What is your opinion of cookies and sales?

[Jace]

I just got the fleshlight.com newsletter and was suprised to find this

We're excited to announce the revision of our current traffic referral system. As many of you know, the former system implemented cookies that could be overwritten by another affiliate if the surfer failed to place a sale or visit our discussion board. As of Friday, May 12th, we've implemented a new system which will offer all of our affiliates a locked 30-day cookie on traffic generated and sent to Fleshlight.com irregardless of sales or registration on our forum.

Personally, I don't care for this strategy, that means if a surfer clicks on a link from thehun.com today and then 3 weeks from now clicks on my link because I sold him better, I won't get credit for the sale I made from him, because thehun put his link up top and had one of his millions of uniques a day click that link

What is your take on this? I am interested to hear opinions

[gonzo]

Shaving sales on hard goods would be a bitch I think.
Just think... you hire a board whore...spend a lot of money partying with the cool kids and then hire yourself a program manager ...[then you have more time to party right?]..wake up one morning and you realize you cant be a rockstar anymore because your out of cash.

What to do?

I know! Implement a new stats program with BURMA SHAVE installed!

Jace there are several programs that work different angles on this. Take hotmovies for example... if you fail to make a sale within the first 45 days [I think] then you get no credit for any future sale that member makes.
Not that it matters because after 90 days ..sales or no sales that account converts over to a house account and you earn no commission!

Now more than ever it pays to read the terms and conditions of every program you are sending traffic to.

[Jace]

it just amazes me what people think is good business when it comes to affiliates

I have no problem with the current webmaster getting the sale, but when it comes to me not getting a sale because someone 22 days ago sent one click, that pisses me off

and to top this entire fleshlight thing off, here is some more fun

check out my stats from right before I pulled my links:


notice the referral on the bottom? now you see why I was trying to contact someone at siccash.com, WHY would I get a referral from a siccash site you might ask? well, here is the fleshlight explanation:

If you initiated the sale first, then you as an affiliate will get credit for that, even if the surfer goes to another ad before purchasing....but, this is because of the cookie, which only has a life of 30 days.

I said, "huh?"

he replied:

The referring url's are coming from all traffic hits, not just click thru traffic. This is also referring url's from sales not just click thru stats.

once again, I said "huh?"

this was his last response before I pulled my links:

It's simple, we have locked cookies.

So no one can take that sale from the first person that initiated that sales within 30 days.

If a surfer goes to your site

clicks on fleshlight for the first time thru YOUR ref code

our cookie then embeds your ref code for 30 days

however, within that 30 days if they go to fleshlight via another persons ref code you will still get the credit for that sale and their link is going to show up in your stats, because thts where they came from

we no longer offer a lifetime cookie

[Toby]

Alot of people make a big deal out of whether CCBill programs have referral cookies set to last 3 days (the default) or 30 days or whatever.

I really don't care what they have them set for, if I don't make the sale today then odds are they're going to clear their temp files, cookies, etc. before a return visit anyway. Any sale I get credited for on a revisit cookie is a bonus in my book.

CCBill does overwrite existing referral cookies when a link from another affiliate is clicked. Which I think is the right way to do it. BUT you gotta watch some programs like a hawk. If they send to an alternate tour rather than their root URL I always go check and make sure they're not resetting to their own affiliate code on the home page. I've found a couple of programs doing this to avoid paying for type in returns, and not just CCBill programs. They'll all justify it with the "just tracking sales" argument, but we all know that's BS.

There are lots of ways to shave, and damn few of them actually involve altering credit within the admin software itself. Which is what most think of when they hear the term shaving.

In my opinion, most programs are honest. But it only takes a few bad apples to leave a bad taste in everyones mouth.

[Jace]

I don't particularly care for any ccbill based programs personally, I have never had good luck making sales with any sites using their affiliate backend, and I also think their click tracking is off also

I have sites that feature a lot of solo girls sites, and a lot of solo amateur girls use ccbill....while 1 site that I put on the front page will generate 1000 clicks through to a nats sponsor, the post on the next day will also see 500-750 clicks through to the ccbill site...and the overall traffic for my site remained the same

the only way I will be able to test it for sure is to install some click tracking, and I just haven't gotten around to it, I just would rather avoid ccbill sites if I can

[Rcourt64]

I'm eating this shit up
I'm glad to see people posting sponcer related & webmaster stuff again

Thanks

[Jace]

fyi for everyone, fleshlight got so many compaints that they did away with the locked cookie

whatever, I am so sick of their drama and the fact the program is apparently run by a group of trained monkeys that I am not even going to bother with them anymore. Even if they redid everything I just don't feel like they can be trusted to run a solid program

[Rcourt64]

I'm really intersted in what you guys are saying, wow.
And to think, it was like pulling teeth for them to let me sign up with there affiliate program.
and now this.

[Jace]

there are many groups of people placing bets...first bet is how long before we see a "ramos joins the INSERT_PROGRAM_NAME_HERE team!" thread on GFY

second bet is how long it takes for fleshlight to either close down completely or just close up their affiliate program

[softball]

well, I have resisted having an affiliate programme for years. I now have one throug CC Bill. I have no idea how long the cookies last, but the rebillings that get paid out are quite substantial. So I assume it is working. As for shaving, I personally have no idea how to do it nor do I care. I think if someone sells me traffic, then I gotta pay. That is the deal. Some folks are doing pretty damn well out of my rebillings and I am actually surprised. But that is the caveat and it is still money in the bank. I originally resisted affiliate programmes because I thought they would just be buying me traffic I already got for free. But most of the traffic I am finding is from other sources. And some of the best people are bringing in a shitpot of business. I guess I am a semi convert.

[Peaches]

I always buy from the Girl Scouts.

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by Peaches

I always buy from the Girl Scouts.

2 jeeploads?

[PornoDoggy]

I have long suspected that Thin Mints contain heroin - they are certainly an addictive product.