Selling your affiliate website for $ 30 million. It’s possible. This is what The Wirecutter did.
The Wirecutter is a review affiliate website. The review site was started in 2011 and 5 years later sold for 30 million dollars to The New York Times.

Why is this website so successful? What can you learn from the story of The Wirecutter?

1 – Transparent about the business model

In the screenshot above you see the text: ‘Wirecutter is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission‘.

When you write reviews about products, your independence is essential. If you are active as a review affiliate, your appearance can be against you. You receive a commission from the advertiser about the product you write a review for.

A positive review leads to more clicks, sales and commission. The Wirecutter makes clear, in the most important position of its website (at the top of the homepage), how they make money.

If you click through on this text, explanations are given about the way products are tested.

In short, The Wirecutter indicates that the test team has no contact with the commercial team. The journalists and testers have no knowledge of the affiliate commission that is linked to the products being tested.

The Wirecutter says that the affiliated model is the most honest revenue model. If a product is returned, The Wire Cutter will not receive a commission. For that matter they have to find out which product is the best. They will not make this kind of money if there is a commercial incentive during the product tests.

The Wirecutter is so successful because they put the customer first.

2 – Extreme detailed and comprehensive reviews of products

An example of a review on The Wirecutter of fans. The review starts with the results. If you scroll through, it explains what has been done to come to a judgment of the best fan. All fans that participate in the test are purchased.

All the fans are tested for months on various components such as: noise, energy-saving, coolness that is released etc..

To get the best possible advice, every detail and every variable of a fan is compared and evaluated.

In addition: The Wirecutter checked all the reviews on the web shops that the fans sell. In this way they try to find out how these fans function in the long term. Which fans break first? do they function just as well after a year as in the first 2 weeks?

This review attracts a lot of traffic. A review about fans gets 195 reactions. A fan is not the most exciting product.  It is an exceptional amount.

This shows that this page attracts a huge amount of visitors looking for a fan. Below you can see that google also appreciates this review.

3 – The Numbers of The Wirecutter

Facebook followers: 120k
Twitter followers: 84k
Alexa ranking: 4522
Visitors per month: 3,5 miljoen (source)
Estimate affiliate commission per month: 1,5 million (source)

4 – What can you learn from The Wire Cutter?

Focus on quality, transparency and independence as a review site pays off. The Wirecutter has set a new standard for product assessment in the US. Because of this, you as a consumer have to check their reviews, before buying.

Everything has been sorted out and tested, you only have to order. As a result, the affiliate site is worth $ 30 million dollars.

So let’s get started 🙂