Network based system and method for managing and implementing online commerce

Abstract

The disclosed computer system provides a selectively programmed Web architecture that implements a procedure and method for selectively serving to a Web page one or more electronic ads wherein the selection process is governed in part by application of a statistical algorithm. In a preferred embodiment of the inventive technology, the system manages and serves electronic ads for affiliated Web page publishers and advertisers. A computer-implemented method in accordance with the disclosed technology receives a request for an electronic advertisement for a Web page, wherein the Web page is associated with a Web page publisher, one or more electronic ads are selected using a statistics based approach, and the one or more electronic ads are communicated to the Web page for display.

1 - 22 . (canceled) 
     
     
         23 . A computer-implemented method for managing electronic advertising, the method comprising:
 displaying, to an advertiser, an advertiser graphical user interface launchable in a web browser of the advertiser, to allow the advertiser to configure settings for the advertiser, the advertiser graphical user interface displaying a first dashboard that illustrates a campaign of the advertiser if implemented according to a list of recommended publishers;   receiving, by a processor on the advertisement server, via the advertiser graphical user interface, an advertisement of the advertiser to be published and a target average commission rate in connection with the advertisement;   displaying, to each of the plurality of publishers, a publisher graphical user interface launchable in a web browser of each publisher to allow each publisher to configure settings for each publisher, the publisher graphical user interface displaying:
 a second dashboard that illustrates each publisher's performance; and 
 a scroll bar for configuring each publisher's range of acceptable cost per action commission rates; and 
   receiving, by the processor on the advertisement server, via the publisher graphical user interface, each publisher's range of acceptable cost per action commission rates;   comparing, by the processor on the advertisement server, the target average commission rate to each publisher's range of acceptable cost per action commission rates; and   automatically publishing, by the processor of the advertisement server, the advertisement of the advertiser in a web page of at least one of the publishers when the target average commission rate does not fall beyond the publisher's range of acceptable cost per action commission rates.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the first dashboard includes a graph illustrating the advertiser's actual gross merchandise sales, current gross merchandise sales and forecast gross merchandise sales, the list of recommended publishers, and an estimated return on investment for the advertiser if implemented according to the list of recommended publishers. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the processor on the advertisement server, via the advertiser graphical user interface, a target monthly budget.   
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising:
 automatically stopping the display of the advertiser's advertisement when a predetermined percentage of the advertiser's target monthly budget is reached.   
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising:
 receiving, from an opt-out system, a blacklist of publishers blocked by the advertiser, where the advertiser can add a new publisher to the blacklist of publishers by clicking a browser toolbar button displayed in the advertiser's web browser when viewing a web page of the new publisher.   
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , further comprising:
 determining, by the processor on the advertisement server, whether each publisher is on the advertiser's blacklist of publishers.   
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the second dashboard includes a graph of each publisher's respective daily commissions and statistics of each advertisement displayed on each publisher's respective web pages. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising:
 receiving, from an opt-out system, a blacklist of advertisers blocked by each publisher, where each publisher can add a new advertiser to the blacklist of advertisers by clicking a browser toolbar button when viewing a web page of the new advertiser.   
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 30 , further comprising:
 determining, by the processor on the advertisement server, whether the advertiser is on each publisher's blacklist of advertisers.   
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein each publisher's range of acceptable cost per action commission rates is defined by a minimum cost per action commission rate and a maximum cost per action commission rate. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the scroll bar has a first slider movable along the scroll bar for defining the minimum cost per action commission rate, and the scroll bar has a second slider movable along the scroll bar for defining the maximum cost per action commission rate. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the processor on the advertisement server, data indicative of advertisement space availability of each publisher via the publisher graphical user interface.   
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising:
 automatically tracking, by the processor on the advertisement server, each publisher's sales.   
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising:
 calculating, by the processor on the advertisement server, a commission rate for each publisher based on each publisher's sales, the commission rate being a percentage value, the commission rate satisfying each publisher's minimum cost per action commission rate.   
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 36 , further comprising:
 calculating a first commission rate for a first publisher; and   calculating a second commission rate for a second publisher,   wherein the second publisher's sales are greater than the first publisher's sales, and the second commission rate is greater than the first commission rate.   
     
     
         38 . A system for managing electronic advertising, comprising:
 at least one server, connected to a communication network, comprising executable programming contained on a non-transitory storage medium, said programming when executed operable to:
 output for display a first user interface for receiving inputs from a publisher; 
 receive, via the first user interface, the publisher's criteria for publishing an advertisement, the publisher's criteria including a range of acceptable cost per action commission rates defined by a minimum cost per action commission rate and a maximum cost per action commission rate; 
 output for display a second user interface for receiving inputs from an advertiser; 
 receive, via the second user interface, the advertiser's advertisement to be published and a target average commission rate in connection with the advertisement; 
 compare the target average commission rate to the range of acceptable cost per action commission rates; and 
 output for display the advertisement in the publisher's web page when the target average commission rate does not fall beyond the range of acceptable cost per action commission rates. 
   
     
     
         39 . A computer-implemented method for managing electronic advertising, the method comprising:
 storing, by a non-transitory storage medium of an advertisement server:
 an advertiser profile specifying whether an advertiser authorizes the advertisement server to automatically place an advertisement in a web page of one or more selected publishers chosen from a plurality of publishers; and 
 publisher profiles for the plurality of publishers, each publisher profile being associated with one of the publishers, each publisher profile specifying whether its associated publisher authorizes the advertisement server to automatically place a selected advertisement in a web page of the associated publisher; 
   displaying, to the advertiser, an advertiser graphical user interface launchable in a web browser of the advertiser, to allow the advertiser to configure the advertiser profile, the advertiser graphical user interface displaying a first dashboard that illustrates a campaign of the advertiser if implemented according to a list of recommended publishers;   receiving, by a processor on the advertisement server, via the advertiser graphical user interface, an advertisement of the advertiser to be published and a target average commission rate in connection with the advertisement, to configure the advertiser profile;   displaying, to each of the plurality of publishers, a publisher graphical user interface launchable in a web browser of each publisher to allow each publisher to configure its publisher profile, the publisher graphical user interface displaying:
 a second dashboard that illustrates each publisher's performance; and 
 a scroll bar for configuring each publisher's range of acceptable cost per action commission rates; and 
   receiving, by the processor on the advertisement server, via the publisher graphical user interface, each publisher's range of acceptable cost per action commission rates, to configure each publisher profile;   automatically publishing, by the processor of the advertisement server, the advertisement of the advertiser according to the advertiser profile and the publisher profiles.   
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 39 , further comprising:
 comparing, by the processor on the advertisement server, the target average commission rate to each publisher's range of acceptable cost per action commission rates; and   automatically publishing, by the processor of the advertisement server, the advertisement of the advertiser in a web page of at least one of the publishers when the target average commission rate does not fall beyond the publisher's range of acceptable cost per action commission rates.   
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 39 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the processor on the advertisement server, via the advertiser graphical user interface, a target monthly budget.   
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 41 , further comprising:
 automatically stopping the display of the advertiser's advertisement when a predetermined percentage of the advertiser's target monthly budget is reached.