A Question of Cookies.

A technical question from an affiliate

[timothius]

Hey guys, long time reader... first time poster. I wasn't sure where to post this question so I decided to put it here.

Background: I am a Search Engine Marketer with a bit of technical background. I have been part of a private affiliate program that has in times past been a very good source of income. Unfortunately communication stopped from the parent company the last several months, and I'm thinking something has gone a little fishy, as conversions have plummetted for me as well.

I can't think of any logical reason for the dropping sales. In reality, there should be an increase in sales as this site used to sell very well, and I've kept pumping the site with visitors. The product also has extremely low returns.

I am not well-versed in cookie technology, but I was wondering if there was a way if I can find out the duration of the cookies in question, OR if there is some cookie rewriting going on the guys site. Remember this is a private affiliate program with no policing going on as with a network. The cookies were promised to last 5 years... but I can't see this being true.

SO HERE'S THE QUESTION: How in the world can I tell if a cookie actually lasts for 5 years? (or 5 days for that matter...)

[ccDan]

View the cookie that's given to your own browser and check its expiration date. You may want to clear out the old cookies first to make sure you get a fresh one.

[timothius]

Ok, so how do I find that date in the cookie?

[ccDan]

Are you viewing the cookie from within the browser? When I view cookies, it shows me the expiration date. Firefox and Internet Explorer both show it.

[timothius]

Well, I viewed in both notepad as well as in a browser, but it still shows the same stuff. Here is what one of the cookies looks like.

indexCookie
1.01
domainname.com/
1536
1047161216
29955729
2961697536
29883309
*
visitorCookie
357735
domainname.com/
1536
1047161216
29955729
2961697536
29883309
*
visitCookie
416555
domainname.com/
1536
1047161216
29955729
2961697536
29883309
*

[jtara]

<clears throat> A-hem!

Are you viewing the cookie from within the browser?

You might find this easier if you view them from your brower's "options" dialog for cookies, rather than in a text editor.

[timothius]

Aha. So I went into IE > Tools > Internet Options > Privacy Tab > Advanced and checked 'Overide Automatic Handling'. Then when I entered the site(s) it showed me the cookie information including expiration date.

Just curious if this was the method you guy's were mentioning in your previous posts... Thanks for the help none-the-less!