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I’ve put together an Affiliate/CPA Directory for you to help you choose ad networks and products to promote. Another consideration when choosing your networks is the problem of affiliate cookies being intercepted by popular spyware detection programs. The problem of cookie deletion has long been a problem of the online ad industry. A report from independent spyware researcher Ben Edelman highlights the degree to which spyware detection software gobbles up your commissions by intercepting affiliate cookies.

Edelman studied 11 spyware detection programs to determine which ones devoured cookies from a range of 50 ad systems, including ad networks, affiliate networks and Yahoo’s and Google’s pay-per-click ad systems. These spyware detection programs included McAfee Internet Security Suite, Symantec’s Norton Internet Security and Microsoft Windows Defender, LavaSoft’s Ad-Aware, PC Tools’s Spybot Search and Destroy, Webroot’s Spy Sweeper, and ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite.

In most cases, the wider the reach of the ad network, affiliate network or ad management system, the more readily it was tracked. For instance, the affiliate networks whose cookies were caught in spyware detection webs most often were the bigger ones: Linkshare and ValueClick’s BeFree were both snagged by seven of 11 programs. ValueClick’s Commission Junction and Tradedoubler, a European pay-per-performance service, were both nabbed by six. In comparison, affiliate networks like AffiliateFuel, DoubleClick’s Performics and AzoogleAds were found by only one or two spyware detection applications.

The same was true of ad networks Advertising.com, Casale Media and ValueClick’s FastClick, each of which had its cookies discovered by eight of the 11 spyware-tracking systems tested. Cookies from aQuantive’s Atlas ad management platform were found by eight programs, while DoubleClick’s and Zedo’s ad platform cookies were detected by seven programs. Cookies served by SEM management platform MatchCraft and behavioral targeting system Revenue Science were each tracked by only one spyware detector.

Spyware-sweeping software programs including PC Tools’s Spybot Search and Destroy, Trend Micro’s Anti-Spyware, LavaSoft’s Ad-Aware and Webroot’s Spy Sweeper each found more than 45 percent of cookies distributed by the ad systems analyzed. Yet, more widely-recognized programs such as Symantec’s Norton Internet Security, McAfee Internet Security Suite and Microsoft Windows Defender detected absolutely zero of the 50 ad systems tested for the study.

According to Shoemoney, ALL the blame falls on the affiliate networks.

Read the full report here. You will be better able to choose your Affiliate/CPA Networks armed with this information.

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