Affiliate link hijacking is a big problem, some people will change your affiliate URL to their own before purchasing a product so they themselves get paid the commission giving them a discounted product.
This problem is far worse if you are promoting to the affiliate marketers crowd as they can spot an affiliate link from 100 yards away! They will just replace your affiliate ID with their own and “hijack” your commissions.
Some people just simply hate the thought that you will make a commission from their purchase and will just cut off your affiliate ID at the end of the URL. If you don’t take steps to try and hide your affiliate links from hijackers, then you will carry on losing commissions.
Using a redirect php script
This is an easy technique to implement, all you have to do is create a single php file that includes a small piece of code, so if you are trying to promote www-yourID.merchID.hop.clickbank-net then you way create a blank page called, say, http://discounts.php that just contains the redirect script, so the actual link you promote would be www-yoursite-com/discounts.
Unfortunately this technique does have one...