Irresponsible Blogging from PayPerClickIQ: Cookie Stuffing
Cookie stuffing is not cool.
Encouraging new affiliates to stuff cookies is even worse.
Unfortunately, a very good blogger who runs an exceptionally good blog has had a momentary lapse of reason and done just that.
Brandon Hopkins the of PayperClickIQ blog recently blogged about the art of stuffing cookies.
What is Cookie Stuffing?
A cookie is an electronic signature that is placed on a user’s computer when they click on an affiliate link so that the affiliate network can track them all the way through to the sale and give the affiliate the commission.
It is possible to place an affiliate cookie on a person’s computer without them clicking on the link, simply by preloading the affiliate link in an iframe.
That way, if they (by luck) happen to go to the merchant’s page at some point in the future and make a purchase, the cookie stuffer will get the commission.
What’s Wrong With That?
The problem is mainly that it is against the term of service of most (is not all) affiliate networks and programs.
It can also deprive other affiliates of their commission. If an affiliate does some preselling and generates a real click, then they deserve the commission. If you stuff a cookie after that, then you overwrite their cookie with your own, effectively taking that commission through no skill of your own.
It also provides no value to the Merchant. If you were a Merchant, would you be happy that you had to pay a commission to an affiliate, despite the fact that your customer had not been presold by that affiliate? You would be stealing from the Mecrhant. Merchant fears about cookie stuffers are very real and have hurt this industry.
Don’t forget, this is basically what a lot of Spyware companies do.
More Problems
One big problem I had with Brandon’s blog was that he implies that cookie stuffing is some big “super affiliate secret” and that all the big affiliates do it.
Rubbish!
As somebody who has done fraud work for an affiliate network, I can tell you that the big affiliates HATE cookie stuffers and the biggest affiliates were usually the ones who would alert the network to cookie stuffers so that the network would terminate their membership.
So let me be amply clear:
If you stuff cookies you will be caught and removed from most affiliate programs!
To me this is really not worth the risk. For anyone who is in this game for the long term, then it definitely isn’t worth the risk.
Further Resources:
Cookie Stuffing, iFrames and Popups
Cookie Stuffing
Affiliate Marketing Hell Week
Blogger Gets Bashed for Promoting Affiliate Cookie Stuffing
Brandon blogged about cookie stuffing and said “many of the worlds best affiliate marketers know this dirty little secret.” Rob does a great job of explaining why it’s wrong.
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October 2nd, 2006 at 6:39 pmRob, I respect your opinion on this issue. I did first check with one of my biggest affiliate companies and this is the response I got, “Spoke to our CTO and on our end your iframe idea would probably work…” Just so you know that not all affiliate programs have a problem with it.
Brandon Hopkins
October 4th, 2006 at 9:39 pmHi Brandon,
I responded on your blog.
I think when your network does a little research, they will realise that cokie stuffing both works and is a good way to damage their business.
The fact that your affiliate manager even had to speak to the CTO indicates that they are inexperienced.
Rob
October 5th, 2006 at 12:07 amSuppose an affiliate stuffs cookies only for products it has on its own site onto a visitors computer. If the visitor bypasses the affiliate and goes directly to the vendor, the affiliate still gets credit. If the visitor goes to another site several days later and clicks through, a new cookie is written onto his computer replacing the old one and the new affiliate gets credit. How is this scenario bad? Both the vendor and the affiliate win.
February 15th, 2007 at 11:58 pm[...] I have bloggged before about cookie stuffing and given a few reasons why the affiliate industry should not be allowing it and how cookie [...]
March 21st, 2007 at 1:59 amYou can check this post also:
May 5th, 2007 at 9:45 pmhttp://jamdo.com/modernclick-affiliate-network-encourages-cookie-stuffing/
Maybe big affiliates hate cookie stuffing like you say, but I know for sure (I have proof) that they are doing it too.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:56 pmI say it all depends on the scenario. There are tons of reasons why cookie stuffing is GREAT, and also tons on why it’s bad.
April 29th, 2008 at 4:54 pm