Affiliate Marketing Method That Provides Inbound Affiliate Link Credit Without Coded URLs

Abstract

A method of affiliate marketing provides inbound affiliate link credit without coded URLs. Affiliate web sites link directly to merchant web sites, so that all of a merchant site's affiliates potentially contribute to its inbound link credit. The merchant web server parses incoming web page requests, and extracts the referrer. The merchant web server, directly or via an affiliate network manager, consults a database of affiliate web sites to determine whether the referrer is an authorized affiliate. If so, the affiliate is credited for the traffic, and may additionally be credited for user activity at the merchant site. The affiliate network manager writes a cookie to the user terminal to further track the user through the affiliate network. The method reduces or eliminates cookie hijacking and other forms of affiliate fraud, and may be used to track non-affiliate referring web sites.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of detecting, by a merchant web server, an affiliate site referring web traffic to a merchant web site, comprising:
 receiving, by the merchant web server, a user request for a web page, wherein the user request was generated by a user activating, via a web browser, a link on a referring web site, the link comprising a uniform resource locator (URL) of the merchant web site, such that activating the link directs the user's web browser directly to the merchant web site and not via an affiliate manger site;   identifying, by the merchant web server, a URL of the referring web site from the user's web browser;   accessing an affiliate database based on referring web site URL;   determining, based on the affiliate database access, that the referring web site is an authorized affiliate for the merchant web site; and   crediting the authorized affiliate for referring a user to the merchant web site.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein crediting the authorized affiliate comprises providing the referring web site URL. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising tracking user browsing at the merchant web site, and crediting the authorized affiliate comprises providing information regarding user browsing at the merchant web site. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising tracking user purchases at the merchant web site, and wherein crediting the authorized affiliate comprises providing information regarding user purchases at the merchant web site. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein tracking purchases at the merchant web site comprises writing a cookie to a user's browser, and tracking the purchases by updating and reading the cookie. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein accessing an affiliate database comprises sending the referring web site URL to an affiliate network manager web site and receiving an indication from the affiliate network manager web site whether the referrer is an authorized affiliate domain. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the URL at the referring web site linking to the merchant web site does not include a query string. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the merchant web site request results from the user selecting a link from a web site at an authorized affiliate domain, the URL of the link, devoid of a query string identifying the affiliate web site, specifying the merchant web site as the target domain. 
     
     
         9 . A method of managing an affiliate network, comprising:
 directing one or more affiliate web sites to provide a link to a merchant web site, the link comprising a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) directly identifying the merchant web site and that does not contain any identification of the referring web site;   receiving, at a web server of an affiliate network manager site, from the merchant web site, notice of a web page request, and a URL identifying the referring web site, extracted by the merchant web site from a referrer data field of a user's browser;   determining that the referring web site is an authorized affiliate for the merchant web site; and   crediting the authorized affiliate web site for the request.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  wherein determining that the referring web site is an authorized affiliate web sites for the merchant web site comprises accessing a database of affiliate web sites. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9  wherein determining that the referring web site is an authorized affiliate for the merchant web site comprises receiving from the merchant web site an indication that the referring web site is an authorized affiliate. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 9  further comprising writing a cookie to the user's terminal. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12  wherein the cookie value and related information is maintained in a database at the affiliate network manager site. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12  wherein the cookie is written by the affiliate network manager site using a link established in a client-side call, using affiliate network code, from the merchant web site to the affiliate network manager site. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12  wherein the cookie is written by the merchant web site, and the cookie value and related information is passed from the merchant web site to the affiliate network manager site in a server side call, using affiliate network code. 
     
     
         16 . A method of reducing cookie hijacking in an affiliate marketing network, comprising:
 directing a plurality of affiliate web sites to provide a link to one or more merchant web sites, each link comprising a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) directly identifying a merchant web site and that does not contain any identification of the referring web site;   receiving, at a web server of an affiliate network manager site, from a merchant web site, notice of a web page request, and a URL identifying the referring web site, extracted by the merchant web site from a referrer data field of a user's browser;   identifying the referring web site responsible for directing traffic to the merchant web site from the referring web site URL received from the merchant web site; and   crediting the affiliate for the request upon determining that the referring web site is an authorized affiliate web site in the network.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising,
 upon determining that the referring web site is not an affiliate in the network, compiling information regarding referrals from the referring web site to one or more merchant web sites within the affiliate marketing network, and providing the information to the merchant web sites. 
 
     
     
         18 . A web server on a merchant web site, comprising:
 a data communication interface to the Internet operative to receive a web page request generated from a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that directly identifies the merchant web site and does not contain any identification of the referring web site, and to serve one or more web pages in response thereto;   a processor coupled to the data communication interface operative to extract a URL identifying the referring web site from a referrer data field of the user's browser, and to access an affiliate database to determine whether the referring web site is an authorized affiliate for the merchant.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18  further comprising a local affiliate database, and wherein the processor is operative to access the local affiliate database to determine whether the referring web site is an authorized affiliate for the merchant. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18  wherein the processor is operative to access an affiliate database on an affiliate network manager site, via the data communication interface, to determine whether the referring web site is an authorized affiliate for the merchant.