Making Sure Affiliate Programs Pay For Sales
By John Lynch
Wednesday, October 27, 2004; 2:00pm EST
When joining affiliate programs there are many decisions you have
to make. Unfortunately, few people query what kind of tracking
software the program uses. To overlook this can prove costly, and
means you may never be credited with 5% - 10% of your affiliate sales.
A good affiliate program will use quality affiliate tracking software
that is reliable and tracks all of your sales. You must make sure that
they not only track online sales, but also sales by phone, fax and
mail order. Many companies only track online, and this means you will
lose between 5% - 10% of your sales.
Also, make sure that the affiliate program uses 'cookie tracking'
software to ensure that you will be credited for sales from people who
don't buy the first time they visit your website, but come back and
buy at a later date.
For those of you who don't know what a 'cookie' is. A cookie is a
small piece of information that a web site puts on your hard drive so
that it will remember you when you return later. This is how cookies
can be used to track visitors to a web site. In this way the affiliate
program will be able to track all the sales from your site, even
though the visitor did not buy on the first visit to the web site.
Many affiliate programs use software that only tracks about 80% of
your sales. It has to be said that many of the popular affiliate
companies are guilty of this. So beware big names! Some companies use
tracking software that only pays if the customer visits your link and
buys straight away. If the visitor returns to your site an hour
later... a day later... week later... and buys, you will not be
credited for the sale. Good 'cookie tracking' software ensures that
this never happens.
So, before you join any affiliate scheme make sure to ask about the
kind of tracking software they use. It could save you a small fortune
in the long term.
Resource Box
� 2003 by John Lynch. For information on reputable affiliate programs
that convert to sales go to:
http://www.merchant-account-service.com/affiliate_programs.html
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