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Check Affiliate Cookie

This page applies to the link referral method only.

Once you have set up and tested your URL, and it indeed goes to the page you expect, the last optional step is to check that the ZARIFAS_AFF_ID cookie has been set in your browser when you land on the product pages.

A cookie is a small bit of information sent to your browser to "track" a value across a web site. This site uses a persistent cookie with a 24 hour expiration to keep track of your affiliate ID as your referral browses the web site. A session cookie "dies" as soon as the browser is closed, as opposed to a persistent cookie which has a specific expiration date. Overall, cookies are relatively harmless as they can only be read and set on a given web site; another website cannot "read" cookies set by Zarifas.com to track a user's movements across the Internet.

There are a number of reasons the cookie will not be set, and most of them are due to incorrectly setting up your affiliate link, while others are due to overzealous security settings in your browser. This is a very good reason to check that a cookie is being set when you test your afiliate link.

The way to check the cookie varies by browser. Once your link is published, click the link and verify it goes to the page you expect. Then follow the instructions below for the browser you use to browse the Internet.

  • FireFox: From the main menu of the browser window, select Tools->Options -> Privacy, click "Show Cookies...", locate cookie "ZARIFAS_AFF_ID" cookie and check it's content. . . . Details and screen shots
  • Internet Explorer: From the main menu of the browser window, select Tools->Internet Options -> General Tab, Browse History - > Settings, View Files, locate the zarifas.com cookie, and open it. . . . Details and screen shots

Reasons a Cookie Might Fail That You Can Do Something About

  • You may have forgotten the question mark in the URL. This is important:
    http://www.zarifas.com/Shop_Zarifas?aff_id=1234
  • You may have a typo in the marker for affiliate id, it has to be specifically like so:
    http://www.zarifas.com/Shop_Zarifas?aff_id=1234
  • You may have forgotten the equal sign, which sets the affiliate ID, or have a typo in your actual ID:
    http://www.zarifas.com/Shop_Zarifas?aff_id=1234

Reasons a Cookie Might Fail That You Can Do NOTHING About

  • The external service or web site on which you are posting the link is "munging" (breaking the functionality of) the link. That is, if you test the link and it comes in with encoded characters or added query strings, this is a fault of the service you are using and out of our control (however, please notify us of the specific problem and we will try to fix it on this site.) An example of a "broken" URL that may fail:
    http:%2f%2fwww.zarifas.com%2fShop%5fZarifas?aff_id%3d1234?referrer=5678&t=SFBJF000958
  • Your referral browsers have security settings too high, are disallowing session cookies, or both.
  • Your affiliate referral account has not yet been activated or has been inactivated.

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