The Rise and Fall of Affiliate Networks
In a climate of financial cognizance, affiliate marketing was attractive because of its pay-for-performance model: Don’t invest until a sale is received.
Affiliate networks have existed for as long as internet advertising, and the basic model was a good one: find website publishers with real estate to spare and match them up with advertisers who have products and services to sell. Publishers would get a cut of the sale and advertisers were able to boost their revenue. It’s not a unique idea; businesses have been using referrals as long as businesses have been around. Aside from the obvious online component, what makes affiliate marketing different from old-school referrals is the pursuit to track and pay those who have made the referral using accurate and reliable technologies.
