Bit.ly & Viglink Quietly Adding Their Own Affiliate Cookies

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Jim Munro: More should be made of this.
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  Micah Fisher-Kirshner: Let's just say I'm not surprised that this is happening...
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  Michelle Dear: Yes, +Jim Munro ;. More should be made of this. And I imagine it's not because almost no one knows about it. And in my realm, at least, that's about to change. Thank you for sharing this.
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  E.Dieter Martin: First question is, how long will bit.ly remain affiliate of those companies? Why should Amazon pay them for virtually no sales effort?
  Second one: will it kick out the cookies of marketeers who b have been hiding them this way until now?
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  Jim Munro: It depends on the network. I'm not sure what Amazon does but some networks credit last click and others credit first click while some pay out on a mixture of both. I don't think there's any doubt that the affiliate doing the marketing and hard work will be the loser.
  
  It is theft by deception on bitly's part.