• Home
  • About Us
  • Advertising opportunities
  • Contact Us

Associate Programs

  • Articles16 Yrs of Expert Advice
    • Advanced Articles
      • Branding
      • Business Partnerships
      • Conversion Rates
      • Datafeeds
      • Employees
      • Geo-Targeting
      • Interactive Websites
      • List Building
      • Membership Sites
      • Outsourcing
      • Super Affiliates
      • Visitor Created Content
      • Web Video
      • Your Own Program
        • Affiliate Program Management
        • Recruiting Affiliates
    • Affiliate Resources
      • Affiliate Blogs
      • Affiliate Networks
      • Affiliate Tools
      • Affiliate Training
      • Books And Courses
      • FREE Marketing Courses
      • Free Software
      • Merchant Resources
      • Recommended Newsletters
      • Research Competitors
      • Residual Commissions
      • Tracking
    • Beginners Articles
      • Affiliate Marketing Success Stories
      • Affiliate Training
      • Building A Website
        • Web Content
        • WordPress Plugins
      • Business Training
      • Getting Started
        • Business Ideas
      • Getting Traffic
        • Link Building
        • PPC Advertising
        • Search Engine Tips
        • Social Media
      • Goal Setting
      • Monetizing A Site
      • Motivation
      • Time Management
      • Writing Tips
    • Intermediate Articles
      • Blogs
      • Buying Advertising
      • Ebook Publishing
      • Ezine Publishing
      • Getting Publicity
      • Improving Sales
      • RSS
      • Squeeze Pages
      • Video
    • News
    • Product Reviews
      • AdSense
      • Affiliate Manuals
      • Autobiographies
      • Blogging
      • Content Packages
      • Keyword Research
      • Link building
      • PPC
      • Product Creation
      • Search Engine Optimization
      • Site Building
      • Traffic generation
      • Useful Newsletters
      • Useful Tools
    • Newsletter Archive
      • 1998 Newsletters
      • 1999 Newsletters
      • 2000 Newsletters
      • 2001 Newsletters
      • 2002 Newsletters
      • 2003 Newsletters
      • 2004 Newsletters
      • 2005 Newsletters
      • 2006 Newsletters
      • 2007 Newsletters
      • 2008 Newsletters
      • 2009 Newsletters
      • 2010 Newsletters
      • 2011 Newsletters
      • 2012 Newsletters
      • 2013 Newsletters
      • 2014 Newsletters
  • Recommended ResourcesThe Actual Tools and Resources I Use
  • Affiliate Program DirectoryFind Affiliate Programs to Promote
Home Tracking affiliate commissions

Tracking affiliate commissions

My article Don't put your trust in cookies in newsletter #33 has attracted four useful responses:

1. Taking advantage of affiliates

By Ken Evoy

Hi Allan,

Another super article!  Current affiliate programs are at the “take maximal advantage of affiliates” stage.  The responses you got confirm this…

[Editor's Note: Ken starts by quoting what I said in my article.]

 

**************************
1. Don't put your trust in cookies
**************************

Michaela of eToys, which pays businesses a 25% commission
and personal sites 12.5%, replied:

“Our affiliates do receive credit for repeat visits if these  repeat visits were originated from their site. Affiliates  should therefore encourage their visitors to visit their site repeatedly and use their links to go to eToys. Please visit our Helpful Hints page located at etoys.com/html/affiliate6.shtml to learn how to improve performance of your links. We do not plan to credit our affiliates for visits originated from bookmarks or typing in the URL.”

Phew, no bones about it.  “Send us a lifetime customer, and we'll pay you a $3 commission.  In two years, we'll have thousands of new customers, and you'll have… uh… nothing.”

How much longer until affiliates smarten up? Companies simply have no reason to change (other than it's the right thing to do, of course) until they realize that this is no way to build a long-term business with equity.

—–

“The reason that there is no mention on the site is because the system, as presently constituted, is not THE solution, Jaffer said.  “Cookies do not work well. People delete them and if they have them turned off, the system cannot track them. Cookies often expire.”

Only a small percent delete cookies.  Over the years, of course, there will be steady attrition for a variety of reasons.  So you do need a backup system.

—–

“We have asked our provider to do a database match. This is The ONLY way to do it properly,” Jaffer said. “They are considering it. I do not think the industry will go to this as a standard because most companies do not have the margin to do this. As long as discounting is the way that most sales are made to the consumer, this eats into product margin.”

I disagree with this.  Nowhere is it written that a residual commission must equal the “first-buy” commission.  Simply adjust to what your margins can afford.

We're setting up SQL-database matching. It'll be 99% – we can't find the customer who changes physical address, e-mail address, phone number, AND who uses a different credit card all at the same time (we keep the last seven digits of credit card numbers in the SQL database, but not the entire card number, for obvious reasons).

It's not the easiest protocol to set up, but once it's done, there are no costs involved – so I'm not sure how database-matching eats into margins…

… unless he means that a residual commission eats into margin. That's true of course, but there are easy solutions that turn this “lemon” of an issue into lemonade for both vendor and affiliate.  They simply choose not to use them.

—–

It looks as though 1999 will be a fascinating year as more and more businesses launch associate programs and compete strongly for the attention of webmasters. The generous ones will catch my attention – and yours, too, no doubt.

Allan, I respectfully submit the following …

  • it's not so much the “generous” ones as the “fair” ones – a great program is a fair, symmetrical one.
  • If an affiliate chooses on the basis of “outstanding generosity,” he may not realize that great generosity comes at a price…
  • is the company desperate?
  • is the company fiscally irresponsible, and not destined to last more than a year? Or will reality smack it in the forehead and force it to reduce commissions?
  • or worse, is it a bad-faith “bait-and-switch”? Will they reduce commissions after you've spent a year building up the business?
  • is the “generous” commission built into the price of the product? If so, you have an overpriced product. Overpriced products do not last long on the Web.
[Editor's Note: Ken Evoy's affiliate program has gone from strength to strength. In spite of what Ken says, I tend to think of his program as “generous” because I earn four-figure monthly commissions from it. In contrast, the eToys program ran into strife and died.] [UPDATE: If you're planning to join Ken's affiliate program, you really MUST read the affiliate agreement. His program is unique. The residual and lifetime commissions you can earn are conditional. Each month, you have to achieve a certain sales level before you receive them.]
UPDATED: October 13, 2011
Jan 27, 1999Allan Gardyne
Page 1 of 41234»
Don't trust cookiesHow to get more clicks

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Allan Gardyne

Affiliate marketing veteran, entrepreneur. Founder of AssociatePrograms.

24 years ago Your Own ProgramYour Own Program26
Recent Posts
  • When to Use Black Hat Marketing (Almost Never)
  • How Much Money Do You Need to Start an Online Business?
  • 3 Emails You Need to Send When You Have an Ecommerce Store
  • How to Start an Ecommerce Business 24 Hours
  • Drive Targeted Traffic using The $5 Facebook Ad Strategy
Latest Directory Listings
SG Health

Make money with multiple health affiliate programs and unique offers. This is a two-tier program paying residual commission of 30% on the first tier plus 5% on second tier sales. no minimum payout, unlimited cookies, get paid every 2 weeks. Sign ...

Exotic Nasal Spray

Exotic Nasal Spray is an advanced new technology uses a tried and tested unique blend of 9 herbal ingredients, which work together to help combat erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation. Affiliates earn 50% commission on sales.

Never an Outbreak

Never an Outbreak offers a proven, all natural treatment to prevent cold sores and genital herpes outbreaks caused by HSV 1 and 2. With over 65,000 satisfied customers already, Never an Outbreak's protocol has shown itself to be effective in all...

Audio Book Fest

Thousands of audio book titles across various genres from well known publishers such as BBC, Simon & Schuster, Time Warner and Harper Collins. Instant download after purchase. MP3 format available. Free samples available. No monthly subscription f...

Moonshadow Rainmaker

The Moonshadow Rainmaker is a free book browser with tens of thousands of books. You can plug it in to your website or blog. The Rainmaker will generate referral fees for you by sending customers to Amazon and other vendors. Add a free Rainmaker t...

Other Pages
  • Create an Account
  • Directory Dashboard
    • How to submit an affiliate program
    • Add an Affiliate Program
  • Advertising Opportunities
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Disclosure & Other Legal Stuff
  • Privacy Policy
Proudly hosted by Cloudways

We wanted the fastest WordPress hosting, so after tons of research, we picked Cloudways and couldn’t be happier.

Copyright © 1998 - 2020 AssociatePrograms by Bedrock Co. All rights reserved. View our Privacy and Disclosure policies.