Lex Sisney @ Commission Junction: The Llama Farmer Who Popularized Affiliate Marketing
EPISODE DETAILS
Lex Sisney shares the story of how he built Commission Junction, the world’s biggest affiliate marketing network. Listen.
SHOW NOTES
Affiliate marketing, in case you don’t already know, is a core part of how “free” websites make money on the Internet. Websites with lots of visitors post ads. When visitors click those ads and buy something from the advertiser, that advertiser pays what’s called an “affiliate bounty” to the website owner.
That might not seem revolutionary, but it was a huge innovation in the way companies could market and sell their products. Prior to affiliate marketing, startups needed large advertising budgets just to get launched. However, thanks to affiliate marketing, startups had a way to sell products without paying any money up front, and that opened the door to tons more entrepreneurs.
Since the concept of affiliate marketing was first invented in the mid-90s, plenty of affiliate marketing networks have been launched. But the biggest and most successful one has been Commission Junction. And, on this episode of Web Masters, we get to hear from Commission Junction founder, Lex Sisney, the man who went from shoveling llama poop on his mother’s farm to launching the world’s preeminent affiliate network.