In-depth questions about cloaking

[ironbull]

Hi everyone,

It has been a while since I have posted here in AffiliateFix.

I have some in-depth questions about cloaking that I hope someone here could answer.

- What are the most important variables when you cloak a LP from a reviewer? IP ranges, GEOs, ISP, Referer, User Agent, Host name, OS?

- When you are running something non-compliant, is it better to hide it to the traffic source, the affiliate network or both of them?

- Right now I know of two methods to hide the referrer of a visit (double meta-refresh and SSL). Do these methods hide the LP both to the traffic source and the affiliate network or just to the affiliate network?

- What is the best way to cloak/block your landing pages from ad spy tools? Do you use .htaccess rules based on User agents or something else?

I would accept replies via PM.

Thanks in advance

 

[servandosilva]

Nothing big is going to shared publicly about these, but...

1. All of them. You don't want to take any chances
2. depends on your relationship with your managers on both sides and the restrictions of each offer
3. Got it all wrong. These methods don't hide the LP to the traffic source. Only to the affiliate network, although there are leaks so the affiliate network or the advertiser can still see your landers form time to time. Traffic source can still se everything if you use DMR or SSL.
4. Depends a lot on the spy tool... but what's most important is your connections to gather data and share information in private groups/conversations.

 

[ironbull]

Nothing big is going to shared publicly about these, but...

1. All of them. You don't want to take any chances
2. depends on your relationship with your managers on both sides and the restrictions of each offer
3. Got it all wrong. These methods don't hide the LP to the traffic source. Only to the affiliate network, although there are leaks so the affiliate network or the advertiser can still see your landers form time to time. Traffic source can still se everything if you use DMR or SSL.
4. Depends a lot on the spy tool... but what's most important is your connections to gather data and share information in private groups/conversations.

1. Maybe I need to reframe my question...what are the variables that are less likely to change in the time? Is it common that reviewers use VPNs and fake their User Agents?

2. But as a main rule...is it always a good practice to cloak, right?

3. I made a mistake with the question. I've just corrected it. What are those leaks that you are talking about? Best way to cloak the traffic source?

4. Let's say I want to cloak/block MobileAdScout, what would be the best way to do it?

 

[servandosilva]

1. Totally depends on traffic source. Some of them are lazy and just check country (VPN), but some are a lot more strict and change IPs, countries, devices, etc.

2. I'd say yes, to avoid competition and spy tools.

3. It means sometimes the referrer information gets leaked and the network/advertiser can still see your landing pages. To cloak to the traffic source you just do what you asked in question no.1 or use a cloaker.

4. Not going to mention that, but, you can always ask other people who has done it already and they might point you in the right direction.