How to Detect if Affiliate Cookies are Blocked

[undoIT]

I posted this on another forum and thought I'd post it here as well, just in case anyone reading this has come up with a solution:

Is there a method to detect if the cookies used by your affiliates are being blocked? I know that Spybot adds rules to both Internet Explorer and Firefox to block cookies from affiliates such as Commission Junction and Linkshare. I'm sure there are other ad-blocking programs that proactively block cookies.

Not sure how old this article is, there is no date given, but it has a big list of ad-blocking programs and which cookies they detect:

http://www.vinnylingham.com/specialreports/cookiedetections/#results

Then, consider this: Spybot has been downloaded 105,035,491 from download.com, 8,303,608 from pcworld.com, not to mention all the other download sites out there and safer-networking themselves. Makes one wonder just how many commissions CPA bloggers are losing.

Of course you can't prevent users from scanning their computers and manually deleting cookies. But, if you can detect that the affiliate cookies are being blocked and give the visitor a prompt, it could be just one less lost commission.

Does anyone use this type of cookie detection or know how this could be implemented?

[Linda Buquet]

Hey undoIT,

Welcome to 5 Star. Thanks for following me over here from the other forum.

I just lost my admin/mod (he passed away) and am buried so can't really type any more about it right now, but we have lots of sharp folks on the forum so I'm hoping later today some of them will weigh in on your question.

[undoIT]

Sorry to hear that Linda. Hopefully you find some good mods soon to help out.

[undoIT]

I think I may have come up with a solution. The technique would require implementation efforts by both affiliate and publisher. I'm going to see if I can get a hold of a developer or manager at some of my affiliates tomorrow to discuss whether this strategy would be feasible and if they would be willing to implement it.

[Linda Buquet]

Awesome! Please keep us posted.

I consider myself an affiliate advocate and have written some articles about the cookie blocking issue and was pretty active on the Norton affiliate link blocking issue a few years ago. So if you get something that works I'm happy to help spread the word on my blog and here at the forum.