Updated Sept 30, 2018
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing online course is a great way to learn the fundamentals of affiliate marketing in a single comprehensive course.
Michelle, from ‘Making Sense of Cents‘ is well known both for her website focussing on money-saving tips, and for her mind-blowing income reports such as this one here.
I wanted to make sure I learned from the best, and obviously Michelle knows what she’s talking about when it comes to profiting from affiliate marketing!
If you’ve been investigating monetizing your blog then you’d be well aware that the most popular ways to do so are via ads, affiliate marketing and selling your own products and services.
Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s products. You find a product or service you like, promote it to others and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make.
For instance I’m a registered affiliate of SiteGround web hosting – if you click on the banner in my post (go ahead, they’re the best!) I’ll earn a commission if you sign up with them.
If enough people do that, maybe I can eventually post an income chart like the following one of Michelle’s (yeah, in my dreams right?) :
What’s in Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Course?
In this course there are 6 modules, over 30 lessons, over 20 worksheets, bonuses, an extremely helpful exclusive Facebook group, and more.
Michelle covers pretty much everything when it comes to affiliate marketing, including:
- What affiliate marketing is and how it works
- Why affiliate marketing is great
- The exact steps she’s taken to earn over $300,000 from a single blog post
- How to pick the right affiliate products to promote
- How to increase conversions
- How to build trust and not lose followers
- Required disclosures that you need to know about
- The one major tool you need for affiliate marketing
- Different strategies to use to promote your affiliate products
- How to use Pinterest to succeed at affiliate marketing (yes, this includes the newest Pinterest affiliate rules!)
Here’s an interesting video interview with Michelle where she discusses how she makes over $100,000/month from her blog.
She’s also received a mention recently in Forbes with some discussion of her blog and income sources.
And CNBC has also run a feature on Michelle and her husband Wes: “On a typical day, the couple works for an hour or two in the morning, uses the daytime to explore, hike, or walk their two dogs and then logs a few more hours of work in the evening.”
What if I’m New to Blogging?
As someone who’s been blogging on and off over a number of years, I still managed to find a decent amount of useful information in Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. Thus a newbie to the world of affiliate marketing would certainly get more than fair value for their money.
In Michelle’s words, “By taking this course, you will start off blogging the correct way. You can learn from my affiliate marketing mistakes and learn the best ways to start making an income by being an affiliate. Through taking this course you are sure to grow a profitable blog quicker than the average blogger, as you’ll learn exactly what you need to know about affiliate marketing. So, even if you only have one blog post, you are ready to get started with this course!”
And that’s only the course itself – the ‘bonuses’ (which Michelle continues to add to) are a massive helping of cream on the top:
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing 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
- How to Maximize Your Reach, Your Impact, and Your Revenue with Facebook Ads
Michelle’s exclusive Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Facebook group is one of the best bonuses of the course, giving you access to a highly motivated group of course graduates.
She is very active in the group asking and answering questions, and in general it’s a very useful and supportive group to share your content and get valuable feedback and advice.
If there’s a question about affiliate marketing you need an answer to (or indeed anything else to do with blogging) it’s rare you can’t find the answer you’re seeking in this group.
Occasionally some more successful bloggers, including Michelle, will use the group to source content for their social media campaigns.
This gives you the chance to get your content in front of a huge audience (and possibly go viral!)
As you can see from the screenshot below, Michelle also helps Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing group members to promote one another’s blogs:
You can enter and exit the course at any time without worrying you’ll lose your position or access to previous modules.
I completed the course some months ago and I can continue to logon and view any part of it I wish.
It also looks great on mobile so you can work through it while commuting or sitting in a cafe.
Who SHOULDN’T Take Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing?
- Those looking for advice on specific niches.
- Those who are already very experienced in affiliate marketing
- Those who prefer learning by video.
One final bonus (and possibly the best), is that since it’s a course on affiliate marketing, naturally you can become an affiliate of the course!
Just complete the course and you will then be allowed to promote it yourself, receiving a generous 40% of the proceeds of every signup you make.
Does Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing work for those outside of the US?
30 Day Refund Policy
In case you’re worried that Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing won’t meet your expectations, Michelle offers a 30-day refund policy:
“But, you must show me that you went through the course and took action, because none of the tips and methods I share will work without you taking the time to implement them.”
To learn more about Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing and payment options click here.
Conclusion
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing (plus the bonuses) in my opinion represents great value for money, and I can strongly recommend it to anyone new to affiliate marketing.
The combination of the course, the bonuses, the access to the exclusive Facebook group, the 30-day refund policy and the opportunity to become an affiliate of the course itself all represents great value for money.
So give it a go now–I’m sure you won’t regret it!
Check Out Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
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Hello Justin. Recently I too did some courses on affiliate marketing. I expected it to be revealing all the secrets that successful affiliate marketers do. But, it doesn’t. It still repeated the same content that you can easily find online.
Yes there are plenty like that Nirmal. This one is a lot more comprehensive though – and don’t forget the money back policy. Thanks for your feedback!
While this is one of the more popular affiliate marketing courses it’s not exactly the best or free. It does in fact incentivize reviews like this one. Touche for incentivizing a course essentially about incentivizing. Is it ethical? Not sure. Affiliate Marketing is about referring people to products and services without having to initiate any sort of charges for the publisher. Sure you are getting special education here but at the same time has anyone figured to just look information on Affiliate marketing on great affiliate marketing blogs like referralcandy via Google or Bing? Let it be known as the… Read more »
Hi Todd!
You say it’s not the best course – I wouldn’t know, I haven’t tried them all 😉 I hear Billionaire Blog Club is good, but they charge $1500, and from what I hear it isn’t that much different to Michelle’s course. Personally I’ve found having access to Michelle’s Facebook group to be worth the price of admission by itself. As for not being free, she’s a successful multi-millionaire blogger giving you the benefit of her years of experience in the course–I wouldn’t expect her to give it away for free. Thanks for your feedback!
I feel indeed the real value is her social media information and influencer. It’s fairly clear her success has come through Pinterest mostly. I’d rather see her put information in the forefront about her Pinterest strategies. By nature, I’m skeptical about many things though, it’s good to ask the deeper questions occasionally. Thanks for responding Justin!
Justin this looks like a rocking course. I see it taking off even more. Thanks for sharing.