Purplebear-
I'll do my best to throw in a couple pennies here. Though I am still somewhat of a newbie to the forums, I have been fortunate enough to learn a great deal in a very condensed timeline.
I am going to give you an anology (I love them and use them far to frequently). Picture the tracking cookie as a stamp of ownership... and picture the website visitor as a commission check.
When you direct traffic to the merchant site that commision check is stamped with your name. With the lifetime cookie, your name would remain on that check for as long as it takes till they purchase something (and fill in all the $ values on the check) for which you will earn a commission.
In some cases the affiliate program - for which you generated traffic will have multiple offers out there and multiple affiliates promoting their site.
Lets say you market to someone (Bob) who you direct to the merchant site. Bob looks around sees some things that he likes but decides now isnt the time to order - his wallet is in his car and he will do it another time...
a few weeks go by and Bob still hasn't returned to make his purchase... But on this special day he gets an email advertisement that reminds him he needed to purchase a doodad from that xyz merchant website. He clicks on the link in the advertisement and orders the product.
Here is where the issues comes up - although you had a lifetime tracking cookie, and his commission check was stamped to go to you, because he more recently clicked on a different offer - Bob (the commision check) has been stamped to be paid to the other (email) marketing affiliate- because it was this last marketing intaction that finalized the sale. Its the "what have you done for me lately." If however, he goes back to the site without any other marketing interaction - you would get the credit.
Leaky Programs-
These can be rough for affiliates because the leak will circumvent your tracking and commission - whether on purpose or not.
By providing outboung links or adsense campaigns the merchant is able to potentially avoid paying you your commission - or in the case of adsense, obtain their own referral revenue from your hard work. (You refer a potential customer to their offer, once on the merchant site the customer sees a google ad for something else they want and they click on that offer- The merchant would be paid for the click on the adsense link (not you) AND if you are working on a CPA basis you walk away with no commission. Or in the case of a phone number - the web traffic may simply go to the offer website (from your marketing efforts) and then say "to heck with it, I'll just call" - again if this is a CPA program you lose the credit for your lead AND they get a free referral off of your efforts. The only way that this might not happen is if they track the phone refferal - coupon/tracking codes that are affiliate specific, etc.
Hope that helps.
Best Wishes,
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