How do you keep track of internet affilates?

[youngmarketplace]

How do you keep track of internet affilates?.

Just wondering what we need to do to track our affiliate marketing.
Such as when someone clicks on the banner at our affiliates website then someone purchases something then goes to check out. How do we know that that affiliate made the sale? What sort of code is needed and how complicated is it?

Thank you

[The Stealthy One]

Moved to correct section. Please remember to post in the correct section when starting a new thread.

[cswolf]

Your best bet is looking into some pre-existing scripts. The biggest with affiliates right now is DirectTrack. It has a lot of issues (misfiring pixels = no sale for the affiliate) but right now it's the best non-custom thing that's out there.

[buynick]

I track mine by looking at my stats in cpanel. It tells me the referred pages (i.e. where the traffic came from), and from that I can see who my affiliates are, what banner they're using, etc.