In this presentation, we're gonna talk about cookies. Cookie crumbs are actually a road to cash. Cookies play a huge role in getting paid as an affiliate marketer. So let's dive into what cookies are and how they can make you money. 


First, we need to understand affiliate marketing. What is it? How does it work? What the heck am I talking about? Well, affiliate marketing is basically a performance based marketing model where affiliates will promote a vendor's product using a special link, and they'll earn commissions on sales that they refer to. 


Sometimes they can get paid just for referring leads. There's all different types of affiliate models. There's cost per action, there's cost per click. But essentially, an affiliate is promoting a product for a vendor. And in exchange for referring a buyer, that vendor pays that affiliate a small percentage, sometimes a high percentage, like even 50% or more of the proceeds from the sale of the product.


That is essentially what affiliate marketing is. And in order for affiliate marketing to work online, we require a couple of different technologies to work together. Symbiotically with our vendor and our affiliate and our affiliate marketing platform, the affiliate shares the product, the consumer clicks the link and then purchases. 


The affiliate receives a commission from the vendor based on the sale. So let's walk through that. The affiliate is going to share a link for the product, not just any link, a special link, a unique link, a link that only he or she has called an affiliate link. It's unique because he or she went to the affiliate network or affiliate platform, selected the product they wanted to promote, and said, gimme my link. 


And that link is unique because it carries the ID of that affiliate. Okay? So it's a link for a product that a consumer can buy, but that link is coded with an ID I'm sure you've seen before. Like for example, Amazon. You go, you click a link. If you ever tried to copy a link from Amazon, it's super long. 


It's got all these characters, numbers, letters, apostrophes, dashes, and you're like, what the heck is all that? Well, all that information means something. And what an affiliate link has is a specific ID or information on it that is going to identify who the affiliate is. 


So when the consumer clicks that link and makes a purchase, that affiliate is going to be able to be paid. The affiliate network will tell the vendor, Hey, this customer was referred by this person and they are now owed this commission. And all of this happens inside the affiliate platform. 


So what exactly is the platform? What exactly do they do? Right? So it's called the affiliate platform. Affiliate network, because it networks the vendors with the affiliates and it brings them together, generally speaking.


Affiliate networks connect the vendor with the affiliate. That's essentially the main function. Now, obviously it provides some technical things like the link, the tracking, the reporting. You can go in there and do a report. How many sales have I made as an affiliate, as a vendor? How many commissions do I owe? But these platforms manage the payments as well. 


Sometimes even dispute resolution, like if the consumer wants a refund or they need to. They have a question about the product, how do I get access to the product? It essentially also finds a place where the affiliate can find the product that they want to promote. So I myself, I'm an affiliate marketer, but I'm also a vendor. 


I use these networks on both sides of the coin. So sometimes I go into the network and I just go into the library and I just peruse the products that are currently on sale because I'm looking for something to promote to my subscribers, my followers, my audience.


What happens now is when I find one that I like, I can watch the videos, I can check it out, and then I can make a decision about whether or not I wanna promote it. If I want to promote it, I can message the vendor right from inside that network, or I can just read whatever instructions the vendor has about promoting. 


And that vendor might say, Hey, if you wanna promote, contact me or tell me this, or tell me that. You need to have this amount of sales in order to qualify to promote this product, or whatever, you know. And then now I can go and select that product to promote and generate a link, an affiliate link for myself. 


The affiliate link is created essentially by the network, by the affiliate platform, but it is done on behalf of the vendor so that the affiliate can now promote the vendor's products, right? But there are a lot of other things that the network does. Yeah, the tracking, the payments, the reporting, I can always log in as an affiliate and see how much money I've made, how many clicks I've sent, how many commissions I'm owed. 


And as a vendor, the same thing. I can log in and say, well, how many affiliates do I have promoting? Who's made what, how much money do I owe? Et cetera, et cetera. So let's talk a little bit more deeply about the affiliate link. Now, the platform creates the link, but the link, even though it is pointing to a vendor's sales page or a vendor's website, the link doesn't necessarily have the name of the product or of the website. 


For example, if this is acme.com, that's the name of the affiliate network, I might go to acme.com and I'm in the library and I see a product called, I don't know, camera tutorials. And I have a niche, I have an audience that loves cameras. So I decided I wanna promote this camera tutorial product. I like the statistics, I like the commission, I'm gonna promote it. 


So I click to request an affiliate link, and that link is gonna be acme.com/xyz, blah, blah, blah. It's gonna have like a bunch of numbers and letters behind it, which identifies who the vendor is, what the product is, and who I am. So all that information is essentially in the link, but it is an acme.com link. 


Again, I'm just using acme.com as an example. Don't go there. That's not an affiliate network that I know of. Again, I'm just using that for example. Now what happens is, when a vendor loads their product or lists their product on the network, the vendor goes ahead and tells the network what the URL is for his or her sales page.


The platform now gives the vendor a button, it gives them the code for the button to put on their sales page, and it gives the affiliate the link to promote that sales page. So this all happens by way of the affiliate network. So a vendor gets a button, an affiliate gets a link, the affiliate gives the link to his audience, the audience clicks the link, the Acme platform redirects them to the vendor sales page, and then now they buy, if they buy, that affiliate gets a commission. 


Okay? So I know, I get it. It might be a little confusing. Just go back and just check out that information that I just gave you one more time, see if it follows, and if it makes sense to you, these are links that you can now as an affiliate share on your website, on your blog, on your social media, anywhere that your audience might be interested in that product.


In my particular case, a product about cameras, right? I decided that I was going to promote the camera tutorials. So I got a link for that product. And I'm gonna go into my camera enthusiasts Facebook group that I've been building, and post a link there. And if any of those people are interested in getting the camera tutorials, they'll click through my link. 


If they buy, I get a commission. That's what an affiliate link does for the affiliate, and that's what it does for the vendor. And by the way, the platform, the affiliate network, keeps a little chunk of this for themselves just so that they can make a profit as well. 


So it isn't just the affiliate marketer and the vendor that makes money. Naturally, the platform gets cut naturally. Even the payment processor like PayPal or Stripe or whatever it is, everybody gets a little piece of the action.
Now we get into the fun stuff, cookies, after all, that's what this entire training is about. Cookies. What are they and what do they do? Well, cookies are not those delicious tasting things that you put in your mouth and get fat. No cookies are actually little snippets of code that track the affiliate referrals and sales. 


Now, you might be saying, wait a second, I thought that was the affiliate link. Well, yeah, but think about it. What if I click that affiliate link today and I decide I don't want to buy today, I'm in a hurry, or maybe I'm on my phone right now and I wanna do this later when I get home, right? 


Well, now what, how do I make sure as a vendor that someone is going, that the affiliate is gonna get credit, and that that person's gonna be able to purchase through that affiliate's link, and that, that the whole process is gonna work well?


Well, these little snippets of code are set on a browser. These cookies basically track the affiliate referrals in sales. A browser is what you're using to access the internet, right? So you might be on Chrome, you might be on Firefox, you might be on Internet Explorer, even though, I don't know why you would be, but you might be on Microsoft Edge or whatever the heck you're using. 


You're accessing the internet through a program on your computer called a browser, right? That browser is where the snippets of code are stored. And the snippet of code that is being stored in this whole affiliate marketing model is the affiliate id. So what happens now is I click an affiliate link and I go visit a sales page. 


In that instant, when I click that link, that payment processor set, or rather that affiliate network set a cookie, a little snippet of code on my browser, and that basically stores the name or rather the, the affiliate id, so that if I decide to buy that product, either right then and there when I click the order button, or maybe tomorrow or next week or next year, whenever I decide to click that button, one of the first things that the order button does is check to see if there's a cookie on the device.


If there's a cookie on the device, it's gonna say, okay, well who is the affiliate that referred this person? And then that's gonna send that data over to the payment processor to the affiliate network. And that's how an affiliate gets credit. So as long as there's a cookie on the computer, it doesn't matter if the customer buys today or buys tomorrow, next week, next month, as long as that cookie is there, the affiliate will get credited. 






Now, a browser will store the cookie for a certain amount of time. By the way, that time is determined by code inside the cookie itself. A cookie could be stored forever, could be stored for a month, for a year, for a day. But essentially it's what's going to help the browser tell the affiliate network who the referring affiliate was. Your browser also has something called a cache.


And a cache is basically like a closet where it can store information about websites. It could store information like images, data, so that the pages load faster every time that you go back. So instead of having to pull the data off of the server from where the website is being hosted, some of the information can be right on your computer, right? 


In the browser case, this is also where the cookie data is stored. So this is important. If you were to go and clear your case and clear your cookies, it would affect whether or not that affiliate ID is passed over to the affiliate network when you decide that you want to buy the product. 


See, there's this thing that we operate under called Last Cookie wins. And last cookie wins is a policy that, by the way, it's a very good policy. And don't let anybody tell you outright that the last cookie means that the last affiliate to refer to the customer before it, if it was purchased, is the one that gets credited with the sale. 


Meaning if you and I are both affiliates and you told John to buy this product through your link today, and John clicked, but he looked at it and he said, ah, he wasn't quite convinced. And then tomorrow I say, Hey John, I'd like you to take a look at this product, and I've also put up an offer for a bonus. And if you buy this through my link, I'm gonna give you this additional gift. And now John clicks again. Well, guess what? The fact that there was already a cookie on there makes no difference in this scenario because now a new affiliate link is in play when I click that one, or rather when John clicks that one.


Now the original cookie is gonna be overwritten by the new cookie, which is the way that it should be, because the person that got the sale, the person that actually enticed John to buy with a bonus, the last person to get John to click and buy, is the one that deserves credit for the sale. 


The cool thing about this is it increases the competition among the affiliates, and it's gonna secure, it's gonna get them to secure the last click. You know, like it's gonna make them want to tell the buyer, Hey, look, make sure you use my link. Hey, look, make sure you verify on that order page that you see my name, my affiliate id, because that's the way that I get paid. And if you don't see it, make sure you go and you clear your cookies. You gotta get credit for your referrals.


So use clear functioning affiliate links and instruct the customers to check the affiliate name on the checkout page. This happens all the time as a vendor. I've had customers come to me and say, Hey, I thought I was buying through so and so, and I wanted to get so and so's bonus, but apparently I haven't gotten the bonus because he or she said that I didn't buy through them. 


That usually happens because they were out bonus shopping, they were clicking a bunch of different affiliate links, and they didn't verify on the checkout page that the name of the affiliate they wanted to buy through was present. So it's important that you as an affiliate instruct your customers to check the name or the ID on the checkout page. 


You gotta monitor and manage cookie settings as well. And you've gotta make sure that you're telling them, look, if you don't see it, I need you to go and clear your case, clear your cookies, and then start again. Click through my affiliate link again. Make sure that you see my name on that checkout page before you purchase because that's the only way that I can give you the bonus. 


You know, the best place to do this, to give them this information, to tell them, is on a bridge page. A bridge page, or a bonus page. Essentially, you can basically send people, send your audience not directly to the affiliate link, but rather to a bridge page. 


Let's say you have an audience of a hundred people or 200 people, or 2000 people, it doesn't matter. They're in your Facebook group or they're on your YouTube channel, or they're in your autoresponder and you send them a message saying, Hey, I've got an amazing announcement to make. I've just discovered a brand new product that you are absolutely gonna love, and I can't wait to share it with you.


Click this link here to check it out. Now, you might think that I'm referring to the affiliate link. Well, no, in this message, in this marketing message to your audience, what I'm gonna recommend is that you put the link to a bridge page. What's a bridge page? Well, it's just a page, a web page that you make that connects your audience to the sales page. 


On this page, on this bridge page or this bonus page, you can provide additional value with bonuses or exclusive content. What I mean by exclusive content is gonna be marketing content. You wanna preface the product that you're sending them to. Maybe a review video, maybe an endorsement video, maybe a case study, maybe a testimonial, maybe just a video that says, Hey, you're about to see the most amazing product you've ever seen in the internet marketing community. 




And if you decide to buy it, I want you to do so through my link. That's why I've put together this bonus. And then right beneath that video, show them 10 things that you're gonna give them for free if they buy through your link. A bridge page also educates the customer about verifying the affiliate ID. 


Somewhere down at the bottom of that page, after you've delivered your marketing, you wanna deliver the instructions that educate this customer about what cookies are and say, Hey, listen, you need to make sure that my name is prominently displayed on the checkout page. It should look like this. I'll often take a screenshot of what my affiliate ID is and what it's gonna look like on the checkout page. 


Then I'll take that screenshot and I'll paste it on my bridge page or my bonus page so that my customer knows exactly what to look for. And then I'll say to them, right at the bottom of this page, I'll educate them and I'll say, if you do not see my name or my id, if it doesn't look like this and I have a screenshot with an arrow, then I'm gonna need you to clear your cookies.


You're gonna need to clear your cookies on your browser. And then I'll even link to a page that gives them instructions on how to clear cookies, how to clear them on Firefox, how to clear them on Chrome, how to clear them on Microsoft, even though I don't know why the heck you would be using Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer, or whatever it is that they do. 


But the point that I'm making is that you're teaching them how to clear cookies to make sure that you get paid. This is gonna increase your conversion rate. This is gonna increase the connection that you have with your customer because you're teaching them about cookies, and you're also confirming that those that do decide to buy take the additional step to go through your link and to set your cookie to make sure that you get paid for this sale.


Clearing cookies matters. Clearing and resetting cookies when a payment page does not display the referring affiliate name is important. It is super important. You're not gonna get paid without it. When someone comes to me and says, Hey, I want you to change my affiliate. 


I bought through Joe, but I wanted to buy through John because John has a better bonus. I said to them, I'm sorry, but you bought through John. It was incumbent upon you to check that you were getting the link from the right person. And I cannot just go and switch money from one person to another person. That's not prudent. That's not ethical, and that's not something that can be done. 



It's very, very important that you have that clearing cookie instruction on the bridge page. If that's the only reason for the bridge page then make that bridge page just for that reason. I recommend you always use a bridge page when you're creating some sort of a campaign. 


It's always better to send them to a page that prefaces them, that prepares them for what they're about to see. That gives them a review, that gives them a sales video that basically gives them an endorsement from you and teaches them about cookies and makes them confirm that you are the referring affiliate. 


This practice ensures that the affiliate gets the proper credit. If cookies are misattributed, then you're not going to get paid. This allows customers to reset their cookies and re-click the affiliate link and prevents commission loss due to overwritten or even expired cookies. That's another thing. 


If this person's clicking through two years later and there was a one year timer on that cookie, they might not see your name on the page. It's only gonna help for you to have a bridge page that adds value, that adds information, that adds an endorsement, and that adds education about cookies, tells them to verify that you're the referring.


Affiliate, and that way that you can get paid. Make sure that you continue learning about this stuff. Just this training alone isn't enough to really give you a solid understanding of all the different things that you can do with cookies. 


Now, I recommend that you follow industry blogs and influencers who are experts on affiliate marketing and get their opinions on last cookie, and find out how you know they're using, what methods are they using to ensure that they're getting credited for their sales. 


Join affiliate marketing forums and networks and ask questions, attend webinars and training sessions to learn the strategies and trends that are working today in affiliate marketing. But I hope that you've learned a valuable lesson here about affiliate marketing, about cookies and how the cookies can lead you to the cash and how not having the cookie and not telling your customers to verify that you're the affiliate could lead you to losing out on commissions.