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Affiliate marketing can be lucrative, fulfilling, and fun, and those benefits attract many to the industry. However, some people seek to exploit beginners, including fake experts, authority hackers, content thieves, ClickBank grifters, and other shady people. Frequently, those individuals promise significant and quick earnings after completing their overpriced courses. For example, the Profit Singularity course costs $2,497. It instructs you to join ClickBank and run expensive paid/PPC ads to promote affiliate links. However, disappointed students believe that strategy is deeply flawed and will likely get your Google/social media ad account banned.
Myths and Facts
Myths: You must take expensive affiliate marketing courses/training to make money and succeed. Additionally, stated earnings and income reports from instructors are always legit.
Facts: Expensive training won’t teach you anything that isn’t available for free or at an affordable price. Also, there’s no empirical evidence or correlation between course prices and student results.
Many affiliate marketing instructors don’t achieve high earnings themselves. So, they sell courses to compensate for their disappointing results. Also, they know finding gullible people is easy and seek to take advantage of them. It’s a time-tested way to defraud others and profit from inexperience.
Affiliate Marketing 101
Affiliate marketing involves promoting things (e.g., products, services, and apps) and earning commissions from sales. Most affiliates double as content creators (e.g., bloggers, YouTubers, and influencers) and include affiliate links in their content. High-quality, optimized content will rise to the top and attract organic/free traffic (people) to click on their links.
Affiliate marketing is a content monetization strategy and not much else unless your goal is to spam links from nameless, faceless accounts without context (also a deeply flawed strategy). Other ways to monetize content include ad placements, sponsored content, subscriptions, memberships, and digital and merchandise sales.
Free Training
I don’t want you to spend your hard-earned dollars or rack up debt on expensive courses that overpromise and underdeliver (most will). However, if you find a course or training you want to take, spend less than $200 for it. Alternatively, you can find excellent resources on this website and all over the internet, starting with GetResponse and Shopify, two reputable software companies with rewarding affiliate programs.
I have written a handful of articles for beginners, including the following:
- Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Step-By-Step Guide
- Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It? Is It Right for You?
- The Best Affiliate Programs for Beginners Without a Website
Shopify Resources
- Affiliate Marketing for Beginners
- How to Start Affiliate Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing Tips and Strategies
Not Good Enough? Let’s Talk!
Please contact me on LinkedIn if you want to discuss affiliate marketing. We can meet for an hour ($90) or more to review getting started, achieving success, tools, strategies, related topics, and your questions.
I guarantee you’ll get more from me than some random course that costs $997 to $10,000. My 10+ years of affiliate, content, and digital marketing experience will be beneficial and support your goals.
