Business Models
Affiliate Marketing
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Affiliate marketing is a performance-based business model in which affiliates earn a commission for each visit, signup or sale they generate for a merchant, most commonly through revenue sharing or pay-per-sale arrangements.
Facts
Partially Attested
Origin YearRevenue-sharing referral concepts predate the web, and William J. Tobin is credited with conceiving and patenting internet affiliate marketing in the late 1980s and 1990s through PC Flowers and Gifts, but Amazon's Associates program, launched in July 1996, was the first to become widely known and is commonly cited as popularizing the model. Core MechanismA merchant pays independent affiliates a commission, most commonly a share of revenue or a pay-per-sale fee, for the traffic, signups or sales the affiliate's own marketing generates, effectively outsourcing part of the sales process. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Amazon launched its Associates program in July 1996; it was not the first affiliate program but the first to become widely known.
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