Cloak Any Outbound Links For Better Results

Filed under How To.

Affiliate links are hard to get clicks on. Rather than giving you the money for referring the potential visitor, they just type the URL in and save that money for themselves (I’m even guilty for that). I however, have found a plugin that allows you to change any URL you wish to a desired name. For example: I can link to my friend Yan’s blog (Thoushallblog.com) by creating a custom redirect for him.

Original URL:

http://thoushallblog.com/why-you-should-invest-your-time-money-for-a-custom-wordpress-theme/ (A Guest Post Of Mine)

My Custom URL:

http://bradblogging.com/go/yan


Not only will this plugin convert your links, it can disguise affiliate links too, to seem more natural. The plugin is called GoCodes and is free for Wordpress. I highly recommend it for any outbound URL that you would like to shorten/cloak.

Personally, I would rather click on a link that looks customized and short than a 20 digit referral number. (Perhaps it makes the link seem more natural??)

The only downside to this plugin?? Rick-Rolling (No.. The Gocodes Link in this post is not a rick-roll link.. I was thinking about it though) got a whole lot easier :)

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12 Comments »

Comment by Yan Shall Blog Subscribed to comments via email
2008-08-28 07:26:18

Coincidentally I just installed Link Cloaking Plugin to achieve the same results. Great tip, anyway.Yan

Yan Shall Blog’s last blog post..15 SEO Tips for Beginners

 
Comment by Armand
2008-08-28 11:46:07

It’s a good trick to cloak a long URL. Do you think it is suitable for using with Google ad sense?

Armand’s last blog post..My Wordpress Theme Project

 
Comment by bradblog
2008-08-28 13:08:49

@ Yan - Cool. Hope it works out for you!

@ Armand - Depends on what you mean by that.. I wouldn’t recommend messing around with Google’s ads incase you get in trouble for “Tampering” with the code. I am not sure if it would be fine for the referrals (I’m thinking about the firefox one).. I don’t see a problem with it, but I am not Google. ;)

 
Comment by indocontest
2008-08-28 18:25:32

I’m gonna try this. Thanks Brad.

indocontest’s last blog post..Win Prizes worth over $1000 from ROCKFUSE!

 
2008-08-29 04:37:08

@ Indo Contest - Good Luck!

Brad Blogging.com - Personal Blog Tips And Blog Help’s last blog post..Cloak Any Outbound Links For Better Results

 
Comment by Hugo Santos
2008-08-29 07:22:52

i currently use alinks to cloak the urls. It does the job but it misses something…
I intalled gogodes but for some reason i couldn’t use it can’t remember why…. Link cloaking plugin that Yan mentioned seems very interesting… i think i will give it a try

Hugo Santos’s last blog post..MMO Blogs should embrace Bologna Spirit

 
Comment by Hugo Santos
2008-08-29 08:31:04

just tried the plugin Yan mentioned but it does not do work has i want
i can’t rember but gocodes automatically cloaks the url or we have to write it?

Hugo Santos’s last blog post..MMO Blogs should embrace Bologna Spirit

 
Comment by Yan Shall Blog Subscribed to comments via email
2008-08-29 09:23:25

@Hugo: Weird! It works fine on my blog….

Yan Shall Blog’s last blog post..15 SEO Tips for Beginners

 
Comment by bradblog
2008-08-29 11:02:08

@ Hugo - I actually had trouble installing it because of the .htaccess file editions you have to do. I contacted the plugin developer and he pointed in the right direction. Don’t really know what Yan’s plugin is so I can’t help you out there :) - I know that once you install Go Codes, you will realize that making your own custom outbound links can’t be easier.

 
Comment by Hugo Santos
2008-08-29 17:03:06

Yan the plugin works fine. it just doesn’t work they way i want. which the way like alinks and wpaffiliate pro work. replacing automatically keywords that we define….

Hugo Santos’s last blog post..Time to Kick some one

 
2008-09-05 08:00:23

You can manually make redirect pages in just a few seconds as well… and it’s easier that way to if you’re going to use it on multiple blogs or sites.
- AnotherMMOblog

Not Another Make Money Online Blog’s last blog post..Link Love for Great Posts

 
Comment by brandon
2008-10-18 01:14:33

Brad I am Brandon I have instal gocode plugins and activate it, but it did not work out .. give me a clue please …

brandon’s last blog post..Ramalan Satrio piningit

 


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