Affiliate marketing can be hard to break into, but once you have your formula right, it can be a great way to may a passive monthly income – so long as you’re prepared to put some hours into managing your fledgling business.
Everyone that’s ever thought of doing affiliate marketing wants to know where the highest margins are – the programs that will allow you to make the most amount of money. Today we check out three of the current most lucrative niches to enter.
Before we begin: Affiliate program types
There are a few things you’ll need to understand first:
- Some affiliate programs offer a per sign-up fee
- Some offer a fee once a sign-up has reached a certain amount of cash spent
- And some offer a lifetime (or another period of time) fee on all cash spent through the business
Obviously, that last one is the one you’d prefer to focus on – however, scanning the landscape for everything that’s available (and adding it to a spreadsheet in advance) is a good way to see which programs are the best in the niche you are trying to get into.
Cryptocurrencies
Thought crypto was dead? No way! Just because we aren’t seeing the lofty heights of the crypto wave of 2017, when Bitcoin hit almost $20k, doesn’t mean that crypto trading isn’t alive and well and there is still money to be made.
“Sure, but was does crypto trading have to do with affiliate marketing?” I hear you say.
Well, that’s because plenty of crypto trading platforms, online and hardware wallets, and transfer services have their own affiliate marketing programs. If you’re interested in crypto trading and think you have the chops to make a useful website or have excellent networking skills, then you can sign up as an affiliate with places like Binance, Coinbase, Trezor and Ledger.
This affiliate marketing initiative will only become a lucrative experience if you manage to make good trades, too – so ensure you’re really interested in crypto (or trading in general) to begin with.
Online casinos
You know who makes a ton of money? Casinos. And you know what online niche has started to boom more than ever? Online casinos. Online casinos offer people a great way to have fun with a bit of risk-based and/or skill-based gambling all from the comfort of their own homes.
So, the wonderful thing about online casino affiliate marketing is that, for many casinos, the affiliate will get returns on the sign-up throughout the entirety of their ‘career’ at the gaming house. If someone clicks on your sign-up link and then spends thousands (or more) at the casino, you’re laughing.
For casino affiliates, you’ll need to stay on top of the latest and greatest sites to play at – and there are many. You can take a look at this award winning site for a good example of how to do it right.
Web hosting
If you understand a bit about tech and setting up a website (and one would hope that you have a vague idea if you want to get into affiliate marketing), then this niche should be a good one to capitalize on, not only for those affiliate dollars but also to help re-structure or re-manage your website.
Web hosting is one of those things that every business needs, from small businesses through to large-scale enterprises. While web hosting, in general, is a niche that is currently well covered by larger players, if you think locally or more niche, then you will be able to carve out your own slice of the market. For instance, talking about web hosting in Phoenix Arizona, or web hosting for dessert businesses.
Usually, web hosting companies will only offer a one-off fee per referral, like the program over at Bluehost, which gives affiliates $65 per referral.
A hot tip for budding affiliates
One of the worst things that you can do as an affiliate marketer is put all your eggs in one basket – that is, only be an affiliate partner with one company.
For instance, many people who were solely Amazon affiliates took a huge hit to their bottom line when Amazon switched up the game and cut back their affiliate percentages to 3% for most categories and even down to 1% in some categories in April of 2020. For affiliates that didn’t have a great number of click-throughs to begin with or didn’t have big-ticket items, this has represented a huge loss.
Instead, as an affiliate marketer, it pays to diversify programs and scatter links from various businesses across your site. This is why so many people run ‘comparison’ sites that evaluate the competition. You can also try going across a greater range of products if your website was, for example, about SaaS products for startups and entrepreneurs. Better to be safe and diversify!
