Living off of passive income seems like an elusive mission to the vast majority of people. After all, the traditional idea of success has always been “study hard, become a lawyer or a doctor, and start earning a large salary.” In the modern age, however, many highly successful people often take a different route. Instead of putting in the hours for an employer, they build themselves multiple streams of passive income. By doing so, they are setting themselves up for a life full of freedom. They make fortunes during their vacation in the Bahamas, during sleeping, during retirement… and you can do the same.
Affiliate marketing is not nearly as difficult as one might think. It’s not easy, that’s for sure – but it’s possible. It’s an excellent method of building numerous streams of passive income, and it’s becoming increasingly popular around the world. Learning affiliate marketing takes time, but if you keep yourself motivated – then there’s no stopping you.
If you do want to learn affiliate marketing, then you are at the right place. While affiliate marketers tend to be rather secretive about their business strategies, you CAN find some excellent material out there in the form of online courses. And that is why I have put together this list of the best affiliate marketing courses for 2019. I have bought and tested dozens of them, and in this post, I will share my findings with you.
So, which affiliate marketing course should you invest your time and money in?
Here are my top picks for the best affiliate marketing course.
Best Affiliate Marketing Courses
Best Overall: Beginner Affiliate Marketing To Start In 1 Day (Udemy)
New customer offer! Top courses from $14.99 when you first visit Udemy (expires 31 March 2024).
- Simple and intuitive course material, suitable for those new to affiliate marketing
- Includes useful comparisons of popular affiliate programs
- Regularly updated with new course material to cover recent developments
Cons
- Gives a good overview of affiliate marketing, but recommended to combine with a more specialized course focusing on your particular type of affiliate marketing
Who it’s for: Affiliate marketing beginners who are looking to start their very first marketing campaigns.
What you’ll learn: This course will teach you how to find good affiliate offers, how to select affiliate programs, and it will give you a good general overview of how affiliate marketing works.
Verdict: While this affiliate marketing course covers some very interesting topics which none of the other courses did, it still has its flaws. A lot of the lectures describe the ins-and-outs of affiliate programs, which I felt was very useful, but not crucial for the beginners which this course was designed for. All in all, it’s an excellent course, and with the latest updates in 2022, it is our overall recommendation for affiliate marketing courses – although we recommend that students follow up with another more specialized course for the type of affiliate marketing they are interested in.
Best for Niche Site Building: Amazon Affiliate Marketing + SEO (Udemy)
New customer offer! Top courses from $14.99 when you first visit Udemy (expires 31 March 2024).
- Covers all aspects of website affiliate marketing, including SEO
- Instructor actively responds to all questions
- Fully focused on white-hat SEO tecniques
Cons
- Going through all the course material is very time-consuming
Who it’s for: This course is meant for beginners to affiliate marketing who are looking for a course that covers absolutely ALL there is to know about building affiliate websites.
What you’ll learn: When I first opened this course’s syllabus, I was very impressed from the get-go. The syllabus consists of 16 separate sections of high-quality content, with each section having up to 38 sub-sections. All topics directly related to affiliate marketing are covered, but it goes beyond that. Way beyond that. It also explains the process of building a website from start to finish, and how to optimize websites for search engines (SEO), among other things. If you’re going to buy ONE course for affiliate marketing, and that one course only – then I strongly suggest that you buy this one. You will learn all you need to know in order to start earning affiliate commissions.
Verdict: The course is very lengthy, and it will take time and effort to fully utilize the techniques. However – if you take your time to learn the curriculum well, then you will be two steps ahead of your competition. You will have an excellent foundation of skills to build on. Building affiliate websites is one of the strongest and stablest forms of affiliate marketing, and this course will help you get started.
Best for AM without a Site: ClickBank Success – Affiliate Marketing Without a Website (Udemy)
New customer offer! Top courses from $14.99 when you first visit Udemy (expires 31 March 2024).
- Short, straight to the point video material
- Easy to follow
- Focuses on real strategies rather than theory
Cons
- Does not cover niche affiliate site building
- Full price is rather high for what you get (look for discounts)
Who it’s for: This affiliate marketing training class is meant for students who prefer a non-technical approach. The methods taught don’t require you to build websites, and overall it’s a very beginner-friendly course.
What you’ll learn: The course focuses on a different direction of affiliate marketing when compared to my first pick – ClickBank. KC Tan, the course instructor, teaches students how to earn passive income through the ClickBank platform, without ever having to build a website. This method is preferable if you don’t have large amounts of time to invest into site building, and it will get you earning affiliate income in a quick manner through alternative sources such as Facebook.
Verdict: The course instructors experience in training large organizations shows itself throughout the course. He knows how to explain complex ideas in a simple way, and his thought process is very easy to follow. Personally, however, I consider affiliate website building to be a more valuable skill, as websites tend to generate profit more regularly compared to alternative methods. Also, successful affiliate sites can be sold later down the line for extra revenue. These are the main reason why I gave the top ranking affiliate course title to The SEO Academy Leaders in SEO education and their course “Amazon Affiliate Marketing + SEO.”
Best for SEO: Affiliate Marketing + SEO: Amazon Affiliate Marketing (Udemy)
New customer offer! Top courses from $14.99 when you first visit Udemy (expires 31 March 2024).
- Course content is segmented depending on complexity
- Covers copywriting and SEO
- Contains very useful bonus materials
Cons
- Does not cover the technical basics of website building
- Full price of course is high for what you get (look for discounts)
Best Marketing Overview: Digital Marketing Masterclass (Udemy)
New customer offer! Top courses from $14.99 when you first visit Udemy (expires 31 March 2024).
- Wide range of course material
- Covers all kinds of digital marketing, not just affiliate marketing
- All experience levels can take away useful knowledge
Cons
- Covers topics too briefly - further courses needed if wanting a full picture of any of them
- Does not cover all aspects of affiliate marketing
Who it’s for: It’s suitable for everyone, from total beginners to affiliate marketing experts. However, I would say it’s best suited for beginners who want to develop a general understanding of the different branches of digital marketing.
What you’ll learn: The better question would be – what will you NOT learn from this course? “Digital Marketing Masterclass – 23 Courses in 1” is a “Jack of all trades” kind of course, which covers a wide range of topics. Everything from social media platforms, all the way to podcast marketing is covered in this online training class.
Verdict: I was very impressed with the coverage in this course. No other digital marketing course I have seen has come close to covering such a huge range of topics. This could, however, be both a positive and a negative. That is because none of the topics are covered in full detail, and you will likely need to find further material to start earning real money from any of the methods covered in this online course. It does a great job of introducing various kinds of digital marketing to the students, but it’s not so great at making you earn money from a specific method.
How to Choose a Good Affiliate Marketing Course
While every online course is different from each other, I still suggest that you rank them against one another with the same principles in mind. Going on Udemy and buying the top-rated affiliate marketing course will likely give you a good affiliate marketing course, but it might not be appropriate for your personal needs as a student.
Try answering the following questions before deciding on a course:
- Is the course instructor a real affiliate marketer?
- Besides affiliate marketing, does the course content cover SEO & site building?
- Does the course offer an affiliate marketing certificate of completion?
- Is the course aimed at your experience level?
Is the Course Instructor an Affiliate Marketer?
You don’t want to be taught affiliate marketing from a swimming instructor who barely uses a computer, do you?
Doing a quick background check on the course instructor is always a good idea before buying any course. In order to get a better idea of the course instructor, make sure to go through the course author pages. I have provided all the links to relevant author pages for the courses mentioned in this review. And, I strongly suggest that you take a look at them. If the author page does not contain enough information, then Googling the author’s name can sometimes give you more information.
However – why should you go through the trouble of finding all this information about the instructors?
To answer this, first let’s take a look at physical universities and colleges. They have very strict criteria on who can become a professor – academic experience, PhD degrees, working experience, and usually much more. When it comes to online courses, on the other hand, there is no entity which controls the teaching capabilities of the instructor. This means that filtering through the instructors is left up to the student, and the student only. As such, it’s up to you to evaluate the teacher’s credibility.
Does the Course Content Cover SEO & Site Building?
Besides affiliate marketing, does the online course cover other related topics such as search engine optimization (SEO) and website building? Depending on which type of affiliate marketing you are planning to do, these two topics might be just as important as affiliate marketing knowledge itself. For example, if you are planning on building affiliate niche websites, then your ideal course should contain lectures about SEO and site building. If it doesn’t, then you will be lacking necessary knowledge to start working. Or, you will have to invest in other courses in order to gain this necessary knowledge.
It can be difficult to evaluate the content of a course without buying the course and going through all the lectures. However, there are still some methods you can use to determine whether a particular affiliate marketing course is right for you.
Before buying a course, find the answers to the following questions:
- What does the course syllabus contain?
- Is the content based on text or video?
- Do the course lectures contain the topics you are looking for?
Will You Get an Affiliate Marketing Certificate?
Whether or not the course has a certificate of completion should not be a major deciding factor for you, but it’s definitely still worth looking into. In the context of this article, a certificate of completion is not crucial, as affiliate marketers don’t need to prove their qualifications to anyone most of the time. There are exceptions, of course – if you want to work as an affiliate manager, for example, an affiliate marketing certificate could definitely help give you that extra boost during job searching.
Even if you can’t think of any ways to use your certificate at the moment, they could still be of value to you in the future. You never know what the future has in store for you – perhaps a certificate from a top online teacher will eventually even land you that dream job you have always wanted. In any case, it’s always better to have a certificate, rather than not have one – wouldn’t you agree?
What is Your Experience Level in Affiliate Marketing?
Taking your level of experience into consideration is essential to making the right decision when buying a new course. What is the best affiliate marketing course for one person, might not be the same for another. That is because all students come from different backgrounds, and as such, they need different course material.
If you have never tried any form of website building, affiliate marketing, or SEO before in your life, then starting off with a course in Advanced SEO will make you demotivated very quickly. You will not understand any of the terminology, you will be unable to follow the lessons, and you will likely quit before finishing the course.
Therefore, I recommend that you judge your experience level honestly, and pick a course accordingly. Work your way up to the “advanced level” courses – don’t start from there.
