LONDON – Custom video portal Customs4U has launched an affiliate program with a twist: Marketers determine their income not only by the volume of traffic they push, but also by defining their own commissions.

The structure is interesting because it works more like a wholesale relationship than a traditional affiliate partnership: Instead of decreasing its income by paying affiliates a share of the revenue generated by their traffic, Customs4U allows webmasters to add a surcharge on top of the company’s usual consumer prices.

Response will be interesting to watch, as consumers may well discover it’s cheaper to back out of their browsers and unload cached cookies — or simply switch to a different browser — before logging into Customs4U than it is to visit the site via a link from somewhere else.

According to founder and Chief Executive Officer Tim Stokely, that is unlikely to happen.

“Our cookies are extremely sticky,” he said. “Once a customer logs into our site through an affiliate link, that reference code remains even if the customer leaves the site and returns weeks, even months, later. The only way the reference link can be deleted is through a clearing of a browser cache, ensuring that the affiliate partner’s hard work is rewarded again and again.”

He also said participating content creators are unable to see who markets the site and how much retailers mark up the content, but they also see no reduction in the rates they charge for custom-made videos.

The program is free to join, but webmasters may want to insulate their browsers before visiting. When multiple YNOT staff members visited, hidden coding played havoc with Internet Explorer upon attempts to exit the site. Customs4U would not allow Chrome to leave the site at all.