I was so hesitant on to whether or not I should make this post. I ended up deciding to post it anyway. This post is about a Blackhat method widely known, and I'm sure that a lot of you have already heard of it. I'm talking about Cookie Stuffing!
However, not may of you know about this specific cookie stuffing technique I'm about to reveal here.
I'm presenting this technique here as a "proof of concept", just for kicks. Using this method of stuffing cookies might get you banned from forums and/or the affiliate programs you are using it with (eg. Clickbank).
I DO NOT Endorse This Cookie Stuffing Technique In Any Form!
What It Does:
This is a little htaccess recipe allows you to secretly plant cookies of your affiliate programs (aka "cookie stuffing") on PCs of visitors of forums that you visit.
We will use Clickbank in this example. In other words, you'll have the ability to set Clickbank cookies even when people don't click on your clickbank hoplinks. The only thing they have to do, is to read a thread which you've posted to in order for you to have your cookie set on their computers ;).
Clickbank Cookie-Stuffing Via Spoofing Images With .htaccess
This is a very clever technique that works by loading clickbank hoplinks in image tags, hidden in forum posts.
It may not seem like any big deal because in HTML it's easy to place any URI in any image tag as web-browsers won't really care - they will load it anyway.
Problem is most forums have mechanisms in place to prevent you from entering URI's in image tags. In other words, you can't enter a url in the following form:
http://yourid.vendor.hop.clickbank.net/[/url]mage url in most forums.
A solution has to be thought of in order to be able to stuff cookies, using image tags in forums.
The Secret:
What has to be done, is to fool the forum software into thinking that we are only loading images into visitors' browsers.
Forum softwares are able to tell if images are inserted, in a way that is kindda crude. What matters is that the URL looks like a url of an image.
For example, the scripting functions would reject a url as an image if it resembled something like this:
[url]http://youraffid.vendorid.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=forum[/url]
BUT, if your URLs resemble image URLs, as in the below example, they'll pass:
[url]http://yourdomain.com/pics/vendorid/forum.jpg[/url]
They will pass the verification process for image URLs because they LOOK like them.
Get The Code:
This is actually a simple method to use for cookie stuffing.
1- Create a directory on your webhost and call it "pics".
2- Create a file called .htaccess in the directory you made in step 1.
3- Place the following 2 lines of code into your .htaccess file (replacing "yourcbid" with your actual Clickbank ID).
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule (.+)/(.+).jpg http://yourcbid.$1.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=$2 [R,L]
How to cookie stuff using this method: What you have to do is really simple and requires just a little intelligence.
We will assume that your .htaccess file is located in the directory example.com/pics/
For BBCode forums, just insert an image into your post using the following form:
[IMG]http://example.com/pics/vendorid/tid.jpg[/IMG]
(The example above displays the bbcode image tags.)
Make sure you replace "vendorid" with the Clickbank's Vendor ID of the product you wish to market.
Also, change "tid" to your desired tracking-ID.
Summary:
The above cookie stuffing technique bypasses most forum softwares image verification, using only two lines of code in an htaccess file.
If you decide on using this method, make sure you are prepared for any backlash/bitch slap from forum owners, Clickbank … etc!
There is also a very famous cookie stuffer script called the Secret Script. You can take a look at it here.
Oh! One more thing … you might get banned from forums if you are detected using this method! You might even get banned from Clickbank and/or other affiliate programs you are using as well ;). You've been warned! So use only on your own risk!
Mystery…
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Cookie stuffing will most certainly get you banned from your favorite affiliate networks!!
Don’t believe me? Try it!