Patent ID: 7580868

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a processor of a ranking system configured to communicate with a product source system for receiving a listing of a plurality of product providers, the product source system being configured to assist in transactions between one or more of a plurality of users and one or more of the product providers, wherein the processor is configured to access performance factors associated with at least two of the listed product providers and assign a ranking for the respective product providers based on the performance factors, wherein the performance factors are based on at least a performance score and a customer score, wherein for each of at least some of the product providers, the performance score relates to at least one transaction between the product provider and one or more of the plurality of users, and the customer score relates to at least one transaction between the product provider and the product source system, wherein the customer score used by the processor is selected from the group consisting of: an amount of commissions collected from one or more of the plurality of product providers during a selected time period; a period of time between the time of the transaction and when a commission corresponding to the transaction is collected; and combinations thereof; and wherein the processor is configured to communicate with a display for displaying the product providers to users based on the ranking assigned by the processor.