The Rise and Fall of Affiliate Networks
In the beginning...The rise of the affiliate networks.
Affiliate networks have existed for as long as internet advertising, and the basic model was a good one: find website publishers with real estate to spare and match them up with advertisers who have products and services to sell.
Every boom has its bust and the dot-com bust around the turn of the century changed the landscape for most digital companies, and in many cases, this was for the best. Shaky foundations were cleared out, inexperienced investors moved along, and fundamental business practices were forced back into reality. As new ventures made it to the web, keeping the cash flowing was still a priority and affiliate networks kept on trucking and it was business as usual for many years.
But the rise and fall of affiliate networks doesn't end there.