Recently ebay has filed a suit against the owner of a well known forum for cookie stuffing. How widespread is this problem?
OK doing a quick research, here's what I found about Cookie Stuffing: It generally involves using techniques to simulate physical click of an affiliate links. In other words, getting an affiliate cookie installed on an user computer without the user actually clicking on the affiliate link of the affiliate.
I guess I am a bit slow.. But I guess I AM only a small town girl... what can you expect from someone who lives in a town that has no stop lights, two hours from Walmart... we don't even have a McDonalds, for crying out loud. About the only cookie stuffing I know about is when you stuff that really good cream cheese filling into chocolate cookies..mmm...mmm
What happens is a person clicks an affiliate link. The person visits a different blog, website, or forum later in the day. That person gets cookie stuffed from the site they visited later so that the site owner actually gets credit for the commission if the visitor signs up for the program. For example, John clicks Susan's affiliate link in one forum. Later in the day, he visits a forum, blog, social networking site, or traditional website where Steve has his black hat cookie stuffing tactic in place. John gets cookie stuffed. John goes to the affiliate site he checked out earlier and actually signs up. Susan should have gotten a commission from John's sign-up. Instead, Steve gets the commission. This concept is also referred to as commission hijacking. There are other ways to do it. None of them are ethically viable. It's the same as stealing money from someone's bank account or wallet. ~Newbie Shield~
Newbie Shield: For example, John clicks Susan's affiliate link in one forum. Later in the day, he visits a forum, blog, social networking site, or traditional website where Steve has his black hat cookie stuffing tactic in place. John gets cookie stuffed. John goes to the affiliate site he checked out earlier and actually signs up. Susan should have gotten a commission from John's sign-up. Instead, Steve gets the commission. Close. But not exactly. If John had clicked Susan's affiliate link, Susan would get the commision. Because the cookie was put on John's browser when he clicked Susan's link. What happens is this... John visits this forum. He looks around, reads a few posts, but doesn't click on (or ever see) an affiliate link. Someone makes a post in a forum where they feel people that shop on eBay may be. They DO NOT post a link. Instead, they put the link inside an image tag. But instead of pulling up an image, they put their eBay affiliate link. You never see the link or know anything about it. But when the image tag pulls the link it automatically places a tracking cookie on the browser of anyone who visits the forum page. If it is a page that gets thousands of hits a day, the affiliate has placed his cookie on every visitors browser. Just as if they had clicked his link. Later on those visitors may visit eBay on their own. But it will to appear to eBay as though they were sent there through the affiliates link. And the affiliate will get a commission for whatever sales are made without ever actually sending them any traffic. But, if John visits this page and gets stuffed with a cookie, then later on that day he visits Susan's website and clicks her affiliate link to go to eBay and makes a purchase, Susan will get the commission. eBay will pay the commission to the most recent cookie.
pcwork: Recently ebay has filed a suit against the owner of a well known forum for cookie stuffing. How widespread is this problem? This practice is actually very widespread. It is one of the most popular methods used by "black hat" marketers and hackers. It can actually be used with ANY affiliate program that uses cookies to track their affiliates. Click Bank and Amazon affiliates do this too. Basically, I could put a cookie on this page without anyone knowing. I could then put direct links to programs I affiliate with. People would trust those links because they wouldn't see any affiliate information on the url and would be more likely to click them and join. But I would still get commission because the cookie is on your browser. Believe or not, cookie stuffing is very popular. Not just on forums. But on websites too. And there isn't a lot anyone can do about it. They can mask the links through their server and redirect pages so no one ever knows.
There is a legitimate use for cookie stuffing. If you're promoting a good product that has a really crappy sales page, you can make your own sales page then stuff the cookie and link directly to where the people pay. It then gives you credit just like you'd sent them to the merchant's sales page. Obviously this isn't something you want to try unless you can recognize a crappy sales page and know you can do better...
lilokster: Close. But not exactly. If John had clicked Susan's affiliate link, Susan would get the commision. Because the cookie was put on John's browser when he clicked Susan's link. What happens is this... John visits this forum. He looks around, reads a few posts, but doesn't click on (or ever see) an affiliate link. Someone makes a post in a forum where they feel people that shop on eBay may be. They DO NOT post a link. Instead, they put the link inside an image tag. But instead of pulling up an image, they put their eBay affiliate link. You never see the link or know anything about it. But when the image tag pulls the link it automatically places a tracking cookie on the browser of anyone who visits the forum page. If it is a page that gets thousands of hits a day, the affiliate has placed his cookie on every visitors browser. Just as if they had clicked his link. Later on those visitors may visit eBay on their own. But it will to appear to eBay as though they were sent there through the affiliates link. And the affiliate will get a commission for whatever sales are made without ever actually sending them any traffic. But, if John visits this page and gets stuffed with a cookie, then later on that day he visits Susan's website and clicks her affiliate link to go to eBay and makes a purchase, Susan will get the commission. eBay will pay the commission to the most recent cookie. Actually, it works both ways and additional ways as well. Thank you for bringing up a slight variation. Even so, no one should become obsessed about it. Just go about your biz and know that some things are beyond your control. Move forward and focus on building your empire. Keep rockin' ~Newbie Shield~
I'd say the signs of a crappy sales page are the absence of the elements of a good sales page. As for what those are, that depends on who your target customer is and what you're selling. If there were 3 things that you could put on a page and automatically make sales, copywriting wouldn't be a skill that people can charge (and find people happy to pay) thousands of dollars a page... pcwork: What are the signs of a crappy sales page?
Vishal P. Rao: OK doing a quick research, here's what I found about Cookie Stuffing: It generally involves using techniques to simulate physical click of an affiliate links. In other words, getting an affiliate cookie installed on an user computer without the user actually clicking on the affiliate link of the affiliate. Thanks for the info I new about some blackhat methods on commission highjacking but didn't know about cookie stuffing
