Affiliate Website Examples: 7 Live Sites and Where Each One Puts Its Links

Nearly every affiliate site earns the same way. A reader clicks a link, buys something, and the shop pays the site a share of the sale. The differences lie in where that link sits and why the reader trusts it enough to click. A coupon site hides it behind a code. A review site puts it under a test result. A gift guide sets it next to a price and a funny line.

So this list takes seven live affiliate websites, one for each common model, from coupons and cashback to a coffee site that covers nothing else. For each one we traced where the affiliate links go and read the site's own disclosure page. Every site was opened and checked on 3 October 2026.

It's written for people building a site, not shopping on one.

At a glance

Wethrift

Wethrift is a coupon site run from Melbourne, Australia. Its about page names two people at the top, founder Nick Drewe and technical lead Matt Way, and says the site has covered more than 100,000 online stores since 2018.

Each store page is built around one number. On the ASOS page we opened, all 30 codes had a chance-to-work score, worked out from checkout tests and from shoppers answering "did it work?", with older results counting for less. The best code that day scored 33%. Every code says where it was found, often a TikTok or YouTube video, and stays hidden until you press Show Code. A weekly chart shows how often ASOS codes worked, and the page puts a typical code's life at about 120 days.

Wethrift's disclosure page says it has affiliate deals with some stores, while most stores on the site pay it nothing. It runs no ads and sells no data, and the page states that commissions are the whole business. Pages that can earn carry a short note at the top, which on the ASOS page read "Wethrift may earn a commission when you use a code on this page."

BeFrugal

BeFrugal is a US cashback site that started in 2009 and is based in Boston. Members click through to a shop, buy as usual, and BeFrugal says the cash back shows up in their account within seven days.

The Macy's page has the layout most cashback sites use. The rate sits at the top left, 8% that day with a note that it used to be 6%, and a green Shop Now button sits under it. Coupons and deals fill the rest of the page, each with an expiry date and a count of how many times it was used. A banner pushes the browser extension, which the page says has 200,000+ Chrome users. Every coupon also offers $40 for each friend you refer.

So where's the profit if members get the commission? The advertiser disclosure says BeFrugal shares the majority of what it earns with members. The about page goes further. It says shoppers received 102% of commissions on average in 2016, paid for by the promotional money retailers spend with BeFrugal. You can see that side of the business on the page, where Macy's has a "BeFrugal+ Retailer" badge.

PriceSpy

PriceSpy began in 2002 as a hobby project in Ängelholm, Sweden. Its about page now says it has more than 220 staff and sites in seven countries. Each product page on the UK site lists every shop PriceSpy knows about, cheapest first, with a switch to add delivery costs.

PriceSpy says shops pay it a fixed fee for every click it sends them, or a small percentage of the order, through direct agreements or affiliate networks. Shops that don't pay are still listed, but they lose the logo and the direct link. The AirPods 4 page we checked had found the product in 15 shops, 12 of them paying partners. The other three sat in a group labelled "Offers without a direct link".

Below the price list is a price history graph that runs from three months to all time. PriceSpy says it updates prices three to five times a day, either from the shops' own data or by scraping. Its "how we compare prices" page is open about one exception. Paying shops get priority on its expert top lists, while the main price list is sorted by price alone.

Treeline Review

Treeline Review is an outdoor gear site co-founded by two hiking partners, Liz Thomas and Naomi Hudetz. It was running an eighth birthday giveaway when we visited, and new stories had gone up on 1 and 2 October.

Its women's trail running shoe guide was last updated in April 2026 with a new winner and three new shoes. A paragraph near the top says the story may contain affiliate links. Just below it, a summary table compares award, price, weight, heel drop and stack height for more than 20 shoes. Each pick then gets its own write-up with buttons such as View at REI, View at Amazon or View at Backcountry. The REI links run through the Impact network and the Amazon ones carry Treeline's Associates tag.

There are no pop-up, sidebar or banner ads, and the about page says Treeline recommends the best gear even when it earns nothing. One page we'd copy is "How to Support Us". It lists partner stores such as Amazon, Zappos, REI, Chewy and B&H, and asks readers to shop through those links for everyday things too.

The site runs on Squarespace.

Hip2Save

Hip2Save is a deals site that Collin Morgan started in 2008 to share the bargains she found. The about page says it now has a team of more than 40. The homepage opens with a carousel of deals and a row of store icons for Amazon, Walmart, Target, Kohl's and others, then a stream of posts stamped with the date and time.

Each deal is a short post. The almond milk deal we opened was by a named staff writer, went up that afternoon and worked through the Subscribe & Save maths to a final price per carton. Above the deal, its first line said Hip2Save earns a small commission as an Amazon Associate on qualifying purchases from that post. The links were plain Amazon links with Hip2Save's tag.

Commission is one income line among several. The disclosure policy also lists free products, sponsored posts and paid campaigns, plus third-party text links, buttons and banner ads, and the about page sells partnership packages to brands. Readers come back through a daily email, text alerts and an app.

The footer says the site runs on WordPress VIP.

This Is Why I'm Broke

This Is Why I'm Broke has listed strange and expensive things to buy since 2011, and calls itself "The Internet's Mall". It's one of the best-known Amazon affiliate website examples, and it sells nothing itself. Each product gets a photo, a few jokey lines, a price and a CHECK IT OUT button.

The gift guides do the steady work. The menu sorts them by recipient, occasion and category, and the homepage adds a Gifts Under $20 list. The Gifts for Dad guide we opened has 25 numbered picks and a one-line disclosure under the title. Most of its buttons go to Amazon with the site's tag, and one went to Etsy through Rakuten's network. Visitors from the UK were sent to /uk/ versions of the guides.

The disclosure page says the site is in Amazon Associates and adds an affiliate link whenever a product has a programme, but that the link doesn't decide what gets listed. We saw that on the homepage. Two of the newest items, a McLaren and a LEGO PlayStation set, linked out with a plain referral tag and no affiliate code.

Home Grounds

Home Grounds covers one subject, making coffee at home. Founder Alex Mastin turned it into a coffee website in 2015, and the about page now lists an editorial team, a medical reviewer and translators who run German, Spanish and Swedish versions.

The burr grinder guide shows how a one-topic site places its links. It names an author and an editor, carries a Fact Checked label and was updated on 3 March 2026. A table near the top lists ten grinders with awards such as Best Espresso Grinder, three specs each and a red CHECK PRICE button. The buttons go to different shops. The top pick went to Seattle Coffee Gear through Impact, two Turin grinders went to the maker's own affiliate programme, and the Breville link went through a link service that sent our UK browser to Amazon's UK store.

The disclosure page says the site may carry ads, sponsored content, paid insertions and affiliate links, and that it's an Amazon Associate. On the grinder guide itself we found no disclosure near the buttons, only the footer link. The FTC's endorsement guidance asks for the disclosure to sit close to the link, so that's the habit to skip here.

The site runs on WordPress.

Build your own

Side by side, the seven share a few habits. Each gives the reader a reason to trust the link before asking for the click. Wethrift shows odds, PriceSpy lists the shops that pay it nothing, and Treeline and Home Grounds show their testing. Most put a short disclosure close to the first link and keep a longer page about how they earn.

The software split follows the model. Four of the seven are content sites. Hip2Save and Home Grounds run on WordPress, Treeline runs on Squarespace and This Is Why I'm Broke uses its own code. None of them needs more than posts, tables and buttons with tagged links. For a review, deals, gift or one-topic site, a fast standard theme plus an affiliate link plugin is enough, and we compared the options in our roundup of affiliate WordPress themes.

Coupons, cashback and price comparison run on data more than articles. Codes arrive from networks and expire. Cashback needs member accounts, a tag on every click and a balance per member. Comparison needs feeds from many shops matched to one product. Plugins can do it in pieces, but a theme built for the model saves most of the wiring.

We sell a theme for each of those three.

The Coupon Theme imports codes once a day from Awin's promotions API, Rakuten's coupon feed and CSV files, and can skip programmes that haven't accepted you. Codes that vanish from a feed are flagged expired and drop off the homepage lists. Each store gets a page like the ASOS demo above, and shoppers can report whether a code worked. It doesn't score codes the way Wethrift does and has no CJ or Impact import. There's no site-wide disclosure setting either, so you write that line yourself.

The Cashback Theme tags signed-in members' clicks for Awin, Impact, Rakuten, Admitad, CJ and ShareASale, and gives members 80% of the commission by default. Members ask for a withdrawal and you pay them yourself by PayPal, bank transfer or Wise. It has no browser extension or referral bonus, two things BeFrugal leans on.

The Comparison Theme reads shop feeds from Awin, CJ, Rakuten or the shop directly, matches offers by barcode first and lists the cheapest total with delivery at the top. It hides prices older than 36 hours, draws a 90-day price line and prints a commission notice under the offers. It doesn't count offer clicks, so you couldn't bill shops per click as PriceSpy does, and it has no Amazon prices.

Each is $99 once for unlimited sites you own, with six months of updates and then $49 per six months. Features are from the released 12.0.44, 12.0.55 and 12.0.42 builds.

Final thoughts

If you'd rather start with a blog, study Treeline Review and Home Grounds. Treeline shows where to put a disclosure and a summary table before the first links. Home Grounds shows how one topic can carry a whole site, with each product linking to more than one shop. Take Treeline's disclosure habit, not Home Grounds'.

For a site built mostly on Amazon links, read This Is Why I'm Broke and Hip2Save. The first turns products into gift lists that keep earning for years. The second posts short deals all day and also earns from ads and sponsors, which takes a team.

Wethrift is the coupon site to learn from, mainly for how openly it explains both its ranking and its income. BeFrugal and PriceSpy are larger businesses. Their pages are worth copying, but their income rests on retailer deals a new site won't have for a while.

FAQ

Sources

• Each site's own page on how it earns, checked on 3 October 2026: How Wethrift makes money, BeFrugal terms and advertiser disclosure, PriceSpy, how we compare prices, Treeline Review, what we do, Hip2Save affiliate disclosure, This Is Why I'm Broke affiliate disclosure and Home Grounds disclosure and Amazon disclaimer.
• About pages: Wethrift, BeFrugal, PriceSpy, Hip2Save and Home Grounds.
• Pages shown in the screenshots: Wethrift ASOS codes, BeFrugal Macy's, PriceSpy AirPods 4, Treeline trail running shoes, Gifts for Dad and Home Grounds burr grinders.
• FTC: FTC's Endorsement Guides, What People Are Asking.
• PremiumPress Coupon, Cashback and Comparison themes. Features are described from the released 12.0.44, 12.0.55 and 12.0.42 builds.

Checked on 3 October 2026.