Affiliate Id Tracking

[craigstoolbox]

I set up my affiliate program tracking to only count when a visitor visits my site from the affiliate site.. and has never been to my site before.

To clarify, if they have already been to my site, go to an affiliate site, click on my ad and are passed to my site... the affiliate will not get credit.

If they have never been to my site, but click on an affiliate ad, are redirected to my site... the affiliate gets credit.

Is this standard?

Thanks,

 

[DavidL]

I want to say the word greed without offending you but then again this is wickedfire. You are being greedy. I think in my opinion that giving the affiliate credit even if surfer is already a member will bring you more affiliates in the future if any reviews are to be made or word of mouth so to speak. Look at ebaypartnernetwork. The affiliates get paid no matter if they are already members or not. I would change it however, keeping a strong eye on the cookie stuffers stealing commisions.

 

[craigstoolbox]

I want to say the word greed without offending you but then again this is wickedfire. You are being greedy. I think in my opinion that giving the affiliate credit even if surfer is already a member will bring you more affiliates in the future if any reviews are to be made or word of mouth so to speak. Look at ebaypartnernetwork. The affiliates get paid no matter if they are already members or not. I would change it however, keeping a strong eye on the cookie stuffers stealing commisions.

Thanks for the response, One of the problems I have is one of my affiliates is a search multiple cities craigslist tool.

So what would happen is,

They are visitors of my site download the software, then go to the affiliate (because I promote them on my site too). The affiliate will start to get credit, when I referred them.

Do you think this is just a special case? And if so, do you think I am being fair about it? Of course I want more affiliates.. so I don't mind (want) to pay out a lot. But I don't want to give away $ if they didn't refer.

Watcha think?

Thanks,

 

[Aequitas]

Thanks for the response, One of the problems I have is one of my affiliates is a search multiple cities craigslist tool.

So what would happen is,

They are visitors of my site download the software, then go to the affiliate (because I promote them on my site too). The affiliate will start to get credit, when I referred them.

Do you think this is just a special case? And if so, do you think I am being fair about it? Of course I want more affiliates.. so I don't mind (want) to pay out a lot. But I don't want to give away $ if they didn't refer.

Watcha think?

Thanks,

So if the visitor came to your site first before going through any other affiliate site, lets say a direct type-in type of traffic and they download your product, and for some reason as time goes on the don't have it anymore but want it back, they return to your site, check out one of your affiliate sites and then click an ad from there site back to yours you don't want to give credit for that.

This is a tough one because it can go both ways, for instance I think its fair to give the credit to the affiliate because after the user came back to re-download your product after they already did so they ended up going to your affiliate first, which in my mind makes me think that the consumer was unsure about re-downloading your product.

However something then on the affiliates site made them 100% sure they wanted it again so they came back via a link to get it, I think the affiliate did a great job at making the conversion.

However if the user (a reason we will never know) is not coming back to your site to re-preform the action (download the product) then no I don't think the affiliate should get commission because the user did not really take any action the second time around.

The choice is up to you but think of it this way if you think the affiliate is the one (Even if the consumer came to you first) that helped make that conversion then you should pay them, if you think they had no effect on the call to action and no effect on the visitor then don't pay them.

This will cause problems and solve problems, it will solve your problems but some affiliates may not like this method because they may think they helped the conversion when you think they did not.

Now we are into matter of opinions which means you'll loose that affiliate, loose enough affiliates and you get a bad name and your out of biz.

 

[craigstoolbox]

Thanks, these are good points. I will consider these two sides and figure out which one is best for me. I think I am drifting on the site of giving the affiliate credit. I don't think that the small % of people clicking back will be worth turning off affiliates.

Thanks for your insight,