Sorry it takes a while for us to follow it up. We checked several affiliate program solutions and are not satisfied any of them. The key is that it is not possible to be 100% accurate. Maybe we should not be 100% accurate and that's OK.
Also, at this stage, YouWave cannot adopt a solution that is too complicated. Such marketing promotion program should not be closely tied with the product development itself. So we are against changing the product greatly just for implementing the program. The reason is that, if market condition and promotion program changes, the product would be adversely affected.
So an ideal solution is: do not change the software, but only implement such program on the website or on the selling process.
We feel the cookie solution might be OK. But there will be problems as reconx86 pointed out.
True, people can delete their cookies, but the solution with the Mac address is just as unreliable. Plus, it adds an extra step.
Using cookies for affiliate identification is used everywhere. Its truly the best method, and the easiest to implement.
