What Is An Affiliate Website?

There are numerous ways to make money online, and one of the most effective is through passive income. With passive income, you do something once and get paid repeatedly. An affiliate website is one way to generate passive income. A website that promotes affiliate products is known as an affiliate website. These items can be digital or physical, but the majority of these websites promote physical items.

You do not own these products, unlike when selling on eBay or Amazon. You earn a commission by promoting other people’s products through affiliate links. The commission on digital products is typically at a higher level; however, the commission on physical products is much lower.

These affiliate websites are usually outside your primary niche. They could be about a hobby, a vacation, a product, or even a group of related products. It is best to build a niche site around something that people are interested in and willing to pay for. Model trains, for example, are a very popular niche. Google returns over 1 million results when you search for model train sets. Hundreds of model train show also make this an excellent niche.

You can also build an affiliate website around a specific holiday, such as New Year, Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. The site can be general or specific to a specific niche. Promoting Halloween costumes by creating a generic Halloween niche site is possible. You can also be more specific, such as promoting only Halloween costumes for babies.

You can also build affiliate websites based on specific products. You can use Amazon to find popular products and create product review websites. If someone is interested in this product and purchases it, they are doing so through your affiliate link, and you will receive a commission. You could create a blender review website. On your website, recommend a few different types of blenders. You would list each blender’s benefits and drawbacks and compare them.

Different Types of Affiliate Websites

A simple travel blog.

Imagine you like to travel a lot, (who doesn’t) and you wouldn’t be good to make some money on the go? Well, you could with an affiliate website. By creating a simple travel blog sharing your day-by-day experiences, photos from where you have been, post reviews from restaurants, hotels and travel agencies, boats, cars, etc. You would be amazed at the amount of affiliate offers you have on the market these days…

Just by sharing your experiences with other people, you can promote all the services described above. Your reviews, testimonials, and feedback will be a determinate factor if your website visitor wants to experience something similar. There is a % of people that will follow in your footsteps and have that so-desired dream vacation they search for.

That’s when the affiliate marketing comes in, placing an affiliate link to, let’s say your travel agency website, you are redirecting your visitor to their website, and if your visitor buys something you will earn a commission.

This can be done with several websites and with several affiliates’ products and there are infinite ways to earn money with affiliate marketing.

The Review Website

One of the most common ways to earn money online with affiliate marketing is through a review website. This type of website converts very well because most visitors of a review website are looking for a specific product with the intent of eventually buying it!

A review website is a place where people go to get feedback from other people (3rd parties) on a determined product. Let’s say you are a gamer, and you love computer games and playing them, you could write reviews on gaming monitors, the best headphones, and mouses for gaming even the perfect rig to play games at 4k!

By writing reviews on those products, you are sharing with people your opinion, which is the cons and the pros of a certain product, or the best you can buy under a certain price range, even a detailed guide on how to configure your graphic card for optimal performance.

This is when the affiliate marketing jumps in again, place the affiliate links on your reviewed products, and BANG, get your commissions flowing.

Great Examples of Affiliate Websites

Wirecutter

Niche: Consumer products

Monthly visits: 4+ million

Domain rating: 94

The New York Times‘ shopping recommendation website is Wirecutter. In 2016, the newspaper company paid an estimated $30 million for Wirecutter, which helped it become one of the most trusted review sites in the United States.

The affiliate website builds trust by putting the customer first. The journalists at Wirecutter work independently to provide honest and unbiased reviews regardless of financial incentives.

The site aims to help users compare and find the best consumer products by providing well-researched content. These items include electronics, home appliances, car accessories, fitness equipment, and kitchenware.

Its well-implemented information architecture allows users to quickly find various product categories and featured articles.

The homepage also includes a Daily Deals section with the best-priced products of the day. This section saves visitors’ time and significantly impacts their purchasing decisions.

Before The New York Times bought Wirecutter, affiliate commissions were the primary source of revenue. Each review includes a link to the eCommerce store or brand that owns the product.

Paywall subscriptions now generate revenue for the company. The paid subscription unlocks unlimited access to Wirecutter’s news and coverage for $5/month or $40/year.

NerdWallet

Niche: Finance

Monthly visits: 18+ million

Domain rating: 89

With a yearly revenue of $379.6 million, NerdWallet was among the highest-earning affiliate marketing websites in 2021. Its mission is to provide users with all of the tools, information, and insight they need to make sound financial decisions.

One of the most important factors in NerdWallet’s success is its simple yet effective design. Users can easily compare financial products such as credit cards, student loans, mortgages, insurance, and savings accounts on the homepage.

Visitors can quickly access its primary resources – product reviews, expert guides, and calculators – via the top navigation bar. An on-site search engine is also available to help with navigation.

Another important feature of this website is its financial tools. Income, expenses, credit scores, debts, and loans can all be calculated for users. Aside from providing value to users, free tools are an excellent way to obtain backlinks and improve the site’s ranking.

NerdWallet monetizes its pages by including affiliate links to financial and credit card companies like Citibank, American Express, and Capital One. For each user signup, the site earns a referral fee.

NerdWallet receives funds from brands in exchange for product reviews in addition to affiliate marketing. It maintains, however, that such endorsements will not affect the quality of its recommendations.

Trusted Reviews

Niche: Technology

Monthly visits: 2.1+ million

Domain rating: 82

Trusted Reviews is one of the most established affiliate sites in the technology niche. Its mission is to provide unbiased and independent advice on what tech products to buy, such as smartphones, tablets, televisions, laptop computers, and cameras.

This mission is accomplished through the site’s extensive content library, which includes product reviews, brand comparisons, tech news, and how-to guides.

One of its most notable features is the audio player, which allows users to listen to the article rather than read it. This approach enables Trusted Reviews to cater to various reader preferences, resulting in a memorable user experience.

Each review on this site is comprehensive, providing readers with essential specifications, features, and reasons to buy. A banner at the end of the review compares prices from various eCommerce stores.

A reader can select the lowest price, then click the call to action (CTA) button to complete the transaction. Trusted Reviews will receive a commission once the purchase is completed.

Trusted Reviews generates revenue from display advertising, sponsored content, and brand collaboration in addition to affiliate income. For example, the partnership with Upfeat allows the site to offer discount codes and earn commissions on each discounted sale.

The Bottomline

Some of you might be thinking, I know nothing about creating a website, but this is not for me! YOU ARE WRONG! This is for you if you want to know how to Become an Affiliate Marketer and start to make money online. This easy-to-understand step-by-step program will make you earn as you learn to build the foundation of your successful affiliate website.

Affiliate marketing has no upper limit on how much money you can make. The more users you convert, the higher your commissions.