Once you have signed up for what appears to be a great affiliate program, you have already formulated your strategy, picked out your banners, and other materials for marketing.
Having figured everything out, you might still encounter problems developing your marketing strategies and find yourself wondering what’s wrong. Below, you will find some of the most common issues that affect sales commissions and leads.
Soggy cookies
Numerous merchants employ cookies for tracking your referrals. As a majority of customers do not buy on the first visit, cookies provide potential referrals to be tagged with your ID so that if they do purchase later, you will get the credit for the sale.
The durations that cookies will last for will vary from merchant to merchant. Some last as short as a single session, whilst 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 is not functioning correctly, there really is not anything you can do.
Multiple methods of payment
If you have joined an affiliate program through a network that processes payments for products on behalf of merchants, it is not uncommon for merchants to offer several methods of payment. Whilst this is great for customers, it is bad for affiliates.
Before you begin to promote any products or services as an affiliate of a network, always check out the merchant site carefully. If you have any doubt, contact the merchant prior to proceeding 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 is important to regularly check cookies and merchant sites for any alterations that may affect your payments.
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Hey thanks Gary!
Sounds like you have "been there, done that and got the T-shirt!" We are all sold these things as "so simple, even a child go do it." But, the truth is, making a living online takes hard work.
First, you have to know what you are doing.
Second, you have to create a plan.
Third, you need to take action.
Perhaps we should all stop pushing affiliate marketing as 'get-rich-quick,' there is no such thing.
But, it is still a brilliant business to be in and with advice like yours, I'm sure many more would find that to be the case.
Thanks for the comment Richard. Yes to a degree "I have been there done that and got the T-shirt!" but that has made me more circumspect about products I recomend.
I agree that a plan is an absolute requirement and also that you need to be careful about you promote as there is without doubt a few unsavourory marketers' out there.