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Sales Strategy
10 Best Affiliate Marketing Website Examples and How to Do the Same
Liucija Adomaite
September 2, 2024
|
7 min. read
Liucija Adomaite
LAST UPDATED
September 3, 2024
READING TIME
7 min.
Affiliate marketing can be an insanely profitable career. Some people earn as much as $150,000 in a single year. But how do they do it?
Is there some secret affiliate marketing formula people can follow to become as successful?
In this article, we take a look at the best affiliate marketing examples to see what actually make them so popular and profitable.
We listed the best examples of affiliate websites that have the most visits and highest revenue in 2024.
We identified 13 proven affiliate tactics that the most successful affiliates use so you can do the same.
10 Best Affiliate Marketing Examples: Why they work and what to learn from them
1. Wirecutter is the best affiliate marketing site due to its long-standing authority and expert team
Monthly visitors: 12.7 million
Estimated revenue: $625.1M YoY
Established in 2011, Wirecutter provides a curated list of top gear and gadgets, featuring affiliate links to retailers like Amazon, Home Depot, Nordstrom, and Office Depot.
The New York Times bought Wirecutter, a product review site, for $30 million in 2016.
It became people's go-to site for shopping recommendations. Unlike other affiliate sites, Wirecutter's success is due to the expertise of its team, which consists of experienced journalists, notable scientists, and researchers.
They test all the goods themselves, interview relevant people, and do proper analysis. Wirecutter states that "their business's interests align with those of the reader."
Another reason why Wirecutter is also transparent about earning commissions from affiliate links, clearly stating this on their homepage. This commitment to honesty helped them to build a global reputation and very high authority.
Most importantly, Wirecutter's SEO strategy is exceptionally sucessful. The reason of that is the fact that a website is 10 years old.
It has an overall authority score of 100 and 42,633 referring domains. It managed to continually rank very high on Google, obtaining a huge domain authority throughout the years.
Wirecutter tip:
Gather a team of experts who rigorously test products, conduct thorough research, and provide unbiased reviews.
Always focus on transparency about earning commission and building credibility to rank high on search engines.
Don't forget it takes years if not decades to become the best affiliate marketer.
2. Skyscanner is the best affiliate marketing site due to the way it operates and prioritizing the best deals first
Monthly visitors: 18 million (August 2024)
Estimated revenue: $286.6M per year
Skyscanner is one of the most popular brands in the travel industry, trusted by millions of users worldwide.
Essentially, it serves as a Google for traveling and allows users to search for and discover the cheapest flights, hotels, and rental cars available on a given date.
Founded in 2001 by three university graduates, Skyscanner's effective business model led to its acquisition by Ctrip, China's largest travel company, for approximately $1.8 billion in 2016.
Part of Skyscanner's success can be attributed to the way it operates. It works like a search engine for travel, allowing users to find the cheapest flights, hotels, and rental cars for specific dates.
Moreover, the platform's algorithms prioritize listing the cheapest options first. It also helps readers make informed decisions by providing essential information like traveling reviews and key features.
Moreover, Skyscanner attracts a significant portion of its 11 million monthly visits through detailed travel guides and tourism articles optimized for search engines.
3. NerdWallet is the best affiliate marketing site because it provides people with useful service
Monthly visitors: 18.3 million (August 2024)
Estimated revenue: $539 million in 2022
Managing your personal finances can be overwhelming. But NerdWallet has set itself on a simple yet very important mission—to help people with their money. And it has been nailing it.
NerdWallet is a financial comparison website. It covers anything from insurance to mortgages and credit cards to investment advice.
While being fundamentally a financial advice site, Nerdwalet has a lot to offer: credit card comparisons, calculators, valuable advice, and answers to all your questions.
People have trusted Nerdwallet for years, and every time the site promotes something, it's taken as a valuable recommendation.
That's where an affiliate marketing strategy comes in. Nerdwallet generates income through affiliate marketing and earns a commission for the financial products it compares.
NerdWallet tip:
Prioritize delivering a useful service that is central to your brand, rather than just pushing the products.
People are much more likely to organically make the purchase if they find it useful and valuable.
4. Money Saving Expert is the best affiliate marketing site due to unbiased advice based on 100% independent research
Monthly visitors: 7.3 million (August 2024)
Money Saving Expert is the UK's biggest consumer website, and it helps people save money. It offers useful money-saving tools, features a large community forum, and shares a well-researched journalistic view of whatever the topic it covers.
Money Saving Expert doesn't allow advertising which means that companies aren't able to pay their way in being featured there. There are also no subscription charges for using the site.
The only way MSE is making money is through affiliate links, but it makes it deliberately clear by adding * next to each. Plus, they stand strong about the fact that affiliate links don't affect their articles.
"The MoneySaving guides are written, then, totally separately, paid links are looked for. If no paying link is available, nothing in the guide changes. If the best is the best and doesn't pay, it stays the best," MSE states on their website.
What sets MSE apart from other affiliate marketing websites is the fact that it uses links provided by other affiliate websites in order to avoid building relationships with financial product providers. This way, they don't get pressured by the companies to include their goods.
Money Saving Expert tip:
Focus on providing unbiased, high-quality advice based on fully independent research.
Maintain transparency by clearly marking affiliate links, and never charge your website visitors for the value you provide.
5. Making Sense of Cents is the best affiliate marketing site due to personal and authentic approach to money management
Monthly visitors: 99.4K (August 2024)
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner started her blog Making Sense of Cents to document her financial journey and share her learnings with others. The success of the blog is coded in its description which reads as follows "A Personal Finance Blog."
This affiliate website is based on a personal and authentic approach to money management, budgeting, investing, and planning your expenses.
What sets Making Sense of Cents apart from other affiliate sites, is the fact that it features reader's testimonies and real-life experiences. It shares product recommendations that have been vouched for not only by Michelle but by her readers too.
The blog features Michelle's favorite products people can purchase through affiliate links, as well as practical tools and resources.
Making Sense of Cents tip:
Genuine testimonials on your website enhance your credibility with visitors.
Sharing your personal journey and experiences create an authentic and personal connection between you and the readers.
People value honesty which makes them more likely to buy products or services you promote.
6. This Is Why I'm Broke is the best affiliate marketing site due to its virality on social media
Monthly visitors: 413K in organic traffic (August 2024)
It focuses on reviewing unusual products and sharing their bizarre, funky, and funny descriptions. It's very appealing to getting shared on social media.
Another thing that makes this website unique is the fact that you won't be able to buy everything's in there. Quite a few items, like cars, are just links to a website or Instagram post.
No wonder that the audience of This Is Why I'm Broke comes mainly for entertainment.
So how do they make money? Well, the site's content attracts a lot of attention on social media, and has a cult following. Social media shares boost the site's affiliate links, creating a solid source of revenue.
Essentially, This Is Why I'm Broke is an excellent example of doing the affiliate marketing partnership right.
It's an affiliate site with Amazon since it gets a percentage for directing customers to Amazon to make a purchase. The company can make up to $20,000 a month from Amazon alone.
This Is Why I'm Broke tip:
Not all affiliate marketing must be done according to the same rules.
You can earn good money from focusing on pure entertainment and going viral on social media, rather than pushing your affiliate links.
7. SafeWise is the best affiliate marketing site due to successfully addressing the pain points of your affiliate niche
Monthly visitors: 548K (August 2024)
SafeWise has hands-down nailed their niche which is home security. They know that people will not cut back on safety measures when it comes to their own homes.
SafeWise shares safety manuals, safety features reviews, brand comparisons and more. What's cool about the site is that you get a short summary of every blog post right on top, so it saves time and gets you straight to your answer.
SmartWise earns its commission through affiliate sites like Amazon and CJ Affiliates.
SafeWise's marketing strategy is to expand its revenue source outside the website and actively engage in social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube.
That's how their affiliate products gain a much wider reach and attract more potential customers.
SafeWise tip:
Find your niche and know its pain points from an inside out.
Target them by providing practical and valuable insights.
Use other communication channels aside from your website to gain more traction.
8. RTINGS is the best affiliate marketing site due to hands-on reviews and legitimate product tests
Monthly visitors: 6.4 million (August 2024)
RTINGS is a popular product review site founded in 2011 which functions as an independent company.
They buy and test each product themselves to ensure that all the reviews are unbiased and truthful.
For every product they review, the RTINGS team puts under a standardized procedure, allowing you to compare them side by side.
Another interesting thing about RTINGS is that they use programmatic SEO.
This method of SEO generates many pages from a set of data using automation with the goal of ranking on Google. This way, RTINGS creates comparison pages in bulk.
But there's no trickery in what RTINGS promote with their affiliate links. Unlike many affiliate marketers and sites, they don't receive their affiliate items from the manufacturers.
"Instead, we buy all of the review products ourselves. We buy them like you on Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Walmart, and other retailers, mostly from the United States. We keep them until they're discontinued and then resell them used locally," says RTINGS website.
In this way, the site assure they represent the items you would buy yourself, since manufacturers can't handpick the affiliate products.
RTINGS tip:
Buy the products you review so that the manufacturers do not handpick them.
Integrate programmatic SEO strategy to automate and optimize large, high-quality pages to rank for multiple keywords on search engines.
9. PC Part Picker is the best affiliate marketing site because it narrowed down on one niche and established a reputation in it
Monthly visitors: 1.8 million in organic traffic (August 2024)
PC Part Picker is a comparison shopping website where users compare prices and the compatibility of different vendors' computer components.
The site is essentially an excellent example of sticking down to your affiliate marketing niche, no matter how small it'd be. Today, PC Part Picker is recognized as the most valuable resource when assembling your own computer.
To build your computer from scratch all by yourself can be really tricky, but PC Part Picker offers a helping hand unlike no one else out there.
PC Part Picker shares practical advice, including completed setups and builder tools, as well as all the product reviews and selections, specification info, and even the list of manufacturers so you are all covered for your computer project.
What people find particuarly useful about this platform is the PCPartPicker compatibility feature where you can easily check what parts are compatible and what aren't.
Users say that it's "95% accurate if it states the parts are compatible. It is however overly cautious when it tells you there might be a compatibility issue." That means many of PC Part Picker's compatibility warnings can be overlooked or tackled easily.
Like many affiliate websites, PC Part Picker gets its revenue for participating in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, which is a tremendously popular affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
They also partner with other affiliate programs like Newegg, SuperBiiz, Outlet PC and others.
PC Part Picker tip:
Narrow down your affiliate niche and stick to it.
A targeted niche has less competition than broader markets.
A narrow niche has long-term potential for constant revenue as its market grows and new trends emerge.
10. The Points Guyis the best affiliate marketing site due to the combination of the two most popular niches and cross-selling
Monthly visitors: 2.1 million
It's no secret that travel and finance are some of the best-paid and most popular affiliate niches. So why not target them both?
The Points Guy did exactly that. The site shares anything from loyalty program recommendations, practical travel advice, deal alerts to hotel, credit card, and flight recommendations and so on. The Points Guy's mission is to help people get the most value out of their hard earned money.
What makes The Points Guy particularly valuable for travellers is its selection of free tools where you can maximize rewards, get more earnings, join the best loyalty programs, and even calculate cash vs. reward ratio. This way, readers make sure they're really getting the best deal.
TPG earns commissions on certain credit card, hotel, cruise and product referrals. Unlike other affiliate marketing sites mentioned in this article, TPG also runs paid sponsorships with various destinations, travel brands and financial service providers.
The site is most active in these affiliate programs: Chase Bank, American Express, and Citi.
The Points Guy tip:
Combine two strong niches in one to boost revenue.
This way, you will reach a broader audience and create more cross-selling opportunities.
Key Takeaways
The best affiliate marketing examples like blogs and websites we analyzed in this article, show that some affiliate strategies and tactics drive more traffic and revenue than others.
We determined what you can learn from the best affiliate marketing examples to make your affiliate partnership successful.
Here are 13 affiliate tactics to follow so you can do the same:
1. Target an affiliate niche and stick to it (there may be multiple niches combined).
2. Invest in SEO strategies to boost organic traffic.
3. Employ multi-channel marketing and use various communication channels beyond the website (TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and so on.)
4. Consistently build authority and reputation throughout the years.
5. Share your genuine and authentic views, like real-life examples, unbiased opinions, and user testimonials.
6. Test and buy the products and services yourself to avoid manufacturers' pressure.
7. Compare the products you promote in a 360° view as if your website visitor had the products themselves.
8. When testing, reviewing, and comparing the products or services, use one consistent methodology and stick to it.
9. Constantly update your content, including best product reviews and comparisons.
10. Invest in building an exceptional user experience on your website so that people are drawn to use it.
11. Don't focus solely on products; make your content entertaining and shareable on social media.
12. Give practical and useful advice when addressing your audience's pain points.
13. Be patient and don't expect quick results—it takes years and decades to build your site's authority with continual efforts in affiliate marketing.
Liucija Adomaite
Liucija Adomaite is a viral content writer and organic traffic expert on a mission to help turn ambitious businesses into big names.
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