Affilliate cookies& Getting Paid?????

[bbminded]

when you sign up with an affilliate whose product you want to promote you get a special code called a cookie so the merchant knows who to pay for the traffic and sale.

however my question is, and actually let me try and explain with an example.
lets say you decide to promote a company who sells a specific health supplement. so you then set up your webpage, weather it be a squeeze page that leads to the merchants website or you build a multi page website with your affiliate link embeded into parts where people can click to buy the product thus sending them to the merchants checkout.

Now lets say a person goes through your ad(whatever it may be) and they check out the product but dont buy anything. now that they know the name of the product they decide to do more searches and go through other affilliates websites that are promoting the same product just as you are.

so now lets say this potential customer has been researching all day but doesnt buy but maybe they save the page in there favorites. the customer thinks about it for a few days and decides he wants to buy the product. so he just pulls the page up from his favorites and purchases it. Now, WHO is gonna get the Comission for promoting the product??????????

[primewriter]

Good question, my guess is that you would lose the affiliate sale, but I'm not sure. It might also vary from affiliate company to company.

[bbminded]

ive looked at several companies affiliate programs and they say that once you bring a customer to them they save your cookie for up to so many months or a year(some are different) so if the customer returns you still get the sale. doesnt make sence if others are promoting also. plus what if the interested buyer delets his cookies from his computer. could that affect anything??

[Jason Hunt]

For many sites it's the LAST affiliate link that the buyer went through will get the sale.

[CashTactics]

The sale goes to the last affiliate the landed the cookie. So in this case the second website would get the sale. When cookies get place they overwrite the previously written cookie from the same source. So unfortunately if you send someone to a website and they leave only to return through someone elses site then that person will get the sale not you.

Sorry...

[bbminded]

damn..thats pretty discouraging. i guess you have to hope that they just go ahead and buy right then or they get linked back by one of your autoresponder messages!

[bbminded]

So unless you happen to attract a potential customer who buys right away(which nowadays is pretty rare since most people like to research a product and they have all that info right infront of them on there computer) , or you get lucky and they link back to the merchants site through your autoresponder messages you can easily lose alot of sales!?
I guess i can see now why having your own product is better because as the owner of the product you could care less what affiliate sent customers to there product resulting in a sale cause they are gonna get paid everytime anyways.

So would it be better to create a site with alot of content, maybe a comparison site or something as opposed to just a squeeze page linking them to the merchant sales page????

[Lanadili]

For an affiliate site, it's always better to create a site with a lot of content. For the main reason that you don't want your visitor having to go off and try to find the information they were looking for on another website (and getting your cookie over-written).

Comparison sites do pretty good in my experience, but the one thing that you have to keep in mind is that you have to go above and beyond regular affiliate sites by adding unique content and giving your visitors a reason to come back to YOUR site. That's the key. Once you can figure that out, you won't have to worry about whether they purchase the same day or 30 days from now. As long as your site has all the info they're looking for, your affiliate commissions will start rolling in.

[bbminded]

def. makes sence. It is of course a bit discouraging when you read so many books by IM marketers like ewen chia for example(just used his name because i just finished reading one of his books like 3 times over which i really enjoyed) who stress how important a squeeze page is leading to the merchants page.

i can understand the use of the squeeze page to get the person info and build your list up. but it sounds like you will miss out on alot of sales because most people will research and eventually come to a content rich site with embedded affiliate links to the merchants site.
Is this the reason then why, when you go to a website that sells something and and you look at there affiliate program(if they have one of course) they tell you that

"Sales are usually approved within 24hours. If you are expecting a sale to go through, please keep in mind that our affiliate program tags the first cookie and IP received from the customer. (e.g. If a customer has been on another affiliate website and then goes through your website, you will not make the sale, even if they cleared the cookies because we tag the IP as well(I got this from a website that sells pills for men).

so what does this mean cause i see this disclaimer on many other sites as well?? are they lying??

Originally Posted by Lanadili

For an affiliate site, it's always better to create a site with a lot of content. For the main reason that you don't want your visitor having to go off and try to find the information they were looking for on another website (and getting your cookie over-written).

Comparison sites do pretty good in my experience, but the one thing that you have to keep in mind is that you have to go above and beyond regular affiliate sites by adding unique content and giving your visitors a reason to come back to YOUR site. That's the key. Once you can figure that out, you won't have to worry about whether they purchase the same day or 30 days from now. As long as your site has all the info they're looking for, your affiliate commissions will start rolling in.

[Saul']

Originally Posted by bbminded

so what does this mean cause i see this disclaimer on many other sites as well?? are they lying??

Because that depends on the affiliate program/network.

The best point that was raised is that you need to provide value and not just get people away from your site to the merchant. It can be value content on the site or incentives if allowed by the merchant (such as missing chapters, bonuses, discounts, etc.). You have to make people want to buy through your links if the affiliate program is last-cookie-served. You have to create a relationship to some extent with your visitors.

[bbminded]

I see! So going the landing page or sgueeze page route is probably not the best way, but rather creating a site full of content to presell the customer, or maybe a site that compares several different affiliate programs with your opinions on which one might be the best?

Then send your customer to the merchants sale page or maybe right to the buy it now page. And also have a place on your site where someone can put in there email address for your newsletter and maybe give them a free gift or somthing.

Originally Posted by Saul'

Because that depends on the affiliate program/network.

The best point that was raised is that you need to provide value and not just get people away from your site to the merchant. It can be value content on the site or incentives if allowed by the merchant (such as missing chapters, bonuses, etc.). You have to make people want to buy through your links if the affiliate program is last-cookie-served.

[Josh Anderson]

1. Not all systems rely only on cookies. My own uses a combination of cookie and ip.

2. Not all systems reward the last referrer. My system rewards last referer unless that person happens to be the same as the buyer (affiliate theft) in which case the system knows and rewards the last legitimate refer. This is more fair since it is the last person who referred to a site that actually closed the sale.

3. Not all cookies last the same amount of time.

[Rob Whisonant]

NEVER NEVER NEVER just send a surfer to an affiliate link. PRE-SELL them first. Make the sale on your site FIRST!!! Then send them to the affiliate program to make the purchase.

This way they bookmark YOUR site and not the affiliate site.

Re's
Rob Whisonant

[Lanadili]

There are some merchants who allow the first affiliate to get the commission, but MOST prefer the last affiliate that sends the visitor to get the commission. The reason behind this is that they figure you must have given the visitor enough information so they are now ready to buy the product.

Also, as mention above, not all cookies are the same length. I think most are in the 30-45 days range, but there are some that last less than a day, and others that last a full year.

Another thing to consider is the cookie referral occurrence (also known as Action Referral Occurrence). This is the amount of times the person can buy a product, then go directly back to the merchant site and buy again and you still receive a commission. Most merchants that I deal with have a referral occurrence of "unlimited" meaning as long as the person goes back within their cookie length, you will get credit for the sale every time. So if the cookie length is 30 days, and they go back 5 times in those 30 days, I get credit for all 5 sales. I have had merchants in the past put a number on this (like 1) which means after the visitor buys something within the cookie length, the cookie length is then wiped clean, and that visitor would have to go back through my link in order for me to get credit again on another sale, even if they decide they want something else the next day. If they had a cookie referral occurrence of 2, I would have two chances to have that visitor go back within the cookie length before the cookie is wiped clean.

Which is why it's so important to make your site stand out, and give your visitors a reason to come back to YOUR site instead of just going directly to the merchant's site.