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Originally Posted by faxxaff
Man, you have no idea what you are talking about. Referrer tracking verifies the origin of traffic.
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Exactly. You brought it up as an alternative to cookies. It's not. Referrer tracking can only track the origin of the first click.
Quote:
Originally Posted by faxxaff
there are many ways to store or utilize that information
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No, there aren't many ways. Not until the user registers. I have actually looked into how the HTTP protocol works and how you can identify users from the server side. Have you?
Quote:
Originally Posted by faxxaff
there are many ways to store or utilize that information. In most cases you won't need to as there are ways to capture leads with free registrations, etc. It's very effective.
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Re-read what I wrote:
But what happens if the user leaves before registering...
If the user registers, there is of course no need for anything anymore. From a technical point of view, a free join and a credit card joins are the same. Cookies are used to tie the user to your affiliate in the timeframe AFTER the first click and BEFORE the free or paid registration.
Quote:
Originally Posted by faxxaff
Redirects and vanities just make sense when they are hard coded, no need for parameters to be passed on.
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They're nice tools I agree, but they aren't any better at tracking than URL parameters. I guarantee you these programs also use cookies for that. You just don't know, because you don't really understand how they work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by faxxaff
In both cases spammer can't overwrite cookies with stuffing.
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Cookie stuffing is just a name. Doesn't really mean that if you take the cookies out of the picture they can't still silently mass-open links. It would work the same even if a program uses some other method to track the users before they register.
If it's "first click wins", a fraud affiliate can still have users auto open his links in mass amounts and block subsequent affiliate clicks from getting the visitor's sale.
If it's "last click wins", someone else can still take the sale from you if the user left the page without signing up.
I agree with you that with Pay Per Lead programs, there is less importance of returning visitors, and therefore cookies too. It's easier to get them to enter their email right away. But we're in a general discussion here, not just Pay Per Lead.
You seem to think cookies are something that were created for affiliate tracking. They were not, they are a core feature of HTTP that pretty much every single website uses for keeping users logged in.