In honor of my 10 year anniversary of being an affiliate online, I thought it would be fun to look back and see how things have changed over the years.
If you’ve been in affiliate marketing and/or had a website as long as I have (or longer), no doubt you remember some of these facts about websites and affiliate marketing from 1998.
(Gosh, that seems like eons ago.)
If you got started later, hopefully you’ll enjoy seeing how much has changed over the years.
$30 Domains Were a Steal
I bought my first domain name in 1998 for $35/year at Networks Solutions. I remember feeling like I missed out on a deal because I later found out that Register.com sold theirs for $30. 🙂
Google Who?
In 2008, it’s hard to imagine the Net without Google but in 1998, Google was a mere infant and not many people knew about it. At the time, the top engines were Infoseek, Webcrawler, Excite, Lycos, HotBot and AltaVista.
Believe it or not, I created a page that ranked #1 for the keyword phrase “home employment” in Infoseek (yes, a page — not a site). That one ranking earned me about $9,000 in a few short months. As a poor college student, I thought I’d struck a gold mine.
(sigh) If only those days were still here. 😉
Doorway Pages Were Respected (Briefly)
Speaking of that #1 ranking, I managed to achieve it by creating what Webmasters called a “doorway page”.
This was one page loaded with the keywords you wanted to target and it linked to your affiliate site. You could create one of these pages and have it ranked on the first page of the engines in one or two days. There were also companies selling doorway page creation software.
It amazes me that people still try to use this method to gain search engine traffic.
The 63-Character Domain Rush
When I first registered my domain in 1998, you were limited to 32 characters. Later InterNic started allowing 63-character domains. People began snatching up thousands of “good domains” with the intention of selling them.
I grabbed a few myself, but quickly realized selling domains is not as easy as I thought it would be. So it ended up being a big waste of time and money.
Web Hosts Were Stingy With Disk Space
For my very first domain name, I paid $19.99/month for 25 MB of space. Yup, you read it right… 25 megabytes. I think I just uploaded a graphic yesterday that was bigger than that!
Of course back then, sites were simple. People used plain HTML and very few graphics so there was no need for 3,000 gigabytes of space.
Amazon Had One of The First Affiliate Programs
Amazon may not pay their affiliates a lot compared to other programs, but they are one of the pioneers in the affiliate game. I remember when creating an affiliate link for one of their products required an MBA. 🙂 It’s still a bit complex, but they’ve gotten much better over the years.
Search Engine Submission Software Was Hot
I probably spent over $300 in 1998 on various submission software and tools that supposedly blasted your site or ad to thousands of search engines, free sites and directories all at once.
The only thing these services resulted in was a truckload of spam and confirmation emails. What a waste.
Free for All Links Pages
A free for all links page is exactly what the title suggests. It was a page that was often broken up into categories of links. You would complete a form that would add your site to the top of the list in the category you chose.
The problem was, so many Webmasters were using automated systems to add their sites, it only took about a minute (literally) for your site to get pushed off the page.
It didn’t take long to realize that the only people visiting these pages were the people submitting their sites — not people searching for anything.
I’m ashamed to admit this was a part of my marketing plan at one time. Yikes!
Lots of People Actually Used Microsoft FrontPage
OK, I should be the last person to make fun of anyone using FrontPage because I used it waaaay longer than I should have. However in 1998, this software was actually a decent option for developing a website.
Now that I know more about web programming, I understand why so many programmers hated it, but it did the job for me at the time.
Anyway, Microsoft FrontPage has since been replaced with Expression Web. I haven’t heard about many people using it though. Imagine that? I think FrontPage left a bad taste in people’s mouths.
Can you say Dreamweaver? 🙂
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Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed my little stroll down memory lane. Feel free to share your memories of this era. I’d love to learn about your experiences back in the day.
Even if you didn’t have a site back in 1998, I’m sure you have noticed a big change in the Web just in the past few years.
Yeah, great changes made on Internet during the past few years. It’s amazing you started your online affilicate in 1998. I only heard about Internet at that time and even had no idea about it.
.-= Jay´s last blog … Common Web Hosting Problems and How to Avoid them =-.
Wow, what a blast from the past.
This email took me back to the days of learning html and building the first web pages, to learning C++, Cobol and Javascript and more.
I also remembered the sites I was building back then and was able to look them up. Much to my surprise, one of them (freebie site on tripod.com was still there!! LOL!http://www.members.tripod.com/accardolucia/root/index.html
The site was a compilation of my friends, family, dating my husband – so pics of us on vacation, etc. I had also created a page updating people on my pregnancy – my daughter was born in June 1999. I posted pics of my wedding, etc. Talk about laborious effort to share some photos and information with our friends, nowadays, facebook and twitter do all of that for us.
And yes, I used Front Page as well!! If you’re from NY or Connecticut – you’ve probably heard of Metro North Railroad – I was part of the web team… my job was pretty much creating and maintaining all parts of the web site… I hadn’t looked back in years, but did so just now and sure enough, the old ‘archive’ pages are still up there somewhere!! Take a look…
http://web.archive.org/web/20000821225738/www.mnr.org/mnr/index.html
Lisa, thanks for the trip down memory lane. You’ve done a fine job with your work and expertise over the years. I too work from home and love when other women entrepreneurs become successful!! You are fabulous!!!
I had made website back in 1997 or 1998 at fortunecity. I was just learning HTML and was so eager to make sites…it was easy everything back then and simple. You made me remember the pure enjoyment of learning new subjects. Thank you, Lisa.
.-= Aeja´s last blog … How to sell broken laptop =-.
I came to your site looking for examples of circa 1998 websites and got treated to a trip down Internet memory lane. Fun stuff.
I wish I had bought some of those $30 domains back then because today they would be worth thousands. Then again, I could have a domain as worth as much as my WebVan stock certificates.
Believe it or not, there’s still a demand for websites created with FrontPage. I guess a lot of people got used to it and still make HTML pages complete with ugly tables. But, I guess enough people put it down so they had to change the name to Expressions.
Reading this post brings back sweet memories of surfing the web in 1996-98! Back then I did all my Internet searches through Yahoo and Hotbot, plus the occasional search through Excite. Most of these searches were done at the local library’s Internet kiosk, where I would get kicked offline every few minutes through the dial-up connection. ICQ and AOL IM were the top instant messengers of the time and were nowhere near what IM clients are now. Also in 1998-99, I had my websites hosted on GeoCities and AOL, which only had a 3-5 MB storage limit. It’s definitely far easier to make a website now than it was back then, although they were much easier to navigate and load without all the graphics websites have now.
Oh and a belated congrats on the 10th anniversary! Here’s to your continuing success and all the best!:D
I remember using an html editor called hotdog in 1995. i was still in highschool at that point. It has changed alot since then…
ahah.. hey, u and I may have used the same hosting that time LOL.
yes, i bought a couple of domain names in 97 and $35 was the price at network solutions. hotbot was my favorite search engine..
And I never had FFA links setup on my page and I get like 5GB traffic a month and I was so happy, but can’t figure out how to monetize from it LOL..
and I used coffecup html that time.. and of course, tripod and geocities are the two sites that comes to mind before I own my own domain
it brings back alot of memory, thanks for sharing
😛
Hehehehe. I’m kind of glad I didn’t start then, but…. man. You can get a great presence after all that time. You’ve done fantastic though, obviously. 😛
I didn’t even realize that about the hosting though. O.O Wow.
hi lisa !
oh my god ! !
i was using netscape back then to make free web sites !
and i think geocities too, actually geocities hasnt changed much since back then ! oh my god !
i mainly remember netscape back then, how interesting it was.
and oh, no youtube too ! !
I love this post! I was very young back then and was only allowed 30 minutes online every week. I would use Frontpage all the time without publishing any sites (my mom still uses the old version to build her websites). I really like browsing through sites at the time using Archive.org, it’s funny how plain websites were back then.
Wow! You actually were at one time into link farms? BTW, thanks for showing what they are on your forum. Everybody condemns these Splinks(spamy links). But I was like “what are they?” Now I know their “Top Sites”.:)
Of course competition has increased(particularly the make money online niche), but(so far) this is the only industry left where big business and government hasn’t stomped out the little guys. Let’s hope Google doesn’t change all that(if ya know what I mean).;)
Just goes to show no matter if you started an IM business in 1991 or 2008, yea things have changed but the amount of work you put in to it is pretty much the same.
Yes, thanks for the trip down memory land.
I started in March 2007. but owned an internet connection since 2002. Before my folks were Leary of the WWW, Yikes!;)
Wow, this does bring back memories. I dabbled in IM back in 1998 and then gave up for a while, I often look back and think “what if I would have kept learning”. Back then, I wanted to make money yesterday, not build something and put work into it.
Congrats on your ten year anniversary! I appreciated this post because around 1998 I kind of “dropped out” of the information systems field and became involved the healthcare field in an offline business. I used the internet for email and didn’t really use it for much else. Gradually, as I developed my offline business, I started to have needs for information and product purchases for my business: research, software, supplies, etc. Now, ten years later I’m fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom with the ability to embark on a website internet marketing business. Thanks to all of the people like you that set up the one-page “home employment” “sites” and continued to improve upon them. I am extremely grateful to all of you “decaders” who have gleaned so much knowledge from your internet experience and are willing to share it with newbies like me. I hope that between now and ten years from now I will be doing the same for others and can share a similar reflection such as yours. Thanks for the stroll down memory lane. See you in the Website Babble Forum.
Thank you Lisa for this trip down memory lane. I too remember Free For All Link Pages. In fact, I was also guilty as charged for submitting my website to these pages. Strangely enough it didn’t do a thing to increase traffic for my website!:) Back in the late 90’s I had Web TV, which I paid around $350 for and I can’t remember how much a month. Since there was no local WebTV Internet access number, I had to pay both WebTV and my ISP monthly for dial-up, so it was quite expensive. Kinda cool though being able to access the Net on TV. Later became MSNTV, but it never really took off. In the late 90’s and early 00’s, like you I had a free website hosted by Freeyellow.com. As you know, sometime in early 00’s Freeyellow.com was no longer free and I had to move my site over to Hypermart. At first I paid Hypermart around six something a month. Still with Hypermart and pay $4.25 a month now. It is amazing to think that web hosts in the early days just offered a few MB’s of web space. Boy, have times ever changed! Once again thanks for this trip back in time. Chris
@ lyle – So true, and things are changing even faster now then they were back then.
@ jeremy – Yeah, real designers and programmers knew not to touch FrontPage even back then, however I was in the major newbie league so I ignored all the digs about the program and kept using it. I actually loved it! LOL
Nice post Lisa. I definitely remember those $35 domains. Ouch. Not to act high and mighty, but I was offended by FrontPage back then too! I learned web dev with view-source and hand-coding in 1997. I was using the beta of Dreamweaver that year as well – I think it was 0.7 and then 1.0 came out in late 97 or early 98. Things have certainly changed.
Great post Lisa. I was making free sites back in those days on Tripod and Geocities but was clueless about affiliate marketing. It was just a hobby for me. but it did allow me to experiment and get to know what worked and what didn’t when designing sites. If only we knew then what we know now…:) But the thing is, in a few years, people are going to be writing about the present day now and saying “It was easier back then”…so let’s take advantage of this time now. Take care and thanks again.
Lisa, this is a fun post. Wow, I only started in 2006 so I don’t remember a lot of this stuff. Very interesting that you used to rank #1 for the phrase home employment. Just think. If you had that ranking now you’d be a millionaire. Oh wait…. you probably are getting close to that status anyway!