The link itself usually does not expire. The tracking attached to it does, and those are two different things that get confused constantly.
Understanding which part expires tells you why an old post can still earn years later, and why a sale you were sure you caused sometimes pays nothing.
Two different clocks
The link. A URL carrying your affiliate identifier. It keeps working as long as the merchant keeps the programme running and keeps that product page live. Links in posts from three years ago still work and still pay.
The affiliate cookies. Set when someone clicks, expiring after a fixed period — often 30 days. This is the part with a deadline, and it starts at the click, not at publication.
So an article published in 2023 that someone reads today sets a fresh cookie today. The article’s age is irrelevant. That is why affiliate income compounds while other creator income does not.
When links genuinely do stop working
| Cause | What you see | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Programme closed | Link redirects to the homepage, or 404s | Replace with another merchant, or remove |
| You were removed | Link works but nothing tracks | Check your account status on the network |
| Product discontinued | 404 or “no longer available” | Point at the category or the replacement |
| Merchant left the network | Old link dead, new one needed | Rejoin on their new network |
| Account inactive | Everything silently stops | Most networks close accounts after 6 months of no activity |
That last row catches people out. Several networks close dormant accounts, and when they do, every link you have ever placed stops earning at once. Signing in occasionally is enough to prevent it.
Why a sale you caused paid nothing
The cookie expired before they bought. Or they clicked someone else’s link afterwards and last-click attribution gave it to them. Or they switched device. Or their browser discarded the cookie — Safari and Firefox both restrict third-party cookies, and private windows drop them at the end of the session.
None of these are faults you can fix. They are the normal loss rate of affiliate tracking, and every creator earning from links is losing some share of the sales they actually caused. Expecting otherwise leads to a lot of pointless investigation.
Keeping old links alive
If old content is a real part of your income, three habits are worth building.
Check for dead links twice a year. A broken link earns nothing and annoys readers. Any link checker will find them.
Use redirects you control. Pointing your posts at your own short URLs, which forward to the affiliate link, means a merchant change is one edit rather than forty.
Sign in to every network occasionally. Dormancy closures are avoidable and irreversible.
The short version
Links do not expire; tracking cookies do, and only from the moment of a click. Old content keeps earning because every new reader restarts the clock.
What kills old links is the merchant leaving, the product going, or your account going dormant. All three are worth ten minutes of checking twice a year.