Referral tracking

[drl2]

I'd like to build a community by encouraging users to refer others & tracking the referrals (probably to be integrated into some form of adsense revenue sharing using a modified version of that plugin). The basic idea is to provide each user with a URL something like "http://mysite.com/refid=user"; ideally when a visitor comes through one of these links, their referrer & IP would be recorded so if they sign up within X days the original referrer gets credit.

I may try my hand at this, but with a new job starting tomorrow and given my limited php experience I'm not sure it's something I'll be able to tackle with either taking forever or making a mess of it. Has anybody tinkered with implementing something like this?

[seekyt]

I have built one (and paid for professional help to have it built) for my Hotaru site. It is my secret project and I won't share or give it out to anyone, but here is how it works:

Create a plugin where each user is given a custom tracking ID. Usually, this is their user ID number. A user can append this number at the end of a URL. The way I do it at my site is like this: mysite.com/referrerId/123

Then, you have to set a cookie for anyone who clicks on the link that expires within a given time frame. If a user who clicked on the link registers before that time frame expires, their registration is credited as a referral to the user who referred them.

You then need to create a template so that a logged in user can view the people they have referred. This isn't too hard.

Finally, you have to do something to actually make the referral program do something, like share revenue. Essentially, determine the split you want to share. Lets say 50 for the user, 10 for referrer, 40 for you. You can use the same roll function that the adsense revenue sharing plugin already uses, but just edit it so that if the number is between 50 and 60, and the user has been referred, the ad credit will be rewarded to the referrer.

Obviously, this is a very simple way to describe it. It actually required quite a bit of code to get it right, and I can give you a hint that one simple problem I ran into was assigning timeframes that matched up with my server's time. Daylight saving, for example, can break the plugin.

Also, here is a warning: My website just lost its Google AdSense privileges, and I personally require much higher quality and lengthy content than any Hotaru site I've ever seen. I also moderate submissions. If your user refers someone, and that person breaks the rules, the person who referred them can have their AdSense account banned, even though they did nothing wrong. In my case, I was not notified of a warning that was likely issued about something breaking AdSense's rules. Instead, a user was likely notified and ignored the notification. This resulted in AdSense banning my domain.

I am now implementing several new revenue sharing ad programs, and having to build another site with even stricter requirements to get AdSense back.

Just a word to the wise - be VERY careful. I've been an AdSense account holder for nearly 6 years, and never thought this would happen. It CAN and WILL if you aren't careful.

[drl2]

Thanks for the reply - didn't realize Seekyt was Hotaru based! Not only am I familiar with the site, I'm a member, though I've hardly written anything there yet - and the site I'm building is specifically a kind of social network for users of Seekyt & other not-Squidoo-or-eHow-or-Hubpages-for-now writing sites. I've been following what's happening there over the past few days and it's kind of scaring me away from the revenue sharing idea, though that's probably the best way to attract regular users to my site. For the most part I understand why Google has the policies in place that it does, but it bothers me that one company has such a stranglehold on online advertising, and I wonder if what's happening to Seekyt will have broader repercussions across the pay-to-write industry.

Anyway, to get back on topic, I suppose I'm going to have a go at this if time allows. I need to brush up on my PHP skills anyway, because another idea I have for a site will have to be mostly custom written.

[seekyt]

I think it will at least warn other websites' owners who are not "premium publishers" to more heavily moderate content and keep junk and spammers out of their website. Although it is counter intuitive to growth to think about dismissing submissions and content, it has to be done to get a reputation for having good content and a positive atmosphere.

And, yes, I have customized the appearance and slightly modified the behavior of Seekyt, but it is indeed based on Hotaru!