7/27/24

The following post contains affiliate links. This means I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no additional cost to you. Please read my disclosure page for more information.

This is a review of the online course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. Some of y’all know that I lost my summer job in May 2024, and this made me start scrambling to find other means to make money. One possibility was blogging. Lurko and I were already documenting our continuing saga of moving to Mexico and living off-grid, so we already had some followers. What would it take to transform our online journal into a money-making blog? To find out, I read everything I could get my hands on about making money from blogging. That’s how I stumbled upon Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s blog, Making Sense of Cents. On June 2 I began her email course on how to start a blog, and throughout the 7-day course I learned there were LOTS of ways to make money blogging! One of these ways was affiliate marketing, a form of product endorsement. I was drawn to because it seemed like something a shy introvert like me could do. I wasn’t an aggressive salesperson, but I did enjoy talking about products I enjoy using. Who doesn’t? And people get paid for doing this? I wanted to learn more.

First, I downloaded the free eBook, Affiliate Marketing Tips for Bloggers. You can see my review for that here. And yes, I did learn a few things. But I wanted to learn even more. The eBook told me (as often as possible without being overly annoying), that there was an online course all about affiliate marketing and I should take it. My curiosity was piqued.  That’s when I looked into Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.

Price

Up to this point, I hadn’t paid for any of Michelle’s products. Remember, I had just lost my summer job. I was hesitant about paying for this or any course. Still, I clicked on the link because I was curious. I looked at the price — $197. That seemed like a lot for me at that time! However…they did offer installments. So that’s what finally reeled me in. My finances showed that I was able to pay half now and the rest later. And besides, this is an investment in my blogging career, right? I didn’t need that much convincing, to be honest. Affiliate marketing sounded interesting and fun and I couldn’t wait to get started.

Navigation

Once I logged in, the course was easy to navigate. It was divided into six modules, and you could access any section of any module through a Table of Contents bar on the left-hand side of the screen. I did this on a laptop, so I don’t know how it would look on a phone, or if doing it on a phone is even feasible. Like most online courses, you would earn little checkmarks by each section once it was completed. At the top of the screen it would tell you the percent complete. So I always had a sense of my overall progress, and then I could scroll through the left-hand bar and see if I was missing any checkmarks.

Content

Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing begins with a worksheet that asks you to fill in six statements. This is meant to be printed out and referred to in order to help you stay focused. It’s a good exercise, because it makes you really think about what you want to get out of this, and what specific goals you want to reach for.

Modules 1-3

Module 1 starts out like a re-hash of the free eBook. It explains the basics of affiliate marketing, and why people enjoy doing it. It also starts explaining more advanced concepts, such as affiliate links and conversions. More importantly, you will learn how those affiliate links help you, the affiliate, to get paid.

Module 2 explains how to get started — namely, how to find and apply to affiliate programs. It uses more worksheets to help you narrow down what your readers might want to buy, and subsequently which products you might want to focus on. Then the module teaches you how to find affiliate programs that match what you and your readers are looking for. Finally, the module provides spreadsheets you can download and customize to help you stay organized. I highly recommend the spreadsheets; they are not overly complicated and you will better understand which elements are important to track.

Module 3 is a rundown of the rules and regs that you need to be aware of. Those disclosure statements you always see on affiliate sites are explained, and they are a requirement by the Federal Trade Commission. Be sure you take the time to understand Module 3!

Modules 4-6

Module 4 of Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is a myriad of strategies to create an attractive, effective affiliate site on which your readers will want to click through. Some things seem like common sense, like building trust with your readers. There are also specific tools that the author recommends, which you may or may not want to use on your own site. It explains deep linking, click-through rates, why you might want to offer bonuses, and ways to improve your results.

Module 5 presents eight different strategies you can use to promote your affiliate products. Throughout this module, Michelle illustrates the strategies with an example from her own blog of how she made over $300,000 on a single post. She explains that you can promote many products using the same method, or you can promote the same product in multiple ways. She encourages you to try multiple strategies and see which one works best for you. Most importantly, she does this in a way that feels achievable. We CAN do this!

Module 6 is tempting to skip over but don’t do it. It’s the maintenance part. It goes over relationships with affiliate managers, offers a checklist you can refer to, provides a list of what to avoid, and reminds you to track your progress. There’s also tips on how to take advantage of holiday shopping habits. Finally, Michelle offers advice on how to build on your success and grow your business. It’s worth digging into even though you’re almost at the end. Push through!

Bonus Content

After you complete the main course, there is a nice juicy section of bonus content. It’s mostly a collection of articles, videos, and podcasts of other people who are experts in specific areas of affiliate marketing. For example, an affiliate manager offers advice on how to increase your chances of acceptance into affiliate programs. There’s a video on how to use Pinterest as a tool to drive more traffic to your site. You can learn how to maximize your reach using Facebook ads. There’s also a deeper dive into legal considerations and what you need to include in your blog.

Private Group

Additionally, all students of the course have the opportunity to join a private Facebook group. In Michelle’s words, the group is to “help you connect with others who have taken the course so that you can get feedback, ask questions, learn from others in your community, and offer help of your own.” I joined and found it helpful, even though for weeks I just lurked and read everyone else’s questions. What’s also nice is that Michelle makes time to answer questions herself on certain days of the week, so if I do run into any confusion I know I’ll have support.

Another Bonus

One final extra, and this is my favorite. Michelle ends Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing by inviting YOU to be one of her affiliates. I may sound like I’m fangirl-ing over this, but this was actually the most helpful part of this course. What better way to practice promoting products than to have a product to promote? I got to practice things like: requesting to be an affiliate, developing a relationship with an affiliate manager, coming up with different ways to promote a product, writing blog posts, including and disclosing affiliate links, etc. Basically, with this one product I’m implementing everything I’ve learned in the course. Now I feel prepared enough to promote other products that interest me.

Has This Product Helped Me?

YES! I’m sure this paragraph will carry more weight once I actually make money doing affiliate marketing, but I’m going into this with the feeling that I CAN do it, and that is very powerful. I feel like I have the knowledge and the skills, and if I’m unsure about something I have a lot of resources at my disposal. The beauty of this course, and a lot of what Michelle teaches, is that you come out of this feeling like anyone can do this with a little work, and therefore you yourself can also do this.

Any Negatives?

As much as I enjoyed the course, in the interest of having an honest review, I had to really think about any possible negatives. The cost is the main inhibitor. However, as far as online courses go, it’s on par with other online courses I’ve seen, and the bonus content really adds a lot of value. Offering it in installments was a smart move to help sway those for whom cost is a factor. The other negative is this fear/ perception that this is just another get-rich-quick scheme on the internet, and it won’t work for me. Michelle works really hard to dispel these fears, like using a LOT of testimonials from previous students, and other professionals and bloggers who have used affiliate marketing successfully. One thing that might make it even more convincing might be to use folks from different demographic groups. Most of what I saw looked the same: white, straight males and females from mid-to-high income tax brackets. If we see more black or Hispanic or LGBT folks who have used the course successfully, the course might appeal to a wider range of bloggers. Just something to think about.

Will My Readers Like This Course?

I think that if you are a new blogger, or even an established blogger who wants to learn how to make money with affiliate marketing, this is a great course. It digs deep, but doesn’t overwhelm with too much information. It’s a fun topic, if you like marketing. It provides a lot of examples, and opportunities to get support. It also takes a realistic approach. This is not a get-rich-quick thing. You will have to do some work to make money. I’m doing the work now, been trying to learn for the last two months, and am only now putting the final pieces into place to try this for myself. The jury is still out on whether I will actually make money with affiliate marketing. But thanks to the course, I know a lot more about marketing now than I ever did, and I feel like I have the tools I need to be successful. Education is never a waste of time.

If you feel the same way, I invite you to check it out for yourself: Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. Have fun and happy marketing!