I’ve lately been amused by a certain Clickbank product that allegedly teaches you how to improve your email marketing. The funny thing about it is that the only way I heard about it was via unsolicited commercial email, which is sometimes referred to as “spam”. Perhaps those people should purchase the product themselves and learn how to market legally and ethically? 
At any rate, I wanted to look at the product (to see if it really does teach email marketing. It does, but it’s nothing new) but didn’t want to give a “click credit” or — GASP! — an affiliate commission to a spammer. So I used one of my favorite tools (which I’ll tell you about in a minute) to get the direct link to the sales letter.
Before I tell you how to do it (and you can use this method to research any link, be it a redirect or just a link to a site that looks a bit suspicious), I do want to say that I was tempted to put this post on one of my security blogs, such as The Business Protector or Simple Security Tips. In the end, though, I decided that the practical business applications outweigh the security benefits (although it’s a good way to check out a site without having to worry about infecting your computer — IF you know how to read raw HTML. All will be explained shortly…).
From a business perspective, the most important thing to remember is that a determined individual will figure out a way to bypass ANY redirect system. What I’m about to share with you is no big secret; by putting it out here in “broad daylight”, so to speak, I hope to show you that obscurity is never a true way to protect yourself and your business (OK, maybe I *SHOULD* have put this on The Business Protector… It’s always in my nature to think “protection”, so I hope you’ll forgive me for putting it here on this blog…).
OK, let’s get down to business. First, here’s a nice ClickBank link for what looks to be a nice product about how to restore a broken relationship (no promises; I didn’t buy it, and in case you can’t figure it out, that’s an affiliate link. If you click and buy, I make money). It’s an ugly thing, one of those new Clickbank links that makes it a lot more difficult to strip out the affiliate link.
Unless you know about Rex Swain’s HTTP viewer. All you need to do is click on that link, enter the URL you want to investigate in the box, and click on the “Submit” button. What happens after that is that Mr. Swain’s handy little tool goes and gets the HTML code for your website. If it redirects to a different site, it follows the trail, giving you the HTML for each site along the way.
In this case (and I encourage you to copy the link and try it yourself), if you enter the link in the page, you’ll discover that http://a62365x819hpaw5hh7uckmss6o.hop.clickbank.net redirects to http://a62365x819hpaw5hh7uckmss6o.hop.clickbank.net/hop/?CBRehoppp2=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.magicofmakingup.com%3Fhop%3Deverad20&hstr=1267554697117%7Ceverad20%7C%7Cbe7smc2myg%7Cmakingup&code=%7B0%7D&key=006B79BC&parms= (an ugly looking thing), which in turn redirects to http://www.magicofmakingup.com/?hop=everad20 .
Kind of makes it easy to strip off the affiliate ID and just visit the main website, doesn’t it?
This thing cuts through obscurity and redirects like a hot knife through soft butter. Give it a try some time if you don’t trust a redirect. But please: Keep in mind that most affiliates depend on their commission to pay the bills and that they spent time and money to put that link in front of you. Sure, don’t reward spammers — but if a legit affiliate worked to put the link in front of you, just click on the thing. We’ll all thank you for it — and it won’t cost you anything extra. Thanks.
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