Explain this to me (CCBILL Cookies)

how surprising nobody here has anything to offer

Sounds to me like they're saying they usually do some tracking other than just the cookie. But if you set it to more than 3 days, they wont. -- Probably because since they're storing info in their DB, longer than 3 days is potentially too much information for them to be storing.

So, if that is the case. They will ONLY rely on cookies for your referrals. Where as, if a user is blocking cookies. The referrer wouldn't be known.

thats how I read it too.

well then it sounds as if their system favors the affiliate who sets a cookie first, cookies set for longer than 3 days have a built in edge for Webmaster A when Webmaster B attempts to cookie a surfer on say Day 7 of a 10 day cookie, who isn't accepting cookies, Webmaster B is shit out of luck and Webmaster A gets the referral. smaller affiliates would be dead if referrals weren't based on the 'last affiliate in' standard.

It would be better if CCBill would still at least do 3 days IP tracking even if the cookie length were greater than 3 days. I don't see why they should not do any IP tracking if say the cookie expire time is 30 days. That makes no sense. They can still do the three days at least.

I prefer:

1. First affiliate (Affiliate A) to set the cookie always keeps the cookie until it expires.

2. If another affiliate (Affiliate B) sends the same surfer within the cookie time for which Affiliate A's cookie is still set then they get credit if and only if the surfer buys immediately after visiting. If not, the cookie is used.

3. If the surfer does a type in then Affiliate A's cookie is still used.

I don't think affiliate cookies should be overwritten once set but if someone sends a surfer and they buy immediately then they should always get credit. Affiliate A still was the one who initially referred the customer so if the customer does a type in they should get the credit.

That is a bad methodology for a lot of reasons. The NEWEST cookie should always take precedence over the older one. This is true in every facet of the web (including affiliate marketing, or any marketing of any type).

So for affiliates of ccbill, what is the best length of time for cookies to be set in program admin? 3 days? 180 days?

Apparently you've never heard of cookie stuffing.


It should always be the person who sent the hit last gets the sale.

If they buy right away they would still get credit for the sale. The problem with always overwriting the cookie is that you are removing credit from the person who originally referred the surfer to the site. And you aren't really stopping cookie stuffing. Another site could just as easily stuff right after you set your cookie and you'll still lose the sale. It's still profitable to stuff like that because you still can get credit for type ins.

Both of our methods make it so the last referrer gets the signup if the surfer buys right away. The difference is that with what I suggest the original sender always gets credit for any type ins. Overwriting the cookie actually works to the stuffer's advantage as it relates to typeins. With anything else you'd still get credit my way if they bought as soon as they were sent.