Project 24
Great Beginners Course
- Day-by-Day Training
- Focus on Pumping Out Content
- Includes both Google & YouTube Training
- Monetizes with Both Affiliate & Display Ads
- Believes in Getting Links Naturally
Authority Hacker
Our #1 Affiliate Training Course Pick
- Best Niche & Keyword Research Tutorials
- White-Hat Acquisition
- Useful Outsourcing Templates & Blueprints
- Updated & Improved Multiple Times Per Year
- Greatest Course Structure & UX
- For Beginners & Intermediates
Affiliate Lab
Advanced Course
- Covers Both White & Gray Hat Acquisition
- A-Z Backlink Training & Analysis Templates
- CRO Techniques
- Teaches How to Scale Multiple Sites
- Full Training on Flipping Sites
If you’re looking for the best affiliate marketing courses currently on the market, you’re in the right place. After spending a small fortune on affiliate courses, this article will save you time, money and get you to your affiliate goals quicker.
Did you find out about the affiliate marketing business model through a YouTube video, article, or someone you know?
Every year, thousands of people get exposed to the idea of blogging or making a passive income via affiliate websites, but by my estimations, fewer than 3% ever succeed at affiliate marketing.
The truth is, people, either get stuck in “research mode” or never get proper guidance to succeed in the affiliate business. Guidance can come in the form of mentors (hard to come by) or an affiliate marketing course.
Yet, choosing an affiliate course can be a tricky business. By default, the world of making money online gets a bad wrap because gurus use high-pressure sales tactics, create low-quality video courses (that sometimes get outsourced), and some are flat-out scams.
Since 2016, I’ve gone through my share of top affiliate marketing courses (it got costly over the years), affiliate marketing books, free affiliate marketing training, and now, years later, I’m can give back to others just starting out by writing this article.
After years of going through affiliate training, I have a sense of what a high-quality affiliate marketing course can deliver. There aren’t many out there, and the top three courses I listed above didn’t exist (sadly) when I first started my affiliate marketing journey.
Why should you trust my top three course recommendations?
As you’ll see in the sections that follow, I’ve purchased each one of these affiliate marketing courses. They each have a review dedicated to them, with my experience noted. And lastly, I’ve worked at a digital marketing agency as an SEO and PPC specialist – I know when a course is BS and when it’s legit.
So, if you want a course that teaches you how to build an affiliate website that makes you money while you sleep, and you want to be one of the few people who succeed in affiliate marketing, make sure to read this article all the way to the end.
Table of Contents
Best Affiliate Marketing Courses of 2024
Rating | Course Name | Rating |
---|---|---|
Best Overall | The Authority Site System | 4.8 |
Best Advanced Course | The Affiliate Lab | 4.5 |
Best Beginners Course | Project 24 | 4.2 |
Our #1 Recommended Course: The Authority Site System by Authority Hacker
The Authority Site System (TASS) is a course by the guys over at Authority Hacker.
This Authority Hacker course has earned our #1 course recommendation because they not only created a useful affiliate course but have become a consistent resource for affiliate marketers regularly on different marketing channels.
Their story in a nutshell:
Authority Hacker is run by Mark Webster (the guy you see in the image above) and Gael Breton. They’re business partners who set out to be the most valuable resource for people who want to make a living online by creating an affiliate website that creates job-quitting income.
Whether you choose to invest in this course or not, I recommend visiting their site at Authorityhacker.com and/or subscribing to their podcast (it’s where all the cool kids hang out).
After transitioning from searching engine optimization (SEO) for local clients, Mark and Gael became master affiliate marketers. (Dealing with clients can be exhausting).
Mark and Gael started getting into affiliate marketing when Private Blog Networks (PBNs) were still all the rage. SEOs were using them to rank client and affiliate sites alike.
Note: PBNs are a type of link that packs a lot of “link juice” power and helps SEOs rank their pages quickly. This type of link acquisition is often referred to as “grey hat link strategies,” and this topic will come up again when we talk about Matt Diggity’s course.
The issue with PBNs is that Google has some ways of detecting this type of link scheme, and if they catch on, your site can be penalized.
More Details About Their Course:
This is why Authority Hacker’s TASS course doesn’t include grey hat link campaign strategies. Instead, they stick to white hat link acquisition (which involves email outreach to other bloggers and acquiring links back to your site).
TASS’s goal is to help its students build an authority website that earns them $1,000-$5,000 every month.
They also have a course called “Authority Hacker Pro” that releases once a year for affiliate marketers who want to scale their sites past five grand per month. You can read more about TASS and Authority Hacker Pro in our recent Authority Hacker review.
The Authority Site System Course Highlights
- A Step by Step Course: the course structure, in a nutshell, teaches you about domain names, how to pick your affiliate niche (keyword research-intensive), choose the right keywords for content, site planning, setting up your website, and how to get backlinks.
- Writing/Outsourcing Templates: whether you’re going to write content yourself or hire writers to do it for you, TASS provides easy to follow outsourcing templates for different types of blog posts.
- Consistently Updated: TASS System upgrades at least once a year. You’re getting the most updated version, TASS 3.0.
- White Hat Link Strategies ONLY: these are the same backlink tactics Gael & Mark use to build links to their site to this day.
- Active Community Online & Offline: TASS has an active Facebook community. And if you ever go to a conference where Gael and Mark are presenting, expect to have an Authority Hacker get-together.
Pros
Cons
TASS Pricing
The Authority Site System is usually priced at $1,499, but our readers get an exclusive discount and get the TASS for $750 OFF!
Best Intermediate to Advanced Affiliate Marketing Course: The Affiliate Lab by Matt Diggity
Our close runner-up on this list is The Affiliate Lab by Matt Diggity. Matt is a leading SEO expert in the affiliate world. He’s known for flipping websites for a huge profit and meticulously testing his SEO projects. He shares his test results in The Affiliate Lab (TAL), hence the name.
For example, he’s tested that PBNs still work (even in 2020), but with precautions. Those precautions, and more, are taught in TAL.
When Matt’s course first launched, his backlinking strategy revolved around PBNs, but in recent years, he transitioned to a heavy focus on white hat links and views grey hat as an optional strategy.
The big difference between TAL and Authority Hacker’s TASS course is the way they approach building links.
Matt isn’t against purchasing links through link vendors, such as guest posts, as long as the website meets specific criteria. At the same time, though, he has a bonus course included in TAL called “Outreach Masterclass,” dedicated to classic whitehat outreach.
Gael & Mark, from TASS, don’t believe in paying for links and teach a systematic way of getting links through email outreach.
As you can see, TAL and TASS do things a bit differently when it comes to Off-Page SEO, but they share some things in common.
Three noteworthy highlights of TAL are its Off-Page lessons and the two bonus masterclasses, “Outreach Masterclass” and the “Website Flipping Masterclass.”
The Affiliate Lab Course Highlights
- Intermediate to Advanced Course: TAL goes deep into SEO and is often the missing piece of the puzzle for intermediates who want to gain a competitive edge in their niche.
- The Beginner Lab: TAL comes with a beginners mini-course for members who need to get up-to-speed with domains, hosting, WordPress, and an intro to SEO marketing tools.
- Website Flipping Course + Case Studies: Comes with a bonus course on flipping websites that covers all the intricacies of buying and selling websites to increase your business’s bottom line.
- The Truth About Penalties: A quick mini-course about penalties and core algorithm updates. You’ll know the steps to take if your site ever gets penalized and who to contact for help.
- Outreach Bonus: a 50+ video course on how to do email outreach for links. Type of link outreach includes guest post, podcast, expert roundup, content promotion, broken link building, product review, skyscraper outreach, and more.
- Affiliate Email Marketing Masterclass (New): an email marketing course any affiliate can implement on their site(s).
- Active Community Online & Offline: The level of affiliate talent and experience rivals TASS’s Facebook group, and TAL members also get together at conferences.
PROS
Cons
The Affiliate Lab Pricing
TAL is usually priced at $997, but our readers get an exclusive discount and get the TAL for $200 OFF!
Best Affiliate Marketing Course for Beginners: Project 24 by Income School
Project 24 is an affiliate marketing training course created by Jim Harmer and Ricky Tesler of Income School fame. This is the most recent course I’ve taken on this post.
At first, I was skeptical of Jim and Rick because I wasn’t used to seeing SEOs publish so often on YouTube. Some of their video titles were clickbait-ish, such as “link building is useless,” and coming from my SEO circles, a video like that was a little controversial.
I continued to subscribe to their YouTube channel, watching a video here and there, until I saw the news that they were selling their websites.
One of their sites flipped for over $300,000 and others for $50,000+ (their report article). I saw that their primary source of monetization for these sites was display ads, and I got super-intrigued.
I invested in their Project 24 course a few days later because now I knew there was, perhaps, a method to their “madness.” I could learn something from these two. I expected a course that was content-focused and had a few golden nuggets along the way, and that’s precisely what I got!
Project 24’s course layout is different than the other courses on this list. Their 60 Steps to Blogging Success training is broken down into 60 daily steps. I can see how this structured approach to learning can be helpful for beginners who might feel overwhelmed.
As I started finishing the course, I realized that this is the best affiliate course for beginners, and it’ll go on my top 3 list. Their approach to affiliate marketing websites is such that a beginner can solely focus on content creation (once their site is set up) and avoid the topic of getting links altogether.
You can learn more about this course in our Income School Project 24 review.
Unlike the other two courses on our top 3 list, there’s no need to invest in SEO tools! They have their methods of keyword research using Google and let links come naturally. This further reinforced that Project 24 is one of the better courses for beginners.
What I like about these guys is that they don’t just teach affiliate marketing. They also show you how to get your sites to certain views per month to start using display ads.
Rick and Jim decided on the name Project 24 because they feel confident that if you follow their roadmap, you can create a passive niche website and replace your current income within 24 months of taking this course.
Project 24’s Course Highlights
- Google and YouTube Affiliate Training: Project 24 teaches how to be successful affiliate via blogging, in their “60 Steps to Blogging Success” training, and on YouTube in their “60 Steps to Success on YouTube” (you get both with your purchase).
- Beginner & Budget-Friendly: These guys created a course built for beginners. They know that they could recommend paid tools to their members, but provide other strategies to establish a successful blog.
- The Niche Ideas List: The course creators really outdid the other courses here. Project 24 provides a spreadsheet containing 1,011 possible niches you can build your site on and advice/notes on each niche. (You shouldn’t have any issues with niche selection after going through this list).
- Extra SEO Training: Aside from their main blogging course, Project 24 also comes with the following training “E-A-T for SEO,” “The Battleship Method,” “Web Traffic Snowball,” No Nonsense SEO,” and “Search Analysis.”
- Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, & Misc: In addition to the other training programs, Project 24 also includes the following training “Pinterest Results,” “Email Marketing 101,” “Monetize with Info Products,” “Photography Start,” “Video Editing,” and “the Success Mindset.”
- Display Ad Monetization: Project 24 also provides a training program dedicated to monetizing your website with display ads in an easy to understand manner.
- Active Forum Community: Albeit a little old school, Project 24 gives you access to their active affiliate forum. This is where members can ask questions about your affiliate site and all topics of internet marketing.
- Writing Content Yourself Or Outsource Training: Affiliate marketing success doesn’t require that you be a great writer. Rick and Jim understand this and provide two separate pieces of training full of lessons on how to improve your writing and how to hire and train writers (at a low price) if you choose to go that route.
Pros
Cons
9 Other Affiliate Marketing Course Reviews
You might’ve noticed that the above affiliate marketing training courses focused on making money from SEO skills and blogging.
More specifically, the affiliate marketing knowledge and business models taught by the affiliate marketing experts above focus on ranking for keywords and making passive income (“ranking and banking,” if you will).
In the list below, you’ll find affiliate marketing courses that take a different approach to make “passive income.” They teach different traffic channels, focus on a specific discipline of digital marketing, and some that are a mixed bag.
Affiliate Secrets 2.0
First up is a course by super affiliate Spencer Mecham. This course was initially popular, in my opinion, because Spencer was “the guy” that taught how to use Google AdWords for affiliate marketing. He was good at promoting products using paid traffic channels.
He got so good that he became one of the best affiliates for the software company Clickfunnels. It’s rumored that Spencer now makes tens of thousands of dollars passive income every month based on this affiliate program alone.
Note: Recently, Clickfunnel’s referral program no longer allows its affiliates to “bid” on their branded keywords. Unfortunately, no one can replicate what Spencer did.
That’s when he decided to launch his course Affiliate Secrets.
Aside from standard niche research and basic affiliate marketing video lessons, his course teaches the following traffic channels:
- YouTube
- Google Ads
- Solo Ads
- Quora
- Facebook Groups & Ads
- Email marketing
- Sales funnels
As you can see, the course isn’t centered around a website. Instead, Spencer teaches you how to be an affiliate who provides value via the traffic sources above and teaches you how to use funnels to make money as an affiliate.
Affiliate Secrets 2.0 is best for people who don’t want to get into the nitty-gritty of creating a website and ranking on Google. If you want to learn how to use Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, or be a YouTube affiliate, this course is for you with the help of affiliate funnels.
Pros
- Teaches an affiliate marketing strategy that utilized marketing funnels and landing pages
- Focuses on creating a high-quality email list, so you’re less reliant on Google, YouTube, and other traffic methods
- Teaches how to set up multiple ad accounts
- Great tips and tricks for ranking on YouTube
- One of the few affiliate marketing courses that teach how to do Google AdWords well
Cons
- Google AdWords requires a monthly ad budget
- Multiple traffic channels can lead to shiny object syndrome if you’re not careful
- No talk about Google or other search engines
Learn More About Spencer’s Course Here.
Super Affiliate System
You might’ve heard about John Crestani and his Super Affiliate System (SAS) course. John Crestani is a super affiliate who was actually in the paid advertising affiliate trenches before he became make money online guru.
His specialty before he exploded in the affiliate marketing industry was Google Adwords and native advertising.
SAS is a course that focuses on teaching paid traffic and has gone through three significant updates.
In SAS 1.0, you saw the old John. His affiliate business training was more complicated by nature back then. 2.0 expanded the course and included his past students teaching their affiliate marketing and copywriting knowledge.
SAS 3.0, the current version, focuses on Facebook Ads, Google AdWords, and YouTube ads. You also get access to the past versions of the course. You can learn more about the latest version of SAS here (review link).
Since this course only teaches paid advertising, I only recommend it to people who have a minimum monthly ad spend budget. For more info, watch his free affiliate marketing webinar.
Pros
- No email list building
- Teaches how to take people down an affiliate funnel with simple landing pages
- Good module on copywriting skills
- How to start an advertising campaign from scratch
- Explores multiple affiliate programs
Cons
- The only niche taught is MMO
- Platform advertising fees
Check Out The Super Affiliate System Here.
Aversity
Aversity is an affiliate training platform created by entrepreneur and course creator Sean Bagheri. I learned about his Aversity course from his YouTube channel.
To me, his YouTube channel made sense, and at the time, I was hungry to learn how to make money online with Clickbank products and Facebook ads. I saw a lot of online entrepreneurs making huge profits on Clickbank, and eventually, I found Sean.
He pitched his Aversity Gold Masterclass in his videos, and eventually, I gave it a try. The investment was worth it. I ended up making my first sale through Facebook advertising and Clickbank.
Sean might not be the most well-known affiliate, but his course works. He’s an excellent presenter when it comes to teaching the fundamentals and even the more technical aspects of digital marketing (such as conversion tracking).
His course teaches newbies to intermediates how to make hundreds of dollars every month from Clickbank and other networks. He teaches both aspects of search engine marketing, SEO, and PPC (including Google & Bing Ads). If you’re interested in starting marketing campaigns that focus on Clickbank products, Aversity can help.
Pros
- Gives you confidence in paid marketing campaigns and marketing products as an affiliate
- Great case studies Sean’s done himself with Clickbank products
- Very transparent with the products he promotes and his earnings
Cons
- Not the best SEO advice
- Not the most active community
Learn More About Aversity Here.
AutoResponder Madness
Autoresponder Madness (ARM) is a legendary course on email marketing taught by Andre Chaperon. This course, if you haven’t guessed already, is all about email marketing.
It’s not solely for affiliate marketers but teaches the fundamentals of how email can be one of your most effective traffic sources as an affiliate marketer. Andre shows examples of how he’s had five-figure days as an affiliate promoting a product on launch day – with a TINY list.
This is one of the best courses you’ll find on email marketing. It teaches you how to email your list when they subscribe and how to go about selling during your automated email series and how to do it once they’re past your automated emails.
Pros
- Everything you need to know about email marketing
- Teaches how to build a high-quality email list
- An excellent guide to email tagging and automation
- Teaches how to treat your email audience, so they’re excited to be on your list
- He’s the godfather of the Soap-Opera-Sequence (an email marketing strategy that’s still used by lots of marketers to this day)
- Course creator is a successful affiliate marketer
Cons
- Course information is mostly written (Andre doesn’t like being on video)
Check out Andre’s sales page!
Learn More About AutoResponder Madness Here.
Create and Go
Create and Go have three affiliate marketing courses: Launch Your Blog Biz, Pinterest Traffic Avalanche, and Six-Figure Blogger.
My brother and I split the bill for Alex Nerney and Lauren’s courses a while back (I forgot how we discovered them). Their courses teach affiliate marketing blogging, Pinterest traffic (their primary source of traffic), and how to take your blog to the next level by creating your own digital products (e-books and/or course), and email marketing.
Pros
- One of the best resources for learning how to blog without SEO as the primary free traffic source
- A-Z training on setting up your WordPress blog from scratch
Cons
- You have to buy at least two of their courses to get the full training
Learn More About the Create & Go Courses Here.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is a course by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, the millionaire blogger behind Making Sense of Cents.
Whether you’re researching methods of making or saving money, Michelle’s blog serves as an informational hub of personal finance, blogging tips, and being successful as an affiliate marketer.
Her Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course is a good course; however, it’s all text.
I would’ve liked to see videos (if I had to guess – maybe she’s camera shy?) of her explaining best practices and affiliate marketing strategies. I think it’d be beneficial for her to build a strong audience connection by doing so. Unfortunately, in 2020, courses can’t be voted the best affiliate marketing training with text-based lessons.
Pros
- Good course for first-time affiliates just entering the affiliate game
- Supportive Facebook group community
- Bonus course lessons that teach traffic sources by other industry experts in social media marketing
Cons
- Mainly a text-based learning
Learn More About Michelle’s Course Here (sales page) and read our Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing review for more details.
Wealthy Affiliate
Wealthy Affiliate was the first course I took when I first started researching how I’d ever make a living online and how to become an affiliate. Have you searched similar topics in Google and run into Wealthy Affiliate? If you’ve been researching said topics, chances are you have.
Wealthy Affiliate was my first step into the world of affiliate marketing, and it didn’t take me long to realize the reason why they’re found in thousands of articles. They have an affiliate program that affiliates love!
Some Wealthy Affiliate affiliates go as far as to write comparison reviews of all the affiliate marketing courses there are (including those in our top-3 list) and conclude with Wealthy Affiliate being the best alternative. Crazy!
However, it’s not all bad, as it is beginner-friendly. They have monthly training classrooms you can partake in. And they also provide free web hosting for being a member of Wealthy Affiliate.
Pros
- Decent affiliate marketing fundamental training
- Monthly webinars to answer questions you may have
- Good product to promote if you’re truthful in what’s offered
- The founder of Wealthy Affiliate is active in the community
Cons
- Modules are outdated
- Paid membership only
Learn More About Wealthy Affiliate.
Affiliate Marketing Mastery
Affiliate Marketing Mastery is a course by Stefan James, the entrepreneur behind Project Life Mastery.
I initially bought it when it first launched. However, it wasn’t for me as I was an intermediate at the time and knew about what was being taught (i.e. how affiliate cookies work, what an affiliate marketing program is, how to sign up to different affiliate marketing programs, free and paid traffic, social media, etc.).
That said, this course is for beginners who are hungry to begin their affiliate marketing efforts.
Pros
- Decent high-quality training program to start an affiliate marketing business
Cons
- Few student testimonials from absolute beginners
SEO Affiliate Domination
SEO Affiliate Domination (SEOAD) is a course I invested in a few years back. Greg Jeffries teaches it. He’s made affiliate sales using the gray hat SEO.
However, I didn’t know what I was stepping into when I first got SEOAD. All I knew is I heard about Greg being a dream car winner from the Clickfunnels affiliate program by just using SEO as a traffic source.
His SEO strategy is to create mass-page websites/videos and basically to share your affiliate links as much as possible with the help of certain WordPress plugins/tools.
It’s not a bad strategy, and it actually works (I wasn’t a believer at first). I promoted multiple affiliate offers, from numerous affiliate networks, in different niches and started making money.
I see this course now as a double-edged sword, though. It’s a good course to learn the basics of on-site and off-site SEO. But it also takes the same amount of effort, money, and time to implement these type of websites.
These mass-page sites are usually short-lived (lasting roughly 3-12 months). I moved on because I wanted to build websites (assets) that were built to last.
All that said, SEOAD was retired so Greg can focus on earning more as an affiliate and test new promotion methods. SEOAD is now back and accepting new students!
Honorable Mentions
The following online courses are courses that I’ve encountered in my affiliate journey, but I haven’t fully vetted yet. I’ve included them below as honorable mentions because you’re more than likely to encounter them in the affiliate marketing world too.
Passive Income Geek by Morten Storgaard
I’m a YouTube subscriber to Morten’s channel and have been following him for a couple of years.
His Passive Income course approach is similar to that of Income School’s Project 24 course. I can tell based on his free content and podcast interviews I’ve heard him on.
In a nutshell, you’ll build a niche site, go for long-tail keywords, and monetize your site(s) with display ads and affiliate links. I’m looking forward to going through this one!
Five Figure Niche Site by Doug Cunnington
Doug Cunnington is an O.G. in the affiliate marketing world. I’ve also been listening to his podcast for years. He provides laid-back content via his podcast and knows stuff.
He has a course on building niche sites called the Five Figure Niche site, which launches for a limited time one or two times per year (I’ll have to double-check with Doug soon).
Based on consuming years of his content, I can tell Doug’s a no B.S. type of internet marketer and focuses on what moves the needle for his and his students’ niche site projects. With that said, expect to learn how to create a successful affiliate website with an instructor who knows it takes whitehat links to compete in profitable niches.
Savage Affiliates by Franklin Hatchett
I was looking forward to taking the Franklin Hatchett affiliate course called Savage Affiliates. I had heard good things about it and liked his approach to paid ads and his free content. But, after reaching out to Franklin Hatchett, he informed me that he’s closing shop with his Savage affiliate course.
123 Affiliate Marketing by Pat Flynn
Pat Flynn inspired a lot of affiliate marketers that are currently leaders of the affiliate marketing world. Pat now has a course called 123 Affiliate Marketing, and it teaches the fundamentals.
I’ve seen this course first-hand from a friend’s dashboard. You’re not going to learn advanced SEO techniques with Pat’s course, but it’s not a bad entry course.
Affilorama
Affilorama has been around for years. I’ve never taken it, but I’ve seen it in the Clickbank marketplace for a while. I can’t say too much about this one, except it was once a popular course similar to Wealthy Affiliate.
Other affiliate marketing courses you may come across that I don’t have much to say about now include:
- Affiliate Marketing Video Course by Matt Giovanisci
- Clickbank University
- Commission Hero by Robby Blanchard
- Digital Worth Academy
- Six-Figure Mentors
- Courses on Udemy
- Courses on Skillshare
- The Cashflow System by Tai Lopez
Affiliate Marketing Course Decision Time
That’s a wrap, guys, gals, and future affiliate marketers. This article was a few years in the making!
If you’re not sure which affiliate marketing course to get started with, but you know you want to make money via affiliate websites, learn affiliate marketing from one of our top 3 recommendations.
Our #1 pick, The Authority Site System, is best for people who want to create sites that make money with Amazon affiliate marketing and keep things white-hat (Google penalty-free). The TASS lessons are focused on the Amazon affiliate network because it’s still a good place for beginners to start.
If you want to get the full scoop on ranking websites, go with The Affiliate Lab as Matt Diggity reveals precisely what works and how to still use gray-hat SEO tactics in 2020.
For offsite SEO, he understands that not everyone has an abundance of time to build links via outreach. He reveals the reality of the SEO game.
From day one of his course, Matt encourages his members to promote affiliate products and dislikes the Amazon Associates program because you can get higher affiliate commissions elsewhere.
Project 24 isn’t a bad place to start either. There are definitely great nuggets of information in there, but expect things to take a little longer.
Each of the affiliate marketing courses on this page has its success stories. We just happen to be fans of how our top 3 picks create niche sites to promote affiliate products.
If you have any questions, ask me in the comments!