If you’re looking to start an affiliate site, you’re probably having a hard time finding templates. In the end, a lot of people talk about affiliation, but very few show a site that actually makes money . 💰
We reassure you, the sites of profitable affiliation exist well and truly. Most publishers hide their site simply to avoid competition. But don’t worry, we’ll show you some affiliate sites that have been working for years.
There are many large affiliate sites that are models of success, even though they require a lot of work and investment. But you’ll see that you too can get started quickly by creating smaller sites. 💪
Join 10,000+ makers and get all our latest tips for making a living from Blogging and Affiliate Marketing.
What is an affiliate site?
If you’re reading this article, you may know what an affiliate site is and how it can generate income online. In this case, we invite you to go directly to the list of referral sites using affiliate marketing and SEO to earn money.
Definition and example
An affiliate site uses the affiliate marketing to generate revenue. In other words, he will place in his articles affiliate links to an e-commerce, an online product/service or others. If a visitor to the site buys a product through the link embedded in the article, the site editor earns a commission. 💰
In most cases, a site designed purely for affiliate marketing will feature shopping guides, comparisons and tests. Some sites contain only this type of content while others do not. For example, we can see news sites that add a guide part to make affiliation.
Let’s take an example. 📝
If you want to buy a drone, chances are you’ll type in a Google query like “best travel drone“. Among the search results, you will come across “comparison” articles, which present the best drones to take along when traveling.
On these pages, you can notice that the editor presents several drones briefly and places a button to buy it on Boulanger or Amazon. If a user buys a drone after clicking on this button, which is an affiliate link, the site owner will earn a commission. 🤝🏽
What you need to understand is that every time you see a button or a link that refers to a paid product or service, the site is doing affiliation.
How do you recognize a good affiliate site?
As you have seen, it is possible to create an affiliate site on any theme. Simply because it is possible to use affiliate marketing to sell anything. But the problem is that there are good and bad ways to make money with an affiliate site.
For us, a bad affiliate site offers low quality content, often automatically written. Generally, these sites are done in a hurry. However, they can also generate income for a while. But there is very little chance that they will last. 📉
Most of the time, these sites contain about ten pages and are abandoned. In reality, the majority of sites built with this archetype do not generate any sales. This method may have worked in the early days of the Internet, but it is now a thing of the past.
Conversely, a good affiliate site offers quality content that provides value to readers. Of course, it is also a site that generates income in the long term. And to earn commissions regularly, an affiliate site must be optimized for search engine optimization. This way, it will attract visitors every day through search engines. 💪
In our opinion, a good affiliate site has different sources of monetization. To do this, he must work with several affiliate programs and platforms. If a site is dependent on one platform, it risks going from X commissions to zero overnight. Adding advertising, collecting emails to sell through a newsletter also allows you to diversify your income.
Now that you understand the difference between a good and a bad affiliate site, we’ll show you 14 sites that are references in the world of affiliate SEO. ⤵️
The list of 14 successful affiliate sites
We’ll show you some examples of affiliate sites that have been working for a long time in France. Most of these sites are “generalist“, meaning that they are not focused on a niche. However, we will also present sites specialized in a theme. 👀
If you want to succeed in the field ofwebsite publishing and affiliation, we invite you to take inspiration from them. Obviously, the goal is not to copy their entire content (which is strictly forbidden), but to repeat a process that works.
1/ Selectra.info
Selectra is a comparison site for gas, electricity, insurance, banks and more. On this site, you will find many buying guides to choose your internet box or your gas supplier for example. Each offer is presented in detail and the site leaves either a phone number or a link to sign up for a new provider.
In addition, the site also deals with the news surrounding banks, insurance, electricity and others. 🗞️
Electricity, gas, insurance comparisons are all individually competitive niches. By combining them, Selectra has become one of the largest online comparators in the country.
Here, we are on the example of an affiliate site that has pushed very far. For example, the company has created comparators where users have to answer questions to determine which offer is best for them. 🤓
Key SEO metrics:
As you can see, the site gets almost 2 million visits per month. Selectra is therefore a very large site, with a full-time team to take care of it.
2/ Sleeps.fr
Sleeps is an affiliation site specialized in the theme of sleep. On this site, you will find comparisons and buying guides for box springs, beds , comforters, mattress toppers and more. Several mattresses are tested one by one in comprehensive “Reviews” articles. 🛌
On the other hand, Sleeps offers comparisons for each specific sleep-related problem and preference. The site presents for example the best mattresses for back pain, soft, firm, memory foam, and others. The same goes for bedding, where Sleeps compares all brands of box springs, pillows, comforters, etc.
Besides, Sleeps also provides a lot of guides to choose your mattress, its size and others.
On the guides and reviews, Sleeps links to the websites of the manufacturing brands like Emma, Tediber, Evesleep, Hypnia, and more. As a result, Sleeps earns a commission every time someone buys a mattress through their affiliate link. 🤑
In short, this is a typical example of an authority site in a given theme. The owner of the site probably started out talking only about mattresses, then added box springs, pillows and the like.
Key SEO metrics:
As you can see, the site has more than 40.000 visits per month. Here, we are on a much more attainable example.
3/ Press-lemon.net
Presse Citron is a website specialized in computer science. At first sight, it offers news articles about tech. But in fact, Presse Citron is one of the biggest affiliation sites in France.
You can indeed find comparisons and buying guides for smartphones, computers and others. But Presse Citron also offers comprehensive reviews of other products, such as video games, drones, audio headphones and more. 🎧
On these tests, the site provides a lot of information about a product in comprehensive articles. You can find the strong and weak points, the characteristics and especially, images of the tested product. Each time, Presse Citron integrates affiliate links to the main merchant sites (Amazon, Cdiscount, Darty, Boulanger, etc.).
Besides, Presse Citron diversifies and also offers comparisons of online banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, for example. For each of these services, Presse Citron also provides a complete test.
Lemon Press is, in our opinion, the best thing you can do from an affiliate site. The big plus of this site is that it has several sources of monetization. He does affiliate marketing to several platforms, but also integrates advertising on his site.
That is, if an affiliate program is deactivated, it continues to generate money. 🤝🏻
Key SEO metrics:
As you can see, the site is very popular and generates almost two million visitors per month. As Presse Citron is a thematic site in the computer industry, you can take inspiration from it to create a niche site on a particular product for example.
4/ Selectos.eu
Selectos is an affiliate site that offers shopping guides in almost every theme. There are mainly comparisons and buying guides that present about ten physical products each time. Selectos also offers detailed tests as well as articles on gift ideas, user guides and more.
Selectos presents shopping guides on theHigh Tech, the kitchen, the beauty, the sport, the gardening and others. If you visit this site, you will see that each of these categories contains other niches. For example, in the home appliances section, Selectos offers guides on air conditioning, cleaning, etc. 🧹
By scrolling down the menu, you can find all the shopping guides related to this theme. In these guides, Selectos presents each product briefly with its characteristics, qualities and more. The comparison contains affiliate links to shopping sites such as Cdiscount, Amazon, Darty and others.
Key SEO metrics:
Selectos is in our opinion the perfect example of a generalist affiliate site for physical products. But as you can imagine, not everyone can create a site of this caliber. However, since Selectos deals with a lot of themes, you can also take inspiration from it to find a niche. 💪
5/ Dealabs
Dealabs is a “good deals” website. Clearly, it will list all the current promotions on the main merchant sites to its users. “Deals” are offered in multiple sectors, although the most popular is undoubtedly IT. 💻
Dealabs works very simply. Every day, the site releases new good plans on its website and its social networks. But when a promotion is interesting and lasts several days, it appears at the top of the good deals of its theme.
The Dealabs community can also offer good deals. In most cases, all deals contain affiliate links to Amazon, Steam, or others.
Key SEO metrics:
Dealabs is a site that has been reaching several million visitors per month for many years. This is a successful example of a slightly different site, which is not based on buying guides, but on a community aspect with regular good deals. 🤝🏼
We won’t lie to you, creating a site like Dealabs can’t be done alone. But again, it can be a good source of inspiration for finding an affiliate niche.
6/ Moneyvox.fr
Moneyvox is an affiliate site specialized in finance. You can find comparisons of online banks, financial investments, credits, insurance, tax optimization services. Here also, the site deals with many current topics related to finance. 🏦
In most cases, Moneyvox offers comparisons that briefly present the offers of each bank for example. However, the site has also created articles solely dedicated to a banking offer with all the advantages, conditions, features, etc.
Moneyvox also offers free simulators, especially for real estate and consumer loans.
In its buying guides, tests and comparisons, Moneyvox integrates affiliate links. However, the site also sells “ leads “. Here, the publisher will be paid every time a user fills out a quote request form, for example. 📝
With theaddition of advertising, Moneyvox has diversified its monetization sources. The site works with several affiliate partners and therefore, even if one affiliate disappears, Moneyvox will continue to generate revenue.
Key SEO metrics:
Moneyvox is an authority site in the field of finance. It is important to know that all the niches related to finance(online banks, real estate loans, tax exemption, etc.) are extremely competitive. So, even if you choose a single niche in this theme, it will be difficult to reach the top of the search results.
However, finance is also one of the most profitable themes in affiliation. If you have the budget and want to launch a big project, you can take inspiration from this site which is clearly a reference in the world of affiliate SEO. 🤩
7/ Zone-outillage.fr
As its name suggests, Zone outillage is an affiliation site specialized in outdoor and indoor tools. The site offers news articles, but also buying guides, comparisons and detailed tests. Tooling zone is not nested on any particular type of tool. 🛠️
You can find reviews on garden tools (hedge trimmers, lawn mowers, blowers, etc.). But also on tools for the building industry, to repair and maintain one’s car, and others. In other words, it compares and tests virtually every tool available on the market, regardless of the nature of its use.
The articles tests & reviews contain links of affiliations, either towards the site of the manufacturer, or on an e-commerce specialized or not in tools(Amazon, ManoMano, Castorama, etc).
Key SEO metrics:
Zone Tooling is the perfect example of a site authority in the theme works/garden. He surely started from a niche, i.e. a particular tool. To finally build a site that talks about all the tools. However, creating an affiliate site of this type requires a lot of work and/or investment. But it is a good inspiration if you want to start from a niche to create a “big” affiliate site.
8/ Meilleurtest.fr
Meilleurtest is a generalist comparison site, specialized in physical products. On this site, you can find comparisons on many different niches, from electric bikes to robot vacuum cleaners and virtual reality headsets.
Like other generalist sites, Meilleurtest offers buying guides presenting several models each time. In most cases, Internet users can access a complete test of each product. In the articles guides, reviews and others, Meilleurtest places affiliate links to Amazon, Cdiscount, Darty and others.
Meilleurtest is also a source of inspiration for writing “buying guide” articles. Indeed, each article contains a lot of sources and guides the reader step by step to choose a product. All products displayed are presented in detail and a FAQ section is available.
In our opinion, this is the site that offers the most qualitative shopping guides! 💪
Key SEO metrics:
Meilleurtest is a reference site on the affiliation of physical products. As you can see, it generates almost 500.000 monthly visitors. Here again, meilleurtest can be a good way to find a niche, among all the themes covered.
9/ Maisonae.fr
Maisonae is an affiliate site specialized in physical products. Contrary to what its name indicates, this site is not nestled in the home theme. In fact, it offers comparisons and buying guides on almost everything.
As you can see, the site sorts its comparisons and guides into several categories, including garden, home, beauty and others. Within each of these categories, Maisonae classifies several products by type. For each product, the site draws up a comparison and allows Internet users to see a complete review for all references. 🤝🏼
In the review or comparison articles, Maisonae places affiliate links to Amazon and other merchant sites. Next to that, the publisher has also added advertisements. The site therefore has two sources of monetization, in addition to doing affiliation with several platforms so as not to depend on one partner.
Key SEO metrics:
Maisonae is a good example of a generalist affiliate site for physical products. To achieve this type of result, it is essential to have experience and to work with a team of writers. You can still use it as inspiration to find a specific niche.
10/ Futura-sciences.com
Futura Sciences is not strictly speaking an affiliate site. On this blog, you will find current and informative articles on technology, health and science. Yet, Futura sciences also offers comparative articles, tests and buying guides. 👀
These comparisons are still nestled in the computer theme. For example, there are buying guides for televisions, drones, smartphones, cameras and more. In these comparative articles, Futura sciences briefly presents several products.
Obviously, these articles contain affiliate links, mainly to Amazon.
Less known in affiliation, Futura Sciences is however a very good example in the writing of shopping guides. If you wander through any of these articles, you’ll see that they don’t just feature products, but provide a whole lot of additional information.
If you want to learn how to write quality buying guides and comparisons, we invite you to take inspiration from what Futura Sciences does. 🤝🏼
Key SEO metrics:
Well, Futura sciences is one of the most visited websites in France. It is therefore almost impossible to reproduce. However, you can take inspiration from it if you want to start a niche site in the computer industry.
11/ Finance-heros.fr
Finance Hero is an affiliate site specialized in finance. On this site, you can find comparisons of online brokers and banks, financial investments and more. 🏦
Finance Hero also provides comprehensive guides on the technical aspects of finance. Several informative articles are available for example to learn how to invest in the stock market, crowdfunding and others.
Alongside, Finance Hero presents comparisons of the best PEA brokers, cryptocurrency exchanges and more. In these articles, the editor briefly presents several offers(qualities, defects, advantages, etc.), and includes an affiliate link to them.
But for each offer, Hero Finance has also written a full review. Here, users will be able to see a complete test of a cryptocurrency exchange platform for example(fees, frequently asked questions, features, etc.).
Key SEO metrics:
Finance hero is now a big affiliate site in the finance theme. Yet, he started his activity in February 2021. This is a perfect example of a publisher who has built an authority site in less than 2 years. If you’re looking to build an affiliate site of this caliber, we encourage you to take inspiration from Hero Finance, which is a model of success! 📈
12/ Idealo.fr
Idealo is an affiliation site that offers comparisons in all themes. You can find comparisons of video games, laptops, tools, perfumes and more. You can literally find comparisons on any type of product!
Idealo works differently from other affiliate sites you may have seen. In fact, it is more of a price comparison. That is to say that in relation to a product category, it will show all the references and their price. With each time, an affiliate link to the most competitive merchant site.
In itself, it works like an e-commerce where Internet users search for what they want to buy via a search bar. Idealo then presents a whole bunch of products that match the search. The only difference is that a visitor will not order on Idealo, but will be sent to an e-commerce like Amazon, for example. 📦
Creating this type of website requires much more advanced skills. But he remains a success story in the world of affiliate SEO.
Key SEO metrics:
Idealo is one of the biggest affiliation sites in France. It is mainly based on physical products, but not only. So this is a great way to find a niche if you want to get into affiliate marketing.
13/ Detective-banque.fr
Detective bank is an affiliation site nestled in the theme of banks. It offers comparisons of online banks, professional banks and others. However, Detective banque also presents guide articles and news surrounding its theme.
This site works the same way as the others. It features leading comparisons such as “the best professional online banks” for example. In this comparison, the editor presents different banks, their advantages, promotional offers and more.
For each offer, Detective bank leaves an affiliate link to sign up. Next to it, it also allows you to see a full review of each bank. 💸
Key SEO metrics:
Detective bank is a reference in the affiliation “bank“. It is clearly an authority site that will be very difficult to surpass for a beginner. But if you want to start publishing a site via such a competitive theme, we invite you to take inspiration from it.
In terms of SEO, copywriting and design, Detective banque is a success story. So you can use this as inspiration to write articles about competitive niches, for example. 💪
14/ Comparabanques.fr
Comparabanques is an affiliation site specialized in banking. It also presents several online banks, professional banks, but also diversifies on bank cards with advantages. In addition, Comparabanques also presents investment solutions and a comparison of brokers, PEA, etc.
The operation is the same as for the affiliate sites based on comparisons and shopping guides. Comparabanques presents several offers in one article, and then writes detailed tests on each banking offer. In addition, the site also provides a whole bunch of informational articles on how to close your bank account, for example. 💳
Key SEO metrics:
As you can see, Comparabanques is now an authority site that attracts more than 100,000 visitors per month. Yet, this site was launched in January 2021. Thus, it is in our opinion the perfect example of what can be done from scratch in 1 to 2 years.
We really invite you to take inspiration from him, as he represents a recent model of success. It will be much easier to project yourself with an example like this one than with a site that has been online for over 10 years.
Now you have some great examples of affiliate sites that have been performing and making money for a long time. As you have seen, these sites have for the most part thousands of pages, referring domains and others. So, you may have a hard time planning to create a site of this caliber. 😧
Rest assured, these sites have been around for years and their owners work with a team of writers. So these sites make a lot of money, but you can start smaller and create your own niche site. In a few years, you will be able to have this kind of site too!
If you want to start creating your own affiliate site, we invite you to download our free ebook. In this last one, you will learn how to start from a niche to create a website with little means. You’ll also be taught how to monetize a blog and repeat this process to create a site empire. 🤑
Ready to earn your first money on the internet through SEO affiliation?
Join 10,000+ makers and get all our latest tips for making a living from Blogging and Affiliate Marketing.
