Well, BB claims everyone knows how affiliate links work, but this is more evidence that most people don’t (which isn’t a criticism of you, but an acknowledgment of reality).
When you click on an affiliate link, everything you add to your cart in the next 24 hours, and ultimately buy within 90 days, is credited to that affiliate. So browse to the measuring spoons and add a flat-screen TV to your cart 23 hours later, and Mark gets over 6% of the flat-screen TV price (even if you never added the spoons to your cart). But if you click on one of Cory’s book links in between, then Cory gets credit for that TV purchase, and Mark just gets credit for things added to your cart after you clicked on his link and before you clicked on Cory’s.
Whoever can keep their affiliate link as the most recent one for the longest has the best chance of getting commission off your Amazon purchases.
Wow. That is amazingly shitty. I thought they just got credit if I bought the specific thing that was linked to. So, yes, whoever said that everyone understands affiliate links is full of it.
Are you aware of a Chrome plugin to strip affiliate links/block their cookies/whatever? I really don’t want to be unwittingly funding internet randos just because I happened to click some links on their blog on the same day as a major purchase.
For that matter, do you know off the top of your head where I can find (public) documentation on how affiliate links work? If no plugin exists, I might have to write one myself.
Most extensions and plugins out there add affiliate links, so that you don’t have to make your own. I don’t know of any that strip them.
What’s equally concerning, but isn’t really addressed in the ‘privacy’ policy, is that Amazon creates reports of what people bought while your affiliate link was active. So if you bought that TV after following the link to the spoons, Mark will know that someone bought a TV after following that link. Buy a self-help book on depression, a sex toy, or gun parts and he’ll know that, too. And as we’re frequently told here, anonymized data frequently isn’t that hard to de-anonymize.
There really isn’t an adequate way (in English, at least) to respond to someone who gives you information you appreciate getting (important to know) but don’t appreciate getting (great, a whole new level of paranoia to try to ignore).
Thanks? is the best compromise I’ve seen. So…thanks?
What about using an affiliate extension to add your own affiliate suffix? I doubt Amazon will give you cash back for referring you to yourself, but if you care that much about reducing someone else’s income (at no savings to you) it should reset the 24 hour clock in your name, right?
Well, you would have to join the affiliate program, be approved, and then not be later ejected for lack of traffic/sales/sufficient content on your website. The best way would be to use an affiliate extension to add the extension of a charity you support, but I’m not sure if affiliate extensions will over-ride existing affiliate links.
