Examples of IDEAL Affiliate Marketing Websites That YOU Can Replicate

bydylanrieger

16.8K followers

5 years ago

I've talked about different strategies in the past to make money and I think it's important to look at examples of websites I think do a really good job with affiliate marketing.

Most of the sites coming up use the best of strategy with the year, along with reviews and usually monetize with Amazon and other retail websites.

I've talked about some of these sites in the past but it's important to look at them again. Look at their keyword strategy and niche selection. You'll see they pick niches that are specific but not too narrow.

These are the kind of sites you want to build. Don't be scared about how quality they are because you can work on that in the future.

These kind of sites take years to build but are definitely worth it which you'll see. At the end of this post I'll show you a plan to compete.

1) Switchback Travel

This is an outdoor website that focuses on all things outdoors (skiing, backpacking, camping, climbing and biking) and outdoor photography.

The main way this site is monetized is with high quality best of posts like the one below:

https://www.switchbacktravel.com/best-ski-gloves

In that post they went over the top 18 gloves, wrote a short description of each product and then wrote a buyers guide at the bottom.

The post is 6500 words and is the second result in Google when you type in "Best ski gloves."

According to Similarweb this site gets over a million views a month:

Similarweb isn't perfect but it's close.

I made a website very similar to this one. It didn't look as good but it followed the same format (lengthy, quality best of posts in the outdoor niche).

I worked on it for about 7 months before selling it for $40,000.

The highest traffic I ever got in a month was 39,000 clicks.

I know Switchback gets the most traffic in December and January (that's when my site peaked in traffic) and this chart only shows up to November.

So if I had to guess Switchback Travel is worth over a million dollars and may be several millions.

Again, this isn't a site you create in 1 year or 2 years or even really 3 years. This is a 5 to 10 year project (Switchback Travel is 8 years old).

It may seem impossible in the beginning to compete but as you make money you'll be hire writers and then really compete.

Other well-made outdoor sites (all do the best of and review strategy):

outdoorgearlab.com

outsidepursuits.com

gearhungry.com

2) Carbibles.com

Here we have a site in the car niche but is almost identical to Switchback Travel - high quality best of posts, reviews and a niche that's specific but not too narrow.

Here's the different categories they do reviews in:

• Cleaning/detailing
• Electronics
• Engine performance
• Tools
• Motorcycle
• RV
• Off Road vehicles

And more. As long as your content is high quality and people like to interact with it, you'll get good rankings.

So what's the traffic for this site:

This is most likely another 7 figure website.

Again, it may seem impossible to compete but it's not. I've taken new sites and gotten good rankings within 6 months.

I've actually never worked on a site more than a year so I know how much one person can accomplish in under a year.

Again, this is a 5-year project but it'll work if you decide to enter this niche. Car Bible has already proven this!

Here's some more high traffic car sites:

• caraudionow.com
• caroutfitter.com
• automobileremedy.com

The fact there's so many successful sites in this niche means there's room for you.

3) Shoeadvisor.com

Shoe Advisor is another site that follows the best of/review strategy. They also do reviews in shoes in various categories.

Here's their athletic section:

https://shoeadviser.com/category/athletic/

What do you notice? High quality best of posts.

This site gets the following traffic as well:

10 times more traffic than the site I sold for $40,000.

Another site in the shoe niche is WalkJogRun.Net and this is the traffic they get:

It's exactly like Shoe Advisor - best of posts and reviews in different categories.

You can launch a site that's exactly like these ones. It's going to take years to get to their level but it's worth it.

4) Sleepopolis.com

This website is another best of/review site that's in a specific niche (sleep) but not too narrow (like only focusing on blankets or beds).

This site was involved in a legal battle where some mattress company sued them. In the end of the owner of the site sold Sleepopolis for a cool $5 million (which was actually half of what it was worth).

Here's the traffic it gets too:

There's so much money and opportunity in affiliate marketing.

There's other mattress review sites with even more traffic too.

TheSleepJudge.com gets twice the traffic:

This site is identical (best of posts + reviews). Imagine how much this site is worth? It's worth millions and it's possible it's worth over $10 million.

Again, will you build this in a year? No.

But following the right path you can build it in 5 years to 10 years.

How To Build These Sites:

If you're new to affiliate marketing you probably think a website like the ones mentioned above would be impossible.

When I first started I though they were impossible.

But as you stick with affiliate marketing and learn new things you realize it's not impossible.

In fact, you can see how it's actually done.

In the beginning you make high quality best of posts that are very thorough. You want to target best of posts with the year for easy rankings, reviews and info posts.

You do this for a year or two.

Eventually you can hire a writer or two or three.

Then all of a sudden you're writing 4 posts a day instead of just one.

As your site builds companies start to reach out to you to review their products and join their affiliate programs too.

I had people all the time ask to advertise on my sites and join their affiliate programs and I didn't have a site half as good as the ones above.

I can't imagine how much free stuff those sites get to review.

Right now I'm working on my Make Money At Home Site but plan on building one of these sites very, very soon.

I'm hoping to get back to best of posts this summer or next fall.

Here's my advice:

Pick a niche like the ones above - popular, lots of best posts, specific but not too narrow. Also, they have products that are hundreds of dollars.

Set your mind that you're not stopping for 5 years.

I've only been doing affiliate marketing for 4 years. In that time Iv'e built 3 sites that made over $2000 a month and another that's over $1000 a month.

I've written hundreds and hundreds of posts. You can learn and grow so much in 5 years it's almost impossible to imagine.

I promise the affiliate marketer you'll be in 5 years is WAY different from the affiliate marketer you are now.

You'll learn more. You'll hire writers. You'll be able to afford new courses and try out different strategies. You'll have companies reach out to you.

Just pick a niche that's competitive and go compete.

Here's niches that are perfect:

• Outdoors
• Cars
• Mattress
• Shoes
• Sports
• Home security
• Health
• Finance
• Make money at home
• Baby products
• Computer gaming
• Pet supplies
• Tools

Any niche like that is perfect and I guarantee if you do some keywords research you'll see websites in each of those niches that are exactly like the websites I mentioned up top.

I made a new training that goes over how to grow your business over a 3-year period and if you want to read it, click below:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/creating-a-profitable-online-business-in-2020

Hope this post helps anyone struggling and I hope you decide to never give up. It may be hard to see how a website can grow in a 5 to 8 year period but the sites above will give you a good idea of what's possible in that time.

You may even end up with a site worth millions.