2 technical affiliate questions about cookies

[jaro]

hey, when an affiliate of mine refers a sale to someone, I'm aware of the 6 month cookie on that customer's pc. but lets say that customer wants to also become an affiliate after they buy... once they click on their own affiliate link just to test it out doesn't that put ANOTHER cookie on that customer's pc now?? so lets say in 2 months I release another product, will the first affiliate who referred the customer in the first place still get credit for that "customer turned affiliate's" purchase??? like does a cookie get deleted once the new affiliate tests their link out or what?? I'm thinking I would have to make a product specific affiliate program but I don't want to spend time doing it if I'll run into the same problem.



this poses another question, is there anyway to get around affiliates buying products through their own links. because if I'm sending an email blast for a new product for them to promote, before they begin to promote it they probably want to purchase it. so once they purchase it of course they ALL get credit for their own purchase correct?? is there a way around that?? if not then every affiliate that brings in "customers that also want to become affiliates" will not get credit for the sales of their customers... correct.. help me out...it's music guys, that's why i promote becoming an affiliate

[E-junkie_Guru]

A given buyer's browser can only have one affiliate referral cookie set for a given seller's affiliate program, so the last affiliate hop link they clicked for that program determines which affiliate's referral is referenced by that cookie -- i.e., clicking a hop link would set a new cookie that overrides any older cookies set for the same affiliate program.



You really have only one affiliate program for your account as a whole, so adding product-specific affiliate settings wouldn't bypass the issue described above. It's also not possible to detect when an affiliate is clicking their own hop link, so we have no way of simply ignoring such clicks to allow any prior affiliates' cookies to remain or to block granting commission on the affiliate's own purchases.



Many affiliates who have not already purchased the product may reasonably expect to obtain a sample of the product "at wholesale" (i.e. the price minus their usual commission) to familiarize themselves with the product they'd be marketing for you, which they can do by clicking their own hop link before making a purchase. This also allows them to test their link before making a test purchase to confirm the link is properly set up to track their referral and grant commission on purchases made via that referral.

[jaro]

ok thanks, I'll review my plan and see what I come up with for giving the fans/affiliates the best experience. thanks again