How I Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

($150,000/year)
https://onlinemediamasters.com/how-to-make-money-with-affiliate-marketing/

I never thought this would happen to me.

In 2 years I went from making $20k to $80k, and am now hitting about
$150k/yr (see PayPal report). I did this by dropping all my clients and tried
making money with affiliate marketing.

So what do I do? My about page has my whole story, but here’s the gist:

I write tutorials on WordPress speed optimization while referring people to

things like hosting, cache plugins, CDNs, lightweight themes, and other
services that offer affiliate programs. Most income comes from Rocket.net /
Cloudways (hosting) + FlyingPress / Perfmatters (optimization plugins)
which are significantly better than mainstream hosts and cache plugins like
WP Rocket.

But there’s one big problem. Affiliate marketing has gotten more
competitive. And the amount of bloggers/YouTubers creating affiliate
content is insane (people have also become skeptical). So how do you stand
out? How do you get people to trust you? I’ll explain all of this.

This guide includes a comprehensive list of 50+ affiliate programs.

$150,000/year did not happen overnight. I was broke for a couple years
while creating content. But it literally changed my life… I moved out of my
parent’s house into a nice apartment in downtown Denver, bought my first
car (a Mercedes c300), adopted 2 kitties, and my credit raised 45 points. I
also donated $6k to GoFundMe campaigns and 6k to my parents. I’m a
humble dude but in affiliate marketing, the numbers do the talking. Now I
have 0 clients and 100% freedom. There’s a lot of BS out there on affiliate
marketing – which is why I wrote this.

How to make legit money with affiliate marketing

1. Find your niche

2. Start a blog or YouTube channel

3. Sign up for affiliate programs

4. Be careful with Amazon

5. Learn how affiliate programs work
6. Add affiliate links to content

7. Be a “how to start a blog” YouTuber

8. Use coupon codes
9. Get traffic before sales

10. Master SEO

11. Create the perfect pitch

12. Get involved in Facebook Groups

13. Bookmark affiliate statistics in your browser
14. Set up email alerts when a sale is made

15. Build your community

16. Avoid Google penalties
17. Monitor conversion rates
18. Use an affiliate disclaimer

19. Mistakes I Made

20. Donate to charity
21. Share your story

22. Promote Black Friday deals

23. 2021 PayPal report

About My Blog

I write about website speed (and some SEO/affiliate marketing).

I spend a lot of time in Facebook Groups learning about my industry.

I try to publish original content and not regurgitated crap like a lot of
blogs.

I have about 3,000 visitors/day, 90% is from Google (I’ll show you some
SEO tips).

It took blogging full-time for several months with minimal income to see
results. I’ll bet you 90% of people don’t start because they’re scared their
work won’t pay off. Just do it!
 Affiliate marketing has given me the time/money to travel and be financially comfortable

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

You partner with a company selling products/services you would like to
recommend to your audience. If they buy something using your affiliate
link, you get a commission from the sale. There are other types of affiliate
programs, but this is the most common and is also what I do.

1. Find Your Niche

My career journey went like this: online marketing > web design >
WordPress web design > WordPress SEO > WordPress speed optimization.
Now I’m focusing on WordPress hosting.
While I was doing WordPress speed optimization I noticed lots of people
needed it, but very few people supplied it (there were a lack of services and
tutorials when I researched Google). I also knew hosting was the #1 factor
of website speed and hosting companies paid up to $200/sale. Hosting is a
competitive space but the commissions and lack of supply enticed me.

I expanded my SEO blog and started writing about hosting, cache plugins,
and other relevant topics… while recommending Rocket.net in many
guides. I added proof like Facebook threads and performance benchmarks.
Each tutorial was super detailed (like this one) and tons of people found
them helpful – many get 100+ visitors/day since great content = higher
rankings.

Once I found my niche (WordPress speed optimization), a solid hosting

company with a high commission affiliate program (Rocket.net) and created
tutorials around topics people in my niche would find helpful (and might
want to change their host), that’s what got me to $150k.

Once you find a niche with high demand, little supply (do your Google
research), and a reputable affiliate with high commissions… and you have
patience to wait for financial results while creating your assets (I’m talking
about content), you should take the leap!

2. Start A Blog Or YouTube Channel

A blog and YouTube channel are completely different, not just because one
is writing and one is shooting videos. But each of them are different in
terms of SEO, conversions, time, and the cost.

Blogging vs. YouTube Videos

Competition – the SEO competition in YouTube is often less than

Google.
 Ownership – you own your blog, you don’t own YouTube (or their
policies).

SEO Traffic – it takes longer to get SEO traffic to a blog than YouTube.
Cost – YouTube is free, blogs require domain, hosting, development
costs, etc.
Content Updates – it’s easier to update a blog post than to remake a
video.
Coupon Codes – YouTube is great if your affiliates let you use coupon
codes.

Time – it takes longer to set up a blog, but starter templates have made
this easier.

Expectations – in your niche, do people prefer watching videos or

reading articles?

Start A WordPress Blog

Domain – GoDaddy or Namecheap.

Hosting – Rocket.net, Cloudways, or NameHero for the win.

WordPress – what I recommend building your website/blog on.

Themes – GeneratePress and Blocksy are solid choices. They use the
Block Editor (Gutenberg) which is much more lightweight than
Elementor, Divi, and other page builders, yet still easy when you use
GenerateBlocks. I built my site in the GeneratePress “Search” theme and
am very pleased. Kadence theme is good too but also very expensive.

Have A Developer On Hand – I’ve been working with the same

overseas freelancer since 2011 who has saved me a lot of time when I
can’t do things. Here’s his freelancer profile if you need help setting up
your website. His name is Pronaya and he’s from Bangladesh.

I use GeneratePress for my WordPress theme

3. Sign Up For Affiliate Programs

Hosting, Amazon, and affiliate programs related to “making websites” are

very popular.

Websites – if you’re in the “how to make a website/blog” industry, I’ve

accumulated a list of affiliate programs for WordPress, hosting, themes,
plugins, SEO, email, CDNs, and services. Remember that to get approved,
some companies require you to be somewhat established.

Affiliate Program Category Commission Recurring 2 Tier

A2 Hosting Hosting $55 – $125 x ✓

All In One SEO Pro SEO 20% x x

Astra Themes 30% x x

Asset CleanUp Pro Plugins 20% x x

AWeber Email 30% ✓ x

Beaver Builder Themes 25% ✓ x

Blocksy Themes 30% x x

Bluehost Hosting $65+ x x

BunnyCDN CDN $20 credit x x

Cloudways Hosting $50 – $150+ ✓ ✓

Convert Pro Plugins 50% x x

Constant Contact Email $105 x x

Divi Themes 50% x x

Elementor Themes 50% x x

FlyingPress Cache Plugin 20% ✓ x

GeneratePress Themes 30% x x

GoDaddy Hosting 15% x x

 Affiliate Program Category Commission Recurring 2 Tier

GreenGeeks Hosting $50 – $100+ x x

GridPane Hosting 1 free month x x

Kadence Theme 20% x x

Hello You Designs Themes 20% x x

Hostinger Hosting 60% x x

HostGator Hosting $65 – $125+ x x

JohnnyVPS Hosting 2x monthly price x x

KeyCDN CDN 100% of 1st payment x x

Kinsta Hosting $50 – $500 ✓ x

LearnDash Plugins 35% x x

Long Tail Pro SEO 30% ✓ x

MailChimp Email $30 credit x x

NameCheap Hosting 35% x x

NameHero Hosting $50 – $125+ x x

Ninja Tables Plugins 20% x x

NitroPack Plugins 20% ✓ x

OceanWP Theme 30% x x

OptiMonster Plugins 20% x x

Perfmatters Plugins 20% ✓ x

Pretty Links Affiliate 25% x x

Rank Math SEO 30% x x

Refer WordPress Other 20% x x

Restored 316 Designs Themes 20% x x

 Affiliate Program Category Commission Recurring 2 Tier

Rocket.net Hosting $150 x x

Scala Hosting Hosting $50 – $200 x x

Schema Pro SEO 30% x x

SEMrush Analytics $200 x x

ShortPixel Plugins 30% ✓ x

ServerPilot Control Panel $25 x x

SEOPress SEO 20% x x

SiteGround Hosting $50 – $100+ x x

SpinupWP Control Panel $25 credit x x

StackPath CDN $20+ x x

StudioPress Themes 35% x x

ThemeForest Themes 30% of 1st payment x x

Themeisle Themes 55% x x

Thirsty Affiliates Affiliate 30% x x

TubeBuddy Other 30% – 50% ✓ x

UpCloud Hosting $50 credit x x

Whitespark SEO 20% x x

WP Coupons Affiliate 40% x x

WP Engine Hosting $200 x ✓

WP Johnny Other 25% x x

WPX Hosting $70 – $100+ x x

WP Rocket Plugins 20% x x

Affiliate Marketplaces – these have hundreds of merchants to choose
from. It’s nice to login to 1 place and check the performance of multiple
affiliates without going to each individual portal on their site. Many
programs aren’t part of a marketplace though. I use ShareASale and Impact.

Affiliate Number
Popular Brands
Marketplace Of Brands

Hewlett Packard, Sears, LovePop, Grammarly, Daily Harvest,

ShareASale 15,200+
NameCheap, WP Rocket, WP Engine, Envira Gallery

Overstock, GoDaddy, Zappos, Walgreens, TurboTax, QVC,

CJ Affiliate 3,800+
Newegg, Hotels.com, HelloFresh, TeamViewer, Guitar Center

Airbnb, AppSumo, Constant Contact, Envato Market,

Impact 800+
HostGator, InMotion, Lending Club, Levi’s, Squarespace

Rakuten
50,000+ Udemy, Walmart, Macy’s, StubHub, Hulu
Marketing

Source: Anil from Bloggers Passion Facebook Group

Other Online Retailers

Ebay – 5 – 7% (roughly) based on categories, only 24 hour cookie

tracking.

Etsy – 4 – 8%.
Target – 4% in most categories.
Walmart – 4% in most categories.

Aliexpress – 3% for electronics, 7-9% for everything else.

Newegg – 0.5 – 1%.

Overstock – up to 6%.

Do the math – to make $300 in a day, I would need to refer about 2 people
to hosting, 10 people to themes, or 30 people to plugins. Before deciding on
a program, ask yourself a few questions. I personally have roughly 3,000
readers/day and make about 2-3 sales per day at $150 per sale.
 What commission will you get?
How many sales will you need per day?
How much traffic will you need to get those sales (roughly)?

4. Be Careful With Amazon

Amazon’s commissions are based on categories and you’re only making 0-

5% unless you’re referring people to Amazon games, Luxury Beauty, or
Amazon Explore. Otherwise you will need a lot of sales to actually make a
living and will likely need to refer people to big ticket items (video
equipment on YouTube is a big one especially if you’re into cameras, lenses,
lights, etc).

But be careful with Amazon’s affiliate program.

They have a long history of reducing commissions and writing content that
competes with affiliates (and most people go directly to Amazon). I don’t
recommend being an affiliate for any monopoly. You could very well end up
getting trampled on, like most Amazon affiliates have. However, if you get
lots of views, many affiliates are making “how to do something” YouTube
videos and listing their equipment in the video description. A million views
can make it worth it.

Examples of people making money with Amazon:

How he makes money – at 1m26s he focuses on his video equipment. The
video description includes links to geniuslink.com. This is a website that
showcases different stores (e.g. Amazon) where people can buy the
equipment (using his affiliate links). Genuinely helpful video though.

How she makes money – at 40s you will see the video is sponsored by
Skillshare and she also uses an affiliate link in the video description, as well
as affiliate links to Amazon for the video equipment she uses. Another
person recommending video equipment (that’s a hint for you).

How he makes money – he found a keyword on YouTube “best gadgets on

Amazon” which has a lot of searches. People are searching this on YouTube
(not Google or Amazon) which means they’re looking for a video review of
the best gadgets, otherwise they would have gone directly to Amazon. His
Amazon affiliate links to each of the gadgets are found in the video
description.

Conclusion: a lot of people are making money by referring people to video

equipment they use.

5. Learn How Affiliate Programs Work

One Tier – get a commission when a sale is generated from your affiliate
link.

Two Tier – get a commission when you refer other affiliates and they start
making sales (think multilevel marketing). An example is WP Engine’s
program where I tell my readers about their WordPress hosting, they start
making sales, and I earn $50/sale from each sale they generate.

Climbing Tiers – increased commissions as you get more sales.

Recurring Commissions – usually happens with subscription services…

you continuously receive commissions as long as people are signed up.
AWeber and SEMrush are examples.

Sitewide Commissions – get a commission no matter what people buy on

the affiliate’s website. Amazon’s affiliate program does this.

Pay Per Lead – get a commission based on the number of leads (e.g. contact
form fill-outs) you send to a business. Be sure to set up your analytics to
track this and have a solid, written agreement with your affiliate. You don’t
want to spend tons of time and get burned like I have.

Cookies – amount of time after people click your affiliate link you will
receive a commission if a sale is generated. Usually 30-90 days but shouldn’t
be a deal breaker when choosing affiliates.

Individual Affiliate Programs – affiliate programs that are located on their

website.

6. Add Affiliate Links To Content

Step 1: Sign up and get approved. You usually need a decent amount of
traffic (or a history of sales) before getting approved. If you have a large
following somewhere else (i.e. YouTube), you may be able to convince
affiliates to approve you. Otherwise, you need to generate traffic first.

Step 2: Get your affiliate links. Login to your affiliate dashboard and grab
your affiliate links. With most individual affiliate programs, they assign you
an affiliate ID which you can add to any URL on their website to turn it into
an affiliate link. In affiliate marketplaces like ShareASale, they preassign
affiliate links but also have a custom link generator. Use these to add deep
links.

Add your affiliate ID (mine is ?id=262128) to any URL on their website to create an affiliate link

Custom link generators are found in some affiliate programs/marketplaces like ShareASale

Step 3: For blogs, install an affiliate link management plugin (I use Thirsty
Affiliates) and add your affiliate links here. This lets you organize, track,
cloak, nofollow, and add affiliate links.

Import your affiliate links into the Thirsty Affiliates plugin

Step 4: Configure the Thirsty Affiliate plugin settings.

Choose a link prefix (I use /go/)

Enable statistics in the “Modules” setting

Use nofollow + sponsored (recommended by Google)

Consider Thirsty Affiliates Pro if you want automatic keyword linking

Configure the Thirsty Affiliate settings

Step 5: Add affiliate links to posts. If you’re using the classic editor like me,
use the Thirsty Affiliates button to add affiliate links. When you do it this
way, all the attributes you configured in the settings (cloaking, nofollow,
sponsored, etc) are automatically added to the affiliate link.
 Use the Thirsty Affiliates button to add affiliate links

Or add them to YouTube video descriptions

Step 6: Use your affiliate dashboard to track sales, statistics, and get to
know your affiliate dashboard because it can be very helpful (especially
when trying to increase conversion rates).

Take advantage of features/statistics in your affiliate dashboard

Banners – banners don’t work well. They’re easy to throw up, but
distracting and probably won’t get great results. If you try them, be sure to
show specific sidebar banners based on the type of content people are
reading on your blog (for posts that fall under my SEO category I would
show a banner related to SEO, and for posts under my website speed
category I would show a different banner). You can control sidebar banners
using a plugin like Widget Logic.

AdSense – It’s easy to throw up AdSense on your blog, but good luck
making decent income. It is NOT personalized whereas affiliate links
involve people taking YOUR recommendation on very specific things.
AdSense makes your site slower than a turtle. Not good for monetization.

7. Be A “How To Start A Blog” YouTuber

Want to know why this topic is so popular?

Refer people to hosting = $$$

Refer people to WordPress theme = $

Refer people to Elementor products = $

Total income if one person signs up for all three: $200+

The bad news: the industry and keywords are super competitive.
The good news: the amount of people looking to start a blog is enormous.
You just need a slice. Many hosting companies pay up to $150/sale once you
start generating a good amount of sales.

People are also searching for how to start a food, fashion, travel, and
lifestyle blog. You don’t have to limit yourself to 1 single keyword. Learn
about hosting, self-hosted WordPress, and Starter Sites. I could literally start
a WordPress blog in 10 minutes. Show people how to do that.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

How he makes money – at 66s, you can see they created their own domain
search on their website. When people search, it’s followed by a “get
hosting” button which leads to GoDaddy.

How he makes money – he begins his hosting pitch at 4m34s, but at 9m31s
he presents his HostGator coupon code which not only saves viewers
money, but it credits him for the sale (without people even having to click
any affiliate link). That’s why coupon codes are so powerful for YouTubers.
Don’t use HostGator though; they’re cheap but a slow/terrible hosting
company.
How she makes money – she begins her hosting pitch at 4m48s for
Bluehost, but only uses an affiliate link in the video description (no coupon
code, no domain search on her website, and no timestamps to help people
navigate the video). She could probably increase sales if she did one of
these, but Bluehost doesn’t let affiliates create coupon codes so an affiliate
link is necessary.

8. Use Coupon Codes

It’s a huge bonus if your affiliate lets you create coupon codes.

Since your coupon code is attached to your affiliate account, you will get
credit for the sale if anyone uses it. So in YouTube videos, people don’t even
need to click your affiliate link – just give them your coupon code to save
them money, and you will get your affiliate commission.

9. Get Traffic Before Sales

One of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is focusing on money first.

This is bad for a few of reasons:

No traffic = no sales
Most affiliates require you to have some traffic
 Your authenticity is ruined if you’re too salesy from the start

But it definitely helps to have money in mind when you start. That way,
once you get traffic and are approved by affiliates, you can easily add
affiliate links to blog posts where you already mention your affiliate
products/services. Don’t focus on money first, but have it in your plan.

Source: Blogging Newbs Facebook Group

10. Master SEO

Most affiliate marketers get most of their traffic from SEO (or Pinterest
which I’ll admit to knowing nothing about). But I do know SEO is a more
popular way to get consistent traffic.

The key steps to SEO are:

Researching a keyword, its search volume, and competition.

Creating in-depth content that is better than whoever’s in the top
results.
Making content user-friendly (YouTube chapters, table of contents on
blog).
Using your keyword in the right places (title, description, content, video
file name).

Increasing click-through rates (titles, custom thumbnails, Google’s

featured snippets).

Researching A Keyword – find a keyword in YouTube’s autocomplete

dropdown (or Google Autocomplete for blog posts). You can use the
underline character _ to fill-in-the-blank. Broad keywords have more
searches but are more competitive. The best keywords are broad (lots of
volume) with weak content in the top results. vidIQ helps you learn a
keyword’s competition in YouTube and MozBar helps you learn competition
in Google. I find the competition in YouTube is much less than Google, so
choose broad keywords for videos and specific keywords for blogs.

Review Keyword Examples

Apple MacBook Pro 16 review

What is the best WordPress hosting

SiteGround WordPress Hosting review

Solution Keyword Examples

How to do yoga at home (recommend a yoga mat)

Why is my website slow (recommended faster hosting)
How to connect laptop to TV (recommend an HDMI cable)

Creating In-Depth Content Around Your Keyword – 10+ minutes for

YouTube videos and 1,500+ words for blog posts depending on how
extensive the topic is. Extensive yet concise! If your content is long, make
sure to include timestamps in your video descriptions or create an HTML
table of contents for blog posts so viewers can jump to specific sections of
your content.

Making Content User-Friendly – the two easiest ways are to use

timestamps in video descriptions and an HTML table of contents in blog
posts (see below). Get a good camera, invest in good hosting to make your
site faster (for blogs), and design nice, crisp graphics using Canva.

Use Your Keyword In The Right Places

For YouTube videos, use your keyword in the:

File name (before uploading)

 Video title (find a balance between using the keyword and making it
catchy)

Video description (about 2-3 times), the description should be decently

long

For blog posts, use your keyword in the:

Post title
Permalink

SEO title (in your SEO plugin)

Meta description (in your SEO plugin)

Content body (about 2-3 times, once in the first couple sentences)

Increase Click-Through Rates – for YouTube videos, it’s all about catchy
titles and thumbnails. For blog posts, it’s all about a catchy SEO title and
meta description (in your SEO plugin), getting in Google’s featured snippets
(photo below), and using rich snippets like review stars and FAQs.

Featured snippets can be achieved by answering a question keyword in a

very concise way (usually with a paragraph or list from the content). Lists
are usually pulled from your table of contents or h3 subheadings. To get a
featured snippet for my keyword “how to make money with affiliate
marketing” Google will likely use my TOC or maybe (let’s see), this
paragraph:

To make money with affiliate marketing, set up a blog or YouTube channel

and find relevant products/services to refer your readers to. Sign up for
affiliate programs, create affiliate links to products, and add them to your
content. Most affiliates rely on SEO or Pinterest to get traffic.

Designing a nice image with your exact keyword helps too!

How To Rank YouTube Videos:

YouTube SEO relies heavily on engagement signals.

Find a keyword in YouTube autocomplete with good search volume.
Research the keyword’s competition by looking at videos’ number of
views, likes, comments, and other signals top videos have (vidIQ Chrome
extension is great for this).
Cover the topic extensively – aim for 10 minutes and be concise
(scripts/editing)!
Label the video file (on your computer) as your keyword, and upload it
to YouTube.

Craft a nice title that entices people to click your video, with your
keyword in front.

Write a long description with timestamps, links, and use keyword in

first sentence.
Review the transcript automatically generated by YouTube, then make
corrections.
Upload a custom thumbnail (1280px by 720px) that gets people clicking
the video.
Always respond to comments, and embed the video on your blog if you
have one.
Incorporate your video in your blog, email, social media, other
marketing channels.

How To Rank WordPress Blogs:

Use Rank Math Pro and learn how to use it for schema.
Use SSL from the start, most hosts have free Let’s Encrypt SSL.
Choose a fast host + WordPress themes (I like Rocket.net +
GeneratePress).

Use post name permalink structure in WordPress under Settings >

Permalinks.
 Create content around keywords from tools like Google Autocomplete.
Learn about image optimization, internal links, lightweight plugins, OG
images.
Add publish dates to blog articles to make content look fresh and
increase CTRs.
Use multimedia – whether it be videos, infographics, or audio clips –
people love them.
Set up Google Search Console and use it to track rankings, CTR,
impressions, etc.

Make your WordPress site load fast (FlyingPress + Perfmatters are both
solid plugins).

11. Create The Perfect Pitch

Mine looks something like this:

Mainstream hosts (like SiteGround, Hostinger, GoDaddy, and WPX) don’t

live up to the hype. They skimp out on CPU/RAM, use slower SATA SSDs,
and are shared hosting with strict CPU limits which force you to upgrade.
Cloud hosting is faster, but Kinsta and WP Engine still use SATA SSDs with
low limits on PHP workers and monthly visits which get expensive. Instead
of focusing on speed/technology, they do aggressive marketing… don’t fall
for mainstream hosts.

For cloud hosting, I recommend Rocket.net (what I use) or Cloudways

Vultr HF (what I previously used). Both use Cloudflare Enterprise which
makes a major improvement to TTFB between full page caching, HTTP/3,
image optimization, and Argo Smart Routing. Both also use NVMe, Redis,
and have monthly pricing. However, Rocket.net is definitely faster since
you get a lot more resources (32 CPU + 128GB RAM), LiteSpeed’s PHP (faster
than Cloudways’ PHP-FPM), and Brotli. There are also no PHP worker limits
due to Rocket.net’s free/automatic Cloudflare Enterprise which handles
roughly 90% of traffic, resulting in less requests to your origin server.
Finally, Rocket.net is easier between their dashboard and A+ support which
is even better than Kinsta’s. Cloudways has more bandwidth/storage, but
the technology isn’t as fast. One of these cloud hosts + Cloudflare Enterprise
+ FlyingPress (cache plugin) is the combination I would use.

Cloudways
WP Engine SiteGround Kinsta Vultr High Rocket.net
Frequency

Private
Hosting type Cloud Cloud Cloud Cloud
cloud

CPU cores Not listed 4 12 1 32

RAM (GB) Not listed 8 8 1 128

Storage type SATA SATA SATA NVMe NVMe

Storage (GB) 10 40 10 32 10

Redis
Object cache Redis Memcached Redis (Pro) Redis
($100/mo)

Apache + Apache + Apache + Apache +

Server Nginx
Nginx Nginx Nginx Nginx

PHP
Not listed FastCGI FastCGI PHP-FPM LiteSpeed
processing

Bandwidth or 50GB +
25,000/mo 5TB 25,000/mo 1TB
monthly visits 250,000/mo

Cloudflare
SiteGround Cloudflare Cloudflare
CDN Cloudflare Enterprise
CDN Enterprise Enterprise
($5/mo)

CDN PoPs 270 14 270 270 270

Full page
x ✓ ✓ Coming soon ✓
caching

Compression Brotli Brotli Brotli GZIP Brotli

HTTP/3 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

WAF ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
 Cloudways
WP Engine SiteGround Kinsta Vultr High Rocket.net
Frequency

Argo smart
x x x ✓ ✓
routing

Load
x x x ✓ ✓
balancing

Image
x Limited x ✓ ✓
optimization

Low PHP Very Low PHP

CPU limits Average None
workers common workers

Email hosting Limited ✓ x x x

TrustPilot
4.4/5 4.6/5 4.3/5 4.6/5 4.9/5
rating

$13 + $5 for
Monthly price $25 $100 $30 $25
CF Enterprise

View
Plans Don’t use Don’t use Don’t use View plans
plans

Sites hosted on Rocket.net average a 100ms global TTFB (search their TrustPilot reviews)

You can also test TTFB in KeyCDN or click through my site to see how fast it loads
 Try Rocket.net for $1, request a free migration, then retest your TTFB (or reach out to Ben Gabler)

Why Rocket.net’s Cloudflare Enterprise Is Better

Rocket.net’s Cloudflare Enterprise is free, setup automatically, and uses full

page caching (unlike Cloudways). And unlike Kinsta’s, Rocket.net has Argo
Smart Routing (specifically good for WooCommerce sites), load balancing,
and image optimization. Rocket.net CEO Ben Gabler also used to be
StackPath’s Chief Product Officer and went as far as building Rocket.net’s
data centers in the same locations as Cloudflare’s. And unlike both hosts,
Rocket.net doesn’t limit PHP workers (there’s no CPU limits) and monthly
visit limits are 10-25 times more than Kinsta’s.

Cloudflare Cloudflare Enterprise Cloudflare Enterprise

Enterprise (Kinsta) (Cloudways) (Rocket.net)

CDN PoPs 270 270 270

Prioritized
✓ ✓ ✓
routing

Full page
✓ x ✓
caching

HTTP/3 ✓ ✓ ✓

WAF ✓ ✓ ✓

Argo smart
x ✓ ✓
routing

Load balancing x ✓ ✓

Image
x ✓ ✓
optimization
 Cloudflare Cloudflare Enterprise Cloudflare Enterprise
Enterprise (Kinsta) (Cloudways) (Rocket.net)

Automatic
x x ✓
configuration

Price Free $5/mo (1 domain) Free

For shared hosting, I recommend NameHero. They use LiteSpeed servers

which means you’ll use LiteSpeed Cache + QUIC.cloud CDN (arguably the
fastest setup on a budget). It’s similar to Hostinger/A2 with LiteSpeed and
cPanel, but you get more CPU/RAM and support/uptimes are better which is
reflected in their TrustPilot reviews. I generally recommend their Turbo
Cloud plan for $7.38/month which includes 3 CPU + 3 GB RAM and faster
NVMe storage. The main con is their data centers are only in the
US/Netherlands. If your visitors aren’t close to there, make sure to setup
QUIC.cloud which has HTML caching (ideally the paid plan which uses all
73 PoPs).

NameHero
SiteGround Hostinger GoDaddy WPX Turbo
Cloud

Hosting type Shared Shared Shared Shared Shared

Storage SATA SATA SATA SATA NVMe

CPU cores Not listed 1-2 1-2 Not listed 3

RAM (GB) Not listed .768 – 3.072 .512 – 2 Not listed 3

Object cache Memcached x x x Redis

Apache +
Server LiteSpeed Apache LiteSpeed LiteSpeed
Nginx

SiteGround Cloudflare Cloudflare

CDN QUIC.cloud QUIC.cloud
CDN Enterprise Enterprise

CDN PoPs 14 73 14 73 73

Full page
✓ ✓ x ✓ ✓
caching
 NameHero
SiteGround Hostinger GoDaddy WPX Turbo
Cloud

Compression Brotli Brotli Brotli GZIP Brotli

HTTP/3 ✓ ✓ x ✓ ✓

WAF ✓ ✓ x ✓ ✓

Image
Limited x x ✓ ✓
optimization

At their
CPU limits Common Low RAM Common Average
discretion

LiteSpeed
LiteSpeed LiteSpeed
Cache plugin SG Optimizer x Cache or
Cache Cache
W3TC

Email Very
✓ Limited Limited ✓
hosting limited

Breach
Google Breach
Major affecting Worldwide 2 day
blocked DNS almost
incidents 14M outage outage
for 4 days every year
customers

Free
$30/site Free Paid Free Free
migration

$3-8/mo (1
$29/mo $20.83 $20.83 $7.38/mo
Price year) then
(yearly) (yearly) (yearly) (1-3 years)
$15-40/mo

Renewals Very high Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly

TrustPilot
4.6/5 4.4/5 4.9/5 4.5/5 4.9/5
rating

View
Plans Don’t use Don’t use Don’t use Don’t use
plans

LiteSpeed is faster than Nginx/Apache (and more efficient with less chance of CPU spikes)
Problems with mainstream hosts

I’ve written some pretty bad reviews about SiteGround’s slow TTFB, CPU
limits, and why SG Optimizer does a poor job with core web vitals (they also
control several Facebook Groups and threaten to sue people who write bad
reviews). Hostinger writes fake reviews and is only cheap because you get
less resources like CPU/RAM. Kinsta and WP Engine are way too expensive
for how many resources, PHP workers, and monthly visits you get. Along
with major incidents like WPX’s worldwide outage and SiteGround’s DNS
getting blocked by Google for 4 days (both WPX and SiteGround denied
responsibility). One thing is clear: most mainstream hosts appear to be
interested in profits/reputation over performance. Do your own research
before getting advice.

12 things to know about hosting/TTFB

1. Hosting is the #1 factor of site speed.

2. TTFB is a key indicator of hosting performance.

3. TTFB is part of core web vitals and is 40% of LCP.

4. TTFB also affects INP (since latency is part of TTFB).

5. SpeedVitals tests TTFB in 35 locations – use this tool!

6. Test your site 3 times to get accurate numbers in SpeedVitals.
7. Doing this ensures your caching and CDN are working properly.

8. Check your average TTFB worldwide in your 3rd SpeedVitals test.

9. Google flags your TTFB if it’s over 600ms, but under 200ms is better.
10. PageSpeed Insights (and other testing tools) only test TTFB in 1 location.
11. WP Hosting Benchmark also tests hosting performance (here are my
results).

12. Combining a good host/CDN is arguably the best way to improve TTFB
(using a host with improved specs on top of Cloudflare Enterprise hits 2
birds with 1 stone).

NameHero for shared, Cloudways Vultr HF for cloud, but Rocket.net outperforms both

…something like that!

And by the way, Rocket.net pays $150/sale through their affiliate program
without having to climb tiers. Ben is also great to work with.

12. Get Involved In Facebook Groups

My conversion rate went from 2.5% to 8% just by including Facebook polls

where Cloudways was rated #1, along with a few Twitter screenshots of
migration results and conversations from Facebook Groups. Whether it’s
Amazon reviews or Facebook polls, you NEED to include unbiased reviews.
That’s why I don’t like collecting reviews on my website – they look biased.

People want evidence, not opinions.

There’s a Facebook Group for everything. For me, I mainly use the
WordPress Hosting, WP Speed Matters, and WP Speed Up Facebook Groups
to keep track of the web hosting industry.

13. Bookmark Affiliate Statistics In Your Browser

Go to your affiliate dashboard(s) and bookmark the “statistic” page so it

saves to your browser. This saves time especially if you’re someone who
likes to constantly check sales/performance.

14. Set Up Email Alerts When A Sale Is Made

This only works if the affiliate sends you an email when a sale is generated.
Any time I make a hosting sale, I get a custom notification on my phone. It is
very ENCOURAGING to get these.

Create custom alerts on your phone for affiliate sales – if you use Gmail,
go to your settings and create a filter so all emails with “SiteGround Affiliate
Sale Generated” in the subject line go into their own folder (tweak the
subject line to match whatever email notification your affiliate sends you).
Then set up a custom alert on your phone using the Gmail app so whenever
you generate a sale, you get a custom alert (here’s a tutorial for
Android and here’s one for Apple). I have different notifications for
Rocket.net, Cloudways, others. It makes your day a little better :)

15. Build Your Community

Respond To Comments – some of my articles have 400+ comments. It’s

hard to keep up sometimes but this is a key part of building a community
and allowing readers to ask you questions and leave their feedback. You
should especially respond to YouTube comments because they are a
ranking factor and encourage even more people to leave more comments.

Build That Newsletter – I use Mailchimp and can’t stress how important it
is to build your email list from the start (it’s free until you reach 2,000
subscribers). Once you create an account, add an email sidebar on your
blog or create a dedicated newsletter page where people can sign up.

Be Open, Not Salesy – I hold back zero information on my blog, don’t

recommend anything I don’t truly believe will help my readers, and try my
best not to recommend hosting on every single post I write (only where it
makes sense). Valuable information first, affiliate sales after.

16. Avoid Google Penalties

Follow Google’s guidelines for affiliate marketing.

Avoid short, thin pages that offer little value to readers.
Don’t always list affiliate products first – Google knows!

Don’t overuse affiliate links in your posts, drop them where it counts.
Avoid too many “list posts” where you just list a bunch of affiliate
products.
Write an affiliate disclaimer (you’ll see mine at the very bottom of my
blog).

Consider writing a review of your affiliate’s product/service and linking

to that post (instead of using an affiliate link) to reduce the amount of
affiliate links on your site.

17. Monitor Conversion Rates

The way you endorse a product or service and the social proof behind it
(Facebook polls or maybe reviews from other customers) are the main
reason I was able to go from 2% to 8%+. If you don’t see these in your
affiliate dashboard, use Thirsty Affiliate’s pro version to see them.
This is from 2017 when I started hitting it hard. Look at that CR
(conversation rate) increase!

18. Use An Affiliate Disclaimer

Here’s mine:

19. Mistakes I Made

In my Google Analytics graph you’ll see a sudden drop in traffic followed by

a long flatline in 2015/2016. These were pretty tough years for me and I
hope I can save you from making a few bad mistakes I made, which
resulted in years of financial hardship. Here are a few simple tips.

Don’t hire a sketchy link builder to boost rankings.

Get links from great content or hire someone who knows what they’re
doing.
Don’t skimp on a free WordPress theme, cheap hosting, or use bloated
plugins.

Don’t set a goal to write 3 blog posts a day… set a goal to write 1 blog post a
week and make that post super helpful, long, and filled with information
that is so valuable you will say “yeah, people will link to that.” 90% of my
traffic/affiliate income comes from just 20 tutorials, many of which are 5
years old, but I constantly update content to make it better.
 Do this and you should see consistent “small spikes” in your Google
Analytics.

20. Donate To Charity

Once you’re financially stable, I hope you start giving back. It feels good and
people like the idea of supporting a good cause (they will be more likely to
click your affiliate link). This also means you don’t have to use as many
links in your content. In total, I have given $6,000 to GoFundMe campaigns
and $6,000 to my parents who let me live in their house while I worked on
my blog.

Feels good to give back :)

21. Share Your Story

This is now the #1 visited post on my blog! I knew I could outrank all the
fakes.

22. Promote Black Friday Deals

Many companies have Black Friday + Cyber Monday deals (usually for
about 2 weeks) and you can easily make 3x your normal sales during this
time if you promote it right. I’ve made $2,000 in a single day during Black
Friday season. You can make a “Deals” page but what I like to do is use the
Better Search Replace plugin to bulk update all pricing screenshots to a
screenshot of each company’s new Black Friday prices. Then when Black
Friday is done, I just run another search/replace to change the screenshots
back. Doesn’t take much time, but it’s very effective.

23. 2021 PayPal Report

Most affiliates pay through PayPal but some of them pay directly through
your bank (ShareASale, Impact, many affiliate networks). Nonetheless, I
added these for the skeptics.

A few months from 2021:

I made almost $400,000 with SiteGround before I stopped promoting them.

Got affiliate of the month back in July, 2017 :)

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is when you refer people to products or services from a

merchant who agrees to give you a commission when a sale is made
through your unique affiliate link.

How do I make money with affiliate marketing?

The most common ways are to set up a blog or YouTube channel, grow your
audience, then sign up for affiliate programs that make sense to refer your
viewers to.

How fast can you make money with affiliate marketing?

It can take anywhere from a couple months to several years to make

consistent money with affiliate marketing. It depends on your ability to
drive traffic, build trust, and successfully promote your affiliates.

What are the highest paying affiliate programs?

Web hosting programs like Rocket.net, Cloudways, WP Engine, and Bluehost

typically pay $150/sale once you start making a lot of sales. That's why the
space is so competitive.

Is affiliate marketing passive income?

Affiliate marketing income is not 100% passive income. You still need to
create content, keep content current, and adapt to your industry while
monitoring sales and conversions.

How much money can you make with affiliate marketing?

Some affiliates make a couple hundred dollars per month while other super
affiliates make $10,000+ per month. You will get there quicker if you make it
your full-time job and create awesome content on a consistent basis.

How do you get paid in affiliate marketing?

Most affiliates get paid through PayPal or directly to their bank account.
Typical affiliate programs make payouts each month or once you reach a
specific amount in commissions.

How can beginners make money with affiliate marketing?

If you're a beginner, you can make money with affiliate marketing by

setting up a YouTube channel and teaching people how to start a blog while
referring your audience to hosting. This is the most popular way beginners
start making money.
What are the best affiliate programs to make money?

Amazon and hosting companies are two of the best affiliate programs to
make money. Amazon is the most popular online retailer, and hosting
affiliate programs offer some of the highest commissions. Bluehost,
SiteGround, and HostGator are a few examples.

How do I make money with affiliate marketing without a

website?

Setting up a YouTube channel is the easiest way to make money with

affiliate marketing without a website. It's free, easy, and you can start
creating videos instantly. Once you grow your audience, sign up for affiliate
programs and promote products on your channel.

Is affiliate marketing worth it?

Yes, affiliate marketing can be well worth your time. But you need to have a
plan on where you will promote products, which companies and products
you will promote, and a strategy for getting traffic. Traffic is where most
affiliate marketers fail.

How do YouTubers make money with affiliate marketing?

Most YouTubers add affiliate links in the video description or mention

promo codes in their video which credit them the sale.

Final Thought: It’s A Long-Term Investment

This is the 1st car I have EVER purchased myself at age 29 (I was broke until
then and leased from my parents). But the time committed to affiliate
marketing and creating great tutorials and YouTube videos was worth it… I
work for myself, there is virtually no limit on how much I can make, my
schedule is flexible, and I collect enough passive income to live the life I
want.
 It’s no lambo, but I did buy a c300 Mercedes with my affiliate income

Me and the cats (Valencio on the left, Sonic on the right)

Spending 4 weeks in Thailand without worrying about money was awesome

If you have any questions or need help getting started, I am more than
happy to help with whatever I can. Just leave a comment below and I
promise to respond as soon as I can! Best of luck in your affiliate marketing
journey and I genuinely hope this tutorial was super helpful :)

Cheers,
Tom

You Might Also Like: