A Few Very Lucrative Affiliate Programs You Might Not Have Heard About

A Few Very Lucrative Affiliate Programs You Might Not Have Heard About

Research tells us that at least 98% of new affiliate start-ups fail without making any money. On the other hand there are thousands of people making a good living through promoting affiliate schemes on the internet. One of the major reasons for the dauntingly high failure rate is simply that people are selling the wrong things. The most pertinent example of this issue is within the affiliate marketing product niche itself – as it makes sense to sell something you are familiar with, most affiliates start by promoting the kind of affiliate products they would buy themselves. While the affiliate marketer is particularly susceptible to making e-book and training course purchases, we have reached the point where the affiliate niche is saturated to appoint where it is almost impossible to penetrate the market.

From my own experience I am having only a small percentage of the success I’ve experienced in the past. I used to run, and promote affiliate links through, a very successful internet marketing blog – I subsequently sold this blog at a reasonable price in order to invest in some new affiliate projects. One of these projects is the site linked to in my resource box at Ezine Articles. Now, whilst the traditional marketing techniques (rather than modern inventions like social bookmarking) I have been using certainly explain some of the difficulties I’ve faced, I don’t believe this is the only explanation. My current traffic is only 10% of my previous sites despite the content and quality being similar and this has remained steady despite my attempts to widen my marketing methods. Other explanations could be the changes to search engine algorithms (like the latest Google algorithm change) but I believe then main problem is quite simply that since 2006 the affiliate marketplace has been saturated. Lazy affiliates go straight to Clickbank, go to what they know, choose the ridiculously high gravity affiliate products – consequently there is another very little fish in a very big pond. Unfortunately there isn’t enough food (or affiliate sales) to go round.

Fortunately however there are other ponds with even greater earning potential and a lot fewer affiliates to compete with. Basically this article is here to do some of the primary research you’ll have to do if you want to find them. The affiliate programs I have listed below are listed either by company or industry and each is a hugely lucrative, or potentially lucrative, affiliate market – some of these are already flooded with affiliates, or are quickly becoming flooded. Having said this however, they will give you an idea about the wide variety of affiliate product available to promote, and might give you some ideas on the path you want to take in affiliate marketing. I strongly recommend you staying away from affiliate marketing and here are some niches you may, or may not, have heard about.

Gambling

Gambling has been revolutionised by the invention of the internet and the industry is still growing. Internet gambling is leading the growth and sites are becoming more and more advanced – you can compete against other players in poker rooms and place bets from your smart phone. Luckily for us internet gambling also means big business, especially in the UK and Australia – the affiliate schemes pay between 20% and 30% of revenue which really is exceptional. This means it doesn’t matter if they win or lose, all your sign-ups will earn you money. Think about it, if somebody comes back and gambles 100 ($150ish) a month, that has to be the easiest 20 you’ll make in your life. If you could sign up 20 players like this you could be earning very good money.

Here’s a little story which might inspire. One day my friends and I decided to try a little experiment with affiliate gambling ourselves. Basically we set up an easy to make, free to host, one page website with a selection five of the best bookies offers for the upcoming Ascot festival, with our affiliate links directing visitors though. The site went live the day before the event so we weren’t doing any online promotion – instead we went to the festival and handed out some cheap to make, but professional looking, leaflets directing people to our site for the ‘best Ascot deals’. Here’s the beauty of our business plan – on the day we handed out about 1000 leaflets and got around 30 sign ups to the five different sites. On the day we received just over 100 from our thirty signups but since then we still get close to the same amount every month, just from the same accounts! The income is surprisingly steady and at least pays for a couple nights out.

Now there are three lessons to learn from our experience. The first one is that you can make money with gambling affiliate programs. The second is that a little innovation and clear thinking goes a long way. The third is that if you find a method that works, replicate it and you will maximise your success- we have done that and let’s just say that the pub visits have turned into holidays!

Amazon and other retailers

Amazon’s program is reportedly the current biggest in the affiliate industry. The great thing about this is you can make commissions selling a great and diverse range of products people trust – I certainly would be more trusting of buying something from Amazon than one of those shifty Clickbank sales pages. This also means you can focus down on very specific niches or, effectively, create your own online store. Amazon offers excellent tools to place their product listings directly in your website so the functionality is excellent – even if the products you choose are just accompaniments to your main income source this can be a nice little earner. Some other companies are now trying out their own affiliate systems – I know ASOS clothing and Argos here in the UK are doing so as well as such huge names like eBay and Apple iTunes. These companies aren’t going to pay you massive percentage commissions but the products are so reputable that they almost sell themselves.

Web Hosting

This is another big affiliate market which has brought a lot of affiliates a lot of success. Especially for affiliate marketers themselves, alongside a good affiliate guide and business plan (as sold in droves), they will also be needing their own website – there are other markets as well of course, particularly as more and more people are interested in running their own website. Fortunately there are also a number of good affiliate programs for website hosting which offer great tools for promotion. The big advantage however is the income opportunity, like with gambling, being recurring. If you can sign someone up you will receive a percentage monthly commission for the lifetime of that customer. If you can make sure they stay signed up, and can sign up enough people, then there is nothing stopping you making excellent monthly commissions on automation. There is no closer automatic money making system than this online (despite what the get-rich-quick brigade might tell you).

Health

There are all sorts of health websites paying good commissions on any sales made through your affiliate links. Clearly the health industry is huge so it isn’t easy to go in at the top level – however, if you can find a less populated niche inside health you can make a lot of money. Basically, steer well clear of the sales-hype reliant guides from ClickBank (which are generally awful), and promote useful medicines, tablets and other products people actually want. Learn as much as you can about your area so you can target potential customers – the beauty is that if it works people will come back for more and you’ll keep on earning.

Other industries with booming affiliate communities include things like health insurance and pay day loans – again these offer valuable recurring commissions for the lifetime of the customer – all you’ve got to do is work out to sell the product in the first place.