Once you've signed up for what appears to be a
great affiliate program, you've already developed
your strategy, selected your banners, and other
materials for marketing. Once you've figured everything out, you may still
have problems developing marketing strategies and
find yourself wondering what's wrong. Below,
you'll find some of the most common issues that
affect sales commissions and leads.
Soggy cookies
A lot of merchants use cookies for tracking your
referrals. As a majority of customers don't
purchase on the first visit, cookies allow for
potential referrals to be tagged with your ID so
that if they do purchase later, you'll get the
credit for the sale.
The durations for the cookies will vary from
merchant to merchant. Some last as short as a
single session, while others can last for years.
If the visitor flushes their cookies on a regular
basis, has cookie blocking software, or the
program from the merchant isn't operating correctly,
there really isn't anything you can do.
Multiple methods of payment
If you've joined an affiliate program through a
network that processes payments of products on
behalf of merchants, it's not uncommon for merchants
to offer several methods of payment. While this
is great for customers, it's bad for affiliates.
Before you begin to advertise any products or
services as an affiliate of a network, always
check the merchant site carefully. If you have
any doubt, contact the merchant before you proceed
any further.
Monitoring your arrangements
Even the most honest of merchants will have
problems with their affiliate software at some
point in time. Therefore, it's important to
regularly check cookies and merchant sites for
any changes that may affect your pay (YOA).
