TopRanked.io Weekly Affiliate Digest: What’s Hot in Affiliate Marketing [+ The Best Affiliate Program Directory on the Internet]

Fellow affiliates.

This might sound crazy, but there’s a ‘90s pop song quote that I think all of us should be saying more.

What do I mean?

Well, think about it — if you’re not already saying this to whatever affiliate program you’re working with, then it’s probably time to change programs.

Question is, how do you find the best?

TopRanked.io — The World’s Best Affiliate Program Directory

If you’re looking for the best affiliate programs out there, then you’ve really only got one sane option.

Stop looking at the programs directly, and start looking at real reviews by real affiliates.

And where might you find those?

Simple.

TopRanked.io — the world’s most comprehensive affiliate program directory on the internet.

Why TopRanked.io Is the Most Comprehensive Affiliate Program Directory on the Internet

Let’s get one thing straight — if you’re thinking the word “comprehensive” means “longest list”, then sorry, TopRanked.io’s affiliate program directory is probably going to disappoint you.

There are much, much more comprehensive affiliate program lists out there if all you want is a list.

But, if “comprehensive” means “in-depth, thorough coverage of all the details”, then TopRanked.io’s authoritative affiliate program directory might be more your pace.

Here, let me give you a couple of examples of what sets TopRanked.io apart. To illustrate the point, I’m going to compare with a popular affiliate program directory you’ve probably already run into in the Google SERPs.

Let’s use the 1xBet affiliate program as a point of reference.

1XBET Affiliate Program: Earn 40% Lifetime Commissions

Here’s an above-the-fold screen grab from TopRanked.io’s 1xBet Affiliate Program review.

And here’s the above-the-fold view from another affiliate program review site.

Now, at first you might be tempted to think the second one’s more useful because there’s more information laid out in a nice little table.

But now let’s pay attention to details, starting with the most important one.

The commission rate.

TopRanked.io says 1xBet pays up to 40% rev share. The other affiliate program review site says it’s up to 55%.

Turns out — and you can check this out with 1xBet yourself here — the actual rate is 40%.

See.

But you wouldn’t know that from reading the other affiliate program review site that’s either feeding you wildly outdated numbers, or whatever “first-month promo” rate they say in the banner that flashed the brightest.

But there’s more.

Look at the text on that other review site.

It’s nothing but a bunch of generic boilerplate about “passive income” for ‘webmasters, website owners, internet marketing managers, administrators of social network pages, etc…’

TopRanked.io, on the other hand, actually talks about stuff that’s useful — where it’s licensed, what the benefits are, how to sign up, etc., etc. (But you’ll have to scroll down to see that. Here’s the link again if you want to see for yourself…)

1XBET Affiliate Program: Earn 40% Lifetime Commissions

Finally, look at the “rating distribution” on the other affiliate site.

Sure, that’s for a bunch of user-generated reviews. And theoretically, that’s a good thing to have. Hearing from real users is useful.

But now ask yourself this — do you really think zero people rated 1xBet anything less than a glowing 5-star review?

Now, sure. Of all the affiliate programs out there, 1xBet is about as close to 5 stars as you’ll ever get.

But let’s be real here — no matter how good you are, there’s always going to be a bunch of Karens complaining about stuff.

Maybe they didn’t get the custom commission deal they wanted.

Maybe they sent junk traffic and got upset when 1xBet said “nope”.

Maybe they’re a shill from a competitor that wants to leave a couple of bad reviews.

Or maybe…

Well, you get the point.

No one at 1xBet’s scale can exist on the internet without at least attracting some negative reviews. And yet, there’s none here.

TopRanked.io, on the other hand, writes its reviews from the personal, hands-on experience of its team. And that means, quite often, there’s at least one or two ugly points to discuss about most programs.

Find the Best Affiliate Programs Now

Let’s wrap this up.

If you’re an affiliate marketer and you’re not already saying “you’re simply the best” to your existing affiliate programs, then do yourself a favor.

Go checkout TopRanked.io’s authoritative affiliate program directory.

Affiliate News Takeaways

Cast your mind back a couple of weeks ago.

You might remember Google held their annual I/O thing where they tell us all the ways they’re making the world a better place…

…through am “AI-first” “reimagined multimodal search box” with “universal cart” and “agentic commerce” features in a “generative UI”.

And, if you consumed the usually “what this means” content in the aftermath, then there’s a pretty good chance you walked away with that ol’ “SEO is dead” impression lingering in the back of your mind.

And that’s okay.

In fact, it’s totally normal — people have been feeling this way for a while now.

Of course, this time, things are a little different.

While past “SEO is dead” vibes were based more on “this algorithm update sucks for me”, this time the whole “SEO is dead” thing is based a whole lot more on “AI go brrr”.

And by “AI go brrr”, I mean, Google now claims that “AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users”, which is kind of a big deal…

Or maybe it isn’t.

First, look at the number they chose to highlight — monthly active users.

That’s kinda interesting for a company that can post a bigger daily number than that for its normal search product.

A billion also seems kinda low for a company that has a 90% market share in a space that has approximately 6 billion users (I’m assuming that everyone who uses the internet uses search, which seems like a reasonable assumption because who can be bothered typing URLs out manually… am I right?).

Now, obviously, that’s just some back of the envelope math.

But, I think the broader point — that AI mode usage relative to regular search mode is still far from “killing” regular search — is valid.

And yeah, I know, I know…

“What about Claude/ChatGPT/[insert favorite chatbot here]?”

Well, those numbers are also relatively small.

Let’s start with Claude.

Well, here’s the bad news — Claude usage has been skyrocketing this year. In fact, it’s more than doubled since January.

Now want the good news?

Here goes — Claude now has ~30 million monthly active users.

That’s right — 30 million.

Basically nothing in the context of search.

And as for ChatGPT… well, coincidentally, this week they also hit 1 billion MAUs, which I’m sure Altman will be pleased about given how much Anthropic’s eating OpenAI’s lunch on the power user front.

Now, just to be clear here, OpenAI’s billion users probably doesn’t stack on top of Google’s billion and Anthropics… 30 million?

Probably not. And you can see the first hint of that if you look at this line here from the Reuters article announcing ChatGPT’s billion MAU:

“The firm [Sensor Tower] said U.S. ChatGPT users ​who installed Anthropic’s Claude app in the ​first quarter of 2026 spent 5% less time on ‌ChatGPT.”

Translation — many of us are probably using more than one company’s AI, while most of the world’s internet users are hardly using AI at all.

What’s more, if you look around at what’s happening in the news lately, it seems more and more people are actively going out of their way to avoid AI.

And I’m not just talking about “vibes” we might get from the current anti-AI movement which has caused a bunch of viral moments like that time when a bunch of grads booed someone for saying AI.

There are some actually numbers here.

For instance, remember DuckDuckGo?

Well, for years, their whole “sure, our search results aren’t as good but at least we respect your privacy” more or less resulted in flat growth.

Then, Google rolled out that whole “AI-first” thing at this year’s I/O, so then DuckDuckGo promoted its “no-AI” page, and then this happened.

And by “this”, I mean its week-on-week user numbers went up by 18.1% in the immediate aftermath of I/O, then 30.5% as of last week.

And to finally get to where I’m going with this, all of this was to say that maybe SEO isn’t actually dead.

Now, sure, I’m not going to say that AI hasn’t impacted search traffic referrals.

Of course it has. And it will continue to do so.

These numbers from Pew give a pretty good insight into just how much AI impacts clicks.

But when you consider the fact that not even half of Google’s users are using “AI mode”, and the fact that even pages with AI summaries still get clicks, that’s a long, long way from SEO being completely dead.

Takeaway

There’s nothing specific to takeaway this week.

The only real thing you need to hold onto here is the following:

• Yes, search referral traffic is declining.
• But declining does not mean non-existent.

And while estimates of just how much AI has impacted search referrals vary wildly, the thing to remember is that when Google alone handles over 5 trillion searches per year, the collapse in the number of people clicking links has to be of a truly catastrophic magnitude before it results in SEO actually being dead.

In other words, while everyone else is giving up on SEO “because AI”, now might be a better time than ever to swoop in and steal some niche right at the moment when everyone else is giving up.

But, if you’re going to try and dominate the SERPs for a niche, just make sure you’re ready to monetize. TopRanked.io’s best affiliate programs directory can help you out here.

Closing Thought

Like most people, I sometimes read the odd newsletter or two.

One of my favorites here is Kronikl — a quick daily does of history, put into context. And today, they just published a killer edition on Bobby Kennedy.

That’s how this quote caught my eye:

Wise words.

The only way you’ll find words much wiser than that are if you head on over to TopRanked.io and take a look at our in-depth affiliate program reviews.

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(Featured image by SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS via Pexels)

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