This post contains affiliate links.
For much of my early blogging career, I was highly averse to spending money on my business. If I’m being really honest here, scared is actually the word. Yes, I was a big scaredy cat who didn’t truly consider her little blog a business and downright terrified that her investments wouldn’t pay off.
Much to my pleasant surprise, they did! Every. Single. Time.
Sure, my profit margins weren’t always great. But the operative word here is profit. The fact that I was making one at all was worth celebrating for someone who knew nothing about business coming into this.
So this year, when I made the decision to pursue affiliate marketing more aggressively as a monetization strategy, I knew I wanted to take a proper affiliate marketing course rather than fruitlessly poke around the dark and cobwebby recesses of the Internet to scrape together my information.
No, this time I wanted to learn from the best of the best–and I knew that in order to do so, I’d have to spend money to make money if I wanted to continue living my location independent lifestyle, traveling the world at my own pace.
Enter: Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is a course designed for bloggers of all levels in all niches. The course’s creator, Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, is a personal finance and location independence blogger whose work I’d become familiar with via Pinterest.
What I like most about her is that she’s an open book when it comes to her earnings–she publishes monthly income reports that would make you weep with jealousy if they weren’t so goddamn impressive.
Seriously. You want to be upset that she’s kicking ass and taking names while you struggle to make your first few bucks, but her generosity and the value she provides in each and every blog post make it impossible.
And now that I’ve actually made Michelle’s acquaintance (I wrote a guest post for her site awhile back and am a part of the Facebook mastermind group that’s included with the course) it’s easy to see that not only does this woman work her ASS off, she genuinely wants everyone around her to succeed.
Michelle has been making the majority of her income through affiliate marketing for years now. To give you a more accurate snapshot, she’s pulling in upwards of $50,000 per month with the exact strategies she shares in her affiliate marketing course. If that’s not an expert, I don’t know what is.
Heads up! February sale is on now!
From Thursday, February 15th to Monday, February 19th (offer ends at 11:59 p.m. PT), you use the coupon code FEBRUARYSALE2018CC to receive $28 off the course. This will make the course just $169 after the discount.
This offer doesn’t come around all that often, so if you’re considering purchasing this course, there’s no better time than right now!
Please note that this coupon code is only applicable on the one-time payment option, not on the monthly payment option.
Of course, Michelle’s blog is well-established and she’s had several years to do the legwork to rank well in Google and optimize other traffic driving strategies (like Pinterest, which she also shares in the course). So, as a new or intermediate blogger, it’s not likely that you’ll make that much–at least, not anytime soon.
But what is absolutely achievable is to increase your affiliate earnings from their current level and even make enough to live comfortably on as a location independent blogger. That amount looks different for all of us, but I certainly don’t need $50k coming in every month to live a good life, and my guess is that you don’t, either.
I took the course several months ago now and have seen a dramatic increase in my affiliate earnings, and truth be told, I haven’t even spent as much time as I’d like to on implementing the strategies. I made tweaks to some of my most popular posts as I was going through the course, I joined affiliate programs I had never even heard of or considered, and I began promoting affiliate products in ways I’d never tried before.
Many of you have probably seen that I’ve become a major advocate for this affiliate marketing course since that time. I also know what you’re probably thinking–being a course affiliate myself (meaning I earn commissions on every course I help sell), I must just be making all of my money by promoting the course, and that’s the only reason I’m so gung-ho about it.
I’ll level with you guys–being the savvy businesswomen that she is, Michelle does offer a great affiliate commission for those who promote her course. It’s an incredibly smart move on her part, to be sure. But I can assure you that I’ve increased my affiliate commissions across the board and no matter how good her commission rate, I’d never promote her course if I didn’t believe the content was worth its price.
My results aside, I’ve seen some truly impressive stuff from other students in the course–we share our successes with one another in the Facebook group, and it’s incredibly inspiring to see.
So no, I’m not making all of my affiliate earnings by promoting this course–I wouldn’t be promoting it in the first place if I hadn’t seen real results.
I field a lot of questions from people who are considering the purchase but are hesitant because of the price, so I want to address them all in this post. If you’re looking for a comprehensive affiliate marketing course so you, too, can earn passive income through your blog, here’s why I believe Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is the only course you’ll ever need.
Who is Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing for?
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is for bloggers of all levels who are ready to treat their site like a real business in order to earn an income from it. The niche is unimportant–the strategies Michelle covers in this course are universally applicable. Travel bloggers, food bloggers, finance bloggers, DIY bloggers, mommy bloggers, and bloggers with niche sites have all found success with this course and can learn valuable techniques.
Exactly what will I learn in this affiliate marketing course?
Current course modules (as of January 2017):
- Welcome
- Introduction
- Downloadable Course Workbook
- Instructions for Joining the Facebook Mastermind Group
- Module 1: What is Affiliate Marketing?
- Why Affiliate Marketing is Great
- Basics of Affiliate Marketing
- How Affiliate Links Work
- Module 2: How to Find & Apply to Affiliate Programs
- The Amount of Traffic You Need
- How to Determine What Your Readers Want
- How to Find Affiliate Programs
- Module 3: Follow the Rules
- Requirements & Disclosures
- Understanding NoFollow Links
- What to Do If You Live in a Nexus State
- Module 4: How to Get Your Readers to Convert
- How to Build Trust
- Deep Linking 411
- The Importance of Your Clickthrough Rate
- The Value of a Bonus
- How to Have Affiliate Marketing Success
- Improving Your Top 10
- Module 5: Strategies and Ways to Promote Affiliate Links
- Introduction to the Different Strategies
- Creating Successful Affiliate Reviews
- Teaching with Tutorials
- Having a Helpful Resources Page
- Using Interviews to Drive Sales
- The Money is in the List
- Your Average Blog Post Can Lead to Affiliate Success
- How to Rock Affiliate Marketing on Social Media
- The Crazy Impact Pinterest Can Have
- How I’ve Earned Over $300,000 from One Affiliate Product
- Module 6: Rinse and Repeat
- The Importance of a Strong Relationship
- Maintaining Your Affiliate Marketing Strategy
- Regular Maintenance Checklist
- The Things You Do NOT Want to Do
- Making Your Affiliate Marketing Strategy Long-Lasting
- Tips to Improve Your Affiliate Income Around the Holidays
- Bonuses
- How to Always Get Approved to an Affiliate Program
- Pinterest Strategy: How to Receive Hundreds of Thousands of Visitors from Pinterest a Month
- 9 Things You Must Do When Something Goes Viral
- How to Increase Your Page Views
Why should I take a course when I can just learn about affiliate marketing for free by searching Google?
Did you SEE the list of topics I just showed you?? I don’t know about you, but I’d rather find all of this info in one place (and coming straight from the mouth of someone with proven success) than spend all that time scouring the Internet, even if I COULD guarantee I’d find all the same information. The time I’m saving by having it all in one convenient package is priceless.
Plus, Google can’t provide you with a direct point of access to an expert–Michelle personally answers students’ questions in the Facebook mastermind group on two Saturdays of every month in group coaching sessions. As I mentioned before, she is one seriously generous teacher and she truly wants to see people succeed.
Do I need to be making money through affiliate marketing already to benefit from this course?
No! Bloggers with sites barely a few months old and no experience with affiliate marketing have already started earning. It has been really cool to see and makes me wish this resource was available when I was a beginning blogger.
If I’m an experienced blogger and already making a decent amount through affiliate marketing, am I really going to learn anything new?
While I can’t say for sure, my guess is that you’ll still uncover valuable nuggets of information that can help you take your earnings to the next level. I’ve seen bloggers who were already earning $2,000+ per month double or triple their earnings after taking this course, so if you think there might still be puzzle pieces missing or things you hadn’t yet thought of, it’s probably worth a try.
If you’re already earning thousands, you’ll likely earn back the price of $197 in no time, even just by making small adjustments. Chances are, even seasoned bloggers are leaving money on the table and have room for improvement.
How much are YOU really earning through affiliate marketing since taking this course?
Why, me? Well, it’ll be helpful for you to know where I started before I enrolled in the course. Prior to joining Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, a good month of affiliate income for me was earning maybe $50. FIFTY MEASLY BUCKS. The only affiliate program I really knew about at the time was Amazon Affiliates, and even that I was utilizing poorly.
Since implementing the strategies in Michelle’s course, I’ve been averaging closer to $500 per month. Considering that I still have a lot of more work to do and that I’m not a full-time blogger yet, I’m extremely happy with these initial results. As you can see, I have made back my initial investment and then some, and I’m confident my affiliate earnings will only continue to rise.
Some of the major improvements I made that helped me achieve this were: adding affiliate links to the posts that were already getting a lot of traffic, joining affiliate programs with higher commission rates (including many that pay per click or per lead), and writing content centering specifically around one affiliate product, such as reviews like this one.
It still may not sound like a lot; obviously, I couldn’t live on just $500 per month. That being said, I still have a lot of work to do. My goal is to generate the bulk of my income through affiliate sales, so I’ll be sure to report back with an update in a few months.
Do I need to have thousands of page views to start earning through affiliate marketing?
Not remotely. Michelle teaches you how to better convert the traffic you’re already getting. A higher volume of page views certainly helps, though, which is why this affiliate marketing course includes several strategies for increasing your site’s traffic.
What part of the course have you found most valuable?
Honestly, because I had been going about affiliate marketing so haphazardly for so long, I found the entire course extremely valuable. If I had to be choosy, though, I’d say the section of the course entitled “How to Get Your Readers to Convert” has been the most helpful to me.
Before, I was slapping links into posts all willy-nilly. Now I know I have to create affiliated content with PURPOSE, choose the products that I promote strategically, and even use certain language that will encourage people to buy. I know where to place my links throughout the post for maximum effect, and that I should be regularly monitoring my click-through rates and making adjustments if I’m not hitting certain targets.
I also find the private Facebook group to be highly beneficial. I learn from my peers, we help promote each others’ content, we offer each other feedback and encouragement, and we celebrate our successes together. I’ve even been introduced to new affiliate products to promote. It’s this community that has motivated me to keep making improvements to my strategy long after I finished the course material.
Plus, this is the kind of course that is so jam-packed with great information and golden nuggets that I come back to it regularly to brush up on my knowledge.
How often is the course material updated?
Michelle is regularly adding new course material according to her students’ needs, which is even further proof that $197 is a phenomenal deal. I suspect the course will increase in price at some point down the road. Once you’re a student, though, new material is available to you at no extra cost. Two new course modules have been introduced since I joined in September of 2016.
The new module that helped me immensely last year was all about taking advantage of holidays to increase your affiliate income. I was able to use this info to earn several hundred dollars over Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend by promoting deep discounts to my audience via my email list, social media, and my blog.
The price is pretty steep–can I pay in installments?
Yes! You can pay for Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing in one payment of $197 or two monthly payments of $105 each. Don’t forget to write it off as a business expense!
What if I’m not happy with the course? Can I get my money back?
Absolutely! You have a full 30 days to decide if you’ve made the right choice purchasing this course. If you really think it’s a bunch of hooey and you want your money back, all you have to do is contact Michelle directly.
Be ready to prove that you went through the course material and took real action, though–this course doesn’t work unless you do. 
Why should I buy this affiliate marketing course through your affiliate link, Leah?
The Sweetest Way is all about helping you achieve your dream lifestyle of location independence, and I believe affiliate marketing is a powerful tool that can help propel you toward that dream. Just like Michelle, I truly care about your success.
If you buy Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing using my affiliate link, I’ll return the favor to you in the form of a 20-minute “Ask Me Anything” style Skype call. We can talk about affiliate marketing, blogging, online business, social media marketing, yoga, tiny houses, the future of humanity, dad jokes, or anything else that comes to mind.
I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have for me, or if you just want to shoot the shit and make a new friend in the blogging community, I’m cool with that, too. I’m here to serve you in any way that I can (and I love meeting new people!).
To claim this special offer, just email me with a copy of your purchase receipt and we’ll set up a time to meet. Redeem anytime you’d like.
Still have questions about this course and whether it’s right for you? Feel free to contact me directly or leave a comment down below.
