Davor0901 Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 Hi! My name is Davor and I'm from Croatia. What I would like to find out how do web sites like Commision Junction or Link Share (affliate program providers) work? I am working on a project for my faculty and I have to find out how do they do it. How do they track when an affiliate sends a customer to the advertiser's website and buys something? I really don't know how to explain myself accurately but if someone gets the idea and can help me I would be really grateful. Thank you and if you have some questions please ask me. Davor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 If it's just link tracking, then they might have some link like this: http://example.com/go.php?affiliate_id=316813 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davor0901 Posted March 23, 2007 Author Share Posted March 23, 2007 Yes, I know what you mean. But I'm interested in how their system works. How do they track - with cookies, etc.? It's easy how they track clicks only, but what I do not know is how they track when a visitor goes from the affiliate site to the merchant's and buys something from them. I'm certain they put some code onto the merchant's site that will send them back the information when the visitor has bought something (how much did he buy, who was the affiliate, etc.). But I don't know how, hehe. Thanx again, hope some can help me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steviewdr Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 Apache collects the referrer details. If I click a LINKTOwww.mywebsite.com from PHPfreaks here. Well the apache logs will show: youripaddress - time - page accessed - REFERRER - Browser Then by scanning the apache logs correctly you can see what ip came from where and what they did. Obviously there are other javascript and cookie methods. -steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 Yes, I know what you mean. But I'm interested in how their system works. How do they track - with cookies, etc.? It's easy how they track clicks only, but what I do not know is how they track when a visitor goes from the affiliate site to the merchant's and buys something from them. I'm certain they put some code onto the merchant's site that will send them back the information when the visitor has bought something (how much did he buy, who was the affiliate, etc.). But I don't know how, hehe. Thanx again, hope some can help me. Well, we can't tell exactly how they do, but if you buy something shortly after being referred from another site (or here an advertisement) then I think you can be almost 100% certain that you made the purchase because of the ad. You could check the referrer by using $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERRER'] (or another language's equalviant), or by doing like steve said. To be 100% sure how they do it you will have to ask them and not us since we do not have access to their code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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