Really Simple Affiliate Program
<p>I'm pretty new to PHP and MySQL. I'm interested in setting up a very simple affiliate program. It basically needs to be setup so that when someone clicks on the affiliate link it stays with the user until he/she signs up with my website. </p>

<p>So for example, I want to create some nice looking webpages that my affiliates could use to advertise my site. The URLs would look something like this (ideally).
www.mysite.com/splash1.php?userid=Joe</p>

<p>So in this case, my affiliate, Joe, could use www.mysite.com/splash1.php and append ?userid=Joe and he would have an affiliate link.</p>

<p>From here, people could click on the link in this splash page which would bring them to the home page for my website and retain that affiliate ID. Also, if the user decides to browse around my site before signing up, I would like to make sure the affiliate ID sticks with the user throughout until he/she decides to signup.</p>

<p>I'm familiar with reading in the userid from the URL just not to familiar with how, best to pass that userid variable from page to page. </p>

<p>I'm not to concerned at this point with all the functions that come into play with the affiliate program, like comissions, showing affiliate stats, and all the other fancy stuff. I just want to make sure the persons affiliate ID sticks with the user up to the point he/she clicks "submit" to signup for my website.</p>

<p>I know I'm going to probably have to use cookies and/or sessions. just not sure which route to go.</p>
