Here are a few sites I’ve helped to recover from traffic loss. While EEAT wasn’t the only thing I focused on, it was part of the strategy.

In a nutshell, if your website’s user experience is subpar and doesn’t seem to be a trustworthy source, Google may view your site as unreliable and limit your ability to rank — even if you’re following all other “best practice” SEO guidance.

With the rise of AI-generated content, simply spinning up authority sites and bombarding them with links might not cut it anymore, at least not as a long-term strategy.

As such, EEAT is becoming an increasingly important element in ranking well. It’s likely one of Google’s ways to combat the flood of spammy content. After all, it’s harder for a bot to fake years of experience and a solid track record.

That’s why you need to optimize your site for it. This guide will help you do that.

What Does EEAT Mean?

So, what does EEAT stand for? Let’s break it down:

• E – Experience: Does your content demonstrate genuine experience, like using a product, visiting a place, or sharing personal insights?
• E – Expertise: Is your content created by an expert with years of industry experience?
• A – Authoritativeness: Are you a well-known industry leader with a strong online presence?
• T – Trust: Is your content trustworthy, factually accurate, and not just spun up info minutes?

Our video on the topic breaks these down in great detail:

EEAT is mentioned 121 times in the Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines –  a document Google uses to train people to give feedback on websites to train future algorithms. So you know it’s worth paying attention to.

A common misconception is that EEAT is a direct ranking factor. It isn’t. Instead, it indirectly affects the algorithm because search quality raters evaluate sites for it.

Now, I know what you might be thinking. Identifying how to optimize for these ranking factors can feel subjective and opinion-based. Many people in the industry share opinions on EEAT without data to back them up, which has caused a whirlwind of recycled misinformation.

But fear not! We’ve done the legwork – including reading the search quality rater guidelines cover-to-cover – and have practical tips to boost your website’s trust and authority.

Trust

According to Google, Trust is:

"the extent to which a page is accurate, honest, safe, and reliable."

It’s the most crucial aspect of EEAT, and there’s a significant overlap between trust and the other three components.

To determine your Trust score, quality raters try to understand who is responsible for your website. The more information available that proves a real person or company is behind the site, the higher your Trust score will be.

Gone are the days of running anonymous websites with fake author profiles. You need to step up and share genuine information about who’s responsible for your site, or risk getting penalized with every Google algorithm update.

But sharing contact information is just the beginning. Google also looks at what other websites say about you to gauge your reputation.

In fact, the search rater guidelines show exactly how they use search operators to check your reputation: they search for your brand name and exclude results from your own website.

Here’s an example from their guidelines: christian science monitor -site:csmonitor.com

If we look at the search results, we can see people legitimately talking about this newspaper without their website being included.

These signals demonstrate that the site is trustworthy. They have an active Twitter account, social media presence, a Wikipedia page, and other sites writing about them.

To assess Google’s perception of your site’s trust, run the same search operator on your own website. If there are no articles, social media accounts, or other pages mentioning your brand name, that’s a red flag.

The number of brand searches you get also plays a role. This is when people search directly for your brand name on Google. Popular brands like Walmart and Amazon have high trust scores partially because many people search for “Walmart” or “Amazon” to reach those sites directly.

Brands with enough Trust and popularity will get their own knowledge graph, another indication that Google sees them as legitimate and trustworthy entities.

How To Boost Your Trust Score

Here are a few tried and true ways to increase Trust.

Add Genuine Contact Information

The first step is to build a comprehensive contact page.

Think about what a real company would do when creating contact information. They would showcase their staff and make it easy for people to reach them.

Even a big site like Forbes makes it super simple to find the right contact:

On your contact page, include:

• A registered address
• A phone number that matches the address location
• Email addresses for different “departments” in your business
• An FAQ section answering common questions about contacting you

You can register an address using a service like iPostal1 and a phone number using Skype. Make sure the area code of the number matches your address location.

To make your site seem more like a business, set up different “department” email addresses for various inquiries, such as:

• Info@domain.com
• Advertising@domain.com
• Press@domain.com
• Partnerships@domain.com
• Feedback@domain.com

You can do this for free in Google Workspace using the “Aliases” feature.

Step 1: Click on Directory > Users once you’re logged in.

Step 2: Click on your main email.

Step 3: Click “Add Alternate Emails”.

Step 4: Add new emails for each suggested inbox.

Step 5: After adding all that info, make an FAQ section explaining how people can contact you based on their inquiry type.

Create an Extensive About Page

Next, build an About page that answers key questions about your business, such as:

• Who is behind the business?
• Why did you start it?
• What does your company stand for?
• How do you create your content?

The Broke Backpacker does a fantastic job with their About Us page:

Here are some key takeaways:

• They show they’re real people who do what they say
• They clearly state their website’s mission
• The numerous images demonstrate their travel expertise

👉 See also: Killer About Me Page Examples

Build Essential Legal Pages

The next step is to create a Privacy Policy and a Terms & Conditions page.

This is something a real company would take very seriously. They would want to be in compliance with all regulations and not end up in court over a piece of content.

You can easily generate a standard Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions page at PrivacyPolicies.com. However, I recommend consulting a legal professional if you’re running a large business.

Another legal requirement is a proper affiliate disclosure, which the Federal Trade Commission requires and Google looks for to determine trust. Check our list of affiliate disclosure examples to find a suitable one for your site.

Display these pages in your footer, like RTINGS.com does:

Explain Your Review Guidelines

If you publish reviews, create guidelines explaining your process to show transparency and build trust. This not only boosts Google’s trust in your site but also helps your reputation with readers.

NapLab’s review methodology page is a great example to follow.

Is the Website a Recognized Entity?

When a website gains enough trust and user interest signals, Google starts to treat it as an entity.

An easy way to determine if a website is a brand is to Google them. They’re likely an entity if they have a knowledge panel or a Wikipedia page.

For example, if we search for Walmart, we see they have both:

Legitimate brands will often have a Wikipedia page. This is one of the factors Google reviewers look for – does the Wikipedia page or other listings match what the company actually does? You can’t just “pretend” a fallen brand is your Wikipedia page.

Creating a company Wikipedia page for your brand can be extremely difficult and is often taken down by Wikipedia editors, especially if you’re not a long-standing company. Over the years, I’ve noticed that clients I’ve built Wikipedia links for are likelier to have a knowledge panel pop up.

The advantage is that Google officially recognizes your brand as an “entity” and a recognized topic rather than just a keyword.

Use sameAs Schema

Schema markup is a great way to help search engines, particularly Google, understand your content. It clarifies different aspects of your website that would otherwise be difficult for them to interpret, pointing out in the code where and how they can identify you as a reputable source.

sameAs schema signals that you are related to another object, making it clear that your website and profiles are linked.

It’s common to use sameAs schema to connect your social profiles to your website (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.).

This should be implemented on all the articles on your website. You can use Authority Hacker’s schema as an example:

This makes it easy for search engines to understand that these are YOUR social media accounts. Plus, all these social media accounts link to your website, creating a reciprocal relationship that crawlers can easily follow.

The goal is to create trust by listing a government entity that links back to your business or mentions it officially, signaling that you are a legitimate business.

Use publishingPrinciples Schema

The publishingPrinciples schema allows you to reference your publishing principles, making it clear to search engines that you follow legitimate guidelines. It shows that your content is accurate, safe, and reliable.

Verywell Health does a great job with this by mentioning their guidelines within their schema:

Right within the schema, they direct search engines to the page that explains how they produce content:

Schema is endless, and it can get confusing quickly.

If you’re just starting out and want to research how to implement schema on your website, simply study your competitors.

Use the Schema Markup Validator and input your competitors’ articles to see what’s under the hood and generate ideas to outdo them.

Expertise

A common way to demonstrate that your content is produced by experts is to leverage authors who are (or will be) well-known in the space. Your goal is to make it clear to Google and readers that your authors are legitimate.

Here are a few ways to do that:

Display More Information About Your Authors

Verywell Fit again does an excellent job of this. They go the extra mile to showcase their authors’ knowledge and qualifications.

They include the author’s name, photo, job or function, and links to their profiles. Each author has a dedicated page that tells readers exactly WHY they are qualified to write this content.

Their author pages are quite detailed, providing a wealth of information at a glance about who they are and what they do. They even highlight the author’s work and education.

They also list all the articles the author has written at the bottom of the page:

Within the articles themselves, they provide ample information to show who wrote the piece and link to the individual author page:

The goal is that if someone reviewed all this information, they would conclude, “Okay, this person is clearly qualified and has invested a lot into learning this information.”

Find Reputable Authors in Your Niche

If your site is just starting out or hiring credible people isn’t currently part of your process, you can research your competition and hire their writers to borrow their credibility.

There are a couple of ways to approach this:

Have them write a handful of articles on your website. Since they are already credentialed writers, you’d have them produce fresh content with their expert input.

Have them review existing content on your website. A common practice is to have experts review your writers’ work. For example, in the medical niche, it’s unlikely a doctor will write your content, but they might be willing to review it. For example, Healthline has doctors review their medical content:

Boost Your Authors’ Credibility With Schema

To further strengthen the connection between your authors and search engines, you can set up author schema markup to clarify who they are and that they are legitimate people.

Within your schema, you can make it very clear who wrote the article and even link to their social media profiles, such as LinkedIn.

NerdWallet does a good job of this. Their schema is clean and makes it easy for Google to understand. They essentially do the work for Google by tying the connections together.

Take this snippet – they link to the writer’s LinkedIn, university, information about them, author page, and even how to contact them:

Use Author Schema To Establish an Expertise Hierarchy

If you really want to go all out, use author schema to clarify who your entire team of writers and editors are.

Since Healthline is in a highly competitive industry, they take trust to the next level with their schema markup.

They make it very clear who the author is and who reviewed the content. In this case, the author was likely not an expert, but they had a doctor verify the content:

This is powerful because experts are often not the best writers. You can have a freelance writer produce a piece of content and then have a professional review it and put their stamp of approval on it.

Experience

There are three main ways to show Experience:

• Author history and reputation (already covered above)
• The language used within your content — did you actually try the product or demonstrate expertise?
• Showing unindexed media in your content — are you using the same images as 100 other websites, or are they unique and original?

Let’s explore the last two in more detail.

Use Descriptive Language for Your Experience

Within your content, express that you have actually used the item you are discussing or that you have experience in the topic.

Modern Castle does a great job of this. They clearly convey that they tried the product and structure their language around expressing their experience.

If you read the content, nearly every sentence describes their experience and how they felt about the product:

Use Original Media

Rather than using the same images as everyone else, use unique images.

If Google has indexed an image and sees that you and 500 other websites are using the same one, you will lose credibility and be lumped in with the other sites using this image.

Authoritativeness

With Authoritativeness, Google spells it out for us:

"...the extent to which the content creator or the website is known as a go-to source for the topic."

Essentially, make it clear that you are the “go-to” source for the information you are targeting.

There are several ways to approach this.

Find Authors Who Are Authorities on the Topic

As discussed above, if you or the authors you hire are credited writers in your niche, you’ll have a leg up in this department.

To find experts, consider making job posts on industry-relevant job sites or a “Write For Us” page to source writers from your readership.

Cover Trending Topics

Go where your niche hangs out and write about trending topics, even if they have low search volume.

Are you currently or regularly ranking for trending topics in your niche? If so, you would be viewed as a topical authority in your niche.

Research trending topics on social media where your audience is active. If most of your audience is on TikTok and you notice a certain topic getting a lot of views, research it further.

Often, trending topics are not well represented in keyword research tools. If something becomes popular quickly, Ahrefs or your favorite keyword tool will likely show a very low monthly search volume.

One such keyword would be “apple vision pro” when it was launched.

Just because Ahrefs shows a low search volume and hasn’t caught up to the trend doesn’t mean people aren’t searching for it like crazy.

If we check the Ahrefs data now, it shows a much different story:

You can also use Google Trends to find trending topics. Check the related queries for a topic to find similar topics that are trending.

From the perspective of search engines, it would be weird if you didn’t cover a topic like this. After all, if you are a true authority on the subject, you should be writing about the latest info in your niche.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this sheds some light on how to implement EEAT properly. As you can see, there are quite a few ways to address each of the aspects Google looks for.

Keep in mind that each factor has a lot of crossover.

Most importantly, focus on conveying to search engines and people that your content is legitimate and comes from an authoritative source.

By implementing these strategies, you can boost your website’s Trust, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Experience, and overall EEAT score, leading to better search engine rankings and more organic traffic.

Remember, building EEAT is a long-term process, but the effort you put in now will pay off in the form of a stronger, more reputable website that both Google and your audience will trust and appreciate.

So, roll up your sleeves, dive into your website, and start optimizing for EEAT today! Your future self (and your website’s traffic) will thank you.

Happy optimizing!

We’ve built many affiliate blogs in the past 10+ years – and have generated a ton of commissions in the process. Here’s a small sample of our earnings:

To help you get your successful affiliate blog up and running, we’ve poured our knowledge into this 10-step guide.

What Is Affiliate Blogging

An affiliate blog is a blog that earns money through affiliate marketing.

On an affiliate blog, you’ll create content around a certain topic and promote affiliate offers related to that content. You earn a commission when someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase.

The great thing about affiliate blogging is that you can write about any topic that interests you. As long as people are searching for information about your niche – and there are affiliate programs to promote – you’re in business!

👉 See also: How To Become an Affiliate Marketer? A Beginner’s Guide

Why Start a Blog for Affiliate Marketing

There are many reasons you should start a blog for affiliate marketing.

The first is money. Our affiliate marketing statistics show that successful affiliate marketers earn an average of over $8,000 per month. You can run your blog from anywhere, giving you the freedom to earn a location-independent, passive income.

An affiliate blog also allows you to immerse yourself in a topic you love: cooking, fitness, travel, or anything else. You can explore your interests and share your knowledge with others.

You can also build a community. An affiliate blog is the perfect vehicle to connect with other bloggers and readers interested in the same topics.

Examples of Successful Affiliate Blogs

Here are three affiliate blogs pulling in readers and making money from their content.

Mr. Money Mustache

Mr. Money Mustache is a popular personal finance blog run by a 30-something retiree. He’s used his expertise and passion for finance to build a strong following. He monetizes his content with affiliate offers and by selling digital products.

Fit Men Cook

Fit Men Cook began as a personal journal for Kevin Curry to tell his weight loss story, but it has grown over several years to cover several aspects of fitness. He makes money through affiliate offers and selling books and courses.

ShaverCheck

ShaverCheck writes comprehensive, experience-based reviews of electric shavers and shaving accessories.

How To Start an Affiliate Blog in 11 Steps

Here’s our in-depth guide to starting your own affiliate blog.

1 Narrow Down Your Niche

The first thing you need to do when starting an affiliate blog is to pick a niche.

Here are some characteristics to look for when deciding on a good affiliate niche:

• Evergreen: You should look for a niche with a long history of people searching for information about it. Topics with steady or growing search volume give you the best chance of building long-term success.
• High-paying affiliate programs: Since you’ll monetize your blog with affiliate marketing, you should look for niches with multiple high-paying affiliate programs to promote.
  👉 See our guide to high-paying affiliate programs for some great examples.
• You have interest or experience in the niche: You will be creating a lot of content for your blog, so it’s important that you stay interested to follow through over the long haul. That’s much easier if you have a genuine interest or experience in your niche.

For inspiration, check out our list of the best niches for affiliate marketing. You can also browse our other blog articles for tailored advice about specific niches.

Once you’ve decided on a broad niche – fitness is a good example – you must narrow your focus further.

That’s because readers expect content focused on their specific interests. Think about it – if you wanted bodybuilding advice, which blog would you rather read?

• A blog that only writes about bodybuilding
• A blog that writes about all kinds of fitness topics

The first option is what most people prefer.

Picking a sub-niche also makes it easier to build a core audience, as you can focus all content on their needs.

To pick a good sub-niche, start by considering the topics you’re interested in, then investigate.

Sticking with the fitness niche, here are some sub-niches you might consider for your affiliate blog:

• Bodybuilding: Reviews of bodybuilding supplements and training gear, plus informational articles about diet and workouts.
• Fat loss: Diet and exercise advice, along with reviews of supplements, books, and other related products.
• Hot yoga: Guides to performing yoga, how to set up a workout area, etc. Reviews of books, mats, yoga clothes, and similar products.
• Strength training: Program and equipment reviews, guides to picking a gym, and nutrition for strength training.
• Home gym: Guides for building a home gym in the attic, basement, or garage. Equipment reviews.

Passion for your blog niche will keep you interested in your new site, but you must also ensure that your sub-niche is popular enough to build a following and make money.

The best way to do that is to choose a focus area with successful blogs.

Here is our recommended approach for finding sub-niches with a history of affiliate blogging success:

Make a list of successful blogs in each book sub-niche you’re considering. Use a blog aggregator like Detailed or AllTop to find blogs in your sub-niche. You can also search Google for keywords related to your niche or use the “Organic Competitors” tool on Ahrefs to find websites similar to a blog you already know about.

Check traffic levels. High traffic levels are a sign of a successful blog. You can use a free trial of SE Ranking to check how much traffic the blogs on your list are receiving. Just type in the URL and then check out the Competitive Research section.

Compare prospective sub-niches with Google Trends. Google Trends can help you compare the relative traffic levels of several potential sub-niches.

If you’re still not sure which sub-niche you want to focus on at this point, watch our detailed video on selecting a blog niche:

Take a day or two to pick a sub-niche, but don’t get too bogged down on this step. It’s better to make a decision and move on than to over-analyze.

2 Choose a Blogging Platform

Now that you have a niche for your affiliate site, you must pick a platform for your blog.

A blogging platform is a service that hosts your content online and serves your site to visitors

There are a few free social blogging options, like Medium and Blogger. Beginners sometimes choose these platforms because they’re free and easy to use, but they have some serious drawbacks:

• You don’t own your site, so you must comply with the platform’s standards. Some of the content you want to publish might not be supported or even allowed.
• You have limited control over the design and functionality of your site.
• It’s hard to monetize a blog running on a free platform.

For these reasons, building your own website is the best choice for most bloggers. Here are a few of the benefits of a self-hosted blog:

• You control what your blog looks like and what content you publish.
• No one can shut down your blog or your blogging platform.
• A self-hosted blog makes earning money with affiliate products, display ads, and your own products and services much easier.
• You can use social media and SEO to drive traffic to your blog.
• You can build an email list to give you another revenue stream and to help protect your traffic from algorithm changes.

The best self-hosted platform for most blogs is WordPress – specifically WordPress.org (not WordPress.com).

WordPress.org gives you free access to the WordPress platform, and you can customize your blog with thousands of themes and plugins.

WordPress is the best choice in most cases, but there are other options.

👉 See our list of the best blogging platforms for alternatives.

3 Choose Your Domain Name

You’ve picked a niche and decided on WordPress for your platform, so now you must choose a domain name for your new blog.

A domain is the unique web address for your site. It includes the actual name of your site, plus an extension, like .com or .net.

Your domain name should be memorable and related to your niche so readers know what to expect from your content.

Here are some tips for picking a domain name:

• Choose a .com domain. No other extension is as trusted as .com. However, you can use a .com alternative if you have a particularly good name with an unavailable .com.
• Match it to your niche. Your domain name should give readers at least a hint about your niche.
• Keep it broad – Don’t make your domain name so specific that you can’t expand your content down the road. For example, you might start reviewing yoga pants, but your domain name should be broad enough to add content about other aspects of yoga later on.
• Keep it short. Short domain names are easier to remember and type, so you should keep your name to three words or less.
• Make sure it’s not trademarked. Once you have a domain name you think will work for your blog, do a trademark search to ensure no one else owns the name.

If you need help finding a good domain name that’s still available, you can use an AI domain generator like Brandsnap to help.

Once you pick a domain name, you need to buy it. We recommend Namecheap – it does everything you need for ~$10 annually.

4 Buy Web Hosting

It’s time to set up web hosting for your new affiliate blog.

A web host is a service that provides the infrastructure to store, manage, and serve your site to users.

Inexpensive options like Bluehost are popular with beginning bloggers, but SiteGround is our recommended host for most bloggers. It provides superior speed, reliability, and support.

Here is a quick step-by-step guide to setting up hosting on SiteGround:

Step 1: Go to Siteground’s WordPress hosting page.

Step 2: Choose the StartUp plan. It’s the least expensive and perfect for a new blog. Note that the price does increase after the first year.

Step 3: Select “Existing Domain” and enter your domain name:

Step 4: Fill in your account and location details:

Step 5: Add payment info and choose the subscription length. The best deal is usually the 12-month option.

Step 6: You don’t need extra services for a new blog, so skip them for now.

Step 7: Point your domain to SiteGround. If you bought your domain from a registrar like Namecheap, you need to change the DNS settings to point to SiteGround. You can use this DIY guide or ask SiteGround support for help with this.

And you’re done! Your hosting is set up — now it’s time to start building your blog.

5 Choose a Theme for Your Affiliate Blog

With web hosting in place, you can move on to choosing a WordPress theme.

A blog theme provides the visual framework your visitors see when they land on your site. As much as possible, match it to your niche and brand to help you make a strong connection with your readers.

For example, yoga blogs often feature soft color schemes with lots of white space and clean, legible text. They also showcase big, rich images.

As with your platform, you can pick a free WordPress theme or pay for a theme with more features.

While it’s OK to use a free theme when starting, ensure it also has the option to upgrade later. Most free themes have limitations that will slow you down as your affiliate blog takes off.

Here are our 3 favorite “freemium” themes that have a paid upgrade option:

Most Templates

Comes with lots of templates to help you design your site, and it’s super fast.

Get Astra

Easy to Use

Flexible and lightweight. It’s also easy to customize, even if you can’t code.

Get Kadence

Fastest

A fast theme that comes with amazing documentation and strong support.

Get GeneratePress

Once you’ve chosen your theme, you need to install it. Here’s how:

Step 1: Go to your WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: Go to the left sidebar and select Appearance > Themes.

Step 3: Click “Add New”

Step 4: Upload your theme file and click Install.

Step 5: Activate your theme.

That’s all there is to it! Now you have your WordPress theme and can start customizing your site.

6 Decide on Design & Branding

The WordPress theme you choose gives your blog a basic layout and design, but you should also fine-tune your site to match your brand and niche.

The first step is to pick a color palette — the set of colors you will use on your site. This choice will impact every aspect of your blog’s design, so take time to get it right.

Luckily, you don’t have to be a design expert to make the right choices here. Instead, you can use Coolors to create a color palette that fits your niche and looks great.

Once you pick a set of colors, you can design your site’s logo. This is another critical part of your brand identity because it’s one of the first things readers see when they land on your site.

Like your colors, your logo should match your niche and the tone you’re trying to set with your blog. For example, many yoga blogs have round logos that feature the silhouette of a person stretching.

But here again, you don’t need any design experience to create a great logo. We recommend using a Canva logo template and customizing it to fit your blog.

Here are some examples of Canva templates for yoga blog logos:

7 Create Essential Pages

Alright! Your blog has the building blocks of a strong brand identity, so now it’s time to add the pages that every blog needs.

All of these are essential, so don’t skip any!

Homepage

This is the “front page” page of your blog, and it should immediately let visitors know what your site is about. Use links, menus, and other navigation elements to help readers find what they want.

About Page

Your About page is your chance to show your audience who you are and why they should listen to you. Talk about your background in your niche and explain why you started the blog and where you plan to take it.

👉 See our list of awesome About page examples if you need some inspiration.

Contact Page

Tell your readers how to get in touch with you. Include a contact form, email address, and any social media accounts associated with your brand.

Privacy Policy + Terms and Conditions

These legal pages tell your readers about the information you collect and how they can use your site. Your site needs both pages, and you can generate them for free at PrivacyPolicies.com.

Creating new pages in WordPress is easy. Log in to your dashboard, click the “Pages” menu, and choose “Add New.”

8 Join Relevant and Reputable Affiliate Programs

Affiliate revenue will be the primary income stream for your new blog, so it’s important to join reputable affiliate programs relevant to your niche. That will give you the best chance of finding offers to help your audience and boost your bottom line.

Here are some things to look for in a good affiliate program:

• Products that are relevant to your audience. You should only review and promote products and services your audience is interested in.
  👉 See more: Best Products for Affiliate Marketing
• High commission rate. The higher the commission rate a program pays you, the fewer conversions you need to make good money.
• Long cookie duration. The cookie duration determines how long you can make commissions after someone clicks your affiliate link. The longer the cookie duration, the better.
• High conversion rate. Look for programs that consistently deliver a high conversion rate, which measures the percentage of your readers who click an affiliate link and buy something. Industry-average conversion rates run around 0.5% to 1%, but you should look for products that convert higher than that.
• High product quality. You want to build a long-lasting relationship with your readers, so you should only recommend great products and services. Look for affiliate programs that feature products with strong ratings.
• Good customer support. Make sure the affiliate programs you pick have good customer support to help you get set up and to help with any issues that might pop up down the road.

Affiliate marketing will be the bread-and-butter revenue source for your new blog, so do some research and pick the best programs for your new site. Your audience and your blog will love you for it!

👉 See also: Best Affiliate Programs for Beginners in 2024

9 Start Creating Content

Whew! You’ve done a lot of work to set up your blog, but now you finally get to start creating content about the niche you love.

It’s an exciting moment, but don’t just jump in and start writing about the first topic that comes to mind.

That might sound fun, but it’s not the smartest approach to your content.

Instead, I recommend adopting a keyword-focused content strategy to drive traffic to your blog. That means writing posts about keywords people search for on Google and other search engines.

You should create a nice mix of commercial and informational content for your affiliate marketing blog.

Commercial content includes product reviews, product roundups, and product comparisons. Informational content, on the other hand, doesn’t explicitly promote offers but instead helps readers learn more about your niche.

However, you should still include contextual affiliate links in your informational content. Just make sure the products you link to are directly related to your posts.

Look for keywords related to your niche with a decent monthly search volume but not much competition.

Ahrefs can help you with this keyword research. Just type a “seed keyword” into the Keyword Explorer, and Ahrefs returns a list of relevant related search terms along with their estimated search volumes. Look for keywords with volume above 150 and keyword difficulty of less than 25.

For example, here are some of the related terms that Ahrefs returns for the seed keyword “hot yoga”:

Use these keywords to come up with some blog post titles. Here are a few examples:

• “10 Best Hot Yoga Mats for Beginners”
• “5 Reasons Why Calories Burned in Hot Yoga Don’t Stop in the Gym”
• “7 Best Online Hot Yoga Classes When You’re in a Hurry”

Once you make 10 post titles, it’s time to write.

Here are some tips for creating top-notch affiliate blog posts:

• Understand search intent. Ensure you know what your audience wants to discover when they search for your target term, and then write your content to answer their questions.
• Consider your audience. Write with your audience in mind and use language that makes sense to them. For example, people interested in hot yoga don’t want a formal essay, but they expect you to use the yoga-related lingo correctly.
• Stay on topic. Don’t stray too far away from the keyword that your content is targeting. Instead, stay focused on satisfying the reader’s intent without adding fluff.
• Share personal stories. Readers want to know that you’re a real person with experience that can help them. Share personal stories that show you know what you’re talking about and help them relate to you.
• Link to other posts on your blog. Make sure to link to other relevant posts on your blog. That helps your readers learn more about your niche and can also help with SEO.
• Buy the products you review. It’s hard to write an authentic review if you’ve never used a product, so buying and using whatever you’re reviewing is always best.
• Take photos/videos of you using the product and add them to your post. Buying the products you review also allows you to include first-hand images in your posts. Using images to illustrate your words helps you connect with your audience and drive home your points.
• Look for niche-specific information hubs to find further inspiration. Most niches have online communities that are rich sources of information and inspiration. YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are hotbeds for yoga, for example.

In addition to these tips, the FTC requires you to tell readers that your content contains affiliate links. Ensure you include an affiliate disclosure at the top of each blog post.

You can read more details about satisfying this requirement in our post about affiliate disclosures.

The ultimate success of your affiliate blog depends on the quality of your content and how well you satisfy user search intent. Focus on answering your audience’s questions as thoroughly as possible with each post you publish.

10 Promote Your Affiliate Blog

Writing great content is vital to the success of your blog, but your posts won’t show up in Google search results right away. You should promote each post online to start getting traffic in the meantime.

Here are some tips for promoting your blog and helping readers find your content:

• Share posts in online communities and on social media: Almost every niche has a strong online community across various social media platforms. Figure out where your readers hang out and share your content with them there.
• Email list: Offer your readers a freebie related to your niche in exchange for their email address. Then send them an email update when you publish new content.
• Optimize your website for SEO: Target search intent and answer your readers’ questions with each post. It’s one of the best long-term strategies for building traffic since Google and other search engines can send new readers to your posts for months or even years.
• Collaborate with other bloggers in your niche. Work with other bloggers to promote each other’s content to your existing audience. This approach works well with complementary niches. For example, a yoga blogger might collaborate with a meditation blogger.
• Look for local promotion opportunities. Try to find a way to promote your blog offline, in your local community. For example, you might start a niche-specific club, write a guest column for the local newspaper, or set up at local fairs and hand out information about your niche.

However, you approach promotion, make sure it’s genuine. Spamming links to your blog won’t help you build a devoted audience.

11 Monetize Your Affiliate Blog

You’ve posted the first content to your affiliate blog and decided on a promotional strategy. Now it’s time to get paid for your work by monetizing your blog.

Since the primary monetization strategy for your new blog is affiliate marketing, you must ensure you promote your affiliate links in as many places as possible.

Here are some tips to make your affiliate offers as visible as possible:

Add affiliate links to your posts. Make sure to include affiliate links for each product you review or include in a roundup, and look for places to include your affiliate links, even in informational posts, naturally. For example, if you’re writing about a specific yoga technique, you can link to a book or course that teaches more about the same topic.

Add product feature boxes to your posts. Make the products and services you’re reviewing stand out by including product feature boxes in your posts. You can do this with GenerateBlocks, which lets you easily create eye-catching product summaries and include affiliate links.

Create banner display ads for your links. Draw attention to your affiliate links by creating banner display ads for the offers you’re promoting. Most affiliate programs provide ready-made banners you can use, so you won’t need to design them yourself.

Create a Resource page. Gather all of the products and services you recommend onto a single page. It’s convenient for your readers because they can find everything they need all in one spot, giving you another place to include your affiliate links. Check out our list of the best online marketing tools as an example.

Even though you’re building an affiliate blog, you should also take advantage of other monetization strategies:

Display Ads

Ads are automatically served to your readers through an ad network or direct sponsorships.

Why It’s Great: You’ll get paid whenever someone views or clicks on an ad. Unlike affiliate offers, you don’t have to actively do any promotion since the ad network does all the work for you.

Get Started: Beginners can sign up for Ezoic to get ads on their site immediately. Once you have more traffic, you can join a higher-paying network like Mediavine (minimum 50,000 monthly sessions) or Raptive (minimum 100,000 monthly sessions). Direct sponsorships are another option and offer more control and potential profit.

Sell Your Own Products

Create digital or physical products and sell them directly to your readers.

Why It’s Great: You can create products you know your audience will love, and you get to keep all the profits instead of just earning a small commission.

Get Started: First, identify your audience’s problems and determine how to solve them. For a yoga blog, that could mean writing an ebook about setting up a home yoga studio or producing a short video course illustrating various workouts. You can also make your own version of your top-performing affiliate offers.

Summing Up

You’ve learned the fundamental steps to launch your affiliate marketing blog and start earning passive income.

However, there’s still a wealth of knowledge to uncover that can supercharge your success.

Blogging and affiliate marketing have steep learning curves, and I couldn’t include all the necessary information in this blog post.

That’s why we’ve created a free training that reveals the most effective secrets and tactics we’ve discovered over a decade of profitable blogging.

This training is designed to give you a significant advantage. On average, bloggers who implement these techniques are 83% more successful than those who don’t.

If you’re serious about maximizing your affiliate income, you won’t want to miss out on this valuable resource.

Join the free training now. 

FAQ

Take it from us – we’ve earned substantial revenue from our own blogging projects over the years. Here’s a small sample of our blog earnings:

We’ve also taught over 14,000 students how to build similarly successful and profitable blogs.

If you’d like to follow in their footsteps with a wedding blog, check out our 10-step guide below.

Why Start A Wedding Blog

If you’re passionate about weddings and want to share your knowledge and experiences with the world, starting a wedding blog is an excellent idea.

Not only can it be a fun and rewarding hobby, but it can also be a lucrative venture.

You can monetize your wedding blog in various ways, such as promoting services, selling wedding-related products, or partnering with affiliates. Our affiliate marketing statistics show the average affiliate marketer earns over $8,000 monthly, and the wedding industry offers many high-value products to recommend.

A wedding blog also lets you connect with other industry professionals, such as photographers, caterers, and dress designers, which can lead to valuable collaborations and partnerships.

As your blog grows in popularity, you may even have the opportunity to attend exclusive wedding events and share your experiences with your audience.

Examples Of Successful Wedding Blogs

Before we cover how to start a wedding blog, let’s check out some examples of what successful wedding blogs look like:

Ruffled

Ruffled is an informative blog with wedding ideas, planning tips, and vendor recommendations. Readers can submit their wedding experiences to be featured on the site.

A Practical Wedding

A Practical Wedding is a blog started in 2008 by Meg Keene that offers realistic wedding planning tips and promotes equality and diversity in the wedding industry.

Love Inc

One of the most inclusive wedding blogs around, Love Inc. focuses on celebrating couples in many forms. The site has a podcast, galleries for inspiration, and a comprehensive vendor guide.

How to Start a Wedding Blog in 10 Easy Steps

Ready to launch your wedding blog? Follow this step-by-step guide to boost your chances of success.

1 Narrow Down Your Niche

Wedding bloggers can write about many topics related to weddings and marriage.

After all, the wedding industry is vast and diverse. Your blog can focus on anything, from helping couples plan their dream wedding to sharing tips for a happy and healthy marriage.

However, you’ll want to narrow your focus to maximize your chances of success.

Think about it – if you’re looking for inspiration and advice for a beach wedding, which would you prefer to visit?

1. A blog exclusively dedicated to beach weddings
2. A generic wedding blog that covers all types of weddings

Most people would prefer the first option.

By niching down, you can attract a more focused audience, and it’ll be easier to establish your blog as a go-to resource in that area.

Here are a few potential sub-niches:

• A vendor-focused wedding blog: Many wedding blogs focus on couples, but what about vendors? Create a blog with tips for photographers, caterers, and new wedding planners.
• Wedding planning and prep: Help couples handle the stress of preparing for the big day with wedding blogs covering everything from seating charts to color palette selection.
• Wedding style: Look at everything from dress styles to shoes and accessories for wedding party members, table decorations, and wedding themes.
• Wedding themes: Concentrate on specific themes, such as vintage, retro, or outdoor weddings for nature lovers.
• Honeymoon tips: Focus on what happens after the wedding, helping readers to plan honeymoons and even write “thank you” cards for attendees.

To ensure you’re picking a niche with profit and traffic potential, use a blog aggregator like Detailed or Alltop. These may not have wedding categories, but you can hunt for wedding blogs in adjacent niches like fashion and food.

Once you find a relevant blog, you can use the “Organic Competitors” report on Ahrefs to find similar blogs.

Next up is finding traffic levels. Sign up for a free trial of SE Ranking and use the Competitive Research report to see how many monthly visitors each blog gets.

If you’re stuck between a few niches, you can compare their potential with Google Trends.

You want to choose a niche you’re passionate about that also has an audience hungry for more content. Look for that sweet spot — not too crowded with competition, but still popular enough to attract a dedicated following.

It’s also important to choose a niche that genuinely interests you. Your enthusiasm will shine through and make your blog posts more engaging for readers.

If you need extra help selecting a niche, check out our guide here:

When you’re ready to tie the knot with your choice, move on to the next step.

2 Choose a Blogging Platform

Now you know your niche, you need a platform to host and promote your content.

While free social blogging sites like Medium or Blogger may seem appealing, they come with limitations. It’s hard to make money, and you have less control over what you can say. The platforms can even remove your posts if you don’t adhere to their content guidelines.

You also can’t customize your blog’s design – you’re stuck with the platform’s design.

Creating your own website is the best option, as it comes with some key advantages:

• You’re in full control – no one else can alter or remove your posts
• You can monetize your content with ads and affiliate links to generate income
• You can use SEO tactics and relevant keywords to attract free traffic from search engines
• An eye-catching design is just a few clicks away – easily change colors and layout to engage readers
• Growing your blog also boosts your social media presence, keeping you connected with fans
• You can build an email list for direct audience access, insulated from algorithm changes
• Your blog is a valuable asset you can sell for a hefty profit. We’ve sold multiple blogs for six-figure sums ourselves

I’ve used many blogging and website-building platforms, but I always go back to WordPress.org (not to be confused with WordPress.com).

With WordPress.org, you can build your site for free (though you do need to pay for hosting and a domain name). WordPress is also easy to use and extremely flexible. You can customize your site with plugins and unique themes.

3 Choose Your Domain Name

There are already thousands of wedding blogs. Even if you choose a specific niche, you need a memorable brand to outshine the competition.

This starts with selecting an iconic domain name for your site.

A domain name is the digital address for your wedding blog, made up of your website name and a TLD extension, like “.com”:

You need something easy to remember and spell (so people can find you) and something that makes your blog stand out.

Here are a few tips to boost your chances of success:

• Be descriptive: Your wedding blog domain name doesn’t have to tell people exactly what you write about but should offer a hint. People searching for wedding planning tips are more likely to visit “weddingplanning.com” than “loveandrings.com.”
• Consider using keywords: Give your wedding blog an SEO boost by adding relevant keywords to your name, such as “wedding,” “marriage,” or “honeymoon.”
• Choose a .com domain: There are many domain TLDs, including .love. But a .com domain is still the most authoritative and recognizable choice. If you have a great name but an unavailable .com, consider a .com alternative.
• Make it memorable: Have fun with your name. Experiment with rhyming, alliteration, or metaphors, like “TheKnot” or “WeddingWonders.”
• Check originality: Always do a trademark search before choosing a domain name. You don’t want your blog to be associated with a pre-existing company.

If you’re struggling to find a great domain name, an AI domain name generator like Brandsnap is great for getting your creative juices flowing.

Once you’ve chosen your name, you’ll need to buy it. We recommend Namecheap, which costs as little as $10 annually.

4 Buy Web Hosting

You’ll need hosting if you use a WordPress.org site for your blog. This means paying for the infrastructure you need to deliver content on the web.

There are plenty of great hosting providers out there. Many beginners recommend Bluehost because it offers cheap plans.

However, we recommend SiteGround. They provide a faster and more user-friendly service for around the same price.

Here’s a step-by-step process for getting SiteGround hosting:

Step 1: Go to their WordPress Hosting page.

Step 2: Select the cheapest plan (StartUp). This plan has everything a new wedding blog needs. Note that this is an introductory price, and the cost will increase when your subscription renews.

Step 3: Add the domain name you bought in the previous step.

Step 4: Add account and location details.

Step 5: Add payment info and pick your subscription period.  The 12-month plan is the best value.

Step 6: Skip the extra services — you don’t need them for a new blog.

Step 7: Point your Namecheap registered domain name to your new SiteGround hosting server. This DIY guide will walk you through it, or you can contact SiteGround support.

Congrats! You’ve now got hosting for your wedding blow. Now, it’s time to flesh out your design.

5 Choose a Theme for Your Wedding Blog

Now it’s time to select a WordPress theme for your new wedding blog. This theme will define your site’s look, feel, and structure, so choose one that matches your preferred style.

When starting, I recommend using a free WordPress theme that offers a premium upgrade. Free themes work well for beginners, but you may run into limitations as your blog grows if you can’t upgrade.

To avoid this, consider one of my top three theme suggestions below. They all have excellent template options and provide free versions with the ability to upgrade:

Most Templates

Lightweight and customizable, with sleek, fast-loading pages.

Get Astra

Easy to Use

Provides handy drag-and-drop sections and pre-built components.

Get Kadence

Fastest

Combines speed and stability with block-based customization tools.

Get GeneratePress

Once you pick your theme, follow these steps to install it:

Step 1: Log in to your WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: Go to Appearance > Theme in the left sidebar

Step 3: Click “Add New.”

Step 4: Search for the theme you want to use.

Step 5: Click “Install Now” and “Activate.”

Now that the theme is added, you must add some basic design elements.

6 Decide on Design & Branding

A good theme gives you the foundation for an attractive wedding blog. However, it’s still up to you to differentiate your website with the right branding and design.

You need a few things for a great brand, but a color palette is one of the most important things to start with.

For a wedding brand, you might choose romantic colors like pink, purple, and red, or experiment with classic colors like white and gold. Think carefully about your target audience and what kind of personality you’re trying to convey.

I recommend using Coolors to find a matching color scheme.

Once you have your color palette, you can look into logo design. Canva is a great logo creation tool, even if you’re not skilled at graphic design.

Open Canva and search for “Wedding logo” to get started. You’ll see many design options you can customize with your colors.

Once you’ve found a logo, you can use it across your website, social media posts, and even your packaging if you sell products.

7 Create Essential Pages

Now you’ve got your website, theme, domain name, and even your logo, it’s time to create a few essential pages for your site.

Homepage

Your homepage is often the first page visitors see, so it should share the content of your wedding blog and ensure visitors can easily navigate to important sections.

About Page

A good “About” page is crucial for a wedding blogger. It tells your audience why they should trust your opinions and advice. Here, you can provide insights into your experience in the wedding industry or accompanying niche.

You can also tell a story that helps you connect with your audience more deeply. Talk about how you fell in love with wedding photography, planning, or catering and why you decided to become a blogger.

👉 Check our list of great About page examples for inspiration.

Contact Page

Ensure your contact page includes a basic contact form, links to your social accounts, and an email address at a minimum.

Privacy Policy + Terms & Conditions pages

These are legal pages that every blog needs. You can generate these for free using PrivacyPolicies.com.

To add these pages, go to your WordPress dashboard, click “Pages” in the left-hand menu, and select “Add New.”

8 Start Creating Content

While writing about anything that comes to mind may sound fun, I recommend using a keyword-focused content strategy.

Targeting the right keywords is essential for attracting readers and monetizing your wedding blog. The goal is to create content around search terms that engaged couples frequently use.

When you optimize your posts effectively, search engines like Google may display them to users looking for those keywords, driving targeted traffic to your blog.

However, simply writing about the most popular wedding topics won’t guarantee immediate results.

High-volume keywords also face fierce competition in the search rankings, making it difficult for new blogs to rank highly.

The smarter approach is to target less competitive wedding-related keywords. This improves your odds of getting traffic and generating income. Look for keywords with lower competition but still many monthly searches.

Ahrefs Keyword Explorer is the perfect tool for this research.

Enter a “seed keyword” relevant to your wedding blog niche. This will reveal keywords that strike the optimal balance between search volume and competition level.

For instance, if you search for “wedding planner” in Ahrefs, you’ll see results like:

Use these keywords to make blog post titles. Here are some examples:

1. A Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming a Wedding Planner
2. How Much Does a Wedding Planner Cost? We Did The Math
3. The Ultimate Wedding Planning Spreadsheet: Streamline Your Process and Impress Clients
4. How to Find a Wedding Planner in 10 Easy Steps

Once you have 10 blog post titles, it’s time to start writing! Use these tips to ensure you’re crafting great content:

• Research your audience: Learn as much as you can about your audience and the questions they ask. You can even check out the “People Also Ask” section on Google for insights into possible subheadings for your articles.
• Understand intent: Think about the intent of your audience when they’re searching for your target keyword. The more relevant information you can give, the better your post will do.  
• Share personal experience: Tell your own stories and share anecdotes. This will differentiate your content from other, more generic blogs.
• Be cautious about copyrights: Don’t assume they’re free to use because a caterer or vendor shares photos on their website. Ensure you have permission to use any multimedia content you’ll show in your blog.
• Be visual: Most wedding blogs are packed with inspirational images. Include images if you’re writing about wedding themes, dress styles, or color palettes. Create your own, or use tools like Pixabay and Flickr to find stock photos.
• Use internal links: If you mention something you’ve covered in another article, link to it. This makes navigating connected posts easier for customers and search engines.
• Stay focused: Don’t stray into different, unrelated topics. Stay focused on your keyword. If you’re writing about wedding color palettes, don’t start discussing venue options too. You can always create a different article later.

Feeling overwhelmed? Remember the golden rule for great blogging: deliver value. Your blog posts should be more informative, engaging, and experience-driven than anything else on the search results.

9 Promote Your Wedding Blog

Articles optimized for search engines should eventually gain traction, but it won’t happen overnight.

Fortunately, there are many other ways you can promote your wedding blog. Here are some of our favorite options:

• Post on community forums: Share your wedding blog posts on community forums and “group” channels on Facebook. You can even check out subreddits like r/Wedding or r/WeddingPlanning.
• Create shareable resources: Get your audience to do your promotion for you with resources they’ll want to share, such as color palette generators, wedding-themed quizzes, or directory lists for vendors.
• Collaborate: Work with other experts in the wedding industry. Post guest blogs on high-authority websites, or interview wedding vendors and planners and share their insights on your blog.
• Use visual social channels: The wedding niche is perfect for visual social media channels like Instagram and TikTok. Promote your content with trending hashtags, or participate in hashtag challenges to attract more followers.
• Attend wedding events: Get involved with local wedding fairs and events in your industry. This is a great way to find new customers, promote your blog, and even form relationships with future partners.

Remember to avoid being spammy or aggressive. You should focus on connecting with your audience, not just driving traffic.

10 Monetize Your Wedding Blog

Once you have traffic coming to your wedding blog, it’s time to think about monetizing your blog.

There are many ways you can boost your income with a great blog. For instance:

Use Affiliate Marketing

Join an affiliate program and promote another company’s wedding-related products or services. You earn a commission on each sale referred through your affiliate links.

Why It’s Great: Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to monetize a wedding blog. You can promote a wide range of products and services, from catering and photography to bridesmaid dresses and wedding decorations, without handling inventory or customer service.

Get Started: Read our guide on how to start affiliate marketing and find products to promote in our list of the best wedding affiliate programs.

Try Display Ads

Show display ads on your blog and earn money based on views or clicks.

Why It’s Great: Display ads can provide a passive income stream with minimal effort on your part. You can work directly with wedding industry companies or use an ad network to streamline the process.

Get Started: Start with a user-friendly platform like Ezoic. You can explore more advanced ad networks like Mediavine or Raptive as your traffic grows.

Sell Physical Products

Partner with dropshipping or print-on-demand companies to sell customized wedding products without handling inventory or shipping.

Why It’s Great: Selling wedding products allows you to offer tangible value to your audience while earning a profit. Dropshipping and print-on-demand services minimize your upfront costs and logistical responsibilities.

Get Started: Research popular wedding products and identify reliable dropshipping or print-on-demand partners. Integrate their products into your blog, showcasing them through engaging content and product pages.

Create Paid Courses

Create premium courses teaching vendors how to manage a schedule, price their products, or update their marketing strategies.

Why It’s Great: If you’re targeting a B2B audience, paid courses can be lucrative. Wedding vendors and business owners are often willing to pay for insights to improve their services and capture more clients.

Get Started: Identify the key challenges and knowledge gaps among wedding vendors. Create comprehensive courses addressing these topics using platforms like Teachable or Thinkific and promote them to your audience.

Sell Spots on Vendor Directories

Sell spots on a comprehensive “vendor directory” list to local wedding-related companies.

Why It’s Great: If your website has substantial traffic, vendors will happily pay for the opportunity to get more exposure for their business. It’s a win-win situation, as you earn income and provide a valuable resource for your audience.

Get Started: Create an attractive, user-friendly vendor directory on your website. Reach out to reputable local vendors and offer them paid listings.

Promote and Sell Your Services

Showcase your expertise as a wedding professional and use your blog to promote and sell your services.

Why It’s Great: If you’re already skilled in a wedding-related field, such as planning, photography, or catering, your blog can be a powerful marketing tool to attract clients and grow your business.

Get Started: Highlight your services prominently on your blog, creating dedicated pages with detailed information and pricing. Share case studies, testimonials, and behind-the-scenes content to demonstrate your expertise and build trust with potential clients.

Summing Up

We’ve covered the essential steps toward starting a successful wedding blog…

…but there’s so much more I couldn’t cover.

Blogging has a deep learning curve, and if I tried to cover every important tip and strategy to maximize your chances of success, I’d probably have to write more than a million words.

That’s why we created a free training – it covers some of the best secrets and tactics we’ve learned in over 10 years of profitable blogging.

Our tests have found that bloggers who use this free training are 83% more successful than those who don’t.

Get the free training now.

FAQ

But to create a blog that attracts readers, you have to do it right.

We’re here to help. Over the past decade, we’ve built (and sold) many successful blogs and have guided over 14,000 people in creating their own. Check out a small sample of what our blogs have earned:

To help you achieve similar results, we’ve put together this 11-step guide to launching a profitable blog.

Why Start A Blog

There are plenty of good reasons to start a blog, but the most exciting one is that you can make money blogging.

How much can you earn? Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to monetize a blog. Our affiliate marketing stats show that the average affiliate marketer makes over $8,000 monthly.

We’ve also sold a few blogs for six figures. Many people don’t realize you’re creating a valuable asset you can sell when you build a blog.

You’ll also build a community by establishing trust and loyalty with your readers. You’ll be the leader of your own tribe – a thought leader in your niche or topic. How cool is that?

Plus, it’s just plain fun! If you love writing, it’s a great way to channel your passion, discover new things, and connect with like-minded people.

Examples Of Successful Blogs

Before starting your blog, it’s a good idea to see what successful blogs that make money are doing so you can emulate their tactics.

Here are a few examples of popular blogs in various niches to inspire you:

Fresh Off the Grid

Fresh Off the Grid is a blog for outdoor enthusiasts. Most of its posts are about camping recipes, but it also covers hiking, camping, and backpacking.

The Hawaii Vacation Guide

The Hawaii Vacation Guide is an authentic travel blog that helps people plan every aspect of their visit to Hawaii.

👉 For similar blogs, check our list of travel blog examples.

Cup of Jo

Cup of Jo is a lifestyle blog started by Joanna Goddard in 2018. She writes about style, culture, food, travel, relationships, and parenting.

How To Start A Blog In 11 Steps

Ready to start a blog of your own? Here’s our step-by-step guide to starting a blog in any niche:

1 Narrow Down Your Niche

It might sound fun to write about any topic that comes to mind. But you must pick a niche to build a real audience and earn money.

Start by thinking about what you’re passionate about. While it’s important to evaluate your niche for traffic and earning potential – which we’ll do in a bit – passion and knowledge are key for starting a blog in 2024.

If you need some inspiration, check out our list of the best niches for affiliate marketing.

You can also read one of our guides on how to start a blog in specific niches:

Once you have a few ideas, it’s time to start qualifying them. This is a crucial step – without it, you could spend years building a blog with little chance of success.

First, consider how broad each topic is. Broader topics are generally harder to succeed with because they compete more with established blogs.

If you think your topic might be too broad, break it into more achievable sub-niches.

This can also boost your earning potential. Sub-niches tend to be easier to rank for on Google and can attract a more targeted audience that is more likely to spend money.

Let’s use the travel niche as an example. Writing about topics most travelers are interested in — like reviews of popular destinations or common travel tips — will have you competing against huge websites like Nomadic Matt or Lonely Planet.

When you get more specific, ranking on search engines like Google gets easier.

• Budget travel: A blog about finding affordable accommodations, flights, and activities.
• Solo travel: Cover the latest trends and tips for traveling alone safely.
• Off-the-beaten-path destinations: Discuss unique, lesser-known places to visit around the world.
• Backpack reviews: Analyze the latest travel packs for factors like durability and practicality.
• Travel photography: Share stunning photos and tips for capturing amazing shots while traveling.

Once you’ve identified a promising sub-niche, check for user interest and earning potential. The best way to do this is to look for other thriving blogs in that sub-niche.

Here’s a simple step-by-step process:

List successful blogs in the niche. You can find popular blogs using a blog aggregator like Detailed. Or plug a blog into the Ahrefs Site Explorer to see its “Organic Competitors” report.

Analyze their traffic. You can do this with a free trial of SE Ranking. The Competitive Research report will show you how much traffic it gets.

Compare interest with Google Trends. Enter the sub-niches you’re considering to see how they stack up against one another.

For more help choosing a niche, watch our niche selection video:

It’s OK to spend a few days weighing your options. But don’t take too long – it’s better to pick something and get started than to overthink it for weeks.

2 Choose a Blogging Platform

With your blog’s niche selected, you’re ready to choose a blogging platform.

A blogging platform is a service that provides the tools needed to create, publish, and manage a blog online.

There are plenty of blogging platforms out there. Many beginners gravitate toward free blogging platforms like Medium or Blogger because they’re easy to use and set up.

However, these free platforms also have some drawbacks:

• The customization options are limited. Your blog’s design and functionality will be similar to all the other blogs on the platform, making it hard to stand out.
• It’s challenging to monetize with a free blogging platform.
• The platform decides what you can and can’t post.

You’re better off building a website for maximum control over your blog and its success. Here are some of the benefits:

• You have total control of how your blog looks, feels, and works.
• Nobody can shut your blog down. Your blog content is yours.
• A self-hosted site is easier to monetize than a free blogging platform. You can earn money by displaying ads, adding affiliate links to blog content, selling products, etc.
• You can drive free traffic via social media and search engine optimization (SEO). SEO gives you some control over your blog’s visibility on search engines.
• By building an email list, you can diversify your traffic sources, which can help protect your traffic from the volatility of search engine algorithms.

When building a website, we recommend WordPress.org. (FYI: This is not the same as WordPress.com.)

Not only is it free, but building a self-hosted WordPress blog also gives you access to thousands of themes and plugins. You can use these to customize how your site looks and functions.

3 Choose Your Domain Name

Next, you’ll choose a blog domain name.

A domain name is a unique address with your blog name and a domain extension. For example, our domain name is “authorityhacker”, and we use the .com extension.

Your domain name will be the first thing people see in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and will set your brand identity. So, make it count! It should be catchy and memorable and make a good first impression.

Here are a few tips for picking a domain name:

• Make it short and simple: Limit it to 6–14 characters, and avoid hard-to-spell words.
• Choose something memorable: Create a blog name that’s catchy and easy to pronounce. This will come in handy with word-of-mouth advertising.
• Avoid hyphens and numbers: These can be confusing, especially if someone is trying to share your blog with someone else.
• Select a .com domain: .com domains provide a sense of familiarity and trust. If you’ve found a great domain that isn’t available as a .com, you can consider a .com alternative.
• Consider branding: For consistency, ensure your blog’s name is available on each social media platform. Use Brandsnag to do this quickly.
• Think long-term: A broader name can open the door to expanding later, even if you’re going with a specific sub-niche.

The right domain can make or break your brand. So, if one doesn’t come naturally, you can use an AI tool like Brandsnap to help you generate ideas.

This video explains how it works:

Once you decide on a domain name, you need to buy it. We recommend Namecheap. It provides everything you need for an affordable $10/year price.

4 Buy Web Hosting

Now that you have a domain name, you can buy web hosting.

A web host provides the necessary infrastructure to store, manage, and show your WordPress blog online.

Many people recommend Bluehost because it’s affordable. However, SiteGround offers much more value at a slightly higher price.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to securing web hosting through SiteGround:

Step 1: Go to SiteGround’s WordPress Hosting page.

Step 2: Select the cheapest web hosting plan (StartUp). It has all the basics that a new WordPress blog needs.

Note: As a new SiteGround customer, you’ll save ~80% on web hosting during your first year. They’ll bill you at the normal rate when your plan renews.

Step 3: Choose “Existing Domain” and enter your domain.

Step 4: Enter your account and location information.

Step 5: Add payment info and choose a subscription period. The 12-month plan will give you the best deal.

Step 6: Skip the extra services offered. You won’t need any of these for a new blog.

Step 7: Point your domain to your SiteGround server. This tutorial walks you through how to do this.

It’s really that simple. Your WordPress site is now live and ready to go!

5 Choose a Theme for Your Blog

With web hosting secured, it’s time to decide how you want your site to look. That means choosing a WordPress theme to customize your blog’s framework and layout.

Your blog’s theme should match its niche and your brand, but it should also be user-friendly. So, look for one with simple navigation, quick load speeds, and a responsive and customizable design.

Many beginners start with a free blog theme, but I don’t recommend this. While their basic features are fine initially, you’ll encounter limitations as your site grows, and switching themes can be challenging.

That’s why we recommend free themes with an upgrade option. When you need more features, you can easily upgrade to premium.

Our favorite freemium themes are Astra, Kadence, and GeneratePress.

All three are great choices for beginners. They all come with free versions and vast template libraries and are easy to tailor to any blog niche.

Most Templates

A lightweight and fast WordPress theme with simple and effective customization options.

Get Astra

Easy to Use

A user-friendly WordPress theme featuring a code-free drag-and-drop header + footer builder.

Get Kadence

Fastest

A clean, high-speed WordPress theme plus an extensive library of pre-built demo sites.

Get GeneratePress

Once you’ve decided on a theme, install it on WordPress. Here’s the process:

Step 1: Sign into your WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: In the left sidebar, select Appearance and then Themes.

Step 3: Click Add New.

Step 4: Search for the theme, and then click Activate.

Congrats! You’ve successfully installed your theme! Play around with the settings and tweak them to your liking.

6 Install Necessary Plugins

Plugins are extra add-ons that improve your site’s functionality and aesthetic.

You don’t need plugins, but they make elevating your WordPress website’s performance easy.

Here are some essential plugins for starting a WordPress blog:

• RankMath: A powerful SEO plugin that optimizes your website for search engines, offering features like keyword optimization, schema markup, and content analysis.
• Lasso: An efficient affiliate marketing plugin that streamlines the management and presentation of your affiliate links and products, making it easier to monetize your content.
• WPRocket: A high-performance caching plugin that improves your website’s loading speed, enhancing user experience and search engine rankings.
• LinkWhisper: An innovative AI-driven tool that simplifies creating internal links, saving you time and effort while improving your site’s structure and SEO.

👉 To find more helpful tools for your new blog, check out our list of the best online marketing tools.

7 Decide on Design + Branding

The next step on your blogging journey is establishing your branding and taking care of some site design basics.

You’ll focus on two key design elements — a color palette and a logo. Both will determine how others see and remember your blog. They also establish your “identity,” add aesthetic appeal, and ensure consistency.

First, choose 3–5 colors that go well together and tie into your niche. For example, a soccer blog could use green and white, while a mom blog would mesh better with pastels. Try to avoid clashing colors that are tough on the eyes.

I recommend using a color palette generator like Coolors to create a color scheme for you.

Next comes your logo.

Your logo should fit your blog’s theme, color scheme, and niche. Not only will it be how users remember your brand, but it’ll also hint at the blog topics you cover and who your audience is.

One of the simplest ways to design a logo is with Canva. Search “[your niche] logo” to discover thousands of options.

Once you find a template you like, don’t forget to edit it to include your blog name and color palette!

8 Create Essential Pages

It’s time to get a few mandatory pages on your site.

Homepage

This is the first blog page users see when they type in your domain. It should convey what your site is about, direct readers to the content they need, and show your latest blog posts.

About Page

This is where you’ll introduce yourself to and connect with readers. Use this page to detail why you started your blog and your expertise in the niche.

👉 Check out our list of About Me page examples for inspiration.

Contact Page

This is where visitors can learn how to connect with you. At a minimum, it should include a contact form, email address, and social media links.

Privacy Policy + Terms & Conditions Pages

These blog pages explain to readers how they can use your site and how you’ll use their data. You can generate these pages for free on PrivacyPolicies.com.

Creating blog pages in WordPress takes just a few clicks. From your WordPress dashboard, select Pages in the left sidebar and then Add New.

9 Start Creating Content

It’s finally time to begin writing and publishing blog content.

It’s tempting to write about whatever you want in your niche. However, just like niche selection, there’s a process you can use to qualify your blog post ideas for traffic potential.

This strategy is called creating keyword-focused content.

A keyword-focused strategy involves targeting keywords people are already searching for on search engines like Google.

If you cover the topic well, search engines will “reward” you with higher rankings in the search engine results pages. This drives more organic traffic to your site and helps your blog articles rank early.

However, you can’t just pick any niche topic and expect tons of visitors.

The most popular keywords are highly competitive and dominated by well-known sites. Since Google prefers established sites over new blogs, your blog post will not see much traffic.

Luckily, you can get around this by targeting low-competition keywords that still have decent monthly volume.

Brainstorm blog topics by doing keyword research on Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer. Here’s what we get when we plug in “solo female travel” and search for related keywords:

Looking at these keywords, we already have a few new blog post ideas:

• 15 Best Places In The US For Solo Female Travel
• Is New Orleans Safe For Solo Female Travel?
• Solo Female Travel Over 50: The Complete Guide

Use this process with different seed keywords until you have 10 blog post ideas. Then, you’re ready to show off your writing skills and publish your first blog post!

When writing, remember these tips to ensure you create the best possible content:

• Create a catchy title. Write a headline that grabs attention and clearly shows what your blog post is about, so people want to click and read more.
• Stay on-topic. Stick to your main idea without going off-topic, so readers and Google can easily understand what your post is focused on.
• Talk to your audience. Use a friendly, easy-to-read writing style that sounds like you’re conversing with your reader.
• Add visuals. Add pictures, videos, or graphics to your post to make it more interesting and help explain your points.
• Make it skimmable. Make your post easy to scan using bullet points, headings, and short paragraphs, so readers can quickly find the parts they want.
• Learn SEO basics. Use important keywords in your title, headings, and post, and link to other pages on your site to help your post appear in search results.
• Foster user engagement. Ask a question or suggest an action at the end of your posts to get readers to leave comments, and reply to their comments to build a friendly community around your blog.

The most important rule of all: be helpful. Google prefers to rank posts that provide genuine value to readers, so ensure your blog content is informative and engaging.

10 Promote Your Blog

As you keep creating content, traffic will start to flow to your blog. But you can speed things up by actively promoting your site.

Here are some smart strategies to drive more visitors:

• Get social. Create social media profiles for your blog to reach a wider audience. Link to your social accounts from your blog and share your blog posts on social media. This two-way traffic funnel can boost your readership.
• Be a guest blogger. Reach out to successful bloggers in your niche and offer to write a guest post. They get free content, and you get exposure to their audience by including a link to your blog. It’s a win-win!
• Join the conversation. Hop on popular forums like Reddit and Quora and share your knowledge. Create an account using your name, and provide helpful, insightful answers to questions in your niche. This showcases your expertise and draws interested readers to your blog.
• Get involved locally. Attend or host events and meetups related to your blog’s topic. This helps you build a local following and encourages people to visit your site to learn more.

Just remember, keep your promotion tactics authentic. Spamming links will only turn people off.

Focus on providing genuine value, and you’ll naturally attract a loyal audience to your blog.

11 Monetize Your Blog

Now that you’ve got a steady flow of visitors to your blog, it’s time for the most rewarding part — turning your hard work into cash.

There are many ways to monetize a blog, but I’ll focus on the four most popular methods.

Affiliate Marketing

Recommend products or services you’ve used and enjoyed. When readers click your affiliate link and purchase, you earn a commission.

Why It’s Great: You get paid for your recommendations, and your audience gets curated product suggestions from someone they trust.

Get Started: Learn the basics with our beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing. We also have a list of the best affiliate programs for new bloggers.

Display Ads

Allow ads to be shown on your blog and get paid a small amount each time they’re viewed or clicked.

Why It’s Great:  You earn passive income from every visitor, even if they don’t click the ads. It’s the easiest form of monetization and a great way for a new blog

Get Started: New blogs should start with beginner-friendly ad networks like Ezoic. Once you get more traffic, you can join higher-paying networks like Mediavine or Raptive.

There are two main ways to sell products on your blog.

Create and sell physical products, like branded merchandise. Or develop digital products like online courses, ebooks, memberships, subscriptions, or services.

Why It’s Great: Selling products maximizes your income, and your readers get an awesome product.

Get Started: Consider what types of products your target audience would be most interested in buying. One option is to make a version of your top-performing affiliate product.

Sell Sponsored Posts

Partner with companies to create sponsored content that promotes their products or services to your audience.

Why It’s Great: Sponsored posts allow you to earn income by creating content that aligns with your blog’s niche and provides value to your readers. It’s a win-win situation where you get paid, and your audience discovers relevant products or services.

Get Started: Make a “Work With Us” page that explains your partnership requirements. Pinch of Yum has a great Sponsored Content page you can emulate. You can also reach out to companies in your niche and offer to create sponsored content featuring their products or services.

Summing Up

We’ve covered a lot of information here, and it’s enough to get you started.

But there’s so much more I wasn’t able to cover.

There’s a lot of nuance involved in building a successful blog, and there wasn’t room in this post to cover some of the most effective tactics for growing your traffic and making money.

But don’t worry. We made a free training to ensure you can still get that info.

This training covers 7 hard-won secrets and strategies we’ve learned in our 10+ years of building blogs. Our tests show it can make your new blog 83% more successful.

This is the next step if you’re serious about building a thriving, profit-generating blog.

Join the free training now.

FAQ

We’ve taught over 14,000 people how to build profitable blogs, and some of our proteges have gone on to build successful true crime blogs.

We’ve also found success in starting our own blogs. Here’s a small sample of what we’ve earned over the years through our blogging efforts:

This 10-step guide will help you find similar success with your own profitable true crime blog.

Why Start a True Crime Blog

Starting a true crime blog can be extremely rewarding.

For starters, it’s a great way to make money. Our affiliate marketing statistics show that bloggers in the entertainment sector – including the true crime niche – earn an average of $4,416 per month.

Launching a true crime blog can also help you share your passion with a huge audience. According to one poll, half of all Americans love true crime stories, and 13% define it as their favorite genre.

True crime writers can also help to raise awareness of lesser-known cases that haven’t received much media attention. This can launch discussions, debates, and campaigns that bring justice to victims and their families.

Examples of Successful True Crime Blogs

Before you start your new venture as a true crime blogger, it’s worth checking out some of the blogs already thriving in this niche. Here are three examples:

Canada Unsolved

Canada Unsolved writes about cold cases for murders and missing people in Canada.

The Innocence Project

The Innocence Project takes a unique look at the world of true crime and focuses on sharing the stories of the wrongly accused. The blog is managed by a non-profit organization dedicated to exonerating wrongly convicted individuals.

Stories of the Unsolved

Stories of the Unsolved has been raising awareness for unsolved murders and disappearances since its launch in 2018.

How To Start a True Crime Blog in 10 Steps

Here are the steps you’ll need to follow to launch your own true crime blog.

1 Narrow Down Your True Crime Niche

The first step is to choose the area of true crime you want to focus on.

While writing about all things true crime is tempting, this approach is less likely to bring you success.

It’s easier to build a brand in a sub-genre of true crime rather than cover all aspects of the topic.

Some people are primarily interested in unsolved murders. Others want the drama of covering ongoing murder trials. Others still want true crime stories about well-known celebrities.

Trying to cater to all those tastes will spread you thin and make it harder to satisfy any particular audience.

Focusing on a specific niche also gives you more scope to select highly focused keywords and topics for your true crime articles, which can improve your search engine optimization (SEO) and make it easier to get organic search traffic.

The easiest way to choose a niche is to choose something you’re passionate and knowledgeable about. Passion will help you stay motivated during the blog-building process, and knowledge will improve the quality of your content.

Here are some potential true crime niches you can write about:

• Forensic science. If you have a scientific background, bringing your forensic knowledge into discussions of popular and recent cases can give your writing an edge.
• Recent true crime cases. Discuss the latest events and crimes in your country, city, or state, and share your opinions on the case details.
• Famous cold cases. Dive into the research and case studies of famous serial killers and mysteries throughout history.
• Unsolved mysteries. Discuss many unsolved cases, from kidnapping and human trafficking crimes to murders and break-ins.
• Murders and serial killers. Write articles and case studies about some of the most horrific serial killers in the world, with insights into their crimes and psychology.

Once you know what topics you want to write about, you must qualify your ideas for traffic. Without a sufficient number of people looking for content in your niche, you won’t be able to grow a following or make money.

The first step in niche qualification is to make a list of successful blogs in your niche. You can do this by searching Google for keywords you might write about or checking a blog aggregator like Feedspot.

Once you find a relevant blog, you can also use the Organic Competitors section in Ahrefs to find other websites that write about similar topics.

Once you have your list of blogs, you can get a free trial of SE Ranking to see how much monthly traffic each one receives.

If you’re stuck between a few niches, you can compare their popularity with Google Trends.

If you’re still struggling, check out our video on niche selection for more guidance.

While picking a niche is important, don’t get caught up in over-analysis. Once you’ve found a topic that gets good traffic, proceed to the next step!

2 Choose a Blogging Platform

Now you have your niche, you need to find a home for your content. A blogging platform allows you to publish, promote, and share your content on the web.

Many bloggers opt for free social blogging platforms like Medium or Blogger. While the ease of use is nice, these platforms have a lot of limitations:

• They can restrict the content you produce, particularly when you’re covering sensitive topics like crime and murder.
• Your monetization options are limited.
• You have little control over the design and functionality of your blog.

Though it takes more work, building your own website is the smart option.

• It gives you full control over your true crime content, branding strategy, and how you promote your pieces.
• No one can shut down your site or remove your content.
• Monetizing your blog through affiliate marketing, display ads, and other strategies is much easier.
• You’re building an asset that you can sell. Take it from us — we’ve sold multiple blogs for 6-figure exits.

My favorite platform is WordPress.org (not to be confused with WordPress.com). It’s free, beginner-friendly, and has thousands of plugins and themes that let you customize your site however you want.

3 Choose Your Domain Name

The next step is choosing a domain name – the address visitors use to find your site. Your domain name includes your blog’s name and a domain extension (like .com).

When choosing a domain name, the most important thing you can do is check that your name is unique. Use a trademark search database to look for any companies with similar titles. Then, follow these quick tips for an effective name:

• Make it descriptive. Help your readers understand what your blog is about with niche-focused words like “mystery”, “murder”, or “true crime”.
• Keep it concise. Avoid long domain names. Shorter names (1-2 words) are easier to remember.
• Stay simple. Choose simple words that are easier to spell. This will make it easier for your customers to find and share your blog with friends.
• Get a .com domain. The .com domain name is still the most trustworthy, memorable, and authoritative option. If you have a great name with an unavailable .com, you can consider some .com alternatives.
• Experiment with language. Linguistic strategies, like using alliteration in your domain name, can make your URL more memorable.
• Leave room for expansion. Even if you’re starting with a specific focus, you should allow yourself to expand to broader topics.

If you’re struggling to find a domain name that captivates readers, an AI domain generator like Brandsnap can help.

Once you’ve chosen your name, you can purchase it from Namecheap for as little as $10 per year.

4 Buy Web Hosting 

Since WordPress.org is self-hosted, you’ll need to subscribe to a web hosting service. A web host provides the infrastructure to store, manage, and deliver content to online readers.

While many bloggers recommend companies like Bluehost for their low-cost plans, I’d suggest SiteGround instead. SiteGround offers affordable plans for beginners (though they can be more expensive when you renew). It’s also more reliable and faster than Bluehost.

Getting started with SiteGround is easy. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Visit their WordPress hosting page and choose a plan. I recommend the StartUp plan as a cheap option for beginners.

Step 2: Enter your domain name: Click “I already have a domain” and enter the name into the form field provided.

Step 3: Enter account and location information.

Step 4: Enter payment information and choose a subscription duration. You’ll get a discount if you pay for at least 1 year upfront.

Step 5: Skip the extra services. You won’t need features like a site scanner on a new blog.

Step 6: Point your domain to SiteGround: Change the DNS settings on your domain registrar account to point your domain to SiteGround. This guide shows you how. If you have trouble, contact SiteGround’s support team.

Congratulations! Now, you have hosting for your true crime blogging venture.

5 Choose a Theme for your True Crime Blog

To be a successful true crime blogger, you must make your site stand out. A theme — a template for your site’s appearance and structure — will help you do that.

There are plenty of free and premium themes available for WordPress.

While you might prefer to use a free theme, make sure there’s an option to upgrade to a premium version of your theme when necessary. Premium themes offer more advanced features and capabilities, which can become crucial as your site grows.

Here are my top three freemium recommendations:

Most Templates

An attractive multifunctional theme; fast, lightweight & customizable.

Get Astra

Easy to Use

An impressive theme with plenty of drop-in-ready components and sections.

Get Kadence

Fastest

A lightweight theme with excellent stability and speed.

Get GeneratePress

Once you choose your theme, you can add it to your site in just a few clicks. Log into your WordPress dashboard, then click on Appearance > Themes.

Click “Add New” then search for your theme name.

Once you find your theme, click “Activate” to install it onto your blog.

After your theme is installed, you can edit the sections, fonts, color palettes, and other factors to make it unique to your true crime brand.

6 Decide on Design & Branding

It’s time to make some foundational branding decisions: choosing your color palette and creating your logo.

Let’s start with the color palette. Your blog’s color scheme can directly impact your customers’ feelings about it, so it must match your site’s overall feel. Dark and mysterious shades like black, red, and purple are common on true crime blogs, and they can set expectations for what your customers can expect to see.

You don’t need to be an artist to create a compelling color palette. Sites like Coolors make it simple to generate harmonious color schemes in seconds.

Next up is creating your logo. I recommend using Canva for this process, as it’s extremely easy to use and affordable. All you need to do is search for “true crime logo template,” and you’ll find many options.

Click on a template you like, and you’ll be directed to the Canva editor to alter the colors, shapes, designs, and typography.

7 Create Essential Pages

You’re almost ready to write your first blog post. But before you start writing, you need to get some essential pages on your blog:

The Homepage

Every site needs a homepage. This page introduces readers to your true crime blog, highlights your latest posts, and showcases your brand.

An About Page

An “About page” is where you tell readers about yourself. It can be a great tool for validating your expertise and lets you tell your audience where your content ideas and passion come from.

👉 Check out our list of About Me page examples for inspiration.

The Contact Page

A contact page lets your audience get in touch, whether requesting more information about a case, sharing praise, or exploring collaboration opportunities. Your contact page should include links to social media profiles, a contact form, and an email address.

Privacy Policy + Terms & Conditions pages

These legal pages detail the information you collect from users and how people can use your website.

Although they might seem complex, you can generate these pages for free using a tool like PrivacyPolicies.com. 

Adding new pages to your WordPress site is simple. Log into your admin account and click the “Pages” tab on the left-hand menu. Then click “Add New” to create a page.

8 Start Creating Content

Finally, it’s time to start writing your blog!

However, you shouldn’t just be producing pieces at random. Every blog post you create should elevate your site’s visibility in search engine results. That’s why I recommend a keyword-focused content strategy.

Producing keyword-focused content involves writing content that satisfies queries people are typing into search engines like Google.

Choosing the right keywords for your true crime blog can be tricky. While broader terms like “unsolved murders” might get a lot of traffic, they’re also targeted by a wider range of sites, which means more competition.

The trick is finding keywords with decent search volume and low competition. You can use the Ahrefs Keyword Explorer tool to find them – here are a few examples using “unsolved murders” as a seed keyword:

Using these keywords, you can come up with ideas for blog titles, such as:

• 5 Notorious Unsolved Murders in the 1970s
• 10 Most Famous Unsolved Murders in the US
• 7 Unsolved Murders in Kansas City

Once you have 10 blog titles prepared, you can start writing posts. Here are some tips to boost the quality of your content from day one:

• Know your audience. Ensure you know what kind of content your audience is looking for and use language they’ll understand. Don’t use confusing jargon.
• Access case files. Use databases like Uncovered and The True Crime Database to elevate your research.
• Become an investigator. Research true crime cases and murders to develop unique theories to share with your audience.
• Stay compliant. Ensure you have permission to use images from cold case files or statements from witnesses and law enforcement professionals.
• Implement expertise. If you have experience with the criminal justice system, forensic science, or other relevant topics, implement that into your blog post.
• Join forums. Join forums and subreddits to get insights into the unsolved mysteries and crimes people are already talking about.
• Expand your education. Read case studies, listen to true crime podcasts, and watch true crime documentaries to present stories from multiple perspectives.

The golden rule? Any content you create should always be engaging and valuable. Don’t just regurgitate opinions from other sources. Bring your own thoughts and perspectives into your posts.

9 Promote Your True Crime Blog

Generating organic search traffic is the best way to get people to your blog, but the buildup can be slow.

You can get some early visitors to your blog through the following promotional tactics:

• Collaborate with influencers. Work with other true crime bloggers and influencers in your space. They can share your work with their audience, and you can boost your profile by associating with more established brands.
• Join true crime communities. Join social media groups, subreddits, and forums dedicated to true crime. Participate in discussions and share links to your posts when you can add value.  
• Start a podcast. True crime podcasts are wildly popular. Starting one can elevate your brand’s reach and build a new revenue stream.

However you promote your blog, make sure your efforts are genuine. Nobody likes a blogger who spams their content everywhere without offering real value.

10 Monetize Your True Crime Blog

While starting a true crime blog might be a passion project for most, it can also be a lucrative way to earn extra income. Here are a few of the best monetization strategies:

Affiliate Marketing

Recommend true crime books and audiobooks, apparel, and other relevant products. Get paid a commission if one of your referrals makes a purchase.

Why It’s Great: You can earn money from products without dealing with product creation and distribution hassles.

Get Started: Read our guide on how to start affiliate marketing. An easy way to start is by joining the Amazon affiliate program and recommending books on Amazon and audiobooks on Audible.

Display Ads

Show ads on your website and earn money whenever someone views or clicks one.

Why It’s Great: You can earn money as long as you generate traffic.

Get Started: Join Ezoic to get ads on your site when starting. Switch to a higher-paying network like Mediavine or Raptive when you get more traffic.

Selling Your Own Products

Create and sell physical or digital products like books, courses, and true crime merchandise.

Why It’s Great: Selling your own products usually earns more than other monetization methods.

Get Started: Start by affiliate marketing and making your own version of your best-performing recommendations. Shopify and WooCommerce are good options for hosting physical products, while Teachable is a solid choice for courses.

Summing Up

This guide has covered the essential steps to starting a true crime blog…

…but there’s so much more you need to know to take your blog to the next level.

To help cover that gap, we’ve created a free training that shares our top strategies for building a profitable blog in [current_year].

These 7 blogging secrets are borne of 10+ years in the blogging game – and we’re giving them away for free.

Join the free training now. 

FAQ

We’ve earned substantial revenue from our own blogging projects – including one in the health space. Here’s a small sample of our earnings over the years.

We’ve also taught more than 14,000 students how to build similarly successful blogs.

If you’d like to follow in their footsteps, check out our 10-step guide to starting your own health and wellness blog.

Why Start a Health and Wellness Blog

There are a few reasons you might want to start a health and wellness blog.

Our affiliate marketing statistics show that health bloggers earn an average of $7,194 monthly. There’s a lot of potential to earn through affiliate marketing, display ads, selling products, and more.

A blog also allows you to share your journey through medical hardship. People facing similar challenges can find comfort, reassurance, and community on your blog.

Similarly, your blog can raise awareness surrounding uncommon or rare health conditions. This can help foster understanding and empathy within the broader public.

Examples of Successful Health and Wellness Blogs

Before launching your own health blog, it’s beneficial to draw inspiration from those who’ve successfully established their presence in the niche. Here are a few examples:

A Healthy Slice of Life

A Healthy Slice of Life is a family-run health and lifestyle blog that covers healthy eating, parenting, and travel.

NutritionFacts.org

The doctor-run NutritionFacts.org blog provides science-driven food and diet recommendations.

The Healthy Maven

The Healthy Maven was started by Davida Lederle to help women live healthy lives by sharing content about recipes, clean beauty, and overall wellness.

How To Start a Health Blog in 10 Steps

If you’re ready to venture into the world of health blogging, follow this step-by-step to hit the ground running.

1 Narrow Down Your Health Niche

Health and wellness is a huge niche covering a wide variety of topics. As a new health blogger, you should prioritize one of the sub-topics or sub-niches and focus on producing content covering it in-depth.

Visitors are more likely to trust sites that specialize in a specific sub-niche rather than a general site glossing over every health topic. This demonstrates your experience & expertise in that area and portrays you as an authority.

Here are a few example health sub-niches that you can consider blogging on:

• Holistic Nutrition: Think plant-based, paleo, or keto diets.
• Mental Wellbeing: Explore meditation, stress management, or MBSR.
• Sleep: Cover sleep hygiene, insomnia remedies, or delve into CBT-I.
• Sexual Health: Touch on sex-ed, reproduction challenges, or STI prevention.
• Child Wellness: Topics like adolescent mental health or pediatric nutrition.
• Chronic Illness: Share life with conditions like diabetes or arthritis.
• Alternative Medicine: Discuss herbal treatments, acupuncture, or aromatherapy.

Note: Since the 2018 medic update, Google closely monitors alternative medicine sites due to scant scientific evidence. Because of this, big names like DrAxe and Wellness Mama lost significant search traffic.

If you want to blog about alternative medicine, prioritize factual accuracy, cite authoritative sources, and avoid making definitive claims.

When picking a sub-niche, start by listing 5-7 topics that intrigue you. After that, qualify these niches by looking for high-traffic blogs covering that niche. A lack of high-traffic blogs indicates a lack of interest in the topic, making it less profitable for blogging.

Here’s a 3-step process for niche qualification.

First, brainstorm topics related to your sub-niche and search for them on Google. Make a list of relevant blogs that show up. A blog aggregator like Detailed can help you expand this list.

You can also insert a health blog into Ahrefs and use the “Organic Competitors” tool to get a list of all other competing blogs.

Next, you’ll need to see how much traffic each blog gets. Sign up for a free trial of SE Ranking, go to SEO Tools > Competitive Research, and input the blog names to see monthly traffic values.

You can also use Google Trends to compare interest between sub-niches. You can enter up to five topics and compare user interest over time.

You can also check out our detailed video guide on niche selection for further assistance:

Once you find a topic with decent traffic potential, move on to the next step. Choosing a good niche is important, but you don’t want to get stuck in a cycle of endless analysis.

2 Choose a Blogging Platform

A blogging platform is the tool you’ll use to write, publish, manage, and share your health and wellness content online.

Check out this list of the best blogging platforms to make your pick.

Many beginners flock to free blogging platforms like Medium or Blogger. However, these have a few notable limitations:

• The platform can decide what you can and cannot publish. This can be especially limiting if you discuss controversial health topics.
• There’s limited monetization potential.
• They have barebones designing and branding options. Your blog will look nearly identical to all the other blogs on the platform.

Therefore, I highly recommend setting up your own blog, especially if you’re looking to build a financially successful business from it. Here’s a quick look at some of the benefits:

• Complete control over the content, including its presentation and visibility.
• Build a distinctive brand by tweaking the layout, color scheme, and UI elements.
• Countless monetization options include display ads, affiliate marketing, and selling branded products and courses.
• Set your own editorial and publishing guidelines. No one can remove your content or shut down your blog.
• Access powerful search engine optimization (SEO) features and strategically integrate social sharing options to drive more traffic.
• Place email opt-in CTAs in your blog to build an email list, giving you direct access to your audience and safeguarding against Google algorithm shifts.
• Over time, your blog will become an asset you can sell.

👉 See also: Read our case study on how we sold an 18-month-old blog for mid-6-figures.

Thanks to all the modern tools, you can build a new website in under an hour. We recommend using WordPress.org (not to be confused with WordPress.com). The core software is free and powers 43% of the web, including AuthorityHacker.com.

That said, you must purchase a domain and hosting to get your WordPress blog online. It’ll cost you around $45 for the first year ($10 for domain, and $35 for hosting), which is a steal considering all the benefits.

3 Choose Your Domain Name

Your domain name is the name of your website followed by an extension like .com, .org, etc. It essentially functions as the address for your website, where someone types it into a browser’s address bar to land on your website.

For example, our domain name is authorityhacker.com – which is our site’s name, “Authority Hacker” followed by the .com domain.

You also want a .com extension whenever possible. It’s one of the most familiar domain extensions which makes it the most trusted. But, if it’s unavailable, you can consider these popular .com alternatives as well.

When naming your website, you’ll want to pick something catchy, easy to read, and memorable since it’ll function as your brand identity. Here’s a checklist to help you choose the perfect name:

• Keep it short. 6-14 characters is best.
• Focus on readability. Don’t use consecutive letters, numbers, or hyphens.
• Include a niche-related word. A prefix or suffix like “med”, “doc”, “health”, or “nutri” can help with branding.
• Don’t use spammy names. Most people won’t trust a blog titled SuperHealthHacksProMax.info.
• Avoid domain names with registered trademarks. You can check using this trademark search tool.

Brainstorming a name that checks all these boxes can be hard. That’s why we developed our AI domain name generator – Brandsnap.ai – to help you find unique and available domains for your new website.

After choosing a domain name, you need to register it. All domain registrars offer the same basic service, so we recommend saving your money and picking Namecheap. You can get a .com domain registered for $10 per year.

4 Buy Web Hosting

Web hosting is a service that lets you rent server space to install WordPress and manage all your health and wellness content.

You have a ton of web hosting providers to choose from – Bluehost is one of the most affordable and popular among beginners.

However, our top recommendation is SiteGround. It costs a little more but delivers noticeably better performance and reliability – crucial for any reputable health blog on the rise.

Here’s a quick guide on setting up SiteGround and launching your health and wellness blog:

Step 1: Go to SiteGround’s WordPress hosting page.

Step 2: Get the StartUp Plan – it’s powerful enough for a new WordPress blog.

Note: New customers enjoy a highly discounted rate on their 1st 12-month hosting plan. But you will be rebilled at the higher standard rate after that.

Step 3: Enter your registered domain name into the field and select “I already have a domain” option.

Step 4: Provide account information and location details.

Step 5: Enter payment info and pick a subscription period. The 12-month plan is the best value for money.

Step 6: Don’t select the extra services. They are unnecessary for new blogs.

Step 7: Point your Namecheap registered domain name to your new SiteGround hosting server. You can follow this DIY guide or contact SiteGround tech support for help.

And that’s it! Your health blog is now live and accessible to anyone searching for the domain name. In the following section, I’ll show you how to design your health blog and fill it with content.

5 Choose a Theme for Your Health Blog

In the WordPress ecosystem, themes determine your blog’s visual design and layout. In fact, many of them are tailored for health and wellness blogs, allowing you to set a professional-looking design with a few clicks.

That said, looks aren’t everything, and you should prioritize the following features when choosing a theme:

• Fast loading speeds
• Mobile-friendly design
• Clean and uncluttered design
• User-friendly navigation
• Intuitive customization options
• Quality after-sales support

You may find some of these features with free WordPress themes, but they generally have poor performance and flexibility. It might not feel like a big deal at first, but as you grow your blog with more health-related content, you’ll see your site slowing down.

Many are “freemium,” letting you start free and upgrade later for advanced features. Here are three standout options – GeneratePress, Kadence, and Astra:

Most Templates

Mix and match pre-built designs to quickly create a visually appealing layout.

Get Astra

Easy to Use

Offers drag-and-drop header and footer builder with detailed design control.

Get Kadence

Fastest

A performance-focused theme with a minimalistic design.

Get GeneratePress

Once you pick your theme, follow these steps to install it:

Step 1: Login to your WordPress dashboard.

Step 1: Go to Appearance > Theme from the left-hand sidebar.

Step 3: Click “Add New.”

Step 4: Type the name of the theme you want to install.

Step 5: Click “Install Now” followed by “Activate.”

After installing the theme, you can tweak colors and add a logo. Up next, we’ll dive into these branding specifics.

6 Decide on Design & Branding

After installing your WordPress theme, it’s time to start designing it. Here are a few health-specific design tips:

• Choose a soft, neutral backdrop: think white, beige, or muted gray.
• Embrace a minimalistic layout with limited UI clutter.
• Integrate nature-inspired visuals like leaves or water droplets.
• Try rounded UI elements over angular ones.

After creating the design and layout, you’ll need to configure a color scheme. Much of your blog’s personality will come from the colors you use. For example, a blog centered on nutrition and healthy eating can use a color palette that includes fresh greens, vibrant fruit-inspired hues like orange or berry, and earthy browns.

To create a cohesive color scheme, I recommend using Coolors. It’s an intuitive tool that generates complementary colors.

Next up is creating the logo. I suggest using Canva for this. There are hundreds of health and wellness logo templates that you can mix and match to create something unique.

Search for “health logos” or “wellness logos” and make your pick. You can edit the logo to reflect your brand name and color scheme.

7 Create Essential Pages

With your blog’s design ready, it’s time to populate it with some content. Start with these essential pages every health blog must have.

Homepage

The homepage is the main hub of your website. It should clarify what your website is about and feature your latest posts and most popular content.

About Page

This page lets you educate your audience about who you are and why you started this health blog. To help readers and search engines trust you, share your background in the health and wellness space along with any relevant certifications.

👉 If you need inspiration, check out these killer About Me page examples.

Contact Page

This page should contain a contact form to allow users to get in touch with you. You can also include your business address, phone number, and email address to help boost SEO.

Legal Pages

Necessary legal pages include the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions pages. Use these to define the user rights, data handling practices, and expected site behavior. They should also emphasize your content is for informational purposes and not medical advice.

To set up your legal pages, you can use a tool like PrivacyPolicies.com.

Quick Tutorial: To create new pages on WordPress, simply log in to your WordPress dashboard and select Pages > Add New from the left sidebar.

8 Start Creating Content

As your health blog takes shape, we are off to the next crucial step – creating content.

To generate consistent traffic, you need to use a keyword-focused content strategy. Here’s how that works:

1. Find health and wellness keywords users type into search engines.
2. Understand the search intent of those keywords.
3. Analyze top-ranking articles for those keywords and understand what’s working.
4. Craft comprehensive blog posts addressing the search intent and offering more value than existing content.

After writing and publishing a blog post, Google will eventually scan it. If it’s relevant and better than other posts, they’ll show it on the search results page, bringing free organic traffic to your blog.  

Now, to get the best results, target keywords with high search volume but limited coverage.

You can manually do this by brainstorming keywords, googling them, and analyzing ranking articles for potential gaps. Alternatively, use an SEO tool like Ahrefs to find these keywords with a few clicks.

For example, here are a few keyword recommendations I got from entering “yoga” into Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer tool.

Once you have a few keywords, use them to create some blog post titles. Here are a few examples:

• 7 Ways to enhance your yoga sessions using yoga blocks
• How to use yoga wheels to build core strength
• Couples yoga basics: 10 best two people yoga poses

Continue this process with different “seed keywords” until you build a list of 10 blog post ideas.

Once you have a list of ideas, you can focus on writing SEO articles. Here’s a simple checklist of best practices for writing health and wellness blog posts:

• Mention your content is for informational purposes and not a substitute for medical evaluation.
• Avoid offering treatments, solutions, or diagnoses. Encourage readers to consult a doctor if they fear they have a problem.
• Back up everything you say with credible authoritative sources, preferably from medical institutions.
• Avoid medical jargon and make the content accessible to the general public.
• Provide clear, actionable steps. Health content can be hard to understand, so make the content as clear as possible.
• Follow a professional tone while practicing empathy. Share personal experiences wherever applicable.
• Include visual aids like infographics and images whenever possible.
• Try to follow and include content guidelines from health authorities like the FDA or WHO.

I understand these rules can be overwhelming for a new health and wellness blogger. If I had to boil it down to one guideline, it’d be to provide content that is as helpful and direct as possible.

Have Medical Professionals Write or Review Medical Content

Many health and wellness topics fall under Google’s YMYL (Your Money Your Life) label, which includes topics that directly influence a person’s health or financial stability.

As such, when a user searches for medical queries, like “how to manage diabetes,” Google only shows posts written or reviewed by medical professionals.

Right now, if you want to write on YMYL topics but you’re not a doctor, you have two options:

1. Hire a doctor to write blog posts
2. Write it yourself and have a doctor review it

Remember to give the doctor a dedicated author or reviewer page showcasing their credentials. This will ensure your article gets a fair chance to rank – provided it’s still quality content.

To further increase your chances of ranking your content, you should also optimize your posts for E-E-A-T – Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust.

Google uses these metrics to determine the trustworthiness of your website, and it’s especially important for sites in YMYL niches.

Our video will tell you everything you need to know about E-E-A-T optimization:

9 Promote Your Health Blog

While your blog posts might not instantly appear in search results, you can still drive traffic to them early on. Here are a few effective promotion tactics for health blogs:

• Engage in health forums. Dive into Facebook groups, subreddits, and Quora spaces. Answer questions and offer insights.
• Craft and share infographics. Use tools like infogr.am, create visuals, and post on Pinterest and Instagram, linking back to your blog.
• Collaborate with other health bloggers. Competitors can be friends, and writing guest posts on their blogs can bring traffic to yours.
• Attend health events. Network with other attendees and discuss how you use your blog to help others.

Remember, it’s not about outright promotion. Focus on offering genuine value, and readers will naturally be drawn to your blog.

10 Monetize Your Health Blog

With your health blog getting visitors, you can now think about monetizing this traffic. Here are some practical monetization strategies for health and wellness blogs:

Affiliate Marketing

Recommend health supplements, wellness courses, and other health products you’ve reviewed and loved. If someone purchases using your affiliate link, you’ll earn a commission.

Why It’s Great: Health products like supplements and courses offer high commissions due to their high margins.

Get Started: Read our guide on how to start affiliate marketing and our list of the best health affiliate programs.

Selling Your Own Courses or Health Products

Create and sell your own health courses or products catering to your target audience.

Why It’s Great: You get complete control over pricing and marketing, and it also helps boost your brand’s authority. Google has also been favoring blogs that sell products since the September 2023 Helpful Content Update.

Get Started: Design courses using Teachable or Thikific. For creating health products, partner with local manufacturers and sell them under your brand.

Pro Tip: Promote an affiliate’s courses or supplements first. Understand what works, then roll out similar products under your brand.

Offer Coaching Services

Become a certified health coach and help others achieve their health goals.

Why It’s Great: You can build a career out of health coaching with your website as the foundation.

Get Started: Get a health coaching certification and begin advertising your services on your website. This can work especially well if you make a personal blog to build a stronger connection with your audience.

Display Ads

Show ads to blog visits and earn money for the total number of views or clicks on the ads.

Why It’s Great: It’s a no-effort passive income stream where you don’t have to ask users to spend money.

Get Started: You can quickly set up ads using Ezoic. But it can slow down your site, so pivot to a better ad network like Mediavine (>50,000 monthly visitors) and Raptive (>100,000 monthly visitors) when you get more traffic.

Summing Up

We’ve covered the essential steps toward starting a successful health and wellness blog…

…but there’s so much more I couldn’t cover.

Blogging has a deep learning curve, and if I tried to cover every important tip and strategy to maximize your chances of success, I’d probably have to write more than a million words.

To help you learn the deeper tactics that will make you more likely to succeed, we created a free training that covers some of the best secrets and tactics we’ve learned in over 10 years of profitable blogging.

On average, bloggers who use this free training are 83% more successful than those who don’t.

Get the free training now.

FAQ

But with so many lifestyle brands out there, it’s hard to know which are worth promoting.

Fortunately, you’re in the right place. At Authority Hacker, we’ve built high-converting affiliate sites in various niches, so we know what the best affiliate marketing programs look like.

We’ve analyzed the top affiliate programs across multiple lifestyle-related categories, from massive marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy to niche advertisers like Food52 and JOANN Fabrics.

Let’s get into it.

Lifestyle Affiliate Programs & Networks

1. Amazon Associates
2. Etsy
3. Lululemon
4. JOANN
5. Ulta Beauty
6. Sephora
7. Food52
8. Target
9. Skillshare
10. MasterClass
11. Nordstrom Rack
12. ShareASale
13. Awin
14. Rakuten
15. CJ

1 Amazon Associates

Lifestyle covers a broad range of affiliate niches. And Amazon sells products in pretty much all those niches, from health and beauty to fashion to interior decor (and much more besides).

Another reason for the online marketplace’s popularity is its trustworthiness: Amazon regularly appears toward the top of “most-trusted brands” lists. So if a consumer clicks your affiliate link and lands on an Amazon product page, they won’t think you’re scamming them.

This high trust factor, coupled with affordable prices and reliable shipping, also helps the retailer achieve superb conversion rates — meaning there’s a good chance of your clicks turning into sales.

Still, if you’re going to earn decent affiliate income through the Amazon Associates program, you need to promote the right niches.

In some lifestyle-related categories, Amazon pays terrible commissions (like 1% on health and personal care products). In others, it’s super competitive — think 4% on fashion and jewelry and a cool 20% on luxury beauty. Things can change, so make sure you check out Amazon’s latest commissions.

The only other downside is the stingy 24-hour cookie window. But Amazon converts so well that it shouldn’t be a big problem.

• URL: Amazon Associates affiliate program
• Commission rate: 1% – 20% per sale, depending on product category
• Cookie duration: 24 hours
• Products/Services sold: Pretty much everything
• Payment methods: Bank transfer, check, Amazon gift card
• Market(s): Multiple

👉 See also: Amazon Affiliate Program Review (Is It Worth It?) and How to Become an Amazon Affiliate

2 Etsy

Etsy made its name as a marketplace for one-off creative goods, making it a popular choice for buying unique gifts.

While it doesn’t have Amazon’s range, it still stocks over 60 million products across 40+ categories, many of which are relevant to the lifestyle niche — such as jewelry, clothing, and party supplies.

The platform runs on 100% renewable energy, so it’s a good choice for any affiliate marketer with an audience that cares about sustainability and the environment.

Etsy runs multiple country-specific affiliate programs through the Awin affiliate network, all offering a standard 4% commission rate and a 30-day cookie window. That cookie duration is pretty generous by the standards of a big ecommerce marketplace.

• Products/Services sold: Handmade, vintage, custom, and unique gifts
• Payment methods: SEPA, BACS, ACH, domestic payments, international wire transfer

👉 See also: Etsy Affiliate Program Review – Can You Make Money With Etsy?

3 Lululemon

Lululemon began life as a yoga store in Canada in the late 1990s and has played a big part in helping yoga become a mass-market pursuit.

Since then, the brand has diversified into other active lifestyle-related categories, from running and training to cycling, Pilates, dance, and more. So, it’s a good fit for lifestyle bloggers focusing on health and fitness topics.

Lululemon’s affiliate program has a 30-day cookie window and pays a flat 5% on all sales generated through your referral links. With an average order value of $100+, expect to make around $5 per conversion.

The retailer also runs a separate influencer program for content creators, called the Lululemon Creator Network, which could be the perfect choice if you’ve got one or more social media accounts with big followings.

• URL: Lululemon affiliate program
• Commission rate: 5% per sale
• Cookie duration: 30 days
• Products/Services sold: Athletic apparel, shoes, and accessories
• Payment methods: SEPA, BACS, ACH, domestic payments, international wire transfer
• Market(s): US, CA

👉 See also: Lululemon Affiliate Program Review (Is It Worth It?)

4 JOANN

Launched in 1943, JOANN started life as a fabric retailer, before expanding into multiple other arts and crafts-related niches, including crocheting, knitting, and sewing. It sells products from a host of big brands, including Eddie Bauer, Juicy Couture, and Singer.

The retailer has superb brand awareness in the US thanks to its extensive network of brick-and-mortar stores, covering approximately 850 locations across 49 states. So you shouldn’t have any trouble convincing people to buy from JOANN.

Want to sign up for JOANN’s affiliate program? You’ve got a choice of two affiliate networks: FlexOffers and Skimlinks.

Unfortunately, the commission rate is pretty low at just 0.8% – 1%, so don’t expect to get rich promoting JOANN. But it’s still worth considering if your audience is full of arts and crafts hobbyists.

• Products/Services sold: Fabric, arts and crafts supplies

👉 See also: Arts and Crafts Affiliate Programs (Top Offers)

5 Ulta Beauty

You’ll find more than 500 beauty brands at Ulta Beauty, from household names like Benefit and Too Faced to up-and-comers like CurlMix and Pound Cake.

Like JOANN, Ulta has superb recognition across the US, with 1,200+ store locations across 50 states, making it the country’s biggest beauty retailer. Whether you want to write about skincare, fragrances, makeup, or pretty much any other beauty category, you’ll find plenty of relevant products.

When it comes to promoting Ulta, beauty bloggers can choose from four different affiliate networks (although the Impact affiliate program is only available to US-based affiliate marketers).

At the time of writing, you’ll get the highest commission rate on Skimlinks.

• Products/Services sold: Beauty products and services

👉 See also: Beauty Affiliate Programs for Bloggers & Influencers (Top Offers) 

6 Sephora

Another one for all you beauty bloggers, Sephora stocks over 13,000 skincare, health, and beauty products from 200+ well-known beauty brand names, including its own in-house collections.

As well as its vast product catalog, the retailer stands out by offering free standard shipping and product samples with all orders. You’ll definitely want to mention this in your content.

Sign up for Sephora’s global affiliate programs through Skimlinks and Sovrn, or choose country-specific offerings on the Rakuten and Impact affiliate networks. Impact and Sovrn both pay commissions of up to 10% per sale, which compares favorably with other affiliate programs for lifestyle bloggers.

Be sure to use the brand’s marketing resources and collateral — including product reviews and professional-quality creatives — to support your affiliate marketing efforts.

• Products/Services sold: Makeup, skincare, fragrance, health, and beauty products

👉 See also: Best Makeup Affiliate Programs (Top Offers) 

7 Food52

Food52 began life as a recipe inspiration resource. It still does that today, with the website containing thousands of recipes submitted by readers and tested by editors.

But it also has an online store now, selling a wealth of culinary-themed products, from cookware to table linens to pantry essentials.

Perhaps the most attractive aspect of Food52 from an affiliate marketing perspective is its online presence. The brand has almost four million followers on Instagram, so if you’re recommending products for foodies, chances are they’ll know about Food52.

The brand’s standard affiliate program pays a solid 9% commission rate on all sales and has a seven-day cookie window.

Alternatively, if you have a big social media following (or you’re a member of the Food52 community), you can sign up for the dedicated influencer program.

• URL: Food52 affiliate program
• Commission rate: 9% per sale
• Cookie duration: 7 days
• Products/Services sold: Cookware, appliances, table linens, ingredients
• Payment methods: PayPal, electronic funds transfer
• Market(s): US

👉 See also: Best Cooking Affiliate Programs (Top Offers)

8 Target

One of America’s best-known retailers, Target sells more than a million products across dozens of categories, including lifestyle niches like beauty, fashion, and home.

While it’s not the most glamorous retailer in this roundup, Target remains a consumer favorite thanks to its focus on affordable prices. If your audience loves lifestyle-adjacent bargains, this could be one of the best affiliate programs for you.

Speaking of which, Target’s affiliate program pays up to 8% per sale, with volume-based commissions giving high-performing affiliates the chance to earn more on certain product sales. It also has a seven-day cookie window — not great, but way better than Nordstrom and Amazon.

Target cites an EPC of $12 – $13, so there’s clearly decent money-making potential here.

• URL: Target affiliate program
• Commission rate: 8% per sale
• Cookie duration: 7 days
• Products/Services sold: Groceries, fashion, furniture, kitchen & dining, and more
• Payment methods: PayPal, check, wire transfer, direct deposit, ACH transfer
• Market(s): US

👉 See also: Target Affiliate Program Review 

9 Skillshare

Of course, as a lifestyle blogger, you’re not restricted to recommending physical products. Online courses are another attractive lifestyle-adjacent product — and Skillshare is one of the biggest names in the niche.

Skillshare’s library contains 34,000+ classes covering a wealth of creative niches, from web design to digital illustration to creative writing. So if your audience cares about self-improvement and creativity, this is a great affiliate program to promote.

The platform offers a seven-day free trial. Even better, it has a 30-day cookie window — so as long as your referrals upgrade to a paid plan after their trial expires, you’ll earn a commission.

This brings us to another attractive feature: Skillshare’s commission rate. You’ll earn an impressive 40% of any sales you generate, which is far higher than the other affiliate programs in our roundup.

With annual memberships costing $168, you’ll be earning just over $67 per sale. Not bad.

• URL: Skillshare affiliate program
• Commission rate: 40% per sale
• Cookie duration: 30 days
• Products/Services sold: Online courses
• Payment methods: PayPal, check, wire transfer, direct deposit, ACH transfer
• Market(s): Global

👉 See also: Personal Development Affiliate Programs

10 MasterClass

Sticking with the self-improvement theme, MasterClass is a streaming service specializing in online training videos.

Where MasterClass really stands out is the quality of its instructors: we’re talking heavyweight experts and household names. Gordon Ramsey shares cooking tips; Serena Williams helps you improve your tennis game; Christina Aguilera teaches singing.

All that educational content can be accessed on mobile, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku devices for an annual membership of $180+.

While MasterClass isn’t quite as generous as Skillshare when it comes to commissions, its affiliate program still pays a healthy 25% per sale, equivalent to $45 or more from a single conversion.

To help you seal the deal, MasterClass gives you access to a dedicated affiliate manager and its exclusive affiliate newsletter, containing banners, text ads, and information on course updates.

• URL: MasterClass affiliate program
• Commission rate: 25% per sale
• Cookie duration: 30 days
• Products/Services sold: Video training
• Payment methods: PayPal, check, wire transfer, direct deposit, ACH transfer
• Market(s): Global

👉 See also: Best Education Affiliate Programs

11 Nordstrom Rack

Nordstrom Rack is a powerhouse in the world of off-price designer fashion, offering savvy shoppers discounts of 30% to 70% on high-end items.

Affiliate marketers looking to tap into this lucrative program have two main options: the FlexOffers affiliate network, which offers a 3.2% commission rate, and the Rakuten affiliate network, which boasts a more impressive 4% rate.

While the individual commissions may be lower due to Nordstrom Rack’s already discounted prices, the retailer’s strong brand recognition and reputation can work in your favor. You can expect higher conversion rates compared to lesser-known stores, which can help make up for the smaller commissions and the 7-day cookie window.

As a subsidiary of Nordstrom, a company with over 120 years of history in the fashion industry, Nordstrom Rack benefits from high consumer trust. This brand familiarity is a powerful tool for affiliate marketers, making it easier to convert sales and build long-lasting relationships with your audience.

• Products/Services sold: Discount designer fashion

12 ShareASale

Still not found your perfect affiliate program? You’ll want to check out a B2C-focused affiliate network like ShareASale, which contains thousands of lifestyle affiliate programs across 39+ consumer niches.

While ShareASale specializes in smaller brands, a few household names are be found here — think Allbirds and Reebok.

If none of them appeal to you, relax, because the network adds 260+ new affiliate programs every month.

ShareASale is happy to work with all types of affiliate marketers, from website owners to fashion bloggers to influencers to podcasters.

However you reach your audience, ShareASale gives you the tools to monetize your content, including custom affiliate tools, real-time click reports, and support from an expert publisher management team.

• URL: ShareASale affiliate network
• Brands: Reebok, Claire’s, Dossier
• Payment methods: Check, direct deposit, international direct deposit, wire transfer, Payoneer

👉 See also: ShareASale Review

13 Awin

Awin is an affiliate network in its own right. And it also owns another of the networks on this list, ShareASale.

In all, the Awin group has more than 25,000 brands on its books. While the vast majority are smaller merchants, there are also some massive names — like Ted Baker and Warby Parker — using the affiliate marketing platform.

As well as its “standard” offering, Awin has a dedicated model for influencers, including a revolutionary “payment on influence” scheme that offers fixed commissions for all sales involvements, not just the final click. So if someone saw your social media post at any stage in the buying journey, you can still get paid.

There’s lots more to like about Awin, too, including a dedicated publisher success team who’ll help you get to grips with the platform’s wealth of affiliate marketing tools.

• URL: Awin affiliate network
• Brands: Warby Parker, Ted Baker, Boux Avenue
• Payment methods: SEPA, BACS, ACH, domestic payments, international wire transfer

👉 See also: Awin Review

14 Rakuten

Japanese advertising and technology company Rakuten runs one of the world’s largest affiliate networks.

It specializes in retail, finance, travel, and direct-to-consumer niches, with 150,000+ advertisers using the network. As if that wasn’t enough, its team of network development specialists is constantly looking for new merchants to join the platform.

Rakuten is big on personalization. It helps affiliate marketers find the most relevant brands, products, and services to promote — so if you’re only interested in fashion or beauty, you’ll only be shown fashion or beauty affiliate programs.

The platform offers tons of useful tools, including one that automatically converts standard product links into trackable, commissionable affiliate links.

Given its wealth of features and affiliate programs, it’s easy to see why Rakuten has been named the world’s best affiliate network for 12 years in a row.

• URL: Rakuten Advertising affiliate network
• Brands: AllSaints, Backcountry, Benefit
• Payment methods: Direct deposit, PayPal, check

👉 See also: Rakuten Affiliate Network Review 

15 CJ

CJ (previously known as Commission Junction) has been in the affiliate marketing game for over two decades.

The affiliate network specializes in big names like Barnes & Noble and Hello Fresh. But there are also plenty of niche advertisers on the platform, so don’t worry if you’d prefer to deal with smaller brands.

Affiliate marketers receive a combined $1.8 billion in annual commissions through the network, so there’s plenty of earning potential here.

In part, that’s down to the quality of CJ’s affiliate marketing tools and resources. You’ll find everything you need here, from expert support to simple affiliate linking tools.

In addition to the super diverse range of brands and products, you also get all the tools successful affiliate marketers need — from excellent support to simple affiliate link creation to easy-to-understand metrics that help you understand whether a particular program is profitable.

• URL: CJ Affiliate network
• Brands: Barnes & Noble, Blue Apron, Hello Fresh
• Payment methods: Check, direct deposit, Payoneer

👉 See also: CJ Review (Commission Junction)

Summing Up

If you’re looking for sky-high commission rates and lengthy cookie windows, the lifestyle niche isn’t for you.

But it’s perfect for affiliates who want to reach the largest possible audience. Because everyone buys lifestyle-related products sometimes.

Still, having a massive target audience is no guarantee of success. You still need to build a consistent traffic source. And, as far as we’re concerned, the best way to do that is through running your own website, possibly with a lifestyle blog.

At Authority Hacker, we’ve built and sold several six-figure affiliate sites, and we’ve also shown affiliates how to do the same. Many of them have been in lifestyle-related niches.

In our free authority site training course, we reveal seven tried-and-trusted tactics that make new websites 83% more successful.

Join the free training now.

We’ve built and sold three profitable, six-figure affiliate sites and guided over 14,000 students to achieve similar success, so we know all about finding affiliate products that sell.

Read on to discover 19 of the top products for affiliate marketing. I’ll also share some expert tips for finding the diamonds in the rough.

Best Products for Affiliate Marketing

1. Web Hosting
2. VPNs
3. Gym Equipment
4. Gaming
5. Email Services
6. Accounting Software
7. Mattresses
8. Baby Care & Parenting
9. Home Automation
10. Pet Care
11. Online Education
12. Insurance
13. Jewelry
14. Supplements
15. Travel
16. Fashion
17. Financial Products
18. Outdoor
19. Photography

1 Web Hosting

About 10,500 new websites are created every hour, so there’s a constant demand for web hosting, enabling websites and apps to be published online.

Web hosting solutions appeal to a broad audience — businesses, website owners, web developers, agencies, freelancers, and more — making it a good fit for affiliate marketers across a wide range of niches.

Hosting providers can afford to pay high commissions because people rarely switch to a different provider. This makes it worthwhile for the hosting companies to pay big commissions to whoever can give them new customers. These high commissions make web hosting a very appealing product category to promote.

You can promote hosting products for specific platforms, such as WordPress hosting, which is optimized to meet WordPress’s performance and security needs.

Or, if you’re targeting larger brands, you can recommend managed hosting solutions, in which businesses lease an entire server to themselves.

Why Promote Web Hosting Products?

• Global monthly search volume: 87,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: Cloudways, Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround, A2 Hosting
• Average commission rate: $100+ per sale

The web hosting niche offers many opportunities for upselling and cross-selling complementary products like business email, website security, and website design.

👉 See also: Best Web Hosting Affiliate Programs

2 VPNs

Virtual private networks (VPNs) protect your internet connection and privacy online by hiding your IP address and allowing you to use public Wi-Fi hotspots safely.

Consumers’ growing concern about (lack of) online privacy has turned VPN services into a $50 billion industry with a massive target audience. Basically, anyone who uses the internet could be interested in a VPN solution. But they’re particularly appealing to gamers, media streamers, and frequent travelers.

Want to learn more about the insane competition in the VPN industry? Check out our breakdown of the niche.

Why Promote VPNs?

• Global monthly search volume: 4.8 million (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, IPVanish
• Average commission rate: 40% – 100% per sale

Because the VPN market is so crowded, prices are cheap, which makes the products easier to promote and sell. The big players are locked in an intense battle for market share and survival, so they pay big bucks to affiliates who can generate sales.

At the same time, commissions are comparatively high, so you earn more per sale. Plus, many programs pay recurring commissions, while top-performing affiliate marketers can sometimes negotiate their commission rates. The advertised rates can easily be doubled or tripled for the best affiliates.

👉 See also: Best VPN Affiliate Programs

3 Gym Equipment

Home gyms surged in popularity during the pandemic, but there’s still a ton of demand as ever-more fitness enthusiasts realize the benefits of building their own home gym to work out without leaving the house.

Here’s the great thing about promoting gym equipment: once someone starts building a home gym, they’ll inevitably want to keep expanding it with new equipment and accessories. There’s lots of scope for repeat sales.

Why Promote Gym Equipment?

• Global monthly search volume: 163,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: Horizon Fitness, Onnit, TRX Training, Titan Fitness
• Average commission rate: 5% – 10% per sale

While gym equipment commission rates are lower than in many niches, you’re promoting high-ticket products, so you can still earn a solid return from each sale. For instance, the suspension weight training equipment brand TRX has an average order value of $200+.

👉 See also: Best Fitness Affiliate Programs

4 Gaming

Gaming has grown from a niche pursuit to a mainstream hobby in recent years. In 2022, there were an estimated 212 million gamers in the US, spending an average of $23.87 per month on video games.

Of course, games aren’t the only opportunity here.

Gaming products range from consoles to gaming laptops to peripherals to gaming chairs. There are even dedicated clothing brands and dating websites for gamers, so it’s an extremely diverse and lucrative market.

Why Promote Gaming Products?

• Global monthly search volume: 380,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: Alienware, Nvidia, Razerware, Logitech
• Average commission rate: 1% – 5% for hardware, 10%+ for accessories

Gamers are prepared to pay top dollar for quality products, so although commission rates in the gaming industry are pretty low, there’s still solid earning potential. For instance, an Alienware gaming laptop will set you back at least $1,400. What’s more, the wealth of gaming products means there’s limitless cross-sell potential.

👉 See also: Best Gaming Affiliate Programs

5 Email Services

Email marketing software like Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign allows marketers to reach their audiences and drive sales. It’s one of the most effective marketing channels, delivering an average return of $36 for every $1 spent, helping to fuel constant demand for email services.

Don’t worry if you’re not a B2B affiliate marketer because email products have broad appeal. You can sell email services to content creators, freelancers, and even other affiliates.

Why Promote Email Services?

• Global monthly search volume: 131,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: ActiveCampaign, MailerLite, MooSend, Constant Contact
• Average commission rate: 30%+ recurring

Most email marketing services offer recurring commissions, meaning you keep earning for as long as your referrals keep paying. You can earn $10+ per sale every single month. Even if an email marketing affiliate program doesn’t offer recurring commissions, it’ll almost certainly offer a substantial bounty payment instead—often as high as three figures.

👉 See also: Best Email Marketing Affiliate Programs

6 Accounting Software

Businesses and freelancers spend a ton of time on dull, repetitive, low-value financial tasks like sending invoices and filing tax returns. So it’s no surprise many of them buy accounting software to do some of the legwork.

By 2030, the market for accounting software is expected to exceed $70 billion, so there’s a huge opportunity to make money here.

The industry is dominated by a handful of big brands with excellent brand awareness, which makes life easier for affiliates. It’s not hard to persuade people to buy from a household name like QuickBooks.

Why Promote Accounting Software?

• Global monthly search volume: 54,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top software affiliate programs: FreshBooks, QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho
• Average commission rate: 10%+ per sale

Some accounting software affiliate programs pay recurring commissions, giving affiliates a share of ongoing subscription revenue. There are also a few pay-per-lead programs in the accounting niche, meaning you get paid even if your referrals don’t buy anything.

👉 See also: Tax Preparation Affiliate Programs

7 Mattresses

We all enjoy a comfortable night’s sleep and are happy to pay for the privilege. That’s why mattresses are such an attractive affiliate product.

Case in point: in the US, queen-size innerspring mattresses sold for an average price of $1,050 in 2021. So, it’s easy to see why the global mattress market is expected to reach $73 billion by 2030.

The only downside is that mattresses have a long lifespan, so don’t expect many repeat purchases.

Why Promote Mattresses?

• Global monthly search volume: 613,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: Spindle Mattress, DreamCloud, Bear Mattress, Nectar Sleep
• Average commission rate: 5% – 10% per sale

Mattresses are big-ticket products. A 10% commission rate could easily earn you $70+ from a single sale.

Want to learn more about the sleep industry? Check out our breakdown of this lucrative affiliate niche.

👉 See also: Best Mattress Affiliate Programs

8 Baby Care & Parenting

Kids are expensive. In fact, the average US family spends over $310,000 raising kids to the age of 18.

That helps to illustrate why baby care and parenting is one of our favorite affiliate niches.

Understandably, parents want the best for their little ones and are always looking for advice on products, so there’s a wealth of high-intent keywords to target in this niche. And with 267 babies born every minute, the target audience is huge.

Why Promote Baby Care & Parenting Products?

• Global monthly search volume: 96,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: Newton Baby, Bloom Baby, Organic Baby Foods, BABYBJÖRN
• Average commission rate: 5% – 10% per sale

The baby and parenting niche offers the dream combination for any affiliate marketing business: high-ticket products and lots of repeat purchase potential. Products like cots and strollers are expensive, and parents need a constant supply of essentials like baby food, clothes, diapers, and more.

👉 See also: Best Baby Products Affiliate Programs

9 Home Automation

From TVs and fridges to washing machines and security and surveillance equipment, an increasing number of household products can be connected to the internet and automated to make our lives easier — so much so that revenue in the smart home market surpassed $117 billion in 2022.

The industry is huge, and it’s only just getting started: by 2028, more than one-quarter of households will incorporate some form of home automation technology.

Why Promote Home Automation Products?

• Global monthly search volume: 41,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: Kuna, Lenovo, Logitech, Revo
• Average commission rate: 5% – 10% per sale

Some home automation products can be bundled with subscriptions, giving you an attractive upsell opportunity. For instance, Kuna charges a monthly fee of $5+ for its premium home security service.

👉 See also: Best Home Security Affiliate Programs

10 Pet Care

Pet owners are prepared to spend anything on pet care products to keep our animal friends happy — and when they immediately get bored of their latest fancy toy or luxury treat, we’ll buy them a different one.

US pet owners dropped over $100 billion on their furry, feathered, and scaly friends in 2020 alone, including $42 billion on pet food and $22 billion on accessories and medicines.

There’s also a growing demand for pet supplies like food, collars, leashes, bedding, and medicine, not to mention emerging product lines like dog GPS trackers and CBD pet products.

Why Promote Pet Care Products?

• Global monthly search volume: 21,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: Petco Supplies, Holista Pet, Ollie, Chewy
• Average commission rate: 5% – 20%

Like the baby care and parenting niche, pet products like food and medicine are frequent purchases, representing lots of repeat buying potential. There’s also a growing number of pet subscription services like BarkBox that pay recurring commissions.

Many pet products also have high margins, leaving companies room to pay high commissions to affiliates.

👉 See also: Best Pet Affiliate Programs

11 Online Education

The days when learning a new skill meant sitting in a dusty night school classroom are long behind us. Today, there are online courses for everything from art history to zookeeping, with the global e-learning market expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2027.

One of the best things about the online education niche is that you can target two distinct audiences: people looking to acquire a new skill and teachers who want to sell their online courses. More audiences mean more potential sales.

Why Promote Online Courses?

• Global monthly search volume: 82,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: Coursera, Teachable, Thinkific, Udemy
• Average commission rate: 10% – 20% per sale

Some programs in the online education space — including Teachable and Thinkific — pay recurring commissions. For instance, with Thinkific, you can theoretically earn up to $1,700 per year when someone buys via your affiliate link.

That’s why education is the most profitable affiliate niche. The average monthly earnings are more than $15,500, according to our affiliate marketing statistics.

👉 See also: Best Education Affiliate Programs

12 Insurance

Insurance is a classic evergreen niche. It’s always in demand because it’s essential for many elements of our lives, from driving to health to travel.

By 2025, the global insurance industry will be worth a massive $6.4 trillion — higher than the GDPs of any country bar the US and China. The diversity of products also means there’s a vast target audience for insurance-related affiliate sales.

Why Promote Insurance Products?

• Global monthly search volume: 653,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: Lemonade, USAA, Liberty Mutual, Allianz
• Average commission rate: $10 – $30 per lead

Many insurance providers run pay-per-lead affiliate programs that reward you for actions like form submissions rather than sales, so there’s the potential to earn commissions without having to close the deal yourself.

👉 See also: Best Insurance Affiliate Programs

13 Jewelry

Whether you’re promoting cheap costume jewelry or marquise diamonds, jewelry is very much a luxury purchase.

Yet demand is still exceptionally high. And so are sales, with the global jewelry industry expected to be worth over $480 billion by 2030.

Most jewelry is purchased as a gift for someone else, so while there’s demand throughout the year, you can expect big spikes in sales around events like Valentine’s Day and Christmas.

Why Promote Jewelry Products?

• Global monthly search volume: 550,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: James Allen, Blue Nile Jewelry, Etsy, Angara
• Average commission rate: 5% – 10%

At the upper end of the market, jewelry products carry big price tags. So, despite the comparatively low commission rates, you could still be raking in $50+ per sale (if your audience has the money).

👉 See also: Best Jewelry Affiliate Programs

14 Supplements

Supplements are incredibly popular – more than 86% of Americans take them. That’s why there are supplements for everything from health to joint pain to sleep. There are even supplements for dogs, cats, and other pets.

This massive target audience explains why the global dietary supplements industry will reach almost $330 billion by 2030.

Why Promote Supplements?

• Global monthly search volume: 104,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: Rootine, Life Extension, Bulk Supplements, The Vitamin Shoppe
• Average commission rate: 10% – 20%

For most customers, supplements are a recurring purchase — they won’t buy them once and then give up. This allows you to earn multiple commissions from the same customer. Some supplement brands also offer a subscription model, opening the door to higher commission rates and recurring commissions.

👉 See also: Best Supplements Affiliate Programs

15 Travel

Travel is an enormous niche. Global spending on leisure travel is closing in on $3 trillion, and most people travel at least once every year.

That gives you the opportunity to “niche down” by specializing in one tiny corner of the travel industry, such as business travel, family vacations, cheap flights, or luggage.

And you’ll need to find a sub-niche, because the travel industry is highly competitive. From first-time bloggers to massive media brands, it seems like everyone wants to promote travel destinations and their favorite travel and tourism companies.

Why Promote Travel Products?

• Global monthly search volume: 595,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: Expedia, Booking.com, Agoda, Viator, Travelpayouts
• Average commission rate: 5% – 10%

There are plenty of opportunities for cross-selling in the travel niche. Someone booking a vacation might need flights, accommodation, car hire, luggage, clothes, insurance, and much more. With so many different products to recommend, you can earn substantial revenue by referring just a few people to all of these different vendors.

Travel was also the second-most profitable niche in our affiliate marketing survey, earning more than $13,000 per month.

👉 See also: Best Travel Affiliate Programs

16 Fashion

You don’t need to be an avid Vogue reader to care about the fashion industry — after all, everyone needs clothes and shoes.

And because fashion trends come and go in the glimpse of an eye, shoppers are always searching for advice and inspiration on what’s hot. All of this makes the fashion niche a potential high-earner for your affiliate marketing website.

Just be sure you know what you’re talking about — fashionistas can spot a faker a mile off.

Why Promote Fashion Products?

• Global monthly search volume: 511,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: Zappos, PrettyLittleThing, SHEIN, RewardStyle
• Average commission rate: 5% – 20% per sale

While traditional fashion purchases are a one-and-done transaction, there are also plenty of fashion subscription box brands, offering the potential to earn recurring commissions in the fashion niche.

👉 See also: Best Fashion Affiliate Programs

17 Financial Products

Financial products are used in many niches, from budget planning to loans and credit cards to stocks, shares, and crypto trading.

Therefore, you don’t need an audience full of Wall Street Journal readers to promote financial affiliate programs — they’re relevant to pretty much anyone. And there’s huge earning potential here, with the consumer finance industry valued at well over $1 trillion in 2022.

Why Promote Financial Products?

• Global monthly search volume: 1.2 million (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: Robinhood, Wise, Coinbase, Credit Karma, Augusta
• Average commission rate: $10 – $50 per lead, 5% – 50% per sale

The financial niche offers various payment models, including plenty of pay-per-lead options that offer commissions without forcing you to close the deal. Meanwhile, some trading platforms pay lifetime commissions on qualified trades, meaning a single customer could net you thousands of dollars.

👉 See also: Best Financial Affiliate Programs

18 Outdoor

From occasional campers to hardcore runners, the outdoors industry encompasses a wide range of audiences and sub-niches. So, you don’t need to be a veteran mountaineer to generate affiliate sales in this niche.

Whether your audience is interested in family activities, walking holidays, or any other part of the outdoor niche, there’s big money to be made here, with the global market for outdoor gear and equipment set to reach $72 billion in 2028.

Why Promote Outdoor Products?

• Global monthly search volume: 28,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: REI, Backcountry, Patagonia, North Face
• Average commission rate: 5% – 10% per sale

From walking boots to camping gear to mountaineering equipment, there’s no shortage of high-ticket products in the outdoors niche. And once customers have been bitten by the outdoors bug, they invariably spend more and more on products, giving you the chance to earn repeat commissions from your audience.

👉 See also: Best Outdoor Affiliate Programs

19 Photography

It’s fair to say photography is one of the more expensive hobbies. A comprehensive photography kit for beginners could easily run $2,000+, while a high-end mirrorless camera costs even more.

With so many products to choose from and technical jargon to decode, amateur enthusiasts are hungry for expert advice — which is fantastic news for any affiliate marketer who knows their aperture from their elbow.

Why Promote Photography Products?

• Global monthly search volume: 449,000 (per Ahrefs)
• Top affiliate programs: B&H Photo Video, GoPro, Adobe, Adorama
• Average commission rate: 2% – 10% for hardware and accessories

Many photography products are big-ticket items. So, while commission rates in the photography niche are pretty low (just like for all consumer electronics products), you can still earn decent money from a single sale.

Photographers also need many other products, from stands and lights to bags and editing software, offering tons of cross-sell potential. And speaking of software, some of those affiliate programs pay recurring commissions.

👉 See also: Best Photography Affiliate Programs

How to Find the Best Affiliate Marketing Products

Great affiliate products share a few common characteristics:

• Genuinely good products
• High commissions
• Much of your audience is interested in it
• Excellent sales page

Bonus points if it’s an urgent product that someone needs immediately, making them more likely to buy. For instance, no one’s browsing for the best car insurance deals for fun; they need to purchase a new policy.

Now you know how to qualify the best affiliate marketing products, use these tips to track them down:

Look for In-Demand Products

Promoting products that people already want to buy is easier — there’s less work required to close the deal.

Fortunately, there are lots of tools to help you find top-selling products in lucrative niches. For instance, EverBee shows you the highest sellers on Etsy related to a given keyword:

Or simply search for any keyword on Amazon and filter the results by “best sellers”:

Find Growing Trends

Finding niche products on the cusp of mainstream success is a dream for affiliate marketers.

Getting in on trends early can reward you with more attractive terms, like higher commissions, longer cookie durations, and volume-based bonuses. So, it’s no surprise that marketers who choose products based on market research earn 47.16% more than those relying on commissions or personal experience.

In our experience, the best way to identify growing trends is to look at related topics and queries in Google Trends rising topics, which can be found at the bottom of any Trends page.

Take golf clubs as an example:

New models are typically released in January, so golf affiliates can check out rising trends at the start of the year to steal a march on competitors who rely on keyword tools, which take a few months to update.

Dig Into Forums and Communities

Affiliate marketers are often happy to share their insights on forums and community pages.

There are thousands of threads and discussions dedicated to the best affiliate products in countless niches in common locations like:

• Facebook groups
• Subreddits
• Discord communities
• YouTube comments sections

Be sure to look out for niche-specific communities, such as DogForum, for pet product recommendations.

Search By Hashtag

An ever-growing number of shoppers use social media for buying advice and product inspiration, so try searching by hashtags on platforms like Instagram and TikTok to find recommendations in your niche:

Research Your Competitors

Don’t fancy doing all the legwork yourself? Learn from the affiliate marketing efforts of other sites in your niche.

If they’re all promoting the same product, that’s a good sign that it sells well and offers attractive terms.

Summing Up

There’s no shortage of affiliate products. We’ve rounded up our favorite high-earning opportunities here, but we could have mentioned dozens more.

Still, while we’ve done some of the work for you, we strongly recommend doing your own research before choosing affiliate products to promote. Find something you’re interested in, then niche down.

Want more affiliate marketing tips? Join our free training. You’ll learn the seven secrets we’ve uncovered that make new websites 83% more successful.

To understand the public’s concerns and expectations about governmental AI regulation, we surveyed 2,000 US residents and performed an in-depth analysis of the regulatory landscape across 195 countries. 

By examining the effectiveness of current measures and gauging the desire for stricter regulations, our research seeks to provide valuable insights that can inform policymakers, industry leaders, and the public as we navigate this uncharted territory.

Why We Conducted This Study

We performed this research to understand two things:

• How governments are progressing with AI regulations
• How the public wants governments to react to the growing perils of AI

This survey is in response to the growing risks of AI. 

Some perils are already occurring – such as using AI to scam people, create inappropriate deepfakes, and spread disinformation – while other potential threats lay on the horizon, including widespread job loss, autonomous weapons, and uncontrollable self-aware AI.   

As a result, calls for governmental regulation of AI have come from many sectors – including leaders in AI development. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said of AI, “I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong… We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening.” And Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “Congress should engage with AI to support innovation and safeguards.” 

Governments have responded with varying degrees of urgency. 

The European Parliament is leading the charge with their recent passage of the AI Act – the world’s first major set of regulatory ground rules to govern artificial intelligence. 

The UN, led by the United States, adopted its first resolution on AI shortly after, though President Biden is yet to make progress in Congress despite pushing for regulations. 

This environment of fear, uncertainty, and disjointed government response prompted us to investigate how US residents feel about governmental regulation of AI. 

Most Americans Want Strict AI Regulations

Our survey revealed a significant level of concern and a desire for stricter AI regulations. 

A striking 79.8% of respondents believed governments should implement strict AI regulations, even if it means slowing down technological innovation. This highlights the public’s prioritization of safety and ethical considerations over rapid advancement. 

When asked about the effectiveness of current regulatory frameworks in managing AI risks, 55.5% of respondents considered them effective, with only 14.55% regarding them as “very effective.” This suggests that while some progress has been made, there is still room for improvement in the eyes of the public.

Furthermore, 82.3% of respondents expressed support for either international standards (41.35%) or a mix of international standards and local laws (40.95%) in AI regulation, emphasizing the need for a coordinated global approach.

Privacy emerged as a major concern, with 82.45% of respondents expressing unease about the use of personal data in training AI systems. This figure rose to an alarming 91.96% among respondents in the IT and software industries, with 48.28% indicating the highest level of concern. This underscores the urgent need for robust data protection measures and transparency in AI development.

Lastly, an overwhelming 83.9% of respondents believed that AI companies should pay royalties for copyrighted content used in training AI models. This sentiment reflects the growing debate around intellectual property rights and reveals a desire for creators to receive fair compensation in the age of AI.

AI Regulation Analysis – Current State of the World

Our analysis reveals that nearly two-thirds of the world’s countries are actively working on regulating AI, with differing levels of progress.

To categorize countries’ progress on AI regulation, we developed a four-tier system:

• Comprehensive Regulation Enacted: Countries that have fully developed, enacted, and implemented comprehensive AI regulations. These regulations are broad, covering ethical concerns, privacy, transparency, security, and the societal impact of AI. This level signifies the highest degree of regulatory development.
• Active Regulatory Development: Countries with legislation in progress or those with frameworks or guidelines established. It includes nations actively working towards creating, revising, or finalizing AI-specific laws, as well as those that have set non-binding principles, frameworks, or guidelines to guide AI development and use.
• Initial Regulatory Efforts: Countries that have recognized the need for AI regulation and have begun preliminary efforts, such as research, stakeholder consultations, or the formation of advisory committees. This category highlights an early stage of engagement without substantial legal or formal guidelines.
• No AI Regulation: Countries that have not made discernible efforts towards AI regulation, either due to a lack of action, absence of information, or reliance solely on existing laws that do not specifically address AI.

Of 195 countries, 32 have already enacted comprehensive AI regulations, while 29 are actively working on implementing and finalizing laws. 53 countries are in the initial or drafting stages of their own AI-related regulations.

The European Union and China have taken the lead in AI regulation, albeit with different objectives. 

The EU’s AI Act prioritizes minimizing social harms through a comprehensive, risk-based approach, while China’s regulations focus on reasserting state control over information. 

Neither approach is likely to favor AI innovation, presenting a challenge for other nations to develop their own unique strategies that balance innovation, safety, and ethical considerations.

The United States and the United Kingdom are currently in the stage of active regulatory development. 

The UK government plans on targeted legislative interventions to address gaps in the current regulatory landscape, particularly concerning complex general-purpose AI systems. 

In the US, President Biden issued a landmark Executive Order to protect Americans from the potential risks of AI systems. 

However, a broader US response hasn’t come to fruition. While some US agencies have completed short-term actions and advanced longer-term directives, the progress of proposed bills in Congress remains uncertain.

Implications of Study

Our survey results show that Americans want strict, comprehensive, and globally coordinated AI regulations. Policymakers and industry leaders must address these concerns and create frameworks that ensure safety, privacy, and ethics while still allowing for innovation.

Our analysis of current AI regulations found that progress is being made, but much work remains. Only 32 out of 195 countries have comprehensive AI laws, meaning most nations are just starting to tackle this critical issue. The lack of a unified global approach makes it hard to ensure consistent standards and reduce risks.

The study also underscores the need for international collaboration in AI regulation. As AI crosses borders, countries must work together to establish global standards and best practices. This requires open communication, sharing knowledge, and a commitment to addressing AI challenges cooperatively.

AI Regulation Findings: Country-By-Country

Here are our complete findings from our analysis of 195 countries:

With high commission rates, revenue-sharing, and multi-tier commissions, there’s a big opportunity to earn money in the forex niche.

At Authority Hacker, we’ve built high-performing affiliate websites in countless niches, so we know how to spot attractive affiliate programs.

To help you maximize your earning potential, we’ve analyzed the top forex brokers and trading platforms to bring you a definitive list of the 12 best forex affiliate programs.

Forex Affiliate Programs

1. Vantage
2. AvaTrade
3. Exness
4. Admiral Markets
5. XM
6. RoboForex
7. Eightcap Partners
8. FxPro
9. XTB
10. eToro
11. BlackBull
12. easyMarkets

1 Vantage

Vantage is a global CFD broker that allows clients to trade 1,000+ products across forex, commodities, stocks, and more. The platform has over 900,000 clients and a monthly traded volume north of $200 billion.

As a forex trading platform, Vantage gives customers access to 40+ currency pairs through its liquid global foreign exchange markets. Clients can start trading with $0 deposit fees and buy or sell any time, anywhere via Vantage’s trading platform and mobile app.

Members of Vantage’s forex affiliate program include fund managers, signal providers, influencers, and website owners from more than 150 countries.

The platform’s traditional CPA affiliate program, designed for affiliate marketers, pays up to $800 for successful referrals. It also runs an introducing broker program, aimed at anyone with a strong trader audience, which pays up to an $8 rebate for referred traders.

Either way, you get a 30-day cookie window in which to close the deal.

Vantage pays $5+ million in monthly commissions, so there’s plenty of earning potential here.

• URL: Vantage affiliate program
• Commission rate: Up to $800 CPA per referral
• Cookie duration: 30 days
• Products/Services sold: CFD trading
• Payment methods: Wire transfer or direct to your trading account
• Market(s): Multiple

2 AvaTrade

A highly trusted global CFD and forex trading platform, AvaTrade offers trading websites in 20+ languages and is regulated across nine jurisdictions, including the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada and the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission.

Over one million returning clients use AvaTrade to take advantage of 1,250+ trading instruments, including forex, cryptocurrencies, stocks, commodities, and indices.

Users can choose from a whole suite of desktop, tablet, mobile, and web-based trading platforms, including the hugely popular MetaTrader 4 and 5, and the proprietary AvaTradeGO mobile app.

Unfortunately, AvaTrade is tight-lipped about the financial specifics of its forex affiliate marketing program, but it offers a lifetime cookie window and promises the “most competitive commission structures in the industry”. To date, AvaTrade has paid $250+ million in commissions.

AvaPartner affiliates can leverage three different payment models:

• CPA
• RevShare
• Hybrid commission

To help you drive clicks and conversions, AvaTrade provides a library of affiliate marketing tools and educational resources and employs multilingual sales and retention teams.

• URL: AvaTrade affiliate program
• Commission rate: Unlisted
• Cookie duration: Lifetime
• Products/Services sold: CFD and forex trading
• Payment methods: Wire transfer, PayPal, Moneybookers, WebMoney, Neteller, Ava Debit Card, or directly into your trading account
• Market(s): Global

3 Exness

Exness is a trusted CFD, crypto, and forex broker regulated by the likes of the UK’s FCA and South Africa’s FSCA.

The brokerage is highly regarded for its ultra-low trading fees and choice of trading platforms (including MetaTrader and two proprietary alternatives). It’s also highly accessible, allowing traders to get started with a minimum first-time deposit of just $10.

Exness runs one of the highest-paying forex trading affiliate programs on the market, offering up to $1,850 for each referred user who becomes an active client, with extra bonuses for top performers.

While it isn’t a global affiliate program, Exness does accept traffic from more than 130 countries, which is a big plus for any forex affiliate marketer with an international audience.

Another attractive feature of the Exness affiliate program: it offers daily payments, whereas most other programs make you wait at least a month to get hold of your earnings.

Exness also provides various marketing materials to help you attract clients.

• URL: Exness affiliate program
• Commission rate: Up to $1,850 for successful referrals
• Cookie duration: Unlisted
• Products/Services sold:
• Payment methods: Unlisted
• Market(s): Multiple

4 Admiral Markets

Admiral Markets enables clients to trade and invest in more than 8,000 markets, including 80+ CFDs on currency pairs.

Traders can take advantage of the platform’s tight spreads, fast deposits and withdrawals, and choice of trading platforms — MetaTrader 5 and the browser-based WebTrader.

A popular choice among newbie traders, Admiral offers a wealth of educational tools, including videos explaining the basics of forex trading and a free demo account to practice with.

Admiral Markets pays forex affiliates commissions of up to $600 for each referred client.

To help you turn more clicks into sales, Admiral provides a suite of marketing tools, including conversion-optimized banners, widgets, email templates, and landing pages. You’ll also get access to a dedicated account manager to guide your strategy and answer questions.

• URL: Admiral Markets affiliate program
• Commission rate: Up to $600 per referral
• Cookie duration: Unlisted
• Products/Services sold: Forex brokers
• Payment methods: Unlisted
• Market(s): Multiple

5 XM

Sign up for XM to trade forex, CFDs on stocks and metals, and access over 1,000 trading instruments, all of which are compatible with the MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms.

Forex traders can choose from more than 50 currency pairs — including majors, crosses, and exotics — and enjoy tight spreads and no requotes.

The regulated forex broker offers a host of tools to help clients discover their next trading opportunity. Study advanced charts, analyze 90+ trading indicators, and get free access to forex market research and daily forex webinars.

XM’s CPA program pays up to $650 when you refer clients who sign up and make a deposit, with no maximum payments. Not only that, but high-volume affiliates earn up to $10,500 in bonuses. All commissions are paid weekly.

Forex affiliates and independent brokers in more than 190 countries have signed up for the XM affiliate program. This program offers access to a personal account manager and promotional resources in over 25 languages, making it a fantastic choice for affiliates with global audiences.

• URL: XM affiliate program
• Commission rate: Up to $650 CPA
• Cookie duration: Unlisted
• Products/Services sold: Forex market and CFD trading
• Payment methods: Unlisted
• Market(s): Multiple

6 RoboForex

With 0% commissions, instant withdrawals, and a choice of eight asset classes, RoboForex offers a simple, reliable way to invest in financial markets.

Clients can buy and sell more than 40 currency pairs, with tight spreads and execution speeds as fast as 0.1 seconds. They can trade through MetaTrader 4 and 5 or the proprietary MobileTrader and StocksTrader platforms.

Whereas most forex broker affiliate programs pay fixed cash commissions, RoboForex rewards you with a percentage-based revenue share scheme.

It actually has two different forex affiliate programs.

The first, a traditional affiliate marketing program, offers an attractive revenue share of up to 70% and has a built-in “loyalty program” that pays up to 20% more based on monthly revenue generated.

RoboForex also runs a multi-level “expert” affiliate program, which pays a flat 35% revenue share on direct referrals plus 10%—20% of commissions earned by any affiliate marketers you recruit. This program is perfect for affiliates with big networks who want to build a significant passive income stream.

Both programs offer daily payments.

• URL: RoboForex affiliate program
• Commission rate: Revenue share up to 70%; up to 20% bonus through their loyalty program
• Cookie duration: Unlisted
• Products/Services sold:
• Payment methods: Unlisted
• Market(s): Multiple

7 Eightcap Partners

Eightcap is a leading CFD provider, offering clients access to 800+ trading instruments with low spreads and zero commissions.

One of the platform’s most exciting features is its AI-powered economic calendar, which uses a custom, AI-powered big data engine to help users unearth trading ideas based on over 1,000 macro-economic events. Its user-friendly visualizations make it easy (or, at least, easier) to understand the likely repercussions of daily developments from across the world’s financial markets.

Like many of the best forex affiliate programs, Eightcap doesn’t publish too many finer details about its affiliate terms, but it does tout commissions of $6 per lot plus additional revenue share earnings.

The platform boasts an impressive 40% conversion rate, so almost half of the people you refer will end up opening an account with Eightcap.

It also has a dedicated program for social media influencers. So, if you have a big following on one or more social media platforms, Eightcap could be the affiliate partner you’ve been looking for.

• URL: Eightcap Partners affiliate program
• Commission rate: $6 per lot plus revenue share
• Cookie duration: Unlisted
• Products/Services sold: Forex and CFD trading
• Payment methods: Unlisted
• Market(s): Multiple

8 FxPro

FxPro claims to be the world’s top forex broker. With 20+ years of experience, a client base spanning over 170 countries, and more than 105 international awards, it might have a point.

Amateur and professional traders alike can use the platform to trade CFDs on 70+ currency pairs while enjoying rapid order executions and tight spreads.

What’s more, the FxPro mobile app—with over five million downloads—allows users to trade on the go and benefit from the platform’s ultra-low-latency trading infrastructure.

FxPro’s forex affiliate program pays up to 55% of spread revenue, allowing affiliates to earn as much as $1,100 for referring new clients.

To help you out, you’ll get access to a host of exclusive marketing materials, including website banners and widgets.

Just bear in mind that you’ll need an active FxPro account to take part in this affiliate program.

• URL: FxPro affiliate program
• Commission rate: Up to 55% of spread revenue
• Cookie duration: Unlisted
• Products/Services sold: Forex brokers
• Payment methods: Wire transfer, FxPro wallet
• Market(s): Multiple

9 XTB

XTB is a leading European CFD and forex broker with 847,000+ clients. It offers more than 5,500 trading instruments, including forex, commodities, stocks, and cryptocurrencies.

The platform prides itself on its array of educational assets. Whether you’re a seasoned forex trader or a total newcomer, use XTB’s video library to further your knowledge and (hopefully) make more successful trades and investments.

XTB’s standard forex affiliate program pays up to $600 CPA for every client who creates an account after clicking your unique affiliate link.

Alternatively, affiliate marketers outside the EU region can take advantage of the Spreadshare model, which pays a flat 20% commission on all non-European client referrals.

Whatever model you choose, you’ll have access to a dedicated account manager who can help you craft more effective marketing strategies.

• URL: XTB affiliate program
• Commission rate: Up to $600 CPA
• Cookie duration: 30 days
• Products/Services sold: CFD and forex broker
• Payment methods: Bank transfer
• Market(s): Multiple

10 eToro

One of the world’s best-known trading platforms, eToro gives clients the tools to trade everything from forex to cryptocurrencies to stocks to commodities. It supports over 19 languages, offers more than 3,000 trading instruments, and has a global network of more than 30 million users.

Like all forex brokers, eToro allows customers to buy and sell a wide range of major USD pairs, plus other currency crosses. In total, it works with 51 different currencies.

It’s tough to compare eToro to the other top forex affiliate programs directly because its commission rates vary between different countries and affiliates. You’ll need to sign up to discuss a custom deal.

However, we can tell you that eToro provides a wealth of resources to help you run more successful affiliate marketing campaigns, including advanced tracking systems and high-converting promotional tools.

All eToro affiliates also get access to a personal account manager.

• URL: eToro affiliate program
• Commission rate: Varies
• Cookie duration: Unlisted
• Products/Services sold: Forex, stock, and crypto trading
• Payment methods: Neteller, Skrill, bank transfer
• Market(s): Multiple

11 BlackBull Markets

Traders looking for a speedy forex broker should strongly consider BlackBull Markets, which CompareForexBrokers.com rates as the #1 broker for execution speeds.

It’s not only slick; it’s also comprehensive. The platform gives users access to 80+ markets and features more than 26,000 tradable instruments.

Best of all, new clients don’t need a ton of money to get started as BlackBull doesn’t have a minimum deposit amount. That removes a major potential barrier to conversion.

BlackBull’s forex affiliate program pays CPAs of up to $1,000, so it’s hardly surprising that the platform has more than 20,000 active partners.

It also offers two-tier earning potential, rewarding partners who refer new affiliates to BlackBull. You earn a standard 10% of sub-affiliate earnings — so if they get paid $100 for a referral, you’ll pick up $10 without doing anything at all. That’s what we call passive income.

On top of that, BlackBull offers incentivized bonuses for top performers and has no payout limits.

All affiliate partners get access to a range of multilingual marketing materials and their own dedicated account manager.

• URL: BlackBull Markets affiliate program
• Commission rate: Up to $1,000 CPA
• Cookie duration: 365 days
• Products/Services sold: Forex, shares, CFDs, commodities
• Payment methods: Unlisted
• Market(s): Multiple

12 easyMarkets

Back in 2001, easyMarkets became one of the world’s first brokers to offer online forex trading and credit card funding.

The platform offers various features that make it an attractive choice for would-be foreign exchange traders. These fixed spreads ensure you know precisely what you’ll pay when you trade, and dealCancellation, which allows you to cancel losing trades for a small fee within a fixed time — kind of like trading insurance.

Forex is one of 275+ trading instruments available through easyMarkets, with other options including bitcoin, gold, and oil.

The easyMarkets affiliate program provides multiple payment models, including CPA — paying up to $1,000 per referral — and spread share, which offers recurring commissions of 40%.

Become a second-tier affiliate, and you’ll earn 10% of revenues generated by other affiliates you refer to the platform. You can also choose pay-per-lead and pay-per-install models, but you’ll have to contact the platform’s partner consultants for more information.

To help boost your earnings, easyMarkets provides an extensive library of landing pages, videos, and banners, all of which feature automatically generated tracking.

Affiliates also get access to a dedicated account manager.

• URL: easyMarkets affiliate program
• Commission rate: Up to $1,000 CPA or 40% recurring commission
• Cookie duration: 30 days
• Products/Services sold: CFD trading
• Payment methods: Wire transfer
• Market(s): Global

Summing Up

In a world where money makes money, it’s no surprise that forex is such a lucrative niche, with some of the best forex affiliate programs paying four-figure commissions for a single conversion.

But trust is everything in the financial industry. If you can’t reassure your audience that you know what you’re talking about, you can kiss goodbye to your dreams of passive income.

And the best way to build trust is to have your own website to showcase your expertise.

We know because we’ve built (and sold) multiple six-figure affiliate websites. 

Not only that, but we’ve shown affiliates — many of them in finance-related niches — how to build their own high-performing businesses from scratch.

Learn some of our top tried-and-trusted tactics on our free authority site training course, where we explain seven secrets that make new sites 83% more successful.

Join the free training now.

Drawing from a meticulously screened pool of 1,200 U.S. residents with full-time employment, we aimed to uncover the underlying anxieties and perceptions shaping the current employment landscape.

Why We Conducted This Study

Our investigation was spurred by the alarming wave of layoffs sweeping across industries — particularly in tech — the speculative yet tangible impact of artificial intelligence on the future of work, and uncertainty surrounding the global economy.

According to Layoffs.fyi, there have been more than 296,000 tech layoffs since 2023, with 33,000 coming in the first 5 weeks of 2024.

Hundreds of large companies — including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Spotify — have made headlines for reducing their workforce by up to 25%.

Part of the cause is excessive hiring during the pandemic. Roger Lee, the founder of Layoffs.fyi, told CNN that many tech companies are trying to “correct for their over-hiring during the pandemic surge.”

However, over-hiring isn’t the only cause. Dataminr CEO Ted Bailey — who laid off 20% of staff in November 2023 — states that AI is playing a role in their personnel decisions.

According to a memo shared with TechCrunch, Bailey says that ”recent rapid advancements of their AI platform” contributed to the layoffs.

The uncertainty surrounding the economy is also impacting public perception. While Brian Rose, a senior U.S. economist at UBS, told the New York Times that he predicts a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy after years of COVID-induced inflation, the inflation rate remains high compared to the last decade.

This reality isn’t lost on Americans — a Gallup poll reveals 63% of Americans say the economy is getting worse, with the same amount saying inflated prices pose a moderate or severe financial hardship.

This environment of post-pandemic cuts, uncertainty surrounding the impact of AI, and economic fears prompted us to seek answers: how do full-time U.S. workers feel about their job security amidst these changes?

Unveiling American Workers’ Growing Anxiety

Fear of job loss has rippled across the American workforce — 54.58% of full-time workers have increased concerns about job loss, with 27.08% feeling significant concern.

Our survey cross-referenced these results with a variety of demographic factors, including age, gender, education, income levels, industry, job role, and company size. Here are the most interesting findings:

Men are more concerned than women. Men expressed greater concern (62.87%) than women (47.53%), possibly reflecting the 3:1 male-to-female gender distribution in tech firms.

Higher earners are more concerned. Individuals in the highest income brackets feel most vulnerable, with 75% of those making 125k to 150k and 72.48% of those making 150k and above expressing concern. This may be swayed by the higher salaries in the volatile tech industry.

There’s a generational divide. The concern was most palpable among the 25 to 44 age group, with 62.2% expressing concerns. This showcases a generational divide in job security perceptions, as less than 50% of those 45 and older share their sentiment. Younger people may be more aware of the capabilities of AI and are also more likely to hold less senior positions that may be at increased risk of being cut.

More education = more job security anxiety. Individuals with at least four years of college education express more concern (61.02%) than those with less, possibly due to the higher stakes associated with their roles.

Executives are very concerned. Out of all job roles, high-level roles such as C-level executives (85% concerned) and Directors (78.38% concerned) express the highest levels of concern, which may indicate the visibility people in these roles have regarding the future of their industries.

Workers in larger companies feel particularly vulnerable. Those working in larger companies (500 – 1000 employees) feel particularly at risk (74.33%). This sharply contrasts with the lessened concerns of self-employed workers (42.47%) and those in smaller companies (below 25 employees, 45.38%).

The global economy weighs heavily on most. 73.61% of respondents have increased concerns due to recent global economic trends.

Job Security Concerns By Industry

When we break down job security fears by industry, it’s clear that the tech sector is most concerned. Information — Services And Data (89.66%) and Software (74.42%) are the industries where workers are most concerned about job loss.

This is significantly higher than less tech-centric sectors like Fashion/Apparel (30%), Transportation and Warehousing (41.35%), and Personal Services (42.93%).

This infographic provides a full breakdown of each industry’s level of concern:

AI’s Looming Shadow

A significant portion of respondents (54.58%) anticipate that AI will impact their job security within the next five years.

Sectors that have a high reliance on computer use — like Software (67.44%), Finance (67.57%), and Human Resources (64.29%) — express the highest levels of concern.

In contrast, people in sectors that involve more human-to-human interaction — such as education (43.04%) and real estate (44.68%) — are least concerned about the impact of AI on their livelihoods.

People in IT are noticeably more worried than anyone else. 72.42% of people in IT positions are concerned, with nearly half (48.28%) completely agreeing that AI will affect their job security. Less than 7% believe it won’t have any impact.

These fears may be warranted, as the nature of how we work is quickly shifting. A study from OpenAI estimates that 19% of U.S. workers could see 50% of their workplace tasks impacted by publicly available GPT-4 technology, and the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report predicts that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted between 2023 and 2028.

In addition, these shifts are likely to impact job security. A report from McKinsey states that 30% of hours currently worked could be automated by 2030, and a Goldman Sachs report suggests that 300 million full-time jobs may be exposed to automation in the coming years.

Recovery From Job Loss

We also asked respondents about their ability to recover from job loss.

If faced with job loss, 42% of full-time workers don’t have enough savings to support them until they find a new job, and 38.58% are not confident in their ability to secure new employment within 3 months.

According to Statista, there are 132.59 million full-time employees in the United States, which means 55.68 million Americans — and their dependents — would have immediate financial struggles if faced with job loss.

This aligns with recent data on the decline in Americans’ emergency savings. According to Bankrate’s 2023 Emergency Savings Report, 49% of adults have fewer savings compared to a year ago, and 22% have no emergency savings at all.

The financial impact of job loss seems less severe in the tech-related industry sectors, where only 29.17% feel financially unprepared for potential unemployment. However, with Statista reporting 3 million U.S. residents working in tech, that still constitutes a million people. 38.89% feel unconfident about finding a new job within 3 months, similar to the other industries’ respondents.

It’s clear that sudden unemployment would cause immediate financial problems for many Americans, and threats to job security from many fronts are causing a majority of workers to feel the weight of that stress.

Potential Paths Forward

The widespread concerns about AI replacing human workers raise an important question: what can Americans do now to AI-proof their careers?

It’s important to note that the proliferation of AI isn’t only set to eliminate jobs — it should also create new opportunities. A World Economic Forum report states that while it may disrupt an estimated 85 million jobs by 2025, the new technology may simultaneously create 97 million new jobs. Workers who learn to use AI now may have an easier time taking advantage of these new positions.

While the rapid advancement of AI technology makes it hard to provide concrete guidelines for AI upskilling, Harvard Business Review and Fast Company have a few suggestions:

• Become familiar with available AI tools and integrate them into your workflow.
• Hone soft skills that machines strive to emulate, such as communication and empathy.
• Build strong relationships with colleagues and peers.
• Cultivate unique expertise and develop your personal brand.

An IBM study also found that 87% of executives believe job roles are more likely to be augmented than replaced by generative AI, lending further credence to AI upskilling as a safeguard against unemployment.

For those who are still choosing a career — or are open to a change — it may also be worthwhile to explore careers that are least likely to be automated. The U.S. Career Institute has compiled a list of 65 jobs with a projected 0% risk of being automated, with options including careers in medicine, social services, engineering, public service, and education.

Implications of Study

Our study shows the American workforce has widespread concerns about job security, especially among tech workers, younger workers, higher earners, and those at larger companies.

These concerns are fueled by recent layoffs, the prospect of widespread AI automation, and a perception of instability underpinning the global economy.

AI automation is a particularly concerning threat to job security, with prominent companies predicting AI will be able to automate many tasks and roles. Computer-based jobs seem particularly vulnerable to augmentation or replacement.

Coupled with the inability of many Americans to cope financially with a loss of employment, it’s clear that potential hardship may lie ahead for the average American.

However, early movers who adapt their skills to include AI use or switch to careers unlikely to be affected by AI will likely have a smoother transition into the new era of work.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, we set out to discover who the most popular female influencers are on major social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube – and how they are using their influence and wealth to help others. 

Most Followed Female Celebrities on Social Media

Our research found that women listed in the top 100 accounts per social network have over 10 billion followers in total. 

As of 2024, the most followed women on social media (across all major platforms) are:

Here are some interesting insights with regard to popularity and wealth:

• The Kardashian/Jenner clan holds 6 of the top 12 spots, with a combined follower count of 1.897 billion. 
• The remaining 6 spots are held by female musicians, who have a combined follower count of 2.979 billion. 

And here’s a breakdown of female influencer popularity on each social media platform:

Instagram

Instagram is a female influencer stronghold. Women hold 42 out of the top 100 Instagram accounts, with a cumulative total of 6.4 billion followers. 

Male influencers only hold 34 spots, with brands/companies holding 24 accounts.

According to our research, these are the top 10 most influential women on Instagram:

1. Selena Gomez: 429.8M followers 
2. Kylie Jenner: 400.5M followers
3. Ariana Grande: 380.3M followers
4. Kim Kardashian: 364.3M followers 
5. Beyoncé: 320.0M followers 
6. Khloé Kardashian: 310.9M followers 
7. Kendall Jenner: 294.7M followers 
8. Taylor Swift: 281.7M followers 
9. Jennifer Lopez: 253.6M followers 
10. Kourtney Kardashian: 224.4M followers 

A surprising fact – the Kardashian family has a combined total of approximately 1.194 billion Instagram followers!

TikTok

TikTok is not as popular as Instagram for female influencers, with only 1.56 billion followers across the top hundred accounts. Out of 100 top accounts, female influencers hold 32 spots. Their male counterparts hold 47 spots in total, with the remaining 21 going to brands and companies. 

According to our research, these are the top 10 most influential women on TikTok:

1. Charli D’Amelio: 152M followers 
2. Bella Poarch: 93.8M followers
3. Addison Rae: 88.6M followers
4. Kimberly Loaiza: 80.8M followers
5. Domelipa: 72.7M followers
6. Selena Gomez: 59M followers
7. Dixie D’Amelio: 56.4M followers
8. Kylie Jenner: 54.9M followers
9. Loren Gray: 53.9M followers
10. Karol G: 51.4M followers

Youtube

YouTube is mainly dominated by brands and company accounts, which hold 58 out of 100 top-followed account spots. 

Female influencers hold 15 out of the top 100 spots, with a total of 879 million followers. Their videos reached 488 billion views in total.

These are the most popular female influencers on YouTube:

1. BLACKPINK: 92.9M followers
2. Taylor Swift: 56.5M followers
3. Ariana Grande: 53.5M followers
4. Billie Eilish: 49.1M followers
5. Shakira: 45.5M followers
6. Katy Perry: 44.7M followers
7. Kimberly Loaiza: 44.3M followers
8. Ricis Official: 42.9M followers
9. Rihanna: 22.8M followers

Twitter (X)

On Twitter, female influencers have a total reach of 1.38 billion followers and hold 27 out of the top 100 positions. 

These are the most influential women on Twitter: 

1. Rihanna: 108.2M followers
2. Katy Perry: 106.8M followers
3. Taylor Swift: 95.3M followers
4. Ariana Grande: 85.3M followers
5. Lady Gaga: 83.6M followers
6. Kim Kardashian: 75.2M followers
7. Ellen DeGeneres: 74.7M followers
8. Selena Gomez: 66.5M followers
9. Britney Spears: 54.9M followers
10. Shakira: 53.7M followers

Net Worth, Charities & Impact on The World

Of course, social media following isn’t the only way to gauge the power and impact of these female influencers. Net worth and charitable work play a big role as well! 

The most influential women in the top 100 accounts per social media network have an estimated total net worth of over $13.6 billion. This list has some overlap with our list of most-followed influencers, though there are some newcomers, including Oprah, Ellen Degeneres, and Lady Gaga. 

Let’s take a look at the good these celebrities are doing with all that reach and money. Here are some takeaways with regard to their charitable giving: 

• Of the top 12 most popular female mega-stars, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and Katy Perry support the most charities. 
• Top influencers who have supported women-focused charities include Beyoncé (Women’s Fund for Scotland), Taylor Swift (DonateMyDress, Hero in Heels), Katy Perry (Alliance for Women in Media Foundation, Keep-a-Breast, ), Jennifer Lopez (Every Mother Counts, Janie’s Fund, Lopez Family Foundation), Kim Kardashian (Breast Cancer Research Association, I Heart My Girlfriends, We Advance, WomenHeart), and Selena Gomez (10×10, Malala Fund). 

On average, the top female influencers and celebrities are supporting around 19 charities and humanitarian causes, according to data from looktothestars.org. 

The most popular causes that top female influencers support include AIDS/HIV (19 influencers), Health (18 influencers), Children (18 influencers), Human Rights (17 influencers), and Education (17 influencers). 

Some of the most supported charities include Stand Up To Cancer, Red Cross, and UNICEF, with almost 50% of top female influencers supporting these organizations.

In terms of causes and charities supported, Lady Gaga is the most charitable female influencer, with over 76 charities and 37 humanitarian causes supported over the years. She is closely followed by Ellen DeGeneres (54 charities and 31 causes supported) and Miley Cyrus (44 charities and 31 causes).

When looking at monetary support, Oprah leads the way – her charitable foundation alone has donated over $400 million in grants for various humanitarian causes.

Beyoncé and Rihanna have also made a substantial impact. Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD Foundation has donated over $100 million to various causes over the year, and Rihanna has donated $15 million through her Clara Lionel Foundation to support climate justice initiatives in the Caribbean. 

More recently, Taylor Swift contributed $1 million to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee – located in the county she grew up in – after tornadoes left hundreds of buildings damaged. 

Taylor has also made many generous donations to food banks along her Eras tour route. No specific sum of money that Taylor donated was reported. However, a food bank in Tampa said the star donated enough cash to “place over 125,000 meals on tables.” Another food bank in Arizona was able to purchase 40,000 pounds of fresh produce thanks to her donation. 

If you’re interested in furthering the cause of female empowerment, here’s a full list of the women-focused charities that celebrities mentioned in this article have supported:

• 10×10 (Selena Gomez)
• Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (Katy Perry)
• Breast Cancer Research Association (Kim Kardashian)
• Cool Girls (Oprah, Lady Gaga)
• DonateMyDress (Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus)
• Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre (Lady Gaga)
• Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver (Lady Gaga)
• Every Mother Counts (Jennifer Lopez)
• GEANCO (Oprah)
• Girls Rock Camp Alliance (Lady Gaga)
• Global Campaign for Education (Shakira)
• Hero In Heels (Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus)
• I Heart My Girlfriends (Kim Kardashian)
• Janie’s Fund (Jennifer Lopez, Miley Cyrus)
• Keep-a-Breast (Katy Perry)
• Libby Ross Foundation (Miley Cyrus)
• Lopez Family Foundation (Jennifer Lopez)
• Lower East Side Girls Club (Oprah)
• Malala Fund (Selena Gomez)
• Oprah’s Angel Network (Oprah)
• Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa (Oprah)
• Peace Over Violence (Oprah)
• (RED) (Lady Gaga)
• Somaly Mam Foundation (Oprah, Lady Gaga)
• V-Day (Oprah)
• We Advance (Kim Kardashian)
• WomenHeart (Kim Kardashian)
• Women’s Fund for Scotland (Beyoncé)
• Women for Women International (Oprah)
• Women in the World Foundation (Oprah)
• YWCA (Miley Cyrus)