Spencer Mecham Review: Affiliate Marketing Biz Model, Passive Income, & Alternatives |IPPEI

Updated On 2021-11-12

Spencer Mecham course review

Spencer Mecham is well-known in the affiliate marketing community for his sustainable approach and successful strategies. His focus is on creating passive income through high-ticket affiliate marketing. He is also famous for being the first ClickFunnels affiliate to earn $1 million in commission. Spencer has offered several courses in the past, including his flagship Affiliate Secrets course. While Affiliate Secrets is no longer sold, he still offers free affiliate marketing courses for beginners.

Affiliate marketing is a challenging business model with a failure rate of as high as 95%. High competition and rising cost of ads make it a high-risk business. Finding success with affiliate marketing will require a lot of perseverance and skills.

In a YouTube video about affiliate marketing in his Buildapreneur channel, Spencer Mecham said: “If you are looking for the easiest way to make somewhere between $1,000 and $5,000 a month with affiliate marketing using something as simple as just a phone, you’ve just found it.” Yes, you can just start an affiliate marketing business with zero costs and inventory. But in my opinion, making money from affiliate marketing, as what Spencer Mecham teaches, is like panning for gold in Nevada Gold Mines after the corporations moved in with excavators. You’re still digging with a pan, and every now and then, the river owner (Amazon) raises the toll. Most affiliate programs pay crumbs unless you sell at scale. Amazon, for instance, slashed commissions multiple times while affiliates kept doing the same work. You’re spending time and money driving traffic for a 3%–10% cut. Every sale you make strengthens another brand’s customer base, not yours. You have no ownership of the product, the customer data, or the lifetime value. Plus, thousands of affiliates promote the same offers using similar landing pages, funnels, and copy. The only way to stand out is through better marketing or bigger ad spend.

In this article, we talk about Spencer Mecham and what happened to his Affiliate Secrets course. Towards the end, we uncover if affiliate marketing offers better passive income than local lead generation.

Who is Spencer Mecham?

spencer mecham review

Spencer Mecham is a highly successful affiliate marketer and an entrepreneur. He is also a professional sales and marketing consultant. Spencer specializes in marketing automation, sales processes, email marketing, SEO, PPC and Facebook ads. From Alpine, Utah, Spencer is the founder of 2017 affiliate marketing educational brand, Buildapreneur. After a long history of working in digital marketing, Spencer retired at the age of 31.

Spencer worked as the marketing consultant for Lunar Reach for almost 7 years. Lunar Reach is a marketing agency designed to help B2B software and tech companies. He also worked as the director of marketing for Dark Energy, marketing manager for Zygote Media Group, and digital marketer for 97th Floor. Spencer is also a freelance writer for various publications like Huffington Post and BuzzFeed. He has a public relations degree from Brigham Young University.

Spencer Mecham review

What Was Spencer Mecham’s Affiliate Secrets?

Spencer Mecham’s Affiliate Secrets was a comprehensive step-by-step affiliate marketing course. The 8-module course taught beginners how to find the best-selling high-ticket affiliate programs and market them using email newsletters and social media ads. You also learned how to create engaging content. Spencer designed the course to teach you how to create a sustainable passive income affiliate marketing business. The last version is Affiliate Secrets 3.0 and is no longer offered. Reviews for Affiliate Secrets were highly positive.

Spencer still offers free beginner courses on his Buildapreneur website. He is offers discounts to various affiliate marketing tools as an affiliate.

Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate marketing works and can be quite profitable if you can navigate the difficulties and risks. To make affiliate marketing profitable, you need to find a high demand affiliate program with good commission rates. You also need to have an effective marketing strategy. However, there is the risk of losing money. If you do not have effective marketing, you could be spending on ads without making sales. Selling low ticket products with low commission rates may also not cover the cost of marketing. Making affiliate marketing work requires a lot of work and patience.

How Profitable is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing can be very profitable , with the average affiliate marketer earning $2,000 to $10,000 per month. The typical beginner earns $0 to a few hundred dollars per month. However, it is estimated that around 90% to 95% of beginner affiliate marketers fail. If you can find success with affiliate marketing, you can earn $50,000 a year or more.

How To Make Passive Income With Affiliate Marketing?

To make passive income with affiliate marketing, create a data-backed selling method and marketing strategy. You need to pick a selling method where you don’t have to constantly create content. If you don’t, you can also outsource the work. Then you have to use long-term organic marketing techniques. Spencer earns passive affiliate commission by offering free courses and promoting tools. He promotes these courses organically through his YouTube channel with over 229K subscribers. While this is not 100% passive, he only needs to spend a few hours to create and post a video. He most likely outsources most of the work, such as research and editing.

What are Other Affiliate Marketing Courses Available Online?

6 Figure Affiliate Bootcamp by Liam James Kay focuses on helping beginners create a six-figure affiliate business using paid traffic and automated systems. Liam James Kay, a successful affiliate marketer, teaches strategies around sales funnels, email automation, and Facebook ads. The Bootcamp is designed to simplify affiliate marketing by showing students how to build high-converting campaigns with minimal tech skills.
Wealthy Affiliate by Kyle Loudoun is one of the longest-running affiliate training platforms, offering a community-driven learning experience. Founded by Kyle Loudoun and Carson Lim, it provides step-by-step lessons on SEO, content creation, and website monetization. Members also get access to tools like keyword research software, hosting, and a supportive online forum.
Affiliate One by James Fawcett teaches how to generate affiliate commissions using a “done-for-you” funnel system. The course emphasizes email marketing, traffic generation, and automation, showing how to build a sustainable affiliate business without needing a personal brand or complex tech setups.

Final Verdict: Is Spencer Mecham’s Affiliate Marketing Strategies Worth Learning?

Spencer Mecham’s affiliate marketing strategies are worth learning if you already have experience in digital marketing, paid ads, and funnel systems. His methods are rooted in automation, email marketing, and high-ticket affiliate offers, which have proven effective for those operating at scale with consistent ad budgets and existing sales infrastructure.

However, the modern affiliate landscape is far more competitive, with shrinking commissions, higher ad costs, and stricter compliance rules, making it a tougher path for beginners. Spencer’s strategies can definitely work, but they demand ongoing funnel testing, creative output, and consistent reinvestment to stay profitable. It’s a business, not passive income.

For those looking to build sustainable, low-maintenance income streams, local lead generation is a more practical alternative because you own the digital assets, control the client base, and earn recurring revenue without relying on third-party programs or fluctuating ad spend.

Is Local Lead Generation More Passive Than Affiliate Marketing?

In my experience, local lead generation is more passive than affiliate marketing because you keep 100% of what clients pay for leads like owning the Port of Long Beach where ships (clients) come in daily, unload value, and pay docking fees directly to you. There are no middlemen, affiliate managers, or shrinking commissions. Contractors happily pay $500–$2,000 per site per month. In affiliate marketing, everyone copies the same offers. In local lead gen, you dominate small local service niches. You’re not fighting thousands of affiliates, you’re often the only digital presence ranking for that local keyword. Plus, scaling is easy by cloning your model city by city. Each site becomes an independent income stream that doesn’t rely on third-party products or policies. You control pricing, client relationships, and lead flow. It’s predictable, repeatable, and scalable

Why Choose a Local Lead Gen Business in 2025

Choose a local lead generation business in 2025 because it gives you direct control over client acquisition, higher profit margins, and stable recurring revenue, while affiliate marketing faces declining commissions, AI-driven competition, and stricter tracking regulations. For example, my local lead gen site Lancaster Elite Roofing 44242 10th Street West Lancaster, California 93534 661-276-1888 https://www.lancastereliteroofing.com/ drove 16 new leads worth $67,880 just last month. Since I get a 5% commission for forwarding leads, I earned $3,394 in passive income.

Scaling a local lead generation business is as simple as repeating the rank and rent process. Each site can make up $500 to $2,000+ a month and there is no limit as to how many you can have. This makes local lead generation the best passive income business to create time and financial freedom.