What are the major components of an affiliate marketing system?

Question

I am thinking of "rolling my own" Affiliate marketing system - using either PHP (or more preferably, Python). I am relatively new to Affiliate marketing, so before I get started though I wanted to make sure that I had covered all bases, and was also not reinventing the wheel (in terms of there being a good open source [Python based] system out there already).

My question then is:

What are the main components of an Affiliate marketing system?

The parts I have identified so far are:

1. User identificaton (using cookies, IP address? - not sure)
2. User action tracking (not sure what is the best way of doing this - client side/server side?)
3. Mechanism that allows user to be able to refer others easily
4. A module to compute monies due to a user

I think there are several missing modules in my list above. Can someone suggest what I am missing, or point me to a resource where I can find out more on the matter (i.e. buildng such a system - not available programmes)?

[Edit]

BTW, to clarify I do not intend to use the system directly myself, but instead, to provide to other people who want to use Affiliate Tracking software as a SAAS. Also, I use both Django and Symfony for my web development, (though I prefer Django) - so the web dev part is not an isue - I am merely trying to identify what the components should be at this stage - and if there is anything out there I can use as a starting ground/template.

Answer 1

What are the main components of an Affiliate marketing system?

First, don't consider the technology until you've talked with your users.

Who are the users? What will they do? What value do you create?

Define your use cases.

Second -- after you've talked to representative users -- do the entire Django tutorial.

Third -- after you've done the entire Django tutorial -- write a throw-away demonstration of just one use case. One. Only one.

Fourth -- after you've built something -- ask this question again.

Once you know your application and your users, have used Django and have done some web development, you can start to collect technology choices.

Starting with technology choices will only be confusing and unproductive.

Build something first. Throw it away and rebuild it. That's actually faster because you learn more and you learn more quickly.

Answer 2

From what I understand of affiliate systems, working as a web developer in a marketing agency, the core features of an affiliate system are as follows:

• Allow users to register and login
• Provide creatives (banners, adverts) wrapped in affiliate links for users to use to advertise your site/sites
• Calculation of views, clicks, and their earnings based on your defined rates.

From there you should work out a reliable, robust database scheme and then build it in a technology you're familiar with. If you're not familiar with a specific technology, then do so using S.Lott's advise above.