Affiliate program directories are niche web directories that are very like the large and broad web directories such as the Yahoo! Directory

Yahoo! Directory

The Yahoo! Directory is a web directory that rivals the Open Directory Project in size. The directory was Yahoo!'s first offering. When Yahoo! changed to crawler-based listings for its main results in October 2002, the human-edited directory's significance dropped, but it was still being updated in...

 or the Open Directory Project

Open Directory Project

The Open Directory Project , also known as Dmoz , is a multilingual open content directory of World Wide Web links. It is owned by Netscape but it is constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors.ODP uses a hierarchical ontology scheme for organizing site listings...

 (also known as DMOZ). Web directories are like the Yellow pages

Yellow Pages

Yellow Pages refers to a telephone directory of businesses, organized by category, rather than alphabetically by business name and in which advertising is sold. As the name suggests, such directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for non-commercial listings...

 in the offline world, listings of sites grouped by niche, geographic location or special characteristic or property.

Difference to broad Web Directories

Affiliate programs directories list affiliate programs. See affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts...

 to learn more about affiliate programs and the affiliate marketing industry.

Affiliate marketing enables publishers or affiliates to earn commission from a merchant or advertiser on the basis of actions they helped initiate. This could be from a visitor on their website purchasing a good, viewing an advert, clicking a link or more.

Special content

Unlike generic directories, Affiliate directories provide summaries of terms and conditions for each program in their listing. That information may include the compensation model, commission rates, payout terms and methods, cookie duration, special bonuses or incentives, and other information useful to individuals who are looking for merchants or services offering affiliate programs.

Purpose

In addition to affiliate networks

Affiliate networks

An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between publishers and merchant affiliate programs. It allows website publishers to more easily find and participate in affiliate programs which are suitable for their website , and allows websites offering affiliate programs to reach a larger audience...

 advertising on the merchant's or service provider's own website, affiliate program directories are a common means to promote an affiliate program (advertiser) or find a fitting program (affiliate or publisher).

History

The first affiliate program directory was Refer-it.com. Refer-it.com was launched by James Marciano in October 1997. Refer-it was sold to Alan Meckler's company internet.com (now Jupiter Media on the NASDAQ: JUPM) in April 1999. The second but oldest still existing affiliate program directory is AssociatePrograms.com, which was launched in February 1998 by Allan Gardyne. AffiliateGuide.com, Associate-it, CashPile.com and ReveNews

ReveNews

ReveNews is an online publication founded in December 1998 by independent digital media firm GMD Studios and the original team of Brian Clark, J.D. Ashcraft and Wayne Porter...

.com launched also later in 1998, but none of them survived to this day except for AffiliateGuide.com. ReveNews.com is now an affiliate marketing news blog.

See also

• Affiliate marketing
  Affiliate marketing
  Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts...
  
  
• Affiliate Networks
  Affiliate networks
  An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between publishers and merchant affiliate programs. It allows website publishers to more easily find and participate in affiliate programs which are suitable for their website , and allows websites offering affiliate programs to reach a larger audience...
  
  
• Affiliate programs
• Affiliate
  Affiliate
  An affiliate is a commercial entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity.- Corporate structure :A corporation may be referred to as an affiliate of another when it is related to it but not strictly controlled by it, as with a subsidiary relationship, or when it is desired to avoid...