This week I went down an affiliate rabbit hole, and I came out with three directories that grew really fast using affiliate programs I'd never heard of.
When most of us think affiliate, we think Amazon. And Amazon pays...not much. You're basically hoping someone adds a really expensive item to their cart, or you're relying on a ton of volume.
But I actually think affiliate and directories make a great combo, as long as one thing lines up: the reason people land on your site has to match the thing you're asking them to buy.
So that's the lens I used for all three of these.
A business entity lookup site doing 45,000 visits in 4 months
entitysearch.us is about as boring as it gets. Every state gets a page, you type in a business name, and it links you to that state's official .gov records.
It started in mid July 2026 and it's already at roughly 45,000 organic visitors a month with a DR of 21 (very beatable, in my opinion).
The directory helps you look up any business entity in America. When a name is available, you see a big "Start your California LLC" button and it goes to Northwest Registered Agent.
So I googled "LLC formation affiliate" and Northwest was literally the first result.
This affiliate program pays $150 per signup for business formation. Not too shabby at all. I can see why this would be better than display ads.
The catch is search intent. Most of the traffic comes from searches like "california business search," and those people aren't all forming an LLC.
Some are checking if a company is legit, and some are just checking on their own business. Who really knows?
If I built this, I'd add a one question survey before the search ("Why are you looking this up?") with three answers. Are you:
- checking my own business
- checking out another company
- looking to start an LLC?
If most people check "looking to start an LLC", then the affiliate offer makes perfect sense.
Either way, if someone's reading this and wants a weekend project to experiment with, I'd build a direct competitor to see how quickly traffic grows.
An STD testing directory at DR 8 with near perfect intent
I love easystd.com because it's really simple, and it's built on public health data. It gets around 4,300 visits a month.
When you start a search for std testing near you, you'll see two premium/featured listings for Quest and Labcorp.
If you click on them, they go to STDcheck.com, which has its own affiliate program.
From what I found it pays 40% per sale, and with an average order around $200 that's roughly $80 a sale.
This is the best match between search and offer I've seen in a while. They rank first for "free std testing near me" and other std-related keywords.
The keywords are easy to rank for and this directory looks ripe to outrank.
Just be prepared to build some backlinks and go after keywords like "walk in std testing" that bigger competitors already rank for.
A weekly ad site doing 163,000 visits (it's chaotic, and that's fine)
ladysavings.com isn't really a directory. It just posts the weekly ads and coupons for a bunch of stores, and it keeps them really up to date.
Ads are everywhere (kinda intrusive, not gonna lie), but it gets about 163,000 organic visits a month at a DR of 17.
Display ads are probably most of the money, but some weekly ads link out through affiliate links, and there's a coupon section full of Amazon links (diapers, Cheez Its, dryer sheets, other low ticket products). It doesn't pay much, but these people come back every single week.
I also think this one is weirdly AI resistant-ish. People want to see the actual flyer, and I don't think a chatbot is going to show you this week's Food Lion ad.
It's been around for about a decade though, so here's a newer version.
aldiweekly.com started in mid September, and six weeks later it's at around 12,000 visits a month with a DR of 0 and display ads already running. One store, all in. That's how I'd do it too!
How I found these affiliate programs (you can do this in an afternoon)
- Click the main button on a site you're studying and look at the URL. If there's a "ref", "aff" or a partner ID in there, there's probably a program behind it.
- Google "[brand] affiliate program" and "[your niche] affiliate program." The good ones usually have a public page with the payouts.
- Check it against your top keyword. Would the person searching it actually want this offer? If you have to squint, it's not a match yet.
The big lesson for me is that there are tons of affiliate programs that I've never even heard about.
And they mostly all pay much higher than Amazon's affiliate program.
None of these are going to make anyone rich overnight. But they're simple, they're buildable, and hopefully someone reading this takes one and makes a little bit of money.
Keep building,
FreyAffiliate programs I'd build a directory around
