redirect affiliates links!

I read and read and read about this issue for three days and no answer until now...
I want to redirect my external affiliates link. So...i try to understand the methods. I understand that the best methods are with php script and with .htaccess. I tried with php...i took that code i make a new php document. Then i try to redirect with that php document. But no result...So i have a question: should i have all my documents in php? Not in html? Please if someone can explain in detail about this proccess. On the web i only find the code but no words about how to make.
That's the first method that i try.
Then the method with .htaccess. This method i didn't try because i didn't understand so much.
What method is good? How to implement?
Thanks in advance!
Sorry for my english hope to understand!

In my oppinion the best method is a combination of both. Make up a user-friendly URL for redirects like http://www.yoursite.com/goto/ or http://www.yoursite.com/casinos/ then redirect that address to a PHP script with .htaccess like this:

Code:

---

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^goto/([a-zA-Z0-9]+) redirect.php?name=$1

---

Then in redirect.php you create an array of links and names. Example code:

Code:

---

<?php
$urls = array(
  'casino1' => 'http://www.casino1affiliatelink.com/',
  'casino2' => 'http://www.casino2afflink.com/'
);
$default_link = 'http://www.default.com/';
foreach($urls as $name => $url){
  if($name == $_GET['name']){ // some string matching functions could be used, too for matching in any CaSE
    header("Location: $url");
    die();
  }
}
// name not found go to default url
header("Location: $default_link");
?>

---

Your links will look like this: xxhttp://www.yoursite.com/goto/casino1
Change goto in .htaccess to whatever you like, name your casinos, pokerrooms & bookmakers in any way you like. You can also add multiple entries in .htaccess for casinos, poker etc, and point it to the same file.

Of course, this can be extended with url's stored in a database, tracking all clicks, referring pages etc. There are a lot of possibilities.

I'm currently working on a similar Wordpress plugin, which will probably have a public release, too for GPWA members (sometime this summer) if anyone would be interested. :)

Here is how I do it. Rather simple task, I am not a coding guru by any means.

1. Make a directory (folder) in the root of your site. I call mine "recommends".
2. Begin making files for your affiliate links, you can save them as the casino/poker site/book, whatever. Like this:

Code:

---


<?php
header("Location:http://example.com/affcode");
?>

---

Let's say that is for "Casinobest.com", save the file (with only the above code in it) to the folder you made. (Save the file as Casinobest.php)

3. In your review/home page/email, you will link the site as such:

Code:

---


<a href="http://mysite.com/recommends/Casinobest.php">Anchor text</a>

---

The visitor clicks your link, the browser goes to your "recommends" folder, and finds the file, and then straight to the casino.

In your robots.txt file, add this:

Disallow: /recommends

That way the filder will not be crawled.

You can call the folder whatever you wish, I have one website that I called it "Visit" so when a visitor hovers the link it appears as "http://website.com/Visit/Casinobest.php. Then... I did a separate folder to hold direct download links called "download" the link shows as "http://thewebsite.com/download/Casinobest.php"

Hope this helps. Feel free to post any questions or PM me.

Thanks guys for all informations! My mistake was that i was trying to redirect links on my localhost and didn't work. Now i make a php document for each affiliate i uploaded on ftp and done. Everything is working!
Thanks again and have a nice day!

Also, u can use this method to block the reffer...


look up double meta refresh...

@vmlinuz - I love this plugin http://www.mbpninjaaffiliate.com/

@casinojack:
Thanks for the PM. It looks good, but I what I wrote is a bit different (a method I use on all of our sites) so I ported that one to Wordpress. Mine works similar to bbcodes on forums (as it started as a forum plugin). For example I want to link to partypoker. I define the bbcode [pp] and use it as [pp]link text[/pp] in a text. This will be converted to a link in the output. If someone clicks on it I'll be recorded then redirected to the affiliate link.
Anyways, it gave me a couple of ideas to implement :)

Np man, good luck!! maybe u can make it better !!

I use a program called fastclick.

It is php and mysql based.

Just remember to disallow the factclick folder in robots.txt.

Remember that htaccess won't work on an IIS server (prior to 2008) without a third party program such as isapi_rewrite installed by the server admin. Helicon's latest version of this follows the same systax as that of htaccess for apache so sites can easily be moved between os's without changes.

Server 2008 has some new features such as a rewrite engine and I do believe the systax is the same or very close.

Rick
Universal4

Hello.
I am very interested in implementing the method shown in post 3. However, does it pose any risk to rankings? Can it cause problems with the search engines.
Thanks
-Tom

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by waitetom

Hello.
I am very interested in implementing the method shown in post 3. However, does it pose any risk to rankings? Can it cause problems with the search engines.
Thanks
-Tom

---

Hi Tom ...

It will not cause you with any problems with the search engines.

In addition I can recommend you to use the googlebot meta tag in the redirecting page ...

Example :

Code:

---

<meta name="googlebot" content="noindex,nofollow">

---

EDIT : I just saw that the other guy recommended to use robots.txt which have the same affect ... You can choose either way.

Thank you for your useful advice.
I think we'll implement it to try and cut down out external links.
Cheers
-Tom

Hi waitetom ... And everybody else that looking for easy way to redirect their affiliate links ...

You can check my Rummy website and see how I did it : http://www.rummyon.com .

I have a page called /el.aspx (el stands for external link) ... Then I pass the url with the parameter so it looks like : /el.aspx?u=www.externa-lblah-blah.com .

I added the googlebot meta tag to the el.aspx page (Like I showed in the last post).

Another way to do it is to this: (Using Ladbrokes as an example.)

Code:

---

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<title>Ladbrokes Casino</title>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.ladbrokes.com/ast?action=go_asset&new=0&aff_id=22761&asset_id=5636">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
</BODY>
</HTML>

---

call this file, in this case, Ladbrokes.htm. Upload it to your server. Hyperlink your ladbrokes visits to ladbrokes.htm.

hi guys.
For me , easyest way to redirect affiliate links is 301 redirect from .htaccesss like that:

Quote:

---

redirect 301 /xxx.html afflink

---

where xxx.html is a blank page inside of your site, and of course afflink shoud be your affiliate link.
is working fine to me.