OK, when I redesigned my main pages, I did have search engines in mind. Then I read the submission rules when I went to a search engine, and didn't resubmit within the specified time, even if my site didn't turn up. Or maybe they are concentrating on other keywords, and their results for those are even better - I don't know. I questioned Todd Crawford, VP Strategic Initiatives at CJ, about this, and he says the change will have little, if any, impact on affiliate earnings. Things like how and when affiliates get paid, help desk support, return day policies, etc.
Many affiliate programs offer what is known as a 'return day policy'.
This allows affiliates to send traffic over to merchant sites and get paid for purchases that occur after the initial visit. These return visits are tracked via cookies that expire after a certain period of time. A cookie is set on the consumer's web-browser that expires after a certain period of time. The cookie will track the first purchase any time during the life of the cookie. CJ just lowered the cookie expiration from 90 days to 45 days.