Rob Fraser here…
If you are anything like me, then you have spent lots of money on courses, programs, training, and coaches with the intent of learning how to do affiliate marketing. I’ve wasted $1000’s and approximately 5 years before I came across some legit training that has changed my life.
My history with affiliate marketing courses
I’m just going to dive right into it today. There are tons of affiliate marketing training courses out there as well as different types. You have business opportunities, ecommerce, drop shipping, network marketing, mlm, CPA (cost per acquisition) marketing, and so much more. I’m mainly focused in the business opportunity, network marketing, mlm, and CPA space.
I wouldn’t say that any one course is the end all be all. I’ve personally found that there is always something new to learn in affiliate marketing. New styles, methods, platforms, products, services, and etc are always being released in this industry.
The best way to look at affiliate marketing is to know that it’s a continuous journey. It becomes a lifelong journey if you are really serious about it. What I mean by this is that no course (at least none that I have come by) has everything, in my opinion. Later on in this post I will share a specific example of how this is true!
Affiliate marketing is simple, but I have learned it from my own experience and taking various pieces from various courses, trainers, programs, products, and mentors. There are also so many different affiliate marketing strategies to get lost in as well! I have also found that a lot of affiliate marketing mentors and mentoring programs can be a little sketchy. What I mean by that is some “mentors” may not share exactly what they are doing because that creates competition for them.
So be very careful when joining and purchasing courses and mentoring. Don’t just consume the info, but also closely observe the actions of the people teaching!
If your mentor has a Facebook group where they teach affiliate marketing, then you create one. If your mentor is writing blog posts, has a podcast, and a Youtube channel, then you create them. This is if you are serious about taking your affiliate marketing to the next level.
So many folks out there sell the “how to” information, but aren’t actually doing what they teach! They are making money selling those courses on how to make money in affiliate marketing and they aren’t actually doing the “affiliate marketing” to go with it! I hope that makes sense.
When I got started in affiliate marketing
Back when I first got started, I didn’t know what affiliate marketing was. I just knew I wanted to make money online because I needed to find a way to earn income outside of going to a job. I already served 
12 years in the Marines and after a brutal divorce, wanted and needed to find another way to earn a living.
I started looking online for how to make money from home in late 2010 and that started my journey. Here roughly 10 years later, I am still learning new things and feel like I have just started. I will also share that I didn’t start making consistent money until April of 2015. It took me 5 years of going at it alone so if you don’t want to wait 5 years, then make sure you take action on things I’m sharing here!
From everything that I have been through, I’m going to share the 2 best affiliate marketing training courses that also happen to be free. I mentioned these in a previous blog post (2 Places To Learn Affiliate Marketing). I’m also going to share one more vital piece to the puzzle here as well!
2 Affiliate Marketing Courses
Those 2 affiliate marketing courses are Wealthy Affiliate and the Click Funnels Affiliate Bootcamp. Wealthy Affiliate teaches content marketing based around blogging. This blog you are on right now is a product of that training and there is so much that goes into this that I didn’t originally know. Click Funnels teaches list building, marketing tactics, sales funnels, and so much more.
Just in this example of using Wealthy Affiliate and Click Funnels, you can see an example of how you can’t get everything from just one course. Wealthy Affiliate provides so much training and “how to” information on building a website around a blog and going after keywords to promote your affiliate products to.
Getting bits and pieces along my affiliate marketing journey
This is amazing training, but on the flip side if someone comes to my blog, doesn’t decide to buy anything, and then clicks off my blog how could I ever follow up with that person. Most people don’t buy something the very first time they see it! I’m sure you can agree with that.
Now, combining what I learned from the Click Funnels Affiliate Boot-camp about building capture pages, an email list, and about creating offers and sales funnels with what I’m learning from Wealthy Affiliate is where the magic comes in.
Now when people come to my website, I have different places where they can click on one of my capture pages. That person can then opt into my email list and now, I can continue to follow up with that person for as long as they stay on my email list!
Compare that to just building a blog without capture pages or building an email list! I’m sure you can agree that combining an email list, capture pages, and a blog is more powerful when it comes to following up with people and selling affiliate products!
Enter An Affiliate Marketing Mentor
I also struggled putting these pieces together, until I found a mentor. Affiliate marketing mentoring is what helped me finally put the pieces together and to start earning online consistently. I highly recommend getting a mentor (and also checking out my Affiliate Marketing Mentor post)
In my opinion these 3 things are absolutely crucial if you want to become a success in affiliate marketing. Those 3 things being a Wealthy Affiliate account, going through the Click Funnels Affiliate Bootcamp, and also getting an affiliate marketing mentor.
If you are here still reading this and you don’t have a mentor to work with, then click this link here and get on my email list. From there you will get access to my social media and contact info and reach out! I’d love to connect with you and help you along your journey. While this is your personal journey, you still don’t have to travel alone!
Keep pressing until next time!
Rob Fraser
Also see
3 Super Simple Affiliate Marketing Strategies