6 Ideas and Examples of Successful Affiliate Pages
On the Wasabi Theme blog I have already talked about monetization before, but what do you think if we now see real examples of affiliate websites?
Searching the Internet I have found several successful affiliation pages that generate thousands of dollars each month. Although they are pages that can hardly be matched without a lot of investment, they are perfect for inspiration.
How do they make money? What impact do they have on users? In this post, I reveal everything to you.
Examples of successful affiliate pages
There are thousands of sites on the web that monetize with affiliation, especially with the Amazon affiliate program, but not all of them have the metrics and success of the six that I now show you.
Bestreviews.com
The objective of Bestreviews is to show complete and detailed reviews and opinions of thousands of products belonging to all categories to help the user get the best prices.
To do this, a research team spends hours analyzing each product so that only the best are shown, and consumers are also consulted so that the review can be as honest as possible.
Data and metrics:
- URL: https://bestreviews.com/
- Niche: product reviews
- Year of foundation: 2014
- Annual Revenue: $5M – $10M
- Monthly visits (estimated): 11,300,000
- Domain Rating: 73
- Followers on social networks: 43,000
- Similar sites: buyers guide.org, consumer reports.org, the best.io, productopia.com
How the site makes money
Bestreviews is a site that monetizes with Amazon Affiliates and has had very good results as a member of the program.
Of course, this is helped by the large number of reviewed products on their site.
How is it different from other similar sites and what are its main challenges?
It is a complete review and comparison website that has its own platform developed from scratch (it does not use WordPress or third-party CMS).
Its design shows the dedication and time invested in creating a friendly and intuitive user interface, where everything is conveniently organized.
Versus.com
Versus.com is a comparison website for an innumerable list of products from various categories: mobile phones, photo and video, printers, home and garden, and even universities and cities.
Data and metrics:
- URL: https://versus.com/
- Niche: electronics and consumer products
- Year of foundation: 2011
- Annual Revenue: $15M – $25M
- Monthly visits (estimated): 14,700,000
- Domain Rating: 70
- Followers on social networks: 850,000
- Similar sites: kimovil.com, rtings.com, gsmarena.com, gadgetsnow.com
How the site makes money
Versus.com primarily monetizes with Amazon Affiliates on product reviews.
In addition, they also monetize with Google AdSense.
How is it different from other similar sites and what are its main challenges?
If there is something that identifies Versus.com, it is the large number of reviews it has on its site and how complete they are (especially in the technology products section).
In them there is nothing that is left out, but all the characteristics of the products are covered so that buyers have a fairly clear idea before deciding to buy them.
For its part, its sections for universities, cities and countries are innovative and collect interesting data about each place.
WireCutter
WireCutter (formerly TheWireCutter) is a membership site owned by The New York Times. Who would have thought that major media outlets would also join this business model? This website founded in 2011 by Brian Lam was purchased by the newspaper in 2016.
Their focus is on writing detailed guides where the best products are recommended and useful information is given to the user about what they plan to buy. This way, you will have everything you need to make an appropriate choice.
Before recommending a product, real tests are carried out, although sometimes they also draw on information published on other authority sites.
Data and metrics:
- URL: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/
- Niche: reviews of products and services
- Year of foundation: 2011
- Annual revenue: Around $200M (at the time of writing)
- Monthly visits (estimated): 10,500,000
- Domain Rating: 94
- Followers on social networks: 370,000
- Similar sites: toptenreviews.com, bestthisyear.com
How the site makes money
While in the past WireCutter displayed banner ads, today its earnings come directly from affiliate programs.
On their website, you will find links to stores such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Wayfair, Best Buy, Home Depot and others. It all depends on the product that is recommended and the store where it is sold.
How is it different from other similar sites and what are its main challenges?
Unlike other sites, for example, Bestreview, WireCutter does not monetize with just one affiliate program, but with several of them.
This is advantageous for the buyer because they have several options to find the best price while allowing the website to diversify its income even if it comes from the same business model.
On the other hand, the fact of belonging to The New York Times is possibly the reason that puts it above its competitors, because people trust the recommendations given by someone with authority more than a complete stranger.
10Beasts.com
10Beasts was born with the idea of helping you decide which product is the best for you in certain categories, especially technology.
As their name indicates, they evaluate and compare products in a “Best 10 X” plan. In all cases, these are unbiased reviews by experts.
The pros and cons of each product are listed and a complete purchasing guide is included in each post to facilitate the choice.
Data and metrics:
- URL: https://10beasts.com/
- Niche: product reviews
- Year of foundation: 2016
- Annual revenue: Around $200M (at the time of writing)
- Monthly visits (estimated): 84,500
- Domain Rating: 49
- Followers on social networks: 600
- Similar sites: scanse.io, smartgeekwrist.com, bestintech.reviews, chapura.com
How the site makes money
10Beasts is a site that has its main source of income from the Amazon affiliate program. The idea is that the buyer makes the purchase in the store and they get their commission.
However, it complements its earnings by displaying Google AdSense ads in various areas of the website.
How is it different from other similar sites and what are its main challenges?
Unlike other websites that also monetize with affiliates, 10Beasts does not deal with an endless list of categories but is limited to showing products that can be classified as technological, although also a section for vehicle spare parts.
In addition, it has a blog where useful information is provided on different topics related to technology or the products reviewed.
It is a perfect example of how with few sections and little investment, you can achieve a more than decent and, above all, profitable result.
Skyscanner
Skyscanner is one of the leading websites when it comes to finding flights, accommodation or renting cars. It is enough for the user to indicate where they want to travel to see a list of available flights.
Upon choosing one, the buyer is directed to the airline’s website to pay. Come on, pure affiliate marketing.
Data and metrics:
- URL: https://www.skyscanner.net/
- Niche: Air travel and hotel booking
- Year of foundation: 2003
- Annual revenue: Around $200M (at the time of writing)
- Monthly visits (estimated): 6,900,000
- Domain Rating: 71
- Followers on social networks: 1,100,000
- Similar sites: kayak.com, rumbo.com, momondo.com, jetcost.com
How the site makes money
Skyscanner is an affiliate of airlines and hotels, therefore, when the customer leaves their website and completes the purchase on the respective page, they receive a commission.
If we think that Skyscanner visitors long ago exceeded the figure of 50 million per month, then it is easy to understand how it has maintained itself over time.
How is it different from other similar sites and what are its main challenges?
As I have told you several times, Skyscanner has a well-defined niche: flights, and this is the main characteristic that differentiates it.
Furthermore, no direct recommendations are made, but rather a list of available options is shown. So you will not find comparisons like “The best flights to Rome”.
Despite its great success and unstoppable growth, Skyscanner continues in the fight to become the undisputed leader in its sector, attract more clients and thereby earn more in commissions.
It has also added aggregator for hotel and car rental offers.
Dating Advice
Dating Advice is a site intended to provide information about dating and relationships.
But be careful, it is not like any other website that deals with dating affiliation and whose sole objective is to obtain commissions: it has experts and answers real questions.
For this reason, this website has managed to earn its place in the lucrative (and complicated) business of dating websites.
Data and metrics:
- URL: https://www.datingadvice.com/
- Niche: dating and relationships
- Year of foundation: 2012
- Annual Revenue: $1M – $5M
- Monthly visits (estimated): 613,500
- Domain Rating: 78
- Followers on social networks: 30,000
- Similar sites: eharmony.com, match.com, okcupid.com
How the site makes money
Dating Advice earns in several ways with various affiliate programs:
- On the one hand, it publishes “the best…” style articles where it recommends apps, websites and products.
- On the other hand, monetize with reviews of popular dating sites. In both cases, taking a commission for each sale or registration.
Likewise, it accepts the publication of sponsored content, although affiliation is its main business model.