The purpose of this project is to be able to create affiliate link with a signature id for both commission junction and linkshare.
How it works:  A user finds a product he likes to buy at an online store like overstock, buy.com, etc.  When he is on the product page, he can copy the URL to the product page and come to our website.  When he is on our website, he looks for the merchant (like overstock, buy.com, etc) in the drop down menu.  If that merchant (like overstock, buy.com, etc) is available, he then selects it from the drop down menu.  He then pastes the URL code for that specific page from the merchant’s website (overstock, buy.com, etc).  Then, he clicks “Create Link”  
What happens next is the page he is on refreshes and a link to the desired page on the merchant’s website is created that carries the affiliate marketing code and a signature id (he can be taken to a new page that has a link created on it as well, whatever is the simplest, just no pop up.).  He can then click the link and go back to the website he was on and complete his purchase.  
In order to accomplish that, we need a cms that will allow admin to customize a link creation tool, and assign it to a specific page on the website with its own Signature ID.

The first thing will be to understand how Commission Junction and Linkshare create their links:

Commission Junction affiliate links contain a PID number which identifies the Publisher, an AID number which identifies the Advertiser, and when assigned, an SID number which identifies the signature (used for tracking).  Example of such link is:



http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-PID-AID?sid=SIGNATURE&url=MYURL

1) Replace PID with our publisher ID (375xxxx) 
2) Replace AID with the advertiser’s ID (usually starts with 1, a longer number) 
3) Signature ID (SID=) Replace the word SIGNATURE with the code that is assigned to that page.
4) URLEncode the link the visitor has pasted in the form.  Example http://www.buy.com is http%3A%2F%2Fwww.buy.com in URLEncode format.
5) Replace MYURL with the URLEncode format of the URL the visitor has entered (pasted) in the web-form.

Linkshare links can be made according to the explanation in this pdf file:


 
http://helpcenter.linkshare.com/publisher/images/Automated%20LinkGenerator%202.0 .pdf

When you read the document, you will see that a request needs to be sent via web services.  The format of the request is as so:

http://feed.linksynergy.com/createcustomlink.shtml?token=&mid=&murl=

So we take the following steps:

1) Replace “token ID” with our token
2) Replace “MID” with the Merchant (advertiser’s) ID
3) Replace the “URL-from-merchant” with the URL that the visitor has entered (pasted) in the web-form.
4) Send request to LinkShare

Once we receive a reply from LinkShare, we will need to add our Signature ID to the link, and then publish the new link with our signature id, so the customer can click it.

Here is a tutorial on Signature ID:

http://www.linkshare.com/rc/LS_Signature_Overview.pdf

A sample of a return link for http://www.merchant.com/productpage?prodid=1224231&buylink=yes

http://click.linksynergy.com/fsbin/click?id=AAA111AAA11&subid=0&offerid= 999999.1&type=10&tmpid=939&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.merchantname.com %2Fsearch%2Fdetail.cfm%3Fchunk%3D25%2526mtype%3D%2526wauth%3Da%2520name%2526qwork %3D2875272%2526S%3DR%2526bid%3D8713366401%2526pbest%3D2%252E95%2526pqtynew%3D0%25 26page%3D1%2526matches%3D24%2526qsort

Note the string: 

&subid=0& 

If we wanted to add “9999” as our signature, we will simply add u1= to the string and then the signature we desire, so what we have in end will look like this:

&subid=0&u1=9999

Now let’s get to the admin section:

First, we need a way to upload all merchants names and their MID, for both Commission Junction and Linkshare.  Since we do not want the same merchant twice on the pull down menu, we will need to figure out a priority for which affiliate network to use.  For instance, if buy.com is both on our commission junction and linkshare account, then when we upload, we need to choose which network to use.

Next, we need to be able to manually add new advertisers to either CJ or Linkshare and to assign their name and their MID or AID number.  We need to be able to edit existing advertisers and/or delete them. 

We should have default token or PID number assigned to all advertisers based on the network they are in, but we would also like to be able to edit/change the global settings or just for an individual advertiser.

Example: I want Token 123 applied to all advertiser on linkshare except buy.com, so  I bring up buy.com from the advertiser’s list, and I click edit, and I edit the token there to the desired new token such as 356, so their site token now is 356 while all the other ones are 123 (same for CJ AID).

Once all the data is set up, admin needs to be able to do the following:

1.  Admin logs in and selects “add a new link creation page” from the admin menu

He enters the following info:

Page name: ________ (ex: Paris)

Page URL: http://www.Mydomain.com/createlink/page name 

Signature ID _____________ (ex: BlueSky)

Include header graphic: yes/no

If yes: Header Graphic (1000 x 150) __________ (ex: /graphic.gif)

Include header link: yes/no

If yes: Header link____________ (example yourpage.com)

Functionality:  This new page will be the link creator form (centered).  If a header was used, place it 70 pix below it.  All custom link queries requested on this page will be assigned the Signature ID associated with this page.  This enables the tracking for us.  When a create link search is executed, the new link will come up on a page that the contains the link only.  The anchor test should be the name of the store + custom link.  So, if the store name is Best Flowers, the anchor will be “Best Flowers Custom Link”

The new page created with the custom link will be at Mydomain.com/createlink/page name/0000001.html

The next link will be at Mydomain.com/createlink/page name/0000002.html and so on.

The life of a custom link page (example Mydomain.com/createlink/page name/0000002.html) should be 24 hours.  Then it gets automatically deleted.  The link creation page stays until edited or deleted by admin.

1.  Admin logs in and selects “create a new directory page” from the admin menu

He enters the following info:

Page name: ________ (ex: Paris)

Page URL: http://www.Mydomain.com/createlink/page name
 
Signature ID _____________ (ex: BlueSky)

Include header graphic: yes/no

If yes: Header Graphic (1000 x 150) __________ (ex: /graphic.gif)

Include header link: yes/no

If yes:  Header link____________ (example yourpage.com)

This page will list all our advertisers with an affiliate link to their website with the page’s signature id incorporated into the link.  Link anchor is company name.  Additional info to be displayed is the commission they pay.  This data will come from the files I will give you.

Please bid on the complete project.