There are many ways to monetize a website, but affiliate marketing is amongst the most popular ways to make money online.
Arguably, affiliate marketing (am) is the best business model of the internet for several reasons:
- You don’t need a lot of money to get started
- No prior experience needed
- You don’t need a college degree
- You can work from anywhere in the word
- There are no limitations to how much money you can make
- Lots of products and services to promote
- Can use any media channel to market products
But despite its popularity, affiliate marketing gets a bad reputation because some associate it with spamming or delivering misleading information.
But I can assure you that many reputable affiliate marketing websites offer exceptional free content.
Here are some examples of successful websites that do affiliate marketing and how much money they make.
Labrador Training HQ
https://www.labradortraininghq.com/
Niche: Pet food/supplies
Organic Monthly Traffic: 85k
The number of referring domains: 1.3k
The number of Organic Keywords: 138k
Website Age: 7 Years
Estimated Monthly Revenue: $32,000 Month
What the site offers
- Product recommendations: High-quality individual website reviews and comparisons
- Answer Questions: Answer questions about pet care, training, and care for your Labrador Retriever.
Top keywords
- Nutro dog food reviews
- Taste of the Wild dog food reviews
- Bravo reviews
- Benadryl dosage for dogs
Where they send traffic
How they make money:
They send most of their organic traffic to Chewy.com and Amazon.com, which is where the bulk of their income comes from. They also run display ads (Google Adsense).
- Chewy.com: affiliate commission is a flat $15 dollars for any customer you refer
- Amazon.com: affiliates earn anywhere from four to six percent commission
About: Labrador Training HQ is all about owning and training Labrador Retrievers. The website states that “Labrador Training HQ was started with the mission to create a comprehensive and exhaustive online resource for Labrador Retriever pet owners worldwide.”
You can find information on training, products, health, and behavior.
What they’re doing right: The first thing that should jump out at you is the niche. Choosing a niche that you have background knowledge in, but that’s also profitable is extremely important when it comes to affiliate marketing.
In 2018, about $72 billion was spent in the US alone on pet products. So, it’s safe to say they’ve chosen a profitable niche.
Now the tricky part is figuring out how to stand out in an overly saturated niche. Labrador Training HQ has actually carved out a smaller niche within the overarching pet niche.
By dedicating the site specifically to Labrador Retrievers and training techniques, they’ve earned a loyal audience.
Lessons you can learn: This biggest takeaway from this is to refine your niche. Even if you’ve found a profitable niche, you still need to narrow it down further so that you stand out.
Labrador Training HQ is not just a pet site, dedicated to all things concerning dogs. They’re a very specific website dedicated to a single breed.
Now, when people search for training techniques for Labrador Retrievers, this site is going to be the first choice.
WisePick
Niche: Amazon Product Reviews
Organic Monthly Traffic: 117k
The Number of Referring Domains: 2.66k
The Number of Organic Keywords: 187k
Estimated Monthly Revenue: $80,000
What the site offers:
- Answers questions: this site provides expert product reviews and buyer guides
- Product recommendations: the main mission of this site is to try out Amazon products and recommend the best options.
Top Keywords:
- Best attic antenna
- Best recliners
- Best portable air compressor
How they make money: WisePick is a part of the Amazon Associate Program. That means they get paid a commission whenever a reader purchases an Amazon product with their affiliate link.
About: WisePick is an Amazon product review site that provides extensive buyer guides on a huge variety of products. Their team uses a comprehensive reviewing system so that each review holds consistent standards. The site covers products in several categories including appliances, electronics, furniture, and home.
What they’re doing right: Product reviews aren’t exactly a specific niche, so what is this site doing right? Well, they’ve partnered up with the massively successive Amazon Associate program to narrow down the review niche a little bit.
By providing reviews on products that are strictly from Amazon, they’ve been able to hone in on a very profitable market. The fact is, just about everyone is an Amazon shopper. WisePick now has access to that huge audience.
One thing to note is the size of their team. Amazon has an insanely large selection of products. In order to effectively tackle the sheer volume of products on the site, they have several dedicated writers, editors, analysts, and marketers to make the operation run smoothly.
Remember, if you need an extra hand you can always find freelance writers on Fiverr.
What’s unique about this site is that while they’ve chosen a specific niche, they actually have a lot of wiggle room within that niche. Because Amazon has such a large selection of products, they have the opportunity to review products from any niche. Pretty clever.
Lessons you can learn:
One thing I’d like to point out here is the audience relationship that is fostered on WisePick. Fostering a healthy audience relationship improves your credibility and boosts your reader retention rates.
So, how do they do it? WisePick makes it super easy to contact their team if you’re looking for a review or advice on a product they haven’t covered. This simple feature helps to foster a strong audience relationship and gives the team an opportunity to make targeted content.
If you’re interested in starting a product review site, take a note from WisePick. Amazon Associates is a great place to start for a large selection of products to review. Commission rates vary with each product category, so make sure to check out their current rates.
DatingAdvice.com
Niche: Dating
Organic Monthly Traffic: 266k
The number of referring domains: 6.7k
The number of Organic Keywords: 139k
Website Age: 12 Years
Estimated Monthly Revenue: $120,000 Month
What the site offers
- Product recommendations: High-quality individual dating website reviews and comparisons
- Answer Questions: Answer questions and tips about online dating
Top keywords
- gay personals
- interracial dating sites
- senior chat rooms
- best dating sites for men
Where they send traffic
This site is 100% affiliate based and uses no other monetization strategies as far as I can see.
They send the majority of the traffic to the following websites:
- Zoosk: Affiliate commission N/A
- OurTime: Affilaites earn 80% commision or $10 dollars per lead
- Match.com: $134 per subscriber
- Elite Singles: $7.00 per lead
About: Dating Advice is exactly what it sounds like: a website dedicated to dating advice. They offer forums, Q&A’s, dating studies and reviews on dating sites.
Dating Advice has gained a ton of popularity and has been featured in articles by Huffington Post, CNN, and Fox News.
What they’re doing right: The dating niche is highly profitable, but it’s also extremely competitive. Dating Advice doesn’t seem to have created an overly unique site, so how are they managing to stand out amongst the crowd? The answer is pretty simple. They put dating experts at the forefront of the site.
In the dating niche, you’ll find a lot of unsubstantiated claims and rather untrustworthy worthy advice out there, so by hiring experts they gain authority in the niche. They’ve also implemented an entire section dedicated to research studies.
These features allow the audience to trust them and that leads to successful affiliate marketing. Trust is a huge factor when it comes to gaining leads and making conversions in affiliate marketing.
Lessons you can learn:
Step one: gain authority in your niche. You don’t have to use experts, but you need to figure out ways to become a trusted leader in your field. You can do this by collaborating with other industry leaders, writing genuinely helpful content, creating an eBook, and using real data to back up your work.
Step two: earn the audience’s trust. Of course, this comes with gaining authority. If you want to make conversions, you have to be authentic in the eyes of the audience. Give honest reviews and provide detailed, helpful information.
TechGuided
Niche: Computers / PC hardware
Organic Monthly Traffic: 288k
The number of referring domains: 1k
The number of Organic Keywords: 193k
Website Age: 2 Years
Estimated Monthly Revenue: $25,000 Month
What the site offers
- Product recommendations: High-quality individual hardware and PC reviews and comparisons
- Answer Questions: Answer questions about PC hardware and how-to guides
Top keywords
- my pc specs
- Vulkanrt
- best mini itx case
- pc temperature monitor
How they make money
The only two clear monetization strategies are affiliate marketing and Google Adsense.
About: The owner of TechGuided has a background in building computers, gaming, and technology in general. This website is dedicated to reviews and information regarding tech products and PCs.
What they’re doing right: TechGuided has gone a pretty traditional route of providing reviews, how-tos, and comparisons between popular products. Now, because the topic he covers is extremely technical, and he is able to provide highly informed content, he’s gained a following.
He’s also branched out slightly from simply covering PCs and writes about drones and gaming as well. It’s safe to say, the audience that is looking up PC builds may also be interested in the best drones, or gaming monitors.
So really, TechGuided does two things very well. First, it provides expert advice on a complex subject. Next, it has successfully found it’s the target audience and provides an array of niche content for that audience.
Lessons you can learn: TechGuided demonstrates the value of providing information on technical topics. On top of that, it’s broken down into a digestible format. If you have experience with a complex topic, you have an opportunity to stand out.
By creating simple how-to’s on confusing subjects, or detailed reviews on complicated products you can help you gain a quality audience. In addition, after defining your target audience, ask yourself: are there related topics they may be interested in?
By including multiple, related niche topics, you’re encouraging the audience to explore the site and learn more about different topics. This gives you the opportunity to have a diverse array of affiliate products to promote.
Hosting Facts
Niche: Website Hosting / Software
Organic Monthly Traffic: 198k
The number of referring domains: 4.8k
The number of Organic Keywords: 61.8k
Website Age: 8 Years
Estimated Monthly Revenue: $400,000 Month
What the site offers
- Product recommendations: High-quality individual web hosting reviews and comparisons.
- Answer Questions: Answer questions and detailed guides about website hosting and email marketing
Top keywords
- best web hosting
- free domain hosting
- email marketing services
- free website hosting
About: Hosting Facts uses data and metrics to provide accurate information on web hosting companies. They provide educated reviews and comparisons. They also include an explanation of their review process.
What they’re doing right: The first thing this website is doing right is providing a detailed description of their review process. This gives it credibility, and credibility equals leads and conversions.
The second thing they’ve got covered is consistency. Just take a look at that content. It’s all tightly within the web hosting niche and they come through with reviews on just about every web host out there.
They also provide helpful information on the best shared hosting, VPS hosting, cheap hosting, etc. What does this all mean? You can count on Hosting Facts to have a review on the web host you’re interested in.
The last thing I want to mention is that the affiliate programs on this site are often recurring commissions. Web hosting services are typically on a monthly or yearly plan. If you refer a customer using your link, you’ll get a commission every time they re-subscribe. If you’re an affiliate marketer this is a very smart tactic if you are looking to build a long-term strategy.
Lessons you can learn: If you’re dedicating your site to reviews, it’s a clever move to include your rating or review system. Again, this gives you credibility and consistency. You also want to be consistent in your content.
A loyal audience is gained when they can count on you to have what they’re looking for. That means doing your research to stay relevant and informed of new products and services in your niche.
As an affiliate marketer, it’s also smart to diversify the types of products you choose. Make sure to choose high ticket items and recurring commissions for the best outcome.
Baby Gear Lab
Niche: Baby products
Organic Monthly Traffic: 127K
The number of referring domains: 1.7K
The number of Organic Keywords: 128K
Website Age: 10 Years
Estimated Monthly Revenue: $30,000 Month
What the site offers
- Product recommendations: High-quality individual baby product reviews and “best of comparisons”
- Answer Questions: In-depth parenting advice and how-to parenting guides
Top keywords
- best convertible car seat
- best baby carrier
- best bottle warmer
- baby essentials
About: Created by a board-certified pediatrician, this website provides science-backed reviews on popular baby products. The website is focused on reviews, parenting advice, and pregnancy essentials.
What they’re doing right: Before I try to sum this up, I want to leave a quote from the founder of Baby Gear Lab:
“I started BabyGearLab to deliver the world’s most in-depth and scientific reviews of baby products ever created. As a new parent, you deserve a trustworthy, independent, and unbiased assessment of baby products based on real-world experience and careful side-by-side testing.”
You should be seeing a common thread here. Keywords being “scientific,” “unbiased,” and “trustworthy.” Once again, we see the importance of credibility.
The woman who runs this site is not only a mother but a pediatrician. Readers feel much more comfortable purchasing from a site that has these kinds of credentials, especially when it comes to their kid’s safety.
On top of that, she provides a transparent system for how she rates the products. This includes purchasing and testing each product personally.
Lessons you can learn: When it comes to the baby niche, you have to use scientific data to back up your claims.
Because you’re dealing with potential safety issues, it’s very important to back up your reviews with data from a trusted source. If this is your niche, this is your best bet at making consistent conversions.
Ketogenic Supplement Reviews
https://www.ketogenicsupplementreviews.com
Niche: Health / Supplements
Organic Monthly Traffic: 21.3k
The number of referring domains: 1.4k
The number of Organic Keywords: 18.9k
Website Age: 3 Years
Estimated Monthly Revenue: $45,000 Month
What the site offers
- Product recommendations: Individual ketogenic supplement product reviews and “best of comparisons”
- Answer Questions: Answer dietary questions and dietary guides
Top keywords
- purefit keto
- alka tone keto reviews
- best exogenous ketones
- pure plus keto
Where they send traffic
From the looks of it, they send most of their traffic to Amazon.com, erydayburn.com, and erydayslabs.com.
Amazon.com: affiliates earn anywhere from four to six percent commission
erydayburn.com: Affiliate commissions N/A
erydayslabs.com: Affiliate commissions N/A
About: This site is pretty straight forward. It’s all about ketogenic supplement reviews. They provide extensive reviews on ketogenic supplements, protein powders, meal plans, and detox teas. They also have several written ketogenic diet guides.
What they’re doing right: Whenever you dedicate your site to reviews within a specific niche, it’s crucial to stay up to date. This means research on your part. You need to stay relevant by researching new products, product updates, and long-term effects.
When it comes to health and fitness products, people especially want to know how well the product works as a long-term solution. At the end of the day, people want to know if the product works.
The other interesting thing about this site is that while it’s geared towards a very specific niche (keto supplements), there is actually a wide variety of affiliate products to choose from.
Lessons you can learn: Don’t be afraid of research. When it comes to affiliate marketing, half the job is researching the products, the competition, keywords, and the target audience. You need to stay relevant, especially if you’re focusing solely on product reviews.
One thing to keep in mind when choosing your niche is the available products. In the case of this site, you’d think it’s limited to supplements, when in fact they write about diet plans, protein powders, teas, meal delivery services, and more.
Make sure you have a selection of diverse yet relevant products to choose from within your niche.
Money Under 30
Niche: Finance / Mortgage
Organic Monthly Traffic: 935k
The number of referring domains: 9.2k
The number of Organic Keywords: 938k
Website Age: 14 Years
Estimated Monthly Revenue: $600,000 Month
What the site offers
- Product recommendations: Individual reviews and advice to help you make better financial decisions
- Answer Questions: How to spend your money, invest, and first-time homebuyer guides
Top keywords
- loan payoff calculator
- investment calculator
- business checking account
- is credit karma safe
About: Money Under 30 is a site dedicated to all things finance. That includes personal finance, banking, loans, investing, insurance, and credit cards. The site has made a space for itself within the finance niche by focusing on financial advice for young adults.
What they’re doing right: This site does several things right. First, they’ve taken a competitive niche and made a unique site within that space. Instead of simply writing about finance, they write about finance for people under 30.
The other thing they do very well is providing a variety of content. Not every article on this site is a review or tutorial. They’ve included articles that are there solely for the purpose of educating the audience. This pulls the audience to the site, where hopefully, they’ll spend time exploring. Lastly, the most important thing to observe on this site is the use of keywords.
Take a look at the number of organic keywords for this site. That’s nearly 100,000 organic keywords! This enormous number means that this site has mastered SEO and keyword research. And pays off, literally. I estimate they’re pulling in roughly $600,000 every month.
Lessons you can learn: You need to learn SEO best practices and master keyword research. As an affiliate marketer, regardless of the platform you choose, SEO is going to be your key to getting organic traffic. By using the correct keywords, you increase your chances of ranking higher on Google, reaching the right audience, and making conversions.
Trusted Psychic Mediums
https://trustedpsychicmediums.com/
Niche: Psychic
Organic Monthly Traffic: 174k
The number of referring domains: 566
The number of Organic Keywords: 174k
Website Age: 6 Years
Estimated Monthly Revenue: $28,000 Month
What the site offers
- Product recommendations: Information on astrology and women’s lifestyle
Top keywords
- 222 meaning
- 333 meaning
- 111 meaning
- 555 meaning
How they make money
Technically this is not an affiliate website as it seems they rely almost entirely on display ads such as Google Adsense and Monumetric. However, I think they could be making more money by referring users to psychic reading programs, which pay up to $100 per referral.
About: This is a unique site dedicated to spiritual guidance, astrology, and women’s lifestyle. They offer birthday horoscopes, angel numbers, tarot card readings, and numerology.
What they’re doing right: If there is one thing this site has mastered it’s finding the target audience. Note, they define themselves as a women’s lifestyle website in addition to psychic services. What does that mean? It means they know that women are the majority of visitors.
On top of that, they don’t just stop at psychic services. They figured if the audience is seeking this service, they’re probably interested in auras, tarot, and horoscopes. They’ve honed in on the right audience and created a robust site with several directions that all interest the same reader.
Lessons you can learn: Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Yes, the site is called Trusted Psychic Mediums, but they offer much more than that. In your case, think about what you can do in your own niche. What topics is your target audience interested in? Well, to figure this you need to really understand your target audience. This means gathering data and audience demographics.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, affiliate marketing can be done correctly and successfully. These sites have mastered the art of affiliate marketing by implementing several effective techniques.
Credibility stands at the forefront of many of these websites. Gaining the trust of your audience is half the battle when it comes to successful conversions.
Refining your niche and identifying your target audience are both crucial steps to take as well.
None of these sites saw success overnight. With time, effort, and the correct tactics, you can monetize your site with affiliate marketing.