Making Money on a Referral Website??

Early B.

I need to do some research and find out how a website gets paid for referring potential customers to other websites. For instance, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of websites for Amazon.com that don't sell any merchandise at all; instead, they simply provide links to Amazon or to a manufacturer's or e-tailer's websites. How the hell do they get paid? Is there any real money in it? How can those referrals be tracked? Know of any companies that specialize in designing these sites?

Problem is -- I don't know where to start my research or even what to terms to google.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

audiobliss

Early B. wrote:

what to terms to google

"money for nothing"

Demiurge

Stat trackers (software and companies that specialize in it), and advertising.

Early B.

Demiurge wrote:

Stat trackers (software and companies that specialize in it), and advertising.

Thanks, Demi. This info is a good start. I pulled a few companies that provide on-line tracking, some of which is free of charge. Now I gotta find out how they get paid.

For instance, let's say you come to my website to learn about widgets or to buy one. My site links you to Amazon. However, you don't buy a widget from Amazon immediately because you don't have the money, need to do more research, or whatever. A week or two later you're ready to buy so you go directly to Amazon and buy the widget.

Under this scenario, how is it possible for my website to get credit for the referral? And how can I "prove" that you made your purchasing decision based primarily on my link and/or the info I provided to you?

Demiurge

That I don't know at all.

We pay a company called ThomasRegister to put us at the top of their searches on their website. They come in every few months and show us exactly who is going to both of my websites. I don't know the nuts and bolts of it, but it's sure interesting. A lot of that stuff is way beyond me.

scottnbnj

i don't know anything about it, but i think whether the clicker buys has nothing to do with it. i think you get paid per click, as in, someone clicks your link to amazon, you get paid. search "pay per click".

every once in a while stories about businesses that use such services complain that providers of the service are doing phoney clicks instead of waiting for legitimate surfers to do it. gee, ya think?

i think they're willing to pay for and put up with some degree of scamming because as much as a business like amazon might value a legitimate click, they also know that by flooding search engines with links to links to their store, that many people will give up on looking for other sources of products that they carry because they are too deeply buried in spam like this.

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