Data from Shawn Collins 2009 AffStat Affiliate Marketing Study (available as a free 40 page report here) shows most affiliates don’t care about your super-duper-365-day-cookie. They know cookies get wiped or overwritten.55% are fine with a 30-day cookie or less. The vast majority of the remainder are cool with a 90-day cookie.So what do affiliates really want?

• direct deposit – 62% of them really want it, not a check please!
• landing pages that convert better, 80% watch their earnings per click and reject sites that don’t do well
• well copywritten text links that get clicks. Text links can be better than banners.
• the flexibility to be an affiliate for a wide variety of products. Only 3% chose new merchants to work with based on “relevancy to my current web sites” and 30% have more than 10 domains.