Since I started this blog in 2014, I get asked a lot about what is the best way to learn affiliate marketing, especially when one has no experience and very little budget in hand. In the past, I have jumped around different courses; some are helpful, some are mediocre, but there is one that I stay with until today.
The following is a list of legitimate courses that I’ve compiled for your quick review. Hopefully, towards the end, you’ll find one that suits you the most.
#1 Udemy
Udemy is an eCourse marketplace where you can pick any niche topics and learn on demand. The way to judge the quality of the instructor is based on the students’ ratings and their reviews.
Video training is the primary teaching method and sometimes you get a link or two to external references. Most courses range between $10 to $90+ while some basic ones are offered for free.
Value for the money? The average course duration for affiliate marketing courses in Udemy is about 2 to 3 hours, which will run through a structured lesson plan designed by the instructor. You are not obligated to complete any ‘homework’ but you also can’t communicate directly with the tutor via the platform. Great for theory learning; not so for practical.
#2 Lynda
Lynda is another eCourse site, but unlike Udemy, it is delivered by professionals who are experts in their industries. The training is delivered through video tutorials, transcripts and occasionally, resources for downloads. Their premium subscription fee cost about $30/month in which you can watch the videos offline too.
Value for the money? For the price that you pay, you can actually access to a whole lot of other courses in their library and get a certificate upon completing each course. So if you have an interest in web technology and creative skills or looking to add to your resume, this is a valuable package to look into.
Other than that, the learning is pretty much lecture-like and one way oriented.
#3 University of San Francisco
One of the internet marketing courses offered by this university is called Advanced Affiliate Marketing and it’s designed for bloggers and small business owners who are seeking for tertiary education qualification.
This program will cover everything from introduction to case studies within the industry and span over the course of 8 weeks with lectures and assignments. The course fee is $1495.
Value for the money? Although I don’t have any experience with this course, I did spent 5 years in college, so I pretty much know what to expect from a university program; you usually learn by the book and have very little exposure to what’s really happening in the real world. If you have the patience and wants to pursue a certificate, you could consider this course.
Otherwise, I think the fee is too expensive for someone with a limited budget.
#4 Fizzle
Fizzle is a premium video training site that collaborates with online business experts to teach and share about their entrepreneurial experiences. For $35/month, you can get with weekly coaching sessions, community access, a business road map and other perks.
Value for the money? The videos are very nicely done – high quality and extremely engaging. Plus, you get up close and personal with successful folks like Pat Flynn and John Lee Dumas, sharing their stories.
Beyond affiliate marketing, you also get the chance to learn how to create and market your own product. The place is full of fun people and the atmosphere is less rigid, so it’s a platform worth checking out.
#5 The Challenge by Ed Dale
This program is a series of training videos created by Ed Dale, an internet marketer from Australia. The topics covered some important key features of affiliate marketing without going in-depth.
Since the course is free, there’s nothing to lose, but you’ll encounter a few up sells that recommend his unique publishing platform (which is not WordPress) to launch an online business using his marketing strategy.
#6 SiteSell
SiteSell is a forum and training site that offers courses and a keyword tool. The platform that they recommend is WordPress and their topics covers some good foundation to help you understand about affiliate marketing from scratch. It costs $17/month or $149/year to subscribe to their program.
Value for the money? They have some very good step-by-step training and mostly follows the current online marketing technique. However, their user interface is a bit outdated and their keyword tool is quite difficult to use.
When you are doing keyword research, you don’t want to be spending too much time interpreting the data. You should be able to access them quickly and get back to working on your website.
#7 Affilorama
The Affilorama program has been around for a long time and it’s basically a bundle of marketing courses, hosting tools and a forum area.
Their courses cater for beginners to advanced users and they also integrate with several third party companies to enhance their marketing services.
For free membership, you can get access to some articles for getting started, but if you want structured training with premium support, it’s either $197/time for intermediate or $997/time for advanced users.
Value for the money? The free resources only scrapes the surface on affiliate marketing. So the real deal is actually in the paid training area, but what most beginners don’t know is that these packages come with PLR articles that can potentially harm your website traffic and rankings.
They are geared towards very targeted traffic where you need to invest into autoresponder services and paid advertisements. Unless you have a lot of cash to burn, I wouldn’t recommend this program for someone who is inexperienced with online marketing.
#8 Wealthy Affiliate
Wealthy Affiliate is another online course that teaches affiliate marketing from the ground up so it’s very appropriate for beginners.
Their concept is pretty straight forward; find a niche, pick a valuable product to promote and write content using targeted keywords.
The training also provides website hosting, a free keyword tool that’s very easy to use and a huge learning resource from the community members. It comes with a free membership as well as a premium subscription that cost $359/year.
Value for the money? Compared to other programs, WA’s offer is probably the most valuable of all. For about $30/month, you are getting access to a powerful WordPress platform, systematic training, weekly live webinars, SSL certificate, comment engagement and more.
These features are not add-ons; they are all INCLUSIVE to anyone who joins as a premium member. If you put all these tools together and follow the training, your website can and will attract your desired audience and generate massive traffic from the first page of Google.
I can say this with 100% confidence because that is how I grow this blog from zero to thousands of visitors per day. Of course, this isn’t something that happened overnight – it’s an accumulated effort that I’ve invested on since 2014.
If you are wondering, yes, this blog is already generating affiliate income as we speak.
Learn Affiliate Marketing – The Right Way
From the list, it should be quite clear that the best way to learn affiliate marketing is not just through theories, but also to apply the knowledge in the real online world. Only by experiencing positive and negative results, would you truly understand the skills and commitment it takes to run an affiliate business.
I hope you’ve found some value from this article. For more information, check out how I started my online business from zero and if you have any questions or comments, just leave them in the space below.
Hi Cathy,
What a great article! This is just what I’ve been looking for. I can’t tell you how many websites I’ve been to, looking for information on how to make money online. Your article finally made me move in the right direction. I just joined Wealthy Affiliate a few minutes ago. I am going to get started on their courses after commenting here.
Looking forward to learn something useful.
Great article Cathy. I didn’t realize there were so many different options available for learning affiliate marketing. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of most of them before. Like many people, I don’t have a lot of money to invest in starting a new online business, so I like the fact that you have stated clearly how much each of these would costs.
Cathy – Thank you for that concise and clear review of the products that you have listed in your blog. I like that you specifically state the pros and cons of the different products in regards to the pricing and what can be expected out of the program packages. This would have helped speed up my research before coming to WA.
Well, I am glad it gives you some perspective about the different programs out there 🙂
Hello Cathy
Thanks for sharing these tips on where to learn affiliate marketing. This is a vast industry and many people dream about earning money from the internet.
I have heard about some of these programs and some are new to me like The Challenge by Ed Dale. No wonder he offers free education. The up sells is where he makes the money.
I have heard of Fizzle but never gave it much thought, but if one of my idols, Pat Flynn shares his stories there, it might be worth checking out the program in the future.
Unfortunately, time flies – $35 for a month might sound like a good deal but from experience, you only end up using half of it. I’ve joined many monthly programs in the past, but found that I was too tired to even turn on the computer after finishing with work. Before you know it, the month is over and I’m expected to pay up again.
Brilliant tips though. If I get to join any of them, will let you know.
You are right Roamy. The thing with subscription programs – whether they are monthly or annually – is the continuity/commitment on the user side that makes it worthwhile. You can only learn so much. What’s more important is taking action to build that tiny blocks surrounding your affiliate business because that’s the one that will generate results – not theories.
Ideally, you want to find a program that can offer both knowledge and tools that help you move forward.
Hi Cathy,
Your list of affiliate marketing programs is very informative. I am new to this online business world and would like to explore it but I am not sure what to choose from your list. As a novice with limited resources, which program would you suggest that I join? Thanks.
If you are limited in terms of budget, I would advice that you check out the free training at Wealthy Affiliate first. For starter, you don’t need to provide any credit card information. So that should give you some peace of mind. You can access the first level of the Online Entrepreneurship course, get some idea what niche, content keywords and website building is all about.
If you need any help at this stage, just shoot me a PM within the training area and I’ll be more than happy to help you out.