click through advertising

[bubblebobble]

Hi,

This is too all you web bods out there.

If I have a website which displays advertising for a certain product.
I will get advertising costs from whoever advertises on it I know.

So for instance they log on to my site, click the advertisement and go on to purchase the product or service offered.

I negotiate a commission, how does the "click through" website know they have come from my site?
Is it using a cookie?

A well explained answer would be great and also what technology the site should be built on.

The site in question is only a thought but with a terrific hook; it dosnt rely initially on advertising to get attention.

thanks for any input.

[grumbas]

Normally the site your linking to will give you a specific url to link to which will contain something in the query string to identify the click as having come from your site.

After that they'll either use a cookie or a session variable to link that visitor to your site.

[jezzashair]

I believe you can use cookies in a clever way where even if someone goes onto your site once and gets a click through and then goes straight to the website for the next month, you can programme a cookie so you get commission for a month for each time that person goes on that site as if they went through your website. It only lasts for a month because after that the cookie expires.

[PetrolTed]

Cookies can't tranfer data between websites, that's a fundamental security issue.

Info like this is gathered via the URL you provide to click through to the external site. It would include a parameter that tells the site where the link came from. e.g. www.stuffforsale.com/inboundlink?id=xyz&produc...

Cookies may well then be used on that site to track future purchases from a customer that originated on your site.

The most common means of tracking this type of deal is via "affiliate" schemes. Google that and you'll get a wealth of info.

[bubblebobble]

Thanks for the insite chaps, much appreciated.