Baseball Affiliate Programs – My Top 4 MLB Favorites
Baseball is a sport played in over 100 countries. Learn how you can earn a lot of money with my four favorite baseball affiliate programs. Anyone can do this and I will explain how this works and where you can get started for free.
Do you have a favorite baseball team?
It doesn’t matter if you are an avid fan or a casual fan of baseball. Heck, you do not even need to be a fan but rather just someone with an interest in it. Obviously the more you know about baseball and even a specific team or player, the better you can promote products.
And promoting different kinds of products related to baseball, even tickets to games, is how you will make your money. You will not be required to buy or sell anything, unless you want to. I am going to go into much more detail in just a bit.
My favorite team is the NY Yankees. If I were to do a baseball niche website it would be about Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer of all-time, who just entered the Hall of Fame. His theme song at home games was Enter Sandman by Metallica, see video.
Though there are dozens of baseball affiliate programs that you can freely join and get paid by, the four I highlight in this post are my favorites. So get ready to learn how you can have a profitable baseball website business in affiliate marketing.
What kind of products can you promote and make money on?
The kinds of products you can promote are just as numerous as there are baseball players. Team or player specific collectibles and clothing. Baseballs, Bats, Gloves, Cleats, Helmets, Catchers Masks and Protections, Game Tickets, and more are all products you can earn on.
Current interest in baseball helmets, cleats, gloves and bats. Currently cleats are the most popular.
When starting any kind of affiliate marketing website you first want to identify what your niche will be about. You want this niche to be focused on one or two aspects of the sport and not cover a broad range of products. This will help your chances at earning some serious cash.
For example, let us say that you want your website to be about the different kinds of baseball bats. Well when it comes to Major League Baseball they only use bats made of wood. You would probably want to support a division grade that uses aluminum and composite bats too.
By doing a quick Google search you will find which age level uses only wood and which levels use all three material bats, like the Intermediate (50-70) Division and the Junior League Baseball Division. By choosing either or both of these divisions you can promote all kinds of bats.
Do you see how this kind of focus will yield better sales than a website promoting every kind of wooden bat for Major League Baseball? Players and the parents of the more junior players will be wanting to purchase these specific bats. You target that specific audience.
How to focus in on a specific sub niche
I just gave you an example of how you would focus in on a specific sub niche in the broader niche of baseball bats. But how could you focus in on a niche related to the Major Leagues? That is kind of easy too but you may want to use Google Trends to help you decide.
Boston Red Sox Fenway Park and Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field are the two oldest baseball stadiums
I use Google Trends to find all kinds of niche ideas and even related keywords that are popular and trending. It really helps when you are trying to find the popularity of something or someone anywhere in the world, including comparisons.
In the above graph I decided to see the popularity of the two oldest (original) Major League Baseball stadiums. Let us say you wanted to create a baseball website about the oldest MLB stadiums. These would be the ones to write about.
You could create a website on the history of MLB and answer the following question. Which Major League Baseball stadiums are the oldest? Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox was built in 1912. Next is Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs built in 1914.
Then you could promote products related to both teams, stadiums and even notable players who had played with those teams like Babe Ruth and Ernie Banks There is a lot of history in Major League Baseball that anyone who loves the sport can make money with.
The easiest way to make money online
The process of earning money on the internet takes on a few different forms, some more time consuming than others. I have done auction sites like eBay and have done free dropshipping using wholesalers, but I knew there had to be an easier way.
So I searched Google with the question, what is the easiest way to make money online? Affiliate Marketing is the easiest because you do not have to buy or sell any of the products you make money on. All you do is promote them and get paid a commission for each sale.
I love using the above image to show the simple process of affiliate marketing. This form of marketing is very popular and beneficial for both you and the companies you are affiliated with. Companies like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and even MLB.
You first have people who look for products or services on social media and the search engines. They find a review you have written and through your affiliate link they make a purchase at an online store. Now that store pays you a commission.
The way that people will find your website content and reviews is through a process known as SEO, Search Engine Optimization. This may sound complicated now but I assure you it is not as hard as you think. I will give you examples below.
How to find keywords for your baseball niche
When it comes to being found in the search engines, every website whether it is an affiliate marketing site or not, needs to utilize SEO. When you use certain techniques to “optimize” your website content, it helps the “search engines” find you.
The main way for this to happen is to find keywords. What are keywords for SEO? Keywords are the word, questions and phrases people either speak to or type into a search engine like Google to find answers.
Baseball keyword results in the free Jaaxy Keyword Research Tool.
There are several different kinds of keyword research tools, but my favorite is one called Jaaxy. Not only do I use the free version of Jaaxy but I also get other great perks that are associated with keyword research. More on this later.
As you can see in the above image, I did a search for “Most Popular MLB Teams” and the results were given below that query. Though the two most important numbered results are Avg in the first column and QSR in the third, let me explain what you see.
- Avg = the amount of monthly searches for that keyword phrase
- Traffic = the amount of monthly search traffic for that keyword phrase
- QSR = Quoted Search Results or competing websites using this exact keyword
- KQI = Keyword Quality Indicator (Great / Green, OK / Yellow, Poor / Red)
- SEO = A score. The higher the score the more likely you will rank on Google page 1
- Domains = Availability of website domains related to the keyword
The general rule for finding great keywords are if the monthly searches “Avg” is above 50 and if the competition “QSR” is less than 200. The lower the QSR the better your chances of getting ranked on Google page 1. My searched keyword would do quite well.
Keywords for your baseball affiliate marketing website
I will provide you below a list of a dozen different keywords anyone can use for their baseball website. I will use my free Jaaxy keyword research tool and provide you with the results for Monthly Searches / Monthly Traffic / QSR and SEO.
- What Is The Most Expensive Baseball Card = 359 / 62 / 19 and 90
- Indoor Batting Cage Nets = 128 / 22 / 43 and 98
- Youth Baseball Uniforms = 316 / 54 / 72 and 92
- Fenway Park Tickets = 849 / 145 / 114 and 90
- Free Online Baseball Games = 356 / 61 / 118 and 94
- Left Handed Catchers Mitt = 93 / 16 / 67 and 98
- Nike Baseball Turf Shoes = 217 / 37 / 22 and 97
- When Did Jackie Robinson Play For The Dodgers = 136 / 24 / 12 and 92
- Custom Baseball Uniforms = 399 / 68 / 109 and 91
- Under Armour Catchers Gear = 306 / 53 / 57 and 95
- Banned USA Baseball Bats = 48 / 9 / 0 and 100
- Yankee Stadium Seating Chart = 10385 / 1766 / 106 and 88
The above are just a small sampling of the types of keywords people type into the search engines looking for answers about topics related to baseball. Once you decide what your baseball niche website will be about, you will start researching keywords.
The keywords you decide to use will optimize your website content so that the search engines will know which keywords you are ranking for. The more thorough your website content is in answering your chosen keyword, the higher you will appear in the search results.
Google search results for Little League affiliate programs
Why is SEO important for your online success? Search Engine Optimization helps search engines like Google to provide the best website content that answers the query being asked by people looking for information. Ranking on Google page 1 is the ultimate goal.
Why is Google page 1 ranking important? The majority of search traffic, around 95%, do not go past the first page of search results before they click on a website. If you want people searching for information you can provide, getting on page 1 will greatly benefit your business.
Baseball Affiliate Programs – These are my top 4 favorites
Now we get to the money making aspect of your baseball niche website. After you decide on what your niche will be about, you research keywords for that baseball niche, you optimize the content you write with your chosen keywords, it is time to join affiliate programs.
All affiliate programs are free to join. If they ask you to pay them to be their affiliate DO NOT join them, they are most likely a scam. As an affiliate you are helping them make money through your promotions of their products. They have no need for you to pay them.
There are many different kinds of affiliate programs dealing with the various aspects of the sport. Searching Google is the best way I know of in finding the right one for your niche. An example of a search is captured in the above image for Little League Baseball Affiliate Program.
The MLB Shop affiliate program sign up page
My number one pick is an obvious one. If baseball is going to be your niche there are a ton of items you could promote that are being sold on the MLB Shop website. Products such as clothing, caps, gear, collectibles, artwork, team and player specific items and much more!
You can earn up to 6% commission on the net amount of the order and the cookie duration for the order to be completed by the person making the purchase is 7 days. For more information and how to join their free affiliate program, click the below link.
Join the MLB Shop Affiliate Program
Fanatics affiliate program sign up page
If MLB Shop was not solely about baseball the Fanatics affiliate program would be my number one choice. But it comes in at a close second place for two great reasons. One, your commission goes up to 10%. Two, you get paid even if the buyer purchases other sport items.
Fanatics offer many of the same products as the MLB Shop but they also offer these choices for other sports like the NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, Soccer, College, Olympics, and more! For more information and how to join their affiliate program, click the link below.
Join the Fanatics Affiliate Program
Affiliate program sign up page for Steiner Sports certified authentic collectibles
My third choice is a company I am quite familiar with as a customer. Steiner Sports is the industry leader in authentic certified game-used and autographed collectibles. I often have people marvel at some of my unique and rare NY Yankee items I have displayed.
The majority of their memorabilia is authenticated by their certified official and authenticators of MLB and all other major sports leagues they are associated with. All of their collectibles come with a Certificate of Authenticity with matching serial numbers on the item itself.
When you have a sports item authenticated by Steiner, those in the world of sports collecting know it is legit. Their affiliate program commission is 9% on all sales with your first sale at double commission and they have a 7 day cookie. To join click the link below.
Join the Steiner Sports Affiliate Program
Affiliate sign up page to the Amazon Associates Program
Though Amazon is not a retailer of sports related items only, they do carry and sell a wide range of products associated with the sport of baseball. They partner with industry leaders, including the three above companies, to offer a broad range of products.
Commissions range between 5% to 10% depending on what is purchased. Your total is based on the total net cost of the customers order, no matter what they purchase. This means if your website visitor buys a TV and DVD player, you get paid even if the item is not baseball related.
This is why regardless of the niche you choose that you include the Amazon Associates Program as a company you affiliate with. My only complaint is their 24-hour cookie. To learn more and join for free, click the below link.
Join the Amazon Associates Program
Start your Baseball affiliate marketing business for free!
The key to becoming a successful affiliate marketer is to first know how affiliate marketing works and how to do keyword research to SEO your website content. I briefly explained how above in this post. I also provided you with some affiliate program examples.
But you will also need free access to the Jaaxy keyword research tool, the initial 10 lessons explaining how you will make money and write optimized content, and free access to the Site Rubix website builder that will program you a website in 30 seconds.
Though there are two other legit affiliate marketing training programs online, neither of them give you 10 lessons, 30 keyword searches, basic SEO training, a programmed for you WordPress website with hosting all for free. You have to pay to start those other programs.
When you join Wealthy Affiliate you only need to give them a valid email address. You do not have to give them your real name nor any kind of payment information. And they do not spam your email address or share it with other companies.
You maybe wondering, why does Wealthy Affiliate give you so much for free? Quite simply because they know their training is the most up to date and it really works. They want you to experience what you have available to you before spending $49.00 per month.
Will you become another Wealthy Affiliate success story?
Wealthy Affiliate started in 2005 and they have helped over one million members to become successful at earning income online working from home. Since joining in 2013, I have made far more money online doing affiliate marketing than I invested.
I may not have a baseball affiliate marketing website (yet), but from the websites I have in health and wellness, online entrepreneurship, and video games, I am making some great passive income. I am just another WA success story and you can be too.
The sports niche is extremely popular and profitable, whether it be baseball or any other sport that millions of people love watching and/or participating in. For only $49.00 per month you get full access to every piece of training and support you need.
I personally help thousands of WA members in their journey to becoming successful. I just recently wrote a training blog about baseball affiliate programs that give similar and more detailed steps than I have explained in this post. I believe in helping others to succeed.
If you need help thinking of a niche you wish to promote and earn revenue with, whether it be sports, an interest, a passion of yours, or even something outside the box, let me know in the comments below. Or you can join me at WA by visiting my profile page.
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I just love the idea of playing baseball and if I’m given a chance I’ll love to be the man with the bat, lol. I have just recently retired from my job and I am looking to go into affiliate marketing. But picking a profitable niche have been the biggest challenge I have faced after making the decision to go into this business.
Looking at your description of baseball as a niche in affiliate marketing, it seem really cool and I must commend the level of simplicity you have used in explaining this business and the suggestions on stuffs to deal on in baseball. As we both know the affiliate market is a tight one so I would love to learn more about this niche of I’m going into it. Are any suggestions you’ll love to give to me like a link to learn more about this niche?
Baseball like any other popular sport is a HUGE money maker. The reason is this. Think of how many fans a team has or even a specific player. We are talking hundreds of thousands of people and not just from your immediate area. That is your target audience.
You could write about the history of a certain team or a certain player and then promote associated products or collectibles. You could promote the types of playing equipment or jerseys, which are quite popular. You could even promote fantasy sports. There are so many ways you can make money in the baseball niche.
This is as close to the perfect information that anyone who wishes to venture into baseball online business could get. My hubby is an ardent baseball lover and he has quite a number of baseball kits at home. He loves to collect them to mark each season or great events that happen in each season. I guess he might be able to thrive if he decides to build a business website on baseball kits. I’d surely share this post to him ASAP. Cheers
Thank you Tracy. The baseball niche has so many different ways one can make money with it.The diversity in which products and experiences one could promote is quite surprising when you first think about it. This makes baseball and other sports a great niche to consider.
Now I know this will get some laughs but my favorite team for over 25 yrs as been the Braves . I know not the best team but it is what we grew up with back in the day. Ok so after reading your article I can come to a few conclusions here. First baseball affiliate programs I never would have thought of. Goes to show you can find affiliate programs for everything!! Second affiliate marketing is one of the best business models around yesterday,today and in the future! Once you get the training and know how which Wealthy Affiliate is one of the best for the sky is the limit.
There is nothing to feel ashamed of or think people will laugh being a Braves fan. We all have our favorite teams and most times this stems from the teams our parents liked and the ball games we went to as kids. The Braves produced some great players like Hank Aaron, Greg Maddux, Chipper Jones and many others.
Many people when searching for a niche tend to skip right over the things they enjoy just as much as hundreds of thousands of other people. Sports is a HUGE niche market and when you can narrow that niche to a specific team and/or player, you can make a nice profit. Training is also important and Wealthy Affiliate is #1 at it.
Good Day, Robert and Thanks for this informative post.
I love your Affiliate Marketing diagram. What a simple way of explaining how this system works. I always thought it was more complicated than that.
Do all affiliate marketing programs work this way? I guess what I’m asking is, do the companies always stock the products and perform all the “business end” of things?
I did a bit research on drop-shipping years ago, but it looked too complicated for me. I not much of a computer guy, so a lot of this stuff seams to be out of my league.
Would it take very long to get the drift on affiliate marketing?
How exactly do you go about using Google Trend?
I not a big Baseball fan but I guess there are affiliate programs for all sports. Are there similar programs for Hockey?
Paul
Thank you Paul for your comment and questions. I will answer them below. Yes, all real affiliate marketing programs work the same way. The reason I used the word “real” is because there has been a hijacking of the affiliate marketing style by Multi-Level Marketing scams to sound more legit.
The process of making money is simple and their is no need to stock any product. Similar to drop shipping but all of the back end stuff like back orders, returns, refunds, funds collected and customer service are done by the company you affiliate with.
Drop shipping can be a bit complicated because like I said above, with drop shipping you still have to do customer service and handle the money transactions. With affiliate marketing all you do is promote an item and direct your website reader to the retail source.
Affiliate marketing is super simple to get the hang of. The time consuming part is the creation of thee content you use to gain traffic to your website. This business model will work for any sport, even hockey, and using Google Trends can help you to research new niche ideas as well as related trending keywords.
Awesome Mariano Rivera video! Metallica music made it perfect. The video put me in the mood for thinking about baseball affiliate programs.
This months College World series, which just wrapped up, had me thinking about starting a baseball niche. Your post gave me some great ideas. Yet, after reading through your methodology and the discussion of baseball stadiums, I thought of another sports related niche that I might look into. Horse racing. Thanks for the ideas!
Thank you Sondra for your comment. I am a big NY Yankees fan and every time that Mariano Rivera would enter into the game, the stadium audio would play Enter Sandman by Metallica. The only problem was that they never played the entire song. So when I found this video, I had to include it in this review.
As far as baseball being a niche and there being many affiliate programs that cater to that sport, the top 4 baseball affiliate programs that I showcase here are the best for those who want to target a specific team, specific player or focus in on the history of baseball and its related equipment.
The methodology I used in how I would go about creating a niche website in the sport of baseball can definitely be applied to other sports as well. Horse racing would be another great example. This is yet another old sport with lots of history like baseball. It has a lot of potential for being a profitable niche.
Hi Robert,
What I enjoy about your writing the most is how it flows and the amount of detail. And, in this post, those two characteristics abound. It’s great finding a fellow affiliate marketer that loves baseball as much as I do. I can give you credit for pointing me towards the baseball niche and I am currently working on a baseball niche site.
My site will not be using one of your suggested baseball keywords, however, this post has pointed me in the right direction. I have bookmarked all four of your suggested affiliate baseball programs and will most certainly be using all of them once I have enough content on my new site.
Thanks for the great post Robert…I will let you know when my site is up and running!
Go Cubs!
Cal
Hey Cal! Thank you for stopping by. I am always happy when another fan of baseball can gain benefit and enjoyment from the information I have shared here. It is good to hear that you are starting a baseball niche website focusing on a part of the sport you are most passionate about. One of these days I will do the same.
It was my pleasure to help steer you towards this niche. Too often I see people getting into affiliate marketing and then having trouble selecting a niche. But since a niche can be practically anything, I like to find out what people enjoy and suggest that as a niche. Baseball is a niche just like TV shows and movies like Star Trek and even your love of beer or wine.
I guess my mind works a bit different than others because I can look at things and drill down to specifics of that broader niche market. I have always had a creative mind and I realize not everyone can see things like I do. This is why I like helping people with blog posts like this one and others here on my site. When can help direct people to something they like as I did with you, it is pleasing to me.
Great Robert, I will keep you posted on my site’s progress.
Thanks again,
Cal
It was my pleasure Cal. I look forward to that.
Baseball hasn’t really took off in the UK like American Football has.
However we do have a very similar, non-professional game called Rounders, which I have heard is what baseball was actually started from.
However, the fact that baseball is so popular in the US would make it a great niche and a great affiliate program to promote. Who doesn’t like talking about their favorite teams?
Thanks for the great tips in this article too, like using Google Trends for research. I do use it from time to time but I haven’t fully utilized it’s potential yet.
Thanks,
Michael.
You are welcome Michael. I especially like using Google Trends for when you want a comparison to be updated over a period of time. Knowing how to embed Google Trends into your content helps to accomplish this.
Even though baseball hasn’t took off in the UK, the concept of starting an affiliate marketing website in an popular sport like Soccer, is a niche that has lots of potential for making money with fans of the sport or a specific team.
As an Arizona Diamondback fan (sorry about the 2001 WS), I am a bit sad since we just traded Paul Goldschmidt! I am a big baseball fan and you have some fantastic ideas here for starting a business based on one of my passions. This post is very easy to follow and I understand what you are getting at with the sub-niche idea. I never really thought of starting at such a finite level, such as the history of baseball and stadiums, working up to gear and other apparel. My current niche website is very broad, and now I can see the value in starting small and building out from there.
Do you know if Steiner Sports is in any way affiliated with Charley Steiner? I believe he was the Yankees play by play guy before the Dodgers.
Thanks again for sharing your awesome experience with building a niche website!
Thank you for the comment Steve. Always good to meet another fan of baseball. No need to apologize about the WS. It was good to see the Arizona Diamondbacks win the 2001 World Series. Besides, the New York Yankees needed a break after winning three World Series in a row from 1998 to 2000. To answer your question about Charley Steiner, Steiner Sports Marketing is owned by Brandon Steiner. There is no relation between the two.
Though not all niches fall into the two most popular markets of Evergreen and Passions, those that do like baseball, can provide a wide variety of ways to promote products associated with it. Many things, not just baseball, have a history behind it. If this history is something people want to know about, you can target those people and offer a vast amount of products. It is a great approach to start out narrow and grow larger.
Very informative. I loved to see the images citing the claims and the explanations that followed. This has given me some ideas on what I could do. I have a Brian Wilson baseball jersey hanging in my closet that I rarely wear, only for special occasions. I am now thinking that maybe a niche in authentic baseball jerseys would be a great website to create since many people like me collect them as well. Thanks for this post! Good work!
You are welcome Bob. I am happy that I was able to give you some inspiration in choosing a possible baseball niche for your next website. I think authentic baseball jerseys would be a great niche. I also like collecting authentic jerseys, mostly of players from the NY Yankees because they are my favorite team, as I mention in this post.
My pride and joy is an authentic Mariano Rivera home jersey. I was lucky enough to get him to sign it at a farewell event at Yankee Stadium a few years ago. Now I have a Mariano Rivera autograph on the back of a home pin stripe jersey next to the now MLB retired number 42, framed behind glass hanging on the wall in my man cave.
I never thought there are so many options in baseball to promote! What I do like is you pointed in what direction could I go with cleats. I could also develop other sports? Perhaps…
Anyway, thank you for that! Keep up with good work!
You are welcome and yes, you could promote cleats for other sports, not only baseball. Different sports require different kinds of cleats. You could do a niche website focused solely on cleats but for all sports.
Or you could do a website about cleats for only football, both soccer and NFL. Though this post is about baseball affiliate programs, many of the sub niches written about here can be adapted to other sports too.
Interesting
Thank you Cindy. I knew with your love of watching your son play baseball, that you would find this interesting.