The Penny Hoarder Made $20 Million Last Year Through Affiliate Marketing | AdExchanger (2024)

The Penny Hoarder Made $20 Million Last Year Through Affiliate Marketing | AdExchanger (1)

Millennials in search of a side gig read The Penny Hoarder to find ways to make extra money and save.

The site earned $20.8 million last year by focusing on native, affiliate marketing. It earns 95% of its revenue from affiliate and performance campaigns, and less than 5% from display advertising.

And it expects to double revenue again in 2017. Uber, General Mills and Credit Sesame advertise on the site, representing the gig economy, CPG and fintech, respectively.

In 2015, The Penny Hoarder founder and CEO Kyle Taylor opened an office and hired a staff. The editorial team numbers 40, and the advertising and business team brings the total staff to 60.

The Penny Hoarder writers first try out the products being advertised, and the intermingling between native ads and editorial means the pub turns down half of the advertisers that want to work with it.

The Penny Hoarder Made $20 Million Last Year Through Affiliate Marketing | AdExchanger (2)

“The most challenging part of [affiliate marketing] is that no matter how you write about it, it very much feels like a recommendation to the readers. And that’s different from display advertising,” Taylor said.

Affiliate marketing sometimes suffers from a poor reputation on the brand side because of its tendency to attract fraudulent leads. But publishers are increasingly embracing the format as a way to drive ecommerce sales.

The New York Times bought The Wirecutter and The Sweethome, which offer product recommendations, last October. BuzzFeed and Business Insider do affiliate marketing, and New York magazine launched “The Strategist,” which also offers editor-curated shopping picks, filled with affiliate links, the same month.

“A lot of newspapers have been hesitant to make affiliate a large part of their model – because of concerns of separating news from editorial,” Taylor said. “That’s something they have to get over. I don’t think the readers are going to punish us for that. In fact, they are telling us the exact opposite.”

Often, advertisers who work with The Penny Hoarder are doing affiliate marketing for the first time. Although the site used to work with agencies, it’s going brand-direct more frequently, which allows it to work more closely with them around content creation.

Affiliate marketing is more sustainable than display advertising, according to Taylor, because it aligns the interest of the publisher and the advertiser. “We are invested in the performance of the piece,” he said. “Because we are choosing our advertisers, we feel we have a responsibility to choose ones that will help us fulfill our mission.”

In the quest to improve the performance of its affiliate campaigns, The Penny Hoarder just signed a contract with Optimizely, which will allow it to test out two or three different intro paragraphs to see which one performs best.

The company uses Tune (once HasOffers) to monitor affiliate links. The platform includes information that can break out the performance of two links within the same post, for example.

And the publisher also plans to invest itself in custom tech to drive better results for advertisers.

“Within an hour of an advertiser going live on our site, we can tell if it’s going to be a performer or we need to go back to the drawing board,” Taylor said. “We want to build some technology ourselves that can help us optimize posts and identify the winners sooner.

Going into 2017, The Penny Hoarder plans to double everything: revenue, readership and staff. “We tripled our audience last year, and we think we can double it again this year. Our audience size directly correlates with revenue,” Taylor said.

It’s expanding more into video, and while it can be difficult to drive action from a video, The Penny Hoarder is experimenting with using specific codes or directing readers to coupons in order to drive revenue. And it’s exploring the food vertical, helping families find inexpensive but delicious meals.

While many publishers talk of scale as a commodity, The Penny Hoarder sees more scale driving more results.

The Penny Hoarder Made $20 Million Last Year Through Affiliate Marketing | AdExchanger (2024)

FAQs

Who owns The Penny Hoarder? ›

Are affiliate marketing websites profitable? ›

Affiliate marketing also can generate relatively passive income through commission—the ideal money-making scenario. Though initially you'll have to invest time creating traffic sources, your affiliate link can continue to deliver a steady paycheck.

How to make money with affiliate marketing? ›

How to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing
  1. Create a Content-Rich Website.
  2. Get Targeted Traffic From Google.
  3. Promote Products That People Are Actively Searching To Buy.
  4. Promote Products That Sell.
  5. Promote Products That Offer High Affiliate Commissions.
  6. Optimize Your Affiliate Links To Get More Clicks.
29 Oct 2022

How much do affiliate websites make? ›

On the low end, you'll earn about 5% of the sale, but with some arrangements, you can earn as much as 50%, usually when promoting a class or event. There are also affiliate marketing programs that provide a flat rate per sale instead of a percentage.

How does The Penny Hoarder make money? ›

Millennials in search of a side gig read The Penny Hoarder to find ways to make extra money and save. The site earned $20.8 million last year by focusing on native, affiliate marketing. It earns 95% of its revenue from affiliate and performance campaigns, and less than 5% from display advertising.

How much did The Penny Hoarder sell for? ›

The Penny Hoarder acquired by Sykes Enterprises in $102.5 million deal. The St.

Who is the most successful affiliate marketer? ›

We at Outgrow have compiled a list of our favorite 9 affiliate marketers and their journey in the market.
  • Pat Flynn. We're here to tell you about affiliate marketers. ...
  • Finch Sells. ...
  • Missy Ward. ...
  • Shawn Collins. ...
  • Zac Johnson. ...
  • Ian Fernando. ...
  • John Chow. ...
  • Kirsty McCubbin.

What is the highest paying affiliate website? ›

Shopify. We've looked at some huge names in compiling this list of high paying affiliate programs, but Shopify is arguably the biggest. More than 1.7 million businesses in 175 countries rely on the software as a service eCommerce platform, using it to sell more than $200 billion worth of products.

How much a beginner affiliate marketers earn? ›

Average starting Salary for Affiliate Marketing in India is around ₹0.1 Lakh per year (₹833.3 per month). No prior experience is required to be a Affiliate Marketing.

What is the easiest affiliate marketing? ›

The nine best beginner-friendly affiliate marketing programs
  • Amazon Associates. Amazon Associates is the absolute best affiliate marketing program for beginners. ...
  • All the big box stores. ...
  • AvantLink. ...
  • ShareASale. ...
  • Commission Junction. ...
  • TUNE. ...
  • Impact Radius. ...
  • Refersion Marketplace.
17 Nov 2022

How much does the average affiliate marketer make a month? ›

Affiliate Marketing Salary
Annual SalaryMonthly Pay
Top Earners$400,000$33,333
75th Percentile$208,000$17,333
Average$154,983$12,915
25th Percentile$59,000$4,916

Is affiliate marketing worth it in 2022? ›

Yes, affiliate marketing is still profitable. If anything, there is more money to be made than ever, because spending has skyrocketed. Competition might have become a little stiffer, but as you will see in the rest of this article: it is certainly still worth it to start affiliate marketing in 2022.

Can I make a million from affiliate marketing? ›

I would say a very successful affiliate would earn around $1 million per year in profit. That's what the best individuals I know are making. But really, you have big corporate sites that are making tens of millions or more that are essentially just affiliates.

How many people succeed in affiliate marketing? ›

What is the success rate of affiliate marketing? The average affiliate conversion rate normally hovers around 1%. This percentage is an estimate, because many affiliate marketers will keep their affiliate conversion rate to themselves.

How much does Amazon affiliate pay? ›

Amazon affiliates can make as little as a hundred bucks a month or as much as six figures per year. According to ZipRecruiter, the national average salary for an Amazon affiliate is $55,434 per year. The top 1% of earners make between $111,500 and $121,000, while the lowest 10% earn between $16,500 and $26,000.

How to make an extra $600 a month? ›

How to Make Extra Cash: 7 Ways to Make an Extra $600 This Month
  1. Take surveys and make extra money online. ...
  2. Sell stuff you don't need. ...
  3. Sign up and deliver groceries with Instacarty. ...
  4. Start a blog to make extra money from home. ...
  5. Create an Ebook and sell it on SendOwl. ...
  6. Proofread Documents. ...
  7. Become a Virtual Assistant.
16 Aug 2022

Is the Penny Hoarder a legitimate company? ›

For an overall view of The Penny Hoarder, you can see on the BBB website that we maintain the highest BBB rating of A+.

How much did the guy get for pennies for 45 years? ›

"I would never spend a penny," he told the Star. "I would break a dollar before giving up a penny." After collecting the copper for decades, Anders deposited his haul on Tuesday to pay for some recent dental work. The half million pennies Anders collected amounted to $5,136.14 in cash.

How much money did the man who saved pennies for 45 years end up with? ›

The savings earned him $5,136. He brought the pennies to the bank in 15 5-gallon jugs.

What is the hardest part of affiliate marketing? ›

Finding the right partners

And finding that partner is one of the biggest affiliate challenges. An affiliate partner isn't just a regular marketer hired to promote your brand, but rather someone who will help you promote your brand to their customers and share insights (or resources) with you.

Is affiliate marketing a pyramid? ›

While there are some similarities between affiliate marketing and a pyramid scheme at first glance, they are in fact quite different, since, unlike a pyramid scheme, affiliate marketing is a legitimate business model that can be very profitable for both merchants and affiliates.

What are the 3 main types of affiliates? ›

Firms typically pay affiliates per sale and less frequently by clicks or impressions. The three main types of affiliate marketing are unattached affiliate marketing, involved affiliate marketing, and related affiliate marketing.

Can you make 10k a month from affiliate marketing? ›

If you want to build a $10,000 a month affiliate marketing business, you need to be making money consistently. The way that you do this is by building a funnel. If you're creating content and you're getting traffic, you want to direct people into a funnel where you can collect their email addresses.

Is it hard to be successful in affiliate marketing? ›

Reality: Anyone can be an affiliate marketer, but not everyone will succeed. Being an affiliate marketer requires skill, experience, and work. It is not a quick or easy road to success, but when done properly, it can generate impressive income.

Is it hard to become a successful affiliate marketer? ›

Affiliate marketing can take time, but you'll grow faster by testing out different channels and identifying the best ways to connect with your audience. It also helps to have a large audience, so you'll grow faster in affiliate marketing if you also spend time growing your social media following.

Can you make six figures with affiliate marketing? ›

It is really hard to reach six-figures (or more) with Amazon's Affiliate Program. They only give ~3% commission per sale. To make $100,000 you'd have to send them about $3.9 million in sales. That's why it's important to diversify your income and find other affiliates.

What should you avoid in affiliate marketing? ›

7 Common Mistakes Every Affiliate Marketer Needs to Avoid
  • Prioritizing selling over helping.
  • Publishing low-quality content.
  • Ignoring/overlooking site speed.
  • Neglecting readability of content.
  • Not having a deep understanding of what you're selling.
  • Ignoring the SEO basics.
  • Not utilizing evergreen content.
12 Nov 2022

Can you fail in affiliate marketing? ›

But truth is, more than 95% of newbies fail to do affiliate marketing with success. People start out with very high expectations and end up in giving up because the money making part of their affiliate business is just not lifting off.

Can you make a full time income with affiliate marketing? ›

Despite the slow build-up to a successful platform, it's completely possible to make a full-time income from affiliate marketing. Once you've made it big, you'll know it. A poll on the STM Forum has revealed that some users make between $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 with the help of affiliate marketing.

How long does it take to be successful at affiliate marketing? ›

Growth in the early months – and even the first year – is sporadic and irregular for the vast majority of sites. In my experience, a good niche site won't achieve it's first $1000 month until somewhere between 12 and 18 months. Hitting that mark regularly is typically achieved between 18 and 24 months.

Which type of affiliate marketing is best? ›

20 Best Affiliate Platforms in 2022
  1. Amazon Associates. It is the best affiliate marketing platform for beginners as you need not worry about reaching a certain amount of sales volume for earning a higher commission. ...
  2. Awin. ...
  3. Flipkart Affiliate. ...
  4. Reseller Club. ...
  5. BigRock Affiliate. ...
  6. ClickBank. ...
  7. Optimise. ...
  8. Cuelinks.
18 Oct 2022

Who is the king of affiliate marketing? ›

Luke Kling is a king of affiliate marketing.

How many people fail in affiliate marketing? ›

You are just required to market other people's products online and generate commissions. This might sound simple in the beginning, but in reality, many affiliate marketers fail to perform well. 81% of the brands rely on affiliate marketing, but only 5% of them are able to do affiliate marketing with complete success.

How many followers do I need to be an Amazon affiliate? ›

Your social network page or group must be established, with a substantive number of organic followers/likes (in most cases, at least 500).

Is being an affiliate worth it? ›

Absolutely! According to reports by Cheq and Kick Start Your Own Affiliate Marketing Business by Joy Renkins, affiliate marketing spend generated by the affiliate marketing industry amounts to over $6.8 billion in the United States, and affiliate marketers generate between 5 and 25% of sales for businesses.

How many followers do you need to become an affiliate? ›

Joining the Affiliate Program

Reach 50 Followers. Stream for 8 hours. Stream on 7 different days.

Is The Penny Hoarder a legitimate company? ›

For an overall view of The Penny Hoarder, you can see on the BBB website that we maintain the highest BBB rating of A+.

Is Penny Hoarder for real? ›

The Penny Hoarder is an American personal finance website and brand based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Owned by Clearlink, The Penny Hoarder publishes multimedia content about the different ways people can make and save money. Founder and CEO Kyle Taylor started the website in 2010.

How do I contact Penny Hoarder? ›

The Penny Hoarder
  1. Headquarters. 300 1st Ave S Ste 400, Saint Petersburg, Florida, 33701, United States.
  2. Phone Number. (727) 317-5800.
  3. Website. www.thepennyhoarder.com.
  4. $36M.

Is The Penny Hoarder a blog? ›

The Penny Hoarder started as a small personal finance blog established in December 2010 by CEO and founder, Kyle Taylor, as a way to document his mission to whittle away at his personal debt and share his knack for finding unusual ways to make and save money.

What does hoarders pay for? ›

In an interview with Xfinity, via The Things, Jodi Fynn, a producer on the show, said that Hoarders pays for a lot of what we see on screen. It pays for the cleaning services, therapists, and other experts who appear on the show. "These are enormously expensive cleanouts," Jodi said.

Is money hoarding a thing? ›

Hoarding money involves an unhealthy obsession with the accumulation of financial reserves. Just as all types of hoarding illnesses prompt people to accumulate things they don't really need, the activity of hoarding money is likely to trigger a short-term burst of good feelings.

Did they find a body on Hoarders? ›

The responding officers eventually found Robert's lifeless body surrounded by and crushed under his own stuff, the very belongings that he couldn't bear to part with.

Are the psychologists on Hoarders real? ›

"I can unequivocally tell you that nothing is staged," Dr. Zasio told Distractify (via phone). In fact, the psychologist explained that when she arrives at a client's home, she has not yet been inside. Therefore, the cameras are capturing a very genuine reaction.

Has there been a successful Hoarders story? ›

The only success story was a man in his 20s named Jake, who lived with his alcoholic father. His home was still tidy a year after the intervention, and his dad had cut back on his drinking. Sadly, for Greensboro resident Sandra Cowart, her 31-room mansion went into foreclosure shortly after her episode aired.

Is there free help for hoarders? ›

Try peer support.

Some people find it really helpful to connect with others who are also supporting someone with hoarding. To find peer support, you could contact Mind's Infoline or your local Mind to find support in your area. You can also explore our useful contacts or try online peer support, such as Side by Side.

Where would a hoarder hide money? ›

Inside cookie jars. Cans, including food cans and other cans packed away in the garage or attic. Behind art – Often, people will tape cash to the back of paintings. Inside freezers.

How do I unsubscribe from Penny hoarder? ›

To stop receiving SMS messages after you've signed up for a Campaign, just reply “STOP” to opt out and cancel the service.

How do I start a passive income blog? ›

If blogging sounds like a fit for you, let's launch into our guide to starting a blog.
  1. Step 1: Find Your Niche. ...
  2. Step 2: Pick a Domain Name, and Choose Web Hosting. ...
  3. Step 3: Select a Blogging Platform. ...
  4. Step 4: Build Your Website. ...
  5. Step 5: Start Writing. ...
  6. Step 6: Promote Your Blog. ...
  7. Step 7: Monetize Your Blog.
29 Dec 2020

How many blogs are abandoned? ›

There are over 500 million blogs on the internet today, but, according to the New York Times, about 95% of them are abandoned. Most bloggers abandon their blogs within their first six months of blogging.

What is the blog flipping? ›

This is a process of buying and selling of Websites/blogs/domains wherein you have to buy any blog in low price and then sell into the higher price. There are two simple ways by which you can start with Flipping a Blog (Blog selling).

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