Noob want to learn how to track PPC keywords on remote affiliate websites.

I’m a total newbie to both PPC and HTML/website building. I’ve read a few posts about remote keyword tracking, but right now, "parameter passing" etc is a double dutch to me. Can anyone please point me towards a good book or guide about keyword tracking, parameter passing, affiliate link cloaking and whatever other information that is required?
When I’m confident enough with building landing pages, I will definately use them, but right now I want to test some PPC advertising with Clickbank products, initially directing traffic directly to a vendor site. I know about redirection pages to hide the hop link but how can I track my keywords without having access to remote thank you pages? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Original post by chrisp