If you have been looking for an unbiased Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Review then you have come to the right place as I will be giving you just that.
Unlike other reviews I am not affiliated with the course but I have looked into it to do a good judgment whether it is worth getting or not.
Hi, my name is Thabo and I am a full time income earner who went from earning $0 to a full time income online with affiliate marketing.
This is why I do reviews of programs to help people find the truth about this.
I have reviewed more than 500 programs to date and I can say most of the programs or courses out there are just now worth it.
So what about Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing? well-read on to find out the truth about this for yourself.
Without further ado, let’s get started with this review.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Review
Program name: Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
Niche: Blogging and Affiliate Marketing
Creator: Michelle Schroeder
Guarantee:None
Price: $197 once off or 3 monthly payments of $97
Theworkathomegraduate.com rating: 2 out of 5
Scam: No
What is Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing?
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is a blogging and affiliate marketing course that is said to help you to learn to make money online and live a laptop lifestyle.
The course is more geared towards beginners or people who are still trying to figure out the game of affiliate marketing.
By the way affiliate marketing is now one of the most popular ways to make money online and it is my favorite way that I make money online too.
The way it works is that you will be promoting people’s products or program’s with the aim of getting commissions which will add up if you do a good job.
You are generally given a unique link to you that you can use on your website or email or any social media and every time people buy through you then you make a commission.
However, it is not as simple as I described, at least these days you need to do more than that to actually make money and get your links clicked on.
So this is what the program aims to teach you.
When I looked into the program I was shocked to see that it is one of the most basic programs I have ever seen for blogging and affiliate marketing.
While you can make money with their methods but will be tough to even make a substantial amount unless you are an exception.
This is because affiliate marketing has become super competitive and now you need more than basics to make a living in this business model.
Who is the creator of Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
Looking at the creator is always good as to help us see if we are dealing with a legit creator or just a fake personality trying to scam us of our money.
Well I can certainly guarantee that you are dealing with a real person who knows what she is doing and her name is Michelle Schroeder.
Michelle started blogging as a hobby in 2011 and she owns a blog called Making Sense of Cents and she grow her blog to a full time income.
She now re portly makes more than $100 000 more monthly due to her drive. Not only that but she has also been included in places like Forbes, Huffington post, Yahoo Finance, BussinessInsider and more.
You can see that we are dealing with a person who knows what they are doing and are thus it can be easy to trust their work.
However, having said that let us take a look at the course itself.
How does Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing work?
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing works by you learning with the modules and also along with a community of students.
This is an ideal learning environment for anyone who is looking to learn well and this is how I was able to learn to make money with this business model myself.
You will be learning through 6 modules which will essentially teach you the following:
- Choosing the right niche for you
You will be shown different niches you can start and how to pick them so you can get people coming to your blog.
This part is vital and it is what makes most people fail to even make a dime with affiliate marketing or blogging.
There is no sense in writing about a topic no one is reading online.
Michelle will show you what worked for her and how you can implement it for your success in choosing the right niche.
- Finding the right affiliate products
After choosing the right niche you will then be required to choose affiliate products which will help you monetize your blog continuously.
You will be shown many affiliate networks and how to find the best products to promote on your blog.
- Traffic sources
Once you have products you will need people to visit your links and start buying and this is where learning about Traffic sources will come in handy.
This section is where you will be learning this and learning what Michelle recommends for getting traffic. One of the ways will be analyzing products in the way or reviews and the other just talking about a product in your blogs.
You will also be learning about how to use social media to make more sales and some social media platforms talked about include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.
- Helpful tools
You will then be getting to learn some good tools for ensuring your business stays afloat and this will include looking at analytics on how your business is performing weekly.
What are the features of Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing?
Let us now look at what you get once you decide to purchase this program for your business.
There are 3 different features that you will get and they are the following:
- 6 Modules with 30 lessons
- Workbook
All of this will be what will help you get your business up and running The workbook is basically for helping you stay on track by completing essential tasks.
The module will also be text-based which means that you will need to read in order to understand and follow the training as there are no videos to follow.
You will also have a community of people to learn from, who have also bought the course in the past. This is what is made to help any beginner be able to start making money easily.
How much does Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing cost?
Before jumping into the program it is always vital to know how much you will be investing for getting the program.
The good news is that the program is one of the cheapest I have seen online when it comes to affiliate marketing and this could be a good thing for people who do not have money to invest.
The program costs a mere $197 once off or you can pay 3 monthly payments of $97 to secure the program.
Given the fact that you can also get the course at a discount if you use coupons it is relatively cheap. But then again I always say you will always get what you pay for so it is better investing on something that is of great value rather then something super cheap.
There are also some hidden costs that you need to know about for this program which they do not mention and I will mention these below.
- Email list tools
Michelle mentions this in passing that she started her email marketing late and that it has been beneficial. She then proceeds to recommend some tools and products she uses which have affiliate links which will earn from.
You can see that this is a sales tactic to make her more money. Will understand once you have been in affiliate marketing for a long time.
- Facebook ads
Again here is another part she mentions in passing to you so that you can start using Facebook ads. However, this requires lost of trial and error and success is not as casual as she suggests, not even close.
However her tactic is that you boost Facebook posts which is not something that will make you money at least consistently, in fact most people do not even use this.
Who is Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing for?
Here is where things get interesting. It is said that the program is for newbies and people who have been in affiliate marketing for some years.
However, I find all of this super misleading because this is not correct especially the former statement about beginners.
This is because the course will not show you how to start a blog from scratch but rather assumes that you already have an established blog that you need to make money off.
So I would not recommend it to anyone really because even if you have a blog it will not teach you 100% how to drive traffic to your blog.
What I do not like about Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
- Very generic Training
The training is super generic and it is not made to help you make money well especially if you do not have a blog at all since you will not be show this simple thing.
- Too much sales and links on training
Michelle does a good job of putting many links all over her training which is helpful for her making loads of money with affiliate marketing through her students.
However, her students are not benefiting from any of this at all. You can say this whole training is for her to make sales from her students.
- Still new to affiliate marketing
It is not long ago that Michelle discovered affiliate marketing and started making money from it. You can see from the course content that she doesn’t put in all the information to help a regular beginner Joey.
- Text based course
This is probably the worst part of the course. Hardly no course these days is text-based and this is for a reason: Most people prefer to use video these days to learn.
Not only is Video easily and fast to learn from but it is appealing. If you prefer to read perhaps it is for you but I know most people prefer video.
- Not updated
The course is not updated at all ever since it was launched back in 2011 and you can see by the lack of video content that Michelle did not bother about this.
- PDF Issues
The other shocking thing is that you are asked to do handwritten work on the PDFs that are given. Yep you heard that right, Handwriting.
It would be better if the course recommended using digital format of pdfs like Google sheets which will make it easy for students to work with.
This again shows the lack of interest of the course creator.
- Bad bonuses
To top it all off you will be promised bonuses to help you with your business, However those bonuses are nothing but just two pages of advice on things like Guest posting and writing good headlines.
I know I was super disappointed when I saw this. To me these do not even qualify as bonuses to be honest.
What I like about Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
- The creator is reputable
It is good to know that Michelle has proven results and has been featured on some top blogs and magazines and not someone who is hidden behind a computer.
- Affiliate marketing is legit
After all is said and done you will be learning a business model that is proven to work and if you apply some things that can be helpful.
- Community based training
It is good having a course that has a community willing to help you out or work with you as you all try to succeed following the program.
- Very cheap
The course is one of the cheapest I have seen so far which means many people can get their hands on it.
is Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing a scam?
Here is the answer you may have been waiting for where I tell you whether this is a scam or not. The program itself is not a scam because if you do use the principles outlined you can get results, In fact some have gotten results with this you can see in the course.
The issue I have is that currently the method will not work and if you are a beginner especially you are likely to struggle since you will not even know how to make your own blog from scratch let alone driving traffic to your blog.
Final thoughts
There are different ways to make money online and the program you choose will play a big part on your success.
This is why I always recommend people to always choose advice looking into programs that have been proven to give you help properly.
Making Sense of Marketing Affiliate marketing is a course that is said to be helpful.
The course is created my Michelle Schroeder who is basically a well-known figure in blogging.
However I do not approve of her program because it is not at all helpful for people who are looking to make money online.
The program is so basic and generic and is made such a way that you still have to find other information outside the information.
The program is cheap which means it can be easily accessed by almost any person who is looking or this.
I hope this review was helpful and I hope it gave you the value that you were looking for. If you have any questions or comments you can leave below and I will be more than happy to engage with you as normal.
Hi Thabo, I come across the making sense of cents website last year. It was used as an example of a successful blog on a affiliate marketing for beginners post I read.
Not really look at Michelle Schroeders work much other than this but was interested when I found out about her course. I mean surely for someone that has achieved what she has her experience must count to help others.
I’ve not tried the course for myself but just looking at Michelles website is enough for me to be interested although it sounds like maybe this course or whatever it is needs some fine tuning. If Michelle is using this to exploit people by just recommending products which she can earn affiliate commissions from I think this is not good.
She could do very well I think just from selling a £197 course if she is actually sharing the expertise that she used to develop her blog but maybe she is not as good a teacher as she is a blogger?
Very well put. I also thing so that if she can focus more on helping people with the course then it will be way better for her and also to get more clients. But it seems that most of these course try to exploit their customers as much as possibel.
Hey Thabo,
thanks for your in-depth review! Looks like an interesting course, but it looks limited from what I can make out… Is it enough to get a complete beginner through everything? I’m not so sure!
Have you got a better alternative to this? I don’t want to pay for something that isn’t going to be worth the investment? thanks
Hey John
No It would not really be good for a beginner due to many limitations according to me. You can look at a course like savage affiliate or wealthy affiliate.