Open STATS: In the spirit of sharing --- free business idea

[GeorgeK]

In the spirit of sharing (Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday is tomorrow, be thankful that we're all blessed), here's an idea for someone who is enterprising, and knows some PHP/XML.

Problem: Most of us here have multiple sponsors, and it's a pain to check stats regularly....multiple usernames/passwords, etc. Additionally, many of us are paranoid, and wouldn't trust a central aggregator to unify those stats.

Solution: Write a PHP script with open standards (like XML) and a simple documented interface that would allow the sponsors themselves to "push" stats to our own hosted sites, as they're produced. That script would then allow us to see total stats for all sponsors.

e.g. on my own domain, I would post the script in say:

http://example.com/stats/

I'd give a sponsor, say Adult.com, 3-things:
a) a username (e.g. adult)
b) password (abcdefgh)
c) updater url (e.g. http://example.com/stats/update.php )

Every hour (or however stats are updated by that sponsor), Adult.com would hit my server with a stats update, in a URL like:

http://example.com/stats/update.php?...e=20 05/04/30

Above URL got squished, here is it broken over several lines:

http://example.com/stats/update.php?u=adult
&p=abcdefgh&revs=1234.56&date=2005/04/30

In the above, it means that the revenues were $1234.56, and posted for the date April 30, 2004.

Earlier in the day, say at 5 am, revs might have been $225, and throughout the day, as stats update, the number would typically go up. "Final" stats for 2005/04/30 could always be posted a few days later (i.e. that's why the sponsor would pass the time as part of the string).

For added security, folks could always use SSL, i.e. https://

Other sponsors, e.g. CJ.com, Google AdSense, DomainSponsor, Linkshare, Nastydollars, PartyPoker, etc. would be given their own usernames and passwords.

I could then login to http://example.com/stats/ (with my own username and password), to view unified stats:

Name Amount Last Update
------------------------------------------------------
adult.com $1,234.56 11:55 am
Google Adsense $805.31 10:47 am
Party Poker $205.00 3:00 am

If the spec and interface was simple, and enough sponsors could be brought on board, we'd all be able to see our stats in one place, securely on our own servers. Charge a low price for the script (or free, in exchange for goodwill for your firm), and don't forget who to thank for the idea later.

Sponsors also benefit, as they don't have a gazillion people hitting their servers all the time to check stats. They'd simply "push" the stats to us in a standard format, as they're available, on a regular schedule. Bandwidth to send that above URL is a lot less than having folks log in every hour or two to check stats.

The key is getting industry support behind the idea. Any sponsors here willing to "push" stats to their clients like this, given how trivial the above is to be coded into their systems? Post here, and maybe in a month or two, we'll all have a few extra hours per week on our hands, from not checking stats.

P.S. I donate the above spec to the world. You can make money off the implementation, or value-added (like putting fancy daily graphs, etc.), but the basic spec is open to all.

[WiredGuy]

Is there a particular reason why you wanted sponsors to push stats rather than webmasters fetching them? It seems better to me that a webmaster would fetch the xml feed on request rather than a sponsor push. Other than that, I like the idea.
WG

[GeorgeK]

Webmasters would typically abuse things, by checking every 5 minutes, lol. But, I guess that *could* be a more advanced option, too. It would be like having a RSS feed from our sponsors, if we can fetch it from them on our own schedule (but, it would need to be done in a secure manner, as we don't want other webmasters checking our stats).

[WiredGuy]

Originally Posted by GeorgeK

Webmasters would typically abuse things, by checking every 5 minutes, lol. But, I guess that *could* be a more advanced option, too. It would be like having a RSS feed from our sponsors, if we can fetch it from them on our own schedule (but, it would need to be done in a secure manner, as we don't want other webmasters checking our stats).

I think it makes more sense to do a pull rather than a push, simply so that those who need stats more often can get it and those with less stats-paranoia can check it less frequently (I'm one of those 5 min people, lol). And yes, I assume all requests would need to verify username/passwords prior to returning data results.

WG

[GeorgeK]

The reason why "push" makes more sense, to me, is that the sponsors know exactly when their stats update (most do it in a batch every hour or few hours). Thus, it reduces load on their system by only pushing the stats to you when the stats update. You don't lose any detail.

By "pulling" the stats, you might make the load on their servers high, especially if they calculate stats in real-time (it would constantly thrash their databases). "Pushing" gives the sponsors more control (and a reason to implement the above). They can push every hour or two, if stats update in real-time. Or, they can push at the exact interval of their batch updates, if their stats are calculated in batches.

[GeorgeK]

With "pull", you get the problem some RSS publishers have, where there's essentially a DDOS attack on their servers at the top of every hour. See:

http://slashdot.org/articles/04/07/2...4.shtml?tid=95

[pstation]

Nice idea, i doubt you will get very many sponsors that would actually push stats to you, seems better to just run a cron job at whever interval to check em

[Brujah]

Some sponsors send out emails whenever a sale is made, once a day, etc... frequency depending on the webmaster preference. Sponsors like this may not mind doing an XML push to a URL instead. I don't think theres a concern for a DDOS like effect with RSS as there just aren't that many affiliates as say an "anyone can subscribe" situation, that would participate anyway.

Existing programs like StatsRemote pull already. There's an open source version of this I believe too. ARS has their own remote which is nice. An RSS / XML feed from them that can be polled would be great.

[adonthenet]

looks good . im not sure if it will fit.

[Michaelious]

not too shabby mate!

[galleryseek]

i'm just starting to heavily get into the adult webmaster side of things... on a seperate issue from what you've discussed, i was wondering if there was/could be a way to build a universal system that would rid the problem of shaving by placing code on their tours/join pages. i'm sure this has been thought of 1,000 times over already, but i'm wondering where people stand on this. if it were build fullproof - pressure would be placed upon sponsors to use it. the question is though, is there a fullproof way? the code would need to remain on a seperate server so it couldn't be altered.

[Rui]

Good idea, this is not the sort of thing i'm used to see at GFY ;)

I agree that having the sponsor decide the "refreshes" is much better since it will not cause thousands of webmasters exploiting the servers checking their stats all the time

stat-olics sucks..and sadly i'm one of them :S

[Chris]

I just dont see a sponsor wantaing to push the stats for you when they have there own perfectly good working stats on there own servers that you can check your self in real time?