Ok, 3rd time, rephrase:
I have my own affiliates, and I use cookies to track my visitors to them. I don't have a sign-up process in place, as that is unnecessary. The cookies that my site sets for my affiliates work by showing different tracking links if the cookie is set and shows their affiliate id for my site.
Example: I have an affiliate 'someguy'
He gives the link: http://www.rakeaway.com/?ref=someguy to his players. This sets a cookie with the contents: someguy. Every page that a player visits, if the cookie is set, then $ref is set to the value of the cookie (someguy). If the cookie is not set, then the cookie is set to $ref (someguy). This means:
-If a player then visits rakeaway.com directly, someguy's links are shown
-If a player visits rakeaway.com via a different affiliate, someguy's links are shown (I may change this)
-If a player visits rakeaway.com and doesn't have a cookie set, no cookie is set and the player sees my own links.
The problem is, players are instructed/asked to clear cookies in order to sign up. They will use the correct affiliate's link this time, but if they leave the page, then return to rakeaway without ref=someguy, they will see my links, even though they should (imo) see someguy's links. He deserves to get paid.
If I can set the cookie to $ref when a player leaves, then the cookie is set to someguy again, and will still be set to someguy when he returns. Therefore, tracking is always done correctly.
Note: Players clear cookies while on my site, not before, not after. In this case, my idea should work perfectly.
So, just for clarification, this cookie is used for me to pay my affiliates, not for affiliates or cardrooms to pay me.
EDIT: An alternative system that is easier for the user would be have a link to a script that clears cookies. Since it's my script, I can add at the end that a cookie should be set, with value $ref (someguy). Therefore, all cookies are cleared, but my own tracking system stays intact. I believe that this is not possible without having to request permission (like an activex control). I don't want to have to do that.
|