Reader Q&A: How Do You Mask Affiliate Links?

This is a reader Q&A post.  Do you have a question you’d like answered?  Submit it here.

Reader Tony asks:

I was wondering how you mask your affiliate links?

The links Tony refers to are those for my sidebar ads and some in-post affiliate links.  For example, my sidebar ad for the Problogger 31DBBB ebook looks like this:

/recommends/31dbbb

But the link really goes here:

https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=258839&c=ib&aff=31217&cl=11220

Why Mask Affiliate Links?

First of all I don’t really like the term “mask” or “cloak” to describe this technique.  They may be accurate but for some people they carry a negative message, that someone is trying to hide something.

While it is probably true that people use this technique to trick their readers into clicking affiliate links that is not my goal.  For the purposes of this discussion I’ll just refer to it as a “redirect” instead, because I also use the technique for non-affiliate links.

So there are three simple reasons that I choose to use these redirect links.

1. Readability – As you can see in the e-junkie example above, most affiliate links are long and ugly.  By using a redirect I can shorten the link to something more readable.

2. Branding – For non-affiliate links it also means I can retain my own domain name in it for branding purposes.  For example I link to my Twitter profile like this:

/go/twitter

Which actually goes to:

http://twitter.com/paulcunningham

When you start having multiple social media profiles it isn’t always possible to get the same username across all of them. By using redirects you can have all of your various profiles display your blog URL instead of a mix of different usernames and URL styles.

3. Manageability – when you start using these links a lot in your blog posts it becomes a bit of a nightmare to manage them, especially if one day the URL needs to be changed.

This has happened to me twice in the past – once when I changed my Twitter ID, and the other when DIYThemes moved their Thesis affiliate program to a different provider.  By using redirects I only needed to update the link in the WordPress backend and they all start pointing to the correct new location.

Are Redirects Bad or Unethical?

As I said earlier I’m sure some people do use this technique with the deliberate intention of misleading their visitors into clicking affiliate links.  However most bloggers do it for the three reasons above, which is perfectly fine.

There is no Google penalty for using redirects.  Their webmaster guidelines do refer to cloaking but in a different context.

If you’re within the USA and concerned about FTC disclosure then by my understanding as long as any affiliate links are clearly disclosed there is no violation of their guidelines.  I’m outside of the USA myself but include an implicit disclosure in my link structure, ie /go/ for non-affiliate links, and /recommends/ for affiliate links (I am after all linking to products that I recommend).  My to-do list does have an item on it for adding a generic disclosure statement to all of my blogs though, just to make it clear.

4 Ways to Create Redirect Links for WordPress Blogs

If you want to start using redirects for your own blog here are three ways you can get started.

MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate Plugin

MBP Ninja Affiliate is the plugin I use for my redirects.  It is a paid plugin but the license allows you to use it on all of your websites.  I find it works great and has good back end global settings as well as more fine grained controls you can adjust on a per-link basis.

You can use multiple redirect triggers (such as /go/) and group links in categories for ease of management.

The stats tracking is also useful to get an idea of how many clicks you are getting.

Go Codes

Go Codes is another plugin and is a free alternative to MBP Ninja Affiliate.  It has the same basic capability and has options for “no follow” and a hit counter for each link, but is limited to just one redirect trigger (eg you can use /go/ or /recommends/ but not more than one of them).

Thesis Redirects

If you’re a Thesis user the new version 1.7 includes its own redirect feature using Pages with custom fields.  You can check out this video on the DIYThemes website for a demonstration.  This is handy for Thesis users because it saves having to add another plugin to your site, and you can manage all of your redirect links as simple Pages on your blog.

Third Party Sites

The last option I’ll mention is third party URL shorteners such as bit.ly and tinyurl.com.  I really don’t recommend this option because you are putting all of your links in the hands of an external party that might experience service outages, or worse might some day shut down completely.

Keep your important links under your own control instead using one of the other options.

Image Credit: Flickr