Here's how to set up your own URL redirect for easy "cloaking" of your affiliate links.First, you'll need to get a domain name from a registrar that offers redirects as part of their services.
www.Enom.com allows 100 redirects for each domain, so for about $9 a year, you can easily redirect 100 URLs without being dependant on third-party services. Note: I believe there are some registers that give you unlimited redirects, but I'm using Enom for my "how to".
First, the domain name must use Enom's name servers. This is the "default" and if you buy a domain from Enom, you won't need to change a thing.
Once registered, log into your domain name admin and click on the domain name.
Scroll down the page and find:
Current host settings:
Host Name Record Type Address
And click the button that says:
"Configure these settings...
ADVANCED USERS Only. "
Skip down to line #3:
Host Name: This is really a "sub domain" and will be the URL you post. You can enter anything you want, as long as it's one word. Enter "deals" and your URL will be:
deals.YourDomain.com
Record Type:
You can select one of two options:
URL REDIRECT: This will redirect the users to any URL you desire.
URL FRAME - This will show your deals.YourDomain.com as the address, but will use "frames" to display the page you want to redirect to.
You can change these at will so do a little experimenting.
Meta Tags - Enter a keyword/phrase for the page title. I'd say the two meta tags are optional.
Address - This is the URL that you want your visitors to arrive, for example your affiliate link.
That's it...You are now in control of you own URL redirect service.
Be creative with your subdomains...You have all sorts of options:
deals.domain.com
deal.domain.com
specials.domain.com
keyword1.domain.com
keyword2.domain.com
...
If anyone knows of other registers and would like to take the time to write a read me for them, I'd greatly appreciate it.