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When this post on anime affiliate programs was initially published, Spirited Away was still the highest-grossing animated film of all time.
The title now belongs to Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, grossing US$503M worldwide in 2020. That, in itself, is no big deal. A new film is bound to come along to knock out the current title-holder. What is astonishing is that it was released in October 2020, when Japan and the rest of the world was still locked down due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train slayed at the box office.
And from a measly 6 anime affiliate programs, our list has expanded to 17.
Hardly surprising, really. Anime as an industry is still doing well, reportedly earning $24B in 2019. It did experience a dip in Japan sales last year, but remains strong despite it and the pandemic. Thanks to streaming sites like Crunchyroll and Netflix, we can all binge-watch anime series and films like SailorMoon, Pokemon, and One Piece.
If you have absolutely no idea what I have said above, fear not. There is plenty of information on anime online like this, and a lengthy, informative entry in Wikipedia.
Suffice to say, anime is huge, and not just in Japan. As you will see through the following anime affiliate programs, anime is popular all over the world.
Anime Affiliate Programs
These are “unicorns” more than “Super Saiyans” of the anime niche. I’ve checked far and wide, and so far, these are the only anime and anime-related shops that currently have active affiliate programs.
Out of the 17 anime affiliate programs that make this list, below are the 10 best:
The following anime affiliate programs are highly-recommended too but their cookie duration or commission aren’t as long or as high as those in the Top 10.
Amazon.com
They have anime merchandise, manga, DVDs, and other anime-related products. The commission is low and the cookie duration is short, but with a whole lot more items a person can buy while browsing this massive online store, you might end up with a considerable commission in every sale.
Commission: up to 10{57b8cc37fd24bce1cf64c8b05d9407ce9171516056c1f5e762677747187a0de4}
Cookie Duration: 24 hours. It can go up to 90 days if you get access to their API.
Affiliate Network: Amazon Affiliates
FYE
With over 200 physical stores across the US, FYE sells toy figures, apparel and DVD movies of popular comics and anime movies and series.
Commission: up to 8{57b8cc37fd24bce1cf64c8b05d9407ce9171516056c1f5e762677747187a0de4}
Cookie Duration: —
Affiliate Network: FlexOffers and Commission Junction
Tokyo Otaku Mode
Large collection of anime and comic book character figures in various sizes.
Commission: 5{57b8cc37fd24bce1cf64c8b05d9407ce9171516056c1f5e762677747187a0de4}
Cookie Duration: —
Affiliate Network: In-house
SoKawaii
Not entirely anime, but their subscription boxes that are curated and sent from Japan often include anime-inspired items.
Commission: 6{57b8cc37fd24bce1cf64c8b05d9407ce9171516056c1f5e762677747187a0de4}
Cookie Duration: —
Affiliate Network: ShareASale
Anime Corner
Living up to their name of being that special corner on the web selling anime DVDs, action figures and related merchandise.
Commission: 5{57b8cc37fd24bce1cf64c8b05d9407ce9171516056c1f5e762677747187a0de4}
Cookie Duration: —
Affiliate Network: In-house
JBox and JList
Warning: NSFW.
#16 and #17 of our list. JBox is the wholesome version of JList. They have the usual mangas, action figures, even candy. JList on the other hand, is the NSFW-version. Like its sister site, JList has mangas, action figures, and related merchandise. The only difference is JList carries mostly adult mangas and films.
Commission: 8{57b8cc37fd24bce1cf64c8b05d9407ce9171516056c1f5e762677747187a0de4}
Cookie Duration: —
Affiliate Network: In-house
Anime-ted Keywords
Competition in this niche is hardly as cute as their characters. It can be cutthroat, so you have to be cunning and have a strategy like any good anime hero.
Despite the high competition that it usually always comes with, it’s the buyer-intent keywords you want most of in your roster. They are the ones that can potentially bring in all the traffic, after all.
Don’t think that you won’t find that in the anime niche. Anime characters are oftentimes cute and wide-eyed, but competition for their keywords are hardly that.
Get yourself acquainted with the anime that you will be promoting first: title, characters, the merchandise. You can then string those along to form the keywords you’ll search for. If you’re promoting pillows featuring Akaza of Demon Slayer, then your keywords would be along the lines of “demon slayer pillows”,“demon slayer Akaza pillow”, and “Akaza pillow”.
These keywords will not have that most searches but will have high competition because anyone using these keywords are likely looking to buy.
There are other keywords you can use that have high searches but not much competition. These are usually searches for videos, recaps or episode reviews. No intention to buy there, but you can use these keywords to get traffic to your page, and on that page, make sure to put a call-to-action link promoting any of the above affiliate products.
Driving Traffic the Anime Way
A solid link building plan is necessary, regardless of the niche you’re going into. Make sure to have, at the very least, an idea of how you’ll get people to your anime website.
A quick check in any search engine on top anime websites will show you that these are mostly streaming websites. There are blogs that you will be competing against too so you really need to have some game plan laid out.
The goal is not to get all that traffic, but to get a (considerable) portion of it to your website. Below are a few methods to help you get some audience to your anime website.
Social Media Marketing
I think this method is on everyone’s list for top marketing methods. Not only can you promote almost anything through social media, there’s also the huge market, which is logged on 24/7, that you can tap into.
It can be tricky, but there’s plenty of tutorials online to guide you. On the Affilorama site alone, you’ll find free lessons on how to promote your blog on social networking sites and blog posts on how to hit your target market using Facebook.
Blog and Forum Commenting
The anime community is huge. While this certainly makes this niche a competitive one, it also gives you plenty of link building opportunities by way of blog commenting. You’ll find plenty of blogs like this and this that you can comment on.
If you’re a long-time anime fan, then this would be easy enough for you, going into discussions of your favorite series, or a specific episode. If this is your first venture into anime, fear not. Be honest and let them know you’re new to the genre. What’s important is to join in on the conversation and try your best to give honest and helpful responses.
As with social media marketing, there’s a variety of online how-to’s that show you how to properly comment on blogs and forums.
Content Strategy
If you clicked on the links to the sample blogs above, you already know what you’ll be up against. These bloggers publish content on a regular basis, and these are not your general “what-is-this-anime-about” articles. The reason these blogs are popular is because they do episode commentary. They follow a specific anime (or several!) and they go over each episode, summarizing it and adding their own thoughts.
A good content strategy will help you keep up with these sites. It will also help you to properly allocate time between research and writing your article, or getting it written. We have free lessons on content creation that can give you some tips.
Anime Affiliate Programs: Killer Earnings or Total Dud?
It’s more of somewhere in between. And then some. But you do get to do what you want to do: watch and talk about anime. And for most who are engaged in the anime niche, that’s more than enough.
Promoting anime affiliate programs will not make you a ton of cash. But it won’t put you under either. This is one of those niches that you do for the sheer love of the niche itself, and not really for its earning potential.
The commissions are good, but not good enough when you think about the kind of competition you’ll be going up against. From what I’ve seen most websites on this niche make money from AdSense, more than any of the affiliate programs featured here. With the traffic they get on their sites, it may not be so bad at all, considering that these bloggers are doing it for the love of anime, not love of profit.
There are small, personal anime websites that thrive despite the competition, as the anime niche appears to be more of a robust community than cutthroat competition. That doesn’t mean you should let your guard down. As with any affiliate marketing endeavor, you want to get as big a portion of the niche’s target market as possible to get more sales, so work on those link-building and marketing strategies.
If you’re an anime fan who wants to build a site and talk about what you love, then go for it. The commission you’ll get for promoting the anime affiliate programs here will be enough to cover for the hosting and domain name fees over time. Maybe you’ll get more.
Those who are new to affiliate marketing and thinking of going into this niche might want to reconsider. Don’t go into this unless you have a genuine interest in anime; otherwise, you’ll struggle with creating content for your site, and in this niche, you need to do that pretty much on a regular basis. You’ll also find it difficult to connect if you’re only feigning interest.
If you already have an anime website and are getting considerable traffic… Well, what are you waiting for? Monetize the site and get more from watching anime than just viewing pleasure!