For the ultimate in protection you will need to cloak the affiliate URL provided when you signed up for each affiliate program. This is done by converting the provided code to Hexadecimal code. I use a FREE program provided by Smithfam.com Internet Marketing Support called “Don’t ASCII, Don’t Tellii.” You can download the free program from:
http://www.smithfam.com/dascii.exe. (RIGHT CLICK on link & Select “SAVE TARGET AS..”)
Save the file somewhere that it can be easily accessed, as you will need to run it occasionally as you sign up for various referral programs. Click on the saved dascii.exe file, enter the affiliate code you want to convert in the top window, and press the Text to ASCII button to convert the text string to Hexadecimal. The Hexadecimal Code in the bottom window will be the code you insert into your HTML documents.
In the illustration above the affiliate code link is:
http://hop.clickbank.net/?YourAccountName/Affiliatename
When I run the program, it converts the ASCII text to Hexadecimal code that looks like the following:
http://hop.clickba
nk.net/?YourAccoun
tName/Affiliatename
Once you have the code converted, you’ll need to substitute it into the original HTML code. So,
<META HTTP-EQUIV=Refresh CONTENT="0; URL=http://hop.clickbank.net/?YourAccountName/Affiliatename">
Becomes,
<META HTTP-EQUIV=Refresh CONTENT="0;URL=http://hop.click
bank.net/?YourAccou
ntName/Affiliatena
me">
Now any Spyware or Virus programs that successfully make their way onto your computer will not be able to recognize the standard “hop.clickbank.net” format and substitute their referral information for yours.
You’ll need to repeat this process for each affiliate code link you are using.
The example code for each of the 3 files
used to further hide your affiliate codes in a framed implementation, is color coded to assist you in determining where to place your specific affiliate links and which need to be converted to hexadecimal.