Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Discount or incentive
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-01
2004-10-12
Gravini, Stephen (Department: 3622)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Discount or incentive
Reexamination Certificate
active
06804660
ABSTRACT:
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH
Not applicable.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to e-commerce and, more particularly to systems methods and articles of manufacture for Internet based affiliate pooling across existing affiliate system boundaries.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Presently, both Merchants and consumers are increasingly conducting aspects of their commerce via a network of computers known as the Internet. Such business is commonly referred to as “e-commerce,” or “electronic commerce.”
The Internet enables vast and immediate interconnectedness through the use of a common software structure, generated and read via computer code known as hypertext markup language or “HTML.” Access to information and movement around the web is enhanced through the use of hyperlinks (“links”) within a web page's HTML. The link, manifest as a word in a text field or an image on a web page, acts as a path, moving a user from one web page address, known as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), to another web page address.
The movement from one URL to another allows near-instant access to information, products, and services and is particularly well-suited to the exchange of information, goods, and services between buyers (“users”) and sellers (“Merchants”). Such business is commonly referred to as “e-commerce,” or “electronic commerce.”
With the abundance of goods and services available, a problem arises in efficiently connecting an interested user with the appropriate information pertaining to the desired goods and/or services. A Merchant therefore must make known, or advertise, its URL in order to reach those users on the Internet that are interested in the goods and/or services offered. Hypertext links lend themselves to an active (rather than static) advertisement since they actually provide the user with a path or entry point to the Merchant's URL. Then, once at the Merchant's URL, the user can initiate a transaction.
By advertising through the use of hyperlinked banner images and/or text links, a Merchant may increase its sales by increasing the number of users (commonly referred to as “traffic”) that visit their URL, and potentially increase transactions.
To this end, the Merchant must determine how and where on the Internet to advertise in order to maximize traffic that fits the Merchant's targeted market. In contrast to traditional static advertising, hyperlinked active advertising provides the opportunity to chart a transaction from inception to end, beginning with the initial movement from advertisement to Merchant URL, and ending with the user's completed transaction.
This tracking mechanism allows the Merchant to see where its traffic is coming from (i.e., from a given advertisement at a given URL). Further, the tracking mechanism allows the Merchant to determine advertising compensation based on quantity of traffic and/or the traffic's performance. Such a system, which relies on a tracking mechanism, is commonly referred to as an affiliate system.
Most Merchants currently utilize some form of affiliate system to increase sales, track traffic, and compensate Webmasters for referrals of traffic and/or transactions. Webmasters are the content providers of the Internet, who maintain URLs in order to disperse information and links to other URLs. These links are often in the form of a Merchant's advertisement, such as a banner ad. Therefore, the Webmaster directs traffic to given Merchants via their selection and placement of Merchant links. The Webmasters are then generally compensated according to a given scale or interval, based in some way on the referred traffic.
The growing popularity of affiliate systems among both Webmasters and Merchants has led to a wide array of resources addressing affiliate commerce. Such resources include search engines, directories, and compilations of Webmaster feedback relating exclusively to affiliate systems.
Two distinct models of affiliate systems have developed. The first is a stand-alone affiliate system for a single Merchant. The second type encompasses multiple Merchants within one master affiliate system.
FIG. 1
is an illustration showing a prior art stand-alone affiliate system
100
. The stand-alone affiliate system
100
includes a group of Webmasters
102
, and a Merchant affiliate system
104
. The Merchant's affiliate system
100
is a full framework that operates the Merchant's affiliate program. Generally, the Merchant's affiliate system
100
includes the Merchant's back-end tracking mechanism, which keeps track of transactions and credits affiliates, the accounting system for payout of affiliates, the reporting system for reporting transaction statistics back to affiliates, and the support system for affiliate and technical support.
In use, the group of Webmasters
102
send traffic through the surrounding affiliate system
104
. The traffic is tracked and any transactions initiated by the traffic are credited to the referring Webmaster. Each Webmaster has access to the full framework of affiliate services offered by the Merchant's affiliate system
104
.
The stand-alone affiliate system
100
is utilized only by one Merchant and that Merchant's network of affiliated Webmasters
102
.
As would be expected, the Merchant retains full access to and control of its affiliate system
104
, as well as full responsibility for promotion, administration, and improvement of the system. A good example of a stand-alone affiliate system is that used by AMAZON.COM.
A number of shortcomings become evident in regard to the stand-alone affiliate system. First, from the Merchant's point of view, there is a large startup cost, since the Merchant needs to have its entire affiliate system
104
in place before even one Webmaster
102
can begin to refer transactions. Second, the stand-alone affiliate system suffers from slow growth, mainly due to a switch in target market, a switch from obtaining new consumers (users) to new Webmasters. The single Merchant may also fail to attract Webmasters simply due to the limited number of goods and/or services available for promotion. In addition, the stand-alone affiliate system
100
entails a continuing burden of administration, promotion of the system, and Webmaster relations, all of which can tax the single Merchant's resources.
In addition, there are several drawbacks to the stand-alone affiliate program from the Webmaster's
102
point of view. Generally, the Webmaster
102
can only represent the goods and/or services of a single Merchant. Ideally, a Webmaster
102
would offer a variety of goods and/or services to its traffic in order to generate increased revenue from the available customers. In order for a Webmaster
102
using the stand-alone affiliate system
100
to add a variety of Merchants to the Webmaster's web page, the Webmaster
102
must find and join multiple stand-alone programs. This makes administration of the Webmaster's business more complex because the Webmaster must then coordinate with many programs—each with its own terms, conditions, accounting, tracking and customer service—in order to keep abreast of the performance of the Webmaster's referred traffic.
FIG. 2
is an illustration showing a prior art affiliate hub system
200
. The affiliate hub system
200
includes a group of Webmasters
202
, a master affiliate system
204
, and an affiliate network
206
having individual affiliate systems
208
. The master affiliate system
204
processes Webmaster
202
information and organizes the Webmasters
202
into the networked affiliate programs
208
within. The group of Webmasters
202
send traffic through the surrounding master affiliate system
204
to the individual affiliate programs
208
within.
Each individual affiliate system
208
of the affiliate network
206
uses the framework of the master affiliate system
204
. This framework includes a back-end tracking mechanism (which keeps track of transactions and credits affiliates), an accou
Horowitz Evan
Landau Michael
Essociate, Inc.
Gravini Stephen
Perkins Coie LLP
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