Tricky question?

deep

Hi,

I got a Big problem... and I cant find a good answer to it. I built my own affiliate program and here is the catsh:

People that use my banners/links add their website URL in my DB so that I know where the traffic is coming from. BUT that does not stop them for adding my banners/links on another website and making me "blind" (not able to see where the visitors are coming from...). I only want to pay for the traffick that is coming from the sites affiliates add in my DB. That way I can prevent fraude much easier.

Has anyone got ANY idea how to do this??

Thanks.

planetsim

Well for starters there is no way 100% way that it for it to work.

There are certain things you can do.

Use Cookies (Of course this only works with clients that enable them)
Check the Referring URL (Not all browsers forward this)

There maybe other things, however thats all that pops into mind at the moment.

deep

reffering url would be great but problem is that its not supported by all browsers as you said.

If i use cookies, wouldnt i have to use the reffering url anyway, to track the website?

lazzerous

First off, by these affiliates adding your banner and link to additional websites, with 'blind' traffic coming in, you're getting free traffic - not a bad deal.

2nd - don't give them the actual image - give them code that displays the image, so you can track banner views as well as click throughs

something like <img src='http://www.yourdomain.com/banner.php'>

have banner.php increment a counter in the DB for views, track the referring domain, and output a banner image.

This would also allow you to change out your banners on the fly without waiting for the affiliates to update their crap.

Dig?

deep

thats the way i already have it. I dont want "free traffic" that has not been "approved", so the problem remains... How do I track the traffic thats only coming from sertain websites?

id10t

Assuming you know the other site is running php (or just about any scripting language that can get the contents of a remote text file via http), write a script for your server that generates a random key (hashed timestamp maybe?) that you can store in your db for future reference, and a second script that acts as a form action to recieve a little info (like that key you just sent) and redirect to the proper page.

On the other site, create a form where it grabs the value for teh hidden input from your script using file_get_contents() or similar, and make the link to your site do some javascript and submit your form on click (make the link to nothing - #)

User loads form at other site with uniq value in it, follows link, has unique info for that particular session so you can track the customer the whole way...

deep

Hello id10t,

Thank you for your post! It sounds great but im not sure im following you on all the steps.

Where should the random key be sent?
Dont understand this part:

On the other site, create a form where it grabs the value for teh hidden input from your script using file_get_contents() or similar, and make the link to your site do some javascript and submit your form on click (make the link to nothing - #)

Thanks!!