If you want to be a successful affiliate marketer – you want a great course that covers all the bases and will give you enough knowledge to not just make your money back... but to create a successful and profitable online business.
This isn’t college – you are here because you want to learn something that will help you make money online! You don't want to get stung, caught out buying a dud course, or even make the wrong decision as to whether affiliate marketing is even for you!
So, listen up... Here are some things that you need to consider before purchasing ANY affiliate marketing training course.
We, at Hustle Life, have purchased MANY courses, and most course suppliers simply rehash content from other courses. Worse still, many courses only skim the surface and don’t give actionable advice that gets real results. Unfortunately, I’m speaking from experience. Trust me, there are some real time wasters out there!
Oh, and if you come across any free affiliate marketing courses…well, you guessed it – it’s more than likely not worth it!
Before we look at what makes a good affiliate training course; let’s take a look at the type of person affiliate marketing ISN’T for:
Unfortunately, because affiliate marketing is sometimes made to sound super easy to do, it immediately attracts some people that just ultimately give up.
If only you knew the pitfalls first. Some course promoters can be very misleading, but ultimately if Affiliate Marketing is not right for you then you will probably lose time, money, and even some confidence.
Maybe, your skills could be put to better use with a different type of online business.
If any of those red crosses above apply to you then maybe selling physical products online is more appealing. Check out our eCommerce posts for some alternative options.
So, if you understand that affiliate marketing is a genuine business and are willing to put the time and effort into growing it, then keep reading. You will need to make sure all the fundamentals of affiliate marketing are covered.
If you’ve already got an affiliate marketing training course in mind and want to know more, we may already have it covered in detail right here.
Here are the things to look out for when choosing a course:
If you are starting a niche authority website for the first time, it’s important to have a basic understanding of the online world as well as all the affiliate marketing fundamentals.
To ensure you are off in the right direction from the very beginning make sure the course you are looking at includes at least the following:
If you don’t already have this knowledge, there are many beginner-friendly courses out there that will teach you everything from the ground up.
Off-Page SEO is what is known as link building. Getting other links to your website is still a huge ranking factor in Google, so a good affiliate marketing course will give you many tactics for building links to your site.
The thing to keep in mind is what type of link-building they recommend. Is it a Gray Hat, which is riskier but gives you quick wins? Or is it a White Hat strategy, which is better long-term but can take longer to produce results?
Our advice is to avoid anything that sounds too good to be true. They will end up being Black Hat link-building techniques and they may work initially…but the one guarantee they won’t offer is that your site won't rank for long ☹
It will end up being a great big waste of time very quickly. Google and its army of bots are WAY ahead of the game there.
Affiliate Lab is a good option if you would like to go down the link-building path. Matt Diggity teaches a wide range of proven and successful techniques.
Learn more and read our Affiliate Lab Review
Google is getting better at detecting even Gray Hat link building, so focusing on great content marketing is becoming more important.
Most affiliate marketing courses skip this part altogether and focus mostly on link building, guest posting, and promotion which may not necessarily hurt you later, but we would suggest you need a well-rounded approach.
Quality content that informs the reader, needs to be interesting, helpful and answers the readers’ questions. This will increase user engagement and will help you rank higher and get more page views.
Look for a course like Authority Hacker which has a focus on this component.
Before you drop big bucks on a course, it’s important to know all the costs ahead of time. Does the course come with all the tools you need, or are you going to have to fork out additional money every month for various subscription fees?
You might want to think about some of the following costs associated with an affiliate marketing site:
The days where you could just rank a website and watch the cash roll in are coming to an end.
While it is still very possible to do this, you could be leaving cash on the table by not having things such as an email list, or Facebook group set up so that people engage with your site even when they are not on it.
Make sure the course you choose covers at least the main Social Media options. Your niche will also determine your target market and therefore you should think about the most appropriate socials and check if they are covered.
Having access to a great community could be worth the price of the course costs alone. Course creators that take pride in their work will be in their communities constantly trying to drive engagement and keep the creative juices flowing.
Authority Hacker has a fantastic and active community – find out more about it in our Authority Hacker Review.
Some things to consider when choosing an affiliate marketing course are:
One sure sign of a bad course (apart from bad reviews and complaints) is no engagement in the community.
It’s a good idea and a testament to the quality of the course as well as the experience and success of the course creators if there are follow on courses.
As you gain more experience you will want to progress and grow your affiliate marketing business. To do this you will need to continue to apply current learnings in what is an ever-evolving industry.
As an example, Authority Hacker has TASS (The Authority Site System) followed by Authority Hacker Pro and then they even have AH Pro Platinum for the people who are wanting to stay at the top of their game.
Finally, if there is no support on offer (and no real community) then what are you going to fall back on when you hit a roadblock?
It’s always advisable to have access to some form of support for those times when things just aren’t working out.
Maybe you will find you want to bounce your own new and innovative ideas off someone whose been there and done it. Many course providers will offer one on one coaching with either the course creators or expert advisors. Keep in mind this is always at an additional cost, normally not cheap but if you don’t want to expose your idea to a community group then this may be the best solution.
A course is a terrific way to go whether you’re just starting out or have been chugging along for a while and want to get to the next level.
Keep in mind that your budget, site /niche and learning needs are unique to you. So, make sure the course you pick covers at least the above topics. Ultimately do yourself a favor and find a course with content that will steer your ship in the direction you want to head.
We hope this has been helpful and wish you the best of luck in finding the best affiliate marketing course for you!
From our personal experience, feedback, and reviews on the likes of Trust Pilot, Authority Hacker definitely comes up trumps and ticks the box here. Not only is it perfect for beginners, but it also covers a broad range of very relevant topics.
At Hustle Life we believe (and have learned from experience) that you get what you pay for. The free courses are either not free, or not worth it.
If you're on a real budget, it’s not a bad idea to look at some of the well-recognised and more reputable affiliate marketing training courses and get in on their free webinars. Not only will you learn something but you’ll get a feel of their worth and course structure.
Of course, you can! If you’re prepared to put the effort in, and spend a substantial amount of time researching and learning from your mistakes then why not. There is an abundance of information out there, you’ll just have the sift through it.
A great start is to use the points in this article and that way you can rest assured you have all the main topic areas covered.
Depending on your time availability and online experience, it could take you anywhere from a few weeks to a good six months to grasp and implement all the main ideas and techniques. A good affiliate marketing course will speed this up and point you in the right direction immediately.
Of course, one would also say in this game you will never stop learning if you want to stay at the top and keep making money.
We're An Affiliate - We are reluctant to allow advertising on this blog, which we believe will spoil the user experience. Instead (so that we can continue sharing our knowledge and expanding our content), we have decided to include affiliate links for the products that we use and/or rate highly.