In my last post, I talked about the biggest challenges of building a profitable affiliate site.
Today Iβd like to spread some inspiration and show you actual examples of successful affiliate sites.
Below are examples of some of the largest affiliate sites in the world. Some of these companies are 7 to 9 figure businesses.
Iβve organized them from biggest to smallest according to traffic stats.
Letβs dive in!
SkyScanner
A great example of an affiliate success story that started out as a small project is Skyscanner.
Iβm sure youβve heard of them, and itβs likely that youβve used them while browsing flights.
Born in 2001 by 3 college graduates, Skyscanner was just an affiliate site with the purpose of helping travelers find cheap flights. For years, they kept up the site and eventually sold it for 1.9 billion to Ctrip, the largest travel company in China.
Today you could call Skyscanner a travel bible, helping 80 million monthly users and attracting 450 million monthly page views.
How do they make money?
Skyscanner makes its money purely from commissions from airlines, hotels, and travel partners.
Money Saving Expert
Money Saving Expert is an extensive community focused on campaigning for financial justice and finding deals to help ordinary people save cash.
They are the UKβs biggest consumer website, with just over 30 million site visits per month. Back in 2003, Martin founded the site for just 100 Euros. And in just 9 years, Martin grew his team from 1 to 90 professional financial specialists, journalists and editors making a powerful content factory.
As we all know, the personal finance industry is extremely competitive but Money Saving Expert set themselves apart with devotion to helping customers, good content quality, and a slow growth strategy.
They have raised the bar in terms of being a successful affiliate site.
How do they make money?
As far as I can tell they do not allow ads, sponsored posts, or sell anything of their own. Instead, their monetization strategy is to create guides, then scout affiliate links that match the product.
They get paid per click, per user, per application β it varies.
Nerd Wallet
Founded in 2009, Nerd Wallet started off as a small and simple credit card comparison and review site.
Since then, they have grown into a massive personal finance blog covering all topics from mortgages and loans, to travel and investing. And even though they set off in one of the most competitive industries, they are thriving attracting 17.4 million visitors per month.
Iβm pretty sure that Nerd Wallet is a setting example of every affiliate marketerβs dream.
How do they make money?
Nerd Wallet does not have ads, nor do they sell any of their own products. Instead, they make money through partnerships with a variety of financial service companies.
PC Part Picker
As the name suggests, this website is all about PCs and computer accessories.
This site went above and beyond in the computer parts niche by being a tool to help customers build their own computers.
Since computer parts are always changing and updating, PC Part Picker does the work to find the latest versions of everything, then cross checks it for compatibility with what the buyer wants and needs like budget, style, and use.
The model of this site is so smooth that it basically markets itself. In 2012, the company started a blog and now are posting about its recent charity work in Africa.
How do they make money?
Affiliate links.
Once the user has completed their custom build, they will be sent to affiliate sites to finally buy the parts. These sites are usually Amazon and Super Biizz.
The Wirecutter
The Wirecutter or also known as βMythbusters for gadgetsβ does not review and recommend a product before doing some serious testing.
For every product they spend a ton of time testing it, then they write up a monstrous post about the pros and cons and user experience.
As a result, customers trust and prefer buying from them. They mainly cater to the market looking to buy gadgets, electronics, and other consumer goods.
And in their efforts to recommend the best of the best, they have received a lot of praise from media outlets, including getting a story in the New York Times. In 2016, they were acquired by The New York Times for $30M.
How do they make money?
Their monetization model is simple: affiliate commissions primarily through Amazon and Best Buy.
The Points Guy
This site started out as a one-man blog back in 2010, focusing mainly on travel advice and deals.
Since then they have leaned towards travel credit cards that get people free (or low fare) travel stuff like flights and hotels. And the crave for cheap travel stuff has turned this site into a monster.
They pump out 600 articles per month and have about 21 full-time staff. In 2017, they were acquired by Red Ventures for an undisclosed amount, but certainly a deal in the 8-9 figure range.
How do they make money?
Their monetization strategy ties in simply with their business strategy: commissions from credit card sales.
Top Ten Reviews
This site was founded in 2003 and now has heavy domain authority.
That explains why their site is loaded with juicy content. They use long, wordy articles (3,000-5,000 words) to review digital content like antivirus software and credit card processing which sets them apart from most other content review sites that mainly review tangible products.
However, they do still sell tangible products including ovens, garden hoses, and other such things. Itβs cool how they can be good at selling both since theyβre entirely different models.
Part of the reason they can do this is because of their team of over 350 employees that are continuously producing new content on a daily basis.
How do they make money?
Through affiliate sites like Amazon, Bitdefender, Lowes.
Gear Patrol
This site isnβt content or detail-rich, but itβs photography rich.
Every product review has pictures from all angles, giving customers a thorough idea of how the product looks. Their interesting approach has made it so that lots of their traffic is coming from Instagram and Pinterest accounts.
Gear Patrol was founded in 2007 as an affiliate site catered towards men.
They have links to everything from watches to cars and also run a magazine.
How do they make money?
They started off purely as an affiliate site using Amazon links but since have evolved with Google Adsense and their own e-commerce store.
Best Reviews
Another review site, Best Reviews has you covered by doing reviews in almost everything including music, pets, travel, and much much more.
But they can set themselves apart from the ordinary review site by posting videos, long informational posts, and FAQ for all of the products they link to. For example, after going through their Kate Spade purse overview, I feel like I know everything.
And thatβs exactly what makes them a great site.
How do they make money?
Purely Amazon affiliate links.
The Minimalist Baker
The Minimalist Baker is your site for everything food and baking.
They offer a ton of mouthwatering recipes and sell cookbooks, courses, and appliances. The site was founded by a savvy couple Dana and John back in 2012 and since then has kept up with the food trends.
Not only does their site attract over 4 million visitors per month but they are also Instagram famous with 1.5 million followers where they share their cooking photography.
They can be found on other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
How do they make money?
Affiliate commissions from Amazon associates but they donβt rely entirely on affiliate income as they use Google Adsense and sell their own courses.
This is Why Iβm Broke
Iβm honestly not a huge fan of sites like this since the bulk of the products on their sites are pointless, novel items.
The site name can back me up on this. For example, featured on their site right now is the βNo Phone Airβ. A phone that has 0 storage, no headphone jack, no batteries, and no features. Itβs literally a piece of plastic which is being sold for 5.94 USD. Yet somehow, this product is making sales and gaining reviews.
How?
Because TIWIB saw an opportunity to offer something in trend, and I must give it to them that they are excellent at this.
In fact, the No Phone Air was featured on shark tank getting a ton of attention from that, and leading people to websites like TIWIB to purchase. The website only really took off because of how novel the products were.
It was also featured in Reddit. But what I do like about their site is that itβs easy to navigate because their products are nicely separated into categories.
How do they make money?
They make money from selling items that seem to trigger oneβs sense of fun through Amazon sites.
Consumer Search
Founded almost two decades ago, Consumer Search is a website that posts reviews of products to help the buyer find what they need.
They are one of the leading examples of Amazon affiliate sites with over 2 million visits per month as well as a good example of how someone can make big time bucks from selling.
In 2012, the site sold to About.com for $33 million.
How do they make money?
Amazon affiliate links to various products.
Outdoor Gear Lab
For all you adventure junkies out there, Outdoor Gear Lab is the site to check out for⦠well, all your outdoor gear.
OGL has been around since 2010 gaining a good reputation for only reviewing the best gear on the market. Like Wirecutter, they put their products through intensive testing before announcing it. At first glance, OGL looks like a full-fledged e-commerce site.
But once you click a category like letβs say βhiking bootsβ, youβre brought into a niche site on its own of comparisons and reviews on all the best kinds of hiking boots.
What I admire about this site is that there arenβt affiliate links being flashed all around. Instead, they are more focused on creating a community where account holders can get involved and contribute comments to reviews.
How do they make money?
They use affiliate links from about 6 different partners, giving their customers freedom and choice.
Website Setup
An example of a blog that went after a hot niche.
And an extremely competitive one. Website Setup is a blog that focuses on helping customers build their own websites by answering the big questions.
Whatβs really impressive is that they have managed to rank #1 for well over 1,000 competitive keywords by gaining a strong backlink profile with help from powerful very reputable and authoritative sites.
But of course, these backlinks arenβt coming free. Website Setup creates outstanding content including detailed website setup guides that have helped thousands of people.
How do they make money?
Affiliate offers and commission.
They market Bluehost pretty heavily so I imagine much of it comes from them.
Dog Food Advisor
A nicely designed website is increasingly important these days and Dog Food Advisor does not have a nice website.
In fact, their website is rather lame.
The only thing I see there is a cute puppy. But despite this, they are still able to attract over a million visitors per month. People really care what their dogs eat. What they did really well in is creating a huge guide of dog food reviews from pretty much every brand out there.
Plus their customer comment engagement is off the charts with an average of 60 comments per post.
How do they make money?
By selling dog foods off of Amazon affiliate links.
The Military Wallet
In this list, youβve already read multiple examples on personal finance sites.
However, although The Military Wallet is still a personal finance site, itβs a little bit different. TMW dug into a very narrow niche and caters to military veterans and their families make better financial decisions after leaving the military.
They write about ways veterans can make income, money saving tips, tax-related information, alternatives of going in debt, and other veteran-specific legal matters.
They did well by going into the personal finance niche but targeting a very specific sub-niche.
How do they make money?
Mostly affiliate, they make money from credit card commissions, Amazon associates, and Google Adsense.
Dating Advice
Unfortunately, the online dating industry is filled with spammy sites that arenβt usually honest and are only looking to send you to affiliate sites to make a buck.
But Dating Advice is one of the loyal sites in this cluttered niche. With its focus on βexpert adviceβ, you can get the feeling that they genuinely want to help.
They have actual dating experts available to answer questions, forums, and long blog posts about typical devious dating issues.
By now youβre probably thinking how the heck do they make money? Well, the most common way is by recommending dating sites like eHarmony, Plenty Of Fish, who pay commissions for sending new users their way.
But they are careful by doing it in a subtle way to not come off as sleazy.
How do they make money?
As I mentioned, much of their income comes from doing reviews of dating site affiliates.
But they do have a few other ways including βbest ofβ lists with the best dating apps, websites, and products.
They also have sponsored posts here and there.
Headphones Addict
Most review sites youβve seen in this list go over a variety of products.
But at Headphones Addicts they purely review headphones. The categories are split up usefully into budget, sport, wireless, etc, making the site very user-friendly.
Who are they? A geek squad made up of 3 people who like headphones a bit too much. Headphones Addict doesnβt look like a typical affiliate site as they publish news stories as well as lengthy reviews.
And just like Top Ten Reviews, they spend hours testing their products before announcing them, making them a trustworthy site for headphone lovers to buy from.
How do they make money?
100% of their income comes from Amazon affiliates.
100 Days of Real Food
100 Days of Real Food is a great example of an Amazon Affiliate website thatβs not a review site.
They focus on recommending certain food products through their blog and resources page.
They have become very popular on social media platforms like Facebook with 1.6 million likes and they also post frequently on Instagram and now have 2,346 posts.
Lisa Leake, the owner, has become an authoritative foodie and uses this to make and sell her own cookbooks. This example is more for the blogger whoβd prefer to monetize their site rather than creating a review site.
How do they make money?
They sell everything kitchen as well as some hair products and accessories through Amazon affiliate links.
Making Sense Of Cents
This blog is one of my favorites out there because of the story behind it.
And I think everyone can relate in some way. Back in 2012, Michelle graduated from university with $38,000 in student loan debt. And thus, Making Sense Of Cents was born. The intention behind it was to overcome her financial situation as well as help readers with their financial debts along the way.
Michelleβs a great example of the βmaking a living onlineβ lifestyle.
Sheβs currently sailing the world while making roughly $100,000 per month through her blog. The beautiful design of her website slightly disguises the fact that she earns 70% of her income from affiliate links. She promotes these products mainly through reviews and recommendations.
Over the years, she has expanded her focus and now covers MMO (make money online) topics as well. And this is yet another great example of a one-woman blog.
How do they make money?
Affiliate commissions, digital course sales, and advertising.
Conclusion
Hopefully, these examples have opened your mind to whatβs possible by building affiliate sites.
While itβs possible to build a nice lifestyle business that makes a few thousand per month, itβs also possible to heavily scale it to a multi-million dollar business.
And while these are super profitable, theyβre also some of the most cost-efficient businesses in the world because their business runs on affiliate commissions, that means no customer support, no having to deal with things like product development, customer support, sales teams, etc.
Is there a site you think should be on that list? Is there anything I forgot to mention? Please let me know in the comment section below.
[ad_2]