Affiliate Marketing Whitepaper

The credit for the first affiliate marketing campaign goes to twin brothers, Jason and Mathew Olim, founders of CDNOW.com. As their business grew they established many of the Internet marketing ideas that we use today such as email marketing, online video, and affiliate marketing, to name a few. Their Buyweb program was launched in 1994. The idea behind it was that other music-oriented sites could list information or promotional material for CDNOW’s CDs and interested customers would be able to click on the link and be redirected to CDNOW’s website to purchase their desired CD. This concept is today known as affiliate or associate marketing.

Though CDNOW.COM’s program was created first, Amazon.com whose affiliate program was launched in 1996 was the first program to become widely known and is the model for most affiliate programs created afterward.