The History of Affiliate Marketing

Is anyone else interested in the history of Affiliate Marketing? Or is it just me? History is another one of my passions, but I particularly like grassroots history in the making. I love listening to my 86 year old dad and his stories of his youth.

I now find the 80s a fascinating history topic, and it's all the better because I lived it! Now though with our world changing so, so, so very vast. Hyper-speed fast, even the 90s and 00s have amazing things to learn about. And that goes for Affiliate Marketing as well.

Apparently Amazon were one of the first companies at running an affiliate program back in 1996. You can find out more in their Help section for their Amazon Associates under 'What is the Amazon Associates program? The first though date back to 1994, so that's a history of 22 years.

It does make me think... if only I'd known back then what I know now... I was in my final year of university back in 1994 (English & History Joint Honours) and the internet was pretty much still in its infancy. It began as Sir Tim Berners-Lee's vision back in March 1989. And now look at it!

There is obviously a lot more to write about this, and those 22 years have seen amazing growth. In fact there is really nothing to compare it with, and affiliate marketing is just one tiny spec on the overall history of the world wide web, but again, is it just me, or is anyone else fascinated by this history stuff?

I'd love to hear from you, especially if you can add to my knowledge by sharing some other brilliant landmarks in the 22 years of affiliate marketing. I guess the history of Wealthy Affiliate would definitely be something to add.

Happy to receive comments and grow this into a history buff corner. Let the conversation begin! ;)