WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The adult industry began its takeover of the internet in 1995. Although the initial incursion was slow, by 1996 the first affiliate program appeared, forever changing the way commerce and promotion were conducted online and ushering in the Digital Age for good.

That first affiliate program is known today as ClickCash, and it backs the oldest live-cam program in the business: iFriends.

ClickCash began by paying webmasters two cents per click for each visitor they referred to iFriends and a couple of other rudimentary-but-high-tech-for-the-times websites. With the promise of turning hobbies into moneymaking endeavors, webmasters and wannabe webmasters couldn’t sign up fast enough. As the number of affiliates grew, so did ClickCash. Everyone profited. Some earned fortunes.

“There wasn’t a framework for internet users to promote adult websites 18 years ago,” Affiliate Relations Manager Stacy Michelle said. “There wasn’t anything that could scale and be profitable. So we thought hard about it, and then we built it. ClickCash set the standard by providing weekly payments, hosted niche banners and promos featuring live sex.”

By 1998, ClickCash had increased affiliate payouts to $40 per free iFriends sign-up. Suddenly, everyone was talking about “conversion rates,” and iFriends had one of the highest: One in every 20 people who visited the site paid for a premium membership.

In 2010, ClickCash launched a URL shortener to pay affiliates who share content through social media. That same year ClickCash introduced a pay-per-email program to accompany the program’s popular $200 per-sign-up and 35-percent lifetime revenue share payouts.

ClickCash celebrates 18 years of affiliate marketing with more than a quarter-million registered affiliates. The program offers nearly 10,000 promotional banners, full-page ads and links, among other materials. The company boasts more than 938 consecutive, uninterrupted weekly payments to affiliates around the globe.

Happy birthday, ClickCash. The industry owes a chunk of its very existence to you.