US Patent 7584118 Methods and systems for electronic affiliate compensation

A method for determining the compensation due an affiliate from a merchant for traffic to a merchant Web site that originates from an affiliate Web site. The method may include steps of defining a plurality of compensation plans, exposing one or more of the plurality of compensation plans to the affiliate, the selected compensation plan(s) exposed to the affiliate being tailored to the affiliate and/or a product or service offered by the merchant; accepting a selection of compensation plans by the affiliate, and measuring traffic to the merchant Web site that originates from the affiliate Web site and applying the measured traffic to the compensation plan(s) selected by the affiliate to determine the compensation due to the affiliate.