What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a digital marketing business model that allows you to get paid for promoting other companies' products or services. For each referral that you bring to a company you've partnered with, you get a small percentage of the sale. The idea is to promote in a variety of ways to increase your chances of earning a passive income.
We've reviewed several affiliate marketing courses, and although there are many courses that provide little value. In this article, we've compiled a list of the best affiliate marketing courses in 2023 that are decent options to learn from if you want to make money with digital marketing.
Expensive Affiliate Marketing Courses
Super Affiliate System 3.0 by John Crestani
The Super Affiliate System 3.0 by John Crestani is one of the best affiliate programs. It teaches you how to make money online by promoting affiliate offers. It's the best affiliate marketing course we've come across. This is a 6-week training with over 50 hours of video training content. The newly updated version has more videos, an updated affiliate marketing strategy, and more bonus content to guide you on your affiliate marketing journey. You're given access to many funnels, landing pages, email templates, and even affiliate network referrals.
Pros
Comprehensive training course
Weekly coaching calls hosted by John Crestani
Private Facebook group for extra support
Training on paid traffic platforms (Facebook, Google, YouTube)
Cons
Few niche examples and affiliate programs (They only teach Clickbank)
Native ads training could be better
No organic traffic training
Price:
The Super Affiliate System 3.0 costs $997 (payment plans available: 3 payments of $397 or 5 payments of $297)
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The Affiliate Lab by Matt Diggity
The Affiliate Lab, by Matt Diggity, is one of the best affiliate marketing courses. Matt is a successful affiliate marketer whose online course not only teaches you how to build and rank your authority niche sites, but he goes a step further in showing you how to sell them for up to 40 times the value of their monthly revenue. This course contains over 24 hours of course material, divided into over 160 videos, along with templates, tools, SOPs, checklists, and several bonus materials.
Pros
You learn high-level SEO, including link-building strategies to rank your high quality affiliate websites
Matt is always helping students inside of the private Facebook community
They keep this course up to date with the newest ranking and flipping strategies
Cons
You have to put up a lot of money upfront to build the authority o your affiliate website
It can take years to become profitable with your affiliate niche site
This course isn't for beginners
Price:
The Affiliate Lab costs $997 or two payments of $597
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Affiliate Marketing Mastery by Stefan James
Affiliate Marketing Mastery by Stefan James is an affiliate marketing course for beginners just getting started in the business model. This material in the course comes from all the experience that Stefan has accrued throughout his time as an affiliate marketer. There are over 70 training videos broken up into 7 modules that come with transcripts, PDFs, and summaries.
Pros
The training is easy to follow
Great personal branding training which includes how to leverage social media
You get access to Stefan’s 90-day email coaching program
Live weekly webinars
Cons
No one-on-one support from Stefan
Basic SEO training
Basic training on paid traffic with Google or Facebook ads
Niche selection training could be better
Price:
Affiliate Marketing Mastery costs $997 or 3 payments of $397
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Commission Hero by Robby Blanchard
One of the top ClickBank affiliates, Robby Blanchard teaches commission Hero 2.0. In this affiliate marketing training, you'll learn how to find affiliate offers to promote on networks like ClickBank, Perform CB, and Digistore24. You'll learn how to leverage Facebook and YouTube ads to generate traffic to your affiliate offers. The new 2.0 version comes with the newest tools and software that will help you run and scale your affiliate marketing business profitably. This is a 6-week affiliate marketing program that provides you with automation tools, lead generation training, a coaching group, and more.
Pros
Robby Blanchard is one of the top ClickBank affiliates with an estimated net worth of $5 million
Private Facebook group for support
Weekly coaching calls and Q&A sessions
SnapChat training
Cons
Expensive affiliate marketing course
Robby relies a lot on paid traffic, which is getting more expensive each year
Price:
Commission Hero costs $2,497
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Adam Cherrington and the Cherrington Experience
Adam Cherrington has a true rags to riches story, and is now a successful affiliate marketer estimated to be worth around $12 million. His strategy for affiliate marketing is unique because he uses paid advertising to promote his offers within other business's email marketing campaigns. He also determines a specific niche for all of his clients- health supplements for older women. The Cherrington Experience isn't just a course; it is also a full mentorship.
Pros
Unique way of doing affilaite marketing
One-on-one coaching
Cons
Very expensive
Some of the lessons are out of date
To get a refund, you have to jump through an extensive list of hoops.
Price:
$40K-$100K depending on the package you choose
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Wealth Academy by Shaqir Hussyin
Wealth Academy is a large education platform with 2 online courses and 2 mentorship opportunities from Shaqir Hussyin. In addition to affiliate marketing, it also covers creating and making money through sales funnels. They also offer certifications for everything from Facebook ads to Ecommerce marketing.
Pros
One-on-one coachign with Shaqir
Includes options that range from $3K to $40K
Cons
Refunds are hard to obtain
Upsells
Started in 2015, and a lot has changed since then.
Price:
$3K-$40K
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Affordable Affiliate Marketing Courses
Project 24 by Income School (Jim Harmer & Ricky Kesler)
Project 24 by Income School is a training library of courses taught by Jim Harmer and Ricky Kesler. In it, there are courses that teach you how to make money with affiliate marketing through blogging and by creating a YouTube channel. There are 27 total courses that cover topics on blogging, YouTube, marketing, website creation, content creation, monetization, and more.
Pros
Income School regularly updates their courses
Private forum-style community
They hold live masterminds each week
Easy to use interface
Cons
There are few success stories of any Project 24 students earning 6-figures
Creating a blog or a YouTube channel takes time and money to become profitable
They teach black-hat SEO methods in this course
Price:
Project 24 costs $449 for the first year and $249 each year after, if you choose to continue with the course.
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6 Figure Affiliate Bootcamp by Liam James Kay
The 6 Figure Bootcamp is one of the older courses on our list, as it was created in 2019. Still, its a well-rounded course designed for beginners to learn the basics of affiliate marketing. Liam James Kay has been using affiliate marketing to make money, as well as his YouTube challen, since 2014. He has almost 200K Youtube subscribers, and another course called Elite Natives Academy which was released in 2021.
Pros
Email support from Liam
Direct coaching from Liam
82 modules that are 10-30 minutes long each
Cons
Active affiliate program leads to biased reviews
Direct coaching from Liam ends after 6 months
Only 2 weeks to request a refund
Price:
$997
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Savage Affiliates by Franklin Hatchett
Savage Affiliates by Franklin Hatchett shows you how to make money with affiliate marketing. Franklin teaches you several paid traffic methods to generate more traffic to your affiliate offers using platforms like Facebook, Google, YouTube, and even email marketing. There is some SEO training, although it's not as in depth as other courses. You'll also get familiar with business tax forms that will help you remain compliant with the government.
Pros
Private Facebook community
Excellent training in niche selection
The Savage Affiliate course is not an expensive one
You learn how to track sales, offers and metrics
Cons
SEO training could be better
Some modules seem unorganized and out of order
Not enough recent case studies
Price:
Savage Affiliates costs $197 for Standard and $297 for Super
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Digital Worth Academy by Sara Young and Andrew Hansen
Digital Worth Academy has been around for 4 years and uses a system that has worked for 12 years and offers a 100% money-back guarantee. The course is extensive, with 150 over the shoulder videos across 30 modules. Digital Worth Academy has their own tools in which you can get their unique edge over the competition. These are: the Commission Wizard V. 2.0, which helps you find good offers in profitable niches, the Diamond Keyword Miner, which locates places on the web where traffic may be easier for you to compete, and a profit calculator to help you project how much cash you can make with an offer.
Pros
Helps you find a profitable niche that already has traffic where you can still compete
Trains you to optimize WordPress themes to rank websites
Shares strategies for new topics and content
One on One coaching in the form of an online chat.
Cons
Focuses too much on the Amazon affiliate program
Slow time to income with affilaite marketing
Digital Worth Academy's social media presence isn't very active
Price:
$797
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Cheap Affiliate Marketing Courses
Wealthy Affiliate by Kyle Loudoun
Wealthy Affiliate by Kyle Loudoun is an affiliate program that attempts to show you how to make money online by promoting affiliate offers. It's one of the most popular and even controversial affiliate programs online. There are over 160 lessons, a forum style community where many members share their journey as Wealthy affiliates. There's training on niche selection, website building, and how to generate some traffic to your affiliate offers. The Wealthy Affiliate Compensation Plan is broken up into 3 unique affiliate commission structures.
Pros
Cheap course/program to join
Wealthy Affiliate has its own web hosting
Live training sessions where you can chat with your coach
Cons
They push promoting Wealthy Affiliate too much
SEO training is sub-par
There is no paid training traffic on how to run, for example, Google ads for an affiliate product
Lots of fake ambassadors within the community
Lots of repetitive content
Price:
Wealthy Affiliate costs $49 per month
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Entre Blueprint & Entre Institute by Jeff Lerner
Jeff Lerner's educational platform teaches 2 other business models besides affiliate marketing; digital agencies and creating online courses. In fact, Jeff Lerner goes further by training his students to have the full entreprenuerial mindset. He teaches them how to have a focused mind, body, and personal life. The Entre Blueprint is the low-ticket introductory course that gets you set up with Jeff's affiliate program. The Entre Institute is his full course platform.
Pros
Trains the whole person.
Jeff has lived what he teaches.
You can start applying what you learn right away in Jeff's affilaite program.
Cons
After the Entre Blueprint, every course within the ENTRE Institute requires more money.
There is only a 72-hour time period to apply for a refund for higher ticket courses.
Jeff has been involved in some companies that have since been defunct.
Price:
$39-$50,000
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Super Affiliate Commission Blueprint
Misha Wilson made over $10 million in online marketing by the time he turned 27 years old. His course, the Super Affiliate Commission Blueprint, provides a comprehensive training, community, mentorships, and more. He too has an affiliate marketing program you can join after starting this course.
Pros
30-day refund policy
Comes with 4 bonuses, which include a one-on-one affiliate mentor, their Facebook group, live coaching, and a webinar training series.
Lessons are short and actionable, not overwhelming
Cons
Army of affiliate marketers keep reviews positive and not realistic.
Earnings listed on Misha's website only show short-term profits.
Difficulty recieving refunds
Price:
$1 to start, but tons of upsells as you move through the course. Total leads to $12K +.
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Invincible Marketer Review by Aaron Chen
Join 6-figure earner Aaron Chen and learn his strategies for affiliate marketing, including his 6-figure conversion model, how to find good products to promote, how to get set up in ClickFunnels and Clickmagick, and more. Aaron has been affilaite marketing himself since 2016, and did not create this course until 2018. He based it off of his years of experience. There are 1,500 members within his private group, and coaching calls twice a week.
Pros
30-day full refund policy
Price is low and based on monthly payments
Coaching calls with Aaron are invaluable
Cons
No more lifetime membership
Some modules have a bit too much motivational content and too little actionable items.
Price:
$67/month
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RapidLevelUp by Kenneth Fong
RapidLevelUp focuses directly on affiliate marketing through YouTube. It is a brand new course, taught by Kenneth Fong. Kevin has 10 years of experience as an affiliate marketer. This course gets into the finer details of affiliate marketing on YouTube, like using iMovie to edit videos and strategies for Google Ads campaigns. This course is best for someone who is just starting their YouTube channel, as it begins with how to set it up correctly with brand or self name, creating a channel trailer, and more.
Pros
Great for beginners
Low risk investment (cost is low)
Course isn't overwhelming; there are 5 modules of actionable advice.
Cons
No refunds once the course becomes paid
YouTube affiliate marketing takes years to cultivate an audience. Kenneth himself only has jsut over 2,000 followers.
Price:
$199
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Affiliate Marketing Boss by Chad Bartlett
Affilaite Marketing Boss is another full plaform of courses and offerings dedicated to affiliate marketing. Chad Bartlett is your coach; a popular YouTuber and affilaite marketer with over 97,000 followers. Affiliate Marketing Boss has been around since 2021, so it's information is fairly up to date. Choose from multiple programs, like the Affiliate Marketing Boss Affiliate Club, a private club with weekly live trainings, the Affiliate Marketing Boss Bootcamp, a full course focusing on using social media to boost sales, or Affiliate Marketing Boss Launch, which is an automation option where Chad will launch your digital assets for you.
Pros
Has something for any level
Also has a free group, where you can feel out if this community is for you
Chad doesn't hide that he is an affiliate for other companies
Cons
No refund for Affiliate Marketing Boss Launch (automation)
Most reviews are from affiliates of the program
Price:
Free to $2500
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Affiliate Marketing FAQs
You can make anywhere from a few dollars to over 6-figures with affiliate marketing. It all comes down to what affiliate program you join, the niche and products/services you're promoting and how good you are at promoting them.
You don't need money to start affiliate marketing. There are some affiliate programs that don't require you to pay anything (you can check this Affiliate Escape Plan review). All you need to do is start promoting. If you want to use paid ads, then you will have to pay ad platforms like Facebook, Google and TikTok to show your ads.
There are other affiliate programs that require you to pay a one-time, setup fee.
An affiliate marketer gets paid after a customer clicks on your unique link, makes a purchase and the affiliate network records the transaction. That's when the company whose products/services you're promoting will send you your commission. Each affiliate program has their own commission structure and payout times.
You can make money with affiliate marketing the first day you promote a product or service. It will all depend on the program you join, the niche & product/service you choose, and how well you can promote them. It can take on day to make money or it can take months or years.
Paid Traffic vs Free Organic Traffic
Paid Traffic
Income is not passive; requires ongoing maintenance
Requires more upfront capital to pay for traffic
You must split test your ads to see which ad will convert best
You may get results fast if you spent enough money testing ads and if you don't get any fraudulent clicks
Create perfect ads and copy the ads from companies that are successful
Free Organic Traffic
Income is passive once sites are ranked
Initial investment is minimal compared to paid traffic (Hosting, Domain, etc.)
Learn how to rank sites with a legit coaching program and
Takes some time for your sites to gain authority and rank
To succeed, you at least need high-quality content and powerful backlinks
Is Affiliate Marketing worth it in 2023?
Of all the online business models, affiliate marketing can be worth it in 2023, but the path to 6-figure success is long. The Google Hummingbird and Penguin update made affiliate marketing tougher back in 2016.
Once upon a time, you could build new sites and rank them, targeting very specific long tail keywords. For example, creating a separate page that targets exact match, long-tail keywords to help you rank on Google.
Today, Google values high quality pages that come from powerful, authoritative domains that will rank for all the long-tail variations.
Exact match is no longer valued like it once was.
Is affiliate marketing easy or hard? If you understand you need to work everyday on building the authority to your affiliate sites, are going to split test your paid ads and monitor them daily, are ok with the high ad costs because of competition and don't mind the instability of your monthly income, then affiliate marketing is something you can do. You even need to be prepared to compete against thousands of affiliate marketers from all around the world who are competing for the same keywords. There's too much work you need to do to just to get one affiliate sale.
Affiliate marketing isn't the best long-term business model. It's better as a side hustle since it doesn't have the long-term benefits local lead generation does.
Amazon affiliate marketing is often considered a good option for beginners if you decide to start affiliate marketing. Fortunately, there are some great courses specifically for Amazon affiliate marketing.
Why I Choose Lead Generation Over Affiliate Marketing in 2023
Ranking sites in Google and generating free traffic is the best way to make long-lasting passive income. With lead generation, you can target local cities instead of competing for keywords globally or even nationally, which is significantly more difficult. YouTube's also saturated.
I made this tree care site over 7 years ago.
It's paid me $2000 every month ever since and I haven't needed to do much else to it after I ranked it atop the search results for tree care in Grand Rapids, MI.
That's what makes this business model truly passive.
Local lead generation is far more lucrative, easier to scale and less saturated than affiliate marketing. There are plenty of cities and niches to get into and you're only going up against 10-15 local business owners instead of thousands of marketers. There's also no need to worry about an affiliate link not working or changing. You're the one in control of what niche you choose, who you work with, and how much you get paid every month.
Over 7000 students from around the world that are building their own digital real estate in their own cities and niches, and getting paid each month for the leads their websites generate. Not only that, inside of the coaching program, the level of support you receive as well as the contacts and resources at your disposal are priceless.
To learn how to earn a passive income that's predictable, check out the local lead generation training program.
Great analysis of affiliate marketing courses.
Anyway, am a student from Kenya and I see you talk more about lead generation.
Can it really work form me based in an African country.
Thanks Peter. As long as people use Google to look for services, local lead generation will work. You would just have to test it out in your part of the world. Look at the population of your city, the different niches that are found on Google, the competition, and the demand.
Have you ever considered about adding a little bit more
than just your articles? I mean, what you say is valuable
and all. However think of if you added some great images or
video clips to give your posts more, “pop”!
Your content is excellent but with pics and video clips, this website could certainly be one of the greatest in its niche.
Fantastic blog!
Appreciate the kudos and compliment. I do have a YouTube channel.
Hey Ippei Kanehara,
Your post is very appreciated. I think it's an excellent post for us
I am a beginner in affiliate marketing searching for affiliate marketing courses your post meets my needs Thinking of going with Super Affiliate System – John Crestani
I will be bookmarking this post for future reference.
It would be great for me if you shared your experience with my comments
Regards
Deepesh Bhargava
Yea, it’s always best to do your research first when choosing a course. Glad this one helped you Deepesh
I was more than happy to find this page. I need to to thank you
for your time due to this wonderful read!!
I definitely loved every part of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new
information on your web site.
Thanks so much!
Just want to say that in a previous business I got into Facebook ads. It was an ad with a video for Facecream but they wouldn't run it because it focussed on one body part! (Which apparently could lead to insecurity in the viewer.) You are at the mercy of all of these platforms if you go into paid ads.
Thanks for an interesting article.
Best,
Jean
agreed you don’t have much longevity with an affiliate marketing business
Thanks for the article! It’s very comprehensive. Which will you recommend for a beginner without a big budget?
HI Ippei,
Your in-depth breakdown of Affiliate marketing is incredibly helpful and awesome! I live in Hong Kong. Can I do lead generation from Hong Kong for the small business in US?
Gary
yes you can
I live in New Zealand.
Will Local Lead Generation work for everyone?
yes it works in New Zealand
How much does this coarse cost?
DM me on IG
hello ippei, what are the top 5 methods to earn money online according to you?i’m following you for a while,hope you answer my query.and i’m a newbie please suggest me some best courses related to different methods.
I’m only doing the lead-gen business now, here
I live in Egypt so can i do lead generation from Egypt for small business in US ?
yes u can!
Is this business model only restricted to US or can it be replicated anywhere for local businesses outside the US?
anywhere outside the US works just as fine
Hi, I have been interested in Affiliate marketing for some time now , this is lead generation for local businesses is new, just reading about it first time here. How newbie friendly is your coaching for those who don’t have any online skills and knowledge?
very newbie friendly
Hey Ippei,
I have been following you for a while now, I am having moderate success with affiliate marketing. (1 year experience)
Might get into Lead generation sooner than I think, been planning for a while, but before that…
I want to stick to Affiliate Marketing a bit longer, my SEO skills are mediocre at best, learnt from WA.
Do you know any courses that teaches Higher Level SEO than WA?
I would really appreciate if you could help me out, thanks in advance.
Kayin
we teach high level seo in our lead gen training
Hi!
I’m doing some research into affiliate marketing and I’m looking into the training program run by Andrew James and Stephen Esposito of Elevated Entrepreneurs. Their training program is called Accelerated Affilites. I’m wondering if you have heard of them and if so, what is your opinion on them? They focus on lot on automating your affiliate sites so that you can have more freedom with your schedule. Please I am really looking for feedback on this.
ugh… man affiliate marketing has gotten really tough these days. It’s so saturated. That’s why I do lead generation for small businesses instead: https://ippei.com/best/
Is lead generation good for Vietnamese people who has no experience in internet and marketing?
yes it works overseas
Do we have to target US only bizz?
doesn’t have to be US based