System for conducting an exchange of click-through traffic on internet web sites

#This invention generally relates to systems for commercializing the click-through traffic of visitors to Internet web sites, and more particularly, to a novel Internet-based system for facilitating the buying and selling of click-through traffic between the web sites of interested buyers and sellers.

#The commercial Internet has rapidly evolved in about 10 years into a worldwide medium for electronic commerce among hundreds of millions of users and billions of web sites. However, like all channels of commerce, the use of the Internet depends heavily on the development of efficient means for searching and for advertising to bring interested users to the web sites of vendors of relevant products, services, and/or information. Since it is difficult for individual web sites to gain visibility among millions of other sites, vendors have become greatly interested in getting users to visit their web sites by click-through links from search sites, portals, and aggregator sites that can attract large volumes of users on the Internet. As a result, a new market has been created for buying and selling click-through traffic on the Internet through various types of referral, affiliation, and other click-through-selling programs.

#In the typical click-through selling today, a seller contracts with a buyer for an upfront fee to sell access to the click-through traffic visiting the seller's web site by posting a link to the buyer's Web site and then also charging the buyer for each visitor who clicks on the seller's link. However, other than a general idea of the total volume of visitors to the seller's web site, the buyer often does not know in advance what volume, responsiveness, or quality of visitors from the seller's web site will click on the link to the buyer's web site. Before contracting for linkage to a seller's web site, a buyer would want to know certain parameters for the click-through traffic, such as is the click-through ratio (linked traffic volume to total seller visitors), delivery speed (number of click-throughs delivered in a given time), and/or traffic quality (level of visitor interest for the buyer's products indicated by the number of pages visited and amount of time spent on the buyer's site). If a buyer could assess parameters such as these, the buyer can then compare one seller's web site to other sites, and determine what upfront fee and/or click-through fee the buyer can justify as the best possible price.

#FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of the main processes for a preferred implementation of the present invention.

#FIG. 2 is a process diagram illustrates the trial process and the bidding process performed by the Intermediary Web Site program, and FIG. 2A illustrates the sale process.

#FIG. 3 illustrates different modes for buyers and sellers to engage in trial, bidding and sale processes.

#Referring to FIG. 1, the main processes for a preferred implementation of the present invention are illustrated schematically. The Intermediary Web Site (IWS) offers facilities on the Internet for facilitating the buying and selling of click-through traffic between the web sites of interested buyers and sellers. In the Seller Registration Process, a Seller registers information about its web site in Step 1, submits the style(s) of links to be displayed on the Seller's web site in Step 2, and pastes a link code for redirecting the user visiting the Seller's web site and clicking on the embedded link to the Intermediary Web Site in Step 3. In the Buyer Registration Process, a Buyer registers information about its web site in Step 1, submits the content to be displayed at a link on a Seller's web site in Step 2, pastes the IWS code page for the Buyer's content with its web site program in Step 3, and chooses the Buyer's bidding preferences (minimum click-through, speed, quality) in Step 4. Upon registration, Sellers and Buyers are qualified and given access (e.g., by user ID and passcode) to areas designated for them, respectively, on the IWS site. Sellers and Buyers data are stored with the IWS database, and may be modified by the respective parties if desired.

#A registered Seller may then offer its click-through traffic for bidding to any interested Buyers. The Seller initiates a sale offer by having a Trial Process and a Bidding Process conducted on the IWS site. In the Trial Process, the Seller submits its bidding preferences (minimum acceptable bid and minimum click-through ratio) at Step 1, the IWS then finds those Buyers whose bidding preferences match the Seller's and displays them for Seller selection in Step 2, and the Seller selects those Buyers it wishes to conduct a Trial with in Step 3. The IWS then conducts the Trial Process by sending click-through traffic linked to the IWS site to each one of the designated Buyers in turn during the Trial Period. For example, 10 Buyers may be selected, the Trial Period can remain open until each each Buyer has received a sample of 20 clicks of the Seller's click-through traffic.

#After the Trial Period is closed, the Bidding Process begins. Depending upon the policies of the IWS site, the Bidding Process may be conducted blind (each Buyer sees only the metrics for click-through traffic that Buyer received and the bid that Buyer chooses to make), or in the open (all Buyers see the metrics and bids of all Buyers). Depending upon the parties preferences, the Bidding Process may be conducted automatically (IWS designates the winning bid as the highest earning per visitor to the Seller), or manually in which the Seller selects the winning bid based on factors considered by the Seller. The Seller and winning Buyer are then notified of the results of the Bidding Process by the IWS site.