a word to your affiliate account. For example: iJoomla.
Pros: Works well and provides good statistics on link clicks.
Cons: Its $50. Also, its not really designed for this link cloakin, I just think affiliate work is a better use for it than trying to damn in all your Page Rank.

3) Joomla's Default Weblink Component

Download: Not needed
Method: Go to Components >> Weblinks. Take your affiliate link and enter it into the component. The link will be in this form: domain / weblinks / category / link name, so it will come out looking something like this: http://alledia.com/weblinks/joomla/ijoomla. Then you can use it enter it manually or use Simply Links to link every occurance of a word to your affiliate account.
Pros: Easy to use and you just need to install Simply Links if you want to use it site-wide.
Cons: Stats aren't quite as good as Redirect. To find out how often a link has been clicked, just check in Components >> Weblinks for the number of hits.

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Your Comments (9)

Brian Teeman

January 10, 2009

Surely the solution is not to use affiliate links at all and have adverts instead. Personaly I find the use of affiliate links completely devalues the authenticity and integrity of the original content. I'm very clear about this on my blog. http://brian.teeman.net/web-de...nesty.html

Steve Burge

January 10, 2009

Very true, Brian, although remember that a lot of sites such as review sites use this for a solid income stream. Its hard to sell ads if you're not a large site.

One more view on this:
http://www.shoemoney.com/disclaimer/

Brian Teeman

January 10, 2009

Sorry if I want clear Steve. I didn't mean you should go out and sell adverts, I am saying that you are already being paid an advertising fee (it's called an affiliate scheme) for a link.

You shouldnt con your readers my hiding these adverts especialy if you are a reviews site.

People aren't stupid, they know that if you practice affiliate cloaking that you are ashamed of this practice and probably have something to hide, like hghly recommending product A (who give you 5%) and not recommending product B (who have no affiliate scheme.

Whilst I don't agree wth the practice at shoemoney.coom I applaud them for their honesty. Hint Hint

richard zombeck

January 12, 2009

Brian,
And what about the risk of being ripped off by black hat d-bags? It's not a question of being sneaky, it's a question of being safe.

Steve Burge

January 12, 2009

Hi Brian

I expanded the disclaimer a little: http://www.alledia.com/disclaimer/

Remember that the disguise is only one part of the process. Tracking the links and collecting stats is another important area that's included in techniques 2 and 3.

Brian Teeman

January 12, 2009

congratulations on making the new disclaimer

Bugsbane

January 13, 2009

Hey Steve,

With the help of your article here, and some playing around, I just figured out how to get beautiful looking internal urls that cloak perfectly using nothing but Joomla's built in link module and SH404.

We're talking urls that look like mydomain.com/keyword and yet can forward to any link (including external affiliate links).

I've put instructions on how here:
http://extensions.siliana.com/...ic=11120.0