Hide Affiliate links

Before you hide your affiliate links, make sure that you’ve read your affiliate program’s Terms of Service and be very sure that hiding doesn’t go against their terms.

Another thing to take note of is your host’s security. I’ve been hiding affiliate links since I made this blog but when my host changed their security, the affiliate links that I hid through one of the steps below caused them not to work anymore. So be sure that you’re host’s security system allows it.

Using PHP redirect

Check if you have a PHP installed in your server. If there is, then you can use this. Also, PHP redirect is the one that I’ve been using before for my Affiliate links. How to do this?

Create a .php file. Right now, an example would be chino.php:

<?

header(“Location: http://www.chinoyray.com/?ref=lexie”);

?>

Save the file and tada! You now have a PHP file that redirects to the link that you used in the file. With the example above, <your url>/chino.php will take you to www.chinoyray.com/?ref=lexie.

When my host tweaked their security, all of my PHP redirect doesn’t work anymore. So make sure that your host allows PHP redirect before using it.

Using .htaccess

If your host is on linux, then look now for your .htaccess file under public_html or simply the directory where your index.php or index.html files are located. If you don’t have one, you can create one.

How to use .htaccess?

Create a .htaccess or open the one you have. Go to the bottom of the file type this:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteRule ^chino.php$ http://www.chinoyray.com/?ref=lexie [R]

With this, <your url>/chino.php will now redirect you to to Chino Yray Dot Com containing the referral or affiliate code. This is the redirect that I’m using from now on since I just have to edit one file.