complete newbie - advice needed please

[barefoot_boo]

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Hi, Can anyone point me in the direction of where I can find an overview of how affiliate marketing works especially with regard to data feeds?

I can see how the process works when you place links (banners or similar with referrer/affiliate code) on your exisiting website, which when clicked take the customer to the merchants site for purchase. This seems straightforward. But how do datafeeds work?

Ideally I want to create an online store (using oscommerce) which is populated only with product data from a merchant. This is the part I don't understand: when a customer places an order on my site, where does the payment go - to me or to the merchant? How does the merchant recieve the order? I can see how I can get the product data from the merchant into my database, but how does the merchant get order data from me?

I'm sorry if thats a bit muddled, I know what I mean but can't explain it very well! I'd be really grateful for any advice you have to give.

cheers
boo

[SillyJokes]

The merchant would take the money, not you. You simply refer the visitor to the merchant.

It is sometimes possible to link straight into the merchant's basket but this has draw backs.

[D-Mac]

Just to throw a small spanner in the works...

There are product feed affiliate sites that take the orders and process the payments. e.g. edirectory.co.uk

However this is not the best path for a 'complete newbie'.