Niche affiliate marketing is all about sharing your explicit knowledge in a particular area of business. Your obsession can be monetized. If you have something to call more than your hobby - you're so passionate about it and you can't live without it, then you can shout it out and make money out of it. And if it turns out to be pornographic, why not? No reason why you shouldn't promote it as an affiliate. And you can start it today.
Risks and Restrictions
Unfortunately, illegal trafficking activities are often attached to the adult business industry, and as an affiliate, you'll be restricted from using some web tools such as;
- Web hosting service
- Autoresponder (email marketing) service and
- PPC (pay-per-click) ads.
They promote your business on your behalf and it's their responsibility to ensure whatever you distribute to the public using their service stays within the law. But they can't monitor your every activity, for example;
- Your target audience may not be restricted to adults over 18.
- Sex-related services are often non-transparent. (e.g. thin line between escort services and prostitution/sex trafficking.)
Major marketing platforms and advertising services simply prohibit sexually explicit content because the level of risk exposure is too high.
Bear that in mind, if you genuinely intend to promote adult entertainment or merchandise and stay away from anything that jeopardizes your user agreement, there are plenty of platforms that you can use. And they don't cost you more than normal. Now let's take a look at the steps to take to get your adult affiliate website up and running.
What Really Is Your Niche?
Deciding a niche is not just about your sexual preference, but you might want to narrow down the category and choose a niche that you have the most interest in. Randomly promoting the latest videos and cams is not considered as a good idea because frankly, there are hundreds of sorts out there, you can't manage them all, and you'll lose focus very quickly.
You'd rather choose your theme so that you'll be able to write a short review on each material and share the quality with viewers.
Build Your Website
Building a website is a 3-step process;
- Register a domain name (e.g. myadultsite.com) - costs from $1-$10 per year, depending on the extension (.com, .ai, .xyz)
- Get your domain name hosted - the cheapest rates from around $2-3 per month.
- Install a website builder - WordPress is most popular and it's free.
I'll briefly explain one by one.
1. Domain - Choose The Right Name For Your Site
The name of your site can be anything, but you'd rather want to choose something easy for anyone to remember. Don't include words that insinuate something offensive or misleading.
You can buy a domain from any domain registration site - Namecheap and GoDaddy offer the cheapest rates and their support are both reliable. Go to one of these sites and check if your chosen domain name is available - it may be already taken.
2. Adult Web Hosting: Secure Your Webspace
Next, you get your domain name hosted - which simply means you rent your webspace for a set period. You can pay monthly or 12/24/36 months in advance, and the longer you pay for in advance, the more economical it will be.
You need to choose a web hosting service that specifically allows adult content. Here are some of the most reliable web hosting companies that serve adult websites;
Hostinger (hostinger.com)
Hostinger offers a very competitive price plan, starting around $2 per month for 100Gb bandwidth, which is plenty for the startup. Hostinger can get your website up and running as easily as possible because;
- It also offers a domain check and registration service AND,
- Your webspace is already optimized for WordPress, means you can also skip Step 3 (download the web-building software from wordpress.org)
Hostwinds (hostwinds.com)
Hostwinds is extremely reliable and offers great support. The price starts from $3 per month for unlimited bandwidth PLUS free domain registration for the first 12 months (so you can skip Step 1). Recommended.
Dreamhost (dreamhost.com)
Dreamhost is another company that offers reliable service. It's even cheaper - starts from $2.59 for unlimited bandwidth, plus free domain registration for the first 12 months AND WordPress ready (so you can skip Step 1 & 3).
Hostgator (hostgator.com)
From $5.95 per month including the domain registration for the first 12 months, Hostgator can manage your WordPress site up to 100k visits per month and 1Gb backups (which is plenty for a starter).
The following other web hosting companies also allow adult content;
- ViceTemple (vicetemple.com/adult-web-hosting) - from $5 per month up to 15Gb webspace and unlimited traffic.
- Adult Web Hosting (adultwebhosting.com) - very competitive price. Monthly plan for $2.99 per month, or $2.24 if you pay 12 months in advance. Up to 5Gb storage and 100Gb monthly bandwidth.
3. Installing WordPress
As you can see from the above, many web hosting companies offer a webspace with WordPress pre-installed, in which case you can start building your site right away. But if not, you need to;
- Download the whole WordPress package from here for free.
- Unzip the file and,
- Upload it onto your webspace via your web hosting control panel.
It may not make sense to you if you've never done it before, but installing WordPress is actually very straightforward. See if your hosting manual has a step-by-step instruction for it.
Required Plugins For An Adult Site
There are some essential plugins that you can install on your WordPress such as for search engine optimization, image optimization and clearing cache to maintain your site loading speed. But there are two that you absolutely need. (All available for free.)
(L) WordPress Responsive Age Restriction and (R) Age Gate
#1 Age Verification Popup
No need to explain - one of these plugins will enable your site to ask users to confirm they're an adult upon accessing. Text, color and style will be fully customizable. WordPress Responsive Age Verification and Age Gate are two of the most popular plugins.
#2 Anti-Comment Spam
Unfortunately adult websites tend to attract a lot of comments made by spambots. You'll need a plugin that blocks them. There are many of them available. Akismet Anti Spam is one, Spam protection, AntiSpam, FireWall by CleanTalk is another one.
Adult Affiliate Marketing Programs - What Can You Promote?
Video Entertainment
The most profitable and sustainable affiliate marketing method via your blog site is by writing pornography video reviews, for reasons such as;
- New video clips are being released continuously, so you'll never run out of materials to promote.
- Once you sign up as an affiliate, you'll be provided with plenty of images/screenshots and promotional video clip every time a new video is released, which you are free to display on your website. It means you'll never run out of graphics.
- The commission rates are fairly high (30-70% of monthly membership fee per referral).
You know there are literally hundreds of studios - stick to the ones you like rather than to promote just about anything randomly. Go to your favorite studio's site and apply to join the affiliate program. You may find a link in the footer menu, but if you don't, just google search it!
Affiliate network JustCash.com (*** 2021 update: Unfortunately no longer available.)
Adult Dating Sites
Dating sites also pay decent commissions, and if you are good at giving "love, sex and relationship" advice and can come up with a lot of topics to write about, then you can promote the dating service companies that you recommend in each blog post. Each dating service will supply banners in various sizes that you can place on your website.
Adult Toys
"Sex shops" usually pay 10-20% commission on a sales price. Adult toy merchandises are handy/easy to promote because whatever the theme of your website is (video reviews or relationship advice), you can advertise some toys within your blog post. You can also write product comparison reviews and promote various goods on one page.
Join ShareASale, an affiliate network. You'll find many adult pleasure goods shops such as Adam's Toy Box, The Enhanced Male, Lovehoney, Vibrators.com, etc there.
PPC / PPM Ads For Extra Income
You can earn some extra income by placing PPC/PPM banner ads on your site. These ads may not be directly related to the class of products that you promote, but they may interest some of your visitors.
- PPC (pay-per-click): you'll get paid every time someone simply clicks the ad.
- PPM (pay per a thousand impressions - M for 1,000 in Roman numerals): you'll get paid every 1,000 people visit your webpage where the ad is displayed.
They don't pay much, and you don't want to place too many of those PPC/PPM ads to distract your visitors from your content, but they do allow you to earn constantly.
The most used PPC/PPM ad network is Google Adsense, but again, Google prohibits Adsense users to place an ad on a page with sexual content (Google Publisher Restrictions). There are plenty of other PPC/PPM ad services that allow adult content such as;
List Building (To Make More Money)
Once your affiliate website starts rolling, you should also start building a list of subscribers because "the money is in the list" - it's your subscribers who are most likely to spend money on the products that you recommend.
People may stumble upon your website, may revisit to check when they feel like it, or may forget your domain address and never return. But once you've got them to sign up with you, the ball will be in your court. You can keep them up to date and recommend your affiliate products with a weekly newsletter. Offer a piece of secret information (such as discount offers) in exchange for signing up.
One problem is that most email marketing services don't allow adult content in your emails, as I explained earlier.
YNOT Mail (http://www.ynot.com)
YNOT Mail is part of a news reporting agency for the adult industry. Sexually explicit images can be placed on your emails and your affiliate link destinations can be any adult site.
It has a very simple signup form that you can place on your site, but if it's too simple and plain for you, you can use a third-party lead generation tool such as Sumo for free.
Recommended Adult Affiliate Programs
I have received numerous messages asking for the best adult affiliate programs to join. I don't have a personal recommendation - if you do recommend any particular program, do let me know with your reason by sending a message. I'll list it up in this space.
*** You can be totally anonymous, and this message feature cannot trace your identity (IP address).
Boobbucks.net has been around for 10 years promoting sites with the biggest breasts in the world. Fantastic conversion rates with exclusive promo content featuring the most famous busty stars. Affiliates earn 50% of the revenues they send with weekly payouts.
~ Hugh Bernard
CrakRevenue (https://www.crakrevenue.com) Tons of PPC & PPA.
~ Ollie
Cocky Boys (http://bigbling.com) 50% membership revshare
Lucas Entertainment (https://lucaspays.com) $19.95 / $159.95 Min. payout $1000. Both long established.
~ Ollie
Reply
Chaosmen is also good. Bryan has been in the business for as long as I can remember. (http://mpa3.chaosmen.com/affiliates)
~ Dwight
Join XloveCash.com. Received Ynot Awards 2019 for the best Live Cam Revenue Program. 35% lifetime earnings. Straight, gay, fetish, XLoveCam.com hosts over 2000 models logging in every day. With live online support 24/7. Payment options include Monese, Bank Wire and Paxum. You can also get paid in Euros.
~ Charlie
Adult programs can make you money, but how? There’s no doubt that things are getting harder every year. A program such as OnlyFans doesn’t allow you to advertise and make money like that. Performing yourself is the best thing and you don’t have to have the best look, you just have to have the courage to be on the camera. But not everyone can do it. If you don’t want to show your face and secretly want to sell adult programs as an affiliate, here is my best recommendation. — Link removed by antivirus —
Hey I sent you my recommendations 4 times or more and got no reply whats going on. Email me on
Hi, I’ve replied to you with some questions – the links you’ve given me are broken, and I can’t seem to find them by searching. Also if you could help us by explaining why you recommend those programs? I’ll await for your response. Thanks!
The problem nowadays is there’s too much free stuff and this kind of thing has become so disposable.
Hi Donnie, thanks for your comment. You may be right, but people do still pay for materials they think are worth the money. The adult business industry and the affiliates are still thriving!
I ran a campaign to promote Lucas entertainment using Instagram and got banned after 3 photos were removed. I was really careful about nudity but for some reason it was against the community standard. Any idea?
Hi, no idea. Perhaps you can try using Linktree?
My advice is to focus on PPV ads. It was easier to promote 1 or 2 video publishers maybe 10 years ago or even 10 publishers but now because Pornhub and xvideos etc. people can watch porn free. ALso people don’t save videos they don’t have to. Come back to the same stream for free.
My advice is to write blog or embed free video whenever , whatever you can while bringing in a little revenue by PPV banners.
Hi Jahan, thanks for sharing your experience. That makes sense, I appreciate it!
I think his name is Bryan Ockert (chaosmen) made famous with chaos in austin his a top guy I once met him.
Hey Ray, I must admit I felt a little uneasy reading this. But this is interesting because there are a few things that I’ve never come across or even thought about, like spams associated with adult programs. People promote adult stuff incognito I guess. It takes a lot of courage to be open about sex. It’s more so when it comes to porn. Still I thought your post was informative. Congrats & thanks Ray.
Thanks Dex for sharing your thoughts. It may be considered taboo, but it’s only porn. Some people are proud to promote the niche, they do well and I admire them for that.
This is a very informative post. It’s difficult for affiliate marketers to promote adult programs because of restrictions and also they want to be anonymous.
I’m very interested to know what kind of affiliate programs have positive feedbacks. If they pay well I will consider in the future.
Hi Vital, thanks for your comment. They do normally pay well as far as the rates are concerned, it depends how well you promote them and how much you like the niche, in my opinion!
3 questions.
1. How long does it take for affiliate programs to approve? I applied for more than half a dozen no one’s replied.
2. I don’t have a website yet maybe that was the problem?
3. Which one is the best affiliate program?
Thanks.
Hi Neil,
1. Usually within a few hours – a few days, depending on their manual approval process, and,
2. Perhaps that’s what it is. They’d want to make sure you’re promoting their materials to the age-restricted audience.
3. It all depends on what you want to promote!
Any more questions don’t hesitate to get back to me. Thanks for your visit!
Focus on brands that strictly monitor & ban free sites like Pornhub…Xvideos… If you want to make serious money focus on Lucas Entertainment… Sean Cody…Cocky Boys… big names. Minor ones don’t pay as much. Good luck.
Thanks for the info!
I used to promote up to 7 adult websites, in the morning I would upload all the materials and updated all the blog posts. In the afternoon just monitor the traffic. That’s all I did and once I was earning more than 50k per month. Nowadays it’s harder due to a number of porn studio not paying as much as it used to plus all the free stuff available online. Still you can make good commission if you are constantly at it, I believe.
Hi Dave, wow, thanks for sharing your experience. Good to know that you can make good money with adult affiliate programs. Tell us more about your story if you can! And I wish you all the best with continued success!
Good review. I use Dreamhost and find it very good. Great support, I personally recommend it. I would not recommend Hostgator because the service is terrible especially when you start having small problems they will be helpless. I don’t promote adult contents but now I read your review it may be a possibility as long as it makes me money. “Why Not?” Thanks.
Hi, thanks for your comment. Good to know that you’re happy with Dreamhost, but about Hostgator…unfortunately I’ve had a bad experience too. Overall there are mixed reviews. I decided to add it to the list because the hosting company is pretty famous and I’ve seen many of them recommend it, though it’s not my favorite.
Hi Ray. This is interesting, something that’s never crossed my mind, kind of knew there were many restrictions but now I know what you should do with web hosting and autoresponder I find it even more intriguing. It’s a billion dollar industry surely you can make a lot of money promoting porn films.
Do you promote adult stuff yourself, or have you ever done it? Would you? I’m just curious to know. Cheers for the awesome post, Ray.
Ben
Hi Ben, thanks for your sharing your thoughts. Yes, I have actually done it myself – my mentor at the time happened to be promoting adult merchandise and that’s how I got into affiliate marketing in the first place. Like you say, it’s a big industry but because of the restrictions, if you have an adult affiliate account and non-adult affiliate account you can’t have them run using the same service platform.
You don’t make as much money as you used to because of all the free stuff on sites like pornhub. I ran an adult site for 1 year but never had visitors. I gave up and shut down after 1 year.
Hi Kurt, thanks for sharing your experience. You can make money by providing quality, i.e. value that’s offered by you but no one else. If you had absolutely no visitor at all, there must have been a reason that was causing the problem?
Your post is inspirational. I have been in affiliate marketing for a while now and as a man promoting adult programs has crossed my mind a few times I must admit but knowing the risks it is not something I would have given a try. As long as you are not breaking the law nothing should stop you from helping the industry, you can be proud of selling products in demand. No different from any other goods. Good to know about web hosting companies who accept adult affiliates also.
Hi Josh, thanks for your comment. I think you just summarized the intention of my blog post for me! Appreciate it!