Cookies and Commissions

[bumpaw]

With all the hype about spyware and cookies has come a large variety of ways to block cookies. When selecting an affiliate program do we need to take this into consideration?

[hunderdown]

I would take it into consideration only if it affected some programs more than others. To the best of my knowledge, cookie blocking affects everyone across the board. However, spyware is more likely to target large networks like CJ than independent programs so if this issue concerns you, go with the independent programs....

[jomaxx]

I wouldn't worry about it. Commissions are lost for all kinds of reasons, and it's just a cost of doing business. All you can do is test and test and test, and stick with the programs that convert the best.

[dataguy]

All you can do is test and test and test

I second that. There are lots of reason that affiliates lose commissions, but the bottom line is the bottom line.

My advice is to do A/B testing constantly to find the best source of income, and you will probably be surprised by the results.

For example, I advertise a product for a company that I have solid proof that they are not paying me for every sale, but the fact is that they consistently pay me more in commissions than any other business that I could replace them with. The bottom line is the bottom line.

[jomaxx]

LOL, that truly takes discipline and a faith in the bottom line. I have favorites and not-so-favorites to deal with, that's life, but I'd be sorely tempted to walk away from a relationship if I thought the merchant wasn't being 100% straight with me.

[bumpaw]

By "test" are we saying a trial of a program in comparison with others or just to see if they are paying as promised?

[dataguy]

By "test" are we saying a trial of a program in comparison with others or just to see if they are paying as promised?

True A/B testing compares two items under identical circumstances.

I have a system that alternates between 2 ads, each getting 50% exposure. This usually doesn't make either much less effective than if they were displayed 100% of the time, since most of my visitors see the pages which contain the ads many times.

Once a month I compare the results, and trade out the low-paying advertiser. Another surprising result is that often you can be displaying nearly identical products from two different companies, and one company will report 10 times the sales as the other. Makes you wonder, eh?

but I'd be sorely tempted to walk away from a relationship if I thought the merchant wasn't being 100% straight with me.

I get extremely frustrated when it becomes so blaringly obvious that a company is not being honest. The company I mentioned above even stopped updating their reports except for once a month because I pointed out to them how their report showed that they were cheating their affiliates.

The problem is that I'm not sure that there would be any affiliate programs left if we rejected the ones that weren't totally honest. All the top merchant/affiliate companies I've dealt with show at least some irregularity when they report sales/leads/clicks. The smaller companies are generally much worse. That's why I've come to live by the motto that the bottom line is the bottom line. Have I said that before? Sorry for repeating myself.