You can mask your affiliate links by using server redirects. This involves a simple one line addition to your web server’s .htaccess file. And if you’ve never edited this file, it’s as easy as editing a text file.

Link masking makes your affiliate links look clean and neat, plus it makes it harder for your visitor to strip away your affiliate code. Masking your affiliate links will help you make more sales, since anyone who clicks through these special links will be tagged with your affiliate code.

Why is this necessary? Some people like to bypass affiliates by going directly to the base web address, rather than clicking through the affiliate link. You’re about to learn how to cut down on this behavior by making a link that appears to be on your own website, but that actually sends your visitor to your affiliate product with your affiliate code still in place.

To hide your affiliate links behind links that look like they’re on your own website, just edit the .htaccess file in your root web directory. This is the place where your main index.html file is located. If there isn’t already a .htaccess file in that directory, go ahead and create one. It’s just a regular text based file.

Now, once you’ve opened .htaccess for editing, just add a line based on the following:

REDIRECT /go/recommended-product http://www.affiliatesite.com/affiliate-id?3475

The first part of that line is the redirect command. Then, /go/recommended-product will be used to form the link that will appear on your site. To make the actual link, you would make a link like this: http://www.mysite.com/go/recommended-product. You don’t need the “go” part…I just add that to keep these redirect links separate from any possible real links I may want to use or that my blog or CMS software reserves. You can change “go” to anything you like…you don’t even have to use it at all.

Finally, the actual affiliate link with my affiliate code goes after my site’s redirect link info. In this case, http://www.affiliatesite.com/affiliate-id?3475. Make sure you include the http://.

Be sure to test out your newly disguised link, just to make sure it really does go to your actual affiliate link. You want to prove to yourself that you’re still getting credit for sending buyers to your chosen merchant. If you test the link and it doesn’t look like your merchant is counting your visit under your affiliate account, double check your affiliate link (the real link, not your disguised link) to make sure you built it correctly.

Now that you’ve created a masked affiliate link, you’ll have a better chance at keeping those sales you’ve earned. Though it’s not a guarantee against your affiliate ID getting dumped (it’s still possible for them to clear their cookies just before they purchase), it’ll go a long way to discouraging most ordinary users from simply typing the base web address and bypassing your link.