Sometimes when you’re niched down into a topic there are a limited number of affiliate programs available to you. I found myself having a hard time finding affiliate programs with the right mix of products. So when I found a program that offered nearly everything cross stitch related, I applied and started using it immediately. Unfortunately the program offers no tracking at all, there were no click reports, no items purchased reports, no reporting or tracking at all.
Growing frustrated with the lack of tracking I decided to put some of my own tracking on the links I was directing to the affiliate program. I realized pretty quickly how much traffic I was actually sending them and wondered why my commissions weren’t higher. I logged into the affiliate program and went to the FAQ to check the cookie life, something I should have already known, silly me. The info wasn’t there, so I emailed the affiliate manager to ask about it and included a few other questions I was curious about.
This is where things get hairy. The email that came back that there was no cookie life, it was single browser session only. NO cookie life. Zero.
I’ll pause here while you absorb that information… I’m still in shock myself.
It had taken me a long time to find that affiliate program in the first place, I’m not sure how I’m going to replace it. I’m going to email them back and express my concern, but I don’t see that getting me very far so the hunt for a replacement program is on. There are a few other affiliate programs in the space that offer limited selections of products, I’m going to cross my fingers that a mash-up combination of those three programs will work out.
So tell me, what’s the shortest cookie life you’ve ever worked with as an affiliate?
Transcriptionist, passionate cross stitcher, writer at heart, wife, mom, and finder of lost shoes… Loretta Oliver, married to the comic book geek of her dreams and mother of four amazing young men, has been working from home full time since 2001. With a busy transcription service business, a few niche sites, and a handful of other internet marketing projects on the go, the computer is always fired up and the ideas are always flowing.