16 Affiliate Marketing Success Stories & How Much They Make
Are you looking for a side hustle that will pay you a passive income? Affiliate marketing is one of those side hustles that will pay you well over the long-term.
To get started, learn how to find the right product and find the right brand to partner with. You may prefer becoming an affiliate marketer for an eCommerce store or partner with a manufacturer, and market their products for a commission.
Here are some real life success stories of starting a affiliate marketing business:
1. Buildapreneur ($960K/year)
Spencer Mecham (from Highland) started Buildapreneur almost 5 years ago.
My name is Spencer Mecham. In 2016 I first heard about an industry called affiliate marketing and in 2017 I founded Buildapreneur, an affiliate business.
2. Casino Guru ($6M/year)
Jan Kovac (from Bratislava) started Casino Guru about 7 years ago.
Casino Guru is a website with information about anything related to online casinos.
Better have 2 times higher traffic monetized on 70% than 2 times lower-traffic monetized on 95%.
3. Gear Up Hiking ($16.2K/year)
Asen Stoyanchev (from Sofia, Bulgaria) started Gear Up Hiking over 3 years ago.
My name is Asen and I’m the owner and founder of Gear Up Hiking - a niche affiliate blog that offers easy and actionable tips for beginner hikers, campers, and outdoor junkies.
And a graph from Google Analytics showing the traffic for the last month:
4. WebRevenue ($360K/year)
Jerry Low (from Ipoh) started WebRevenue almost 16 years ago.
Hi, I’m Jerry Low, and I’ve been in the Affiliate Marketing and SEO consultancy business since 2004. I own and operate several websites with a small team, including WebHostingSecretRevealed, HostScore, and HideandSeek. Together, they attract over 700,000 visitors each month.
One of our sites gets close to 4 million sessions and 6 million pageviews in 1H 2021
5. Baboo ($600K/year)
Paul Sarfati (from Dover, DE, USA) started Baboo almost 2 years ago.
My name is Paul Sarfati and I am the Founder and CEO of Baboo Travel. We built a travel platform that connects travelers directly with local travel agents or as we call them In-Destination experts to plan Custom Trips.
We are currently still depending greatly on COVID travel restrictions and can’t really operate the entire world as we would wish, but we are starting to see some interest in people traveling from the US to some countries in Latin America like Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile & Argentina, and also to Europe to Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, so that’s good news.
6. Add Value Agency ($360K/year)
Joachim Brouckaert (from Antwerpen, Belgium) started Add Value Agency about 1 year ago.
Hi, my name is Joachim Brouckaert, I’m 24 years old and I started Add Value 1 year ago. Today, Add Value is a growth marketing agency. We’re focused on full-funnel marketing. Performance marketing, building landing pages, websites, funnels, email marketing flows. We do it all!
Currently, we are working with a team of 5 people for our customers and on our growth. But we are once again looking for an extra Growth Marketer! When we talk about turnover, we do an average of 30k per month. This fluctuates, as we sometimes take on larger, shorter projects. On average, we work for 18 active clients per month. Our retention is generally good, but short projects such as an analytics audit or building a website cause this number to fluctuate.
7. eBiz Facts ($50.4K/year)
Niall Doherty (from Waterford, Ireland) started eBiz Facts over 3 years ago.
My name is Niall Doherty and I started a website called eBizFacts.com, where I try to help people make money online.
So far, it seems to be working, if this graph of my affiliate income is any indication.
8. Web Designer Academy ($504K/year)
Shannon Mattern (from Columbus, Ohio, USA) started Web Designer Academy over 7 years ago.
Hey there! I’m Shannon Mattern and I’ve helped over 15,000 new online business owners learn how to build their websites and market themselves online (even if they’re not a techie and are starting from zero).
And every month on my podcast I break down exactly how much money I make, how I make it and what my expenses are - because I believe it’s important to show the whole picture of what the opportunities and the costs are to run an online business!
9. Todays Business ($6M/year)
Billy Ash (from New Jersey, USA) started Todays Business almost 11 years ago.
My name is Billy Ash and I’m the Co-Founder and Chief Digital Officer of Today’s Business. We are a full-service digital marketing agency. We are one of the only full service digital and affiliate marketing agencies in the world.
This journey has been an unbelievable ride and throughout the past 9 years, we have been blessed to be able to work with some pretty amazing clients such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Menlo Club, Kushner Properties, Wet Brush, Illinois Bone & Joint Institute and countless others. I think one of the best testaments to our growth is when we made the Inc 5000 list in both 2018 and 2019 as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States.
10. The Diamond App ($6K/year)
Tony Florida (from Baltimore, Maryland, USA) started The Diamond App over 5 years ago.
What’s up! My name is Tony Florida (yes my last name is Florida) and I am the founder of The Diamond App, an online diamond price tracker and search engine.
Diamonds range in value from a couple hundred dollars for something the size of a pencil tip all the way up to millions of bucks for a perfectly cut hunk of rock. That being said, the jewelry industry is a highly competitive industry. The Diamond App brings in on average $500 per month in revenue, mostly from affiliate sales.
11. Cash Overflow ($120K/year)
Pardeep Goyal (from Chandigarh, India) started Cash Overflow about 7 years ago.
I am Pardeep Goyal, founder of CashOverflow.com (Awarded as the best personal finance blog in 2017) where I help people in managing their financial life so that they can become financially independent and live a self-sustainable life.
I also sell online courses and help startups to setup zero budget content marketing.
12. The Ways To Wealth LLC ($240K/year)
R.J. Weiss (from Geneva) started The Ways To Wealth LLC almost 6 years ago.
Hello there. My name is R.J. Weiss. In 2016, I created a blog called The Ways To Wealth. Our product is our content on the site, where we teach hundreds of thousands of visitors each month how to save and make more money.
The business earns over $30,000 in monthly revenue from a mix of affiliate and advertising revenue, with the caveat that I drive paid traffic to the site, so my margins tend to run rigger than other publishers.
13. The Modest Man ($48K/year)
Brock McGoff (from Richmond, VA, USA) started The Modest Man about 10 years ago.
My name is Brock McGoff, and I run The Modest Man (TMM), a digital media brand dedicated to helping guys dress better and feel more confident, with an emphasis on the man of modest height.
In a given month, TMM generates $10-15k revenue from advertising brand partnerships, digital products (an e-book) and affiliate programs. Since there isn’t any inventory or “cost of goods” profit margins are very high.
14. EMUCoupon ($360K/year)
Elice Max (from Brisbane) started EMUCoupon over 3 years ago.
My name is Elice Max, and I am the co-founder of EMUCoupon. I was born in Boston but currently, I run a business in Brisbane, Australia. My website allows Aussies to save money while shopping online. Since this is an expensive country, the consumers here are always eager to find deals and discounts that reduce the price of certain items.
It’s been more than three years since we founded this website. Every day, thousands of users visit EMUCoupon to avail of deals and learn the latest shopping tips. Our team has grown at the same time, we now have seventeen in-office workers while four of our employees work remotely. We have managed to sustain around a 16% annual growth rate since the company’s inception
15. TechySex ($60K/year)
Martin Moore (from New York, NY, USA) started TechySex over 2 years ago.
Hey everyone, my name is Martin Moore and I’m the founder of TechySex. This website is all about sexual wellness and sex toy reviews. My goal is to help people find answers to questions about their sexuality they may have been too shy to ask.
Currently, we’re making around $5K per month on average. It’s a young business with a lot of growth potential, so the fun is just getting started.
16. BowTied Opossum ($36K/year)
BowTiedOpossum (from ) started BowTied Opossum 11 months ago.
Hello, my name is Opossum and I’m the founder of BowTiedOpossum. Did that first sentence confuse you? Well, you’re not alone. We’ll get to that later though.
After 9 months, I’ve managed to grow the newsletter to $3k a month in between my career, outside consulting, personal projects, and family/kids. I’ve done this completely anonymously with 0 ad dollars, by myself, and no prior social media presence to give it a boost.
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