Affiliate Marketing should always be a part of your advertising strategy
If you own a website or blog and are focused on monetization – than affiliate marketing is certainly one of the many ways to make your blog make money.
The mistake many people make when deciding to do affiliate marketing is choosing the niches that make the LEAST amount of money. Such as fashion and makeup. Sure – they are fun topics and these products do sell, but the commissions are low and you would need to sell huge quantities of these products to make any real income.
The highest paying affiliate programs can be the hardest to convert – but they are certainly worth a look at – and if you can get your audience to buy – you could earn a decent chunk of money. But what actually are the highest paying affiliate programs? Well we are going to show you the niches that make the most money!
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1. Why Affiliate Marketing IS Hard in the Beginning
Many bloggers and small websites read about affiliate marketing, get excited, sign up for a multitude of affiliate programs, and then realize just how damn hard it is to make decent money. Because even if your website traffic is great, the click-throughs and sales are dismal. This has been the constant message I’ve seen from bloggers over the years and found out first-hand myself.
And when you hear that the average affiliate marketing click-through rate is only about 3-4% – you may throw your hands up in the air and go ‘WTF!!’. I know – been there!
The comments I’ve heard about affiliate marketing include: ‘Affiliate marketing just isn’t worth it’ or ‘It is too much work’. And to date – it really has been. I’m not going to lie about that.
But like any website monetization strategy, you have to dip your toe in the water and find out what YOUR audience wants to buy, then give them what they want. And sometimes that can be really tricky and time-consuming to find out. But once you find it – affiliate marketing can go from ‘Secondary Income’ to ‘Main Income’.
Affiliate Platforms KNOW how hard it is for publishers to be accredited a sale – and their technology has come a really long way. There are affiliate platforms now that just consist of ‘adding the code’ to your website and the platform ‘finds’ all the affiliate opportunities so you aren’t looking to manually embed codes. Even though this technology STILL has a long way to go – it is comforting to know platforms are working on the problem.
2. Use Affiliate Marketing As a Secondary Way of Monetizing
If you can get into the habit of embedding good quality affiliate program links into your content, via either product reviews or listicle posts – your affiliate sales will slowly snowball.
Affiliate Marketing certainly won’t get you rich overnight, or even in a month or a year. But if you use it as part of your content strategy, it will consistently build up your audience and become trusted in your word – it can certainly be lucrative and be another stream of income.
3. High Selling – Low Commission Niches:
There are some niches in affiliates that make a lot more money than others. Unfortunately, it is the most popular niches that actually DON’T make you much cash unless you can sell a whole lot of them.
They include:
Well, it’s not that they don’t make you money – they only offer a relatively small commission so you would need to sell a tonne of a product if you want to make an income stream out of it.
BUT – there are also lots of niches that you can fulfil (depending on your audience) that have amazing pay-outs if you can convince your customers to hit the BUY BUTTON.
4. Best Affiliate Platforms to Join
Sign up for one or all of them. Remember – never ever PAY to join an affiliate platform. The following are reputable companies I’ve worked with for years.
You will need to sign up for these platforms (which is free) if you want to promote their sellers. For a more comprehensive list of Affiliate Marketing Platforms, check out our article ‘The Top 14 Australian Affiliate Programs to Monetize Your Website”.
5. Highest Paying Affiliate Niches
The ‘Mattress in a Box’ Niche
This is a relatively new niche – and if it suits your audience and can convert them into sales, you could do really well.
Name: | Commission: | Affiliate Platform: |
Emma: The Sleep Company | 8% per Sale | Sign up Here |
Ecosa | 2% per Sale | Sign up Here |
Hugo Sleep | 6% per Sale | Sign up Here |
Bedworks | 3% per Sale | Sign up Here |
HappySleep | 2% per Sale | Sign up Here |
Macoda | 5% per Sale | Sign up Here |
Onebed | 10% per Sale | Sign up Here |
The Dating, Marriage and Relationships Niche
Everyone wants love. That’s why the marriage and relationship niche will be forever a profitable niche to promote. Online dating is some of the most competitive and lucrative of the online niches with large commissions if you have the right audience.
Name: | Commission: | Affiliate Platform |
Faithful Counseling | $150 Flat Fee | Rakuten Linkshare |
Sugarbook | $30 per sale | Commission Factory |
eHarmony | 35% per Sale | Awin |
The Online Education Niche
Name: | Commission: | Affiliate Platform: |
Lorman (US) | 30% per Sale | Own Platform |
Thinkific | 30% per New Sale | Partnerstack |
The Website and Blogging Resource Niche
This niche is HUGE and growing every single day – after all – just about everyone has their own website!
Name: | Commission: | Affiliate Platform: |
Shopify (eCommerce Platform) | 25% of Sales | Own Platform |
The Finance and Insurance Niche
Finance and Insurance niches usually pay high commissions – but conversions can be tough unless you have the right audience.
Name: | Commission: | Affiliate Platform: |
Raiz | $2.50 per sale | In-House Affiliate – Sign up here |
TaxJar | ||
QuickBooks | Partnerstack | |
EzyCollect | Partnerstack | |
Motley Fool | Awin | |
Acorns | ||
Direct Asia Insurance | $25 per Sale | Rakuten |
The Telecommunications and Internet Services Niche
Name: | Commission: | Affiliate Platform: |
More Telecom | 15% per Sale | See Platform |
OzMobiles | 2% per Sale | See Platform |
Southern Phone | 50% per Sale | See Platform |
Phonebot | 1% per Sale | See Platform |
Activ8me | $50 per Sale | See Platform |
The Sex Toys and Adult Product Niche
There are absolutely tonnes of affiliate money in the sex toy niche – in fact, it is one of my favourite products to promote! Back in the heyday of affiliate marketing, you could get as much as 50% for adult products!
Here are some sex toy sellers and Adult Shops that offer an affiliate program:
Name: | Commission: | Affiliate Platform: |
LoveHoney | 20% per Sale | See Platform |
Wild Secrets | 10% per Sale | See Platform |
JouJou | 12% per Sale | See Platform |
Fleshlight | 25% per Sale | See Platform |
Femplay | 12% per Sale | See Platform |
Adult Shop | 20% per Sale | See Platform |
FGMO | 10% per Sale | See Platform |
Club X | 20% per Sale | See Platform |
Adult Toy Megastore | 20% per Sale | See Platform |