After our post on writing better reviews, we got a lot of interest from readers asking us what it takes to create a great product review site.
Unfortunately for the internet, when people think of building affiliate websites, they usually think of doing something like this:
Affiliate websites like these are all over the web.
They have no ambition and are designed just to siphon off affiliate commissions by overselling without subtleties.
Little wonder that they drop off the radar within months.
The truth is that there are tons of affiliate sites on the internet with a focus on product reviews that are awesome and still great at making money.
In fact, they give away so much value that you don’t even see their affiliate links.
At Authority Hacker, we’ve always been about building long-term businesses with a focus on delivering value in order to build a real audience and ensure the site doesn’t get penalised down the line.
So for this post, we’re going to look at 21 examples of affiliate websites that “get it” when it comes to marketing 3rd party products while delivering value and try to learn from them.
I hope that looking at these affiliate marketing examples will give you some inspiration with your own sites and will show you that affiliate marketing doesn’t have to be cheesy.
Nerdwallet is one of my favorite affiliate websites, and I’m sure plenty of affiliate marketers would tell you the same.
It’s been around for a long while, it does enormously well in one of the most competitive markets, and the content is genuinely useful.
Nerdwallet is essentially a review affiliate site for financial products. The cover everything from credit cards to mortgages to investing to insurance.
Have stellar contents, and exceptional user interface, and a really good marketing team.
They’ve basically been the gold standard of affiliate sites for the last several years (in my view anyway).
- Niche: Consumer finance
- Goal: Help people pick the best credit cards, loans, insurance, etc.
- Key Challenge: Extremely competitive market.
Key Stats
142,000
55,900
Visits/Month
Backlinks
34,316
Alexa Rank
Top Content
Length:
N/A
Backlinks:
596
Shares:
2,900
Keywords:
5,600
I love this piece of content because it’s not content as we think of it in any traditional sense.
Seasoned link builders will probably recognize the angle here: creating a hyper-useful tool that’s going to do very well in the context of a content marketing campaign.
What makes this one of their top pieces of content, however, is that it also targets a very good keyword.
Best Credit Cards of 2019: Reviews, Rewards and Offers
Length:
4,300
Backlinks:
388
Shares:
26,300
Keywords:
4,600
This may be one of the single most difficult (but valuable) affiliate keywords in the world, and NerdWallet consistently snags one of the top spots in the SERPs. As of right now they rank #1 for it in Google.
Huge win for them.
Best CD Rates | Compare CD Rates
Length:
N/A
Backlinks:
454
Shares:
53
Keywords:
1,100
Another extremely competitive keyword, and, it should be noted, this content is also in tool form.
How They Make Money
Nerdwallet is also a 100% affiliate site. They do not have ads, nor do they (as far as I can tell) sell any of their own products.
Top Promotions
What we can learn from Nerdwallet
- Make tools. So much of Nerdwallet’s best content comes into will form, and that’s because not only is a great for user experience, but tools also tend to attract lots of links, and SEO is a major part of this site’s strategy.
- Update key pages. Nerdwallet makes a practice of updating their key pages. For example, their big guides, like, “Best Credit Cards 2016” will be updated annually (to “Best Credit Cards 2019”), making them relevant in giving their marketing team an opportunity to market them again.
MoneySavingExpert.com helps ordinary people make better financial decisions. Think of it as financial education for the masses that helps people get more bang for their buck.
The site was started by Martin Lewis, a financial journalist, in 2003. Today, it ranks as one of the biggest consumer affiliate websites in the UK with over 8 million visits every month.
In a field filled with self-serving information and dubious knowledge, MoneySavingExpert (MSE) has managed to set itself apart thanks to its content quality and devotion to helping consumers.
The site was sold to Moneysupermarket.com in 2012 for £87 million.
- Niche: Personal finance
- Founder: Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis)
- Goal: To help ordinary people make better financial decisions
- Key Challenge: To provide ethical, accurate and updated financial information in a sector marked by self-serving interests.
Key Stats
191,000
64,200
Visits/Month
Backlinks
18,900
Alexa Rank
Top Content
Credit Scores: Bust myths and improve your score
Length:
7,800
Backlinks:
454
Shares:
14
Keywords:
3,100
A comprehensive guide to credit scores and how they impact your financial life.
19 cheapest ways to get travel money
Length:
3,470
Backlinks:
388
Shares:
69
Keywords:
678
A list of innovative ways to make extra cash for traveling.
Length:
2,900
Backlinks:
511
Shares:
44
Keywords:
3,000
A thorough guide to making budgets and sticking to them.
How They Make Money
As MSE explains on its “How this site is financed” page, the only monetization method is affiliate links. The site does not accept advertisements or sponsored posts, nor does it offer any paid products.
Some different tactics and tools it uses to monetize include:
- Coupons: MSE maintains a list of coupons and deals for a number of retailers, taking a cut from each sale.
- “Best of” guides: MSE has several pages listing “Best [X]” products and services, such as banks and credit cards. It takes a cut from anyone signing up with its affiliate link.
- “Cheap X” guides: MSE helps users pick the cheapest consumer products in a category (such as phones) and takes a cut from each sale.
- Calculators: The site offers its users a number of calculators, such as a loan calculator or a mortgage calculator. It takes a commission from any recommended financial products.
It uses a number of additional tactics to make extra affiliate marketing cash. This includes an Amazon discount finder, an association with Resolver, and including Skimlinks in its forum threads.
Top Promotions
Some products MoneySavingExpert promotes are:
What we can learn from MoneySavingExpert
- Invest in design: The MSE website is very well organized. All articles are also heavily formatted to be as easy to browse as possible.
- Invest in ethics: The consumer finance field is filled with misinformation. MSE stands out by clearly identifying all affiliate links and maintaining a strong editorial code of ethics.
- Hero pages: MSE maintains “hero” pages for major search terms (example). These are highly visual and give readers a quick glance at the best options. Since the pages are very user-focused, they almost always rank well.
- Be actionable: From blog posts to deal finders to calculators, all of MSE’s content and products are ultra actionable. Users don’t have to deal with fluff and can dive right into the info they want.
The Wire Cutter is one of the internet’s favorite review affiliate websites for electronics, gadgets and consumer goods.
It was started by Brian Lam, the former editorial director of Gizmodo. Brian and team put all reviewed products through strenuous and innovative tests, so much so that the site is sometimes called “Mythbusters for gadgets”.
Since its birth in 2011, the Wire Cutter has grown into one of the top 6,000 sites online by incessantly focusing on finding the best product in each category.
Along the way, it has earned tons of praise, even getting a story in NYTimes.
- Niche: Consumer product reviews
- Founder: Brian Lam (@blam)
- Goal: To help people find the best product in every consumer category
- Key Challenge: To design innovative tests and select the best product possible, without being swayed by commercial interests.
Key Stats
121,000
87,400
Visits/Month
Backlinks
18,300
Alexa Rank
Top Content
Length:
11,100
Backlinks:
642
Shares:
1,100
Keywords:
49k
A regularly updated list of the best deals on electronics from across the web.
The Best Portable Bluetooth Speaker
Length:
7,700
Backlinks:
393
Shares:
427
Keywords:
6,400
A review of the best Bluetooth speakers for average consumers.
The Best Wi-Fi Router (for Most People)
Length:
9,685
Backlinks:
573
Shares:
503
Keywords:
7,000
How They Make Money
The Wire Cutter explains its monetization model on its “How to Support Us” page.
It’s a simple model: affiliate commissions, primarily through Amazon and BestBuy. The site does not accept any advertisements or sponsored posts, or does it sell any of its own products.
Some different tactics and tools it uses to monetize include:
- Product recommendations: “Best of” product pages for each category are the Wire Cutter’s bread and butter. Each recommendation comes with an associated Amazon link.
- Answer Questions: The Wire Cutter answers reader questions such as “which headphones should I buy?” and takes a cut from any product sales.
- Others: Besides Amazon and a handful of other well known retailers, the site also uses Skimlinks to make money online. There is an indication it sells some advertising as well (as shown by this link) though the details aren’t made public.
- They were recently acquired by the New York times for US$20 million, so that counts as peak monetization from where we stand.
Top Promotions
Some of The Wire Cutter’s most heavily used affiliate promotions are:
What we can learn from The Wire Cutter
- Focus: Instead of creating hundreds of gadget news posts every month, the Wire Cutter does just one thing: in-depth reviews.
- Use the right design: The Wire Cutter doesn’t use the traditional blog structure. Instead, it uses a simple page with a list of best items in each category.
- Quality > Quantity: The Wire Cutter’s tests are so innovative and extensive that manufacturers sometimes ask it for advice on how to improve their products. As it promises on this page, every recommended product has been tested to be the best in its class. It also writes only 6-12 posts a month.
As far as internet marketing goes, the dating niche is wildly lucrative. Unfortunately, it is also filled with tons of scamsters and spammy sites designed just to send traffic to affiliate offers.
DatingAdvice.com is a breath of fresh air in this cluttered niche. It is clean, fun, and doesn’t have the sleazy side that defines so many other dating affiliate websites. With its focus on ‘expert advice’ and emphasis on answering real questions, it essentially brings dating mainstream.
- Niche: Dating advice and dating website reviews
- Goal: Goal: To help people improve their dating skills and find the best dating site for their needs
- Key Challenge: To stand out in a niche overpopulated with spam and sleaze
Key Stats
12,700
Visits/Month
Backlinks
Alexa Rank
93,473
Top Content
Length:
879
Backlinks:
132
Traffic:
2,100
Keywords:
280
An in-depth review of OurTime.com, a dating website for seniors.
The 15 Top Cities for Single Women
Length:
1,200
Backlinks:
18
Shares:
0
Keywords:
14
A review of the best cities for single women to find single guys.
11 Best Hookup Sites (That Are 100% Free)
Length:
1,200
Backlinks:
14
Traffic:
1,600
Keywords:
670
A review of the best dating sites focused on hookups.
How they make money
Dating Advice makes most of its money by referring people to dating websites such as Match, eHarmony, etc. You’ll notice that all its recommended sites have a wholesome, mainstream image, which fits its target demographics.
Some different tactics and tools it uses to monetize include:
- Best-of lists: DatingAdvice.com creates ‘Best Of’ lists…