Attn. Clickbank affiliates - IE9 cookie-tracking issues? (Inc. poll)

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So, here's the deal: since the release of Internet Explorer 9, I've experienced major Clickbank cookie-tracking issues. Specifically, the issue is that cookies don't appear to be tracked at all between IE9 browser sessions.

To visit a sales-page through one's affiliate hoplink, close the tab and then (in the same browser session) revisit that sales-page through the vendor's own domain/URL poses no problem. In this case, the ID of the referring affiliate is always specified at the bottom of the Clickbank order-page, just as it's supposed to be. Good stuff!

However, to do that, then close and reopen the browser (i.e., to start a new session) and revisit the sales-page through the vendor's domain/URL, for me, always results in the affiliate being specified as "none" upon clicking through to Clickbank's order-page. This is obviously very bad news for affiliates.

I've tested this on several of my own computers (and have had a couple of other people test it, too) and it's always the same. Can anyone else verify the existence of this issue by going through the above steps? Despite not seeing many (any) public discussions on this topic, I'm almost positive it isn't just me nor a minority of others for whom this is an issue, and yet Clickbank deny all knowledge of its existence.

It only occurs with IE9 - not previous versions of IE (to my knowledge, anyway), not with FireFox, not with Opera, and not in any other browser I've yet tested.

For me, it's not necessarily such a hugely paralysing issue, because I always route my visitors to my hoplinks through my own domain-names, and they all utilise URL-masking/cloaking. So each time they revisit through my domain, the affiliate referral is tracked. And since my domain/URL remains in their address-bar at all times, this should always be the URL they bookmark and go through on any subsequent visits, which re-establishes the affiliate referral at Clickbank.

However, as I'm sure you're aware, not all Clickbank affiliates forward visitors to their hoplinks in this manner - many use URL-forwarding, but not URL-masking/cloaking (not surprising, I guess, given that Clickbank seem to publicly discourage it on their website!). For these affiliates, a malfunctioning cookie-tracking system greatly increases the risk of lost commissions in the event that the prospective customer later revisits (and buys) through the vendor's own domain/URL.

In other words, the "60-day cookie" doesn't appear to exist when IE9 is concerned: affiliate referrals are only tracked for the duration of the initial browser session. If the IE9-using customer doesn't buy in the same session as they click through your hoplink, you don't get credited for the sale.

If this apparent tracking issue is universal across all users of IE, it seems likely that a lot of affiliates will be missing out on commissions - especially those not using URL-masking/cloaking.

I'm not alleging that this is a problem exclusive to Clickbank, nor that it's their "fault", but it seems funny that I've had no such problems with other networks'/retailers' cookies being tracked in IE9. Indeed, for me, Clickbank is the only network through which it seems to be occurring.

Given Clickbank's historical tendency to deny the existence of any such issues, public discussions (like this one) are the only realistic way of bringing them to light. On the basis of that, I'd be most grateful to hear of your experiences/thoughts pertaining to this matter.
#affiliates #attn #clickbank #cookietracking #ie9 #issues #poll

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