Link Cloaking Plugin for WordPress
I’ve created a plugin for WordPress that can cloak outgoing links in your posts and/or pages.
Features
- Choose what to cloak – all links, only the links you specify or no links at all.
- Choose where to cloak – posts, pages or both.
- Configure the URL – you can set the “prefix” part of the URL (see examples below).
- Exception list – links pointing to domains in this list will not be cloaked. For example, this is useful if you have chosen to cloak all links but don’t want to cloak the links to your own domains.
- Compatible with all browsers – the link cloaker plugin doesn’t use JavaScript so it will work even for visitors that have disabled JS.
- “Smart” cloaking – relative, ambiguous or malformed URLs will not be cloaked. Better safe than sorry.
- As of version 1.1, static link cloaking.
New! The premium version of this plugin is now available and includes several new features :
- Cloak links in any part of your site, including the comment section and the sidebar.
- Five new cloaking types – for example, you can display the cloaked URL in a frame, or use a special redirect that hides the referrer.
- Improved link management and click statistics.
- Free automatic updates.
- And more. Check out EclipseCloaker.com for complete details.
Examples
Here’s a link explicitly tagged for cloaking -
<a href="http://evil-guide.tripod.com/"><!--cloak-->A Cloaked Link</a>
And here’s what it looks like in the post – A Cloaked Link
If you have configured the plugin to cloak all links (the default) you don’t need the <!–cloak–> tag inside your links.
Installation
- Download the link-cloaking-plugin.zip file.
- Unzip the file.
- Upload the `link-cloaking-plugin` folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory.
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
- (Optional) Go to Options -> Link Cloaking and modify the default settings to your liking.
- Re-save your permalink settings to insert the plugin’s link redirection code to the WordPress .htaccess file :
- WP 2.7 and above : Go to Settings -> Permalinks and click “Save Changes”.
- Older versions of WP : Go to Options -> Permalinks and click “Update Permalinks”.
Download
Version 1.3 : link-cloaking-plugin.zip (9 KB)
Requirements :
- WordPress 2.2 – 2.8.4
mod_rewrite. If “pretty permalinks” work on your blog then you probably have this already.
I’ve suddenly started getting 404 errors with this plugin. Been trying to track the problem but not having any joy yet, is anyone else experiencing problems?
@Ash – The plugin hasn’t been modified for a while, so it seems unlikely it would be the source of the problem. Have you made any changes to your server configuration, or installed any new plugins lately?
@Ash – Ah traced the problem to an entry i made in the htaccess which conflicted with the rules of the plugin.
Hi – This is a problem-free plugin on several sites I have. Thanks!
But, there is an exception – all I get is 404 errors (on my own site) when cklicking cloaked links on scrapbookinggems.com.
The only config difference I’m aware of from my other sites using Link Cloaker is that on this site I have restructured my Permalinks, using a combination of Dean’s Permalinks Migration and Permalink Redirect – latest versions. I’m running WP 2.6.3.
This config was in place before I tried using Link Cloaker. I have remembered to update permalinks, with a writable .htaccess. .htaccess is updated with the Link Cloaker redirects.
I’ve also tried entering the Link Cloaker’s /goto/ url in the exclusion list for Permalink Redirect, but this makes no difference.
Any suggestions?
Ken
I was using your plugin for a while but it stopped working. I wish I could remember what the problem was now but I ended up paying about $100 for a link cloaker because I’m so used to people not supporting their plugins. Now I see that you are still actively involved here so I’m sorry I didn’t report the issue sooner in detail because maybe it could have helped you here. Unfortuneately I don’t remember now exactly what it was doing except that the link cloaker stopped working. Sorry.
[...] first two autoblogs… 1)Is there any advantage to using GoCodes over my link cloaker of choice, Link Cloaking Plugin for WordPress | W-Shadow.com ? I ask because for some reason the titles of my posts aren’t getting cloaked, although on the [...]
@Stephen – Well… what can I say? Life goes on
@Ken – Check your .htaccess again. The plugin’s rules need to be above WordPress rules in the file, otherwise you might have problems like these.
Sorry for not replying earlier – your comment got caught by the spam filter.
thiiiiiiiiiiiiks man for this very great plugin you saved my ass:-)
It works 1000%
It works great, I like it but the problem is the plugin only redirect to original website, can you masking the link so if visitor go to my link likes http://www.domain.com/go/cloaklink and visitor still see the link at browser not the original link.
Thank you for the plugin, It works 100%
@Andri – It could be done, but not in this version.
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You are awesome for sharing such a great plugin with us! Thanks!
Hi =)
I’ve been using this plugin on many of my sites and I love it – thank you!
Problem – today I upgraded my first blog to WordPress 2.7 and now ALL my cloaked links are broken.
Any insight?
I sure hate to have to go wandering the web to find all the places I put these cloaked links…lol!
Your help would be most appreciated!
Thank you!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
@PotPieGirl – Oh, I guess you probably need to check the .htaccess, see if the link cloaker code is still there and update permalinks if it isn’t.
I’ve upgraded to WP 2.7 too and the cloaked links still work fine.
@White Shadow –
Oh, THANK YOU!!!! Something so simple and it worked like a charm – AND saved me a ton of work!!!!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
@PotPieGirl – Glad to help
[...] the URL – you can set the “prefix” part of the URL (see examples [...]
Would be nice to have. “Cloak all links except tagged with ”
@Mario – Yes, yes…
Thought I’d mention. I just started a wordpress 2.7 blog. I used the link cloaker plugin but it wouldn’t work.
So I resaved my permalinks and it worked fine, anyone having 2.7 problems should try resaving permalinks. Got the tip above, thanks.
Hi… AWESOME PLUGIN!
Works great… I just thought I’d mention that I also use Blog Mechanics Keyword Linker Simply because it is not case restrictive and adds a “no-follow” to the links. (http://www.dijksterhuis.org/wordpress-plugins/keyword-link-plugin/)
However, I notice that Link Cloaker won’t cloak the links that BM Keyword Link generates… any thoughts on that?
@Michael Smith – As a rule, this plugin won’t cloak links generated by other plugins. This is because it would be very hard to detect those links.
[...] On Number 6: Link Cloaking Plugin. If you promote affiliate stuff like, clickbank or cj.com and you dont want to protect you affiliate links then this is “the” plugin to do just that, i love plugins that are just plain simple and this one is, you go to tools ad your affiliate link and then you get a link like http://www.yoursite.com/goto/affiliateprogram, you see very simple. [...]
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first of all: thank you for the plugin!
is there a chance to use wild-cards in the “cloaked links”?
merry christmas!
@Marc – I’ll add that to the idea list
@White Shadow – Nice!
I use this great plugin but some links createt with the plugin AmazonSimpleAdmin doenst work. They only link to my Site.
How can I fix this?
AmazonSimpleAdmin is from here: http://www.ichdigital.de/amazonsimpleadmin
Please help me
Hi Everyone
anyone else having problems with the plugin and the new version of wordpress? I just noticed that all my links inside my posts are not working anymore so I had to turn off the plugin.
Let me know if anyone else is having this problem.
Thanks
Edson