I am a merchant using an affiliate sales program. I'm writing a new FAQ for my affiliates, and I'd like to explain about tracking cookies, and how if a user deletes them before making a purchase, then they won't get a commission. Which brings up a couple of questions of my own:
1. How often does the average user purge their cookies (Get it? Purge? Ok, bad joke...) I don't know if there is any data on this, but if there is, it would be good to know. My program has a "cookie expiry" set for one year, but I would find it hard to believe that many folks would go a whole year without deleting their cookies - especially when so many people use adaware, spybot, etc.
2. Do ALL affiliate programs use cookies? I want to explain that this problem is not specific to MY affiliate program, and that, when it comes to affiliate programs, that's just how the cookie crumbles (man, I'm on a roll). But I need to know if it's actually true before I state this. I'd like to have this info in my FAQ, so if anyone has any thoughts on this, your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,
I find that data very hard to believe. What on earth would be encouraging the average neophyte web surfer to delete their cookies that frequently. I suspect if I did a poll, I would find most people never delete their cookies, certainly not almost half every week.
"What on earth would be encouraging the average neophyte web surfer to delete their cookies that frequently." You have to remember, LOTS of people use things like Adaware, Spybot and other anti-adware programs. Many anti-virus programs also include cookie killers. When you run these you have the option of dumping your cookies. I'm not say that the poll is 100% accurate, but I imagine it's close enough so that you get the general picture. This poll was conducted by the Atlas Institute, not just some guy with a website.