Looking to take your SEO affiliate income to the next level?
Are you looking to take your SEO affiliate income to the next level?
Many affiliate marketing websites make millions of dollars in monthly commissions for their owners. The global affiliate marketing sector is estimated to be worth over $12 billion and grows yearly.
Who wouldn’t want a piece of that action?
In this guide, we’ll explore some of the most successful affiliate websites and analyze their setups to provide you with inspiration for your own affiliate marketing ventures.
From examining the best affiliate website examples to offering actionable advice on creating a profitable affiliate marketing website, we’ll equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to succeed in this competitive field.
Whether you’re a seasoned affiliate marketer or just starting out, our expert analysis and insights will help you take your affiliate income to the next level.
Table Of Contents
- What Is An Affiliate Website?
- Successful Affiliate Website Examples
- 1. NerdWallet
- 2. Dog Food Advisor
- 3. PC Part Picker
- 4. Headphones Addict
- 5. Globo Surf
- 6. Ruled.me
- 7. VPN Mentor
- 8. SafeWise
- 9. Runner Click
- 10. The Points Guy
- 11. Website Setup
- 12. The Wirecutter
- 13. Best Reviews
- 14. Gear Hungry
- What You Can Learn From Affiliate Marketing Websites That Work
- FAQs:
- Summing It Up: What To Do Now
What Is An Affiliate Website?
An affiliate website is a site that promotes relevant products and services to visitors in exchange for a sales commission. For every referral that ends in a purchase, the marketer gets paid a commission by the company.
A passive income based on commission might sound intimidating. Yet, the scalability of affiliate marketing is what makes it so promising. There is no limit to how much you can earn.
Your performance alone determines the number of successful referrals and the amount of affiliate income you get paid.
With the right niche and content strategy, affiliate marketing can make you a good amount of money.
But…
Generating significant affiliate revenue isn’t easy. For one, you need a dedicated affiliate marketing site.
There’s just one problem. Your website has to compete with thousands of others in an over-saturated niche.
You’ll need to analyze and exceed your competitors and learn from the top affiliate sites in the industry.
This is where this article comes into play…
To help you start your website, I’ve analyzed the best affiliate marketing sites.
Stay with me, and you’ll learn how to replicate their success.
Successful Affiliate Website Examples
1. NerdWallet
NerdWallet is one of the best affiliate marketing websites in the finance niche.
NerdWallet specializes in reviewing financial products. It covers all the basic aspects of personal finance. You’ll find expert advice on credit cards, mortgages, and savings here.
Niche: Consumer Finance- Founder: Tim Chen
- Site Founded: 2009
- Goal: To offer expert financial advice for people on picking a loan, credit card, or paying off debt.
- Number of Referring Domains: 75,020
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 2.1 million
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 29.1 million clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
Niche: Consumer Finance- Facebook: 177k
- Twitter: 65.1k
- Instagram: 43.7k
- YouTube: 5.3
Facebook: 177kWhy They’re Doing So Well
Consumer finance is among the most lucrative niches for affiliate marketers. NerdWallet’s SEO strategy leverages this by ranking for the highest competition keywords in the industry. This article is a great example:
The “best credit cards” is a keyword with a search volume of 156,000. This generates continuous organic traffic for the site.
NerdWallet also updates its credit card picks each month. This ensures they remain relevant and generate interest in a highly competitive niche.
Another example of evergreen content. How to Choose the Best Mortgage is a topic in constant demand. “Mortgage” generates upwards of 168,000 searches every month.
NerdWallet’s finance tools also helped them become the top affiliate networks in their industry. Besides offering value to their visitors, tools are used to attract backlinks. Link baiting is a clever strategy to boost your search engine ranking.
The financial tools cover everything from debt payoff to retirement. NerdWallet is exemplary at leveraging niche calculators to attract more visitors and subscribers to their newsletter. This strategy can boost any review site.
How They Make Money
The site’s main source of revenue comes from product recommendations. NerdWallet monetizes its site through relevant finance and credit card affiliate networks. Their main promotions include Geico, Upstart, and Capital One.
They promote these financial products with the use of their comparison tool. This offers visitors the best individual credit card for their needs.
The site also features a finance tracker. They promote the app through dynamic CTAs within their content and homepage.
The app covers everything from credit card solutions to expense tracking.
What You Can Learn From NerdWallet
NerdWallet is a great example of an advanced content strategy.
- Incorporate a comparison tool to stimulate conversions. NerdWallet includes a comparison tool for all its featured financial products. This makes it easier for visitors to see the benefits and choose the right product.
- Build a niche calculator for your website. You can leverage its benefits, such as using it as link bait and keeping user engagement, regardless of your niche. You can hire a developer at a reasonable price for a similar tool. Start by asking for a quote on platforms like Upwork.
- Implement high-buyer intent keywords in your SEO strategy. NerdWallet continuously takes the top ranking for “Best Credit Cards” and “Best-Performing Stocks.” Best “X vs Y” type keywords should also be included in your content to generate additional organic traffic.
2. Dog Food Advisor
Dog Food Advisor is a public service website. They offer expert advice on pet nutrition for caring dog owners.
You can find anything from product statistics to insightful nutritional content. They also feature every recall that occurred within the USA since 2009.
- Niche: Dog Food
- Founder: Mike Sagman
- Site Founded: 2008
- Goal: To offer professional advice on canine nutrition for pet owners.
- Number of Referring Domains: 7,793
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 110,103
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 2.2 million clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
- Facebook: 149.3k
- Twitter: 7.7k
- Instagram: 305
Why They’re Doing So Well
The primary reason behind Dog Food Advisor’s success is its specialized niche. Instead of covering pet food, they doubled down on canine nutrition. This established the site as an authority in the subject.
The US pet food market is estimated to grow to $13.3 billion by 2023. Dog food constitutes a significant share of the whole market.
The site is an outstanding example of how to build credibility. The team inspires trust in both canine nutrition experts and dog lovers.
They achieve this by catering to puppies with health issues. Their Best Dog Foods for Allergies and Weight Loss are great for building reliability.
Dog Food Advisor’s dog food recalls section is another valuable asset. It includes all the dog food recalls since 2009. This keeps dog lovers up to date on tainted products.
The main purpose of this section is to create value for dog owners.
It also sets the affiliate site as the go-to resource for dog food recalls. This is how the site builds trust.
Recalls are newsworthy for pet owners and help the site attract valuable links from news outlets and other niche-specific authority sources.
Last but not least, the site’s silo structure is highly organized. It allows for a top-notch interlinking strategy.
The content is filled with links pointing to other relevant pieces. Yet, links within the content are just as important.
The links within the content’s body help build topical relevance within each silo. A solid website structure greatly improves the chances of ranking for those competitive keywords.
How They Make Money
The main income source for Dog Food Advisor is its own affiliate income. They have a Chewy or Amazon affiliate link to each product in their reviews.
The links are often displayed as Buying Tips or discounts.
The site also offers a newsletter on dog food recalls and canine nutrition.
They advertise it with occasional pop-up CTAs for their readers. The sense of urgency behind this newsletter is what makes it a successful initiative.
Their newsletter also enables them to remarket to the subscribers later down the line. This can also boost the number of return visitors to the website.
What You Can Learn From Dog Food Advisor
- By niching down on dog foods instead of pet foods, the affiliate website gained credibility in terms of audience and SEO. This strategy results in less competition, higher topical relevance, and more qualified organic leads (higher conversion rates).
- Dog Food Advisor can also teach you about the power of interlinking. Placing relevant links to your content pieces is a strong SEO strategy. It improves your site’s topical relevance and spreads link juice across your pages. This will increase your overall organic rankings in the long run.
- Create a section for newsworthy content, like Dog Food Advisor’s Recalls. Become the go-to resource for urgent matters in your target market. This helps you establish brand trust and gain authority links from news outlets. Identifying newsworthy angles isn’t difficult. You can browse industry-specific Reddit or Quora trends to determine what your audience is interested in.
3. PC Part Picker
PC Part Picker is another great example for those who want to learn affiliate marketing. This isn’t another basic affiliate marketing website. But rather a valuable tool for computer enthusiasts building their rigs.
The site addresses all the aspects of buying PC parts. From price to performance and compatibility. This is the only website you’ll ever need to build your computer.
- Niche: Computer Parts
- Founder: Philip Carmichael
- Site Founded: 2011
- Goal: To guide people in building their custom computers.
- Number of Referring Domains: 11,513
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 110,103
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 3.9 million clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
- Facebook: 35.1k
- Twitter: 44.5k
- Instagram: 9.8k
- YouTube: 186k
Why They’re Doing So Well
Building a custom rig is frustrating, even for veteran PC gamers. PC Part Picker creates such a valuable all-in-one tool that it is almost impossible to ignore.
The System Builder is an all-inclusive tool for custom PCs. It is exactly what it sounds like: software that builds custom rigs.
There are a lot of compatibility issues related to hardware and software when it comes to custom PCs. PC Part Picker built software to address all these on a single page.
The System Builder cross-references all the PC parts for performance and compatibility.
Gaming enthusiasts will no longer purchase CPUs or graphic cards that won’t fit in their rig.
The site isn’t pushing the parts with the biggest profit margin. Instead, the website makes recommendations based on the PC enthusiasts’ configuration and requirements.
This provides a good example of putting the customer first. It is also why PC Part Picker has such an interactive community.
Their dedication to offering valuable software tools made them the gold standard for pc enthusiasts. No wonder “PC Part Picker” appears in over 1.1 million monthly searches.
How They Make Money
PC Part Picker generates revenue from product recommendations alone. They include Amazon affiliate links for the parts in their PC builds, guides, and product reviews.
Amazon affiliate links seem to be their main source of income. Yet, the site also features links to SuperBiiz, Newegg, B&H, and Best Buy.
What You Can Learn From PC Part Picker
PC Part Picker is a top affiliate marketing website in one of the most profitable niches.
- Creating valuable tools is still a great affiliate marketing tip. PC Part Picker’s tools are highly advanced, with years of work implemented in them. If you’re just starting, there are easier ways about it. For one, you can implement a quiz recommending products based on user-specific needs. There are existing quiz builders you can implement on your website today.
- Focus on how to help your visitors, not just on the best affiliate programs for you. Find a balance. User-oriented recommendations are more likely to convert and earn a commission. Prioritizing tailored recommendations over the most profitable offers will make up the difference because of the increased CTR.
- Implement bundles of products for the user’s convenience and to boost profits. Take a look at the PC Part Picker completed builds. You can replicate their success by including relevant product recommendations on your sales pages. Consider other items your audience is interested in and implement them into your upselling strategy.
- Incorporate comparison tables to your affiliate site, like PC Part Picker. Firstly, these will make for a smoother user experience. Second, they’ll directly increase your conversion rates over time. Make sure to include all the relevant buyer information in them.
4. Headphones Addict
Headphones Addict is a group of passionate audiophiles who provide expert headphone reviews. Their focus is on doing the research for headphone buyers, so they don’t have to.
- Niche: Headphones
- Founder: James Wasem
- Site Founded: 2015
- Goal: To offer expert reviews on the best headphones for each individual.
- Number of Referring Domains: 987
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 30,600
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 145,208 clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
- Facebook: 186
- Twitter: 57
- Instagram: 2k
- YouTube: 2.9
Why They’re Doing So Well
The primary reason for this affiliate marketing website’s success is content quality. The reviews are insightful from an expert point of view. A professional sound engineer also oversees it.
The range of categories is also impressive. HeadphonesAddict seems to have thought of every possible application of their gadgets.
This is an SEO strategy that includes long-tail eCommerce keywords as well. This way, they’ll gain organic leads for searches like “best noise-canceling headphones” or “best water-proof headphones.”
Another remarkable example this affiliate site offers is its article structure. It offers rankings and statistics from the beginning.
Comparison tables placed at the top of the review are convenient for visitors. Implementing them will result in higher conversion rates over time.
How They Make Money
Headphones Addict generates most of its revenue from reviewing products.
There’s an Amazon affiliate program link to each of the listed items. This is the main source of revenue for Headphones Addict.
The main revenue comes from “best of” type posts for each category. Content like 9 Best Waterproof Headphones is an ingenious way to generate quality organic leads. These keywords have a huge search volume and buyer intent.
Similar keywords are less competitive to rank for. So if you satisfy the search intent, your conversion rates will increase.
Headphones Addict also targets lower-volume keywords, like “most comfortable headphones.” Implementing keywords with less competition is a good SEO strategy for any upcoming review site.
What You Can Learn From Headphones Addict
- Mix up your keyword strategy, like Headphones Addict. Including long-tail keywords with decent search volume and high buyers, the intent is a start. This will increase your lead generation and CTR. Something every single affiliate site is aiming for.
- Create individual rankings for the most important buyer considerations. Headphones Addict includes these in every piece of content. They do this to increase the trust factor with their audience. Consequently, this can directly boost conversions. Give it a go on your site and see if it works for you.
5. Globo Surf
Globo Surf is an affiliate website that operates as a water-focused community. It is a valuable resource for reviews of snow, land, and water sports.
This website focuses on giving the best outdoor sports gear reviews.
- Niche: Watersports
- Founder: David Hamburg
- Site Founded: 2015
- Goal: To help people choose the best water sports and outdoor gear.
- Number of Referring Domains: 4,822
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 169,800
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 303,268 clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
- Facebook: 163
- Twitter: 57
Why They’re Doing So Well
Globo Surf is one of the most reputable affiliate marketing websites with a strong content strategy.
They rank for eCommerce style keywords like “wakeboard,” “standing paddleboard,” or “inflatable kayak.”
These are keywords with huge traffic and high buyer intent. Your traffic and conversion rates will skyrocket if you can rank for them.
Yet, Globo Surf takes it one step further. They also target the “best x” type keywords. “8 Best Cyclocross Bikes In 2020” is a great example.
How They Make Money
Globo Surf is part of the Amazon Affiliate program. This means that they generate revenue through Amazon affiliate links.
The site also includes Facebook Custom Audiences. This indicates that GloboSurf employs Facebook ads for retargeting.
What You Can Learn From Globo Surf
- A strong takeaway from their website design is their Call to Action. The CTA to the affiliate program link is a button saying “Check Latest Price”. This is especially appealing as it promises value in exchange for the click.
- Globo Surf proves that tight interlinking is essential. All their internal links are kept in the content’s silo. This is a clever method to promote your site’s relevance.
- Aim for the featured snippets, like Globo Surf. Featured snippets can grow your brand awareness and website authority by placing you at the top of Google SERPs. This gives your web page a nice traffic boost.
6. Ruled.me
Ruled.me is an affiliate website that promotes the ketogenic diet and lifestyle. They focus on providing a factual approach to keto. The aim is to promote weight loss and make the dietary transition as seamless as possible.
This affiliate site has a clean design and user-friendly navigation. Here you can find everything from dietary tips to cookbooks and useful tools. The site strives to be an example for keto dieters.
- Niche: Ketogenic Diet
- Founder: Craig Clarke
- Site Founded: 2013
- Goal: To make the ketogenic lifestyle fun and approachable.
- Number of Referring Domains: 6,219
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 120,089
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 1.8 million clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
- Facebook: 136k
- Twitter: 7.4k
- Instagram: 247k
- YouTube: 290k
Why They’re Doing So Well
This affiliate marketing site aims to be an unmissable resource for every keto enthusiast. They do this by implementing keto-related tools.
The Keto Academy is a membership-based tool. It contains a keto meal planner, recipes, and extensive nutrition information.
Tools are a smart way to promote customer retention for affiliate marketing sites. Especially creating a complete tool like the Keto Academy.
Keto enthusiasts can now plan their whole day’s nutrition. They can also do their shopping and count macros. Ruled.me made this available in a single tool.
This is a solid stream of revenue for Ruled.me. Not only that, but it generates additional interest in the site by gaining testimonials.
The testimonials are from subscribers who’ve successfully changed their lives. Gaining such strong social proof will greatly increase any affiliate marketing website’s authority.
How They Make Money
Like many affiliate marketing websites, Ruled.me generates revenue through commissions. It links Amazon affiliate products at the end of the reviews. Yet, they also monetize their keto tool through a membership program.
Their membership-based app has over 312,000 members.
The monthly plan costs $19.99, with discounts for 3-month and 6-month memberships. This is a peak example of a monetization strategy.
Ruled.me also offers a newsletter with over 450,000 keto lovers subscribed. This opens further remarketing options for them.
Having a large newsletter is an asset to any website. It grows brand awareness and increases customer retention. It also gives you a platform to promote your offers.
What You Can Learn From Ruled.me
This is an outstanding affiliate marketing site example.
- Create valuable tools for your industry, like Ruled.me. These are clever ways to monetize your website traffic and gain valuable links. Many of these tools are highly shareable and can increase your website’s trust by gaining social proof from real users. The Keto Academy and Keto Calculator are smart examples to follow.
- Build a newsletter for your affiliate marketing site. This is a valuable asset that can open further monetization options. Promoting your products and increasing your customer retention are some of them.
- Experiment with multiple content types to stimulate conversion rates. Ruled.me has a variety of content with clever contextual affiliate links. Their keto recipes generate significant traffic and are loaded with affiliate offers. Try finding types of content that would generate recurring visitors in your industry.
7. VPN Mentor
VPN Mentor is one of the best affiliate marketing websites in the VPN market. They strive to offer insightful resources for people researching their next VPN purchase.
This website showcases expert VPN reviews and valuable input on data privacy concerns.
- Niche: VPN (Virtual Private Network)
- Founder: Ariel Hochstadt
- Site Founded: 2014
- Goal: To help users navigate the VPN market and promote web privacy.
- Number of Referring Domains: 13,499
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 201,996
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 10.1 million clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
- Facebook: 11.5k
- Twitter: 3.7k
- Instagram: 351
- YouTube: 18.7k
Why They’re Doing So Well
This affiliate website provides a great example in terms of content strategy. Each piece goes into intricate detail about VPNs for all particular cases.
VPN Mentor also consistently updates its most extensive publication, such as “The Best VPNs – Full Analysis”.
Updating your central content pieces can boost your website traffic by increasing the click-through rates from Google. People want the most up-to-date information.
In highly competitive niches, you could lose the click to another site even if your article is a month out of date. VPN Mentor overcomes this by making sure that the current month and year show up in its title within SERPs.
This can easily be automated by including a piece of shortcode in your title that automatically fills in the current month and year. Some SEO plugins, such as Yoast, already have this functionality.
The affiliate site also features a news center. Containing the most recent reports on cybersecurity.
Industry-relevant reports are newsworthy and topical. These highly linkable resources attract links and build VPN Mentor’s credibility.
This credibility, in turn, increases the site’s chance of getting links from trusted news sites. It also increases user trust resulting in a higher conversion rate.
VPN Mentor’s CTA strategy is a good example for anyone promoting an affiliate program. The CTA button’s color is orange. It is clear, and it stands out from the brand’s blue theme.
The site also features a sticky sidebar as a call to action. This element can increase the CTR for any affiliate website.
How They Make Money
VPN Mentor generates revenue from product recommendations. They have a clever section on their homepage called “Best VPN Deals.”
It features links to their most recommended products. This sidebar shows up on most pages on the website, increasing the likelihood that someone will click on the affiliate links, even on an informational page. It’s a proven method to boost your CTR.
The site employs strategic pop-up ads for different products.
These are the same affiliate links featured in their reviews.
VPN Mentor maintains a clean design with no additional advertising.
There are no additional signs of monetization or display advertising. VPN Mentor even offers their tools for free. Their VPN Comparison, Hide My IP, and IP Leak Test are the most prominent ones.
Free tools help VPN Mentor increase user engagement and secure those all-important backlinks.
What You Can Learn From VPN Mentor
- VPN Mentor has a dedicated webpage for coupons on the best VPN deals. This allows them to target prospects in the buying stage. People looking for a “VPN coupon” are looking for a good deal. Ranking for “coupon” or “discount” keywords allows you to generate additional commissions.
- The free tools on VPN Mentor’s website are valuable and inspire trust with the audience. This is another great example of giving before expecting a return. Implementing free tools to your site is a great link-building strategy as well.
- I particularly like how this affiliate site summarizes its content. A summary at the top allows you to place your affiliate links above the fold. This satisfied readers who required confirmation of their choice. It’s also one of the best ways to increase website conversions.
8. SafeWise
SafeWise is part of the best affiliate marketing websites in the home safety industry. It aims to help people with security challenges. Thus, the site provides information on the best products for safe and smart living.
- Niche: Home Security
- Founder: Rebecca Edwards
- Site Founded: 2003
- Goal: Providing reviews on home security and automation products.
- Number of Referring Domains: 12,363
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 301,321
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 2.8 million clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
- Facebook: 14.3k
- Twitter: 1.5k
- Pinterest: 2.4k
Why They’re Doing So Well
Home security is among the best niches for affiliate marketing. Personal and family safety is one of our most fundamental needs. This is one reason for the interest in Safewise.
This site takes it a step further. They consider the whole family’s safety, from babies to seniors alike.
Another example the site provides is in future orientation. Home automation is becoming increasingly relevant.
The site has already established authority in the subject. This will future-proof their lead generation and keep their brand relevant.
Looking out for future trends in your industry can be a game-changer for your website. Targeting them with your content strategy will attract a new demographic to your site. Be on the lookout for industry trends on the rise.
You can easily find current industry trends for your site with Google Trends. This site will show you all the trending searches and their performance over time.
Refine your search to your industry, and you’ll be able to tune your keyword strategy with the current trends.
SafeWise’s site structure and interlinking strategy are solid. They place links to content within the same silo to spread the link juice. Relevant interlinking is a great SEO strategy that can boost your page ranking significantly.
How They Make Money
SafeWise generates most of its revenue from affiliate network commissions. The affiliate links are placed in the product reviews and blog posts.
These include Amazon, Home Depot, and Commission Junction offers.
The site employs a red CTA button that stands out for the audience. They also restate the benefits of each product to incentivize the purchase further.
This is a clever way to reassure your buyers about the product’s value. Implement this for your affiliate website, and your CTR will improve.
The site places considerable emphasis on offering the best user experience. Therefore, they use no intrusive advertising.
What You Can Learn From SafeWise
- Develop a distinct CTA button to increase your conversions. SafeWise’s main colors are white and blue, yet the CTA is always red. Having an eye-catching call to action can directly increase your site’s conversions.
- Sites like SafeWise strengthen their call to action with their content. One way to do it is by restating your picks’ benefits right next to the CTA. This will make the reader more likely to check out the offer.
- Publish industry-relevant statistics to attract backlinks. These are great endorsements for visitors and search engines for your website. SafeWise does this with content like “8 Surprising Home Burglary Facts and Stats”. This is a goldmine for authoritative backlinks.
9. Runner Click
RunnerClick is an affiliate website created by running enthusiasts. It offers tips, advice, and product reviews for running.
The content of this affiliate site covers everything running-related. You can find products like running shoes, supplements, and fitness-tracking gadgets. Their reviews are insightful, and the advice comes from experienced authors.
- Niche: Running Gear
- Founder: Daniel Chabert Pfefferkorn
- Site Founded: 2015
- Goal: To offer the best advice and recommendations for runners.
- Number of Referring Domains: 4,529
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 138,641
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 314,393 clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
- Facebook: 5.8k
- Twitter: 2.3k
- Instagram: 93k
- YouTube: 6.4
Why They’re Doing So Well
RunnerClick invests time and effort in researching and creating its content. This is the reason they grew their authority and fanbase so significantly.
The amount of research is displayed in their “In a Hurry” section
It also includes the item’s score, benefits, and a distinct CTA. Similar sections above the fold can save the reader time and increase the CTR for your website.
Another reason for their success is their tools for runners. “Find Your Injury” is among the most popular.
A complex tool for locating your sports injuries. It also offers extensive advice on treating and preventing them. This level of engagement is what made RunnerClick so popular.
The site is an outstanding example of a user-focused web design. It is optimized to be responsive and helpful for the users, which is also important for the SEO bots from Google.
RunnerClick also excels at making its content skimmable. They include the main points, with hidden sections for those interested more.
Skimmable content promotes reader engagement as it is faster to read. Implement this for your content, and you’ll gain more visibility and shares over time.
How They Make Money
RunnerClick is part of the Amazon affiliate marketing network. They earn their revenue from the reviewed products. Running gear (and the fitness market generally) can be considered one of the best niches for affiliate marketing. This is because runners are in constant need of new equipment.
The site has a new section called “Gear Deals.” It conveniently contains all the recent discounts for running gear on the same page.
This is a great strategy to generate some additional revenue. People love a good deal, and putting it in one easily accessible place is a good strategy.
The affiliate website also offers a newsletter to generate some additional income.
They leverage their email list by marketing new content and affiliate offers. This can boost revenue and increase client retention for any affiliate site.
What You Can Learn From Runner Click
- A good lesson this affiliate website provides is the skimmable layout of their articles. It is optimized to save the user time and offer the quickest way to the information. They summarize the pros and cons and offer helpful statistics. The site displays them at the beginning of each article with a clear CTA to increase conversions.
- Runner Click employs running-relevant tools to attract more enthusiasts. Find Your Injury is among its most topical ones. All runners have suffered an injury before. Building a similar tool for your industry can be a valuable asset for your audience. Platforms like Upwork are a great place to find a developer and start. Tools can boost the backlinks and user engagement of any affiliate site.
- Informing on industry-specific events drives recurring traffic and niche-relevant backlinks. The site includes a race calendar for the whole country. This keeps runners coming back to stay posted.
10. The Points Guy
The Points Guy started as an affiliate blog on points and miles. It now offers content on credit cards, transportation, accommodation, and other tourism-related topics.
- Niche: Travel
- Founder: Brian Kelly
- Site Founded: 2009
- Goal: To maximize people’s travel experiences by offering valuable advice.
- Number of Referring Domains: 27,426
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 1.5 million
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 6.1 million clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
- Facebook: 1.9 million
- Twitter: 358.3k
- Instagram: 415k
- YouTube: 252k
Why They’re Doing So Well
Sites like The Points Guy are a relevant resources on everything tourism-related. Their “Deal Alerts” provide great information on travel deals.
Relevant deals will always produce great interest. Especially if they help save up on expenses.
Sites like The Points Guy leverage this interest in their favor. They create content targeting keywords like “deal alert” and “points and miles.”
This attracts prospects who are already looking to purchase. Sites like The Points Guy simply point them to the best offer and make a commission.
Another attractive feature is their tourism-related news section.
This can attract a fair amount of qualified leads daily.
News sections are also a great approach to building authority. As you can see below, it can attract a high amount of quality backlinks.
The Points Guy targets travel and tourism-related keywords to obtain backlinks, and it’s working. Airline and cruise ship-related topical news stories are of great interest. This helps further the site’s significant authority.
The Points Guy is a good example of leveraging the efficacy of the buying funnel. They attract people who are interested in traveling and convert them into buyers.
They do this by targeting tourists interested in cruises or cityscapes. Once they have their attention, they recommend monetized content, such as “9 super easy ways to save points when traveling to a new city”.
How They Make Money
The Points Guy is an affiliate website that gets paid in referral fees from the featured credit card issuers.
The top promotions are American Express, Citi, and Chase. This varies in terms of the rewards the cards offer.
The links are contextually placed within their reviews.
The site also offers a daily newsletter on travel and tourism. This enables The Points Guy to promote an additional affiliate partner offer to its subscribers.
Newsletters can also help make your subscribers feel like they count. This can improve your customer retention over time.
They place CTAs with engaging travel destinations throughout their platform. The CTAs drive people to their websites, and to the pages that generate the most revenue.
The site also implements a Google Remarketing Pixel for potential retargeting campaigns.
What You Can Learn From The Points Guy
- The Points Guy has a strong interlinking strategy. It only includes highly relevant internal links within the content. The links tightly relate to the same silo. This is essential to establish topical relevance.
- They focus on relevant industry events. A news section is a great way to build trust and brand awareness with regular inbound traffic. If promoted correctly can also boost your SEO by attracting those all-important backlinks.
- The Points Guy is excellent at leveraging its social media following. This can always lead to further monetization opportunities. Extra channels mean more traffic sources and extra promotional possibilities. Social media platforms enable you to promote your content and promote directly to your followers.
11. Website Setup
Website Setup is an affiliate website that offers valuable resources on website building.
The affiliate site offers advice on creating, improving, and customizing your website. Over 500,000 people use it reliably every month.
- Niche: Web hosting
- Founder: Robert Mening
- Site Founded: 2013
- Goal: To guide people in building their website
- Number of Referring Domains: 8,750
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 116,281
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 616,166 clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
- Facebook: 24,8k
- Twitter: 2,9k
- Instagram: 2,4k
- YouTube: 123
Why They’re Doing So Well
Web design and development for beginners is a competitive niche in high demand. It can also be highly lucrative.
But Website Setup makes website building available to everyone without needing a background in web development.
Website Setup aims to provide simple digest content that saves people a lot of money and headaches. This is where the site’s value lies.
The website’s guides cover all possible website types. From business websites to eCommerce.
Website Setup also excels in attracting backlinks. Content like their guide on How to Start a Blog is a solid resource.
They also use this content to attract people interested in starting a blog. Then they drive them down the funnel with blogging essentials like web hosting and domains. This is how they convert their visitors into buyers.
They offer the quickest way to build a website, and that’s how they win the click.
How They Make Money
The only revenue stream for Website Setup is from marketing affiliate offers. It offers affiliate links contextually placed in its guides and discounts to the featured products.
Bluehost is their main affiliate marketing program. This is among the best affiliate marketing programs for hosting in terms of commission.
Website Setup earns $65 for each referral. Other promotions include Site123 and Sitebuilder.
The links are placed in their technical guides and software reviews.
What You Can Learn From Website Setup
- Educational content can be monetized. Website Setup is a great example of a site that generates affiliate commissions from informational posts rather than pure money pages.
- Create blog posts that attract backlinks. Websites like Website Setup achieves this with posts like How to Start a Blog. Try creating a valuable resource that’s unmissable for websites in your industry. Solid outreach and promotion will lead to your first backlinks and increase site authority.
- The affiliate site provides a valuable lesson in skimmable content. Their web design is distraction-free, and the content is well structured. The key stats are highlighted to make sure they leap to the eye. Implement this for your blog posts, and your website engagement will increase. Especially if you have a distinct, eye-catching CTA.
12. The Wirecutter
The Wirecutter is a reputable review site that exclusively offers buyer reviews. Brian Lam founded it to offer the most impartial and rigorous product recommendations.
In opposition to Website Setup, Wirecutter chose to target a wide audience. It offers reviews about electronics, gifts, and home appliances.
This is one of the most reliable and trusted review sites. As of 2011, it is part of the top 6,000 websites globally, thanks to its detailed product recommendations.
The New York Times purchased the site in 2012 for $30 million.
- Niche: Electronics and consumer goods reviews
- Founder: Brian Lam
- Site Founded: 2011
- Goal: To offer the best product recommendations in each category.
- Number of Referring Domains: 5,016
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 28.5 million
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 253.8 million clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
- Facebook: 126,6k
- Twitter: 103,5k
- Instagram: 29,8k
Why They’re Doing So Well
The strategy to target such a large category of products is one that few affiliate sites choose. Consistent and transparent, the site became an authority across several product categories.
This strategy isn’t for beginner affiliate marketers. Gaining reliability is challenging enough in a single, tightly-knit online marketing niche.
Yet, over time, The Wirecutter has built the authority to pull that off.
The website implemented a clever section on its homepage entitled “Daily Deals.”
They feature over 90 of the day’s best affiliate marketing links from each product category. This can increase its affiliate revenue by saving time for its visitors.
Another interesting strategy is featuring relevant holiday deals.
They most likely have the biggest online resource on Black Friday. Similar sections can boost your traffic and affiliate commissions during the holidays.
The navigation system of the review site is user-oriented. It offers seamless access to all their different categories. The website also employs a winning SEO strategy, ranking organically on the first page for over 60,000 “best product” keywords.
The Wirecutter’s CTAs are great at attracting clicks. All their CTAs and inline affiliate links are in red to stand out. Any website can implement this to increase the CTR.
In contrast, all their internal links are plain black. This is to avoid hijacking the reader’s attention.
How They Make Money
The Wirecutter is part of the top Amazon websites. They mainly earn money through Bestbuy, Wayfair, and Amazon affiliate offers.
Other offers include Home Depot, Apple, and Skimlinks.
The site also features a popular newsletter to bring people back to the website and offer further potential for generating income.
What You Can Learn From The Wirecutter
- Try different color schemes for your CTA and inline affiliate links. The Wirecutter has all the revenue-producing links in red, which can boost conversion rates significantly. This might not work for every affiliate website, but testing different color schemes can help find the best option.
- The Wirecutter also shows you the importance of trust-building for affiliate marketing websites. They achieve this with their “Why you should trust us” sections. Like The Wirecutter, you can implement similar sections at the end of your product reviews. Ensure to include the research you performed and the factors that make you an authority on the matter.
13. Best Reviews
Best Reviews is a trusted affiliate marketing site that publishes valuable content on consumer goods. The topics are related to fashion, sports, electronics, and different products.
You’ll find this the most user-friendly review site we’ve analyzed. It features a minimalist web design and a clear structure. Best Reviews is a good example that you don’t need a flashy site if you are customer-oriented.
- Niche: Consumer goods
- Founder: Momchil Filev
- Site Founded: 2014
- Goal: To simplify purchasing decisions.
- Number of Referring Domains: 7,566
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 545,494
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 344,492 clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
- Facebook: 27.1k
- Twitter: 4.6k
- Instagram: 2k
- YouTube: 262k
Why They’re Doing So Well
First, because of the team of experts behind their reviews. Best Reviews consists of a team of consultants, advisors, and PhDs. It also has a wide network of professional contractors.
Having dedicated experts is essential for Google’s E-A-T guidelines. This is how the site’s trust and credibility are measured for SEO.
Since Google’s medic update, this has become even more influential on organic ranking. Improving your E-A-T can boost your page rankings significantly.
Second, this affiliate site does everything to win your trust. You get complete transparency from the product reviews.
It openly features all the research behind the articles and is a great way to build trust and reliability.
Third, because they know readers are often time-poor, you get an overview of the top picks from the start. They also include all the relevant buyer information in their comparison tables.
Including this comparison overview at the top of the page is a solid conversion rate optimization strategy.
Often their test equipment is self-made. The conclusions in their articles are insightful, always from industry-specific first-hand experience.
How They Make Money
Best Reviews’ main revenue source is affiliate income. The CTAs are conveniently placed at the beginning of each blog post.
Regarding referrals, they are a prominent website for Amazon affiliate links. Other offers include:
- Target program affiliate partners
- Jet affiliate program
- Walmart affiliate partners
For most of their reviews, they implement an Amazon affiliate offer.
The affiliate site also features a newsletter, so they can remarket to their audience later.
An occasional CTA will pop up at the bottom of the page throughout their site.
Brands can also license the Best Reviews logo. This is only possible for brands selected as one of their best products.
This is a solid link-building strategy for Best Reviews.
What You Can Learn From Best Reviews
- Focus on having a solid E-A-T presence, like Best Reviews. This has become even more important since the medic update mentioned above. A good approach is having experts for industry-specific posts. Having your content recognized as “expert” by people and the algorithms will significantly boost your rankings and conversions.
- Best Reviews teaches you to focus on the layout. The layout is designed to convert the reader into a buyer. You can apply this by adding a comparison table at the top of your reviews. This is a strong CRO strategy.
- Come up with a creative link-building strategy. Best Reviews provides a great example with their brand’s awards. Awards and badges can be valuable resources for interlinking. Ensure to include a backlink to your awards page in the embedded code. This is a proven method to boost your page views and crawlability.
14. Gear Hungry
GearHungry is a website that focuses on recommending best affiliate programs’ products. It covers consumer goods of all kinds. Here you can find the top-of-the-line products for each category.
- Niche: Consumer goods
- Founder: Jordan Carter
- Site Founded: 2012
- Goal: To find the best deals and products online.
- Number of Referring Domains: 6,643
- Number of Keywords It Ranks For: 965,794
- Estimated Organic Traffic: 2.4 million clicks per month
- Social Media Following:
- Facebook: 13.1k
- Twitter: 4.9k
- Instagram: 5.3k
Why They’re Doing So Well
The reason behind GearHungry’s success is its minimalist, content-focused design.
They strive to create a distraction-free platform optimized for product research.
The blog post format is consistent throughout the site. Top picks at the beginning and detailed reviews with key stats for each item afterward.
Consistent blog formats can be beneficial for any affiliate site. First, they enable you to create content faster. Second, your audience can get used to it and navigate it seamlessly.
The content is skimmable and filled with relevant internal links.
GearHungry features a unique section called “Everyday Carry.”
It includes the basic tools for weddings, digital nomads, students, etc. A clever way to grab the attention of virtually any reader.
This section doesn’t focus on a single product category but several. By throwing their net wide, they made sure to have at least a few bundles that cater to each visitor’s interest.
GearHungry also offers engaging blog posts with offers to cater to everyone’s tastes. Each blog post is designed to generate qualified leads and play a vital part in their SEO strategy.
They rank for “Best X for Y” style keywords like “best sunglasses for men,” “best travel wallets,” and “best gaming glasses.” Similar keywords have high volume and buyer intent.
You’ll greatly boost your conversions and organic traffic if you rank for them. The downside of them is that the competition is fierce. New affiliate marketing websites might not be able to compete with the big players from the get-go.
An interesting thing about it is that they target some surprisingly generic keywords. “Best sunglasses for men,” “best work gloves,” and “best gaming glasses” are some of them.
These are high-volume keywords with high competition. While GearHungry has the authority to rank in first place for them, this isn’t for every website.
These are likely out of your SEO strategy’s league if you’re just starting.
GearHungry also targets feature snippets, as every review site should. These can boost your website traffic and conversion rates.
How They Make Money
GearHungry is part of the Amazon affiliate marketing program.
The products feature multiple engaging CTAs throughout their content. The buttons are orange to stand out from the white and blue layout of the website.
Another interesting feature about them is the animation triggered by mousing over them. They’ll turn orange to black, making them stand out even more.
Buying guides and reviews are their bread and butter. This is where they place the links for the reviewed products.
Their main promotions are Amazon, Skimlinks, Refersion, and ConsumerJunction.
GearHungry also offers a relevant newsletter that generates some extra revenue. This is used to promote further affiliate offers directly in the subscribers’ mailbox.
The CTA to sign up is featured at the bottom of the site and throughout the content.
What You Can Learn From Gear Hungry
- Minimalism is still a great trend, and GearHungry proves it. The site has a clean design to create a distraction-free reading environment. Their format is also consistent throughout their blog posts. Working with the same format can speed up your content creation process significantly.
- Implement high-volume keywords in your SEO strategy. GearHungry consistently snags first place for search terms like “best work gloves” and “best sunglasses for men.” These are keywords with high buyer intent but significant competition as well. Managing to rank for them will be a huge boost for your conversions and organic traffic, but it will take some planning, link building, and supporting content.
- GearHungry implements effective CTA buttons. They are orange, which stands out from the rest of the layout. The button also displays an animated color change at every mouseover. Making the CTA prevalent is a priority to boost your CTR.
What You Can Learn From Affiliate Marketing Websites That Work
Most of the sites have similar ranking strategies when it comes to search engines. It’s time to take a look at the other key principles the 14 example sites have in common:
- The best affiliate websites focus on the Call to Action. Their content is built around the CTA button. The button is made prevalent to catch the reader’s eye. The ones with the best CTR contain a value proposition, like “Check Latest Price.” Action-oriented messages like “Add to Cart” can also work well.
A good practice for upcoming review sites is focusing on the color. Choose a color that is complementary to the primary color of your website’s design. If your primary color is blue, red or orange are good choices, paired with a message that inspires urgency. The Wirecutter provides a strong example to follow.
- The top affiliate sites incorporate comparison tables. These make the content skimmable and promote user engagement. They are a great way for buyers to save time researching their purchases. This simplifies your audience’s choice, and you will see a higher page conversion rate.
Follow the example of Headphones Addict and Best Reviews by implementing a comparison table. Pin it to the top of your posts, above the fold. Include all the key stats, pros and cons, and product ratings. Most importantly, include your call-to-action buttons in your comparison tables.
- The best affiliate marketing websites have a strong interlinking strategy. The best practice is placing relevant internal links from the same silo within the page content itself. This is a fantastic way to spread the link juice and improve topical relevance.
Follow the interlinking strategy of SafeWise and Dog Food Advisor for the best SEO benefits. Make sure to keep your internal links relevant to the content. Place them naturally in your article with relevant yet optimized anchor text. Internal links are a good source of additional information. Yet, they should never distract your audience from your CTA.
- High-converting affiliate sites are clever in moving their readers down the marketing funnel. For instance, The Points Guy attracts the audience through more informational keywords and leads them to their revenue-generating pages (e.g., travel credit cards).
Then they lead them down the funnel with their Deal Alert type posts. Discounts are a clever way to create buying intent in your prospects and move them through the funnel. You can implement this by targeting prospects who are interested and who are looking to purchase as well.
Include keywords such as “benefits of running shoes” for the former and “best long-distance running shoes” for the latter. Throwing your net wide in terms of SEO can capture a larger audience for your affiliate website.
- Building trust is another fundamental aspect of an affiliate website. The more your audience trusts you, the more they will trust your recommendations and the more money you can potentially earn. Also, satisfying Google’s E-A-T guidelines can help future-proof your site.
The Wirecutter and Best Reviews provide a creative solution. Both sites include a “Why Trust Us” section in their reviews. You can implement this to your review site to gain more reliability. Include your expertise, team credentials, and time spent with research.
On your homepage, you can also include a “featured in” section containing logos of trusted authority sites on which your website has been mentioned. Becoming a trusted resource for your audience will show in your conversion rates.
By following these tips, you will be well on your way to becoming a successful affiliate marketer.
FAQs:
What Is the Highest Paying Affiliate Website?
Shopify is the highest-paying affiliate website. It has long been considered the most lucrative platform for affiliates for a reason. There are already 1.7 million companies in 175 countries using this platform to conduct electronic commerce. Over $200 billion in annual sales have been generated with its help.
How Do I Start an Affiliate Marketing Website?
Here’s how to start an affiliate marketing website. First, you must pick your niche and stick with one thing. Then, find various affiliate programs in your niche. After that, you’ll need to pick a good domain name. Then, build your website. After that, all you have to do is make content for your website that fits your niche.
Can I Join Affiliate Marketing for Free?
Yes, you can join affiliate marketing for free. However, it is not that easy. The high initial investment is a major barrier to entry for many beginner affiliate marketers. You’ll need to spend money on domain registration, web hosting, educational materials, and more. On the other hand, several affiliate marketing programs don’t cost anything to join. But you should be careful about them.
Summing It Up: What To Do Now
Use these outstanding affiliate sites as inspiration when picking your next venture. Becoming an affiliate marketer is possible if you’re willing to work for it.
The amount of invested effort unites these 14 affiliate websites the most. We’re referring to the effort of creating high-quality reviews, putting together a strong SEO strategy, and improving their Google ranking step by step.
Most of these sites experimented with several formulas until they reached success. Don’t be afraid to do the same for your site.
Experiment with different CTAs, post layouts, interlinking strategies, and trust-building methods. Find the best approach for your site and keep putting in the work.
Figuring out the technical details is a matter of trial and error. Once you have this sorted out, focus on your audience. Make sure that they feel respected and find value in your posts. Consequently, you’ll see your conversion rates drastically improve.
If you want to learn how to build a successful affiliate website, join The Affiliate Lab. The blueprint covers everything you need to know about building a successful affiliate website.
