Creating a self-hosted affiliate program?

Hi All,

I have a dilemma, whereby I am using a sales page that is pre-scripted to support an affiliate program.

If I decide to use Clickbank, obviously the promoting affiliates will simply use their nickname in a hop link.

But, right now, I have the affiliate.php page set-up, whereby my website URL displays in all the banners...

However, I am confused as to how do I track sales? and pay my affiliates?

It gives examples for Clickbank and PayDotCom but can I set this up by creating a database (mysql) and host the affiliate program myself?

This is what the affiliate.php file looks like (with my URL...)

************************************************** ********
<?php
$domainurl = $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'];
$link = $_POST['link'];
if ($link=='') $link = 'http://www.business-tools-mastery.com';
$alt = "Business Tools Mastery";

// replace http://www.yourdomain.com on line 4 with your raw affiliate link.
//
// Example 1: If you've set up an affiliate program with ClickBank your raw affiliate link will be..
// http://xxxxx.CLICKBANKID.hop.clickbank.net
//
// Where CLICKBANKID is your ClickBank ID and xxxxx is your affiliate's ID.
// You must instruct your affiliates to change 'xxxxx' with their ClickBank ID in the link to get credited for sales.
// If your ClickBank ID was 'john' and your affiliate's ID was 'mary' the link will be Sell Products - ClickBank
//
//
// Example 2: If you've set up an affiliate program with PayDotCom your raw affiliate link will be..
// https://paydotcom.com/r/12345/xxxxx
//
// Where 12345 is your PayDotCom product ID and xxxxx is your affiliate's ID.
// You must instruct your affiliates to change 'xxxxx' with their PayDotCom ID in the link to get credited for sales.
// If your product ID was '12345' and your affiliate's ID was 'mary' the link will be https://paydotcom.com/r/12345/mary

************************************************** *****

Is is complicated to set up my own affiliate program with tracking, etc...?

If you prefer you can view source, the affiliate page is:

business-tools-mastery[dot]com, then scroll to the bottom of the page and "click" the affiliate link. (aside from gaining access from my cpanel, I didn't know how else to get you there.)

If this is something that is really advanced, I may not be ready...but if it can be done with a few simple steps, I'd appreciate any advice you can provide.

Thanks in advance,

Art

P.S.- I haven't set-up my AWeber list, as I wasn't sure if setting up the affiliate.php, might require specific instructions to joining affiliates (via email messages) thru my autoresponder?