My business—Smart Passive Income—wouldn’t be what it is without affiliate marketing. In fact, for the past several years, affiliate marketing has been my single biggest source of passive income.
It hasn’t always been that way. I’ve had my share of affiliate marketing fails and struggles. But the process of overcoming those obstacles has taught me how to do affiliate marketing in a way that makes it a win–win for my audience and my business.
I’ve learned so much over the course of that journey, from the dangers of doing affiliate marketing the wrong way, to the best approach to choose the products you want to promote, to the importance of fostering trust with your audience to truly succeed with affiliate marketing.
And I want to share what I’ve learned with you! That’s why I’ve gone in depth to show you
- How affiliate marketing works in Chapter 1
- How to get started with it in Chapter 2
- Tips to succeed in Chapter 3
- A case study in Chapter 4 of my best affiliate relationship
- Mistakes to avoid in Chapter 5
- Tools to accelerate your efforts in Chapter 6
- And finally, in Chapter 7, how to optimize your affiliate marketing on one of the most popular affiliate networks.
Wherever you may be in your affiliate marketing journey, my goal is to give you everything you need to succeed.
And that’s why I also want to share two more incredible free resources I’ve created to help you become the affiliate marketer of your dreams.
Free Webinar: Affiliate Marketing Masterclass

With the help of the information and guidance in this article series, plus the Affiliate Marketing Cheat Sheet (formerly Affiliate Marketing the Smart Way), a lot of you will be able to hit the ground running with affiliate marketing.
Others might need a little more help getting off the ground—and that’s totally cool!
That’s why I also regularly host a free affiliate marketing training to help you lay the groundwork for a successful career as an affiliate marketer.
My free Affiliate Marketing Masterclass shows you how to monetize the brand you’ve built without being salesy or sleazy. You’ll learn the steps you need to take to finally begin generating an additional passive income stream using authentic affiliate marketing strategies.
Here are some of the key concepts and strategies you’ll learn in this training:
- The three key differences between a successful affiliate marketing campaign and an ineffective campaign.
- How to maximize your campaign so that you can get clicks and generate income.
- Two dead-simple strategies for finding affiliate products to promote to your audience.
- A 5-point product test to determine if it's worth your time to promote a particular product (so that you stop wasting time on the wrong products).
But that’s not all you’ll get in this free affiliate marketing training. You’ll also learn:
- The number one strategy for increasing your affiliate marketing campaign results.
- The rules of affiliate marketing, especially when it comes to Amazon.com product promotion (so you don't get in trouble or lose your account).
- How to increase your earnings once you find a product that's working for you.
And last but not least, when you attend you’ll also receive a special bonus: a sample “recipe” from my Affiliate Marketing Recipe Book that you can take home with you (so you can copy the steps of one of my own successful promotions for yourself).
Register for the next webinar! To see upcoming live training dates, go to smartpassiveincome.com/affiliatewebinar.
In this 90-minute live webinar, you'll learn how to find products and make the most of your affiliate campaigns. I'll email you a link to watch the replay if you're not able to attend live.
Can't wait for a live webinar? Get a previous recording on demand! Sign up in the box below.
Free Webinar
Affiliate Marketing Masterclass
Generate Additional Income Using Authentic Strategies
Affiliate marketing is an integral part of Pat's business and allows him to serve his audience by connecting them to the tools and services they need to succeed. With this webinar, he wants to help you do the same.
Pat Knows Affiliate Marketing
What's preventing you from making affiliate marketing a part of your income stream?
- Seven common anxieties about affiliate marketing
- Three mistakes people make with affiliate marketing
- How to stay on Amazon (and the FTC's) good side
Free PDF: Affiliate Marketing Cheat Sheet
This guide was my first ebook on the topic of affiliate marketing. I wrote it after lots of trial and error with affiliate marketing—starting, failing, and eventually succeeding. I learned a lot, and I came to believe that there’s a “right” way to approach affiliate marketing. That’s why I created my free ebook guide to doing affiliate marketing right, the Affiliate Marketing Cheat Sheet.
Sadly, there are a lot of misconceptions about affiliate marketing out there, which is what this guide specifically focuses on. In the Affiliate Marketing Cheat Sheet, I address these misconceptions by tackling some of the most common questions about affiliate marketing rules and strategies, including:
- What specific mediums work well for affiliate product promotion?
- How do I find my number one affiliate product or service?
- How do I make my affiliate product stand out in a crowd?
- How I can improve the relationship I have with the product owner?
At just 11 jam-packed pages, the Affiliate Marketing Cheat Sheet is full of insights I’ve learned through years of real-world experience in affiliate marketing—insights I’m excited to pass on to you.
Here’s what a couple readers have to say about how the Affiliate Marketing Cheat Sheet has helped them:
“Pat’s guide, Affiliate Marketing the Smart Way, really lives up to its name. Soon after implementing his tips, I saw a sudden $500/mo rise in my income. Reading it was enlightening!”
—Mike Martyns
“I gained a lot in the 30 minutes it took to absorb such valuable information. It was precise and to the point—a tool that is ready and available for any newcomer to GET STARTED.”
—Louisa Barzey
The Affiliate Marketing Cheat Sheet is filled with all of my best advice on the topic, and makes a fantastic free “pocket” companion to this article series.
The Sky’s the Limit
If you’ve been with me for this whole article series, then you’ve taken an exciting journey into the heart of affiliate marketing! And you’ve hopefully emerged from that journey armed with some serious knowledge, tools, strategies, and possibilities to take with you as you strike out into the wide, exciting world of affiliate marketing.
As with anything, what you get out of affiliate marketing is about how you approach it and what you put into it. If you treat it as just another tactic, then you’re not going to be very successful with it. But if you treat it as a way to build more trust with your audience and serve them better, then the sky’s the limit.
So now that you’ve made it this far, what’s next? Hopefully this article series has given you a great starting point, along with a wealth of resources to support you as you strive to become a pro at affiliate marketing. This series will always be here for you as a free affiliate marketing resource, along with the Affiliate Marketing Cheat Sheet and my Affiliate Marketing Masterclass.
And beyond those resources, I’d love for us to stay connected as you go down this exciting path.
I cover affiliate marketing-related topics often on my blog and in my podcast episodes, so stay tuned there. And if you ever want to send me a note, whether it’s a question about affiliate marketing, a success story you’d like to share, or anything else related to online business and entrepreneurship, you can reach me at [email protected]. I’m here to support you on your journey, so let me know how I can best do that!
Cheers,
