Ever since I launched DotWeekly.com there has been about a 99% focus on domain names, one would think that domain name affiliate programs would be the best things to run on the site to create some revenue but for whatever reason it just doesn’t seem to work all that great for me. I always like to be open, so sharing this information is no different.

Domain name affiliate programs are spread out just like all other affiliate programs. CJ.com has several of the bigger ones with GoDaddy, Dotster, Network Solutions and I’m sure a couple other smaller domain related companies. At one point in time using CJ, I did "OK" and made a little bit of affiliate money (mainly under $100 a month, if I made anything at all. Many, many months I would make nothing). It was never consistent, almost always seemed pretty random on when a click would turn into actual cash for me with the traffic I was sending them. I would have thousands of impressions a day and likely get about 20-50 clicks per day.

Seeing the stats and the lack of really making much of anything, I pretty much slowed down using them. I still have some ads up on specific pages that get specific traffic but converting those clicks to cash is not easy. Yes, even with a fair amount of Very Targeted traffic.

Even a 36% CTR doesn’t seem to convert into any sales! I know the "click" numbers are only 18, but these stats are from 1 day, using very specific and direct targeted ads. I could show you the month and you would see very similar stats! 36% CTR is great and my stats are very consistent with 20%-40% click thru rates. I could have 99% CTR for all I care because the real number that matters to me is the top one, commission earned!

CJ.com doesn’t work all that great for me and I have pretty much stopped using them!

I have used Moniker.com and their affiliate program but one issue I think that makes that program not work all that great, is Moniker is not known much outside the domain name industry very much. You can display a lot of ads and put in a good deal of effort and get little for it.

SnapNames.com was THE BEST domain name related affiliate program I have used to date. The problem, "all good things come to an end" and that saying couldn’t be any more real. SnapNames changed its affiliate program to Essociate.com and 99.8% killed the program for me. Why did just changing to a new program kill all the working things I had in place, I do not have an answer why but it did and still to this day does not work. Essociate does carry a couple domain related products and I promoted several with no sales.

GoDaddy.com is the worlds #1 domain name registrar and they have affiliate programs with CJ.com and now in-house. I started using the in-house program just last week, so I really do not have that many stats to make a good call on how it will do. The early numbers really do not look all that great! Go Daddy Direct is the name used for the in-house godaddy affiliate program.

Estibot.com is a GREAT service and offers an affiliate program. If you have even a free account with Estibot, you are an affiliate already. I do not promote it a ton but I do have some affiliate links on DotWeekly. I have not made a sale to date with this program but do send Estibot some traffic.

Freshdrop.net has an affiliate program and is a pretty popular service in the domain name space. Freshdrop.net’s affiliate program is located at Freshdrop.biz . I have sold a couple sign-ups for Freshdrop that resulted in about $30 commission in about a year.

DRT or also known as DomainResearchTool.com had an affiliate program and I have sold a couple copies of the software that many love, but Luc has had a lot of fraud type problems with the affiliate program and has shut it down. I had made some sales over the years with the program but had hard times getting paid! I wasn’t a big fan of the program "just stopping" with little announcement (some may not even know it stopped yet) but clearly the site has every right to stop it.

Sedo.com has an affiliate program. If you have a Sedo account, you have an affiliate account. By far THE WORST affiliate program I have used in my life! My Sedo / Partner Program is how you get to it. How bad is it you may ask? I sent them 328,579 visitors and made $57.25 since 2008. I sold one appraisal, had 6 people sign up for a new account (which earns you $0) and 3 people purchased a domain name.

Afternic.com also has an affiliate program which you earn 25% on buyer account sign up’s and seller accounts. Over the years I sold about 4 seller accounts and 6 buyer accounts. To access the affiliate program, login via Afternic.com and click the Domain Tools / Affiliate Program . Earning $0.25 for selling a "buyer’s account" is not going to make you break the bank any time soon.

Selling ads directly on your site is likely the best way to earn some money. In the domain space, $100-$200 is about the going rate for 125×125 ads. Some sites charge more, some less. Most advertisers do not want to spend much more than $100 it seems. Tons of people will for sure contact you and want you to promote their goods…. clearly for free!

Adsense does OK for me but really doesn’t do much. It averages about $4-$10 per day on DotWeekly. Normally closer to the $4.

Overview

So as you can tell, I personally have not had much luck with domain related affiliate programs or making money with this site, but I do think I know why. The vast majority of domainers are Cheap! Domainers are highly educated on affiliate links and often do not click on ads or affiliate links, just because they know they are ads or affiliate links. The domain industry is very small, which does not help exposure. Many already use the services and or products (DRT, Estibot, Freshdrop) ads on the site.

I think the best chance at making "affiliate money" in the domain name space is with domain auctions IMO! The ever changing inventory greatly helps. The biggest downfall with domain name auctions and how affiliate programs work… your "bidder" could bid a domain name all the way up from $10 to $1,000 with one other bidder and bidder two bids $1,001 and you get paid nothing. Without your bidder (affiliate referral) that auction would likely have not went as high… It can be looked at the other way around but in the end, you see $0 commission when this happens.

Building tools like available domain name generators work well and should convert but you also have the chance that people use the tool, then visit GoDaddy or another registrar and simply register the domain name. I think this was one of the reasons the GoDaddy domains on Freshdrop moved to a pay tool. The Freshdrop model is based on people clicking the domain directly on Freshdrop which would set an affiliate cookie to earn the site money. The problem, people would use the service, find domains they were interested in and in a second tab, have GoDaddy.com opened. Find the domain using Freshdrop, tab over to the GoDaddy tab in the browser and "watch" that specific domain. This would result in "no credit" to Freshdrop. I am guilty of doing it as well!

Although it has no negative effect on the buyer using (clicking) an affiliate link on somebodies site, people often avoid clicking an affiliate link. This drastically hurts the site owner more than anything and we (users of the sites) end up seeing sites like Freshdrop.net that offered all GoDaddy domain auctions with metrics for free, move to a pay service or gone. Yet Bob Parsons just purchased an $8 Million dollar home, has like 15 motorcycles etc.

Most people get the feeling that everything online should be "free" but the one thing that many miss the fact of, is when you as a user of the site doesn’t use the affiliate links, you are raising the chances of the site not being available the next time you try and use it or the site may just become a pay service because the affiliate model is not working. Keep that in mind the next time you use a site you like that is free!

Making money with domain name affiliate programs can and does work but it is not easy. The more unique and better service you offer, the more likely you will make money with it. When I create "Hot Lists" and direct link domain auctions, I get a lot of clicks but sadly many of those clicks do not turn into any money for me. Very frustrating! Affiliate programs can often seem that the company you are sending traffic to, is getting the better end of the deal. If an affiliate program is not working for you, change it! Try different methods with that affiliate program or simply remove it!

One thing to understand, just putting up an affiliate banner will not make you rich! Often times you will get clicks of that banner or link and still not make a penny! You can get a lot of clicks to an affiliate link and still not make any money. It does make you question things, since there is really no way to be able to tell if one of the people you sent via an affiliate link, actually purchased something and you simply didn’t get credit for it. I’m sure it happens! You just have to be the judge if the affiliate program is working for you or not to use it any more. Giving up is not always the easiest or smartest move, so be sure to try a couple different things before you pull the plug. Pulling the plug doesn’t hurt and it pays to do it when things just are not converting for you. Overall, domain affiliate programs IMO are a hard go. Some make a little money but most will not earn you that much, with the company you are sending traffic to being the biggest winner! Making money online is not easy, takes a lot of "trying" and a lot of hard work! Even with all this, it often times fails. The numbers do not lie, so always use those stats to judge how you are doing and do not be afraid to make changes.