Affiliate MarketingAmazon quietly gutted its Associates program this year. Multiple publishers who spoke to Adweek confirmed commission rates got cut by as much as 50% in some categories, dropping from a premium 10% down to 4% or 5%, with the milestone bonuses that rewarded top affiliates mostly disappearing too. đ Amazon never announced it. Publishers found out one conversation at a time with their account managers, starting in Asia-Pacific late last year and hitting the U.S. around March. If your whole affiliate strategy was âreview stuff on Amazon,â you got a pay cut you didnât vote for.
Thatâs actually useful information, because it tells you exactly where not to build. The niches that still pay well in 2026 share one trait: they route around Amazon entirely, through direct merchant programs or SaaS affiliate networks that set their own commission structure and arenât beholden to one retailerâs quarterly earnings call. Here are six that still have real money in them, with the actual numbers behind each.
VPNs and other privacy tools still pay real money
VPN affiliate programs remain some of the highest-converting offers in the entire industry, and the commission structure explains why. đ NordVPN, one of the category leaders, pays a 100% commission on its 1-month plan and 40% on new signups for annual and 2-year plans, dropping to a 30% recurring rate on renewals, according to Authority Hackerâs breakdown of VPN affiliate programs. On a 2-year plan, that can work out to roughly $57 per referral. Thatâs not a typo, and itâs not close to what youâd earn steering the same customer toward a $30 gadget on Amazon.
The mechanism is straightforward: subscription products with low monthly prices convert easily, and the recurring commission means your traffic keeps paying you long after you published the article. The catch, and itâs a real one, is that VPN content is genuinely competitive. Youâre not the only one who read this stat.
Where you actually win:
Comparison content for specific use cases (streaming access, torrenting, remote work security) instead of generic âbest VPNâ posts
Programs accessible through major networks like CJ, Impact, and Awin, so youâre not locked into one merchantâs dashboard
Bundling VPN recommendations with adjacent security content, since a reader worried about privacy usually cares about more than one thing
Password managers are the quieter cousin of VPNs
Same subscription economics as VPNs, way less content competition. đ The average commission rate across password manager affiliate programs sits around 20%, with LastPass paying 25% per sale and Dashlane going up to 30%, per WebsiteRatingâs rundown of password manager programs. Cookie windows tend to run 30 days, which is tight but workable if your content actually targets people already comparing options.
Nobodyâs writing a hundred articles about password managers the way they are about VPNs, and thatâs the opportunity. The buyer intent is nearly identical (someone worried about getting hacked), but the search competition is thinner because password managers donât have the same cultural moment VPNs had a few years back.
A realistic starting angle:
Target searches from people who just got a breach notification email, since thatâs peak buying intent
Cover business and family plans, not just individual accounts, since those have higher price points and better commissions
Pair password manager content with two-factor authentication guides, which naturally cross-sell
Web hosting rewards patience with flat fees, not percentage cuts
Hosting is one of the oldest affiliate niches around, and it still works because the commission structure never depended on Amazonâs mood. đ Bluehost pays flat commissions between $65 and $100 per sale, with payouts reaching up to 70% on some campaigns and a 50-day validation window, according to vCommissionâs 2026 hosting and VPN affiliate roundup. One sale can beat what youâd earn from dozens of low-commission Amazon clicks.
The honest downside: hosting content is heavily targeted at people starting a website, which means your audience is mostly other aspiring entrepreneurs and bloggers, not a broad consumer crowd. Thatâs a smaller top of funnel, but it converts well because the buyer already has intent baked in. Nobody Googles âbest web hostingâ for fun.
This is exactly the kind of topic worth going deep on rather than skimming, and the BizWhat Membership covers this topic in a dedicated ebook, which is a lot more useful than a single article can be.
Pet tech skips the saturated âdog momâ content
Regular pet content is a graveyard. Pet tech isnât. đ The âhumanization of petsâ trend hasnât slowed, itâs just moved from generic supplies into GPS smart collars, health monitoring wearables, and DNA-based supplement subscriptions, according to AffiliListâs 2026 breakdown of low-competition affiliate niches. Youâre not competing with Chewy or Amazon on commodity dog food margins, which are razor-thin anyway.
Why this works: pet tech products carry higher price points than a bag of kibble, and the buyers are already primed to spend on their petâs wellbeing without blinking. A $150 GPS collar with a subscription tracking plan behaves more like a SaaS product than a physical good, commission-wise.
Sub-niches worth testing:
Breed-specific health monitoring (senior dog joint tracking, brachycephalic breathing monitors)
DNA testing kits paired with personalized supplement subscriptions
Multi-pet household tech, like automatic feeders synced to individual pet profiles
Home energy peripherals cash in on the boom without touching solar panels
The keyword âsolar panelâ is saturated to the point of being a waste of time for a new site. The peripherals around it arenât. ⥠Smart grids, home battery ecosystems, and energy management systems are where the real low-competition opportunity sits right now, per the same AffiliList niche analysis, because this equipment needs sophisticated monitoring software that most affiliates havenât thought to cover yet.
This niche pairs well with a specific, motivated audience: homeowners in their 30s to 50s who are annoyed about their utility bill and already comfortable spending on home improvement. Thatâs a buyer with money and a clear pain point, which is the combination every affiliate marketer says they want but rarely finds.
Target rising-utility-bill searches rather than generic âgo solarâ content
Cover monitoring software and battery management systems as their own category, separate from panel installation
Watch for regional utility rebate programs, since those create urgency spikes worth writing about seasonally
Cybersecurity for small businesses pays B2B rates consumer niches canât touch
Small business owners are terrified of getting hacked and have almost nobody speaking to them directly about it. đĄď¸ Cybersecurity for small businesses is a growing concern with genuinely low content saturation, according to AffiliListâs niche guide, and B2B software affiliate programs routinely pay higher and more durable commissions than consumer categories because the customer lifetime value is so much bigger.
The mechanism is simple math: a small business paying $200 a month for endpoint protection or a security audit tool is worth far more over time than a consumer buying a $12 VPN subscription, even with a lower percentage commission rate. Youâre competing for a much smaller pool of buyers, but each one is worth dramatically more.
Have you actually looked at what a small dental practice or law firm pays for basic cybersecurity tools? Most affiliates never bother checking, which is exactly why thereâs room here.
Six niches, one theme running through all of them: subscription products with direct merchant relationships beat anything routed through a platform that can quietly cut your pay overnight. Pick the one closest to something you already understand, check the actual affiliate terms before you write a single word, and build your first comparison page around a buyer whoâs already decided to spend money, not one youâre still trying to convince.