Short of using tools to cloak your Affiliate Links in WordPress, there are additional methods at your disposal. Aside from redirecting affiliate links, you can control what displays on the status bar of the browser when your visitor hovers over the active link. These are called mouse-overs.

You simply add the following code to your link:

onMouseOver="window.status='enter your text here‘; return true;”

You can change the text to something you’d like to display. In the end, your link will look something like this:

<a href="http://www.sampleaffiliate.com/?aff_id=12345" onMouseOver="window.status='Widget Pro'; return true;">Widget Pro 2006</a>

Note that this method isn’t thief-proof. Basically, your visitor can still copy the real link by right-clicking or by viewing the source of your page. Because of this, it makes me wonder if this method is worth it. However, if you combine it with your .htaccess redirection, then it might better your chances. I’m only beginning to split-test this combined method, so I don’t have any sufficient results to present. If you’re using a similar method or a better one, drop me a line here as I’d really like to hear about it.

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