One Of These Days...They're Going To Get Affiliate Tracking Right

That really stinks.

Really.

How can this be?

Are you setting up redirects for your links, Steven?

Hi Steve

Why did you send the bonus before you knew you got the sale

Cheers
Kim

He sent the bonus because he got the receipt that they paid for it.

So they purchased on your affiliate link but another affiliate got the credit? Why?

Steven, sucks to hear this... makes you wonder how
often it happens that we don't find out about it!

Was it on Clickbank?

When you offer bonuses to reward someone for buying through your link it is inevitable that a small percentage of people who claim the reward will have not used your link.

It happens every time.

Tracking may be the issue.

So might old-fashioned customer forgetfulness. Many a time they are certain they bought from your link, but when you really press them they 'remember' that they did click on a link in someone else's email after they read the sales page you sent them to.

Some people erase cookies aggressively or have protection systems on their computers that make even the best tracking fall down.

And of course, one or two people are just downright dishonest.

All I know is that every time I offer a bonus I get a few requests that I can't tie up with an order.

My response to this is very simple. I email the customer and explain that although it would appear that for whatever reason their sale was credited to some other affiliate, I would still honor the bonus request.

After all, it cost me nothing to give away an extra copy of a digital product.

The goodwill this creates is enormous. You are seen as being honest, upstanding and trustworthy. And next time, the customer makes damned sure they reward you with the commission.

This inevitable breakdown of tracking (or whatever else it may be caused by) is not something to get upset or frustrated about. It is a great opportunity to create a new fan.

And that is priceless.

Martin

Wth some affiliate tracking systems, the first affiliate gets the commission. - First cookie never gets overwritten.

If it's the case, the buyer probably clicked another affiliate's link before clicking yours. Then he bought clicking yours but the credits went to the first affiliate. Because the cookie was setup with his affiliate ID.

Market-health works this way, if I'm not wrong. There must be lots of inhouse affiliate programs which work this way.

I don't know the situation as to why you didn't get credit but I have ran many affiliate programs for clients and JV's and there is a possibility that I didn't read. Might have been in someones post above this one but I didn't see it. --EDIT Ah, I see Alp Bozkurt had the same answer I do.... cool.

There is a possibility that the affiliate system was set to last person credit. This means that say you did the preselling got them all fired up but they didn't purchase the first time they clicked your link. Later they go to find the offer but the link they find isn't yours. If the system is set to last person credit then your cookie was just overwritten and the last affiliate id link got the credit.

This happens and the majority of affiliate systems I have personally seen are set this way. Whoevers link is clicked last gets the sale.

If it is set the other way, first link gets credit, then your link was not the first that they clicked to check out the offer even though your the one that actually sold them on buying with your copy and bonus.

If you truly truly want the credit you can talk to the product owner and see if they will have thier tech person change the credit to either you OR pay you out of their pocket for the commission. Some will do this, doesn't hurt to ask.

The technical side of things make it nearly impossible to change credit for an affiliate sale from one person to another but it can be done by an experienced programmer but it is a true nightmare and if commissions are already paid out, forget about it.

Though some will pay out of pocket for a sale if you ask.

Another possibility like others suggested they were just sending you the reciept to get your bonus even though they bought from someone else. Depends on the niche though, most people do not understand how things work.

It is more than likely not a glitch with the affiliate system, more likely either they clicked on someone elses link before or after they clicked on yours.


- Terry

And if your bonus is really cool that your list member wouldn't want to miss, you can request him to delete his cookies before clicking your affiliate link.

I saw this method on bonus pages of some gurus and I didn't see a problem with it. In fact, I felt happy to do it otherwise I would miss the bonus.

A couple of things here.

Before promoting check which affiliate gets the credit, first or last.

Offer a killer bonus to your list, but always, always tell them to send you the receipt and that when the commissions are paid out you will send them the bonus.

As Martin said, if someone says they bought and you are not credited with the sale, explain to them, and then give them the bonus.

It is crazy to give bonuses before payments are made, because some people will then ask for the bonus, and then get a refund on the product.

It doesn't make business sense to give bonuses before the commission is paid. Even if it is someone on your list, most would not expect it to happen until an affiliate has been paid.

Just because someone is on a list doesn't mean they are all honest people. I would guess that 90% of our list we personally don't know. We get emails from the same group of people everytime we do a mail out.

If you don't want this to happen again then give the bonus once you have been paid.

Both ex rat and martin.avis have good points.

first ex rat outlines that lessons can be learnt after we clam down.

then martin offers the solution that we inform them and then pay the bonus anyways.


unfortunately for steve, that opportunity (suggested by martin) to generate good will has now past.

I am assuming that the bonus was a digital product in which case it didn't cost steve extra money (still annoying to steve, but slightly less annoying).


As to the issue of giving the bonus after payment:

1. most dishonest people (who would wrongfully claim a bonus on purpose) are losers who most likely would not use that product anyways.

2. no point creating an atmosphere of suspision by making your list wait for a digitally downloadable product.


Last thing. I've seen Michael Rassmussen do this... He tells you to make sure that his affiliate ID was at the bottom of the sales page before you order if you want his bonus. If it was possible with this JV software then that may have worked in this case.

unlucky steve.

Simon

People aren't honest.

Cookies don't work either.

Steve I am glad you took the time to really investigate what the issue was. There is always a lesson learned there. You got rooked out of 1 bonus and really that bonus probably won't make or break you either way. Consider it your good dead of the day and it will come back to you with what you just learned.

What Floyd said. Plus as a customer, I'd be pretty suspicious of any affiliate who wanted to take my payment info that way.

The flip side of this also sucks- when you buy to get "Joe's" bonus and take pains to make sure you are buying through his link, send him the info, and he says he didn't get the credit and won't give you the bonus. Good way to make sure I buy through someone else next time.

I wish more affiliate programs would make it clear on the screen who is getting credit (like Clickbank does).