How Do Affiliate Cookies Work?

Becoming a smart and successful affiliate marketer means understanding cookies. This has nothing to do with the favorite treat you like to dunk in your milk as a nighttime snack. It has everything to do with how a website or business you are an affiliate for ensures you get credit for any sales you generate.

What Is a Cookie?

An HTTP "cookie" is a type of message that is given to a web browser by a web server. This is used to identify users and web surfers, customize online experiences, and track information. When you go to a website that uses cookies, a server sends a cookie with certain information to your browser or computer. The next time you go to the same website, your browser sends that cookie to the server.

How Do Cookies Work for Affiliate Marketers?

As an affiliate marketer, cookies are your best friend. When someone clicks on an affiliate link on your blog or website, a cookie is placed in their browser. This includes information that says you are the person that recommended the destination website to that visitor. This is how companies know which affiliate to pay commissions to, and cookies can have very different lifespans.

Amazon is not only the largest retailer in the world, but it is also the largest company that predominantly uses affiliates to generate sales. The company will drop a 24 hour cookie onto the computer of a visitor that clicks through one of your affiliate links. Other companies allow for 30, 60, 90 day or even 1 year cookies.

This means that from the first time someone clicks on one of your affiliate links, you can earn commissions for the designated cookie length. This is why you should choose the companies you want to work as an affiliate for very carefully. Some companies offer lifetime cookies! This means that if you are the first person to send someone to that website, if they make a purchase 20 years from now, you will receive a commission!

Cookie Abuse

Shawn Hogan is the founder and owner of the Internet Marketing forum Digital Point. He faced charges of defrauding eBay by sneaking cookies onto the computers of his forum visitors without their say-so. It is this type of cookie abuse that cannot only cost you an affiliate marketing agreement, but could end up with you facing legal charges.

Always openly state that you may receive a sales commission if someone clicks on a link on your website and makes a purchase. This transparency will keep cookies working for you as an affiliate marketer, and will keep you out of possible legal trouble.