In my opinion, one of the best business models to leverage online is affiliate marketing. However, there are several ways you can build your affiliate business.
Nowadays, a lot of new affiliates are focusing on social media, YouTube or paid ads to bring traffic to their offers. This is partly because it’s easier to get started with those methods and also partly because some of the “guru’s” are saying that SEO is dead.
Well, as someone who primarily focuses on affiliate SEO, I can tell you that this is just not true. Affiliate SEO and blogging is still very well and alive today, which is why well-known and successful affiliates are still creating, and updating affiliate SEO courses.
I also believe that affiliate SEO is one of the most passive ways of building an affiliate business, although, of course, like anything, it is not completely passive.
What I mean is that once your sites are built, ranking, and making money, you can still continue to earn an income from those sites even if you don’t work on them as regularly as you did when you were getting them going.
I have sites that I haven’t worked on for months that still earn me regular commissions. At the very least, all I now need to do to those sites is update some content now and then to maintain them. And at any point I want to continue growing them I can just put more time into them to take them to the next level.
However, affiliate SEO does take time to master, and you need to get the right information to learn how to do it properly, or you’re just gonna be wasting your time.
If affiliate SEO appeals to you then here are 3 affiliate SEO courses that I have had good success with.
My Top 3 Affiliate SEO Courses To Get You Started Or Scale Your Business
From being in the industry for a few years now, I know that there are more than 3 good affiliate SEO courses out there. (I also know that there are several shit ones as well).
I can’t speak for courses that I haven’t taken myself, so in this article I am going to give you insight into 3 affiliate courses that I have personally taken.
While I have personally had success with each of these 3 courses, not all of them are right for everyone.
Here’s a closer look at each course to help you decide which is right for you.
The Authority Site System (TASS) – by Authority Hacker
The Authority Site System is an affiliate SEO course put together by the guys behind Authority Hacker, Gael Bretton and Mark Webster.
Gael and Mark are personable guys with many years of experience in the SEO and blogging industry. They used to run a successful SEO agency, but sold it several years ago to pursue affiliate SEO.
They’ve had tremendous success with their own affiliate sites and now teach other people to build and scale affiliate websites.
Authority Hacker actually has 3 courses available:
- The Authority Sites System (TASS)
- Authority Hacker Pro
- Authority Hacker Pro Platinum
In this article I am only talking about The Authority Sites System (TASS), since the other 2 courses are for more experienced affiliates.
What’s In The Authority Site System (TASS)?
TASS is a course aimed at beginners who are just getting into affiliate SEO and covers everything from choosing a niche, analyzing the competition, keyword research, building your site, how to write and structure content, and link building.
Gale and Mark only teach white hat methods when it comes to link building, which was one of the main reasons I bought this course.
Even though I was not a beginner when I joined TASS, up until that point my primary link building method had been PBN’s (which I have now moved away from using).
I personally joined TASS to learn the white hat link building methods and for more detailed instruction on content writing.
I must say, I have been very impressed with all of the content inside of TASS. It is a very thorough, well organized, and well structured course.
SEO can be quite confusing to learn, but the way that Gael and Mark have put their course together makes it easy for anyone to follow.
The modules are extremely detailed and are a great way to get started in affiliate SEO. Personally, I wish this course had been available when I first started my SEO journey.
The aim of the course is to teach you how to set up and scale an affiliate site to at least job replaying income level for most people, which would be around $3,000 – $5,000 per month.
What I Like About TASS
One of the things I also really like about TASS is that it is updated regularly, and all existing members also get access to new and updated content. This means that you’ll only need to pay one time and you will continue to access all the updates.
Another thing that I particularly like about the course is that the niche selection and competition analysis module is very comprehensive.
This is an area that a lot of new affiliates struggle with, so, in my opinion, TASS’s method of niche selection is one of the best I have seen so far for newbies.
What I Don’t Like About TASS
There’s not a lot to like about TASS, it really is a great course. However, if I had to say one thing then it’d be that, although overall it is good to have a lot of information when it comes to building an affiliate site, some of the modules could be a bit overwhelming and unnecessarily detailed for beginners.
Having said that, this is largely negated by the way Gale and Mark have structured the course. It is impressively well-organized.
The Affiliate Lab – by Matt Diggity
I had heard of The Affiliate Lab and Matt Diggity for a few years, but I only joined the program at the beginning of 2020.
I joined The Affiliate Lab because I wanted to learn more advanced SEO techniques and also how to build a site to the point where I can flip it for at least 6 figures.
That’s not to say that The Affiliate Lab is only for people with SEO experience though.
While it does have more advanced training than TASS, it is also taught from the beginning up, and trains newbies at every step of the way to build and grow an affiliate site.
The Lab also has a beginners module which goes into the basics that you need to know before moving onto the advanced stuff.
When you first join the Lab you will notice that Matt and his business partner, Jay, have broken the core part of the course into two secretions; Niche Sites and Authority Sites.
Matt and Jay explain the difference between the two, and have detailed modules on how to build each kind of affiliate site depending on your preference.
The content in The Affiliate Lab is vast, detailed, and well presented. However, it’s not as easy to navigate as TASS, in my opinion.
What’s Inside The Affiliate Lab?
There is a tremendous amount of information in the Lab and will take you quite a bit of time to go through it all, so it’s a course you will be referring back to for a long while as your skills improve over time.
Besides the core Affiliate Lab module, the Lab is broken down into several other modules. These include:
- Affiliate Lab
- Website Flipping Masterclass
- The Beginner Lab
- Downloadables
- The Truth About Penalties
- Outreach Masterclass
- Email Marketing Masterclass
- Portfolio Playbook (Outsourcing like a pro)
The core Affiliate Lab module itself contains a load of content that will take some time to go through.
However, as you grow, Matt and Jay also teach you the proper way to do email marketing, how to do proper outreach to grow your site, how to flip your site for a large payday, and how to grow a team and outsource your business.
What I Like About The Affiliate Lab
I actually have quite a few things I really like about this course.
Firstly, it’s very detailed with a lot of content that will help you on your affiliate journey for a long while.
Like TASS, Matt and Jay also frequently update the training videos or add to the course with new modules so it is regularly updated. Existing members do not pay for any updates to content or even new modules, which is awesome.
For example, the Portfolio Playbook module, which is all about building a team and outsourcing various parts of your business, has only recently been added to The Affiliate Lab.
Since I’m already a member I also get access to this new training, which I didn’t’ know they were going to add when I first bought the course.
Matt and his team, and also a few of his close SEO buddies have a very large portfolio of sites and test tistesd between them, so whenever a new Google algorithm update comes round, these guys knuckle down and figure out exactly what those changes are.
They then share this info with us in the group. So if you’re a member of the Lab then you’ll also get updates on any important algorithm changes after they happen.
This is crucial information for an SEO.
The Lab also has a very active Facebook group with some very experienced members willing to help you out with questions.
What I Didn’t Like About The Affiliate Lab
While the content is very well put together, and reasonably well structured, it is not as organised as TASS.
One thing in particular that I wish was organized in a better way is that there is some crossover between training videos for the niche site and authority site module. This is because some videos cover the same info, so why not just refer to those videos. But, in some cases, I found some things not so clear.
SEO Affiliate Domination – by Greg Jeffries
SEO Affiliate Domination is an underground affiliate SEO course that came out around 2017.
In the course, Greg teaches two methods, how to build authority sites, and how to build mass page sites.
The content on authority sites is very basic, but it can help to get you off to a good start. However, where SEOAD really shines is the mass page site method.
The mass page site method works by using a mass page plugin to spin lots of content based on the keywords you input, with the aim to rank for very low competition, long-tail keywords.
When I first came across this, I did not think it would work as I thought that spun content will just not rank in Google or the other search engines. However, Greg has a lot of video testimonials for SEOAD so I decided to give it a go.
After trying the method for myself I found out that this is wrong, and mass pages sites can rank.
Although spun content will rank, it will not rank for any high volume keywords. How this method works are that your spun articles start to rank for very low competition keywords simply because the search engines don’t have any results to show for those queries.
Greg also teaches you to build these sites on expired or auction domains, which have power from an established backlink profile.
Greg then also teaches a few ninja tricks to actually get these pages to convert into sales.
After seeing this method I decided to use one of my old PBN’s that I still had set up, and try this method as an experiment. I was pleasantly surprised to see after a few months that this site had started to make sales.
I have tried this method a few times now and have generated quite substantial commissions from the sites that have taken off.
A word of warning though with this method, not every site you set up with this method will set up, and they may also have a limited lifespan. So generally, it is a churn and burn model.
The reason I have included it in this list is that it is easy to do, it is the fastest way that I have come across to earn money with affiliate SEO, and, basically, it works, which I explain in more detail in my SEOAD review here.
What’s Inside SEOAD?
The majority of the content is around how to set up either an authority site or a mass page site. However, there is also content on how to use other traffic sources such as YouTube to generate affiliate commissions.
Greg has recently relaunched a new and updated version of this course in November 2020, which now also includes mode detailed info, new techniques, and weekly coaching calls.
What I Like About SEOAD
One thing I particularly like about Greg and SEOAD is that Greg is very transparent and down to earth.
He doesn’t hide anything from you, he reveals how much money he is making with his methods (which is a lot), and even which products he is promoting. This is rare in the sEO community, but Greg claims that he is not afraid of competition because the playing field is so vast, which I also agree with.
The mass page method is quick and easy to set up, and the sites that take off can earn you a lot of money if you promote the right products.
What I Don’t Like About SEOAD
The authority site modules are basic in SEOAD. If you’re only interested in building authority sites then SEOAD is not for you, go for TASS or The Affiliate Lab instead.
Although the mass page sites can work very well, it is a somewhat spammy method as you are essentially flooding the search results with spun content.
While I’ve had one mass site last for almost 2 years, and it’s still going strong at this point, most of the sites you set up using this method will likely have a short lifespan. Therefore, you will need to build new sites on a fairly regular basis.
Affiliate SEO Courses For Beginners – My Final Thoughts
Overall, all 3 of these courses contain great information, and I have had success with the content in each of these courses.
My overall favourite for my current level and understanding of affiliate SEO is The Affiliate Lab. It’s very detailed with lots of advanced information.
However, if I had to recommend one course to beginners then I would say TASS. TASS is very well put together for people who are either new to SEO or haven’t been doing it all that long. IT is well structured so you can easily follow along and not get lost or overwhelmed.
TASS will help you to get clarity on a good niche to work in, it gives you a few great keyword research methods, and some excellent ways to build links and get your site moving.
Disclaimer: Please be aware that some of the links contained in this article are affiliate links. If you click on one of my links and then make a purchase, I may receive compensation for the referral, at no extra cost to you. Any commissions I do earn through this blog enable me to continue to provide you with all this awesome, free content. Thank you.
