System for providing rewards to a user who reviews an advertiser's web site in response to clicking on a banner advertisement

• US 20020103703A1
• Filed: 02/01/2001
• Published: 08/01/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Radius Alliance LLC
• Original Assignee: Radius Alliance LLC
• Inventors: Spetalnick, Jeffrey R.
• Application Number:
  US09/775,028
• Publication Number:
  US 20020103703A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0225 Avoiding frauds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0258 Registration

Abstract

A method for providing rewards to a user who reviews an advertiser'"'"'s web site in response to clicking a banner advertisement, includes the steps of providing banner advertisements for a first group of a plurality of advertisers on a plurality of websites of a second group; linking the banner advertisements to respective websites of the first group of advertisers; bringing the user to a central website responsible for providing the rewards when the user clicks on a banner advertisement; determining at the central website if the user is a registered user; permitting the user to register at the central website if the user is not a registered user; providing rewards to each registered user for each new banner advertisement clicked on by the user; and then bringing the user to the respective website of the first group of advertisers.

Claims

1. A method for providing rewards to a user who reviews an advertiser'"'"'s web site in response to clicking a banner advertisement, comprising the steps of:

providing banner advertisements for a first group of a plurality of advertisers on a plurality of websites of a second group;

linking said banner advertisements to respective websites of said first group of advertisers so that clicking on a banner advertisement by a user will bring the user to a respective website of said first group of advertisers; and

providing rewards to the user for each banner advertisement clicked on by the user.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of bringing the user to a central website responsible for providing the rewards, between the steps of linking and providing rewards.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said step of providing rewards includes the steps of:

determining at the central website if the user is a registered user; and

providing said rewards to the user for each banner advertisement clicked on by the user only if the user is a registered user.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein said step of providing said rewards to the user for each banner advertisement clicked on by the user only if the user is a registered user includes the further steps of:

determining if the user has previously clicked on the same banner advertisement; and

preventing an award of said rewards to the user if the user has previously clicked on the same banner advertisement.

5. The method according to claim 4, further including the step of providing a message to the user, if the user clicks on a banner advertisement that had previously clicked on by the user, which informs the user that no rewards will be awarded to the user.

6. The method according to claim 3, wherein said step of determining at the central website if the user is a registered user, includes at least one of the following steps:

checking a hard drive of a computer that the user is presently using for a cookie corresponding to the central website and which designates the user as a registered user; and

checking at least one of a password and user name of the user against a list of passwords and user names at the central website.

7. The method according to claim 3, wherein said step of providing rewards includes the steps of:

permitting the user at the central website to register if the user is not a registered user; and

thereafter providing said rewards to the user for each banner advertisement clicked on by the user.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the step of placing a cookie in a user'"'"'s computer hard drive after the user has registered.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step of providing rewards includes the steps of:

determining if the user is a registered user; and

providing said rewards to the user for each banner advertisement clicked on by the user only if the user is a registered user.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of providing confirmation to the user at a computer then being used by the user, that the rewards have been credited to an account of the user.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of permitting a user to access an account of rewards of the user via a computer of the user.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the rewards comprise airline reward miles or incentive bonus points.

14. The method according to claim 13, further including the step of providing a message to the user, if the user clicks on a banner advertisement that had previously clicked on by the user, which informs the user that no rewards will be awarded to the user.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein said step of determining at the central website if the user is a registered user, includes at least one of the following steps:

checking a memory of a computer that the user is presently using for a cookie corresponding to the central website and which designates the user as a registered user; and

checking at least one of a password and user name of the user against a list of passwords and user names at the central website.

13. A method for providing rewards to a user who reviews an advertiser'"'"'s web site in response to clicking a banner advertisement, comprising the steps of:

providing banner advertisements for a first group of a plurality of advertisers on a plurality of websites of a second group;

linking the banner advertisements to respective websites of the first group of advertisers;

bringing the user to a central website responsible for providing the rewards when the user clicks on a banner advertisement;

determining at the central website if the user is a registered user;

permitting the user to register at the central website if the user is not a registered user;

providing the rewards to each registered user for each new banner advertisement clicked on by the user; and

bringing the user to the respective website of the first group of advertisers.