Hide the true affiliate url

When some surfers see an affiliate link they can just open a new browser window and then directly type in the merchants url and go straight to the site, this results in you getting no referral.

To avoid this you can encode your affiliate link within a small piece of JavaScript. This hides the true affiliate url and allows you to display a 'dummy url' in its place.

Below is the code;

<a onMouseOver='window.status="http://www.merchant-url-goes-here.com";
return true' onMouseOut='window.status="Done"; return true'
href="http://www.affiliate-url-goes-here.com" target="_blank">TEXT GOES
HERE</a>

This link will display the http://www.merchant-url-goes-here.com in the
status bar at the bottom of your browser, hiding the
http://www.affiliate-url-goes-here.com.

The Solution.
You can check these kinds of links by holding down your mouse button on the link (right or left button), the status bar will then reveal the true link.

Another Tip.
When entering your merchants url, don't enter the exact one. A user can still see it and then type it into a new browser window. Use one that is still related to the merchant's site but doesn't actually exist. For example, if you're linking to www.myaffiliateprogram.com then you could change that url to something like www.myap-software.com. If a user
tries to type this directly into a browser it won't work. The user will then have to come back to your page and actually click on the link to get to their intended destination.