So you’ve heard that affiliate marketing is a great way to make money on the side. Well, it’s true but how do you actually get started? The Internet is a crowded place so to make your life a little easier, I have personally hand-picked 9 sites where you can actually go and learn affiliate marketing online for free. Totally F-R-E-E.
Are you excited? Here’s the list.
#1 – YouTube
No kidding. You can actually learn a lot of things from YouTube and I’ve seen people transformed their lives by picking up new skills simply through watching videos. So why not affiliate marketing, right?
Just type in any search keywords and you can easily find hundreds if not thousands of short clips to lengthy tutorials discussing the topic. Often times, the videos come with links where you can get more information on another site or buy a certain product or service.
YouTube is great for visual learners and it’s something you can listen to while you are on the go without having to read any lengthy articles. Just remember to search more thorough to filter out amateurish content and don’t easily get swayed by the promises of high-ticket programs.
#2 – Udemy
Udemy is a learning platform that teaches skills across various categories. Each course has at least one instructor and they are usually taught by people with experience in that field. Lessons are delivered through systematic video presentation and some come with downloadable notes.
Even though it’s a pay-per-course platform, Udemy actually offers some free courses that cover certain areas in affiliate marketing. To get to that, enter ‘free courses’ on the search bar and you’ll be given a long list. Check the filter for ‘WordPress’ and ‘Blogging’ to narrow down on the specific topics.
While there’s no actual free affiliate marketing course, I found the topics to be highly relevant because they give you the fundamental knowledge in terms of building a good and professional looking WordPress site and creating your first content.
Tips – Look for the ones with higher ratings, 4 and above, so that you know it’s worth your time watching the tutorials.
#3 – Skillshare
Skillshare is another online education platform that’s gradually picking up in popularity because you can actually learn from experts in the field. It’s a subscription site that gives you access to unlimited classes and lets you watch offline through the apps for a premium fee.
Under the free classes section, check for ‘Marketing’ and you can find people like Rand Fiskin teaching the basics of SEO. Pretty cool, uh? They also have tool-specific courses like ‘How to use Pinterest’ and ‘How to use MailChimp’ when you are ready to go into social and email marketing.
If you like video-based tutorials, the high-quality video and professional presentation inside Skillshare is going to wow you.
#4 – Wordstream
Wordstream is an online advertising company and they have been around for quite some time. They sure know a lot about driving targeted traffic and are generous to share that through PPC University – a free resource containing written guides and webinars on the subject matter.
The topics ranged from fundamental to advanced and it’s one of those places I would recommend to those who are ready to scale their business through ad campaigns. Anyone can access the page without having to create any user account so it’s pretty straightforward.
#5 – Scribd
For those who like to read, but can never find the time to do so, you should try listening to audiobooks on your phone. Honestly, this format has allowed me to ‘read’ ten times more books this year, than any other years combined.
The Scribd app is my go-to site for audiobooks, books, and even online magazines. It offers a 30-day free trial for unlimited access and I think you should use the good opportunity to check out some of the affiliate marketing titles in their library. Just download the book and listen to it offline on your way to work.
While Scribd doesn’t have as much variety as Audible from Amazon, I think the selection is reasonably fair if you aren’t too picky. Their subscription fee is certainly more cost-effective for the values you are getting. So if you are keen to try, use my referral link and you can get up to two months free!
#6 – Affiliorama
Affiliorama is an affiliate marketing training site that has been around since 2006. They have an active forum for members and also a free resource page that covers everything from getting started, market research, website building and creating content. You must sign in as a member before you can access the training.
Their paid packages come at varying prices though. The beginner’s guidebook is priced at $37 and the comprehensive-made-for-you marketing suite sells for $997. While it’s tempting, I wouldn’t recommend to sign up for anything that’s highly-priced just yet until you’ve gained some basic knowledge and know for sure that you are ready to commit.
#7 – Neil Patel
Neil Patel is an SEO expert who blogs about online marketing and offers consultation services for big companies. For starters like you, he has a dedicated page that focuses on teaching you the foundation of affiliate marketing right up to how you can scale the business through PPC.
Inside the concise article, he talks about practical tips and useful tools that can be used to create and grow your traffic. Pretty heavy stuff, but things were kept simple with plenty of examples to help you understand.
He also offers some free tools such as a website report analyzer, an A/B testing calculator and a keyword tool that you can use to improve site traffic. In case you want to pick more of his brain, you can follow him on the Marketing School podcasts which he co-hosts with Eric Siu to discuss all things marketing.
#8 – Pat Flynn
Pat Flynn is one of those marketing guys you would like to learn from. Smart and charismatic, his online career started from a humble beginning and today, he’s widely recognized for trail-blazing the online passive income trend and for boosting the podcasting arena.
Pat’s successful business is largely attributed to affiliate marketing so he certainly knows what he’s talking about. His free resource – An Epic Guide to Affiliate Marketing – used to be an eBook divided into 8 Chapters.
Now, he has laid everything out on the website so you can easily browse through the pages without having to download anything. Knowing the kind of person he is, you can expect a lot of nitty-gritty information, revealing case-studies and engaging videos to speed up your learning process.
#9 – Wealthy Affiliate
So far, all the sites I’ve mentioned are purely on digital training products and they can only take you so far in terms of knowledge. To get results, you need to have websites and content and that’s where Wealthy Affiliate comes into the picture.
WA is a community platform that provides step-by-step training, weekly live webinars, a keyword tool and most importantly, WordPress hostings for you to literally create an affiliate blog. They have been around for a very long time and has produced a lot of successful super affiliates. You can read about their stories inside.
To get a taste of what you can benefit from WA, you can join as a starter member (no credit card required) and remain one for as long as you like. Within the membership, you will have free access to;
- The beginner’s training course – A total of 10 lessons plus video walkthrough, learn at your own pace.
- Phase 1 of the Affiliate Bootcamp where you can start earning immediately.
- Two training classrooms for you to join in the discussion with other members.
- Two free WordPress blogs – get a site set up in less than 60 seconds.
- 30 free searches on the keyword tool
This platform is totally recommended for newbies and even for those who aren’t quite sure about the whole thing. Because the entire training is guided and task-based, I assure that you’ll gain something positive even in the first week itself. Advanced training can be found in the Premium section whenever you are ready.
Wrapping Up
So there you go, 9 places to learn affiliate marketing online for free, whether it’s on your PC or on your phone. Depending on who’s teaching, the stuff you learn can be a bit different, but they are all legit sites that don’t require any penny – just some time and effort on your side to get started.
When you have everything figured out – or at least most part of it – I hope you can continue to move forward with the plan to make making-money-online a reality for you. You never know where tiny steps and big dreams can lead you to. Good luck!
Do you know of any free learning resources that aren’t listed here? Please share them in the comment down below.
Deb says
Hi there Cathy.
I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate and I love it. It’s a great base for newbies and a great resource to have on hand for anyone wanting to build an online business. The support you get is second to none and I would recommend anyone starting out with a goal to have an online business start with Wealthy Affiliate.
Recently, I’ve also come across Amy Porterfield and find her excellent. I do a lot of traveling in the car for work and she does a free weekly podcast on affiliate marketing which is the best way for me to digest content because I have a pretty full-time job.
I don’t think I’d actually buy anything of her because WA has most of my basic covered but for ongoing motivation and new ideas, you can’t beat a good podcast and Amy has nailed that online niche in my opinion.
Cathy says
Yes, I’ve heard of Amy and she’s pretty good. Totally agree with you on listening to motivations while on-the-go. I keep myself occupied with the Scribd app (audiobooks) and Pat Flynn’s affiliate marketing podcasts when I commute to work. They inspired me with tons of ideas all the time.
Rhain says
I believe the resource contained within this post is more than adequate to start learning affiliate marketing. While most preliminary lessons are for free, I do think that some are better than others. Not that I’ve tried them all, but I can already tell that Wealthy Affiliate stands out because their free feature lets you get started with a WordPress site while most don’t.
Cathy says
Hi Rhain. Having a WordPress site from the very beginning is a game-changer because you get to apply what you learned especially with website building techniques and content creation. It was the free website builder that got me started with blogging and that convinced me that WordPress is the right platform to move forward with.
Phil says
There are a ton of places to learn about internet and affiliate marketing. I like YouTube because you get to hear a person teach you step-by-step and can, therefore, visualize better. It is amazing how much free training there is out there, but for me, it gets overwhelming if you try to do them all. You need to stick with one and follow at your own pace to make sure it works for you.
Jake says
I personally think the best way to learn anything is by doing it. Just reading books and watching videos will not get you hands-on experience. The most important thing is to choose a reputable site with plenty of positive reviews. Make sure there is a money-back guarantee too and shop around for the best prices. Do not be in a hurry and take your time.
Cathy says
Very well said, Jake.
Parveen says
Not being biased here but I find Wealthy Affiliate’s free training to be one of the more legitimate ones to follow. It didn’t take much to convince me to upgrade to premium. There’s a lot of stuff you can learn from this platform.
Stephanie says
I surely think that YouTube is one of the best ways to start in affiliate marketing. I went towards this direction some weeks ago. I’m an introvert so showing my face wasn’t really an option so I went with making a presentation-type of videos and without promoting my video, it got over 22 views the first week. Yay!
I also tried Neil Patel’s free tools and I think they give you some great insights on how your website is moving along.
Cathy says
Good on you, Stephanie, for trying out YouTube marketing. I am still trying to get into that – if only I have the time between juggling my day work and writing content for my blog.