I'm ecstatic with this discovery as it will now be a simple task to protect any affiliate link -- one that should take less than 10 minutes and not cost one cent.  I also assert that any non-techie (I'm at the front of that line) should be able to effectively hide links using the strategy that I'm about to outline.  (I'm going to do my best to review each detail as so many Internet gurus just do not know how to teach, leaving out certain, important steps.  Here goes the list of steps ... )

1. Go to your hosting control panel (cpanel).  You may be able to find it by typing the name of your domain followed by typing "/cpanel."  For example, I'm in the process of building the following site: http://www.best-merchant-account-companies.com.  I can gain access to the control panel by typing the following url: http://www.best-merchant-account-companies.com/cpanel.

2. Type your username and password to enter and use the options available in the control panel area.

3. Click on "Legacy File Manager."  (Legacy is my first choice; clicking on "File Manager" is also fine.)  Leave the default at: Web Root (public_html/www).

4, Look on top of the page you just entered.  It should indicate "public_html."  Near the term, "public_html" you should see and click on "Create a New Folder" or "New Folder."

5. Name the folder with terms relating to a product you wish to endorse.  For example, I'm now an affiliate of serendipity kinetic (a great blog theme) so I named the folder: "recommends-serendipity-kinetic".  I typed in "recommends-serendipity-kinetic" and clicked on the "create" button, right next to it.

6. The new folder now appears in the /public_html area, among all the other folders and files.

7. Find the new folder (I'm looking for "recommends-serendipity-kinetic") and click to the left of it, under "type."

8. You'll notice that the current directory is "Public_html/name of new folder."  For me, it's the following: 

You will then have to create a small file and upload it into this directory.  I'll describe this file in the subsequent steps.  

9. Go to notepad and type the following on top :

 <?php
header( 'Location: Your Affiliate Link Code') ;
?>    

I converted my affiliate link code to a shorter code by using the "tiny url" tool, accessible at http://www.tinyurl.com.  (You don't have to convert your affiliate code to a tiny url but I wanted to do this for my affiliate product.  Some affiliates only use the tiny url as their cloaker but I don't believe the end result looks that professional; an affiliate link seeming to originate from a domain is better.  Now my notepad reads:

<?php
header( 'Location: http://tinyurl.com/282ujls' ) ;
?> 

10. In notepad, Click on "File," and then "Save As,"  which will then prompt you to save the file on your desktop, directory, etc. and require that you input the "File Name" and "Save as Type."  The File Name should be "index.php" (without the quotes) and Save as type can be "All Files."

11. Go back to  "Public_html/name of new folder" mentioned in step 8 and upload this new notepad file from wherever you saved it.  (You just have to click on "Upload files" and browse to find the notepad file, and then click, "Upload.")

12. You're now done!  Your new cloaked affiliate link will look like: Url of your site/name of the folder you created.php.  In my example, when I click on: http://www.best-merchant-account-companies.com/recommends-serendipity-kinetic/index.php, it goes to the parent company's site with my code safely embedded.  This simple cloaking procedure is easy and fast ... and best of all, it works!

So if you want to use a cloaker which requires no sweat equity and no money, do it yourself following the aformentioned steps.  The game of hide and cloak has never been more simple.