AP 0676: Who Gets Affiliate Commission if a User Clicks from Multiple Affiliates?

AskPat 676 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What up everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to Episode 676 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always, I am here to help you by answering your online business questions; five days a week. We have a great question today from Paul but before we get to that I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is one of my favorite companies, FreshBooks.com.

The most amazing software to help you with your finances, keeping track of your income, keeping track of your expenses, and especially invoicing. If you do any billing, for example, if you're a coach and you have students, or you do any consulting, or freelancing, or whatever, FreshBooks makes it really easy for you to create professional looking invoices. You can get paid and look professional, and you can get it done in 30 seconds or less often, if you set-up the template right away. I highly recommend you check it out because you know we all need to save time, we all need to just continue working and getting paid, and that's what Fresh Books helps you do. If you want to check it out, please go to FreshBooks.com/askpat and make sure you enter “Ask Pat” in the “How did you hear about us section” and if you do that, you will get 30 days for free to check it out. So, again that is FreshBooks.com/askpat. All right, thanks so much and here's today's question from Paul.

Paul: Hi Pat. My name is Paul with PhotographyTV.com. I just listened to your SPI Podcast session number 186 on affiliate marketing and thank you for that. It was filled with a ton of value. My question on affiliate marketing is “What if I am an affiliate for a company and a user goes to my site, clicks on the link but then they're just naturally browsing the web and find another website out there that is also another affiliate for the same company and they click on that link too? So, essentially they've clicked on two different affiliate links for same-end company. How does that work for myself? Do we split the commission with the other person? Or is it the first one they clicked on gets it?” I'd love to hear your thoughts on that and appreciate you for listening. Cheers! Take care.

Pat Flynn: Paul, what up? Thank you so much for listening to the podcasts. Plural because you're listening to this one and the other one, “Smart Passive Income.” If you want to check out that episode that Paul was talking about, which was all about affiliate marketing strategies, you can go to SmartPassiveIncome.com/session186.

Now this is a great question. There's a lot of technical things that go along with these cookies; which is how these companies keep track of where these links are coming from and these clicks are coming from. This is how you get credit as an affiliate and earn the commission. So, how does it work? If people click on your link first and they go to somebody else's site and then click on that link, who gets the credit?

Well, it depends on the affiliate's software that that company is using. If you really, truly want to know what the answer is, you go to your affiliate manager, your contact there, or customer service, they'll know where to forward you to get that question answered. But just ask, ask them this exact question and they will tell you and sometimes it's the first one. In many times, it is, in most cases, it is typically the first person to actually provide that lead that gets that credit. But not always sometimes it's the second person or the last person, wherever that one came from. Again, it depends on the software that they're using and how they keep track and who they give credit to. You don't typically split the cost with other people. That would be kind of pretty hard to do, I think, from a administration standpoint, from that company's point-of-view.

There are some things you can do to make sure that people always follow through after clicking on your link. I mean, that's the best case scenario, no matter what. Once people find your link, to click through and actually follow through. There are a lot of strategies in that I mention in that particular podcast episode that can help you. I also have a guide at Affiliate Marketing the Smart Way that has a lot of tips to help you.

Some of those tips are, for example, “Always mention that you are there to help, if they'd like it.” This is a thing that you offer that most people don't take advantage of but the fact that you're offering to help if they have any questions, is very very reassuring and it makes them want to stick around with you. I am also always very honest with the fact that it is an affiliate link that they are clicking on and that I actually do earn a commission at no extra cost to them, if they actually follow through. And that puts a seed in their head that you know, if they click through and they potentially are going to click it somewhere else, they might remember “Oh, well Pat said. No, he was the first one to give it to me and I'm going to go through his link.”

A lot of people have told me that they have actually done that and made sure that they go through my link because I've done what I'm supposed to do. Which is not just tell them that there is an affiliate link but actually provide a lot of value at the same time; which makes them want to repay me for all that value that I am giving them. So those are some tips that you can do.

Also creating a high-quality demo videos, that's just a general affiliate marketing tip and this is something that I wish more people would do because it's been very, very, very lucrative for me. Creating videos and demo videos of how these products that I'm recommending are being used. People love to and want to see what they are getting before they get it and unfortunately in the affiliate marketing space, most people treat affiliate marketing products that they are marketing as just like another link that people click on. No, it's like a product that you own yourself. I mean, you are taking ownership of the fact that this is something that you recommend to your audience which is really, really important. So you need to treat that product as if it is your own. So that's what I would recommend to increase the conversions and of course to get people to continue to know how much value your providing them. So that they'll always come back to you for those commissions that you deserve.

Paul, I hope that makes sense and to get the true answer, just ask the company that you are sharing. I don't know exactly what the policy is Amazon but I believe, I believe that it's the first click, for the day within a 24-hour period but I'm exactly sure. You'll have to verify that and if anybody knows the answer to that, please use the hashtag #AskPat676 on Twitter and let me know because I am actually very curious about that one. I haven't actually dug deep into that. Paul, thank you so much for the question again. We're going to send you an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show.

And for those of you who are listening, who have a question that want to get answered on the show as well. All you have to go is Askpat.com. You can see a list of all the other 675 episodes that have been recorded and there for you and also ask your question there. Thank you again so much. Thank you to Fresh Books, who is awesome, who is offering a 30-day free trial, if you want to go check that out. Again, that link is FreshBooks.com/askpat, and make sure you enter “Ask Pat” in the “How did you hear about us?” section. That's how they know it's coming from my show.

As always, we like to finish off with a quote and today's quote is a Latin Proverb and that is “If the wind will not serve, take to the cars” Oh no, that doesn't say “cars,” that says “oars.” Sorry, my eyes are a little bit…it's an “O” not a “C.” Let me read that again, I'm just going to leave this in because this is raw. “If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.” Yes. Although, I guess you could take to the cars, if you're on land, and could drive but oars are better for the environment. If you have oars, do that. Anyway, thanks guys. I appreciate you and I look forward to serving you in the next episode of AskPat. Bye.