Hi all

I have a question for those of you who are used to being affiliates through click bank. I sell my e-book through click bank and I have had one of my affiliates come to me with a query and I thought I would post it here to get some advise. I will be checking it with click bank also, but as you know they take a couple of days or so to get back to you, and I would be interested to here what the experience of actual affiliates are anyway.

The question is this. I have an auto responder on my website that sends people out a 5 part property course, if someone is referred to my website by an affiliate and then sign up for my course and then subsequently use a link from the 5 part course I send them to buy my book directly, will the affiliate still get the commission because even though they went through the affiliate link to begin with to sign up for the course they actual bought my book through a separate link.

My guess is that the affiliate would, because providing they where using the same computer the cookies would still trace them in someway and click bank would be able to trace the sale back to them. However this is just my uneducated guess.

This is very important, as I want to make sure all my affiliates get paid what they are due as the more they get paid the more the will want push my book. But if they think their sales are slipping away somewhere they won’t bother. I imagine this is an issue some of you guys have come up against yourselves as affiliates – so any advice would be much appreciated.

I think they would Joe if it is within a certain timeframe that CB sets. I think it used to be 60 days but I am unsure if it still is that, so best check with them to be certain.

The other problem could be that the prospect cleans out his cookies (or has a auto progam do it) between the time he went to CB and use your course link. That might make it impossible for CB to ID him. Holly uses CB so maybe she will weigh in on this and give you more defintive info on this issue. Also, maybe Davin or others knows about this?

Post edited by: Eowawa, at: 2007/05/06 02:00

Thanks for the input Eowawa

I am about to send an email to click bank now, when they get back to me I might post the reply here for everyones general info.

Yes, please post their reply. I have been wondering the same thing. I just haven't got around to asking them.

ali

Hi everyone

Just thought I would send you the reply from click bank as promised regarding affiliates and commission etc.

My first email to click bank

I have an auto responder on my website that sends people out a 5 part
property course, if someone is referred to my website by an affiliate and then sign up for my course and then subsequently use a link from the 5 part course I send them to buy my book directly, will the affiliate still get the commission because even though they went through the affiliate link to begin with to sign up for the course they actual bought my book through a separate link.

My guess is that the affiliate would, because providing they where using the same computer the cookies would still trace them in someway and click bank would be able to trace the sale back to them. However this is just my uneducated guess.

This is very important, as I want to make sure all my affiliates get paid what they are due as the more they get paid the more the will want push my book. But if they think their sales are slipping away somewhere they wont bother.

And can you let me know of any specifics about how long an affiliate would still get the credit for the sale for if he originally referred a customer, for example he refers a customer in Jan 07 the customer doesn’t actually by the book until July of 07 will the affiliate still get the commission. As in depth an answer to this question as possible would be much appreciated as it is crucial to my success at recruiting and keeping affiliates.

Click bank response

Thank you for your email. It is not necessary for the customer to click through the affiliate hoplink at the time they make the purchase in order for the affiliate to be awarded a commission. The affiliate will earn a commission if the customer visits your site and makes a purchase within 60 days of clicking through the affiliate hoplink.


My next Follow up clarification email to click bank

Hi ----

Thanks for the reply. I still need a little more clarification though just to make sure I am 100% correct in my mind.

1) So if a customer originally connects to my website through an affiliate hop link but does not buy, but buys later at some point, even if it is through a link to my website that I send them via email. The affiliate will still get the commission providing it is within 60 days of the first click through the affiliate hop link, because it has been recorded somewhere that they where the original referrer of the customer - this is how I understand what you have written below.

2) What if a customer is at another computer when they make the purchase, I imagine there is no way of tracking that they originally got to my site through the hop link, so the affiliate would not get the commission - is this right?

Click Bank response

Hi Carlton,

You are correct in both assumptions. When a customer clicks through an
affiliate hoplink, we deposit a tracking cookie on the customer's system. So, even if they visit your site through a direct link at a later date, our hoplink tracking system will give the most recent affiliate referrer the commission. It is necessary for the customer to make the purchase from the same site they originally hopped through in order for the affiliate to receive commission.

Hope this helps.

Just as I mentioned to you before Joe...it's still 6o days and the remote computer use will lose them entirely and, also the other thing is, they get lost too if they happen to clean their system cookies out between visit and buy. I guess, not a sure thing here at all, is it Joe?