that”Affiliate sites are what phoenix dreams are made of!
Simply put, “affiliate websites” is a super loose term for sites that sell products or services to their visitors in exchange for a commission but it is important to understand that you should not create a site that is ONLY for affiliate purposes only.
Sound confusing? Worry not, I’ll explain.
To fully understand what is affiliate marketing, how it works, the best way to build a website is and promote affiliate products on it, read until the end.
Your Website or Blog Should Be a Helpful Resource for Your Readers
Your website, blog, niche site – whatever you want to call it, has to have the same aim: really amazing content for the subject matter you are publishing. The end goal is for you to build an online resource that people love.
If you want to start a blog in the sewing niche and teach people how to sew various items, make sure every article is as best as it can be by adding images and videos too (if needed).
If you love turtles and have experience taking care of them and you want to start a niche site or blog about taking care of turtles, then share the best knowledge you can in each one of your articles.
The point is: whatever your site is about, you need to make it a great resource for the people who are searching for information that you are sharing on your site!
If you create a site that your readers will love, Google and other search engines will reward you for that.
How to Use Your Site to Recommend or Promote Affiliate Products
When you have created an awesome website full of information that your readers find helpful (or are searching for), you can easily use those articles to recommend or suggest affiliate products that are helpful for your readers.
Let’s take a blog in the sewing niche. You have built out an awesome resource for folks who love sewing and they look forward to your tutorials. Let’s say you have an article that details “how to sew a a t-shirt”. Within that article, you can then recommend affiliate products that someone who is sewing a t-shirt might want or need (clothing material, sewing machine, threads, etc).
Likewise, if you had a website that was all about hiking, you could easily recommend hiking shoes and other things hikers need or want in that niche.
While You Can Sell Affiliate Products From Your Site, Google Looks Down on Sites that Exist Just For Selling Affiliate Products
Google has guidelines for the types of sites that will do well in its search engine.
Websites (whether blogs or niche sites) should be created as resourceful, informational hubs that provide helpful content to people who use the Google search engine.
Those awesome informational sites can then recommend products.
If a website has been created just to sell affiliate products and it isn’t created as something helpful for people, those sites will not do well in its search engine.
For this reason, it is really important to follow Google’s guidelines when it comes to promoting affiliate products on your site. If your site is only about pushing affiliate products or displays clickbait or grotesque ads, your website is considered a “thin” site and will end up with a low Page Quality guideline when reviewed by a Search Engine Quality Evaluator. Ultimately, these sites end up not ranking at all.
Google is clear on the fact that they are okay with you recommending affiliate products on your website and using ads as monetization methods. However, the intent of your website matters. At the end of the day, they want quality and helpful websites ranking.
The Overall Picture
The concept is super easy but so is messing it up. An easy way to understand how this works is laid out below:
Step 1: Build a website and share helpful content.
Step 2: Recommend products that are helpful that can earn you a commission within that helpful content.
Step 3: When people visit your site, some of them will click on your recommended affiliate products. As a result, you will earn a commission if a visitor ends up buying the product.
Over time, thanks to your helpful content that you will have optimized for the search engines, your website will start receiving visitors. Because these visitors are checking out content related to their interest, a small percentage of them may be looking to purchase products that they may need or are curious about. If they love your content and trust you (which can take time), they will check out your recommended products.
As long as an affiliate program exists, you can sign up for it and recommend that product.
Easy peasy, right? Easier than emerging from ashes! *Screeches from pure amusement*
How Much Can You Make From a Well Built Site that Promotes Affiliate Products? Let Thy Phoenix Show You The Ways
There are bloggers and niche site owners who are making anywhere from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand dollars…PER MONTH! However, for every successful site owner I can show for motivational purposes, there are hundreds of site owners that don’t make anything. It all depends on you.
There is no absolute way to know how MUCH money each website is generating, unless you talk to a site or blog owner… and most don’t. Most people making an affiliate income don’t want to reveal many details about their sites… and I don’t blame them. I will not be revealing the sites by their names as the examples are being show for pure motivation only.
Below, I will give you a few sites that are clearly earning an affiliate income because they are promoting products through affiliate programs, such as the Amazon Affiliate Program. They also disclose this on their sites (which the law requires). Some of the sites may be using ad programs (Mediavine, Ezoic, etc) and/or may be selling their own products.
Examples of Awesome Informational Sites
#1. Food and Drinks
Just in case you are not familiar with it, I am using a tool called SEMRush. It is a handy dandy tool that gives you a lot of data, including traffic that a website receives. You are not reading this wrong: this site receives over 80,000 visitors a month!
Trust me when I tell you: this site owner is killing it with this niche site! There is no way this site isn’t generating a minimum of $15,000 per month and to be honest, that sounds like an extreme minimum.
Wake UP and smell the potential! *Screeches in excitement again*
If the idea of creating a mega site sounds daunting, don’t be worried: I have come across super niched websites where the site owners are generating hundreds to thousands in income.
You can choose to do this your way.
#2. Gardening
As you can see from the graph, this awesome niche site receives around 80,000 visitors/month and when I say this site is generating amazing revenue, it should be a minimum of $20,000-30,000 per month.
You can spot ads all over the site and there is also an opt-in to receive the latest updates from the website. It is possible that the site owner could be offering affiliate offers through email marketing as well… and how effectively they are making affiliate sales through email marketing makes a huge difference.
#3. Horses
This website blew my mind: as you can see, it receives over 90,000 visitors per month. I had to screech to clear my own throat as I choked on these disgustingly impressive numbers. Amazing job!
The reason I also chose this site to discuss is that they are selling their own merchandise and courses! Bravo! 100% of the sales are going into their own business.
I come across so many phoenix hatchlings who think they can’t offer anything beyond ads or affiliate offers (both are awesome), but this site is an excellent, well-rounded example of how you can do more than “just ads” and email marketing/list, etc.
I came across another site in the neighingly delicious niche and wanted to bring it up for another reason: it receives around 30,000 visitors per month and the site owner discloses that they use the Amazon Affiliate program. It wouldn’t be out of scope to think that they earn $5,000-10,000/month.
#4. Turtles
Turtles sound so delicious…. Hmmm… oh, I mean look at that traffic!
If you look at this traffic graph, you will see that in the last few years, the traffic has gone done from around 23,000 visitors per month to around 5,000 visitors per month.
There could be a number of reasons for this, but even at this level of traffic, this site is probably bringing in $700-$1,500 per month.
I chose this example for a super specific reason. Looking at sites that are receiving a huge number of visitors and generating big revenue numbers can be exciting, but sometimes beginners to affiliate marketing can feel like these are unachievable numbers.
These numbers are extremely achievable and the site is about…turtles. Turtles. So if you think your passion can’t bring you a nice income, well I hope this site about turtles makes you think twice. Yum… ahem, I mean, soar high, phoenix hatchlings!
#5. Food and Drinks
Your favourite Phoenix found another food-related niche site. This site peaked at 13,000 visitors/month and looks to be settled at around 8,000 visitors per month.
On this site, I saw ads and a lot of affiliate recommendations. It is a very passionate fan base as well.
How cool is that?! I wouldn’t be surprised if the site owner is making $2,000-$6,000 per month.
#6. Gardening
Traffic-wise, this site is getting close to 6,000 visitors per month. The site focuses on gardens, home improvement, and many other topics, including product reviews. Pulling in 6,000 visitors per month is an awesome accomplishment and the site may be pulling in around $2,000 per month.
#7. Barbecuing
What a beast of a site! *Screeches in excitement* Over 160,000 visitors per month to this site! Grill me a juicy burger on one of those grills, please!
But seriously, this is a bigger affiliate site that is earning a commission from the Amazon Affiliate Program, Mediavine, and they also have an opt-in form, which means they can email you later with offers since they have your email.
With the sheer volume of traffic, if they are monetizing well, this could be a minimum of $35,000+ per month earner!
#8. Basketball
Pay attention, sports fans! Here we have a site all about basketball. Look at the traffic and tell me it’s not a SLAM DUNK, Y’ALL!
Okay, now that I’ve caught my breath, let’s admire the traffic numbers, which are around 266,000 visitors per month.
This site is more than just a typical affiliate site, and that is the key to long term success. He has built out some really cool tools on his site that I can see passionate basketballers using.
The range of “tools” that he has on his site is more than enough to keep most hoopers geeked out!
This site owner is truly serving basketball players and creating awesome tools for them. Why wouldn’t they keep visiting his site?
Guessing how much revenue this site is generating is honestly foolish. So far, if you have noticed, this is the biggest site (in numbers of monthly visitors!) so far.
I’m sure this site owner is living a good life 😉
#9. Spreadsheet Training
What could be more boring than learning spreadsheets? *starts dozing off…zzzZz*
On this site, the main methods of generating revenue were consulting and paid courses. I love affiliate sites but this is even BETTER!
The paid courses start at $19/m. If 1% of the 247,000 visitors per month sign up for this paid course (by the way, he has a few ;)), that is close to $50,000 in one month.
Now, this doesn’t even include the fact that course buyers will pay more than one monthly payment. I’ll leave it at that…
There is no reason that you can’t sell your own courses or training if you specialize in something!
Even the sky isn’t the limit! *Screeches, flying off into the clouds and the universe!*
#10. Cats
How could I not include this site about kitty cats? Cat lovers will love this site, as it is about two cats. Let the Affiliate Phoenix tell you: she became a fan of these cats during the pandemic!
This isn’t quite an affiliate site, but it has a huge fan base, gets 40,000 visitors per month, and has its own shop. So, it generates revenue, and they also help other cats. These cats truly have a community, a fan base that loves and adores them, and loves cats in general.
Just fantastic.
Listen Up, You!
Whether you use ads, promote affiliate products, sell your own digital or non-digital products, I have provided you with so many Phoenix-approved sites that are absolutely SOARING HIGH!
There is NO reason that with passion, dedication, and commitment, you can’t do the very same. Whether you want to generate part time or full time income, it’s all within range.
Have you checked out our free training on how to do keyword research? Start today!