One customer, barnesandnoble.com, brought Be Free 78 percent of its revenue in 1997. The Massachusetts company ran the affiliate program behind the bookseller's site. Thousands of smaller websites posted links to books, and Be Free tracked every click and paid each site a commission when a visitor bought. By its November 1999 offering, Be Free had spread that model to many more online merchants and portals, including GeoCities. Online stores were spending heavily for traffic, and Be Free counted the results.

Freedom of Information, Inc.

Be Free was incorporated in January 1996 under the name Freedom of Information. It became a service that let e-merchants recruit and manage tens of thousands of partner sites. Its BFAST service handled the tracking, reporting and payments, and B-INTOUCH did the same for email referrals. The bet was that stores would rather pay for sales than for banner views. Barnesandnoble.com's share of revenue fell to 40 percent in the first half of 1999 as new clients signed on, with GeoCities alone bringing in 15 percent.

Sold to ValueClick

Be Free priced its offering at $12 a share in November 1999 and listed on Nasdaq. Like most internet stocks, it rose fast and then fell hard when the bubble burst and many of its merchant clients cut back or closed. Affiliate marketing itself survived and became a standard part of online retail. In 2002 the online advertising company ValueClick bought Be Free.

Cover: Swallows, Félix Henri Bracquemond. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for swallows swooping over a river (links flying free).