Custom Search
Background:
I am an affiliate of a number of companies/warehouses selling physical products.
Their sites offer many (sometimes thousands of) products and each such site can have up to several hundred pages.
I am developing my own site where visitors will be encouraged to search for these products and then, of course visit the sites through my affiliate links.
In some case the affiliate links go through Commission Junction or other similar affiliate management companies and sometimes are direct links.
Looking for:
Some form of custom search function that will
1. enable visitors to enter their search term
2. the search will be performed only on the sites that I specify rather than the web at large.
When the search is completed
3. the results are listed for the visitor
4. the visitor can click on the results and,
5. the visitor must be sent to that particular page/result through my affiliate link.
Simply to illustrate what I am seeking, – I do not want in any way to exclude any alternate solutions – , I am aware that Google offers Custom Search. I have had no problem specifying which sites to search. The problem arises in making sure that the visitor reaches the search result through my affiliate link.
While my first priority is getting this search function operational for a number of sites,
I am also looking for:
1. An Admin Interface: Where the admin (me) can add/delete sites to be searched and the relevant affiliate link to follow if a link from that particular site is selected. As an interim step, I have no problem inputting the data directly into a script/html or other, but do want to get to the point of having the interface.
Main Considerations will be:
1. Effectiveness
2. Ease of use – ie. simplicity of adding and removing sites and affiliate links
3. Ease of installation (I am familiar with installing scripts, building simple web sites, ftp and cpanel) – the installation should be simple enough so that I can install on any site I wish).
Job type:
Since I don’t now all the possible solutions out there or the skills required, I am open to suggestions.
Budget:
Flexible and open to reasonable proposals. It seems to me that we’re talking about an interface with Google custom search as an appropriate solution, but I recognize that my tech knowledge is limited and that this may not be the best solution or the work may be more involved than I think. I am therefore open.