The 6 Best Affiliate Marketing Courses (what I used to grow to $25k /mon)

by Lewis Ogden | Last Updated: May 27, 2022 | Monetization

If you’ve looked into affiliate marketing, you’ve probably read incredible success stories. They’re usually accompanied by beach selfies, pictures of luxurious supercars, possibly even a photo or two of a yacht or mansion replete with a swimming pool and all the trimmings.

While these kinds of riches are possible, it is fair to say that a lot of claims are, at best, exaggerated. But there are also some genuinely awesome courses out there.

In this article, I will show you the best affiliate marketing courses so that you can start building your affiliate empire today.

QUICK OVERVIEW:

1. The Authority Site System (TASS) by Authority Hacker
2. Authority Hacker Pro by Authority Hacker
3. Fat Stacks Course by Jon Dykstra
4. The Affiliate Lab by Matt Diggity
5. Project 24 by Income School
6. Five Figure Niche Site by Doug Cunnington

The 6 Best Affiliate Marketing Courses (I Recommend)

1. The Authority Site System (TASS)

• Course: The Authority Site System (TASS)
• Link to Program
• Cost: $997
• Rating: 4.8 /5 stars
• Level: Beginner

Gael Breton and Mark Webster founded their first websites in 2013. They have a free starter course on their website, a podcast that is littered with great information, and they have multiple affiliate tool reviews, proven case studies, and they also offer two paid courses:

This is a beginner course and aimed at those with little to no experience in setting up or managing affiliate sites.

It isn’t cheap, but it is worth it.

The Authority Site System teaches everything from market research to tracking results and optimizing your site.

It even details how to hire and outsource the work and details some of the services Gael and Mark themselves use. It boasts more than 125 hours of “over the shoulder videos” to watch at your leisure.

Because this course is aimed at beginners, nearly half of the content is geared towards research and planning. This can feel frustrating by the time you reach the end, but it forms the foundation of your online business and is essential.

2. Authority Hacker Pro

• Course: Authority Hacker Pro
• Link to Program
• Cost: $1,997
• Rating: 4.5/5 stars
• Level: Advanced

If the cost of the Authority Site System course made you wince, then Authority Hacker Pro’s price tag will leave you with tears in your eyes. But, once again, you get a ton of content, as well as access to the advanced member community where you can share your own success and revel in that of others. You also get around 30 hours of additional video content, too.

It’s also worth mentioning that you get access to the Authority Site System as part of your Pro membership.

The content is a lot more advanced, and definitely not for newbies. It will teach you advanced email marketing techniques, how to build content funnels, and techniques to generate consistent social media traffic.

You’ll learn how to do outreach like the pros: influencer marketing and blogger outreach is the only form of link building that Breton and Webster promote in their course. It’s time-consuming, but it is effective and it is considered safe in the eyes of our search masters.

You’ll even learn how to optimize for Google Snippets, which is invaluable stuff.

Membership also gives you access to a bunch of templates. I’ve spent hours poring over the perfect lead magnet email and even longer trying to put together an effective automated email sequence.

Once you’ve joined Authority Hacker Pro, you can take their templates, amend them to your own ends, and save yourself tens of hours of work.

The cost of both systems is high, although directly comparable to a lot of inferior courses, and Authority Hacker Pro is absolutely aimed at the experienced authority site owner. But this is pretty much the only shortfall of these courses.

I say pretty much because, despite the pair’s claims that they hate things like time-limited offers on affiliate course pages, the Authority Hacker Pro program is only available during launch periods.

Sign up and you’ll receive messages letting you know how long you’ve got before the launch period ends. Exactly the same as a time-limited offer, but that’s a small qualm and it shouldn’t detract from the value that these courses offer.

3. Fat Stacks Course Bundle by Jon Dykstra

• Course: Fat Stacks Bundle
• Link to Program
• Cost: $499
• Rating: 4.6 /5 stars
• Level: Beginner – Intermediate – Advanced

I’ve followed Jon for a long time and admired his approach to online business since he runs his websites in a unique way. First up, he doesn’t build any backlinks for his web properties, which is unheard of in these circles.

He also ignores most of the SEO advice given by the prominent voices in the industry and simply does things his own way.

Jon’s course will teach you how to start from scratch, which tasks to prioritize and more importantly, which to ignore. The proven systems Jon has set up have enabled him to grow his revenue to over $70k each month by taking a simple content-first approach and using display ads as his primary method of monetization.

The course bundle includes:

• Pinterest Magnate – a step-by-step course teaching you how to drive traffic to your niche blog with Pinterest.
• Long-Tail Deep Dive – Learn how to find easy-to-rank, longtail keywords that require zero backlinks to rank.
• Content Site Autopilot – How Jon structures his websites and business in order to scale your profits.
• Natural Link Building Formula – How to avoid manual link building and create assets that attract backlinks naturally.
• Display Ads Deep Dive – Why Jon recommends display ads and how to get the most out of them.
• On-Site SEO Deep Dive – Learn the right way to set up your niche websites to rank content with on-page tactics.
• Niche Exponential – How Jon creates smaller B2B niches sites that earn a recurring commission each month.
• Full access to the private forum (very active and worth it just for this IMO)

If you don’t like building backlinks or have had enough of Amazon slashing your commissions, the Fat Stacks Bundle is the right course for you. It will teach you new methods of keyword research, content publishing and team building so you can grow your own media company from the ground up.

With zero ‘flash’ or guru BS, Jon’s course bundle is excellent value for money and worth every minute of your time it will take to devour each lesson.

4. The Affiliate Lab by Matt Diggity

• Course: The Affiliate Lab
• Link to Program
• Cost: $997
• Rating: 4.5 /5 stars
• Level: Beginner – Intermediate – Advanced

The Affiliate Lab is an affiliate marketing course run by Matt Diggity of Diggity Marketing. He is an experienced SEO and brings this experience to the course. So, while Income School rejects all link building and Authority Hacker relies solely on outreach to develop links, Affiliate Lab will teach you a variety of link building techniques and other lead generation models. It’s a more agile system, in many respects, and one that should stand the test of time.

The aim of this course is to build and develop a site that you will be able to sell for $100,000. This means developing a site that makes around $3,500 per month revenue.

With your membership, you receive access to nearly 200 videos as well as membership to the private Facebook group packed with successful users of the course. The videos are very useful and informative, although some do drone on a little.

I will say that while there is a lot of tutorial content that is absolute gold, there are some topics that really don’t need be in an affiliate marketing course. I didn’t need to know about sleep hacking, for example, and if you believe the experts, it could do a lot more damage than good.

It’s also worth noting that Matt Diggity was known for his use of PBN links, and he still promotes some distinctly gray-hat link building techniques that Google frowns upon and could land you with a Google penalty in the future.

However, with that said, there are some link building gems, and the course is especially beneficial for teaching the absolute first steps. Not too many courses teach you how to install WordPress or how to install a theme.

If you’re a beginner and want an all-around course, this is an excellent option, but I would advise staying away from some of the more underhanded link building techniques.

5. Project 24 by Income School

• Course: Project 24
• Link to Program
• Cost: $449 for the first year, $199 a year thereafter
• Rating: 4 /5 stars
• Level: Beginner-Intermediate

Project 24 by Income School is something of a controversial affiliate marketing course, but their popularity suggests that controversy really does sell. Before we get to the reason for that controversy, some details about the course.

Income School has a massive YouTube channel, amassing millions of viewers. They also regularly post details of their own sites, which is somewhat unusual in the affiliate marketing space.

Project 24 is so named because Income School expects its students to take 24 months, or two years, to be earning a full-time income from their affiliate sites.

It includes 60 steps to establishing a successful website, equating to 122 tutorials, and it has an active community. The tutorials cover a really diverse range of topics from email marketing to using photographs on your affiliate site.

What Project 24 doesn’t cover, and one of the reasons for its controversial reputation is keyword research. The course eschews keyword research, stating that popular research tools are so inaccurate that it renders the practice useless.

You’ll notice that this directly opposes the teachings of systems like Authority Hacker and other leading SEO influencers.

It also means that this course isn’t for students that thrive on data-driven marketing.

They also steer clear of any link building whatsoever, saying that artificially building links runs the risk of falling foul of Google penalties in the future. Although Authority Hacker has a similar mindset, Project 24 takes a more hardline stance.

You will love this course if you enjoy developing content and if you hate link building or keyword research.

6. Five Figure Niche Site by Doug Cunnington

• Course: Five Figure Niche Site
• Link to Program
• Cost: $690 to $2,270
• Rating: 4 /5 stars
• Level: Beginner – Intermediate

Five Figure Niche Site has a slightly more modest goal. It aims to give you the steps to create a site worth 5-figures, so $10,000 or more. But, don’t let that put you off. Don’t let the overly complex multiple subscription packages put you off, either. You should expect to pay $700 for the basic program and over $2,000 for the Premium package.

When you do become a member, you will learn how to pick a niche and find longtail keywords. You’ll learn about low competition keywords that should rank quickly, referred to as the Keyword Golden Ratio.

You’ll also learn how to analyze the competition. The course shows you how to build backlinks, concentrating on those links that won’t get you penalized.

One great sign is that Doug Cunnington, who runs this course, is in the process of updating it after Amazon’s recent commission structure changes. There are a lot of courses that get ignored once they’ve been created. With Five Figure Niche Site, you know that the information is still relevant because it’s still being updated.

Each of the courses lasts a period of ten months. There are five modules to each course, and as well as additional content like Podcasts and blog posts, Doug also holds a regular Q&A session with course users. It’s not quite the same as having your own personal mentor, but it’s about as close as you can get.

It is a great course, and it’s especially useful for its link building techniques, and the fact that it’s a little more realistic with monthly targets. However, the fee structure is confusing, and the Premium package certainly carries a premium price tag.

Final Thoughts

Affiliate marketing has the potential to change your life.

It does take effort and, if you’re anything like me when I first got started, I tried a crazy amount of courses, trying to find out the secret sauce.

I was initially reluctant to spend money until I’d made money, but having the guidance of experienced affiliate marketers proved priceless.

• If you’re looking to get started in affiliate marketing and want the best course for your needs, I’d suggest The Authority Site System.
• If you’re a little more experienced and want to learn some deep industry secrets and processes, then go with The Affiliate Lab by Matt Diggity.
• If you just want to target super low competition keywords, focus on ad revenue, and write/publish a ton of content then go with Jon’s Fat Stacks Course.

Related Articles

• The Best Affiliate Programs For Beginners
• The Best High Ticket Affiliate Programs
• Done For You Affiliate Marketing Research

Tags: Affiliate Programs