Affiliate marketing is quite profitable: around half the content creators have made over $10,000 from their affiliate marketing efforts, with some not even spending any extra time on it. A side hustle that can generate thousands of dollars just like that – sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?
But affiliate marketing isn’t a free ride. At the very least, you should be able to create great content that people want to see and can relate to – content that solves their problems while gently pushing them toward conversion.
And it’s not an easy thing to do.
The starting point, though, is always the same: create an affiliate marketing website as the backbone of your efforts, a place where they come for value.
How To Make a Website for Affiliate Marketing in 3 Steps
You don’t necessarily need a website to make money with affiliate marketing – instead, you can run a YouTube channel, promote on social media, or even do some word-of-mouth marketing.
But then again, building an affiliate marketing website allows you to create omnichannel marketing strategies, increase credibility (what’s a company without a website?), and tap into a major marketing channel.
Here is the preliminary work to be done first.
Step 1 – Find Your Best Niche
First things first: Research the competition in the niche you’re interested in, especially if you’re going to create a free affiliate marketing website and only grow it organically by posting SEO-optimized content. Ideally, you need a niche with high demand and low competition.
The best way to research the level of competition in a particular niche is by evaluating the queries that people type in search engines. For example, if you’re going to promote auto, then it might make sense to evaluate the level of competition by this keyword cluster.
In practice, this can be done with keyword research tools like Ahrefs:
First, you can just type the major keyword you’re interested in to see if there’s any demand. And if the demand is there, then you can narrow it down by fileting the keyword cluster by parameters like state, keyword difficulty, etc. – the word’s your oyster.
- Important: Researching the niche is an absolute must before you can build your website. If there’s no demand or the competition is too tough, building a website in this niche might turn out to be a waste of time and money.
At the end of step 1, you should have a well-thought-out SEO-driven content marketing plan – the core of your organic lead acquisition. Ideally, you have to focus on long-tail keywords before you grow and move towards more competitive keywords.
Step 2 – Create an Affiliate Marketing Website in Just a Few Hours
With AI website builders, even if you are new to the game, it may only take a few days to drag and drop and customize your website. And if you have some experience with website building, you may only need a few hours.
So here’s how to create a website for affiliate marketing for free:
#1 Sign up For a Free Website Builder that Provides Free Domain Names
To build an affiliate website for free, you need two things:
- A free hosting to run your website
- A free website builder to drag-and-drop, customize, and manage your website
So if you’re unwilling to spend even a single dollar on your affiliate website, then you need a website builder that also provides free hosting.
Luckily, there are plenty of those, especially when it comes to free hosting with a branded subdomain like, for example, https://yourwebsite.wordpress.com/.
If you’re new, you might only have heard about WordPress – but there are around a dozen other free builders that you can use along with the free (usually domain-branded) hosting: Weebly, Wix, Strikingly, Site123, Jimdo, Webnode, and more.
Best Website Builders for Affiliate Marketing
| Best For | Free Hosting | Free Templates | |
| WordPress | Content-focused websites and blogs | Yes | Yes |
| Wix | Visual-heavy websites | Yes | Yes |
| Weebly | Business websites | Yes | Yes |
| Strikingly | Mobile websites | Yes | Yes |
| Site123 | Simple, easy-to-create websites | Yes | Yes |
| Jimdo | Simple, easy-to-create websites | Yes | Yes |
| Webnode | Multilingual websites | Yes | Yes |
And if you are willing to spend a few dozen to a few hundred dollars on creating an affiliate marketing website, then you can get several substantial advantages:
- A good-looking domain name – https://yourwebsite.com/ will cost you around $15 annually
- Powerful web hosting that ensures 100% website uptime and great loading speed will cost you around $100 annually
- Premium themes and plugins with your website builder will cost you around $100 annually
The most important thing to realize, though, is that creating an affiliate website in 2025 is easy and very inexpensive, especially given the benefits you can draw from it.
#2 Choose a Free Template for Your Affiliate Website
Every mentioned website builder provides free customizable website templates, so you can drag and drop the core of your website in just a few minutes and then customize it to match your branding and specific business case.
With WordPress, you can use the following freemium themes:
| Theme | Recommended for |
| Astra | Blog-focused affiliate websites |
| GeneratePress | Product comparison and review websites |
| OceanWP | E-commerce affiliate websites with product listings |
| Sydney | Websites promoting high-ticket affiliate products |
| Coupon | Websites promoting coupons, special offers, etc. |
| Vlogr | YouTube-focused affiliate websites |
Overall, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of freemium templates you can use with WordPress and other website builders. The only thing to keep in might be that most advanced features with freemium themes are paid, so you might have to find turnarounds to enable more complex functionality (for example, adding custom CSS or the code you need directly in the text editor).
#3 Choose the Right Plugins and Customize Your Template
Like themes, most essential plugins are freemium, so you can get some functionality for free but will have to switch to the paid version to unlock advanced features.
Here are the best freemium WordPress plugins:
| Plugin | Recommended for |
| Yoast SEO | Content and Metadata SEO optimization |
| Rank Math | Content and Metadata SEO optimization |
| Pretty Links | Affiliate link management |
| LiteSpeed Cache | Increasing website loading speed |
Almost every existing feature, be it adding a form, a quiz, or else, can be implemented by installing and activating the respective plugin. As a beginner affiliate, it would be wise to research available free and paid plugins to understand how you can improve the performance of your website or add features you might need to grow engagement, clicks, and conversions.
#4 Connect Your Website to Google Search Console and Other Free Tools
Once you’ve launched your affiliate website, you need to connect it to free tracking tools so you can see how your content performs. The obvious choice would be Google Search Console and Google Analytics, the two free tools from Google to track on-site engagement, clicks, and conversions.
Here are the free tools to integrate your affiliate marketing website with:
| Google Search Console | Google search result monitoring |
| Google Analytics | User behavior tracking and analytics |
| MailChimp | Creating email campaigns and embedded on-site sign-up forms |
| Buffer | Managing social media posts within affiliate campaigns |
| Canva | Designing visual content for your blogs |
| Grammarly | Fixing misprints and typos and ensuring content uniqueness |
Every mentioned tool has a free plan, so you can use or integrate some or even all of them for free.
#5 Start Posting SEO-Optimized Content According to Your Content Plan
Now that your website is ready for running affiliate campaigns, you can post your first blog and take it from there. There’s no specific advice on the posting volume and frequency, but it might be best to be consistent with what you do at all times. In practice, this means ramping up the volume slowly and only relying on white-hat SEO and marketing strategies.
Step 3 – Join an Affiliate Marketing Program to Monetize Your Traffic
Now that you generate traffic, you can search for affiliate marketing programs that satisfy your business model – the type of traffic you generate and the commission model in the first place, as well as limitations around traffic channels, locations, etc.
All other things being equal, going for a pay-per-lead affiliate marketing program might be the safest choice because you don’t have to rely on the sales skills of your advertisers. At the same time, you get paid for every qualified lead you generate.
Affiliate Marketing Website Examples: Solar & Insurance
Top Solar Affiliate Marketing Website Examples
SolarReviews
| Monthly Visits | Page Per Visit | Time On Site | Bounce Rate | Direct Traffic | Search Traffic | Paid Referral Traffic | Referral Traffic | Mail Traffic | Social Traffic |
| 392,493 | 1 | 48 | 0.63 | 21.75% | 72.91% | 0.19% | 3.69% | 0.06% | 1.39% |
SolarReviews is one of the biggest aggregators of solar installers in the United States, providing unbiased consumer reviews and connecting users to relevant solar companies. The website itself is quite simple, but they employ everything potential solar seekers need: solar calculator, map, and honest reviews of the best solar providers nationwide.
Сommission-wise, earn a commission whenever a user requests a quote or connects with an installer through their platforms. However, they are still honest and unbiased with the information they provide, a crucial value for any affiliate marketer who wants to be successful.
EnergySage
| Monthly Visits | Page Per Visit | Time On Site | Bounce Rate | Direct Traffic | Search Traffic | Paid Referral Traffic | Referral Traffic | Mail Traffic | Social Traffic |
| 758,005 | 3 | 94 | 0.56 | 32.33% | 62.49% | 0.64% | 3.67% | 0.07% | 0.81% |
EnergySage is another platform that helps homeowners explore solar panel installation options. Unlike SolarReviews, EnergySage is a solar quote marketplace, which means solar installers can bid on leads and, if they win, purchase the leads’ contact information.
On the user side, however, EnergySage offers personalized solar quotes, just like SolarReviews. Revenue-wise, they use a pay-per-lead commission model, getting paid every time a qualified lead connects to a solar provider.
Top Life Insurance Affiliate Marketing Website Examples
NerdWallet
| Monthly Visits | Page Per Visit | Time On Site | Bounce Rate | Direct Traffic | Search Traffic | Paid Referral Traffic | Referral Traffic | Mail Traffic | Social Traffic |
| 27,265,919 | 2 | 102 | 0.62 | 20.04% | 76.76% | 0.68% | 2.25% | 0.03% | 0.24% |
NerdWallet is a well-known personal finance website that covers the widest range of topics, including life insurance. They provide comparison tools, product reviews, educational materials, and tailored recommendations for users seeking loan, mortgage, and insurance products, among other things.
For everything mentioned, including life insurance, they earn affiliate commissions whenever a potential customer requests a quote or submits personal details by filling out a form. Likewise, they employ affiliate links to partner companies and do sponsored listings and placements.
Policygenius
| Monthly Visits | Page Per Visit | Time On Site | Bounce Rate | Direct Traffic | Search Traffic | Paid Referral Traffic | Referral Traffic | Mail Traffic | Social Traffic |
| 399,707 | 3 | 110 | 0.57 | 39.26% | 54.81% | 0.97% | 4.20% | 0.07% | 0.71% |
Policygenius is an online insurance marketplace that covers life, home, auto, and disability insurance. Like all other insurance aggregators from our list, they earn affiliate commissions by matching policy seekers with insurance providers, placing affiliate links with their content, and running featured products and sponsored listings.
Likewise, they increase their earning by cross-selling products. Some life insurance customers may also be interested, for example, in disability insurance, and the platform can offer it to them at the right time based on their behavior and engagement history.
Top Health Insurance Affiliate Marketing Website Examples
Healthcare.com
| Monthly Visits | Page Per Visit | Time On Site | Bounce Rate | Direct Traffic | Search Traffic | Paid Referral Traffic | Referral Traffic | Mail Traffic | Social Traffic |
| 909,415 | 3 | 73 | 0.59 | 36.71% | 27.23% | 5.42% | 30.23% | 0.06% | 0.36% |
Healthcare.com is an online health insurance comparison platform and marketplace that offers personalized health insurance quotes and recommendations to policy seekers.
The affiliate marketing monetization strategy is the same: affiliate partnerships, affiliate links, featured products, and sponsored placements. Like other big solar and insurance platforms, the core of success with Healthcare.com is trustworthiness, reliability, and an unblemished track record.
Top Auto Insurance Affiliate Marketing Website Examples
The Zebra
| Monthly Visits | Page Per Visit | Time On Site | Bounce Rate | Direct Traffic | Search Traffic | Paid Referral Traffic | Referral Traffic | Mail Traffic | Social Traffic |
| 1,562,645 | 5 | 192 | 0.5 | 21.36% | 72.94% | 2.03% | 3.20% | 0.05% | 0.41% |
The Zebra is an online insurance comparison website that covers the most popular types of insurance, including home, auto, life, and renters insurance.
They provide instant quotes, educational materials, and enhanced personalization through filters so users can quickly find a matching product or provider. Commission-wise, The Zebra employs the pay-per-lead affiliate marketing model, making money by generating qualified leads.
Top Home Insurance Affiliate Marketing Website Examples
Insurify
| Monthly Visits | Page Per Visit | Time On Site | Bounce Rate | Direct Traffic | Search Traffic | Paid Referral Traffic | Referral Traffic | Mail Traffic | Social Traffic |
| 2,552,798 | 6 | 205 | 0.49 | 53.81% | 37.20% | 1.87% | 6.66% | 0.06% | 0.40% |
Insurify is a car, home, renters, and pet insurance comparison website that does exactly the same as all the previously mentioned platforms do affiliate marketing-wise: partnerships, links, sponsored placements, cross-selling, etc.
How To Monetize Your Affiliate Website
Before we wrap it up, let’s sum up how you can earn with your affiliate marketing website:
| Affiliate Links | Earning commissions on the sales made to referred clients |
| Exclusive Paid Content | Earning by providing paid access to premium content |
| Lead Generation via Quotes | Earning by generating qualified leads for partner companies |
| Sponsored Content | Earning by posting sponsored content on your website or blog |
Monetize Your Traffic with Profitise
Profitise is a leading insurance and solar affiliate network for affiliates who are selling quality web leads and phone calls. With hundreds of businesses already joined and even more to come, Profitise is a to-go place to monetize your traffic.
With Profitise, you get:
Embeddable JavaScript forms to generate qualified insurance and solar leads
- Large lead market to sell your traffic instantly
- High price for your web and call leads
- Free assistance from your affiliate manager
Sell leads with Profitise as an affiliate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best website builder for affiliate marketing?
To build an affiliate marketing website quickly and for free, you can use builders like Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress with freemium plugins like, for example, Elementor for WordPress. The choice mostly depends on your personal preferences.
How do I create a website for affiliate marketing for free?
There are dozens of ways to create an affiliate marketing website for free. For example, you can use WordPress to create a good-looking affiliate marketing website without spending money.
However, as you grow, you may need advanced functionality and thus go for paid plugins, better hosting, etc. In any case, running an affiliate website only costs a few dozen to a few hundred dollars a month for bigger websites.
Do I need a website for affiliate marketing?
You don’t necessarily need a website for affiliate marketing, but having a website makes things simpler for beginner affiliate marketers. However, while running an affiliate marketing website, you can also promote on social media, forums, and anywhere where you can legally place affiliate links. In most cases, affiliate links require a detailed and conspicuous disclosure.
How do I make money with affiliate marketing without a website?
Making money with affiliate marketing without a website is harder, but it’s possible if you can create great video content or have a large social media following. But then again, in most cases, it’s better to have a website than not to have it, especially considering you can build it for free.
How much can I earn as an affiliate marketer?
There’s no limit to affiliate marketing income. You can run several affiliate programs simultaneously to promote to different audiences. Alternatively, you can partner directly with advertisers (this is harder and not always better, though).
