A History Of Affiliate Marketing In The Internet Era
Affiliate marketing is considered one of the most popular ways to earn passive income online.
An affiliate marketer works with a business and promotes its products and services. For every sale made through their promotions, the marketer gets a commission.
Affiliate marketing has come a long way since its inception. Today, several strategies and marketing programs, like Entre Institute, are now available, helping people get started and better understand the affiliate marketing industry.
That said, to better understand affiliate marketing, you might want to learn more about its beginning. So, this article will give you a walkthrough of the history of affiliate marketing in the Internet era.
The Birth Of The Internet
The Internet first started in the 1960s. It was used by government researchers to share information. However, it wasn’t until January 1, 1983, that the Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol (TCP/IP) was established. This allowed different kinds of computers on different networks to be connected by a universal language and ‘truly’ communicate or ‘talk’ to each other.
Thus, January 1, 1983, became the official birthday of the Internet.
Affiliate Marketing Was Invented In 1989
Six years after the Internet was born, William J. Tobin became the first Internet marketer in the world. Tobin was an army veteran and an entrepreneur. After multiple entrepreneurial endeavors, Tobin conceptualized and pioneered the very first affiliate program for his business, PC Flowers & Gifts.
His website went live in 1989 along with the ‘Prodigy Network.’ This marketing model pays the network a commission on every sale made through advertising.
In that sense, it’s pretty much like Multiple Income Funnel, which only requires you to get the right customers in front of the right product or service offer. When a customer buys, you get a commission. To learn more about this program, you may check out Multiple Income Funnel reviews.
The Prodigy Network Success
The Prodigy Network was a success and was generating up to USD$6 million annually by 1993. And, by 1995, it already has over 2,500 affiliates from the Web.
New Player Starts To Notice
By that time, there were already numerous players in the affiliate marketing sector. In fact, in 1994, CDNOW created their BuyWeb program, which asked music websites to review albums and provided links to CDNOW to buy the reviewed albums.
Cookies Came To The Scene
The tracking cookie was born in 1994 through the programmer Lou Montulli. It was another milestone that ushered in the popularity of affiliate marketing.
Cookies allowed accurate performance tracking of affiliate marketing. Until now, it has been the most commonly preferred tracking method.
For those who don’t know, cookies are small data files stored on a user’s computer when visiting a website. The purpose is to identify the user and store their website login information, track what they’re doing, and collect data about their Web interests and behavior.
Patenting The Idea
With the success of Prodigy Network and affiliate marketing gaining popularity, Tobin decided to patent the idea in 1996, but only until 2000 when it was issued.
Amazon Joins The Club
Amazon started its Associates Program in 1996. Although late, Amazon was actually what attracted global interest and spearheaded the popularity of affiliate marketing. Their marketing model involved paying marketers a percentage commission for every sold product, which is the current marketing model for most affiliate networks.
Launching Of First-Ever Affiliate Directory
In 1997, Wayne Marciano created Refer-it, the first-ever affiliate directory. With affiliate programs popping up all over the place, Marciano couldn’t find a central place for affiliate programs to generate revenue for his e-commerce site, TheSquare.com. Thus, he created the affiliate directory to serve as a search engine for affiliate programs. The website provided an overview and ratings for affiliate programs to both affiliate marketers and merchants.
After that, other directories were also created, including CashPile.com, AssociatePrograms.com, and Associate-it, sharing information and articles on affiliate programs.
The Creation Of Affiliate Networks
In 1998, the first affiliate networks appeared— Commission Junction and Rakuten— both of which still exist today. These companies opened their doors to smaller-sized businesses that needed to develop successful affiliate programs without the help of Amazon.
Ever since the creation of these networks, small to large companies have been able to scale their affiliate strategies a lot easier and more efficiently.
Rise Of Affiliate Marketing Regulations
With the affiliate marketing industry becoming more crowded, the US Federal Trade Commission (US FTC) published a guideline for affiliate marketing disclosures in 2000. This regulation influenced the legitimacy of affiliate marketing on the Internet.
Affiliate Marketing Today And In The Future
Today, the affiliate marketing industry only continues to grow. In fact, a report shows that affiliate marketing is worth USD$12 billion globally. Revenue from affiliate marketing increases every year. In fact, since 2015, affiliate marketing revenues have increased a whopping 52%.
Statistics also reveal that more than 80% of brands have affiliated programs, and up to 90% of publishers leverage several affiliate marketing networks.
With greater access to the Internet and the changing shopping habits of consumers, there’s no doubt that affiliate marketing will continue to pave the way for better earnings online.
