9.3 history
Like many digital marketing innovations, the beginnings of affiliate marketing are to be found in the Adult industry. Cybererotica was probably the first to run an affiliate campaign with its CPC programme, where it would reward referrers for each clickthrough to its website.
Affiliate marketing moved closer to the mainstream, with programmes offered by companies such as CDNow (its BuyWeb programme launched in 1994), PC Flowers & Gifts.com, AutoWeb.com and a handful of others. But the story that is most well-known, and ensured that affiliate marketing hit mainstream press articles, is that of the Amazon.com Associates Program.