ViralURL Review: Link Cloaking, List Building, Promo Codes & More
ViralURL is a little different from most of the traffic exchanges and safelists we’ve covered. While it does provide advertising and mailing opportunities, its core purpose is a combination of URL cloaking, link tracking, list building, viral advertising, and affiliate-link protection.
The service has been around since 2007, making it one of the older platforms in this category. ViralURL’s current About Us page identifies Colin Klinkert and Frank Bauer as the people behind the service.
The current site describes ViralURL as an all-in-one marketing tool that can cloak and track links while helping members build a downline and advertise through its Viral Widgets. The signup page currently says there are more than 14,600 members.
That makes ViralURL worth looking at from a somewhat different angle: you’re not simply buying traffic. You’re getting a marketing tool that can also generate traffic and help build a list.
ViralURL at a Glance
| Feature | ViralURL |
|---|---|
| Platform Type | Link Cloaker / Tracker / Viral Advertising / List Builder |
| Free Membership | Yes |
| Paid Memberships | Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Elite |
| Credit Mailer Upgrade | Yes |
| URL Cloaking | Yes |
| Link Tracking | Yes |
| Viral Widgets | Yes |
| Email Downline | Yes |
| Banner Advertising | Yes |
| Text Advertising | Yes |
| Affiliate Commissions | Up to 60% |
| Owner/Founders | Colin Klinkert & Frank Bauer |
What Is ViralURL?
At its core, ViralURL is a link cloaking and tracking system combined with a viral list-building and advertising network.
The basic idea is pretty clever.
You take a link you’re promoting—such as an affiliate link—and put it through ViralURL.
Instead of displaying the original affiliate URL, ViralURL gives you a cloaked link.
When someone clicks it, ViralURL can track the visit while also exposing that visitor to ViralURL’s own marketing system.
According to the site’s current explanation, someone clicking your cloaked link can see your Viral Widget, and if they join ViralURL through that widget, they become part of your downline.
So one visitor can potentially provide you with:
- A click on your promoted website
- Tracking information
- A potential ViralURL referral
- Advertising credits
- Future downline exposure
That’s the “viral” concept behind the service.
Who Owns ViralURL?
ViralURL was created by Colin Klinkert and Frank Bauer.
The current official About Us page identifies:
- Colin Klinkert — CEO, ColinKlinkert.com
- Frank Bauer — CEO, Add2it.com
as the two people behind ViralURL.
Frank Bauer has also described himself as a co-founder of ViralURL and several related marketing properties.
The two founders launched ViralURL in October 2007, according to Colin Klinkert’s historical account of the company.
That’s worth mentioning because ViralURL isn’t a brand-new traffic site. It has a long operating history compared with many of the newer mailers and traffic exchanges.
Is ViralURL Free?
Yes.
ViralURL offers a Free membership with no membership fee.
The current signup page promotes free lifetime access and says free members can earn commissions of up to 60%.
Free members can also use the basic URL cloaking and viral marketing functions.
However, the paid memberships add substantially more advertising and list-building capabilities.
How Does ViralURL Work?
There are really three major components:
1. Link Cloaking
You can create cloaked URLs instead of exposing your affiliate links.
2. Tracking
ViralURL records information about the traffic going through your links.
3. Viral List Building
Visitors can be introduced to ViralURL through your Viral Widget and potentially become part of your downline.
The system then allows you to communicate with portions of that downline and advertise through Viral Widgets.
This combination is what makes ViralURL different from a conventional safelist.
Viral Widgets
The Viral Widget is one of the central features of ViralURL.
Your widget can appear when people visit your cloaked links, giving them an opportunity to discover ViralURL and potentially join under you.
The membership comparison shows that Free through Platinum members receive five Viral Widget types, while Diamond and Elite receive eight.
The system also allows your text and banner advertisements to appear on other members’ Viral Widgets and sites.
That creates a network effect:
Your visitor → your Viral Widget → potential ViralURL signup → your downline → future advertising opportunities.
It’s a different approach from simply buying banner impressions.
URL Cloaking
URL cloaking is one of the strongest reasons to use ViralURL even if you’re not particularly interested in the advertising network.
Affiliate links can sometimes be long, ugly, or expose the affiliate ID.
ViralURL lets you create a cleaner cloaked URL while keeping the destination hidden from the visitor.
The official site specifically markets the service as a way to protect affiliate commissions from people who might remove or replace an affiliate ID from the URL.
Of course, link cloaking isn’t a guarantee that an affiliate program itself will credit every sale, but it does give you another layer between the visitor and the raw affiliate URL.
Link Tracking
ViralURL also provides tracking for cloaked URLs.
This allows you to determine which links and promotions are actually generating clicks.
That’s particularly useful if you’re advertising the same offer in several places.
For example, you could create separate ViralURL links for:
- A traffic exchange
- A safelist
- A banner ad
- A YouTube description
- A blog article
You can then compare the traffic generated by each source.
For the strategy you’re building with 100 Percent Clicks, this is potentially more useful than simply having another place to accumulate advertising credits.
ViralURL Membership Levels
ViralURL has six main membership levels:
- Free
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Diamond
- Elite
There is also an optional Credit Mailer upgrade that can be purchased separately by members at any level.
One important thing about ViralURL’s pricing is that the upgrade cost depends on your current membership level.
The total cost of eventually reaching a particular membership level is the same regardless of which upgrade path you take.
Free Membership
Free members receive the basic ViralURL system.
Free includes:
- Unlimited URL cloaking
- 5 Viral Widget types
- 10 referring URLs shown per cloaked URL
- Email downline every 7 days
- Email downline 5 levels deep
- 1 text ad on other members’ Viral Widgets/site
- 1 banner ad on other members’ Viral Widgets/site
- Up to 60% commissions
- 0.1 credits for certain ads shown on your site
- 0.2 credits for banner/text ads shown on your site
- 4 saved Solo Ads
Free is enough to test the system and determine whether ViralURL fits into your marketing strategy.
Silver Membership
Silver is the first paid level.
For someone starting from Free, Silver costs:
- $7/month
- $17 every 3 months
- $27 every 6 months
- $47/year
Silver increases some of the advertising capabilities but retains five Viral Widget types and a five-level email downline.
It also provides 2,000 monthly Text Ad credits and 2,000 monthly Banner Ad credits.
Gold Membership
Gold costs from Free:
- $22/month
- $57/quarter
- $107/6 months
- $187/year
Gold increases several important features.
You get:
- 100 referring URLs per cloaked URL
- Email downline every 5 days
- Email downline 7 levels deep
- 5 text ads
- 5 banners
- 5 saved mailing templates
- 0.2 credits for certain ads shown on your site
- 0.4 credits for certain ads displayed on your site
Gold is also the first level where the system starts becoming considerably more powerful for someone doing serious list building.
Platinum Membership
Platinum costs from Free:
- $29/month
- $74/quarter
- $134/6 months
- $234/year
Platinum provides:
- 7-level downline emailing
- Email every 5 days
- 5 text ads
- 5 banners
- 10 saved mailing templates
- 2,100 monthly Text Ad credits
- 2,100 monthly Banner Ad credits
- Increased advertising-credit earning rates
Platinum also provides five Viral Widget types.
Diamond Membership
Diamond is where the Viral Widget system expands.
Diamond members receive:
- 8 Viral Widget types
- Up to 100 referring URLs per cloaked URL
- 7-level downline
- Email every 5 days
- 20 saved mailing templates
- 5 text ads
- 5 banners
- 1,000 monthly Text Ad credits
- 1,000 monthly Banner Ad credits
- Higher advertising-credit earning rates
Diamond is available as an upgrade from Gold.
From Gold, the listed price is:
- $17/month
- $47/quarter
- $87/6 months
- $147/year
Elite Membership
Elite is the highest main membership level.
It provides:
- 8 Viral Widget types
- 100 referring URLs per cloaked URL
- 7-level downline
- Email every 5 days
- 50 saved mailing templates
- 5 text ads
- 5 banners
- 5,000 monthly Text Ad credits
- 5,000 monthly Banner Ad credits
- Increased advertising-credit earnings
From Platinum, Elite costs:
- $17/month
- $47/quarter
- $87/6 months
- $147/year
ViralURL Credit Mailer Upgrade
This is an important feature that deserves its own section.
ViralURL offers an optional Credit Mailer Upgrade that can be purchased regardless of your main membership level.
The Credit Mailer upgrade gives members:
- 1,000 Mail Credits on signup
- 300 additional Mail Credits every day
for as long as the upgrade remains active.
There is an important distinction for Gold and higher members.
Instead of receiving their normal periodic mailing allocation, Gold and higher members receive a corresponding amount of Mail Credits every day when using the Credit Mailer upgrade.
The site essentially gives members the choice between sending periodic mailings or accumulating mailing credits.
That makes the Credit Mailer upgrade potentially useful for people who prefer flexibility over scheduled mailing limits.
ViralURL Advertising
ViralURL isn’t a traditional safelist where the entire focus is on blasting emails.
Advertising occurs through:
- Text Ads
- Banner Ads
- Viral Widgets
- Your own website
- Other members’ websites
- Emailing your downline
The credit system is based around both earning credits from advertising shown through the network and spending credits to display your own advertisements.
For example, the current comparison shows:
Text Ads
You receive:
- Free/Silver: 0.1 credit for certain impressions
- Gold and higher: 0.2 credits
while displaying your own text advertisement on the ViralURL network costs 1 credit per display on the site’s own inventory.
There are separate credit rates for displaying advertisements on other members’ sites.
The same general concept applies to banner advertising.
Emailing Your Downline
List building is another major component.
Free and Silver members can email their downline every 7 days.
Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Elite members can email every 5 days.
The depth also increases:
- Free: 5 levels
- Silver: 5 levels
- Gold+: 7 levels
This means a Gold-or-higher member can potentially communicate with people who joined several levels below them.
That’s an important distinction between ViralURL and a simple email list.
Affiliate Program
ViralURL offers an affiliate/referral program.
The current signup page states that even Free members can earn up to 60% commissions.
The membership comparison also shows up to 60% commissions on upgrades at every membership level.
This is a significant part of the system because you’re not only using ViralURL to promote outside offers.
You can also earn when people upgrade their ViralURL accounts.
ViralURL Promo Codes
I wasn’t able to verify a current public ViralURL promo code that I’d feel comfortable putting in the review as a guaranteed active code.
So, just like we do with the other sites when there’s no verified current code, I would leave this section ready for you to update manually:
ViralURL Promo Codes:
Check our current promo-code list for any active ViralURL bonuses, discounts, or advertising credits.
That’s preferable to putting an old or unverified code into the article.
Is ViralURL Legit?
ViralURL has several characteristics that make it stand out from a brand-new traffic site.
The domain was created in 2007, and the service identifies its founders publicly.
The official site is still actively maintained; its current marketing pages show a 2026 update, and its About Us page has a July 2026 date.
There is also a substantial amount of historical documentation about the system, including tutorials explaining its account, advertising-credit, and cloaking features.
That doesn’t mean every traffic source generated through ViralURL will be high converting.
Some of the testimonials on the official site are quite old and should be treated as testimonials rather than independent performance evidence.
But as an operating service, ViralURL has a long history and identifiable founders, which is a positive sign.
Who Is ViralURL Best For?
I’d put ViralURL into a somewhat different category from the typical safelist.
It’s particularly useful for:
- Affiliate marketers
- List builders
- Bloggers
- Website owners
- People promoting affiliate products
- Marketers who need link tracking
- People who want to cloak affiliate URLs
- Marketers building a referral organization
- People who want an additional advertising network
The link cloaking + tracking + list building combination is what makes it particularly interesting.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Free membership
- Long operating history
- Founded in 2007
- Identifiable founders
- URL cloaking
- Link tracking
- Viral Widgets
- Downline building
- Email downline
- Banner advertising
- Text advertising
- Advertising credits
- Credit Mailer upgrade
- Up to 60% commissions
- Multiple paid membership levels
- No recurring subscription required to use the Free membership
Cons
- More complicated than a traditional safelist
- The membership upgrade structure can be confusing
- Upgrade pricing depends on your current membership
- The Credit Mailer is a separate upgrade
- Some features aren’t available until Gold or higher
- Traffic results will vary depending on what you’re promoting
- Many testimonials on the official site are historical rather than current independent reviews
Is ViralURL Worth Trying?
Yes, but I’d look at it differently from most of the other traffic sites we’re reviewing.
If all you’re looking for is a safelist where you click ads and receive credits, there are simpler options.
ViralURL’s real value is the combination of:
Link Cloaking + Tracking + List Building + Viral Advertising
That makes it potentially useful even if you aren’t particularly interested in its advertising network.
For example, you could use ViralURL to create tracked links for your traffic-source reviews.
You could then determine which traffic sources are actually producing clicks.
And because ViralURL itself can help build a referral/downline structure, the same traffic can potentially create additional ViralURL referrals.
That’s a much more sophisticated model than simply exchanging credits for banner impressions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ViralURL?
ViralURL is an online marketing platform combining URL cloaking, link tracking, viral advertising, list building and referral marketing.
Is ViralURL free?
Yes. ViralURL offers a Free membership with lifetime access to its basic system.
Who founded ViralURL?
ViralURL was founded by Colin Klinkert and Frank Bauer in 2007.
What does ViralURL do?
Its primary tools include URL cloaking, tracking, Viral Widgets, list building, downline emailing and advertising.
How much does ViralURL cost?
There are six main membership levels. Free is $0, while the paid levels range from Silver through Elite. Pricing depends on your current membership level and payment period.
What is the ViralURL Credit Mailer?
It’s an optional upgrade that provides 1,000 Mail Credits on signup plus 300 Mail Credits per day while the upgrade remains active.
Does ViralURL have an affiliate program?
Yes. The site says members can earn up to 60% commissions on upgrades.
How We Use ViralURL
For our purposes, the tracking and link-cloaking features may actually be more valuable than the traffic itself.
As we build out 100 Percent Clicks, we can use ViralURL links to track campaigns and determine which traffic sources are actually producing visitors and leads.
That gives us another way to compare traffic sources based on results instead of simply looking at how many clicks or credits a site claims to provide.
The list-building component is another potential benefit.
Rather than simply sending people to an offer, ViralURL gives the visitor an opportunity to join another marketing network through the Viral Widget.
That means the traffic can potentially produce value beyond the initial click.
Final Verdict
ViralURL is one of the more unique platforms in this group.
It isn’t simply another safelist or traffic exchange.
Its core combination of affiliate-link cloaking, link tracking, list building, Viral Widgets, advertising credits and referral commissions gives it a much broader purpose.
The platform has also been operating since 2007, and the founders, Colin Klinkert and Frank Bauer, are publicly identified.
The Free membership makes it easy to test without committing money.
If you’re primarily interested in link tracking and affiliate-link protection, you may find value in ViralURL even without upgrading.
If you want the advertising and list-building features, Gold and higher memberships add considerably more functionality, while the optional Credit Mailer provides another way to accumulate advertising credits.
For our traffic strategy, I’d be particularly interested in using ViralURL as a tracking tool. We can send traffic from the different safelists and traffic exchanges through separate ViralURL links and see which sources actually produce visitors and, more importantly, email subscribers.
Overall: ViralURL is definitely worth testing, but I’d classify it as a marketing and tracking platform with a traffic component rather than simply another safelist.
