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Affiliates - Lend Me Your Ears

by Michael Silvester
20 replies
Hi Guys,

I am setting up an affiliate program script on a website
that I am about to launch and I was just wondering what
is the best set-up.

As an Affiliate...do you prefer a program that rewards
you as the first affiliate or as the last person to refer?

Hope that makes sense?

Looking forward to your replies.

Take Care,

Michael Silvester
#affiliates #ears #lend
  • Profile picture of the author rapidscc
    I would say the last. It would do injustice if the first affiliate stopped promoting and the sales was due to the last affiliate continously working hard.

    oMar

    P.S. I hope I'm getting your point right..
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  • Profile picture of the author Kelly Verge
    "First" rewards SEO and fast action.

    "Last" rewards salesmanship.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Silvester
    Hmm...

    Thanks for your replies!

    So...which one would you prefer?

    I have set the system up so that it tracks
    cookies, IP's and Sessions.

    So my question is still...First or Last?

    Take Care,

    Michael Silvester
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    • Profile picture of the author Sean A McAlister
      Hey Michael,

      Most affiliate programs that are used for the majority
      of the product roll outs are a first cookie...in fact I am
      pretty sure that most of the 3rd Party processors
      only offer 1st cookie.

      As far as the affiliate base...I would have to say
      that most prefer a First Cookie. IF you have Affiliates
      that are ACTUALLY Promoting...most of them will
      want the first cookie.

      Last Cookies suck....I think....
      It would be like building a new store, spending the
      money to get it going and then hand
      the keys to some passer by who just happens to be
      there to collect all the profits.

      In fact I have seen counter productive results with a
      last cookie promo (nobody mails their list or gets into
      the promotion...because they know that some sucker
      can snag the sale at the end)

      This is especially true if you are incorporating Squeeze
      pages into your launch sequence. Affiliates in general
      are apprehensive of "List Grabs" as it is......combine
      that with the fact that they spend the time mailing
      their list ( which is valuable) only to find out that
      some random Sniper Site gets the sale ....no good.

      I am only speaking from personal experience.....I am
      sure that there are some affiliates who love Last cookie...
      but I would tend to think the Majority would prefer
      first cookie.

      The biggest thing affiliates care about are the conversions,
      your sales funnel and what that equates to in dollars.

      And.......a LIFETIME Cookie.

      Hope this helps.

      Sean
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      • Profile picture of the author Michael Oksa
        Originally Posted by Sean A McAlister View Post

        Hey Michael,

        Most affiliate programs that are used for the majority
        of the product roll outs are a first cookie...in fact I am
        pretty sure that most of the 3rd Party processors
        only offer 1st cookie.

        As far as the affiliate base...I would have to say
        that most prefer a First Cookie. IF you have Affiliates
        that are ACTUALLY Promoting...most of them will
        want the first cookie.

        Last Cookies suck....I think....
        It would be like building a new store, spending the
        money to get it going and then hand
        the keys to some passer by who just happens to be
        there to collect all the profits.

        In fact I have seen counter productive results with a
        last cookie promo (nobody mails their list or gets into
        the promotion...because they know that some sucker
        can snag the sale at the end)

        This is especially true if you are incorporating Squeeze
        pages into your launch sequence. Affiliates in general
        are apprehensive of "List Grabs" as it is......combine
        that with the fact that they spend the time mailing
        their list ( which is valuable) only to find out that
        some random Sniper Site gets the sale ....no good.

        I am only speaking from personal experience.....I am
        sure that there are some affiliates who love Last cookie...
        but I would tend to think the Majority would prefer
        first cookie.

        The biggest thing affiliates care about are the conversions,
        your sales funnel and what that equates to in dollars.

        And.......a LIFETIME Cookie.

        Hope this helps.

        Sean
        Hi Sean,

        I respect your opinion, but my take is different.

        To me, it's more like having an appliance store where the sales people earna commission (much like affiliate products). Then having a customer that comes in multiple times looking at stoves. For whatever reason, the first 9 times they never buy, but then on the 10th time something clicks with what the sales person says. Why in the heck would the 1st sales person (who din't make the sale) deserve any commission?

        My vote is for last cookie.

        All the best,
        Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author Rachel Rofe
    I'd prefer last, and if you want affiliates to offer bonuses to bribe their list to buy from you, then last would be better there too - otherwise people will justify that it doesn't matter how awesome their bonuses are if potential customers already came across the site.

    HTH
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Silvester
    Originally Posted by imlearnerim View Post

    dont existing affiliate networks like clickbank or paydotcom already offer this option. why would you need a script? sorry. newbie here. just asking.
    Because I am a Control Freak and I love the flexability
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  • Profile picture of the author AlexKaplo
    I have to agree with Sean...

    Affiliates (moi) will work like crazy promoting everywhere and being the first to put videos up, articles, ppc, etc, etc... I'm talking about 24x7 for days and nights during the pre-launch and getting as many people to optin or at least get as many eye balls on to the page to get the cookie tracked...

    (CAUGHT* that way you can get a lot of "accidental" purchases under your cookie and in most cases you should promote hard and fast with first cookie especially before the "big boys" start mailing the offer lol)...

    Definitely more rewarding for affiliates it being first cookie...

    Personally I vote first cookie all the way!...
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  • Profile picture of the author rondo
    Sean I'll disagree with you about that. The majority of affiliate programs and networks use last cookie, not first cookie.


    Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary McCaffrey
    Last cookie, definitely. That way its more likely that the affiliate who actually encouraged the sale gets credited.

    Are there ANY major affiliate networks that use first cookie?

    If there are, let me know so I can make a note never to use them.
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    • Profile picture of the author rondo
      Originally Posted by Gary McCaffrey View Post


      Are there ANY major affiliate networks that use first cookie?

      If there are, let me know so I can make a note never to use them.
      None that I know of.
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  • Profile picture of the author dynamicflow
    Thanks for the info!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Dan Grossman
    Unless you've got a very well established brand, I rarely trust independent affiliate programs. How do I know how well your software works, that you know all the issues around P3P/compact privacy policies and getting cookies onto browsers with raised security levels? And that you won't purposely fail to assign commissions or void good transactions for your own gain?

    Plus why would you want to do all the work with collecting W9s/W10s, doing the monthly accounting, fraud scrubbing, sending all the 1099s at the end of the year, etc?

    As for your original question, first cookie is preferred.
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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Silvester
      Originally Posted by Dan Grossman View Post

      Unless you've got a very well established brand, I rarely trust independent affiliate programs. How do I know how well your software works, that you know all the issues around P3P/compact privacy policies and getting cookies onto browsers with raised security levels? And that you won't purposely fail to assign commissions or void good transactions for your own gain?

      Plus why would you want to do all the work with collecting W9s/W10s, doing the monthly accounting, fraud scrubbing, sending all the 1099s at the end of the year, etc?

      As for your original question, first cookie is preferred.
      Thanks for your comments mate...but none of that
      is really an issue for me for the following reasons.

      1. I agree...trust is earned...and I am not playing.
      2. Its a Pro Script, Installed by Pro's, Configured By Pro's ( I have absolutely no issues with any of that. I have researched this thoroughly. (Cookies is only 1 out of 3 ways its tracked.)
      3. Once again...I'm not playing games.
      4. I'm not doing all that stuff...I have staff looking after that. (that's just part of normal business)

      Take Care,

      Michael Silvester

      P.S Too Easy...Give me a real challenge
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  • Profile picture of the author Gail Sober
    I can't even imagine promoting anyone using a first cookie system.

    Cookie stuffers would rule the day.

    At least with last cookie, you have the chance to make the
    sale when they click on a link from your site since that cookie
    overwrites the first cookie.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
    CB uses last cookie and I'd expect they would be right on top of the question. I do prefer last cookie myself, makes more sense to me.
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