So you came here looking for the ultimate inspiration: the best example of an Ecommerce affiliate marketing site out there!! Well, we’re here to deliver some of that motivation 😉
While the internet is chock full of ecommerce sites, affiliate marketing ecommerce ones aren’t always that easy to spot. Our list highlights successful affiliate marketing sites from a variety of niches.
Conveniently, some of these sites will publish how much they make in a month or year. That’s a good benchmark for us affiliates to check out! However, beware that that number usually includes ad revenue as well.
What makes an ecommerce affiliate marketing site successful?
You may think we’re answering this question a bit early, before going through all our examples, but I just want to point out some important and essential strategies to pay attention to before delving in:
First off, all the sites below have lots of content. Lots of content means hours of work – by someone. But remember, this writer doesn’t necessarily have to be you. Weigh the costs and benefits of those hours either spent researching and writing versus paid out to a pro.
Also, some of these ecommerce websites have published or disclosed how much they make in passive profits a month or year. This is nice to know, but you also should remember that this revenue stream usually includes ads as well. The way to know whether ads are making you money or not is having every parameter and detail tracked on your campaigns. That’s what an affiliate marketing software like Voluum is for.
Lastly, keep in mind that depending on whether you already have an affiliate marketing website, how much experience you have, how passionate you are about a certain niche, the general advice is: keep it simple and focused.
The Wirecutter
This one’s a tried-and-true example – if you’ve ever done some affiliate marketing research you’re sure to have come across this success story. What started as a review of every kind of product on the market, is now a part of the New York Times.
A word of warning you’ve also probably seen in connection with this affiliate platform: don’t try to be them. Their operation is backed by a major media company, hundreds of employees, and hours and hours of time spent to research, prepare and create content.
Their Focus
Basically every kind of consumer product, gadget, appliance etc. Like you can see their niches focus on: tech, home & garden, sleep, kitchen, appliances, and more.
Their Strategy
Wirecutter is compiled of thousands of in depth reviews of various product categories. They conduct detailed analyses about the best products overl, best value products.
They only post about once or twice a week so don’t expect a flood of reviews, but that’s their strategy too: quality over quantity. Site visitors have come to trust this content quite deeply making it quite valuable – and their affiliate links all the more clickable.
Also, as they are now part of the New York Times, readers unfortunately have to pay to see this content. Of course that can also be nice as you don’t get any ads displayed will reading.
This one’s a tried and true example – if you’ve ever done some affiliate marketing research you’re sure to have come across this success story. What started as a review of every kind of product on the market, is now a part of the New York Times.
A word of warning you’ve also probably seen in connection with this affiliate platform: don’t try to be them. Their operation is backed by a major media company, hundreds of employees, and hours and hours of time spent to research, prepare and create content.
Their Focus
Basically every kind of consumer product, gadget, appliance etc. Like you can see their niches focus on: tech, home & garden, sleep, kitchen, appliances, and more.
Their Strategy
Wirecutter is compiled of thousands of in-depth reviews of various product categories. They conduct detailed analyses about the best products overlall and best value products.
They only post about once or twice a week so don’t expect a flood of reviews, but that’s their strategy too: quality over quantity. Site visitors have come to trust this content quite deeply making it quite valuable – and their affiliate links all the more clickable.
Also, as they are now part of the New York Times, readers unfortunately have to pay to see this content. Of course that can also be nice as you don’t get any ads displayed will reading.
Buzzfeed
Here’s another one that you shouldn’t necessarily aspire to be – but can learn a lot of valuable lessons from. Buzzfeed as I’m sure we all know is an internet giant that exploded onto the scene with its legion of quizzes and lists.
Like the former, they’ve got agencies, hundreds of employees, money, and hours of work behind them. But they’ve got some borderline-revolutionary content marketing, especially in terms of affiliate marketing. Take note.
Their Focus
Again, another affiliate marketing platform with a huge range of ecommerce products that they promote. Not very focused on a particular niche.
Their Strategy
Interactive content like quizzes, gift guides and top XX lists draws users in.
Though Buzzfeed has grown into a bit of a content farm with repetitive formats, they can still provide plenty of inspiration on how to attractively present affiliate links.
This is Why I’m Broke
Once again, another affiliate marketing site that is pretty vast. This is Why I’m Broke is a website that compiles gift guides and recommendations – especially trendy, novelty gifts. They are a space of the online world’s quirky consumer habits and preferences and an affiliate marketing powerhouse.
Their Focus
This website is a bit more focused than the aforementioned with their niche in “gifts”. Granted that can be a pretty wide net as well. But again, affiliate marketers have a lot to learn from an ecommerce site like this.
Their Strategy
This is Why I’m Broke has got gift guides and content for every occasion and type of person and holiday possible. They took great advantage of internet trends and novelty gifts. Thye brand themselves “internet’s mall”.
Bonappetit
Here we get a little more focused. Also, we get to one of my personal favorites, Bonappetit, a treasure trove of recipes available free online. Actually, they are a print magazine originally, but their foray into the online world has been wildly successful.
And they’ve accompanied that with some strategically placed affiliate links for extra revenue. They are also quite a big operation compared to your average affiliate website, but they have a few strategies that you really can learn from.
Their Focus
Fooood – obviously 😉 More specifically, within the food world, they situated themselves in a niche of more passionate, professional foodies. So, people who aren’t looking for a Food Network Americana recipe of 4 different canned goods stirred together and baked with cheese, nor a Buzzfeed video of a cookie-in-a-cake-in-a-brownie like monstrosity.
Their Strategy
Their content is free (as of now) as opposed to other more sophisticated recipe platforms. Plus, sign up for their newsletter and you get exclusive recipes right to your mailbox (along with their email marketing).
They also produce a lot of video content; and not just videos about how to cook this and that, but different kinds of ‘fun’ cooking show vibe stuff. This draws in a new generation of viewers that may eventually become passionate cooks (if they haven’t already with these hours of home office / school).
Aside from specific recipes, they post guides and top ranking lists and recommendations and interviews/ Their affiliate links are placed in the list of recommended equipment and occasionally ingredients for each recipe. Most of them are from the Amazon associates program.
Deals Viking
In October 2021, the owner of this unassuming website announced that their site was making about $3,000 in monthly profits after just 3 months live. According to the categories published on Deals Viking, users can search for products that are currently discounted on Amazon. What’s more, they can even subscribe by email to get those notifications right to their inbox.
Apparently, the entire website is automated and the discounts are updated automatically. Given that minimal amount of work invested and the enormous value, it’s not hard to believe their fast growth.
Their Focus
Their niche is rather broad in terms of ecommerce, however, Deals Viking is focused on people that shop on Amazon and are looking for a bargain. That’s important to note because it doesn’t necessarily include everyone in their audience, despite their enormous range of ecommerce products.
They have categories for a multitude of niches all available on Amazon: Appliances, Arts, Crafts & Sewing, Automotive, Baby Products, Beauty & Personal Care, Books, CDs & Vinyl, Cell Phones &, Accessories, Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry, Electronics, Grocery & Gourmet Food, Handmade Products, Health & Household, Home & Kitchen, Industrial & Scientific, Magazine Subscriptions, Movies & TV, Musical Instruments, Office Products, Patio, Lawn & Garden, Pet Supplies, Sports & Outdoors, Tools & Home Improvement, Toys & Games, Video Games, Everything Else.
Their Strategy
They take advantage of the affiliate promotions on Amazon to make their own ecommerce platform and generate revenue.
Automation is a key takeaway here. And really, it should be an important part of anyone’s digital strategy going forward. Whether you are automating aspects of your website like Deal’s Viking’s Amazon discounts, or communications to paying customers like their regular email marketing, or automating advertising like Voluum’s Automizer can take care of, automation will make the worth of your efforts much higher by cutting out the manual work.
Gear Up Hiking
Gear Up Hiking might not be the flashiest one of the list, but there will be worse. 😀 Also, they aren’t necessarily catering to an audience that needs that anyways.
The ecommerce store owner claimed that they made around $1300 on average per month over the past year. Not a bad source of passive income.
Their Focus
This is a website focused on hiking, camping, and outdoor activities. They also provide detailed guides on various natural spots.
Their Strategy
Who would’ve thought: avid hikers might even need a piece of advice on what to wear on a hiking date! Aside from listing the best women’s and men’s apparel to don for your potential outdoors date, they also answer the question: is hiking an even appropriate date? I have to say, I wouldn’t mind it 🙂 But let’s keep it to sunny days…
Obviously, the site gets into specifics and lists recommendations for apparel, equipment, and supplies everywhere in their hundreds of articles in the form of affiliate links. But they pad these links with enough content as well so that they’re overwhelming and potentially mistrustful.
Smoked BBQ Source
I didn’t know how specific an affiliate marketing site could get, but here we are, perusing recipes, gear, and reviews all on barbeque. True, I’m sure the hipster trope of guys over 40 smoking meats has contributed to the popularity of this niche but hey, who am I to judge – I love cooking too.
Just maybe not recipes this time intensive 😀 Anyways! The main attention grabber here is: the owner of Smoked BBQ Source disclosed in fall 2020 that their affiliate marketing ecommerce website was making over $100,000 per month. And nearly three quarters of that was coming from affiliate sales.
Their Focus
BBQ, if you didn’t get the hint. 😉
And anything BBQ related such as: grills, smokers, thermometers, meat slicers, gloves, and the list goes on.
Their Strategy
Their strategy first and foremost is to stay strongly situated in one niche.
The website owner divulged that even if they find offers on a more mainstream, public affiliate program like Amazon or the like, they’ll reach out afterwards and request for some kind of private arrangement. This way, they can work out their own affiliate program. With their ultra-strong presence in the niche, they can get away with it.
Little Coffee Place
Just like BBQ, I think we all have at least one friend who is super into coffee: latte art, roasting, origins, you name it they know it. And usually they’re snobs about it… But hey, I’m certainly not better off with my lazy affection for instant coffee.
Coffee is actually a pretty strong affiliate marketing niche as ecommerce products related to it can be sold for a pretty penny once you get into the premium categories. There are plenty of ecommerce affiliate programs that specialize in coffee-related products.
The Little Coffee Place site is a place where professionals and connoisseurs review and share their thoughts / reflections / insights / tastes on coffee-related stuff.
Their Focus
It’s coffee, duh. But here again, coffee may be a deceivingly vast niche with all these ecommerce affiliate marketing product categories: coffee makers, accessories, guides, beans, espresso machines, and more.
Their Strategy
They brand themselves kind of as the Wirecutter but for coffee: the team behind the site is professional, open, and honest about their reviews. This certainly creates a sense of trust between the audience and motivates them to take their advice and make those purchases (through the given affiliate link).
In regard to content marketing, the Little Coffee Place mostly has reviews on tools, equipment, and coffees. They also have plenty of step-by-step guide compilations and top 10 lists.
Golf Insider UK
Another website in a very focused ecommerce niche: golf and golf equipment.
Golf is great because it’s expensive – great for affiliate marketers that is. Seems slightly boring to me but hey, don’t knock it till you try it I guess.
Honestly, their site is the same drill as most other hyper-focused ecommerce affiliate marketing sites, but with half of revenue coming from ads and about a third from affiliate marketing. They’re making about $1500 per month last we heard.
Their Focus
Golfing and all the instruction, practice, performance and equipment that comes with it. An affiliate program in this niche can have pretty high returns for marketers since golf equipment can be expensive.
Their Strategy
This is an example of another very professional-looking site. It could pass for an online magazine. I’m sure this presentation is especially important for their clientele who are of course usually more on the upscale end.
One additional strategy they have going to gather leads, fans, and profits is their performance coaching available.
Epic Gardening
As I speak I have a sad little purple-white flower dying next to my desk. Unfortunately, I can’t claim to have much of a green thumb. Yet! Because I’m trying.
Just like half the population also started trying during this pandemic. House plants and gardening have become a newfound hobby and source of joy for people locked in their dark apartments or chaotic houses everywhere.
Their Focus
Within the category of gardening, they’re focused on ‘how to’s, edible plants, ornamental gardens and special gardens.
On Hydroponics they go into even more specifics: basics, how to’s, systems, growing media, indoor grow lights, nutrient and growth, propagation, ventilation and environmental control.
Houseplants get a niche of the specific plant you’re looking for and general care.
Plant problems such as garden pests, plant diseases, and weeds get their own subcategories.
And obviously the affiliate-favorite, product reviews also has its own niche in the spotlight.
Their Strategy
As you see in the focus, Epic Gardening focuses on various niches and has a well-organized website. They also have the advantage of a burgeoning market for their product.
But aside from that, they also have a regular gardening podcast as well as an active Facebook Group. These assets encourage interaction with audiences and build trust as well. Making them all the more likely and willing to search your website and use your affiliate links.
Succulents and Sunshine
So after some of these few very specific affiliate site you may have thought we couldn’t find a more precise niche – but here we are. Following gardening, you can dive even deeper with Succulents and Sunshine.
Their Focus
She’s got all the different types of succulents covered in detail with guides about each. It’s about 17 in total. To be honest I never would have thought that there would be an affiliate program that caters to this, but you learn something every day.
Succulents and Sunshine a ‘care essentials’ block of guides to watering, draining, buying, and placing succulents.
Their Strategy
Their main offer is relatively simple: sign up by email to get the 5 indispensable secrets to taking care of succulents. And it’s free. Also, Cassidy, the owner, has named her series the 5-part SUCC system.
Aside from the email marketing and blog content, their shop tab is also where plenty of affiliate links are waiting to be found and clicked.
Camper Report
Here’s another one of those outdoorsy affiliate websites – but this one is even more specific I’d say. It’s alllll about campers. I for one have never actually traveled in a camper (not sure I’ve even been in one?), but I can only imagine the amount of care and upkeep they require.
I didn’t assume that so many products were specific to campers themselves, but I guess anyone with a camper out there is looking for the best of the best for their vehicle. The website was actually made by the Income School creators and they reported that it was making close to $8,000 a month. It has since been sold.
Their Focus
Campers and Rv-ers. They’ve got product reviews from the best roof sealants to toilet recommendations. Camper Report publishes articles targeted at newbies as well as long-time users.
What started as a project to just put up a few dozen articles about his new camper, turned into something much bigger.
Their Strategy
At first, one guy from the affiliate Income School published a few dozen articles on the subject and let the website sit. After seeing it’s success, they decided to pursue it. Especially since the commissions in this ecommerce affiliate program market can be pretty high.
Instead of spending hours researching and typing content, they hired experienced RV-ers to do it for them. Thus they’d get lots of insightful and honest feedback and articles for their site.
Dirt Bike Planet
Does the design look similar? Here’s another website that was managed by the Income School – and is also related to outdoor activities! Nice to know they’re so active over there.
I’m not sure you know one, but I can affirm that dirt bike lovers are usually fanatics. Our neighbors growing up were that so I can attest..
Again, according to the Income School, this site is making around $2,500 per month with around 100,000 page views a month. But they claim that this can be improved, and once they get around to it, with the proper affiliate network and more affiliate links, it can be even more successful.
Their Focus
Dirt bikes, dirt bike gear, riding tips, and garage / fixer guides.
Their Strategy
As we were able to learn, their site may not be at peak form at the moment. It’s important to remember to add affiliate links where appropriate to make the most you can. Another strategy is displaying ads.
Not only can you display ads, but also promote affiliate websites. When Dirt Bike Strategy needed to grow, I’m sure that didn’t happen just because of a few long, passionate articles from camper veterans: they needed to invest in some advertising.
When you run performance marketing campaigns however, you need to be aware of every indicator and measurement to do it effectively. And that’s what an ad tracker like Voluum can do flawlessly, precisely, and in a user-friendly way.
Lucie’s List
Finally, something not cooking / outdoor related! But this one is a pretty big and vast affiliate website in itself: pregnancy and baby care. That’s what Lucie’s List helps you out with: a survival guide for new parents.
They’ve got fresh content for book recommendations, sleep advice, and even naturally the ubiquitous coronavirus.
Their Focus
Their niche is pregnancy and baby / toddler care. Their content is separated by baby ages or the mom’s stage.
But they aren’t just targeting young moms: they have specialized content for dads, grandparents, twin moms and 2nd time moms too.
Their Strategy
Loooots of content and from real people. They didn’t come up with the term ‘mommy blogger’ for nothing… you certainly have plenty of women with little kids who are able to dedicate a few hours a week to writing articles on toddler tantrums, potty training, clothing for colder weather, and much more. I imagine it’s kind of therapeutic to be writing to your base like that knowing people will be sharing your joys, advice, and challenges.
Consumer Search
So, we’re closing our list with another website that may not be tht friendly for total newbie affiliates as it’s so widespread. Consumer Search is an ecommerce affiliate marketing site similar to Wirecutter, just not as hmmm professional looking? Well, checking out this cat you get the difference in vibes 😀
This alarmed cat aside, these kinds of affiliate websites really do have troves of valuable and concise insight and information.
Their Focus
Household ecommerce products, appliances, electronics, equipment. You’ve specifically got a few niches targeted: home and garden, kitchen, fitness and sports, technology, family and pets, health and beauty.
Their Strategy
Alongside their thousands of articles of content with affiliate links, they’ve also got plenty of ads. Like I said, ads can be a great supplement as long as there are not too many. Too many ads scare of users. But Consumer Search does a good job of balancing these with content. Just, like I reminded before, affiliate marketing software is essential to properly running performance campaigns. So try out a platform like Voluum.
What’s next for affiliate marketers?
I’ll answer the question right away: it depends 😉
It depends on how far along you are in the affiliate marketing journey: where your website stands, how much content you have, when you can prepare that content, your technical knowledge, how much money you have for ad campaigns.
One thing is for sure: you need to track every aspect of your affiliate marketing efforts. And only a software built specifically for this can answer that call: Voluum.
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