subject: What are Cookies in Affiliate Marketing? [print this page] What are Cookies in Affiliate Marketing? What are Cookies in Affiliate Marketing?
Within the process of searching for merchandise over the internet a person does not actually have to buy during the act of clicking on a web site. If someone simply lands on your web page
Say someone landed on your website, clicked on your affiliate link to product X on your website
He gets taken to product X's site, looks at the sales page and then goes off without purchasing.
During that click a ID (cookie) is placed on the searchers computer.
This ID or cookie is just a bit of code that lets people know that computer has viewed a certain product on a specified date. It also serves as a record a record of who referred the searcher to the Product's site. If sometime later the searcher remembers that product, the computer remembers the URL of product X's website and types it into the web browser of his computer. If the next time the searcher goes to directly to the product without going through your affiliate link and purchases the product, the cookie left on computer kicked in.
The webpage recognizes the searcher as being referred by you. What does this mean?
You get your commission on that product or service. These Cookies could be valid for as little as one day to 60 days. There are even some cookies that are lifetime cookies.As long as the purchase is made from the computer where the cookie is stored, within the time limit of the cookie, and the purchaser hasn't encountered other marketer's cookies since using yours, you get a commission.
Cookies are used very commonly and are the affiliate marketer's friend. The merchant knows that the visitor is from you because you link to the merchant's site through a special affiliate link. This link is unique to you as it was assigned to you when you asked to be an affiliate of the merchant. Other affiliates will have their own special affiliate link which is different from yours. Although different affiliate marketers for the same product have different, unique affiliate links, all these links point to the same website, the merchant's website.
The affiliates goal is to simply to drive as much traffic as possible to his/her own unique affiliate link
