There are several outsourced payment solutions merchants may use. I have not worked with any one of these services: · A ffiliate Speedpay · · · · · · · · A nyPay C hexx Inc. E ntroPay e Passporte P ayoneer P ayPal Mass Pay R evUpCard W ebmasterchecks Whether you decide to handle the payments part in-house or outsource it to a third party, make sure you are prompt and accurate. As mentioned, this is a touchy area that must be handled properly at all times. 67 F R I DAY: U N D E R S TA N D T H E I M P O RTA N C E O F C O O K I E S Friday: Understand the Importance of Cookies Affiliate sales are normally tracked using cookies--small text files set on the visitor's computer. The duration of how long to keep them on the visitor's machine is chosen by the merchant while setting up their affiliate program, and it is most frequently called the cookie life or return days. In our context, it basically means the time period between the click on the affiliate site and the last day when you are willing to pay that affiliate a percentage of the sale made by "their" visitor. Cookie life may be set for any duration of time that the merchant prefers. Once the cookie life expires, the visitor sent by the affiliate becomes "your" visitor. If, for example, the cookie life is set at 60 days and someone (whom an affiliate referred) makes a purchase from you three months down the road, the affiliate is not paid the commission. Quite naturally, the question of turned off (or disabled) cookies comes up. What happens if the visitor referred by an affiliate has their cookies disabled (Figure 4.14)? It is important to address this question not only for merchants but also because you may be asked this by your affiliates. Figure 4.14 How end users block cookies in Internet Explorer