[jscott]

Ok so this is just about as scary as can be for affiliate webmasters!!!! Now, with all the problems out there, how will THIS one be solved?



Article from Xbiz titled "New browsers may drop affiliate cookies!"

"Microsoft announced last week that it was adding a "porn mode" to its Explorer browser. When enabled, this function will delete history and cookies after the browsing session is over. Mozilla's FireFox made a similar announcement today that it was going to do the same.
While the idea of being able to clean up your tracks is an understandable point, there is a huge implication to the adult industry.
Cookies that are set from affiliate links would get destroyed. A surfer clicks from the affiliate site to a paysite. When they arrive at the paysite, a cookie is set to give credit to the affiliate should the surfer return back to the site. With the "porn mode", the cookies would end being automatically deleted after the browser session was closed.
With the cookies being destroyed after the surfing session, the affiliates will no longer be able to get credit. If the surfer joins the paysite when they clicked over, then the affiliate will get the credit, but the surfer behavior would be to check out the tour and come back later if it was something they were interested in joining.
Paysites will see a boom to their bottom line from surfers who are using this function, because they will end up seeing a lot of type-in or bookmark traffic that is joining without an affiliate cookie session. The paysites won't have to make the payouts because they wouldn't know who to give the credit to.
If enough surfers use this upcoming feature and affiliates are seeing a dramatic decrease in their commission checks, then affiliates will be in a really bad position as far as how to get compensated.
There is already a growing trend of affiliates turning into paysites. They have done their job in aggregating traffic to their sites and sending the traffic to various places.
With the notion of shaving and other fraudulent tactics, this cookie munging could be the last straw for larger affiliates to turn into their own paysites.
Fight the binge and purge!"