LinkHopper

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If you run a WordPress installation and want to use affiliate links, it can get a bit ugly. Wouldn’t it be nice to link to www.yoursite.com/hop/name instead?

Historically, this is usually accomplished with a standalone PHP redirect, or a line in the .htaccess file.

Now you can do it through the WordPress administration.  This plugin allows you to configure a hop name, and a hop destination.  When you link to yoursite.com/hop/TAG/, the visitor will be redirected to your chosen destination.

linkhop-config

You can configure as many hops as you wish.  Another nice feature is that if you link to /hop/gifts/, and your affiliate link changes, you don’t need to go hunting for all references to that link.  Just update the hop, and save yourself some time!

Example link: www.fergusweb.net/hop/linkhop redirects to this page.

Versioning

  • Version 1.3
    • Rewrote to use jQuery instead of MooTools javascript.  (Less conflict with other WordPress scripts this way)
    • Added a “test” link to each row in the Hops table, so that you can see what your link should be.
  • Version 1.2
    • Bugfix: You can now change the baseURL from /hop/ to /links/ or anything else.
  • Version 1.0
    • Original release

{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }

Jzatt July 31, 2009 at 10:38 pm

Thanks for this great plugin! I”ve just started using it, but I can allready tell that it’ll soon be up on all of my sites 🙂

Only thing missing is, as others allready have said here, some kind of stats! I would really apreciate if you could add that. Would even concider donating to this plugin if stats gets included 🙂

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Ella June 4, 2009 at 4:01 pm

Hi…! This rocks. You rock. Thank you for sharing and helping people out. I send you a virtual beer 🙂

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Anthony May 20, 2009 at 10:18 pm

John #1: If your affiliate link has two sets of “http://” then it would have failed javascript validation. I’ve just released Version 1.3 with different validation – could you see if that helps please? If not, I can provide you with a version without Javascript.

John #2: Stats are a good idea, and I’ll consider adding that kind of functionality at a later date. I don’t have the time for it just now though.

John #3: If your Base URL is “links”, and your hop name is “clickbank”, then this:
“http://site.com/links/clickbank”
will redirect to
“http://www.affiliatelink.hop.clickbank”

I’ve just released Version 1.3 of the plugin which includes “test” links in the admin screen, to show you what your link will be (it puts your site URL together with the Base URL and Hop Name).

Hope that helps.

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John May 20, 2009 at 2:11 am

Ok I must be missing something. I have an affiliate link that I would love to redirect to my blog.

http://mydomain/links

I configured my linkhopper as such

Base Url
/links/

hop name Destination URL
clickbank http://affiliatelink.hop.clickbank

Where am I messing something? I am assumeing my redirect link should be http://mydomain/links/

Im banging my head here any advise or help would be valuable.

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John May 6, 2009 at 8:18 am

Really nice, I am using this plugin on several sites. Is it any posibility to get stats on links showed or/and clicked?

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John April 27, 2009 at 11:24 pm

Hello, great plugin! I have ONE problem: Some of my affilate links I want to mask are *very* long containg to sets of http:// . And that is not allowed, says linkhopper. I just cant save these links. How do i un-enable this check?

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Anthony April 24, 2009 at 10:14 pm

Hi folks. Sorry for taking so long to get back to some of you.

Alex: Stats are a great idea, I’ll consider building some form of traffic logging at a later date. I have no plans to do so immediately though – I just don’t have the time.

Jo: Thanks very much for the feedback and the stats idea.

John Z: Sorry for the mixup, I have comment moderation turned on, which is why you didn’t see your earlier comment. I’ve just released a new version of this plugin using jQuery instead of Mootools, so it shouldn’t clash with your other plugins. Could you try version 1.3 and let me know how it goes? Thanks.

Kate: Set the “Base URL” to be “hop”. Then create a hopper with name “test” and destination “http://www.google.com”. Then if you go to yoursite.com/hop/test, you’ll be redirected to Google. Make sense? Feel free to email me if you need me to walk you through anything.

[I back-dated this comment to avoid confusion with the many John’s here.]

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Kate April 23, 2009 at 5:44 am

I am having difficulties on exactly the set up with this. I’m not following on how to set it up. Can I get blow by blow baby steps here? pout. thanks

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John Zanussi April 14, 2009 at 9:04 am

I left a comment earlier today but I do not see it here anymore. I really like this plugin but I am unable to use it due to a bug. There is something happening with the URL rewrite that is preventing the default javascript files from loading in the wordpress admin and I am forced to keep the plugin disabled. I hope this bug can be fixed for the next update as it is exactly what I am looking for. Please email me if you’d like more information about the bug that I am experiencing. Thanks.

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John Zanussi April 14, 2009 at 4:11 am

I was looking for a plugin like this for a while and it works great but I have noticed one bug. It kills the javascript files from loading in the admin. I’m sure it has something to do with rewriting the urls but I do not have the time to look into it. I had to deactivate the plugin as we need js functionality in our admin. I would love to see this bug fixed in the next release. Please email me if you’d like more info on the bug. Thanks.

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jo April 8, 2009 at 12:54 am

This is an amazing plugin. Works brilliantly! So simple to use as well. as mentioned above if it kept some stats it would be perfect! even if it just had a column in the admin box which just said how many times that link had been clicked it would be immense.

All the same just wanted to say thank you for this great plugin… and hopefully in future versions you will include some stats

keep up the amazing work!! 🙂

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Alex Sysoef April 1, 2009 at 7:40 am

If you could only add some form of Stats – this will become one of the plugins I wil recommend on my blog 🙂 although, I think I will anyway!

Great work!
Alex

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Anthony March 30, 2009 at 9:01 pm

Hi Captain Internet,

You should definitely be able to do so, but I had a bug that disallowed it. I’ve just released version 1.2 on the Wordpress directory. If you update your plugin, you’ll be able to do this.

Just go to Tools -> Link Hopper, and change the base URL.
By default it says: /hop/
You can change that to be /links/ or /jump/ or anything else. Just one word though, don’t use /multiple/directories/

(PS, Can I get a cape like yours?)

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Captain Internet March 30, 2009 at 12:21 am

Captain Internet swooshes in and says

Is it possible to change hop to another word such as links or jump?

Thanks,

Captain Internet

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Captain Internet March 29, 2009 at 11:19 am

Captain Internet swooshes in and says…..

This is a brilliant idea. Easy to use and works great thank you!

Captain Internet

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baron March 29, 2009 at 3:43 am

Works great, thank you

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