Pat Ahern published a very detailed guide for someone interested in building an affiliate website.
Streamline-Marketing wrote in September of 2019 – Affiliate marketing is becoming increasingly important to businesses in a variety of industries. By 2020, affiliate marketing is on pace to become a 6.8 billion dollar industry in the U.S. alone.
Bonnie D’Amico on the Shopify partners blog published in August 2019 – Don’t believe the myth Affiliate marketing is no longer the stuff of black hat methods and scams. In fact, the lesson I want to stress most to you is that affiliate marketing is valuable, and has a bright and lucrative future.
Probably the most important opinion on Affiliate marketing is that of Google.
Google’s opinion here
Good affiliates add value, for example by offering original product reviews, ratings, navigation of products or categories, and product comparisons. If you participate in an affiliate program, there are a number of steps you can take to help your site stand out and differentiate your site.
Back to the article from Pat Ahern here is one takeaway:
Identify a Niche (and Revenue Model)
If you find yourself at the top of the list, you’ve found a great opportunity for a niche site. You can now focus on monetizing.
If you find yourself towards the bottom of the list, it might be time to think about finding a narrower niche that you can outrank the competition in.
Once you’ve solidified your niche, it’s time to start thinking about your revenue model.
There are pros and cons to each option, but the most common forms of monetization for authority websites are as follows:
- AdSense (or similar display networks) – advertisers pay per impression or click that you generate to their site via display ads. AdSense provides minimal revenue per visitor, but can be an excellent source of affiliate income for sites with millions of monthly pageviews.
- Sponsored Posts – offering others in your industry the opportunity to write full-length articles on your site as a form of advertising.
- Affiliate Products – build relationships with advertisers and taking a commission for each customer or lead that you generate. For simplicity, start with an affiliate network like ShareASale, Commission Junction, or Amazon’s affiliate program. Matt Diggity made a list of the top affiliate networks here.
- Ecommerce – sell your own products/services on the site, or drive visitors to another site that generates revenue.
If you struggle to find a revenue model that for your niche, search for a more profitable niche to target.
Read the whole article here.
