Who first started the affiliate program?
 

I don't remember seeing any affiliate program back in 1995 when I was just a nwebe surfer?
Was it R_n Levy that started it all?

great question, and one i've always wanted to know the answer to. porn has always been the innovation and catalyst behind most technologies. VCRs never would have taken off were it not for porn.

.........

Avon would be my guess. This is just the web version...oh, and Amway.

Probably right! How long has Tupper been selling Tupperware?

Amazing how the porn industry seems to have "invented" affiliate programs. Sheesh.. these newbies :winkwink:

Come to think of it - screw Serge - I was running an affiliate program in the late 80's before the net was heard of. "Click- thru" net affiliate progs may be another matter - fight over it.

Thats not correct.

I helped create the first Pay Per Click Program.
Developed by an old Company called Superbusiness NET in Silicon Valley California Circa 1995, Name was Gene. Amoung the very first of affiliates programs was Odyssey Group Entertainment, whom was one of my very first clients. Me and Gene worked closely during the PPC development and the company was eventually bought by XPICS Publishing...

The rest is history.

Oh for the record.

Superbusiness NET was bought for over 10 Million dollars by XPICS publishing.
I was left out of the deal and left SuperBusiness NET after being royally fucked for the first time in this industry.

I have no idea. And it's hard to know for sure.

What I have said is the true story.
Anyone around 1995-1996 knows it.

I just never made a ton of money to create the bragging rights :1orglaugh

I believe it was Jesus Christ.

Amazing.. I was about to post that whoever did first, it must have been AlienQs idea.

amazon was one of the first

I may fuck around alot and say I was the first for somthing but then I was in my prime there were opportunities for alot of "Firsts". I still hold to scrolling tours the same as I did in the early day. None scrolling tours were always a joke and in the early day tours were quite large. The idea was largely due to the fact that there were actually not alot of pornsites so surfers would stick around longer if there was alot to look at.

Intertain Inc had one of the most progressive sites back in the day complete with VHS orders and member based subscription with downloadable quicktime movies.

A majority of sites then were just Playboy scans, Hustler scans and Penthouse scans etc. People literally bought mag's and digitised the photos for content.

With the advent of PERL and secure protocal's https, ecommerce was bound to be a backbone of basics on the internet.

xpics was prior to RL?

i would have to say RL but i wasnt around in 95 or 96 or heck even 97!

i just remember the arguements on ynot.

didn't they not start theirs til 1998?

I believe webpower says they are the first on their site

nm.. i see it was july 96.

Technically, no.

CYBEREROTICA created Feb 1996.
XPICS sometime in 2000.


However Intertain-inc, Intertain-Online...

Are available but in the early day it was a pretty busy place.
I do not know when the expirations happened.

Someone might wanna buy those. :2 cents:

Either Ron or Al, I remember both proggies back then in 96. Not positive who was actually first, but they were both within weeks of each other I am sure.

Websidestory might know the truth.

Webpower/Clickcash have been around forever. Im pretty sure if they were not first they were close.

It used to say right on Clickcash that FM launched first...
now it says they created the concept..
they're blocking the wayback machine though so you'll have to take my word for the first part..

nice article..

http://clickz.com/experts/archives/a...cle.php/832131

suberbusiness.net and .com have changed a couple hands.
SuberBusiness NET went belly up and eventually bankrupted.
But that was the company as far as I know that began building the first scripts for click through and PPC.

So...
I have not got much proof:/
As usual.

"One click" buying concept I believe started with Galaxy NET.

I worked for them also.

Are you in fact Al Gore?

:2 cents: :1orglaugh

No, but isnt he the guy that pushed for the WWW to become available to the public:)
Then his buddy Bill signed off the Digital Millenium Copyright act.

That is what made scanning porno mags illegal :thumbsup

Some of my first jobs in the biz was working at a non alcoholic strip join at age 18 :2 cents:

No, but he did invent the concept of goverment. Or at least he worked for the company that did :upsidedow

Nice Article, tho I didn't get any definitive answer.

For those that keep saying webpower, or clickcash "cause it says so on their site", you are basicly correct. Though it was not for ifriends or whatnot, as explained in the first post it was Al Hadhazy and then Ron Levy.
You can indeed trust in what serge is claiming though. We are talking click through programs and even though Ron claims Serge just wants people to think he was in there with them, Serge only sent traffic. Well Serge sent a fucking ton of traffic and in essense it was one for Serge and his group that the click program was invented for.

Amway formed their affiliate-based corp in 1959. I believe there were a few franchise-based businesses out there before that time though, like Kentucky Fried Chicken. Any company with a franchise business model would be considered as a form of affiliate-based business.

Hard to say who first took the concept to the web. I would be surprised if it was a porn company though, there are plenty of mainstream affiliate programs out there that have been online for quite some time.

Serge, who I consider a very reliable source, say it is not R-n, but Al who was first. R-n marketed better.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

You sir, hit it on the nose.

All this time in the industry, and all you still have are excuses why you aren't shit.

i say walmart

ClickCash & CyberErotica around the same time 1996..

they used to pay around $.02/click and everyone made bank in those days.. cybererotica was a closed program not even open to all webmasters..

History of Affiliate Marketing
http://www.affiliatemanager.net/article17.shtml

It doesnt load on my side!

me too :upsidedow

The clickz link above didn't load for me, it's the same article. Figures, now the clickz link loads but the other doesn't.

Evolution did

hmm... i remember seeing various affiliate programs (per click included) promoted on warez sites back in 93-94 already... selling cds, appz and gamez and stuff...
warez scene was what evolved from the BBS scene (that's DOS era pre-windows 3.1) and was out on the internet before adult... there was very little porn back in the early days most was about warez. adult was still on phone lines.

There were also the sites that allowed coders sell their software... partnership and per sale programs.

Actually, there were even affiliate programs on the internet back in the BBS age... where BBS owners offered a commission to people who referred people to buy their BBS user/pass.

And affiliate programs in general? They've been here since the beginning of time. :)

Al Gore says " I started the 1st Affiliate Program"