Two Sides of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing isn’t one thing — it’s two distinct business activities that happen to use the same underlying mechanism. Understanding both sides, and how they work together, is essential for maximizing your revenue as a course creator.

Side A: Being an Affiliate

When you’re an affiliate, you recommend products created by others. You don’t handle product creation, customer support, fulfillment, or refunds. Your job is to connect the right people with the right products.

How it works:

1. You join an affiliate program for a product you use and trust
2. You receive a unique tracking link
3. You recommend the product through content — blog posts, emails, videos, social media
4. When someone purchases through your link, you earn a commission
5. The product owner handles everything else

The appeal is obvious: zero product risk, zero fulfillment burden, and income that flows from activities you’re probably already doing. You’re already answering “what do you recommend?” questions. Affiliate marketing means getting paid for those answers.

Typical commissions vary by category:

• Software and SaaS tools: 20-40% (often recurring monthly)
• Digital courses and info products: 30-50%
• Physical products (Amazon Associates): 1-10%

Side B: Having Affiliates Promote Your Course

When you have affiliates, you’re the product owner. You create the affiliate program, set the commission structure, provide promotional materials, and pay affiliates for sales they generate.

How it works:

1. You set up affiliate tracking (through your platform or dedicated software)
2. You create promotional materials — swipe copy, graphics, email templates
3. You recruit affiliates — other creators in your space, your own students, industry bloggers
4. Affiliates promote your course to their audiences
5. When someone purchases through their link, you pay the affiliate a commission

The leverage is extraordinary: every affiliate becomes a sales channel you didn’t have to build. You gain access to audiences who would never find you otherwise. And you only pay for results — no upfront marketing costs.

The Synergy Between Both Sides

Here’s where most course creators leave money on the table: they pick one side and ignore the other. But these sides are mutually reinforcing.

Being an affiliate teaches you what works. When you promote products, you learn:

• Which affiliate programs have the best materials and support
• What commission structures actually motivate you to promote
• What kinds of content generate the most clicks and conversions
• What frustrates you as an affiliate (and what delights you)

You then apply these lessons to your own program. The program you build will be better because you’ve experienced the affiliate side firsthand. You’ll create the kind of program that attracts enthusiastic, effective affiliates.

Being an affiliate also builds relationships. When you successfully promote someone’s product, they notice. That relationship can turn into them promoting your course later. Many joint venture partnerships start this way — “I promoted your launch, now will you promote mine?”

The Natural Progression

Most successful course creators follow this path:

Phase 1: Start as an affiliate. This is fast to implement and generates income quickly. You don’t need a product, a checkout system, or affiliate tracking software. Just sign up for programs and start recommending.

Phase 2: Add your own affiliate program. Once your course is established and converting, set up a program for others to promote. This takes more infrastructure but offers far greater leverage.

Phase 3: Pursue strategic JV partnerships. Identify specific creators with complementary audiences and build deeper collaborative relationships for launches and cross-promotions.

A Real Example

One course creator in the photography space reported earning approximately $4,000 per month from affiliate recommendations — primarily camera equipment, editing software, and accessories. This is Side A income that requires a few hours per month of content updates.

Simultaneously, their own affiliate program generates roughly 30% of total course revenue. With a course doing $20,000/month in sales, that’s $6,000 coming from affiliates they’ve recruited. This is Side B income that requires ongoing relationship management but scales without additional content creation.

Combined, affiliate activities (both sides) account for over $10,000/month — more than half their total business revenue — while requiring far less effort than creating new courses or running paid ads.

The lesson? Don’t choose between the two sides. Embrace both.