Real Earnings from 5 Real Estate Affiliate Programs

Are you interested in the real estate industry, but unfortunately not a certified real estate agent or broker?

What if I told you that you can definitely offer rentals or sell homes without any certifications? Yes, you can do these things through affiliate marketing.

Today’s NOTW (Niche of the Week) is focused on the real estate industry and how you can earn by selling houses or leasing rentals without commuting or even doing calls. All you need is a good website to promote the niche!

If you are still wondering how you can start your own real estate business without leaving your house, you can see how it's done at Dr. Housing Bubble, a website focused on investing in the real estate industry. Visitors can get tons of good information and advice on this website as it is primarily a blog. Additionally, the website runs an autoresponder, which is a good marketing tool for promoting offers. Aside from this, it earns from ad space.

Another good example of a website that is earning from the real estate business is Fodor’s Travels. This website is nicely built and more aesthetically appealing than the previous website. Although Fodor’s is considered more of a travel niche site, it also features a sub-niche that falls under the real estate industry: vacation home rentals.

You may also want to check out HomeToGo, which is a website dedicated to vacation rentals. It scrapes the Internet for vacation rental lists, which makes it easy to scout for vacation homes and find a rental that is cheap and affordable. 

What Is the Real Estate Industry About?

Niche Definition

Now that you have seen some sample websites in the real estate niche, you may wonder what it's comprised of. What is its scope? And above all, what is the real estate niche?

Simply put, real estate is the business of buying, selling and/or leasing land and/or structures.

As shown by the website examples above, you can promote this niche as a general niche, featuring different real estate properties for sale or for rent, OR you can focus on a sub-niche just like HomeToGo.

Whether you’ll go for a general niche site or a sub-niche site, you can refer to our guidelines on how to choose a niche.

Where Is the Real Estate Industry Now?

Popularity

There is no doubt that the real estate industry is one of the most lucrative niches out there. Google Trends shows relatively high and steady popularity over the last five years, as shown in the graph below:

Real estate as an industry employs more than 2 million people. The recent downturn in the US economy affected its prosperity, but it's now showing steady growth.

What is especially interesting to note out of all the numbers I've looked at is that 92% of would-be buyers go online to search for potential homes. The same study on digital house-hunting states 69% of people who visit a real estate website started by doing a local search online.

However, if you plan to promote this niche next, you will also have to take note of the latest market studies.

The niche is continually growing based on the demands of the ever-changing market. An article published by Deloitte suggests that the real estate industry in 2017 is heavily influenced by two factors: technological advancements and demographic shifts.

The market's transition to being comprised mostly of baby boomers and millennials is greatly contributing to the changing demands of the industry. You may want to conduct further research into these demographics if you plan to build a site around real estate.

How to Scout for “Hot Property” Keywords

Keyword Research

As I always recommend, when doing keyword research, the very first thing you need to do is get all your niche's seed keywords. Later, you'll sort your keywords and finalize the list based on competition levels.

Your seed keywords are simply keywords that you can use to rank on SERPs and promote your offerings. The more relevant your list of seed keywords is, the better targeted your website's traffic will be.

For the real estate niche, you may use several keyword research tools, such as Google Trends, Ubersuggest and our very own AffiloTools.

Using Google Trends

Head to Google Trends and type “real estate” into the search box. You will then immediately see search data. Just scroll down the page to find the “related topics” and “related queries” section (shown below) to get seed keywords that you can use for your site.

Using Ubersuggest

Go to Ubersuggest and type “real estate” into the search box to get more seed keywords, as shown below:

Using the AffiloTools Keyword Research Tool

The AffiloTools keyword research section is one of the easiest tools to use when it comes to seeding keywords. You just need to log in to your AffiloTools account and go directly to Research > Keywords on the side menu to start using the keyword tool.

Once you reach the keyword tool, just type in “real estate” in the box and hit the search button. You should immediately see results like those shown below:

For complete instructions on how to do keyword research, you may refer to our guide on using AffiloTools for keyword research here.

I also suggest you read our guidelines on doing proper keyword research so you can really target the right keywords for your real estate website.

Our Top Vendor Picks for the Real Estate Niche

Affiliate Programs

ClickBank has several real estate affiliate programs on its Marketplace. The gravity scores aren't that high but the commissions are enough to tempt someone into giving these products a try.

1. ForeclosureSearch.ca

Investors and buyers looking for a good bargain on a commercial or residential property in Canada can search the listings on ForeclosureSearch.ca for a monthly fee. The properties listed on the website have been foreclosed on and are available to potential buyers at a lower price than typical market value. They offer affiliates one of the highest commission rates for the real estate niche, maybe even the highest.

How much can I make?
Payment is as high as 75% on every sale.

How do I apply?
You can sign up here as a ClickBank affiliate.

2. BirdDogBot

This company is the creator of BirdDogBot, an application that helps real estate investors find good deals on properties. The website also offers training and resources to help new investors analyze and track deals. Affiliates enjoy a hefty commission. The site even offers a monthly re-bill commission.

How much can I make?
You can earn as high as 50% on every sale.

How do I apply?
You can sign up here.

3. Commercial Real Estate Cash Flow Funding System

Commercial Real Estate Program, or CREProgram.com, gives you training on how to buy commercial real estate. The training module is focused on new commercial real estate investors, showing them how to network and start a cash flow system that will enable them to buy more properties.

How much can I make?
You can earn as high as 54% on every sale.

How do I apply?
You can sign up here as a ClickBank affiliate.

4. For Sale By Owner

ForSaleByOwner is for homeowners who want to sell their property directly to buyers, without the help of a real estate agency. The site provides owners with a "seller's guide" containing information on pricing, marketing and paperwork needed to sell their homes.

How much can I make?
You can earn 25% on every sale.

How do I apply?
You can sign up here.

5. HomeAway

HomeAway provides vacation rentals. It has around 2 million vacation homes listed and is available worldwide to around 190 countries.

How much can I make?
You can earn 3% on ever traveler you refer and $20 on new listings you refer.

How do I apply?
You can sign up here.

How to Sell Like a Real Estate Pro

Marketing

After building an affiliate site comes the most challenging phase: driving traffic to your site. While it's important to get this bit right, it's more important to get started on it. This is not the time to get analysis paralysis, and the key to successfully driving traffic to your site is having a nifty guide on link building and inbound marketing.

You can create your strategy guide even as you are doing niche research. While you're having a look around authority sites on the niche, take note of them and figure out how you can promote your site within the community. Once you have a list of methods, it'll be easy enough to go through them and see which work and which don't.

No guessing. No paralysis.

1. Start generating free traffic through SEO

This is probably one of the oldest Internet marketing methods out there, but still, many affiliate marketers do not include SEO in their marketing campaigns. A lot of these marketers say that SEO no longer works or it works but is too hard to pull off. While it is true that SEO is quite challenging, the claim that SEO no longer works is completely false. Sure thing, it works, but you will have to stick to the white hat techniques to really see how cost-effective this strategy is in the long run.

You may refer to our SEO checklist here and use it for your real estate website.

2. Add social media

Never underestimate the power of social media, especially in the real estate industry where much of the market now consists of millennials, who are always online and active on social media sites.

There is a ton of information and plenty of how-to tutorials on promoting your real estate business on social media but you must also do your own research, as most of these sites have pitfalls that may do more harm than good to your business. Do not fall into these traps; learn the dangers of social media here.

3. Construct good sales copy

Always write for your audience. Good sales copy for a real estate website provides the readers with answers and more.

One good strategy to convince your readers to buy is to use words that get into your readers’ emotions. The more sincere you are, the better your sales copy will be in terms of conversions.

Read our member’s post titled “Detecting a sales page that will convert: 5 essential questions to ask yourself” for extra tips!

4. Create a video that sells

Video marketing is another popular marketing strategy that works well with the real estate niche. You can post videos on your own website for additional content and/or share them on social media sites like YouTube and Facebook.

I highly suggest you read Gina’s post "The Video Marketing Funnel: Proof it Works and 5 Easy Steps to Follow" for our video marketing blueprint.

5. Utilize Google AdWords

If you are looking for paid ads, you can try AdWords. It's one of the most popular PPC ad networks and works well with the real estate niche.

For more PPC tips, you can check out our PPC lessons here.   

Move In or Move Out?

Is Real Estate a Good Niche to Promote?

75% Commission	50% Commission	54% Commission	25% Commission	3% & $20 Commissions
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This niche has earning potential. The commissions are certainly worth the effort. However, like I have said previously, this niche requires a lot of research. There's plenty to learn and a lot of technical info to go through as well. But the market is HUGE and demand is definitely high.

Of course, when it comes to competition, expect it to be fierce in this niche. You will need a good strategy to get ahead of the rest.

And with that, I conclude this week's Niche of the Week. I hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to share it using any of the Share buttons below!

PS: If you enjoyed all the free information here, you’ll definitely love our step-by-step course in affiliate marketing. Check out AffiloBlueprint for more marketing strategies to apply to your affiliate website!