Do you want to start with affiliate marketing and feel like it’s too overwhelming? In this Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing review, I will share how this course helped me get real affiliate sales results.
This month I finished the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course created by Michelle of Making Sense of Cents and two weeks later I’ve made my first affiliate sale! This product that Michelle has created is really amazing, that’s why I love to share it with all of you.
Michelle’s blog is one of the first that I started reading, she’s actually the one that inspired me to start blogging in the first place. Michelle makes over $50,000 every month with affiliate marketing. Her income reports are so inspiring, like this one from 2018 where she makes over $1,000,000 in a single year!
When I first started my blog, I thought that slapping a couple of affiliate links on my site is enough for the cash to start flooding in. Boy, was I wrong!
After absolutely zero success came from my attempts to monetize my blog, I read about what many bloggers believe is the best course on affiliate marketing: Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
After implementing the strategies I learned, it helped me make my first affiliate sale after just two weeks of finishing the course. Here is my full Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing review.
Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing Review
You’re probably wondering why I decided to spend $197 on one affiliate marketing course? I was just starting out and I was making absolutely ZERO money. It wasn’t an easy decision, especially because I don’t want to spend my money on a course that taught me things I already knew.
I had to make sure that this course would help me, before buying it.
I was doing some research on the internet, and I kept seeing top bloggers that were recommending Michelle’s course. Over and over again. Every post I read provided proof of how this course has really helped their affiliate income sky-rocket.
After a few weeks, I came to the conclusion that investing in myself would be the fastest way to develop my blog. Plus, I would make that money back if I followed the steps provided.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Basically, affiliate marketing is earning money when you recommend products on your blog that you use and love.
Most products have an affiliate program, where you get your own unique link that you can put in your blog posts or social media posts. Your link gets tracked and you get a commission if someone decides to purchase what you recommend.
Affiliate marketing is a great income stream for bloggers who was to diversify their income and don’t want to solely rely on ads or sponsored posts.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to monetize your blog, I’m starting to get into affiliate marketing and I’m loving it. It’s a great way to share products that you love with your readers! Plus it doesn’t cost the reader anything extra. How great is that?
For example, if you decide to purchase something on Amazon through my link there is no additional cost for you. Sometimes there even are bonuses for using an affiliate link, like when you start a blog via Bluehost you will get a free domain name ($15 value), or when you sign up for Mintos you get 1% money back for the first 3 months.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn money from your site. You can earn a lot of money by promoting products on your blog. The best thing about affiliate marketing is that you don’t have to be an expert in any particular field. You can choose the niche that you are interested in and then start promoting it on your blog. I recommend starting with niche blogs. You can even start using social media to promote your product! It doesn’t cost anything extra and it will help you build up a following for your blog! Affiliate marketing is great because you don’t have to pay for anything extra when someone purchases something from you through your link or social media post!
What Does This Course Teach You?
In Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, Michelle shares all her strategies, tips, and tricks that make her over $50,000 per month in affiliate marketing. She knows what she’s doing!
I purchased this course when my traffic was about one person per day (believe me I was excited about that one person!). When I finished the course last month, my mind was blown.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing shows you how to include affiliate links in blog posts effectively, various ways to implement the methods, and also go into the legal side of affiliate marketing. Besides that, it reveals how you can find affiliate programs for your specific niche and how to get quality traffic.
There is so much value in this course, it goes above and beyond the lessons.
My favorite benefits in the course are:
1. The Mastermind group on Facebook – a group for members of this course, that are serious about their blogs. I have been able to learn so much from them as a newer blogger.
The group talks a lot about affiliate marketing, of course, but there are so many other informative topics you can join in. You can get feedback from group members on your pages and posts, and you can ask Michelle all the questions you want.
2. You get access to a blogging and affiliate marketing expert – Michelle is a great mentor. You can ask her anything once per week in the Facebook group, and you get access to her best practices over the years. She’s been in affiliate marketing for several years now, so she knows what she’s doing.
You can learn from her mistakes and take her best practices on making an income as an affiliate.
Is It Worth The Money?
The course costs $197, or two payments of $105. I remember frowning upon that amount at first – I mean reading blog posts is free. I had never purchased a course before and I was fairly sure I could figure it out on my own. BUT after a month of trying to figure it out, I decided that I wanted to take the shortcut. All of the articles that I had read were not provide complete information, so I decided to purchase Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
My Results
In Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, Michelle is really honest with you. She tells you that making an affiliate sale, like anything with blogging, takes time. You have to build trust with your audience, which doesn’t happen overnight.
Two weeks after implementing the strategies taught in the course, I made my first affiliate sale.
While my traffic is barely reaching 50 page views per day, I’ve made my first affiliate sale – from Mintos.
When I saw that, I was beyond excited! I don’t care if it is ‘only’ €5 that I made – this represents more. It represents my learning and implementing the strategies that Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing has taught me.
After this, my sales have gone up and up. These are my results to date (January 2020):
Buying this course was one of the best things I could have done for the blog. For me, it was 100% worth the money.
However, Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing is not a good fit for everybody. Let’s see if this course is for you.
Is This Course For You?
In this course, Michelle teaches you everything on affiliate marketing. Specifically, she shares:
- What affiliate marketing is and how it works
- How to find and apply to affiliate programs
- How to get approved to any program
- Easily increasing your page views
- How to get your readers to convert
- How to build trust and not lose any followers in the process
- Strategies and ways to promote affiliate links
- How to use Pinterest for affiliate marketing
Important side notes:
- There are no videos – only text. If you prefer looking at videos, this course might not be the best thing to purchase.
- It is self-paced. If you prefer going through it with a group, this might not be for you
The main takeaway that I had from Michelle’s course, is that you don’t need 50K page views per month to make money with affiliate marketing.
What you will learn in this course includes:
- How to build trust among your readers. Too many affiliate marketers just sign up for any affiliate program. BUT, you should only promote products that you personally use, have experience with, or that you trust and believe in. You will learn exactly how to build this trust in this course.
- Strategies to promote your affiliate products. Affiliate marketing is more than slapping links on your website. There are many strategies to promote your affiliate products, for example, a review post. I recommend learning about all of them and applying the ones that fit you personally.
- How to use Pinterest to be successful at affiliate marketing. In the course, there is great emphasis on the importance of Pinterest when starting with affiliate marketing. As Pinterest users usually love to buy products, affiliate marketing is a good step for you personally. You learn about how to promote affiliate products on Pinterest and how to increase your Pinterest traffic.
This course is for you, if:
- You are a beginner at affiliate marketing
- You would like to monetize your blog
- Plus you want a course that teaches you all the ins and outs of affiliate marketing
- You have some basic knowledge about affiliate marketing, but you’re unsure about how to implement it to your site
- You are using affiliate links but aren’t making any income from them yet
This course is not for you, if:
- You already know all the ins and outs of affiliate marketing and are already making money from that
- You prefer video courses over text courses
- Plus you need the accountability of doing it in a group
If You Are In Doubt
If you’re unsure whether or not this course will help to up your blogging game, there are some other things to consider.
There Is A 30 Day Refund Policy
Michelle provides you with a 30-day refund policy. Meaning that if the course is not what you expected from it, you can ask for a refund, and that’s totally okay. This security got me over the edge and lead to me eventually buying the course.
Honestly, you don’t have much to lose.
Amazing Bonuses
There are some amazing bonuses, that have provided tremendous value for my blog.
A few amazing bonuses include:
- A Pinterest strategy guide ($34 value)
- Access to a private Mastermind Facebook group ($250 value)
- How to increase your pageviews
- How to always get approved to any affiliate marketing program
- What to do when your blog post goes viral
Conclusion
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing greatly impacted my blogging life and finally let affiliate marketing work for me.
Prior to my purchase, I had already done a lot of research. I already had the basic knowledge, so the course gave me the practical guidance and accountability I needed to create success for myself. If you’re the right fit, it will help you too.
If you’re not sure, you can always use the 30-day refund policy. Buy the course, see if it adds value for you, and then you can decide whether or not to ask for a refund. It’s that simple.
If you’ve read until here, I hope you found it useful. If you have any further questions, comment below and I can help you with more information about the course.
Click here to check Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing out for yourself!
Do you use affiliate marketing as a tool for your blog?
Marjolein is a financial consultant who has built over €4,000 monthly passive income and saves over 70% of her income. Read Radicals’ inspiring story, from stuck in the 9-to-5 to loving life. Feel free to send Radical a message at the bottom of this page
This course seems to be working as you already made the first money with it. It does cost a lot, but surely it will keep you motivated once you pay the price.
Nice review, thanks!
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing really helped me get on the right track in terms of affiliate marketing, so that’s why I want to recommend it to others. I truly believe it can help you!
Really interesting review. I follow Michelle as well. At the moment I don’t know whether I am willing to part with that much money to do a course, but I am more inclined to do so now that I have read this. My blog is only in its infancy and although page views are increasing I think that I need more traffic to make this worthwhile.
I think this is among the most vital information for me. And i am glad reading your article. But should remark on few general things, The web site style is great, the articles is really excellent : D. Good job, cheers
Thanks Sam! I’m in the same boat where my blog is still new and growing, but I decided back in January to give it a go. Personally, I don’t have thousands and thousands of people visiting my blog every month and I’ve succeeded. I think it’s not only the amount of traffic that counts! Let me know if you need more info!
Quality content is the key to attract the viewers to go to see the web site, that’s what this website is providing.
Thank you Adah!
Thank you!
Hi M,
even if I’m new to your blog I’m binge-reading it because it’s very interesting! 🙂
I confess I’m full of doubts about affiliate marketing. They are holding me back to bring my blog to the next level.
You are on the topic of make money online which is a hot niche full of hungry customers, but I feel like I fell in the trap of “earn with your passions” building a blog about a not-so-hot subject. Sometimes I fear I have to dismantle all that I built with effort over the past years. Maybe the answer could be action, plain and simple, then learn from trials and errors. Thank you for this review though, I consider to buy the course. Keep going with your great blog 🙂
Hi Frank, thanks for your kind words. If you want to share your blog, I can check it out. I’m curious what you’re writing about!
Affiliate marketing can be confusing, I think the key is to stay true to yourself. I mostly recommend products I use myself, which makes it easier to recommend and review them. If you’re Michelle’s course really helped me to decide what is my affiliate ‘style’ and how I want to go about things. If you have any further questions, please let me know!
Many thanks to you for the answer! Me and my partner are dog trainers. We created a blog about the beagle, one of our favourite dog breeds. We have a list of prospects and every now and then we make a little sell, mainly guides written by us. Maybe due to the language (italian), positioning issues or whatever it is, performances are not thrilling. Maybe the course can provide a solution in this hyper-chaotic world of blog monetization 🙂 Thank you again M for your attention 🙏
Your website looks very nice Frank, I don’t know so much Italian but dogs are always a great hit! I agree, the world of blog monetization is hyper-chaotic, let’s try to put some order in the chaos and our blogs lol!
Wow, thank you M! 🙂
Hi there M – your post is really thorough and very useful. It was great to see how quickly your income from blogging increased once you achieved your first affiliate sale and then progressed much further as the graph showed. Two quick questions, if you don’t mind please – 1. how many site visits a day do you get now and how does that relate to the amount of income that your blog now provides you (do you only get paid if they click on the link to the affiliate, or just by them visiting your site, or maybe specific pages on your site? Also, 2. How much time do you spend on your blog each day or week please? I am trying to build an understanding of the realities involved. Thank you!!!!! 🙂
Hi Jay, thank you! I would say the amount of people visiting my blog is not correlated with how much money I make. It depends on which blog posts they’re reading. Some blog posts are written for affiliate marketing, like review posts, while many others have purely informational purposes. With affiliate programs, you only get your small commission when someone has purchased something, so not for people clicking on the link.
In addition, I spend around 2-3 hours on each blog post. Depending on how regular you want to post, you can calculate the time it will cost you to maintain that. Any more questions, please let me know!