The Affiliate Lab is an affiliate course created by expert SEO marketer Matt Diggity. The course teaches students how to create, rank, make money, and at times flip their websites for big multiple exits. The course covers SEO fundamentals, actionable steps, and advanced strategies that can give you an advantage over competitors.
Who Is Matt Diggity?
Today people recognize Matt as an expert in the SEO industry and a successful affiliate marketer, but it wasn’t always that way.
Born in Fresno, California, he followed traditional advice given by his parents, “do well in school so you can get a good job.” He followed that advice and got a Master’s degree in electrical engineering from UC San Diego.
After working in the field, working 60+ hour weeks, he realized that the path he’d taken wasn’t for him.
Around this time, his friend told him about the 4-Hour Work Week, which he read. It influenced what he was going to do next. In 2009, his first experiments in SEO started. And in 2011, he quit the rat race and left the US to work on his business abroad.
Since then, he’s created multiple businesses in the SEO (search engine optimization) industry. One of his most popular businesses is DiggityMarketing.com, where he blogs about his tested SEO techniques.
Besides his blog, he’s also the founder of LeadSpring LLC, The Search Initiative, the Chiang Mai SEO Conference, Authority Builders, and The Affiliate Lab course.
Now that you know a little more about Matt let’s start with our honest Affiliate Lab review.
Table of Contents
- Who Is Matt Diggity?
- How The Affiliate Lab Helps You Make Money Online
- Who Is The Affiliate Lab Made For?
- A Look Inside the Course
- The Course Modules
- How Much Does The Affiliate Lab Cost?
- Affiliate Lab Highlights
- Pros
- Cons
- FAQs And Things You Should Know Before Buying
- Affiliate Lab Student Reviews
- Affiliate Lab Review Conclusion
- Affiliate Lab Course Bonuses
- Alternatives
Prefer to sit back and watch me break down Matt’s affiliate marketing course? Click play on our video below!
How The Affiliate Lab Helps You Make Money Online
The Affiliate Lab is an affiliate marketing business course that teaches you how to make money online via affiliate commissions and the know-how on how to rank websites for keywords that millions of people search for every day.
For the uninitiated, affiliate marketing is when you promote other people’s products and/or services, and you receive a commission for it.
These commissions could be one-time or monthly recurring. It really depends on the niche you select, and the type of products people buy in that market.
Who Is The Affiliate Lab Made For?
The Affiliate Lab is an expert course that teaches people, from beginners to experienced people, to create successful affiliate websites.
Every piece of the affiliate marketing business puzzle is revealed and continuously improved upon yearly.
Topics range from creating your first WordPress site (the Beginner’s Lab is great for this – it comes included) and picking a niche to advanced strategies such as building links and a blueprint for creating profitable websites in high-competition niches.
You may be wondering if Matt Diggity’s Affiliate Lab course teaches how to build niche sites or authority sites.
The course goes over both.
The first set of modules in the Affiliate Lab teaches the fundamentals and has over-the-shoulder examples of a niche site. Matt sees these types of sites as more straightforward to succeed with as a beginner.
However, even if you’re an intermediate or advanced SEO, you can take some of the nuggets in the first set of modules.
The Authority Site Module teaches how to build an authority site and more in the affiliate marketing world.
Let’s check out the course material.
A Look Inside the Course
When you first log in to Matt’s course, you’ll notice you not only get The Affiliate Lab but also get the following bonus courses:
- The Website Flipping Masterclass
- The Beginner Lab
- The Truth About Penalties
- Outreach Masterclass
- The Affiliate Email Marketing Masterclass (NEW)
- the Affiliate Portfolio Playbook (NEW)
Matt created The Affiliate Lab course a few years ago, and he and his team have been adding and improving it over time.
You can explore all the Affiliate Lab courses when you sign up. Let’s explore the core Lab content.
The Course Modules
The course isn’t technically organized into modules.
However, I’ve organized them into modules below for this review (in the order they are presented in the course). I’ve also shared some highlights of some of the lessons.
Niche Selection Module
One of the biggest challenges of creating an affiliate site that makes money is picking a good niche. If you’re new to affiliate SEO, you might choose a niche that’s too difficult for you to rank in.
In this set of video lessons, Matt guides you through the steps to selecting your niche based on existing competitors.
Onsite SEO Module
The following topics are covered in the onsite SEO module:
- Intro
- Domains & Hosting
- Keyword Research
- Site Architecture
- Content Building
- Site Building (Single Page)
- Site Building (Site-Wide)
- Onsite Optimization
- Featured Snippets
- Affiliate Links
- CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization Masterclass)
- Website Maintenance
The video lessons for each of the sections above contain, on average, 3-8+ videos (the same goes for the following modules). The titles are self-explanatory.
Noteworthy Features: Some highlights of this module are the on-page optimization and the CRO lessons. You learn the fundamentals of on-page SEO and learn how to use a powerful tool that helps you account for more ranking factors.
Offsite SEO Module
- Intro
- Creating a Google Persona
- Social Fortress Creation
- Anchor Text Analysis
- Local Citations
- Social Signals
- The Bulletproof Backlink Strategy
- Optional PBN Linking (not black hat link building)
This module is gold, and not many courses in the SEO community teach offpage SEO like Matt does.
You’ll learn at what phases to send guest post links, outreach for link insertions when to use the skyscraper technique (popularized by Brian Dean), about link diversity, and more.
Noteworthy Features: One of the most thorough offsite SEO training I’ve been through. You’ll know what links, link velocity, and when to use them at every “stage” of your site.
The templates Matt provides for link analysis can be used for both home page and single page URLs.
Technical Audits
- Google Search Console
- Negative SEO
- Technical Onpage & Offpage Audits
These are the not-so-fun lessons in the course. Yet, they’re important and can help you rank better in the search engines if done correctly.
The Kitchen Sink
Each of the Kitchen Sink module lessons are tactics you can use when your site(s) get stuck.
You can follow all the steps in the course, but 4/5 times you’ll have to figure out why your site isn’t performing well in the SERPs.
These lessons are tested strategies for getting sites unstuck and have earned The Affiliate Lab praise over the years.
The Authority Site Module
- Authority Module Introduction
- Building Authority Sites
- Backlinks for Authority Sites
- What to do When you Hit Authority Mode
- Authority Site Pitfalls
- The Influencer Pitch: Building Real E-A-T
Noteworthy Features: I like that he has specific lessons for authority sites.
When the course first started, smaller niche sites (the one where the homepage ranks for the hardest keyword and the site was an exact match domain) were popular.
But, over time, “authority sites” got an advantage when flipping for bigger multiples.
Either type of affiliate site can make money, but the domain name considerations, site structure, and off-page is a little different.
You’ll learn everything you need to know about how to build a profitable authority site and the SEO game in the Authority Site module!
The “What’s Next” Section
The last section of TAL is the send-off. Matt gives some words of advice as an SEO embarking on creating successful affiliate marketing websites.
And he also provides an affiliate scaling guide video that’s gold! I use it to this day and am working on more than 3 sites!
How Much Does The Affiliate Lab Cost?
The Affiliate Lab costs $997 or two monthly payments of $597 for lifetime access with free updates & improvements every year.
Is There An Affiliate Lab Discount?
Yes, we have a discount link for our readers that helps save a few bucks.
=> Save $200 OFF the Course Price Here!
Refund Policy
The Affiliate Lab no longer offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Piracy and misuse of the course led to this decision by their team.
Affiliate Lab Highlights
It’s time to separate the good from the not-so-good parts of the Affiliate Lab.
Keep in mind the pros and cons section below are my two cents as someone who has taken the course. It should help in deciding if this course is for you.
Pros
- An engineer’s approach to creating websites (both niche & authority sites)
- A good niche selection module
- An active Facebook group community
- Has a lesson called “Why We Don’t Use Amazon” (in 2020, Amazon’s affiliate program reduced their commission % drastically) & encourages you to find private affiliate programs for your niche site
- You get a timeline of the 3 stages of a website – Plus a strategy to get new websites out of the “sandbox stage” quicker
- Templates for internal, external, and anchor text diversity
- Fundamentals of Onsite SEO and guest lesson by Michał Suski on using Surfer SEO
- Cool tips & tricks in the conversion rate optimization module
- One of the best Offsite SEO lessons I’ve seen in a course (includes how you should build links to pages & how and where to acquire links)
- One of the few courses that teach how to implement PBNs safely
- Scaling multiple affiliate sites at the same time (great lesson)
- A 6-Figure Flip website case study
- Continuously adds new course content
- Lifetime course pricing
Cons
- Teaches Parent Page & Child Page, which is a little old school (it’s not wrong to create pages this way, but most SEOs now use virtual silo structures and blog post categorization)
- Theme and page builder recommendations are outdated
- Some lessons have not been re-recorded & have older platform interfaces, but it’s figureout-able
- (Warning: nit-picky con) – The niche grading tool lesson uses “DA” (a MOZ metric), which is not as reliable as it once was. Lessons should be redone using Ahrefs “DR” metrics.
FAQs And Things You Should Know Before Buying
Below are a few frequently asked questions and things you should know about this online business.
- Are there additional business costs? On the Affiliate Lab website (under Questions About The Affiliate Lab?), it states (and I concur) that you’ll, at a minimum, need a budget of $10/month for hosting. However, expenses are flexible, and you can increase them to get you to your goals faster (i.e. $500-$1000+/month budget).
- Is this a white-hat course? The course is mainly white hat, except it gets a little gray for acquiring backlinks. White hat link building and gray hat strategies are taught in the course as Matt goes by what works in his test and does not choose “hat sides.”
- How much time will I have to put in? Honestly, affiliate sites take longer to rank these days. But, if you follow Matt’s blueprint and go beyond just a few hours a week, you’ll get your site making money quicker.
Affiliate Lab Student Reviews
The Affiliate Lab has over 1,300 members, and it continues to grow every month. Here’s what some affiliate marketers who’ve built niche websites using Matt’s teachings are saying.
Andy Nelson
“Matt didn’t need to give any of this information away, and trust me, it’s a massive game changer!! And I thought I wasn’t too bad till Matt made me feel like a noob.”
David Attard
“Closing in on $1000 per month affiliate sales, about 3x what I had before The Affiliate Lab.”
Joe Pereia
“The Offsite SEO” and “The Kitchen Sink” sections are crazy in terms of value. Lots of new interesting information backed by rigorous tests. This alone is well worth the money. So far, the information has been tremendous in the Affiliate Lab. I’ve been a member of other groups where information is all over the place, so it’s great to have everything structured so nicely.“
Affiliate Lab Review Conclusion
As an affiliate marketer and someone who does client SEO, I think Matt’s course is one of the few courses that really gets into the nitty-gritty details of on-page and off-page SEO.
The off-page SEO lessons have helped me tremendously when it comes to reverse engineering competitors and has given me somewhat of a blueprint to follow when I decide to go after a target keyword.
Additionally, I like that The Affiliate Lab is one of the few courses that teach you how to outreach for links but also how to get links through a guest post service like Authority.Builders (note: there are other kinds of links he teaches besides guest posts).
Some courses that teach you how to create affiliate websites only teach how to get links via outreach (a systematic process that requires expensive software tools, data tracking, and time).
For someone just starting in SEO who wants to make money outside their 9-5 job, they most likely don’t have the time to do white-hat outreach to get links for their sites.
Instead, they’ll opt for a service to get links (links are an important ranking factor to this day).
I know if I were a newbie still working at my desk job, I’d want a course that gives me options when it comes to making money with websites.
For these reasons, I recommend you get access to The Affiliate Lab today. Matt Diggity practices what he preaches and has made an excellent training course on creating profitable affiliate websites.
Affiliate Lab Course Bonuses
The Affiliate Lab by Matt Diggity is a relatively expensive course for people who want to start this affiliate website business model. Yet, I know it’s an excellent affiliate SEO course.
So, to sweeten the pot, I’ve decided to add a few bonuses if you decide Matt Diggity’s course is for you.
Here are the supplemental bonuses for Matt’s training program:
- 2 Platforms I Use & Recommend for Outsourcing Content
- Alternative Link Building Companies (for Tier 1 and 2)
- Alternative WordPress Page Builders and Themes for a 2024 Niche Site
- A 30-Minute Strategy Session
As an affiliate marketer in the trenches each day, I can tell you the above bonuses compliment Matt Diggity’s course nicely. It’s nice to know about modern and budget-friendly options/alternatives.
If you’d like to receive these supplemental Affiliate Lab bonuses in your email inbox post-purchase, buy The Affiliate Lab by Matt Diggity via any link or button on this page and contact me.
Important Note: To ensure you get your Affiliate Lab bonuses, please clear your browser cookies before buying this course through the links/buttons on this page. And buy through the same device (don’t switch from mobile to desktop). This will avoid complications of you receiving your bonuses. Please allow 24-48 hours to have bonuses delivered to your email address.
Alternatives
The Affiliate Lab is one of the best courses that teach how to make money with affiliate websites. When it first launched, not so much now, it was sold as “The Only Course You Need to Rank, Earn, and Flip Websites.”
This message still holds. The course by Matt Diggity has some of the best training videos I’ve seen in affiliate marketing courses, but it has competitors.
Below are two course alternatives.
The Authority Site System
The Authority Site System (TASS) is an SEO course created by Authority Hacker. They have a high-quality course where they teach how to create affiliate websites with white-hat SEO practices.
TASS has similar SEO strategies to TAL; however, the delivery is a little different (not in a bad way), and with one minor difference.
TAL teaches its members how to create white and grey hat links. TAL has no issues with the methods used to acquire said links.
In TAL, you’ll find recommended link service vendors, while TASS goes with a more “safe” approach of white hat outreach emails.
The truth is, if you follow the off-page strategies taught in TAL, you’ll get results and avoid penalties by Google (more is explained in TAL’s bonus course: The Truth About Penalties.
Who should consider getting TASS by Authority Hacker:
- People who only want to stick to “safer” link building strategies
- If you’re going to create Amazon focused affiliate sites (most of their training revolves around the Amazon affiliate program)
- Someone who prefers keyword research training using Ahrefs
Learn more about TASS in our Authority Hacker review.
Income School Project 24
Project 24 is an affiliate training program created by the guys at Income School. This is the most recent course I’ve taken, and I’ve got to say it’s quite good as well.
They have a different approach to affiliate sites (for instance, not using keyword data), but their strategies work, and they have succeeded in creating websites that make money via affiliate marketing and display ads.
It’s one of the few courses that have lessons on display ads and create content focused on long-tail traffic for beginners to gain traction quicker than usual.
The only odd thing from my perspective is they don’t talk much about backlinking in their training because they focus on creating good content and let links build naturally over time.
Who should consider getting P24:
- Beginners who want to build a site that has at least two methods of monetization: affiliate commissions and display advertising
- People who want to get away from Amazon affiliate site-building (they made a recent video on Amazon decreasing commission rates – they weren’t happy about this)
- Expect to make $1,000/month after one year (based on one of their latest YouTube videos). It’s a slower approach, but their methods work.
Learn more about Project 24 here and in our Income School Project 24 review.
The above two Affiliate Lab alternatives are ideal for anyone who wants to make money with online marketing and their own website.
With that said, neither of the two SEO courses above teaches the affiliate business like the Affiliate Lab covers the topic.
Anyway, I’ll leave it there. I highly recommend the Affiliate Lab if you’re serious about making money online.
You can access the discounted sales page here.
A Final Note: avoid reviews that divert you from what you’re researching and then point you to Wealthy Affiliate. It’ll save you a lot of time!
