Back in the spring of 1999, Cindy Arko (then Aylward) hired me to join her and James Marciano to run Refer-it.com, the first affiliate program directory.
Prior to my joining them, they ran the first Affiliate Solutions conference at the Harvard Club in early 1999.
It was an exciting, explosive time in affiliate marketing back when affiliate directories mattered and the first affiliate conference was getting off the ground.
The first Affiliate Solutions conference I attended was on December 2, 1999 in New York City. It was also the first conference where I was a speaker.
Shortly after, I wrote a recap of Affiliate Solutions NYC 1999 for ClickZ.
Anyhow, I met up with Cindy for lunch today and we had a quick chat about how she got started with Refer-it and Affiliate Solutions.