There is nothing extraordinary in the links - where's our unique code? - It's just bog standard

[Andrea]

I have gone around and around trying to understand how this works. Invisible tracking cookies? I have heard that the act of pressing 'share' and / or copying the link does it - but there is nothing extraordinary about the link. I may as well have copied the URL from the search bar.
I can do a simple find and replace to update the URLs for all the products, but how does Zazzle know it's my website and my referral if the magical invisible fairy dust is removed in the process?

It's an absolute nightmare copying share - URLs and pasting them into my individual products on my website without using CSV.

I'm so confused by this  - I'm sorry to keep asking but can anyone provide clarification?

[Baylee]

Have you read these FAQs? The section on links should answer most of your questions. Ambassador Program FAQs 

You don't necessarily need to change the product URL's on your website; you would still receive a 15% referral commission if you leave them as is. If you take out the RF# from your links you would receive a higher commission but you have to decide if it's worth changing all your links. If it was up to lazy me, I would leave them as is and just use clean links on any you do in the future.

[Andrea]

Yes but it's not talking about the fairy dust called cookies - I can't simply update a CSV on my website with my URLS and hope for the best.  True to leave it would just earn the 15%.

[CrazyMermaid]

There are a variety of ways that you can be tracked online. That's why when you enter a site you have to agree to this, before they let you access their contact. It has been going on since the early 1990s. Cookies are only one way. It ensures that affiliates who send traffic to site and generate sales get their due share. It also lets marketing analysts understand their users.  The exercise of clearing your browser history does nothing to clear cookies or tracking mechanisms. That hasn't worked for years, yet it persists in Zazzle culture. 

[Andrea]

I'm just trying to get to the bottom of the cookie behaviour. If the URL does not have an RF code then there is nothing unusual about it... we are relying on cookies. As you can see I am talking about updating my products on my wordpress site using a csv file. Which is tricky if I am trying to keep the flow so the cookies can follow my behaviour and trace/attribute me to my sales.

With an RF code at least you knew where you are - this is like working in the dark.

[CrazyMermaid]

It depends on the tracking mechanism that are used. You might want to hire a specialist if that isn't your expertise. Obviously, since the promoter 2.0 program uses clean links, an RF code isn't always necessary. 

[Barbara]

Interesting. Now and then, I clear cookies in addition to history, but are there even more ways to track a person? Like maybe a computer's MAC address or IP address?

Colorwash's Home    Colorwash on Benable   Benable invite link

[Andrea]

Yes there are many ways to track a person across the internet in order to study their behaviour - mainly for shopping trends. IP addresses can be masked and by using downloadable tools or going incognito in your browser. But cookies in this instance are being used to track the share button and where the products are pasted.

Previously we had an RF code. I pressed that share button to get that code attached to the link. But now Zazzle has removed the code and relies on cookies. So when I press the share button and collect the code - that action is being recorded in a cookie. I assume the next action is to trace that link to/from my website/social media.

To carry over a cookie like that though, the action needs to be so literal that using quicker product editing tools like pasting the link into a CSV file would break the cookie.

[Cat · Accepted solution]

When I was in the Promoter 2.0 program, I was really confused about how they could credit the referral to me without any rf code or parameter added to the URL. I was told that if the person entered the site through one of my pages (store, product, collection, etc.) and it could not be traced back to any other source (rf code, Zazzle advertising code etc.) the referral was credited to me.

I don't know if it still works that way or if they've added some sort of other tracking technology. I asked if the 14 day non-overwritable referral applied to self-referrals as well as to rf referrals, and was told that it did. I think it's possible drop a cookie into a browser from conditions other than a parameter included in the URL, so that may be what they are doing. For customers who already have a Zazzle account, they could easily set some sort of flag inside of the account (server side) - this would jive with reports that clearing cookies and browser data did not clear referral settings. Those are just guesses as to what they might be doing, but I don't really know.

So while we don't know what tracking system they are using, they are definitely using some system that goes beyond a url parameter. I'm not sure that it makes much sense to waste energy trying to puzzle it out, and they're certainly not going to explain it to us because that would open the door wide for hackers to try to game their system. 

The bottom line is that there is no way to guarantee that you'll get a referral, whether you use an rf link or a clean link, because you cannot control whether or not the customer has other referrals set (whether through browser cookies or some other technology.) It's sort of a game of probabilities, not guarantees. 

I do wish that there was some sort of "uber referral" that would override all others and could be used when you want to send a specific customer to purchase a specific product (like for custom design work), as opposed to general promoting or marketing stuff. But since it doesn't work that way, I think we just have to adjust our approaches accordingly.

[CrazyMermaid]

The first in is your uber referral. Hopefully there is no way to override it. I have had self-referrals get cancelled and then several days reordered with the same self-referral in place, so it does work. If not, then I assume the time had run out. I honestly don't worry about referral integrity at all on Zazzle . But then again I never used it to try an game the system for doing custom work. I also understand how affiliate tracking works. It is almost foolproof when done well. it would take a very high skill level to get around it.

I think people are wasting an incredible amount of time fixating on this as the reason for their lack of success on Zazzle. If they are doing that much custom work, that it is a large percentage of their revenue, then it is time to start their own design firm. Not figure out how to steal other peoples' referrals. 

[Cat]

Just wanted to thank you for pointing out that it really is OK to say no to custom design requests. Gotta say, I'm infinitely happier since I decided to stop offering that. And I've actually had time to work on designing again - imagine that! 

[Andrea]

Thank you for the clarification. I'm thinking of getting a friend to buy a product from a link off my website to see what happens.

[Cat]

I don't think that will tell you very much, because your friend could very well have picked up another referral somewhere along the way. But feel free to try if it makes you feel better.

[YesItsRoy]

I'm not done with my testing yet, but I'm already pretty sure Zazzle is using server-side storage (tracking mechanisms stored on Zazzle's servers) in combination with fingerprinting (look up "Google fingerprinting"; they first said "oh, bad, not ethical," and then decided it was too valuable to them to not use it, and now it's "fingerprinting is passive and good and we're going to do it").  Clean Links (no RF ID) would almost certainly be tracked this way, but RF ID Links would likely also in combination with cookies. 

Cookies, on the other hand, are stored on the client side (the user's computer), meaning you can clear cookies in your browser and you come in looking like a new user.  Users have some control this way.   RF ID Links were definitely tracked this way.

I'm opposed to fingerprinting by anyone, but that's another topic for another post.  

For the purpose of promoting, if you want to take a chance at the larger Referral Commission (35-50%), post Clean Links (i.e. NO RF ID).  If you want to take a chance at the smaller Referral Commission (15%), post links with your RF ID.  You can still find your RF ID on this page, even if the Share buttons don't give it to you:  https://www.zazzle.com/my/ambassador/ambassador 

I use something called AutoHotkey to "save" snippets I type often.  So I type ?rf= and it types out the whole string, so I didn't have to memorize my ID. 

[Anne]

OK, so probably stupid question, but I don't see any difference in copying the link from the address bar versus using the popup share area? 
And @YesItsRoy fingerprints? I am using a wacom tablet with pen. How on earth are they collecting my fingerprints (if so)?
OMG, I'm SO last century! Sorry!

[YesItsRoy]

Links > Not a stupid question -- you are correct:  There is no difference between copying the URL from the address bar and copying the link from the popup share box, if you want a Clean Link. 

Fingerprinting > Devices are unique, just as fingerprints are unique.  We can buy two of the same computer model on the same day from the same store, and one internal component might be a different brand, and then we install different software, making them more different from each other.  That's the case for all devices everywhere.

Some of the information about our computers is available to a website by default -- fonts installed, display size and color depth, web browser being used, IP address, and more -- in order that the website can be displayed properly on our screens. Legitimate use of our information.

Each piece of that information is like a ridge in a fingerprint.  A combination of ridges configured in a certain way makes a fingerprint unique, and a combination of fonts, display size, and so on makes your device unique (see footnote*).  

Websites compile and save our device information as a unique identifier -- that's called a "fingerprint."  They can then track our activity based on "who" we are by our unique identifier. 

That's fingerprinting.

*Footnote: Fingerprinting involves compiling, say, 20 or 25 aspects of your device versus the thousands of components which make it actually unique because not every aspect of our device is readable by a website.  So a website which helps you determine how "fingerprintable" you are would likely say your device is the "same" as 5,402 or 163,249 other computers -- because it's only testing those 20 points.   

Trying to make it sound simple is so complicated -- I hope that's clear(ish) and helpful. 😊