Both affiliates and merchants frequently ask me for examples of affiliate websites. Normally, I tell everyone that it isn’t exactly right for an affiliate program manager to give away the URL’s of his affiliates’ websites. But there is a way to do it right. I’ll show you examples of affiliate websites that you have either already heard of (and haven’t paid attention that they are monetizing their traffic via affiliate programs), or those that have okayed their representation in this post. I will look at 5 types of affiliate websites: (i) content-based, (ii) coupons-focused, (iii) rebates- or cashback-oriented, (iv) shopping mall, and (v) comparison shopping.
1. Content-Based Affiliate Website
The most common examples would be thematic blogs with square affiliate banners on the side. A friend of mine, Ayako Bing of buy.at, runs a blog on branding in her spare time. Here’s a screenshot:
2. Coupon-Focused Affiliate Website
There is a great number of these around, and they can be easy found by searching nearly any brandname+coupon key-phrase combination (e.g.: Walmart coupon or Home Depot coupon). One of great coupon sites is run by another friend of mine, Mike Allen, the 2009 Pinnacle Awards winner in the category Affiliate of the Year. It is Shopping-Bargains.com and here’s a screenshot:
3. Cashback-Oriented Affiliate Website
I’ve mentioned such websites as FatWallet.com, BigCrumbs.com and CashBaq.com in a post on incentive affiliates a while back. SunshineRewards.com is another good example:
4. Shopping Mall
This type of affiliate websites includes products of multiple merchants “under one roof”. The simplest way to illustrate it is by looking at GoldenCAN’s sample of an all-in-one affiliate store:
With multiple pages for each merchant the above-quoted example does not provide an example of a very user-friendly online store, but conveys the general idea. Custom solutions, PopShops.com, Webmerge.com, and other platforms help affiliates put together the “mall” type websites as well.
5. Comparison Shopping Affiliate Website
While there are considerably less sophisticated affiliate websites that use merchants’ data feeds to offer their users a comparison shopping experience, I want to mention three that are absolutely mind-blowing in my opinion. They combine a number of social media techniques with comparison shopping, thereby creating a truly engaging end-user experience.
The above-quoted Costumzee.com is also a niche affiliate website. Just as ShoeHunting.com (the second website I’d like to mention in this category) focuses on footwear only, so is Costumzee.com devoted solely to costumes.
Another great example of an affiliate website with a niche specialization that is also a social website is the recently launched FiledBy.com:
Whichever of the above 5 routes you decide to go as an affiliate, remember that the key to success is in offering a new and unique shopping experience — engaging and entertaining. Don’t limit yourself to just one type of affiliate promotion! Create synergies — beautiful and helpful ones.
Examples of Different Types of Affiliate Sites
A common question asked on my affiliate forum is “can you show me some examples of good affiliate sites?” Here they are complete with screen shots. ……
Great examples Geno, I didn’t know of any of the sites you mentioned above. I’ve only tried one of the above mentioned examples, the content based blog. So far it’s worked out well although I’m eager to try the others.
Thanks!
Thanks, Dan. Yes, do try the other ways of marketing too. Synergies (the more unique, the better) work especially well.
Hey Geno, nice list! What’s the best type of software to use to create a coupon affiliate site like your buddy in example #2?
Thanks.
Denny,
This is a very good question. In fact, I will save the answer for a later day (a couple days from now), and promise to put together a post on software/tools options for coupon affiliates to use. How does this sound?
That sounds great! I’ve been testing solutions for the past month or so and have already gotten burned by a couple of so called coupon affiliate datafeed providers.
It’s not that I’m a total newbie, I’ve been doing business online for years, but this space is mysterious and we are more marketers and promoters rather than technical people. Most of the out there solutions are either incomplete or not intended for the the coupon space, but rather the “deal” space.
It would be nice to be able to simply offer coupons to our visitors for topics related to our content and not take the “fire-hose” approach. Goldencan and datafeedr are ok, but they give you EVERYTHING and you cant just grab coupons.
In addition, many existing offerings for coupon affiliates want to charge a reoccurring monthly fee (as much as $1500/mo!) just to keep the data feed current! A process that once set up can be easily automated and run on your own server nightly/weekly and easily displayed in common CMS platforms such wordpress, joomla, and drupal.
You tell me how we can do this and you’ll be my hero Geno! I honestly feel that it doesn’t exist…yet. (Hey there’s an idea for a product!)