Making money online sounds like an impossible dream. But it’s not that hard.
There are many affiliate marketing examples out there that serve as proof that no matter what people say, you can make money from home.
Most people don’t know about these opportunities. Worse, most people dismiss working online.
By doing so they are missing out on big opportunities.
Even if you only earn as much as your current job, you would save a lot of time and money, just by not dressing up and driving to your job.
Not to mention that you can choose your own working hours and you can work anywhere in the world.
Many people who choose to make an income online are also digital nomads.
Digital nomads are people who work remotely and can travel around the world because they aren’t tied to an office.
Don’t believe me?
Take a look at our list of 14 affiliate marketing examples that made it big and learn how you can do it too.
1. Photography lovers? Here are some photography tips
The owner of Photography Tips makes an insane amount of money from being an affiliate marketer on Amazon.
Photography might not seem so lucrative for most people. Who makes money from talking about wedding pics?
Chris Guthrie happens to be among the lucky ones who makes around 1 million dollars in sales.
A lot of people who are interested in photography spend a lot on equipment. This was the opportunity that the owner of the blog saw in a photography website.
His luck lies in the fact that he teamed up with a professional photographer who creates the content while Chris handles the digital marketing.
He used a combination of Amazon affiliate links and Adsense. Plus, he invests a lot in pay per click advertising (PPC) too.
2. The website that makes money by educating people on what treadmill to buy
Treadmill reviews help people decide what treadmill they should buy.
One of the benefits of niche websites is that the traffic they attract is more likely to convert.
If they were a general blog on weight loss, a lot of the traffic would be irrelevant.
They have guides and a lot of types of treadmills. These include the ones that fold, cheap ones, and high-end treadmills.
They probably cover every category of treadmills in the world. And since treadmills are quite expensive, this the perfect affiliate marketing example.
Always pick a niche where products/ services you’re promoting are on the expensive side. It will increase your earnings too.
3. If you want to become a digital nomad, this is your go-to resource
Nerdy nomad is the place where you will find a lot of insight on how to survive as a remote worker when traveling.
It also talks about which places are worth seeing.
The primary source of income comes from advertising certain locations. This includes hotels and restaurants.
4. Expert Enough – The blog that teaches you how to be an expert in anything
This might sound crazy, but the Expert Enough website is made to inspire people to focus on learning one skill and ultimately becoming a master.
They offer guides and articles on how you can focus on becoming the best in your niche of choice.
This website is among our affiliate marketing examples because of its original ideas and the fact that pretty much all the income is passive.
The writers are unpaid guest writers.
5. Meet your online maids – How to clean anything
As you probably already noticed, our affiliate marketing examples focus on “little-known niches” because the competition is smaller.
When the demand is big, the income is bigger too.
How to clean anything is one of those niche websites few people thought about. Yet, it’s filled with useful guides and articles on how to clean, well, anything.
You probably landed on this website at least once too, especially if you really hate those ketchup stains.
6. College info geek teaches you how to make some side money
If you are a college student and you’re broke, this is the website you should be reading.
College info geek is one of the affiliate marketing examples on the other extreme.
We talked before about how expensive products/ services make a good choice.
However, this website has an audience that barely has any money to spare, so how does the website owner make any money?
Well, it promotes bargains such as textbooks.
7. Not just another traveling website
The competition in the traveling niche is fierce.
Somehow, this website made it.
Dream Euro Trip tries not to be just another trip advisor. It has a free calculator that helps you estimate your expenses, as well as a lot of informative articles.
The website has over 60,000 monthly subscribers and makes money by promoting hotels and restaurants.
8. Security Guard Training HQ
Security guard training is one of those niches that nobody talks about. Yet, the website owner Pat Flynn realized it could be a lucrative niche.
How do you figure it out what niche is lucrative and has low competition?
Spend a lot of time performing keyword research.
This article provides you with the complete process Pat used to choose his niche and build his site.
9. A website about posture braces
Just when you thought you couldn’t go more niche than security guard training, braces posture is a small website that performs big.
The concept behind it is very simple. The competition is low, as posture braces are expensive.
This is perhaps one of the most creative affiliate marketing examples since few people could come up with something as obscure as posture braces.
10. Animal print bedding
This website is built on HubPages, a platform that allows you to build websites pages with no coding knowledge. And you can add affiliate links too!
If you’re looking to build something fast and you don’t have the time or the financial resources to pay someone else to create content, follow one this affiliate marketing examples.
Animal print bedding doesn’t need guides or articles. Instead, it needs a headline and photo, and people will buy it since visuals influence buying decisions.
11. Keep your Mac secure with Secure Mac
The business model of Secure Mac is pretty simple.
The website owner blogs about how you can keep your MacBook secure, which is a niche approach to security products. They have affiliate links on the products reviewed.
MacBooks are among the most expensive laptops. Therefore, the owners have a larger budget and incentive to protect their expensive machine.
12. A blog dedicated to web designers
You’ve probably seen this type of website before. Try googling “responsive retro WordPress themes” and you will stumble upon a blog like Hong Kiat.
This blog helps web designers, freelancers, and entrepreneurs pick the perfect theme for their website.
Even though this website is doing pretty well, this is one of those affiliate marketing examples that require a lot of hard work.
The web design niche is very crowded. There are so many websites out there that offer the same type of information.
At this point, it’s almost impossible to make a stable income in this niche.
13. Your go-to source for weddings in Australia
Perhaps one of the best money making affiliate marketing examples, Bride Online Australia is the number one website on weddings in Australia.
Planning your wedding online is far easier. You will make fewer calls and send fewer emails.
You also spend less time trying to figure out how much the cake and the flowers will cost.
This website helps you create the perfect wedding while giving you the tools to reach your goal.
This website features a directory that soon to be brides use to find suppliers for everything that they need in one place.
Think of a supermarket for weddings. How convenient is that?
As you already assumed, for each sale, the website receives a small percentage back. Since the directory is huge and so is the audience, the profits are huge too.
14. Luxury hotels booking
This is another website owner who knew what he/she was getting into. The earnings from booking luxury hotels are quite big.
The more expensive the product/ service, the more you earn as an affiliate.
Website visitors read articles and guides and they are also encouraged to book online since the website offers discounted prices.
Final words on our affiliate marketing examples
Theses affiliate marketing examples prove that you can make a lot of money online. However, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to become a successful affiliate marketer.
You must be aware of scams and of offers that sound too good to be true.
As you already observed, the highest performing affiliate marketing examples cover products that are expensive and niches where the level of competition isn’t too high.
Your best bet is to spend a lot of time doing some keyword research and try to find out where there is significant demand.
If you want to find out more about how you can start making money online, don’t hesitate to take a look at our review of our #1 recommended training platform.
If you’re just getting started and don’t know for sure what to do next, check out “getting started” section.
Hi Peter, I really enjoyed reading your article about this online business ideas, I know there’s a way to make money on the internet but you came up here with a couple of ideas I never thought about.
These 14 brilliant affiliate marketing ideas is like a good guide to start to think about finding the right niche.
Yes, you can make money with affiliate marketing and you’re right Alejandra there are some unusual niches here. I hope this will give you some ideas to find a good niche.
All the best,
Peter
This is a great resource for someone having a hard time coming up with a brilliant niche… Being able to find a niche with low competition is no easy take but I think there are some obvious topics we neglect or unfortunately look past.
“Keep your Mac secure with Secure Mac”, aren’t Macs already secure, lol!
Good resource and this can relieve some of the anxiety that comes with picking a niche!
Thanks Salvatore! Yes, there are some great niches here! When picking our niche we consider our passions or subjects that we have knowledge about first which makes sense. It’s much more enjoyable to write about something we’re interested in or passionate about.
Macs are pretty secure but there is always more security you can add. For example, apparently, the firewall isn’t activated by default or you may want to disable automatic login which will stop someone accessing your data if your Mac is stolen. I’m sure the person who started this website knew they will be able to solve problems for Mac users and so build up a loyal following.
Thanks for your comment,
Peter
Hello Peter,
You have a great site here. There are a lot of niches out there, I agree with that. Recently I have found that Home Security is a great place to be. There is a lot of competition but if you can get in there, you won’t be sorry.
Thanks Theresa! You’re right there are so many niches you never need to be stuck for ideas although for many beginners choosing that first niche is a big problem. Hopefully, this post may give people a few ideas but also encourage them to either get started or to keep on working. There are too many who give up much too soon!
Best of luck with your online business,
Peter
Hi, Peter. I really enjoyed reading all these examples about how people are making money online. I was especially intrigued by the site called Expert Enough. I plan to check out that site. It’s great that there is a site out there to help you become an expert in anything. Just one question: Can a person make money in any niche as long as they are willing to work at it?
Hi Linda,
Yes, there are some great examples here. Expert Enough is an interesting site that relies largely on guest posts. The person behind the site is Corbett Barr the founder of Fizzle.com.
You can make money in almost any niche, the key is to understand the problems your readers may face and to provide solutions to their problems. Then if you’re willing to put in the work and not to give up after a few months you can go on to be successful.
Thanks for your visit,
Peter
Wow! I love seeing different examples of successful affiliate marketers. It always surprises me which niches people pick and really become successful through them. I would’ve never have thought of any of these niches, except the travel one. But, like you said, travel websites are pretty competitive.
Thank you for researching these examples. It encourages me to keep pushing forward as an affiliate marketer. It’s not easy work and takes a lot of time, but it is worth it.
Weston
I agree Weston, it’s interesting to see the different niches people choose. I really love some of these niches and I hope that seeing the success that these people are having encourages you to keep going. It’s true it’s definitely not easy and is a lot of work but if you’re building a business around one of your passions it doesn’t really seem like work. You seem to have the right mindset, which is very important, keep going and you will get there in the end.
Thanks for your comment,
Peter
Thank you so much for sharing your great insights on this topic. I was looking for income coming from passive activities instead of active ones that landed me here and now I am facing some problem like traffic, links, time management etc. but after reading this information I get a lot of confidence, really you help me a lot. Keep doing this within work and updating me.
You’re welcome Gaurav. Creating a passive income can be a great way of making a little extra money or even a full-time income. These examples of affiliate marketing sites give you a good idea of what’s possible when you pick the right niche.
Time management is pretty hard but keep working, adding content, helping your visitors – the traffic and links will come with time.
Best of luck,
Peter