opinion wanted on affiliate cookies priority!
I have it set up so a new affiliate can set a URL in their settings and any people coming from that site can be detected and a cookie placed on their machine with the affiliates ID. This is so affiliates don't have to use affiliate links if they don't want to, they can just link to my site from the site that they have saved in their profile.
an affiliate can also use the affiliate url (eg. domain.com?ref=clp-aff65). My plugin detects the ?ref= bit and cookies the visitor with the affiliate id (clp-aff65)
the thing is, what is the best practice for keeping/overwriting cookies?
What to do here?
if someone has already been referred to the site by an affiliate (say, affiliate ABC) but didn't buy. they get a cookie on their machine for 30 days that identifies affiliate ABC as their referrer.
if they buy the product within 30 days then ABC gets the commission
Instead of buying though, suppose the user leaves the site and then a few days later, they click on some other affiliates link (say, affiliate XYZ) should I overwrite the cookie so that if the user buys on this visit, XYZ gets the commission rather than ABC?
your opinion would be very welcome!
The 2nd Amendment, 1789 - The Original Homeland Security.
Gun control means never having to say, "I missed you."
Andy
http://www.commentluv.com
creator of the CommentLuv plugin for WordPress. Now gone premium!!
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