Amazon's affiliate program and similar programs aren't really worth it IMHO. Since they are for physical goods that Amazon buys and then sells, Amazon's margins are quite small. Consequently, the amount of money they are willing to pay affiliates is also small. I believe it's around 7% of sales price that goes to the affiliate. Let's assume you're promoting a $20 toy. You're only getting $1.40 for a sale. Bear in mind, you're sending traffic away from your brand / channel / website, I'm not sure it's worth it.
The real money in affiliate marketing is elsewhere. Digital goods have a much bigger margin for the merchant (no production, stock or shipping costs) and therefore they often give affiliates a much bigger part of the pie. Commission rates for digital goods and services are often 50%. So now a $20 sale of an ebook or some downloadable software is going to earn $10. Things like ebooks, online training, hosting, software are way more lucrative than Amazon. Some of the best hosting affiliate programs offer a $50 flat fee for every new customer.
The best of the best are programs that offer lifetime recurring commission. Every time a customer you refer once makes a repeat purchase, you get a commission. Vendors of Saas products often offer that. Customers subscribe to use some software and pay $30 per month until they cancel and the affiliate will earn a percentage of that every single month. That's where the big money is.
Having said all that, commission percentage isn't the only thing to look at. It's no good having a high commission if the program doesn't convert. That is something that goes in Amazon's favour. Everyone knows and trusts Amazon and they are very good at converting targeted traffic into sales. But due to the low commission, you need a TON of traffic to make it worthwhile.
Agreed about Amazon. I had some success years ago with niche sites, but our Youtube channel does not convert at all. Amazon only works with high ticket items or high traffic conversion to sales as you say. Niche sites are out with organic search engine placements as well, it's all about massive authority sites.
I think hosting was very lucrative, Pat Flynn from smartpassiveincome.com has built a sizeable fortune from Bluehost referrals and the associate brand equity he built from it. I'm interested in what can be a fairly high traffic youtube channel and also convert to high commissions. I can't see hosting tutorials getting many views on Yt these days, nor the 'build a blog' vertical. Too old already. Forex trading can give high commissions too, but that is fairly saturated in Yt and also has a fairly high spam barrier to entry.
So the only vertical I found so far is bitcoins and other crypto currencies. There are 2 players who seem to be making very high commissions with the tiered affiliate structures available: UCWZbtMeOAb_qpEVUl551l7w & UCPWHmSfAsAiaKhMxNoIoByg . While their views are on the low end (compared to say kids channels), and they make hardly any adsense, they make decent affiliate commissions. It's a highly targeted audience who also partake in the bitcoin trading, so everyone shares everyone's affiliate links. This of course helps to build an tiered pyramid.
So I'm wondering if anyone on here has experience in bitcoins and associated affiliate programs. I think it's critical to diversify now. My confidence in Yt stable income is at a very low level.[DOUBLEPOST=1502679382,1502679001][/DOUBLEPOST]
I did not even know about this possibility exists. Thank you for information I will look to it.[DOUBLEPOST=1502677866,1502677654][/DOUBLEPOST]
But how to get in to this affiliated marketing ? Where to go in what to do?
Check the merchants you are interested in. At the bottom of the web page, there is usually an affiliate link.
amazon: affiliate-program.amazon.com/
hosting: bluehost.com/affiliates
There are also marketplaces like commissionfactory.com that you create an account, and can join various programs without signing up directly with those merchants. Saves lots of processing.