A few years ago, I purchased the course “Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing” by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner of Making Sense Of Cents.
If you are considering purchasing the course, this is the honest and detailed review to read. It will cover the pros and cons of the course, a sneak peak into the contents, as well as my opinions about how effective the course was. Read my review below to decide whether this course is worth your time and investment!
This post may contain affiliate links. It means that at no additional cost to you, I might be compensated from your purchase. I only recommend products and services I personally love and trust.
Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing Course Review
Contents
Affiliate marketing is one of my favorite ways to make money from my blog. It helps me diversify my income, as well as help my readers making money online or work from home.
A year after applying everything I learnt from the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course, I made my first $1000 and was ecstatic!
In this review, I will go through the topics covered by Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, the things I liked about the course, and things I did not like as much. I will also show you my results from applying the secrets taught by Michelle in the course.
Who Is Michelle, Course Creator Of Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing?
Before we dive into the course itself, I will give you a little background to the course creator, Michelle of Making Sense of Cents. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner initially started her blog to document her journey of side hustling, and making money online. Now, Michelle makes $100,000 a month from her blog through affiliate marketing.
Image from makingsenseofcents.com
Since then, Michelle has become a mom and continues to make 6-figures each month passively from her blog. Most of her income consists of affiliate marketing, which includes apps, courses, softwares and products she promotes on Making Sense of Cents to help her readers make money and save money.
Affiliate marketing allowed Michelle to pay off $40,000 in student loans in 7 months, become her own boss and travel full-time. She teaches the affiliate marketing strategies she used to make 7-figures a year from her blog in the course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
What Topics Does Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing Cover?
First things first, what does the course teach? Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing(MSAM) is a beginner course that covers the basics.
The topics covered include:
- What is affiliate marketing?
- How to find and apply to affiliate programs
- Affiliate marketing rules and disclosures
- How to get your readers to convert
- Strategies and ways to promote affiliate links
- Building relationships with your affiliate managers
Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing is a self-paced course with 6 modules, and 9 bonus lessons that include videos, worksheets and text-based lessons. 90% of the course is text-based, so you can go through the contents quickly if you are a fast reader.
The module that convinced me to invest in the course is the 5th module, where Michelle teaches the strategies she uses to make 7-figures affiliate marketing on her blog.
This is where this course differs from other affiliate marketing courses I have taken. I continue to apply what I have learnt from this module as an intermediate affiliate marketer, and in my opinion, makes the course a worthwhile investment!
What I Liked About Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing
When I purchased the MSAM, I knew NOTHING about affiliate marketing. So, as a total beginner, Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing is a great intro course. The course is also easily digestible and actionable, and I found the worksheets straightforward and practical.
I myself don't mind that the bulk of the course is text-based as I am a fast reader. The course is also self-paced, which means that I can learn on my own schedule.
On top of that, I also love the Facebook Mastermind Group that is accessible for students of MSAM. The members of the group are extremely helpful, especially Michelle who is pretty active in the group.
You can ask her anything within the private Facebook group, as well as through email if you need more help.
Last but not least, Michelle is an incredibly experienced blogger who is great at affiliate marketing. So, all the techniques, tips and strategies she teaches in the course are backed by her own results. Michelle is also a great teacher, as she explains things very well within the course. With 10 years of blogging experience, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is jam packed with real-world strategies that actually work.
What I Disliked About Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing
However, it is not the most comprehensive course about how to make money affiliate marketing. It is also suitable for intermediate or advanced bloggers, or affiliate marketers.
As the course creator Michelle is a personal finance/lifestyle blogger, the strategies she teaches apply to mostly bloggers, not short-form content creators, YouTubers or Tiktokers.
In addition, to be successful with affiliate marketing, you also need to learn copywriting, Google SEO(search engine optimisation), as well as other techniques to build trust with your audience.
The course also lacks walk-through video lessons, where you can see how the course creator practice the strategies discussed in Module 5. It is one of the largest drawbacks of this course, and frankly, the course needs updates as the digital marketing world changes all the time.
Some of the strategies and techniques taught in the course are also outdated, so it is not the best course to take if you want to see results quickly.
That being said, the strategies within MSAM are built on SEO and will definitely work for bloggers who are willing to put in the work. Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing is not the most comprehensive course on how to make money doing affiliate marketing, however, it does have evergreen strategies that will benefit beginners.
Is Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing Worth It?
Yes, it is worth it if you are willing to do the work!
Ever since I was 18, I have always wanted to make money as a blogger. I tried and failed at least 5 times to make money from my blog. After I took the Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing course, I started making $200 monthly commissions from my blog.
$200 might not be significant to you, but over time, the commissions continue to add up.
Here is how much money I have made from affiliate marketing from just ONE affiliate product:
As you can see, I have made a total of USD7340(close to AUD9700) just by promoting ONE affiliate product(the course I took to become a Pinterest virtual assistant). Using the strategies I learnt from Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing, I started making my first affiliate sales through blogging.
Making an extra $10,000 on top of my Pinterest VA business was a great side hustle for me, as I only work on my blog part-time.
I credit my success to Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing, but I have to be 100% honest here. On top of MSAM, I also took other blogging courses and learnt Google SEO. So, the combination of those skills helped me make a substantial income from affiliate marketing.
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Final Takeaway
Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing is an affordable intro course for beginner bloggers who want to learn affiliate marketing. I highly recommend taking the course to make your first $100, $500 or even $1000. You can easily make your investment in the course back within a few months. So, in this case, MSAM is a worth it investment for you.
However, if you are an intermediate blogger looking to grow your affiliate marketing income, there are better courses that will teach you advanced techniques and strategies. I hope this review has given you the detailed insight you need to make an informed decision of whether you should buy the course or not.