I Spent $5,000 on Affiliate Courses – Here’s What Nobody Tells You. Most courses are designed to make the creator rich and not you
post by Peter Hanley coachhanley.com
Over two years, I bought seven different affiliate marketing courses. Total investment: $5,247.
Want to know how much I made from what I learned in those courses?
About $100.
Let that sink in. I was $5,147 in the hole, and the worst part? I thought it was my fault.
The Course Addiction Cycle
Here’s how it starts:
You’re struggling with affiliate marketing. Your site isn’t making money. You see an ad for a course promising “$10K per month in passive income.” The sales page has testimonials, income screenshots, and a guarantee.
You think: “Maybe THIS is the missing piece.”
You buy it. Next you go through maybe 40% of it. You implement a few things. They don’t work immediately.
Then you see another course. This one promises to fill in the gaps the last one missed. The cycle continues.
Before you know it, you’re a course collector, not a course completer.
What These Courses Actually Teach You
After spending over five grand, here’s what I can tell you about the content:
90% of it is the same information repackaged differently.
Module 1: Pick a niche Module 2: Set up your website
Module 3: Create content Module 4: SEO basics Module 5: Build an email list Module 6: Monetize with affiliate links
Sound familiar? That’s because it’s in EVERY. SINGLE. COURSE.
The information isn’t bad. It’s just not worth $997. You can find the same thing on YouTube for free.
The Real Product They’re Selling
Here’s the uncomfortable truth about affiliate marketing courses:
They’re not selling you a system. They’re selling you hope.
Hope that there’s a secret strategy the successful people know. Then Hope that passive income is just one course away. Hope that you can escape your 9-5 in 90 days.
The actual product is the dream. The course content is just the vehicle for delivering that dream.
And I fell for it. Hard.
The Income Screenshots Are Lying to You
Let me tell you about those testimonial screenshots showing $50,000 months.
You know what they don’t show you?
- How long it took to get there (usually 3-5 years, not 90 days)
- How much they spent on ads to generate that revenue
- That they’re promoting the same course you just bought (affiliate inception)
- The months where they made $200
- The fact that they had an existing audience before starting
One course creator was showing $30,000 monthly screenshots. What he didn’t mention? $25,000 of that was from people buying HIS course about affiliate marketing.
He wasn’t teaching affiliate marketing. He was teaching people to teach affiliate marketing. It’s courses all the way down.
The “Passive Income” Lie
Let’s talk about the biggest lie in affiliate marketing education:
“Build it once, earn forever.”
Here’s what actually happens:
- Google updates its algorithm, your traffic tanks
- Affiliate programs change commission rates (looking at you, Amazon)
- Products get discontinued
- Competitors outrank you
- Content becomes outdated and needs updating
- Email subscribers go cold if you don’t engage them
I’ve had “passive income” articles that made $500/month suddenly make $0/month because of an algorithm update.
Passive income isn’t passive. It’s just income that requires different work.
What They Don’t Teach You (The Important Stuff)
Here’s what was missing from every single course I bought:
1. How to Handle Failure
Month 6 rolls around and you’ve made $23. The course doesn’t have a module on “What to do when nothing is working.”
They assume success. They don’t prepare you for the 95% possibility that you’ll struggle.
2. The Actual Timeline
They promise results in 90 days. Reality? Most successful affiliates took 18-36 months to build sustainable income.
But “Make $10K in 3 years if you work really hard and get lucky” doesn’t sell courses.
3. The Emotional Rollercoaster
Nobody tells you about the mental game. The self-doubt. The comparison trap. The urge to quit every other week.
You’re not failing because you lack information. You’re struggling because building a business is hard and lonely.
4. How to Actually Pick Products to Promote
The courses say “pick products you believe in.” But they don’t teach you how to evaluate products, how to test them, or how to know if something is actually good.
So you end up promoting whatever has the highest commission.
The One Course That Was Actually Worth It
Out of seven courses, one was genuinely helpful.
Want to know why?
It wasn’t because the information was better. It was because it came with a community and accountability.
I had people to ask questions. People who called me out when I was making excuses. People who’d been through the same struggles.
That’s what’s actually valuable. Not the modules. The support system.
If you’re going to buy a course, don’t buy it for the content. Buy it for the community. If there’s no community, don’t buy it.
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me
Before I spent $5,000 on courses, I wish someone had said:
“You don’t need more information. You need more implementation.”
I had analysis paralysis. I kept learning instead of doing because learning felt productive without requiring me to face the possibility of failure.
Buying another course was safer than actually putting myself out there.
The Free Alternative That Actually Works
Here’s the system that finally got me making real money, and it didn’t cost me a dime:
- Pick one person making money in affiliate marketing and study everything they do publicly Not their course. Their actual content. How do they write? How do they structure articles? How do they build trust?
- Create content for 90 days without checking your stats Just create. Don’t obsess over traffic or earnings. Just show up and publish.
- Join free communities where affiliates actually talk honestly Reddit, Facebook groups, Discord servers. Ask questions. Share struggles. Learn from people doing it, not just teaching it.
- Spend your course money on tools and testing instead Better hosting, email software, buying the products you’re reviewing. That’ll give you better ROI than another course.
The Guru Red Flags
If you’re considering a course, watch for these warning signs:
- Screenshots of income but no proof of how they got it
- Promises of specific income in specific timeframes
- “Limited spots available” that somehow always have spots
- More testimonials about the course than about actual affiliate income
- The main business model is teaching affiliate marketing
- No refund policy or a sketchy one
- Pressure to “invest in yourself” when you express hesitation
If you see three or more of these, run.
When a Course Actually Makes Sense
Look, I’m not saying all courses are scams. Some have value. But a course makes sense only when:
- You’ve already made your first $1,000 in affiliate income (you’ve proven the concept)
- You have a specific problem and the course addresses that exact issue
- There’s a strong community component
- You have the time to actually implement what you learn
- You’re buying expertise in a specific platform or strategy (like Pinterest or YouTube)
A beginner course on “affiliate marketing basics” is almost never worth the money.
The $5,000 Lesson
Here’s what spending $5,000 on courses taught me:
The information was never the problem.
My problem was:
- Fear of failure
- Lack of consistency
- Comparing myself to people years ahead of me
- Waiting for permission to start
- Thinking there was a secret I hadn’t discovered yet
No course could fix those things. Only I could.
What Actually Changed Everything
You know what finally got me to $3,000/month in affiliate income?
I stopped learning and started doing.
First I picked ONE strategy, committed to it for six months, and refused to buy another course or chase another shiny object.
Then I published twice a week. I built my email list. I engaged with my audience. Finally I reviewed products I actually used.
No secret strategy. No hidden tactic. Just consistent work on the basics.
The basics that were in every single course I’d bought.
My Advice If You’re Considering a Course
Ask yourself these questions first:
- Have I implemented everything I already know?
- What specific problem will this course solve?
- Can I find this information for free?
- Will I actually complete this course?
- Do I have the time and resources to implement it?
If you can’t answer these honestly, save your money.
The Bottom Line
The affiliate marketing education industry is selling the dream of passive income to people desperate for a way out.
And it works. Because we want to believe.
But here’s the truth: you probably don’t need another course. You need to actually do the work with what you already know.
Stop collecting information. Start building something.
Your bank account will thank you.
Michael Cheney
This bloke is a bit different, over 20 years in the industry, he has made his money and now wants to help others and he does that by talking with you every day, pushing you, providing those words of wizdom to keep you going. Of course he wants to be paid but he wants that to come out of your earnings not from a line of credit. Courses on every available topic, challenges, training and group support give you every chance of success.
Millionaires Apprentice dos it for you
