In this post, we are going to cover some great examples of successful Amazon Affiliate Websites. Amazon Affiliate Websites generate a lot of money by participating in the Amazon Associates Program. This is how Amazon describes its associate programs on its own website: “The Amazon Associates Program is one of the largest affiliate networks in the world that helps content creators, publishers, and website owners monetize their traffic. With millions of products to choose from on Amazon.com, Amazon Associates use easy link-building tools to direct their readers to products and earn from qualifying purchases. Not only do Associates earn commission on products they refer traffic to, they may also earn on other products their readers may purchase on Amazon. As an associate, you’ll have full access to a suite of reporting tools to help you learn what resonates best with your readers.”

Here are some of the best Amazon Affiliate Websites:

1. The WireCutter

Niche: Gadgets, gear, and electronics reviews

The WireCutter was founded in 2011 by Brian Lam, a former Editorial Director at Gizmodo. He grew uninterested with the advertising model of traditional media empires and decided to run his website in a different manner.

Here’s what he said in an interview a couple of years ago: “I was uninterested in doing posts that were obsolete three hours after I wrote them. I wanted evergreen content that didn’t need to be updated constantly so as to hunt traffic. I wanted to publish things that were useful.”

Today, The WireCutter focuses on doing intensive testing and research to make in-depth and useful product buying guides to assist readers in picking the simplest products from a wide selection of categories.

The affiliate website was reportedly acquired for over $30,000,000 in cash by The New York Times in October 2016.

Content Strategy:

  • The Wirecutter’s success is apparent from the moment you read one of their reviews.. They do fun tests with products that are so good that they possess a really high chance of going viral in each space.
  • It looks like they begin by reading reviews on Amazon and other major online marketplaces to narrow down the simplest products in a category. After that, they really buy them to run their own tests to arrive to their own conclusion.
  • The Wirecutter has over 11.4k referring domains and are almost dominating Google for each “best [product]” search terms within the gadgets and electronic space.
  • They have expanded by starting a sister site, The Sweethome, that’s also doing well for home focused products.
  • The Wirecutter is upfront about how they create money, which builds trust with their audience through transparency. The Wirecutter usually makes money from the Amazon’s Associate Program but it also uses affiliate programs from a few other retailers. 

Monetization Strategy: 

  • They always include a “callout” of their best picks and runner ups towards the beginning of the article for people that want the data fast, then get into the table of contents and more details
  • They use quite a lot of in-content affiliate links to the recommended products throughout the article.
  • They also include a callout of their best pick at the top of the review.

2. Snapsort

Niche: Digital Camera Comparison and Reviews

The site uses a data-driven approach to supply its review and comparison content . Most of their pages are around 1000 words long but they still rank very high for a lot of targeted keywords.

What they do essentially is gather specs and features of digital cameras on the market and then use that data to generate side-by-side comparison pages.

This is quite different from the common approach of creating in-depth and long-form content that most people follow.

Content Strategy:

  • Snapsort is driven towards building a unique brand which resembles no other camera review site. You can tell their site was custom designed, which adds credibility and trust for the user who are therefore more inclined to buy based on their reviews.
  • They publish reviews of varied digital cameras and navigating the website quite easy.
  • Making their “popular recommendations” section sorted by category makes it easy for people to seek out a camera that fulfills their needs.
  • Arriving at an actual review  you’ll see that their reviews aren’t that complex. They are meant for people to understand with ease.
  • Their camera vs camera pages also attract plenty of search traffic by ranking highly for thousands of keywords like “camera t3 vs t3i”.
  • To attract international traffic, they also have the option to translate their webpages in six different languages.
  • Snapsort also displays the price in 11 different countries. Those are associated with affiliate links of that particular country. 

Monetization Strategy:

  • Users have the choice to buy the products through affiliate links to Amazon, B&H Photo-Video, and/or Adorama. They automatically change the affiliate links for the chosen country for further optimization.
  • Affiliate links to 3 different online retailers giving the user the selection where to shop from. 
  • Automatically switch links for the supported selected country (11 different countries and currencies are available).
  • Snapsort also accepts various forms of advertising requests in order to supplement its income from the Amazon Affiliate Program.

3. This Is Why I’m Broke

Niche: Fun gifts and viral items :

This is Why I’m Broke was born as a result of the famous meme featuring Fry from Futurama “Shut up and take my money” and it’s subreddit.

This is Why I’m Broke curated the products posted there into a separate site and then started finding their own products to feature .

Eventually, people were posting links from This is Why I’m Broke on other subreddits, which gave them enormous amounts of traffic.

Coupled with an honest name, This is Why I’m Broke became synonymous with interesting and odd items that folks buy, but don’t necessarily have tons of use for.

The clever name and interesting curation of products gave them the power to create a sustainable site without relying completely on Reddit for traffic.

Content Strategy:

  • On the site’s homepage, you can immediately start browsing products.
  • Some products are only reviewed with the use of a few sentences and don’t even have their own page on the website.
  • Clicking on the links lead customers to Amazon’s website via an affiliate code. Prices can range from as little $0.75 to $200 million (the Playboy Mansion) – the only thing that matters is if the product is interesting enough to keep you browsing on the site.
  • This is Why I’m Broke also features category pages. And because of all the links and press they receive, they possess the power to rank for very competitive search terms, like “gifts for men” where they rank #2.

Monetization Strategy:

This is Why I’m Broke does not run advertisements and only uses affiliate links for monetization. The site also uses affiliate links with other retailers and sometimes post products without affiliate links as well, as long as the products are interesting enough.

On the homepage, there’s an outsized banner with “deals of the day” that takes you straight to Amazon’s deals of the day page.

Big banner on homepage that’s an affiliate link to Amazon’s deals of the day page.

Some product names go straight to Amazon or the retailer in case the website hasn’t posted a review yet.

4. Outdoor Gear Lab

Niche: Outdoor gear reviews

Outdoor Gear Lab (OGL) has been around since 2010 and it’s one of the world’s most important and trusted places for outdoor product reviews.

Like The WireCutter, OGL features a very intensive testing process to review even the simplest of products to recommend for its target audience.

Content Strategy:

  • At first glance, OutdoorGear Lab seems like an eCommerce store with plenty of categories on the homepage, but once you click on one, you’ll see that it’s a full fledge niche site dressed up in a pretty outfit.
  • Interestingly, their review has five unique pages on different URLs: The overview with the table and detailed reviews of the five best products, a ratings page with a full table of all products, buying advice, and a “how we tested” page. This is plenty of content around one, niche product category.
  • There aren’t “buy now” links all over the place, because OutdoorGear Labs is focused on gaining the user’s trust so as to create a community for long-term success.

Monetization Strategy:

  • OutdoorGear Labs isn’t focused on making the maximum amount of money. Their affiliate links are somewhat difficult to find. As evident by the power for users to make an account and write their own product reviews within the comments, they see more value in building a community than making a quick buck.
  • They don’t abuse affiliate links. They make them somewhat hard to seek out to create trust
  • They aren’t married to a single affiliate partner. They give their users the choice to settle on from around six retailers
  • They feature a small amount of ads on the sidebar to bring in some extra revenue while keeping the location clean

5. Lucie’s List

Niche: Baby product reviews

The site uses a really good silo structure that definitely helps a lot when it comes to achieving high search rankings on the highly competitive keywords associated with the site’s niche. 

The website’s marketing team has done a fabulous job promoting the site. They have successfully secured mentions and link placements on a number of the highest general and industry specific publications. 

Content Strategy:

  • Lucie’s List first started getting popular through the newsletter, called “Crib Notes.” As soon as you arrive on the website, you’re greeted with a popup which asks you to subscribe to the newsletter.
  • In addition to the name and email, the website also asks for the baby’s due date/actual birthday so that it can send more timely and relevant content to the subscriber.
  • You can browse through the archives of the website’s news letter to see the type of content that’s posted there. Lucie’s List supplies the content to expectant mothers based on the stage of pregnancy they are in. 
  • In the main nav bar, you’ll discover that the website has content and buying guides for every stage a lady and her family undergo when having a toddler.

Monetization Strategy:

Lucie’s List is monetized through affiliate links only (Amazon and a few other affiliates) 

In the website’s earnings disclaimer, it’s mentioned that Lucie’s List strictly relies on affiliate commissions to avoid publishing sponsored posts. The website doesn’t even run ads for faster loading and smoother readability.Both of those tactics are great for building a robust community. Additionally, Lucie’s List has an ebook which can be purchased from a link within the main nav bar.

Lucie’s List publishes valuable information to create credibility.

Lucie’s list is only monetized via affiliate commissions and eBook sales.

Produces plenty of quick product review posts for a good reach.