Do you want to get the most out of your affiliate website or want to generate income without a site? Are you having trouble making money from your blog?
Not everyone can afford to pour money into their website until they start seeing profits. You may employ all tools in the world, but your investment will never be efficient without proper guidance.
Fortunately, you can enroll in affiliate marketing courses that’ll help you better understand how the business works, learn important tactics, and get advice from industry experts.
We’ve compiled a list of the best affiliate marketing courses to help you grow as a professional!
Top affiliate marketing courses in 2025
We’ve discovered credible and well-tested affiliate marketing courses and also free alternatives, saving you time and money. These suggestions are based on over 900 hours of buying, researching, and testing affiliate marketing courses, plus lots of students’ feedback.
You can also read about affiliate marketing forums in our article if you want to know more about the community.
1. Free Adsterra Affiliate Marketing Crash Course
Embrace the Free Affiliate Marketing training program with 24 video lessons (+ 4 quizzes) by Adsterra top experts and it’s regularly updated.
If you have ever wondered how to make money with affiliate marketing without a website, you’ve found a perfect place to start. You will walk through the basics of selecting hot traffic slices, targeting, and scaling your campaigns. Expert practitioners have digested statistics, tracking, and optimization fundamentals.
The Crash Course is packed with video lectures and practice lessons that you can access right now. If you’re a beginner, you will have a clear path to your full-time or side career as a successful affiliate marketer. If you’re a skilled marketer, you will get familiar with the best traffic and offer sources:
- Get a full-stack starter kit and embrace affiliate marketing faster.
- Take advantage of the new traffic sources, verticals, and offer types.
- Make a clear plan for growing your internet business.
- Enhance your affiliate marketing skills with practical knowledge.
- Apply actionable tips for growing traffic and scaling your campaigns.
- Learn what’s under the hood of the most robust platform of Adsterra, including advanced tools and settings that allow for managing ad campaigns and controlling your budget.
Since this guide is about WHERE and HOW to boost your affiliate marketing skills, you will get a set of legit and comprehensive courses right now.
At the same time, studying theory alone has never led anyone to large earnings. So you can start practicing traffic monetization while learning the tricks of the trade: earn as you learn affiliate marketing. Isn’t it great? Register as an Advertiser to buy quality traffic for your affiliate marketing activities.
2. The Authority Site System
TASS is an excellent affiliate marketing course that teaches you how to create authority websites and generate passive income.
Price: $997 (regular price), $599 (discounted price)
Pros:
- Expertly crafted with a track record of success.
- There have been a lot of recent student success stories.
- They explain why each action is recommended, then show you how to do it step-by-step.
- It is updated regularly.
- There are no pushy sales tactics.
- Completely white-hat.
- A vibrant and supportive private community.
- Lessons that combine text and video, making it simple to learn and refer back to.
- The course includes a lot of useful templates.
- A 30-day money-back guarantee (no strings attached).
- There is a one-time entry fee (no recurring payment).
Cons
- Overwhelming for newcomers.
The Authority Site System (TASS) isn’t just one of the best affiliate marketing trainings available. It’s also one of the best online courses ever seen on any topic. It was created by a team of popular affiliate marketers who are constantly building their successful websites (i.e., they practice what they preach). That’s not to say the Authority Hacker course is flawless, but it’s about as good as an online course gets.
3. Affiliate Lab (Matt Diggity)
Matt Diggity’s affiliate marketing course, The Affiliate Lab, was launched in 2017. It’s a comprehensive course suitable for both novices and professionals.
The training covers almost every aspect of building a successful affiliate marketing business, from setting up your first WordPress website to advanced SEO (search engine optimization) and keyword research strategies and tactics. More than 24 hours of training are available, and almost every lesson is in video format, with a brief text summary at the end. The two primary trainers are Matt Diggity and Jay Yap.
Pros:
- The price is reasonable.
- The course appears to be well-liked by most students.
- It’s easy to find real student success stories.
- The training is both practical and thorough.
- Students have access to an active and supportive private community.
- The training is updated regularly.
- You pay once and get access for the rest of your life, as well as free updates.
- There are no exaggerated claims or shady marketing tactics.
- There are no upsells.
Cons
- There are no refunds.
- Outsourcing is the main focus of the content creation module.
- Some (optional) grey hat SEO techniques are covered in this course.
- You’ll need a budget to put what you learn from the course into practice, as stated on the sales page.
If you plan to do everything yourself, your monthly budget could be as low as $10-20 or as high as $1000 if you invest in SEO tools and outsource.
4. Income School’s Project 24
Project 24 is an excellent course for anyone interested in starting a successful blog or YouTube channel.
Price: $449 for one year, then $249 per year after that
Advantages
- Most students succeed with this course.
- Simple, systematic instructions that are easy to follow with exact templates.
- Several courses in one, covering a wide range of topics.
- There are no gimmicks or sleazy sales tactics.
- Many students enjoy being part of the community.
- Additional costs are minimal.
Cons
- There are no refunds.
- The workload can be difficult to manage.
- It is missing some advanced information (e.g., off-page SEO).
- There is no mention of expenses other than the training fee on the sales page.
- There is no search function, making it difficult to locate specific lessons.
Income School’s Project 24 teaches a more straightforward approach to creating successful affiliate websites, which doesn’t require expensive keyword tools or active link building.
Income School’s creators have a proven track record of creating successful niche sites (and YouTube channels), so their strategy clearly works for them.
More importantly, many of their students appear to benefit from the same approach.
5. Digital Worth Academy
Digital Worth Academy is aimed at people who are new to online business, but it appears that the training is also appropriate for those with some experience.
Price: $797 for lifetime access (plus additional costs and information on discounts)
Pros
- A dependable business model, with a 30-day refund policy and minimal additional costs.
- There’s no deceptive marketing.
- The training is quite in-depth and covers all of the important aspects of creating a successful authority website.
Cons
- It’s unclear whether training is still being updated, and there haven’t been any notable student success stories in recent years.
- Although this is one of the better affiliate marketing courses available, it isn’t quite up to par.
One good thing about DWA is how straightforward and realistic they are when marketing the training. They don’t promise instant results with minimal effort.
6. ClickBank Success – Affiliate Marketing Without a Website
You’ll learn how to create a profitable ad campaign and make significant income with ClickBank without building a website. This course also teaches you new marketing concepts and strategies for other affiliate marketing programs besides ClickBank.
The course includes 3 hours of video on demand, 25 articles, and 22 downloadable resources.
Price: $139.99
Pros
- It covers keyword tracking that leads to actual sales.
- Unlike most courses, you’ll learn how to create a squeeze page (without a domain) and how to get subscribers to opt-in to your email list.
Cons
- Some students believe that the courses have not been updated.
- You’ll need to invest $1-$5 per day for “online marketing purposes.”
- Supplementary tools are available in the course, but they are not free.
7. Learning CPA Marketing from the Experts
One of the most recent CPA marketing courses is from Fettah Ben, a Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services expert. This course will teach you the latest CPA marketing techniques with a step-by-step guide. It includes a 6-hour on-demand video, an article, and a downloadable resource.
The course covers how to get hidden offers from CPA networks. You’ll also learn 5-minute tips to get accepted into the top CPA networks and how to choose the most profitable CPA offers to promote.
Over 1300 people have taken the course, with an excellent rating of 4.3/5 from almost 250 reviews.
Price: $93
Pros
- Most students succeed at CPA marketing with this course.
- Covers a wide range of relevant topics.
- Instructions are easy to follow.
Cons
- Some students feel $93 is too expensive for what the course offers.
Summary of the best affiliate marketing training courses
Below you can find a comparison table that summarizes the key details of the affiliate courses we discussed above. You can quickly weigh out all the features, such as price, focus, pros, cons, and who for:
Table 1. Affiliate Marketing Online Course Comparison Table
| Course | Price | Focus | Pros | Cons | For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adsterra Affiliate Marketing Crash Course | Free | CPA/Affiliate Marketing | Practical with tools, covers traffic, scaling, tracking, extra tactics for advanced marketers | Starting investment for testing traffic at monetization start | Beginners or those wanting more tips to affiliate marketing |
| Affiliate Lab (Matt Diggity) | One-time fee (~$997) | SEO-focused Affiliate Marketing | Lifetime access, SEO tactics, community, practical training | No refund, needs budget to implement | Intermediate to advanced SEOs & affiliate marketers |
| The Authority Site System | $997 ($599 discounted) | Building authority niche sites | White-hat, supportive community, 30-day refund | Can be overwhelming for beginners | Serious long-term bloggers and niche site builders |
| Project 24 (Income School) | $449/1st year, then $249/year | Blogging, YouTube, affiliate marketing | Low cost, community, beginner-friendly | No refund, lacks advanced tactics | Bloggers & content creators looking for passive income |
| Digital Worth Academy | $797 (lifetime) | Authority websites (white-hat) | Realistic expectations, 30-day refund, in-depth | Fewer recent success stories | Beginners wanting a realistic entry into affiliate SEO |
| ClickBank Success | $139.99 | ClickBank + email list building | Practical tips, low barrier to entry | Additional costs | Beginners testing ClickBank without a website |
| Learning CPA Marketing | $93 | Hidden offers from CPA networks | Easy to follow, wide range of CPA marketing topics | Might be expensive for what the course offers | Beginners testing latest CPA marketing techniques |
Warning signs of affiliate marketing course scams
Is it shocking to say that the internet is full of scams? If you’re looking to invest in an affiliate marketing course, you’ll undoubtedly be inundated with choices and even more fake, overly enthusiastic reviews.
Here’s a quick rundown of what to look for (and avoid):
1. Achieving no real affiliate success
Someone who has put together and teaches an hour-long course should obviously be good at what they preach. Genuine numbers/earnings stats, screenshots of their (recent!) profits, if they list actual sites they’ve built, use a tool like Ahrefs to see if those affiliate sites actually get traffic.
2. Fake testimonials
Nothing is perfect, so don’t listen to the super-amazing, years-of-experienced affiliate marketer on YouTube who has already made thousands of dollars. Be cautious when reading feedback on specific courses. It’s good to look at reviews from several sources, not just Google.
3. Outdated content
Surely, any given course might have been a fantastic resource ten, five, or even two years ago. However, if that course hasn’t been updated, going through it will be a nightmare. The advice could simply be incorrect or invalid at this time. Second, the screenshot, image, and video tutorials will not resemble the platforms you’re currently using.
4. No success stories from students
Look for testimonials from current or former students who have had genuine success. How do you know if the feedback you’re getting is from a student who actually got something out of the course? Keep an eye out for measurable statistics such as how much more money they made that month/year, how their campaigns improved, or how much traffic they received.
5. Tools & upsells
There are far too many upsells and costly tools required for the course. Of course, you must consider your budget when making this decision. I’m not saying that extra tools aren’t useful, however, if you’ve already paid a lot for a course and still have traffic and campaigns to test, you probably don’t want to spend hundreds more on tools.
Reasonable alternative to pricey affiliate marketing courses
Equally, you may look for more affordable alternatives to paid affiliate marketing courses, only because the starting point for everybody is different. Luckily, there is a safe way to go if you don’t want to pay that money just now.
Use FREE online databases, like Adsterra’s, that provides granular instructions and visuals for your successful, but supportive start in the industry.
- Proprietary FREE affiliate marketing course,
- Adsterra affiliate marketing database,
- Adsterra affiliate marketing real-life stories.
You can buy traffic for your offers with Adsterra and enjoy a self-serve or managed account with a set of tools to fully control your ad campaigns. Get genuine traffic from 36K+ direct publishers worldwide and top-performing ad formats, like a proprietary set of highly-converting Social Bar Ads.
Before you jump into learning and plunge into a paid or free affiliate marketing course, let’s get through the basics of what lies ahead of you.
Affiliate marketing overview prior to a course
Affiliate marketing is the practice of promoting another company’s products/services for a commission. The affiliate simply finds a product they like and earns commissions on every sale by marketing it. Here are a few valid approaches for product promotion, like having a successful affiliate website, content marketing with keyword research, social media marketing with a robust sales funnel (e.g., using an active Facebook group), Google Ads, Amazon affiliate marketing, email marketing, etc.
Affiliate marketing involves three parties:
Sellers and brands
A seller is a merchant with a product to sell. For example, an e-commerce vendor may want to expand their business by paying successful affiliate sites to promote their products. Or the seller is a Saas company that uses affiliates to sell marketing software.
Affiliate or publisher
An affiliate or publisher promotes a seller’s product to potential customers. If a customer buys the item, the affiliate gets a percentage of the sale. Affiliates often promote to a specific audience while addressing their concerns.
Besides classic affiliate marketing, affiliates often participate in Cost Per Action marketing. CPA marketing is a model where an affiliate, usually partnering with an affiliate network, earns a commission when a user takes a specific action. We’ve discussed it extensively in the article: What is Affiliate Marketing and How Does It Work: Beginners Guide
These actions include registrations, downloads, filling out questionnaires, email verification, making a first/second deposit. The size of the commission greatly depends on the complexity of the target action. For example, an affiliate will earn less money for app installations, and more money for deposit conversions.
The customer
In some cases, the affiliate informs customers that they are compensated for whatever sales they generate. Sometimes, the customer is totally unaware. However, the customer completes the purchase and receives the product, unaffected by the affiliate marketing system. Products purchased through an affiliate link are priced similarly to a non-affiliated product.
How to become an affiliate marketer?
1. Pick a niche
Every affiliate marketer has a target audience they try to influence. But being greedy and trying to speak to too many niches can lead to ineffectiveness. Identifying your target audience is the first step in your affiliate marketing journey. So how do you find the best niche for you?
To begin with, take a quick self-test. You must be a reliable advocate for a product or brand.
Start by asking the key 5:
- What do I care about?
- Do people look for my niche?
- Will my niche’s demand be stable?
- Is my niche highly competitive?
- Are there affiliate programs in my niche?
These are the questions that will determine the success of your affiliate marketing campaign.
2. Evaluate market demand
It’s also vital to assess your affiliate niche’s market demand. This will help you identify products/services that consumers are willing to pay for.
Google Trends is usually the best tool for assessing product/service demand. Test the demand for your proposed niche by plugging it in. Many affiliate marketing niches have moderate consistency, with seasonal spikes in demand.
3. Analyze your competition
The next step is to assess the competition in your chosen niche. For example, you can use Ubersuggest to see how competitive certain Google searches are.
With a few clicks, you can see who your competitors are and a list of related searches and their competitiveness.
The second option is using a service like ClickBank. Select the Affiliate Marketplace option and then enter a search term on the home screen. In the example above, we highlighted a section called Gravity in the search results.
On ClickBank, Gravity is a 100-point scale that measures how high demand is for a product. The lower the Gravity, the more difficult it is to sell that product.
Combining these methods should give you a good idea of how well your chosen niche will perform. Too much competition and not enough demand can lead to disaster, so be cautious.
4. Research affiliate programs
After deciding on a niche, research programs. This is where you go in-depth on becoming an affiliate marketer. Affiliate marketing programs, alternatively it can be well-paying referral programs, help advertisers and affiliates connect because finding each other can be difficult.
Here’s an essential checklist that you should consider before proceeding with any program.
- Which brands use the affiliate program?
- How much commission will your program generate?
- How does the program offer support to affiliates?
5. Pick your affiliate marketing method
Two popular affiliate marketing strategies are:
- Making websites like blogs or marketplaces.
- Running paid ads.
While there are debates over whether or not affiliates need a website, there are so many benefits that it is almost pointless not to create one.
- Websites can help you succeed with low or high-commission affiliate programs.
- Having your own affiliate site is a great resume builder for future affiliate marketing jobs.
There are many competing opinions about which option is best when searching for ways to build a website. Is it better to use a free service like Wix or WordPress.com or create your own using a hosting service?
However, you must look for a host that provides reliable service and a positive overall experience.
6. Create and publish content
The phrase ‘content is king’ is often used in marketing, and for a good reason. As this blog post shows, valuable content can be simple to deliver. Even if you have a low competition niche and a great website, you need to build an audience. But how can you create content that will help you stand out?
- Product reviews
Reviewing products and services in their niche is an effective content marketing strategy. This is a good place for brands to start looking for customer-converting product reviews. It can be a great way to start making money online and transition into affiliate marketing when done correctly.
- Blog posts
Like product reviews, blog posts are a great way to build trust and establish yourself in your niche. More importantly, blog posts can help you increase sales. Addressing common questions or issues in your target market will prepare you to make recommendations later. Consistency is key when writing blog posts. You must post regularly and maintain a consistent tone that offers valuable advice to your readers.
- Guides
Finally, you can create an informational product to use as a hook to entice people to read more of what you have to say. Like the previous two marketing content types, helpful guides can increase sales and put more money in your pocket. Any type of comprehensive, in-depth look at a topic is acceptable. If it’s accurate and useful, you’ll gain trust in your niche. Eventually, you can use this technique to build interest in the affiliate product you sell.
Conclusion
The best affiliate marketing course for you entirely depends on your level of experience, comfort with initiating the process and available resources factor into the decision.
Choose the program that is most appropriate for your circumstances. Most of the options carry little risk because they are all backed by money-back guarantees. Whichever one you choose, immediately put the lessons into practice.
Best affiliate marketing courses FAQ
If you are a beginner, the best affiliate marketing crash course for you is the one that will provide you with structured data, guidelines, and preferably real tools. As you start, the price of an affiliate marketing course does matter as well since you usually have to invest in your monetization strategy, like building and optimizing your website or setting up your first advertising campaign with an ad network.
The best affiliate marketing course is the one that provides three major deliverables: structured guidance, practical working affiliate marketing strategies, and real-world applications. This way, you short-cut your trial-and-error learning process and save money.
The best highest-paying niches for affiliate marketing are still considered to be Tech, Finance, Lifestyle, Health, and Wellness, as the demand for them is broad, and they reach a wide audience. However, as you begin your affiliate marketing journey, consider exploring beginner-friendly and evergreen niches. Among them are Sweepstakes and Surveys, iGaming, VPN, Antivirus, Lifestyle, and News.
Affiliate marketing beginners can make from $0 to $ 1,000 a month. It usually depends on the niche, research precision on target audiences, competition, and the availability of tools for affiliate marketing strategies. On the other hand, according to Glassdoor research, experienced affiliate marketers can earn up to $70K annually.
