redirecting affiliate links accepted practice?
 

I just read one mainstream company ref posting that it is not ok because they can not see where the visitor comes from and it looks shady to them (something like that).

Have you ever had issues with redirecting affiliate links (meaning no refering URLs available for sponsors to see)?

Send your traffic to a landing page you own. And redirect from there in a way that keeps the refer in a way only you know where it came from. Magic redirect links, sponsor will see you LP as the refer, win, win, you keep the traffic source and they get to see an LP made for them.

if you are talking about amazon they have link masking.

It's not there business where my traffic comes from. I usually forward from pages that say stuff like "Stop snooping on me dood" and stuff like that. I have HQ traffic so if its a big deal I will just work with someone else as I will do well elsewhere.

This is a perfect example of yet another retard on GFY offering advice on a subject that they most obviously do not know shit about.

i spend a lot of time in public toilets....

Why exactly is it not the sponsors business to see where the traffic came from?

So the sponsor, or employee of said sponsor don't see where my traffic comes from, knows my sites, my ways of generating traffic.
If they do, they can copy my way, decreasing my traffic, or water down the source. Or they can copy my media buys, that they now know generate profit, and then cut me out.
and so on and on and on....

"this is how i make money for you and me.... now cut me out, hire some Indian to do it cheaper than me and bank more. You're welcome, I'll just go work at McD now."

what Bluey said. And yes, indexed

Speaking about adult sponsors most of the people I see are just doing simple redirects, meta refresh etc.
I do not see the point of bothering with Bluey method there.. If you have lots of sponsors you will get tired of building landing pages to each. And again - what is the point, in adult redirects are acceptable.

^ to place popunders, for #1. To get indexed with lots of different backlinks for #2. To get your landing page shared by less savvy surfers for #3. To put an email collection box on for #4. To use as a watermark where applicable for #5. And so on.

trust me, they know already... we pay people to take those risks, stealing your 'ideas' would be counter productive to the business model.

I agree.

I understand mainstream sites might not like their stuff on porn sites or illegal ones but I also don't trust them enough to NOT cut me out and take advantage of my sources.

Why not just develop your redirect page in a way that provides everything everyone wants?

/landing-page.php?sponsor=thissponsorid

Link to that page internally and set a session variable prior. If a user is sent there internally with the session variable, have that page redirect them to the sponsor.

If a search engine bot hits it, or a program manager sees the referring url and goes there manually. There would not be a session variable there. Have the page display the relevant content and or links to the sponsor when the session variable is not present.

Thus you get the best of both worlds.

Or, to make it even simpler - why not attach the actual referring url to the redirect? You probably shouldn't be redirecting people without that anyway - obviously. So if you are, perhaps you should code the redirect a little better to attach the proper header information prior to sending the user to the new location?

correction

Bad idea, cloaking will get you banned.

Make a link repository.. Cloak all of your affiliate links, then you are always in the drivers seat, not to mention SEO benifits. Google it, there are lots of ways to do it, even inside wordpress.

sure it is spamming is illegal! :1orglaugh you can be put in prison in the usa

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...or-four-years/

that's why you have 20,118 poo at gfy.

20,118 poost :2 cents::2 cents:

I didn't say to cloak it, I said to put in the referring URL since it wasn't getting passed for whatever reason - the ACTUAL REFERRING URL. :2 cents: