Affinity shopping portal

Abstract

A method of administering a commercial transaction carried out over a communications network ( 20 ) used for shopping includes receiving a shopper ( 50 ) at a first web-site maintained on the communications network ( 20 ). The shopper ( 50 ) has an affinity group ( 40 ) associated therewith. The method further includes forwarding the shopper ( 50 ) to a second web-site maintained on the communications network ( 20 ), and obtaining a generated click-through fee related thereto. A portion of the obtained click-through fee is distributed to the affinity group ( 40 ) associated with the shopper ( 50 ), and it is communicated to the shopper ( 50 ) how much was distributed.

1 . A method for creating a customized shopping portal for an affinity group, said customized shopping portal being accessible by shoppers over a communication network and referring shoppers to shopping sites on the communications network such that upon the shoppers making purchases at the shopping sites a fee is generated at least a portion of which is returned to the affinity group, said method comprising:
 (a) maintaining a server on the communication network;   (b) supporting a portal creation application on the server, said application being accessible over the communications network;   (c) collecting data via the application from a representative of the affinity group accessing the application over the communications network; and   (d) using the collected data to dynamically create a program that provides the customized shopping portal.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step (c) comprises:
 providing a series of prompts or web pages to the representative to collected the data from the representative.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the collected data includes information about the affinity group for which the customized shopping portal is being created. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the collected data includes a selection of a template that dictates the physical layout of the customized shopping portal. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the collected data includes a selection of one or more colors to be used at particular locations in the layout of the customized shopping portal.