AdBlockPlus - Affiliate Link Solution?

**WATP** · 21 May 2014, 9:36 am

Hey Guys!

Searched the forum, but didn't really see a definitive answer to this, was wondering if anyone could lend a hand! It's kinda SEO I guess, but feel free to chuck it in a better forum category if necessary.

I noticed today that when I turn AdBlockPlus (Firefox) on for my own sites and, in this example; open bet365, the text links don't open. I don't use many of the flash/gif banners, so that's not my issue, it's simply for aff text link forwarding.

1) My example:
The links I use are all ".php redirects, so lets say "out.php" in a robots-blocked folder that then load the following code into the out.php file:

<?php
header("Location: AFFLINK");
?>

With ABP turned off, the bookie loads fine and it's all seo friendly etc. When I turned it on, the out.php link opens in a new windows as it's meant to, but just opens a blank page and sits on the "out.php" doing nothing. So ABP is blocking the forwarding to the bookie domain itself from the php redirect.

2) A working Example, and how is this achieved?
I then scoured the web through various famous odds/betting sites and tried oddschecker since I took a guess that they will be well optimized!

Example page oddschecker*com/football/football-specials/man-city/next-permanent-manager (wasn't sure if I could post links but there's the link anyway minus the ".")

I turned on ABP for bet365 and also on the oddschecker domain as a whole. Clicked their little 365 logo and.. a redirect page (oddschecker/betslip) appeared and then the bet365 site loaded with no issues!

3) Final Conclusions
Not much really, but I think.. it may be javascript at work?When I hover over the links in firefox, a "javascript:void" thing appears at the bottom of firefox.

I visited a few links in some active member's sigs, and the problem exists on a few of your sites too (for me at least).I don't think ALL bookies will suffer this, it must depend which ones have suffered the fate of being added to the ABP filter list (i have quite a few of their filters installed). Probably best to stick to bet365 for this example, since in my ABP anyway, they seem to be blocked. I noticed on some sites that just use the raw aff link; when I have ABP on - the text for the 365 link is completely removed, you can't even see it.

Does anyone have any SEO friendly/ABP beating methods of getting the afflink to display? I'm aware of various other methods such as "blocking users until ABP is turned off" (awful method imo), .html "page loading" refresh redirects (issues of page not loading with ABP still remain) and a few others, but I can't get any to work!

Cheers!

**lucas03** · 31 January 2016, 2:56 pm

Not sure if this is what you want, but when I opened redirect as "_blank" in new tab, AdBlock closed it. If I removed "rel=_blank", it opened ok.

**LukeC** · 31 January 2016, 4:52 pm

Cloak your affiliate links - https://yoast.com/cloak-affiliate-links/ has a how to

Or if you are lazy, the simple alternative is to shorten them in a bit.ly link

**lucas03** · 31 January 2016, 5:09 pm

I used redirect with my domain and AdBlock blocked it anyway.
I created page visit.html, where I had redirect through meta tag:

Code:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL='{{bookmaker.ref_link}}'" />

And on my bookmaker review page, I added link like this:

Code:

<a href="/visit/{{bookmaker}}" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">click here</a>

But with target blank AdBlock somehow realised it is redirected to bet365 and closed opened tab. It only worked if I remove target blank.

**universal4** · 31 January 2016, 9:11 pm

We have a number of discussions about affiliate link masking as well as adblocker.

Here are just a few:
https://www.dietistaktuellt.com/forum/affiliate...er-223777.html
https://www.dietistaktuellt.com/forum/okay-mask...no-225572.html
https://www.dietistaktuellt.com/forum/problem-a...lp-215991.html
https://www.dietistaktuellt.com/forum/how-mask-...ks-219172.html

Rick
Universal4

**justbookies** · 1 February 2016, 8:09 am

The OP is looking for a way to open a new window that wont be stopped by Adblocker. I dont think any discussions here have found a perfect solution to that. The only two solutions I have read that work are:

1) Use php or html redirect but delay the process by a second or so. (Not ideal and will this prove a long-term fix?)
2) Don't open a new window at all. (This is obviously no solution to opening a new window! It appears most affiliates also dislike this idea, given almost everyone is opening a new window on their sites).

**universal4** · 1 February 2016, 1:09 pm

Agreed,

I am actually more upset that adblocker turns off the display of images, often without much rhyme or reason and difficult to combat.

As for the new window/tab, I was doing that almost everywhere by have started changing that and plan on continuing over time based upon the adblocker results, but what has often been stated by many, most visitors are savvy enough to right click and open in a new tab anyway so I think traffic may not be affected by the change much.

Rick
Universal4

**justbookies** · 1 February 2016, 2:14 pm

Been playing around today - looks like you have to host images locally or they are blocked for sure. Also, a locally hosted image I named "bet365_468x60" was blocked but when I changed its name to "b365_medium" it wasn't. So if they blacklist a firm, as they have bet365, dont use its name in the image and dont use ad sizes in image name and don't use a folder called "ads", "adverts" or "banners" to host them in. Sticking to those rules every locally hosted banner I have on the site is now ok with adblocker.

I've changed all links on my main uk site to open in same window, which is scary coz it feels like risking my income. I'll see how it goes for a month. Fingers crossed that people use the back button if they want to, though I found that didnt always work as expected with every link.

By the way, I tested out the 'php redirect with a delay opening in new window' and adblocker blocked it every time. Maybe the code I used was too obvious. Do all your tests with bet365, coz adblocker hates that site.

I reckon this issue is only going to get worse as more betting sites, slowly but surely, get added to the default list of blocked sites.

**universal4** · 1 February 2016, 5:41 pm

That is good to know justbookies, I played around with almost the same words types and did not realize naming the image _468x60 is what was doing me in....I though it was the casino/bookie names....

I have always hosted my own images and that certainly is one indicator that agrees with my research.

I also notice that gifs get flagged faster then jpgs but jpg alone was not a solution.

Rick
Universal4

**sweetbet** · 1 February 2016, 11:02 pm

From what I understand, there are ways of getting around AdBlock Plus.

If you look at the filters of the program, you will see how it works.

1. Store images on your own server, and don't load your images from third party ad networks.
2. Change the standard banner ad sizes of 468 x 60, 125 x 125, 250 x 250, etc to slightly different sizes. For example; 465 x 55, 123 x 123, 245 x 245
3. Rename the image files so they don't contain words such as ad, advertisement, casino, poker, etc
4. Cloak the linking code to hide the URL that you are linking to.
5. Don't use certain words in the linking code such as casino, poker, click here, etc

But to go to such extremes in order to show ads to people who have deliberately blocked them is a fruitless venture in my opinion.

**universal4** · 1 February 2016, 11:51 pm

Originally Posted by sweetbet

But to go to such extremes in order to show ads to people who have deliberately blocked them is a fruitless venture in my opinion.

That is a good point but if people are browsing portals to start with they should be expecting to see ads and advertising but people have been so conditioned to think that ads are so bad and that running adblocker will keep them from getting a virus...(I even know geeks who think this)

Rick
Universal4

**justbookies** · 2 February 2016, 3:39 am

Originally Posted by sweetbet

2. Change the standard banner ad sizes of 468 x 60, 125 x 125, 250 x 250, etc to slightly different sizes. For example; 465 x 55, 123 x 123, 245 x 245

It is looking at the stated size not the size itself. The solution is don't put the size in the banner name or the code, then a 468x60 will be fine if locally hosted. Also the name of blocked bookmaker must not be included in name of banner.

Originally Posted by sweetbet

4. Cloak the linking code to hide the URL that you are linking to.

This works to prevent stripping out of anchor text from page, but the link to a blocked bookmaker still wont work if goes to new window. Current solution is to use same window.

Originally Posted by sweetbet

But to go to such extremes in order to show ads to people who have deliberately blocked them is a fruitless venture in my opinion.

Disagree. I reckon adblockers will be added by IT departments in many work places, so people will have them on who have not chosen them. If added deliberately, they may not realise how aggressive they are - initially added for example to stop intrusive pop-ups, but not realising it blocks every goddam thing related to a blocked site (like Bet365). Some of these people may find they do want a bet on the grand national or super bowl! While most betting sites have not yet suffered the fate of Bet365, they all will. Additionally it is possible the few hundred million people currently using adblockers may become much bigger numbers. So I reckon this could become a major issue if you want to make money in this industry.

**LTDAndy** · 17 May 2016, 4:49 pm

Originally Posted by justbookies

It is looking at the stated size not the size itself. The solution is don't put the size in the banner name or the code, then a 468x60 will be fine if locally hosted. Also the name of blocked bookmaker must not be included in name of banner.

This works to prevent stripping out of anchor text from page, but the link to a blocked bookmaker still wont work if goes to new window. Current solution is to use same window.

Disagree. I reckon adblockers will be added by IT departments in many work places, so people will have them on who have not chosen them. If added deliberately, they may not realise how aggressive they are - initially added for example to stop intrusive pop-ups, but not realising it blocks every goddam thing related to a blocked site (like Bet365). Some of these people may find they do want a bet on the grand national or super bowl! While most betting sites have not yet suffered the fate of Bet365, they all will. Additionally it is possible the few hundred million people currently using adblockers may become much bigger numbers. So I reckon this could become a major issue if you want to make money in this industry.

Really interesting discussion and great to see others share experiments to try to resolve, I used to store all images locally and serve, about to port a series of banners onto our new site so will make sure to change the sizes a little and not to include terms and brands that would be on any blacklists.

**universal4** · 17 May 2016, 6:06 pm

Let us know how well it works out changing the sizes.

Gif's will be blocked quicker than jpg and also names can be key.

Rick
Universal4

**eenzoo** · 19 May 2016, 6:40 am

Ones again for WP user here, you can fix all blocking problems for gfx ads with a free plugin
https://wordpress.org/plugins/moreads-se/

**Aeternus** · 19 May 2016, 5:16 pm

Many dark skies on the horizon in affiliateland, and adblockers are definately one of them. I don't know how many people visiting my sites use adblockers, but it seems plugins like these get ever more popular.

My fix on the problem was to open links in the same window as mentioned. Have anyone run any tests to see the effects of this?

Btw. Does Adblock block tracking cookies all together? If so, it would be a loosing battle no matter what.

**universal4** · 19 May 2016, 6:27 pm

So what does the plugin that self hosts ads do different than self hosted ads?

Their reviews do not discuss it and the support section is blank although I did find this is the change log

1.3.5

Better AdBlock Jammer Implementation for newest Chrome Build

1.3.4

Better AdBlock Jammer Implementation for more AdBlockers

But no indication of anything that explains it.

Eenzo are you one of the first 100 using this?

Rick
Universal4

**eenzoo** · 20 May 2016, 3:45 am

Yes, i have it online. It makes a good job. Ads get not blocked, target blank working without problems.
And there are some differences to a self hosted banner.
I.e. there are no <img src= ... but <div with image-banner as a background.
Linkurls are inbound and in javascript ...
And some more i don't understand

If someone needs a Pro version:
MoreAds Anti AdBlock https://offer.affiliate-solutions.xy...se-premium-en/
Bounce Rate Jammer https://offer.affiliate-solutions.xyz/bounce-jammer-en/
Please use code: GAMBLING for a 30% discount

**universal4** · 20 May 2016, 4:54 am

OK, thanks for explaining the div and background image part, but I wonder if we could get the same results doing that using that method without the plugin.

Rick
Universal4

**latrobet** · 24 May 2016, 7:34 pm

I have inluded a chunk of code that overcome the open in same widow issue for us. Our issue wasnt with adblocker but i believe its a very similar issue.

I will try and test it with adblocker later in the day if I get a chance.

Basically we are just opening a page from the same url in a new window then redirecting that window to the external link.

P.S Im doing this on my phone so hope its ledgable....

/*
$("#ButtonClick").click(function () {
var win = window.open('/Loading', 'WindowName', 'height=768,width=1304'); //Open window immediatly to loading page

$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/Home/stuff",
data: data,
dataType: 'json',
success: function (data) {
//Do Stuff, on success take window object and override it.
win = window.open('/SiteContent', 'WindowName', 'height=768,width=1304');
win.opener = null;
}
},

*/

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