I logged into my Commission Junction account yesterday for the first time in a little while and I was looking at a number of programs and their statistics trying to decide if certain affiliate programs would be profitable or not. I stumbled across a phrase called Action Referral Period. I honestly had no idea what that phrase meant.

My first guess was that it referred to the amount of time it took for the company to approve a sale that was made. I was very wrong. After a bit of research, I discovered that it was just a fancy way of saying “Cookie Life”.

If you are unaware of what cookie life means, the term merely refers to the amount of time an affiliate cookie is active on a potential customer’s browser so that if something is purchased from the company via an affiliate, the affiliate still receives credit.

Here is an example. The A2 Hosting Affiliate Program has a cookie life of 30 days. Let’s say that Adventures In Hosting was an affiliate of A2 Hosting. Let’s say Joe Schmoe came to Adventures In Hosting, realizes that A2 Hosting was an amazing hosting company (which they are) and clicks on an affiliate ad for A2 Hosting. Joe doesn’t buy his hosting package immediately and instead decides to shop around a bit. Let’s say after 13 days, Mr Schmoe comes back to A2 Hosting and decides to purchase a hosting package. Adventures In Hosting would receive credit for that sale because that cookie is still active. Now let’s say Joe comes back after 31 days and purchases a hosting account. Unfortunately that cookie has expired and Joe Schmoe wouldn’t receive affiliate credit for that sale.