Imagine, if you would, a life where you can make money while you sleep.
You open your eyes in the morning and instead of hitting that snooze button, you pick up your phone and with great anticipation, check to see your earnings.
Passive Income. I am sure you're familiar with the term.
The trick to generating passive income is in the acquisition of valuable assets. For some, these assets may be property, to others, like myself, they're websites.
For the affiliate marketer, however, these assets consist of products or services.
To be more specific, affiliate marketing is a business model where you market, advertise, and sell products and services on the behalf of a company, who then pay you a cut (commission) of the sale.
For instance, one of my most successful affiliate partners was with Litter Robot.
If you can't tell, it's a self cleaning litter box. I own two of them - and quite frankly loved the product. I reached out to the company and struck a deal. For every sale generated through my websites and advertisements, I earned roughly 15%.
At $500 a pop, the money added up quickly. I was selling a minimum of 10 units a week for over a year, making roughly $750-$1000 a week.
For the most part, though, you won't be needing to reach out to companies, as there are services out there that will help you identify companies and products that offer affiliate programs.
Sure. I made great money off a few really solid products, but is the affiliate business model passive? Can you actually make money while you sleep?
The answer is, well... yes and no.
Once you're established and know the ins and outs of the trade, yes, you can generate semi-passive income. But it also requires a ton of work and that workload, quite frankly, only increases as you try to scale your business.
I eventually switched my focus towards Lead Generation, where you build, rank, and then rent websites to local businesses. Unlike affiliate marketing, the model actually generates passive income and offers nearly unlimited scalability. If you want to learn more, click here.
Inside look at how over 6300 students are learning to generate passive income online by building, ranking, and licensing websites for local businesses.
Otherwise, in this article, we'll be learning about some of the best affiliate marketing courses which can serve newcomers and seasoned marketing vets alike. There are pros and cons to each, but for the most part, they serve as some of the most popular affiliate marketing courses available.
We'll also discuss whether the business model is still relevant for 2021 - and how it is, in some ways, capable (and not capable) of generating passive income.
We have a ton of valuable information to cover. Let's get started!
5. Anthony Morrison: Morrison Publishing
Pros & Cons of Morrison Publishing
Let’s start this list off with a bang and talk about Anthony Morrison.
This kid has been around the online business space for a hot minute now, ever since 2005 when he launched his first business.
His products range from a $20 course at the low end, to programs and software upwards of $1497.
He’s racked up quite a bit of publicity over the years, and if there is one thing that can be said for Mr. Morrison…
It’s that he is an amazing marketer.
But many have said that he’s actually just a scam.
It all started when he was running late night ads on TV during 2010 and 2011.
He was advertising financial success online, and people were buying into it like crazy.
But as the next several years passed, the amount of people who felt like he had wasted their money began to grow.
Which just led him to create his own publishing company: Morrison Publishing.
Sadly, when you are selling people on the idea of success and not on actually teaching them how to create that success…
Your problems will just keep following you.
Anthony went so far as to create an entire program that taught his students how to simply be affiliate marketers for all of his own courses.
I think I smell something fishy, don’t you?
His ability to effectively sell these programs however, is outstanding.
The man has a gift.
Which he exploits even once you’ve purchased from him as he constantly and ruthlessly up-sells and cross-sells his students once they’re inside one of his many courses.
His sales tactics are pushy, and his refunds are hard to come by.
The best thing I can say for him is that he truly opened up a new world for some people.
Especially for an older generation that might not be as familiar with the potential of online business.
If you can’t get on board with that, at least you can say that he truly shoots for the stars.
Most people would have caved under the pressure of all that criticism over the years, but Anthony Morrison has consistently persevered and pivoted.
So you gotta give him something.
But I’m struggling to give him even 5th place on this list.
CONCLUSION
If you really want the bottom line… please don’t buy any of Anthony Morrison’s programs. The majority of what he teaches can easily be found somewhere else. Maybe even for free if you check places like YouTube and Udemy. Don’t be fooled by his charisma and confidence, you don’t need what he’s selling. Keep on reading… I promise we’ll get to some much better alternatives!
4. Andrew James & Stephen Esposito: Elevated Entrepreneurs
Pros & Cons of Elevated Entrepreneurs
Sliding in at spot number four is Elevated Entrepreneur's new course: Oasis.
Created by Andrew James and Stephen Esposito, Elevated Entrepreneurs is a business designed to teach others how to create their own digital lifestyle businesses.
As of 2020, Andrew and Stephen have replaced their original course, “14 Days to Freedom” with a new program called, “Oasis”.
It includes a marketplace for high ticket, high quality online learning courses, as well as an internal sales team that they call Rise.
Which is supposed to help resolve the difficulty of promoting these “high ticket” products.
So if high quality and a big price tag are signature elements of this Oasis marketplace… how much does this training actually cost?
We don’t know.
Based on the marketing and the overall air of mystery…
Probably anywhere between five to ten thousand dollars.
They claim to be able to help you unlock your freedom.
In time, finances, and location.
Who doesn’t want that?
The biggest problem with high ticket products is that closing the sale is extremely difficult without a sales call.
Which makes it really hard for affiliate marketers to find much success without a training sales person.
But Elevated Entrepreneurs has apparently gone so far as to create its own sales team trained to close the sales coming in from the affiliate generated traffic.
Because of the exclusive and high end nature of the Oasis platform, this very well could be a “turnkey” affiliate marketing model.
Unfortunately, there is a frustrating lack of transparency.
The most information that can be found for free is in their webinar, which ultimately leads to a CTA to schedule a sales call.
Nowhere is a price tag listed.
Because so much information is missing, it also leaves me wondering if this is really an effective training on affiliate marketing as a whole.
Or is it just a fancy roadmap for their own personal marketplace?
The other major red flag for Elevated Entrepreneurs is their track record.
Their previous affiliate marketing course, Affiliate Accelerator, had horrible reviews.
Which really just doesn’t bode well for their sudden move towards a new brand with Oasis.
CONCLUSION
At the end of the day, Elevated Entrepreneurs might be offering something really incredible with Oasis. Based on their marketing, if you’re looking to leave your corporate 9-5 job and launch into high ticket affiliate marketing… this might just be the answer you’ve been looking for. But due to the lack of overall transparency, I personally feel skeptical. Especially if the price tag is anywhere close to what I suspect. So if you’re just looking for some solid, well round training on affiliate marketing… you might want to just move on.
3. Greg Gottfried: Print on Demand
Pros & Cons of Print on Demand
Greg Gottfried’s affiliate training material is falling in line at third place.
If you’ve dabbled in affiliate marketing at all, you’ve probably come across this guy on Youtube.
He has over 350 thousand subscribers, and this amount grows daily.
But Greg has also created almost 30 courses on the Udemy education platform, many of which centered around affiliate marketing.
Up until very recently these courses were selling for around $12 a piece, and his reviews were largely positive…
Averaging 4.5 stars!
Even though they were very short, the quality seemed solid, and most people were very satisfied with the training.
Unfortunately he took some heat recently when he got repeated accusations saying that he was just using his Youtube platform to promote his Udemy courses.
His response to this was decisive.
Enter your text here...
Instead of attempting to defend himself, Greg released a video explaining that he would be offering almost all of his Udemy courses for free now.
This might seem drastic, but if you know anything about Greg Gottfried...
It really isn’t.
He is extremely passionate about what he does, and his courses were created with the genuine desire to help others find success with online business.
Greg personally makes 80% off his income from affiliate marketing and print on demand.
Not from online courses.
But even when he was selling his affiliate courses on Udemy, they were packing in a reasonable amount of value for a $12 course.
Especially for beginners.
But if you hear someone criticizing Greg’s Youtube content or courses, it’s probably something about how the training wasn’t thorough enough.
And it’s true.
His training videos and courses aren’t going to take you from zero to hero by any means.
But he has a knack for explaining things in a way that is quick, straightforward, easy to understand, and somehow still interesting.
You can tell that he is passionate about what he teaches, and this fact alone combined with his creativity make him extremely encouraging and engaging.
He’s also extremely interactive with all of his course students and YouTube subscribers, and responds to almost every comment without fail.
CONCLUSION
If you are looking for a great launch point into affiliate marketing, but don’t have a startup budget…
Or if you aren’t quite sure if affiliate marketing is for you yet…
Greg Gottfried’s videos are a great place to start.
Because essentially all of his content on both YouTube and Udemy are completely free, what he’s offering is zero risk.
His training will give you a great foundational understanding of what it looks like to start building passive income with affiliate marketing.
Even if you’ll eventually need to invest in a more well rounded training course in the future.
2. Jim Harmer & Ricky Kesler: Income School
Pros & Cons of Income School
Coming in hot at spot number two on our list is Income School by Jim Harmer and Ricky Kesler.
Income school is an internet marketing company centered around educating others on how to create their own online business through blogging and YouTube.
Their first ever course is Project 24: a program designed to teach students to build a sustainable passive income that can replace their current income streams within 24 months.
Project 24 is $449 for the first year and $199 for the annual membership renewal.
It includes several courses, a private podcast for its students, private video content, and an exclusive online community.
The heart of the material is the “60 steps to a successful niche site” course.
What really sets them apart from the crowd is their radical transparency.
They don’t flaunt their success or hide behind a flashy persona that isn’t even real.
Prior to 2020 they had a list of all their niche websites and how much they were making from each one.
Although they’ve sold these sites to make room for new projects... and then updated the list to show what they sold for!
As well as posting at least once a year on their Income School Facebook page to give an income report.
Hold on, you might be thinking that they’re just disclosing their affiliate sites to drive traffic to them and spike their google rankings.
But for them, this isn’t the case.
They value their integrity so much that they allow their sites to rank organically for 8 months plus 30 more days to gather data, before revealing it.
This way, their results haven’t been tampered or skewed by extra traffic.
Now that’s what we call putting your money where your mouth is. Well done.
Instead of speaking in lofty terms, they do an incredible job of breaking down their content so that it is easily digestible even for beginners.
Every step in their 60 step niche site course is actionable and broken down practically into smaller supporting content.
Jim and Ricky are genuinely likable, authentic guys, with a passion for affiliate marketing.
The biggest, and really the only complaint against them, is coming from die hard SEO traditionalists.
This is mainly because they found success with affiliate marketing, but they broke a widely accepted “rule” of the game.
They don’t using back-linking or keyword tools and this is how they teach their students.
Their content is geared more towards beginners, and therefore skips some key points... in some people’s opinions.
Their niche selection training doesn’t utilize many of the keyword tools that have become industry standard.
It realizes heavily on intuition.
Which could be detrimental to some.
But this doesn’t prevent their content from being jam packed with value, despite what much of the SEO community would tell you.
Even though some say there is no backlink training in the course, this isn’t fully true.
They just prefer to stick to the “above board” techniques that Google still tips its hat to.
CONCLUSION
Jim and Ricky tell you up front that nothing is guaranteed. If you want to be successful at affiliate marketing... you’re going to have to work for it.
But their goal is to see you making a steady passive income within two years. Their track record, and the success record of the websites they’ve sold does speak for itself.
Plus, their straightforward, honest approach to successful affiliate marketing is great for the beginners and experienced alike.
You’ll be in good hands if you decide to go with income school for your affiliate training.
1. Franklin Hatchett: Savage Affiliates
Pros & Cons of Savage Affiliates
Ding, ding, ding!
We have a winner!
Savage Affiliates is the newest version of Franklin Hatchett’s online course on affiliate marketing.
The “standard” version of the course is only $197, and the “super” version is just $100 more at $297.
The biggest difference between the two is that the super version includes some time saving, pre-made funnels, and bonus in depth training on things like ClickFunnels, launch jacking, and web hosting.
In total, there are over 150 training videos and bonus content with the course.
Franklin’s approach is extremely broad, and covers everything from foundational to advanced methods for affiliate marketing.
His goal is to teach students how to create and income up to $10,000+ per month!
Rather than just teaching on something that he’s never personally done, Franklin Hatchett stands out as someone who has actually made most of his money through affiliate marketing.
He learned this lesson the hard way, and now recommends picking 1-2 products and going all in.
Perfect those purchase processes and don’t get distracted.
His two requirements for success are your website and your email list because these are your foundation and traffic drivers .
His training on SEO and email list building is therefore unsurprisingly comprehensive and robust.
The craziest part about the Savage Affiliate training is that it’s nearly impossible to find something bad to say about it!
If you could accuse Franklin of anything, it might be that his training style is very casual.
Some might even call it unpolished.
But in its own right, this somehow makes it even more authentic and personable.
If you really want to get picky, he does teach and promote products (like GetResponse and ClickFunnels) within the course that he gets an affiliate commission from…
But can you really fault him for implementing the very thing he’s teaching on?
I certainly hope not.
In a world filled with scammy internet training courses, this is a rare gem.
CONCLUSION
If you are looking for an affordable, but thorough approach to all things affiliate marketing…
Then your search has effectively come to an end. Savage Affiliates is all that and more, and Franklin Hatchett deserves all the hype and more that his course has been getting.
What he has put together is truly a fantastic guide that can be leveraged by everyone, including beginners, to start building passive income through affiliate marketing.
There are very few online courses currently that can rival what he has created, and certainly not for the price!
Which is why Savage Affiliates ranks as our number one pick for affiliate marketing online courses. It was a no brainer!
Parting Thoughts: Our Top 5 Affiliate Courses
Hey I hope you enjoyed this list of the top five affiliate marketing courses, you really can't go wrong with this list, especially the top 3. I learned a lot from each of them.
Savage Affiliates is surprisingly affordable yet covers so much, so if you're short on funds but want a lot of bang for your buck, that's a great program to start with. However I do like Income School because of the online community platform and the level of integrity throughout their training.
I've made my fair share of $$$ with affiliate marketing, but after grinding at it for 1.5 years I've realized that this biz model is not that great long term because scaling the business takes such a long time and so much effort.
I invested a lot in these courses but regardless of all the tips & tricks from these coaches, there's nothing you can do about the fact that Affiliate marketing is already highly saturated, and requires a lot of time before you will start seeing success.
This is why today, I have quit affiliate marketing altogether and do local lead generation instead. Click on the button below where I go in-depth on the main reasons why I believe local lead gen is a better business model than affiliate marketing...
MARKET SATURATION & COMPETITION
There are tens of millions of ad accounts - and more independent FB ad agencies are popping up every day, all of whom are fighting for the same attention. In 2021, getting your advertisements seen is a matter of outspending your competition.
cOSTLY AD SPEND
Ad prices have doubled in price over the last year. When you factor in ad development, split testing, and monitoring, a single ad campaign can easily cost thousands of dollars.
AD PLAGARISM
Effective ads are easily copied - and Facebook has little to no protection against plagiarism.
NO OWNERSHIP OR LONG-TERM ASSETS
The key to long term wealth is in building and owning valuable assets, but with Facebook advertising, you own nothing. You're bound to the confines of an aging social media platform with an advertising system that is increasingly ineffective.
ACCOUNT DEACTIVATIONS
Facebook is quick to shut down advertising accounts - and their terms of service are ever changing. If 2 people report a single ad (for every 5000 impressions), it is likely your account will be suspended.
NO PASSIVE INCOME
Facebook advertising does not provide passive income. You will work for every penny.
UNETHICAL ADVERTISING AND SPAM
Facebook ads have grown increasingly ineffective, especially with Gen X, Gen Y, and Millennials. Ad blockers are becoming a standard feature of web browsers, too. Ask yourself: When was the last time you clicked on a Facebook ad?
FACEBOOK ADS BLOCKED BY APPLE
Apple users will no longer see Facebook ads. They also can no longer be re-targeted by Facebook Pixel. To advertisers, this means that their potential reach has been cut by nearly 60% (Apple's mobile market share).
I was introduced to Lead Generation back in 2014.
I had already spent a few years focusing my efforts on affiliate marketing and building my Facebook ads agency - and was able to hit six figures doing so.
But it came at a great cost. The more clients I picked up, the more work I had to do.
The guru's out there would love to have you think, as I once did when I was starting out, that affiliate marketing generates passive income. Just build a site, throw up some ads, and wait for the cash to start raining from the sky.
I am here to be real with you. This is not how it works.
By the time I was making $5000 a month off of my affiliate programs, I was working well in excess of 70 hours a week - and the advertising costs became increasingly enormous.
You have to spend money to make money. As I scaled, I had to hire more help - and hiring help means having less control. It can also mean the compromisation of the service you provide.
When you add in the countless headaches of dealing with Facebook, especially their terms of service and fickle user base, I began to realize that this was not something I wanted to be doing in the long run.
I got into digital marketing as a means to escape my office job, but I found myself more imprisoned than I had ever been.
Fortunately, I had already begun working on a few Lead Gen sites, which provided an excellent exit plan.
Up next, we'll discuss how the Lead Gen business model brings in passive income and how it can free you of
your 9-5 shackles.
How the Lead Generation Business Model Generates Passive Income
It's quite simple.
You start off by building a simple website, using a drag and drop editor, such as Wix, Weebly, or WordPress.
The website is going to be focused on a niche, ideally a recession proof, essential service. Think plumbing, roofing, HVAC, ect.
You then rank the site to #1 on Google and then rent it out, typically for a monthly fee, to a local business.
For instance, this tree service site has been paying me on average of $2000 a month since 2014.
They've never missed a payment.
Skilled labor businesses are often wary of digital marketing. To win over their trust, I typically forward them leads for free while I'm ranking the site and will continue to do so for as long as I see fit. I also add a per-recorded message, using Google Voice, that says...
"This client was provided by Ippei Leads, LLC."
By the time I've made contact, they've already enjoyed a sizable boost in revenue. They're usually more than enthusiastic to meet the mysterious man who's been providing them with new clients.
The service sells itself.
However, if the business is not interested - then I just repeat the process aimed at their competition. It's their loss. Of course, this rarely happens.
Also, the sites are pretty hands off once they're ranked. As long as you're working with a business that provides quality service, you can count on holding the top Google placements for the long haul.
This allows you to both generate passive income and focus your efforts on scaling the business.
I personally enjoy the scaling process and am making over $52,000 a month off of my sites. You can grow your business as big as you want, because more clients and more revenue, does not necessarily mean a higher workload.
I knew the 9-5 office grind was not for me. Humanity as a whole, I believe, is not meant to be confined to a formalized office environment Lead Generation was the exit plan and it has taken me to places I never thought were possible.
If you want to stop selling your time for cash.
If you want to enjoy a life unhinged from the bindings of office purgatory.
If you want to take life into your own hands and be your own boss.
Don't let the wave pass you by - and learn more about Lead Generation today.
Local Lead Generation
Passive Income Coaching
MARKET SATURATION & COMPETITION
There are tens of millions of ad accounts - and more independent FB ad agencies are popping up every day, all of whom are fighting for the same attention. In 2021, getting your advertisements seen is a matter of outspending your competition.
Ad prices have doubled in price over the last year. When you factor in ad development, split testing, and monitoring, a single ad campaign can easily cost thousands of dollars.
Effective ads are easily copied - and Facebook has little to no protection against plagiarism.
The key to long term wealth is in building and owning valuable assets, but with Facebook advertising, you own nothing. You're bound to the confines of an aging social media platform with an advertising system that is increasingly ineffective.
Facebook is quick to shut down advertising accounts - and their terms of service are ever changing. If 2 people report a single ad (for every 5000 impressions), it is likely your account will be suspended.
Facebook advertising does not provide passive income. You will work for every penny.
Facebook ads have grown increasingly ineffective, especially with Gen X, Gen Y, and Millennials. Ad blockers are becoming a standard feature of web browsers, too. Ask yourself: When was the last time you clicked on a Facebook ad?
Apple users will no longer see Facebook ads. They also can no longer be re-targeted by Facebook Pixel. To advertisers, this means that their potential reach has been cut by nearly 60% (Apple's mobile market share).