Cookie stuffing – Is it really evil?
By DonVF on Jan 24, 2012 with Comments 13
Cookie stuffing…
Is it really as bad as people say? Is it really such an evil thing?
Short answer: No
That really depends on how you use it. There are a lot of people that parrot the opinions of others. That try to sound like the “holiest of holies” and state absolute trash as fact. Those are the people that I can’t even stand to read their posts on forums. Those are the people that cause me not to even post much on forums anymore. Because they speak with no basis of fact. Meaning they have no idea what they are talking about from actually doing anything online. So they tend to just be firm in their (well someone elses opinion that rubbed off on them) opinion that all cookie stuffing is evil.
But what makes cookie stuffing evil?
Cookie stuffing is only evil when you are doing things like stuffing forums, or hijacking pages by injecting code. When you are basically attacking other sites to get mass users of someone else’s web property cookied so you can make commissions.
That is the evil part of cookie stuffing. That form of cookie stuffing is just as bad as click jacking.
It is fraud… and you deserve to get the shit sacked out of you for it. I don’t want to even think about how many clicks I get on my AdWords ads that are click fraud. That stuff just gets me extremely irritated.
What makes cookie stuffing not evil?
When you setup an affiliate site… and especially when you set up a site for something like a typical Make Money online product. You have the right to cookie stuff those people in my opinion.
I’m not going to argue morality, legality, or whatever with people.
If an affiliate site I have for a product is a component in the overall purchasing funnel you go through to buy the product. I have a right to cookie stuff you.
If you are going to search in Google, Yahoo/Bing, or whatever…
- You find my site in the search results
- You visit my site
- I was a direct component in the overall sales process. (I deserve commissions for the traffic I sent)
Period…
So no one will actually change my way of thinking on this… If the product owner doesn’t care if you cookie stuff, and the network doesn’t care if you cookie stuff then do it.
I’m not saying go out there and take a chance of losing your affiliate commissions. You can clear certain types of cookie stuffing up front.
You can also be a more creative on the way you stuff cookies.
For example…
I released the WP POP IT plugin on the Warrior Forum.
One of the specific reasons I had that converted to a plugin was so I could use it on affiliate pages to not only grab attention but to also stuff cookies. 
Certain ClickBank products that launch, or WSOs, Things on DigiResuts, or JVZoo… I stuff affiliate sites for those products.
I actually use an old framing tool called cakeslice.
I make an affiliate site for the product… Frame the video on a sales page of the product with cakeslice so it shows up as if it were on my site (Using my aff link) and bam… cookie set.
Or I will do my own audio, or video and still set the cookie.
I am actually releasing a rather extensive product on some of this called Commission Jacker. That mentions cookie stuffing and some examples. However it is not as evil as the opt-in form makes it look lol. Actually not evil at all… But will definitely be an eye opener for some.
Not to mention… often when I have affiliate sites setup for product launches I give things away on them. So I have even more right at that point to stuff the visitor.
Frankly… it boils down to this in my opinion.
- Using other people’s sites in evil ways to cookie stuff is a no no.
- Using my own sites to cookie stuff for the product I am promoting is a go go…
What are your thoughts?
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Awesome post Don, I agree with you 100%, not much more to say other than… i am looking forward to you releasing the software.
Good luck with it when the time comes!
I agree 100%. If you’ve come to my site to read my sales pitch, you’re going to get stuffed.
Side note – When I came to this page, I saw a popup that was playing the Led Zeppelin song, “Ramble On.” Just an FYI – If you’re not paying royalties for using that, you’re setting yourself up for a lawsuit.
And no one loves to sue more than Robert Plant and Jimmy Page,especially since they rarely grant anyone permission to use their music for anything.
Exactly… they bought the product and you were part of the sales funnel. You get paid for creating these sales funnels if you were doing them for someone else. So you should be getting paid… you influenced the buyer… period.
As for the popup…
Yeah just testing that popup…
But yeah ol’ Robbie and Jimmy are sue fanatics.
I agree, If someone visited your site you influenced their buying thought process, and not your fault they decided to think about it for a day and then go direct to the site through a google search later.
Unfortunately the traffic that is cookied with no influence in their decision making is what the aff programs have to combat so as it would be impossible to be constantly differentiate between the two, they need to just ban the practice all together.
I don’t actually agree they should ban the practice all together. The reason being is that to find out if you are stuffing they typically look for the source. IF they see the source as an affiliate site about the product… you should be left alone.
I agree they should not, but they do. there are networks out there that you can get away with it.
GUILTY AS CHARGED! I lost my only eBay affiliate account to carelessly cookie stuffing the wrong way. I was just about to get about a $300 deposit from them, I had just discovered a great and easy social site to target with lots of traffic and found a loop hole..hell it might even still exist, when BAM…they closed my account!
I have serious regret as there are so many ways to make good money using cookies the RIGHT WAY, and I do agree with your reasoning Don, but after loosing eBay affil status I completely stepped away from stuffing.
Actually I’m getting more into affiliate marketing again and glad you brought this back up Don. Keep us posted on your products and methods.
Yeah I don’t stuff ebay… sometimes Amazon but there is a way that I do it that is pretty hard to explain. I will explain it in commission jacker when it comes out. But that is only a small part of it and can be done or left out depending on the person’s comfort zone. But it basically is using something that was used for blackhat but can be repurposed.
The commission jacker is comprised of things I have been doing for years. Panda hasn’t done anything to the way I do that stuff. Plus the cookie stuffing really is just a small section of it overall.
But when stuffing, I never do it maliciously by trying to hammer forums, or injecting things into other people’s sites. I only do it on my own sites that are for the product.
Hey Don,
Notice how you said they should ‘look.’ That disease is running rampant in this industry. “You mean I can’t automate EVERYTHING!?” lol.
Cool post. TY.
-Dani
Hey Don…..basically I agree with everything you say.
If I go through the work to get traffic to my site, landing page or video… maybe offer something of value for free, that means I spent my time, efforts and money on site building, link building etc and I think I deserve the right to dump a cookie if they just read and take my stuff.
You’re right about the parrots. So many so called experts in IM just parrot the thoughts of others not knowing whether the info they share is correct or not.
Based on my research, cookie stuffing has many different aspects and because it is somewhat complex it is difficult to understand what is acceptable and what isn’t to someone who is new to internet marketing and to make matters worse, there really isn’t anyplace to ask questions about cookie stuffing without getting slammed.
Try going to the warrior forum and asking a cookie stuffing question and see what happens.
Even the blackhat forums don’t openly discuss much about cookie stuffing.
I do some product reviews after I buy (or given) the product and used it for a while. I might make 2 or three blog posts, make a couple of videos and do a bunch of backlinking to get my blog post “Review of XXXXX” on page 1. I can tell you that I get a lot of visitors, its not surprising but only about 10 to 20% might click on the affiliate link in the post, and fewer will make a purchase. But when a cookie is dropped on the person visiting the post to get an honest review, my commissions soar.
Getting back to the “cookie stuffing” knowledge. There just isn’t anything or much out there to inform people on the how and why of cookie stuffing….. thus the mystique and ignorance of the process. Sounds like you might be working on something that would help eleviate some of this misinformation! Good luck to you.
If you need someone to take a look at it before it’s released, please drop me an email.
Take care,
Scott
The only cookies I know about are fattening but call my name.
I have got to the point of leaving most forum goers opinions alone. Even the ones I tend to agree with end up getting set in their ways and thinking their way is the only way.
It is sad a bunch of freakin idiots have curtailed the people like you and Jeremy from posting on the forums like you one time did.
Troy
HI Don
I have to agree with pretty much all you say. Although I dont understand all the tech involved, dropping a cookie, cookie stuffing, I think your summary says it all. The boundaries are quite clear, there are those that will do ANYTHING for a buck or a thrill, (script kiddies I think was a term used in past) and what one may do to promote a product. I think you have got it just about right.
Larrs
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