The 8 Best Affiliate Marketing Books: Awesome Books and Courses to Boost Your Business
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Generally, I'm a huge book fan. If it's between the movie and the book, I'll almost always choose the book. There's something about reading off actual pages that just makes the information hit home for me.
I'm sure many other people are the same way so it's not surprising that many beginners want to know the best affiliate marketing books out there.
After all, affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money online. Reading a good book on the topic seems like a great way to get ahead of the game.
The problem is, this is one of those few times where, as hard as it might be to admit, a book isn't the best option for learning.
Let me explain. When making money online affiliate marketing is going to catch a lot of attention.
This has a fairly low barrier for entry (especially for common starter affiliate programs like Amazon Associates or Google AdSense), has a huge ceiling, and can easily be started as a side hustle.
Want an Affiliate Marketing Course Instead of a Book? We Have 2 Recommendations
Try the Authority Site System or Try Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
Contents
- Affiliate Practices Change with Time
- Best Affiliate Marketing Books
- 1. From Nothing by Ian Pribyl
- 2. Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day by Evgenii Prussakov
- 3. Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday
- 4. Performance Partnerships by Robert Glazer
- 5. Affiliate Marketing: Launch a Six Figure Business with Clickbank Products, Affiliate Links, Amazon Affiliate Program, and Internet Marketing by Noah Gary & Michael Fox
- 6. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
- 7. Crushing It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
- #8: Work Energy by Jim Harmer
- Online Affiliate Programs vs. Books
- Importance of Timeliness
- In Conclusion
Affiliate Practices Change with Time
Affiliate marketing online also means you will be dealing with the online world, which changes faster than ever.
Online marketing, changing affiliate terms, SEO, changes in social media platforms, and shifting attitudes towards sales are just a few of the things an affiliate-based business has to deal with.
This means many books, even good ones, are going to be relatively out of date in a short time when it comes to affiliate marketing.
Even the best ones are going to potentially have this issue.
That being said, there are a few really good affiliate books out there for beginners. There are also some exceptional works that affiliates or would-be affiliate marketers should read about online marketing, about online business, and about how advertising/marketing works.
Best Affiliate Marketing Books
The foundations you can build from these books are tools that will make you a better affiliate. They also hold up much better against the test of time. There are a couple picks that qualify as an affiliate marketing book and deals directly with the nuts and bolts of getting started.
The rest of the mix of books give you the information, long-term marketing skills, and understanding of how affiliate marketing works to succeed strongly in the long run.
Use these books, consider adding them to your best copywriting books library, and then consider taking a look at the online courses we recommend in this post.
These are tested, proven, and created by affiliate marketers who have shown over and over again they know how to make money with their content.
Books can have some solid information but when it comes to finding a step-by-step guide that is up to date you need trustworthy updated online programs.
This article goes over the best of both resources. You wanted a guide to these books and you not only get that but also recommendations for the best classes to get you and your future Amazon empire up and running.
Read on for the eight best books to help you make money from learning affiliate marketing.
1. From Nothing by Ian Pribyl
For true affiliate marketing books, From Nothing by Ian Pribyl is one of the finest we can actually recommend. This book is best described as an affiliate and business creation guide.
While geared mostly at novices and beginners, there is still a lot of information here that can still be helpful to even those affiliates who have had skin in the game for a while.
Ian Pribyl is an individual who has actually has experience as a successful affiliate and online marketer. This wasn't a one-off, either. Over 15 years he has built and sold multiple websites that made their way to six figures.
This book is aimed at the newbie but works as a step-by-step guide so individuals who have already started but struggled to get to where they want to go will really benefit from this.
This is a book that acknowledges many beginners struggle to have any money to invest early on. There is no “Spend $10,000” step early on that is completely impractical to early affiliates.
From Nothing assumes starters have a mere $100 to get started (which is enough on a shoe string budget) and walk them through how to get going from there.
Among the actual affiliate marketing books aimed at those just beginning their affiliate marketing journey, this print book is by far and away the best.
Check current pricing on this book on Amazon!
Buy Now on Amazon2. Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day by Evgenii Prussakov
This is the other most commonly recommended book that focuses directly on affiliate marketing. While Prussakov has written several books on the topic, Affiliate Program Management is the book that consistently gets the best feedback.
One thing to keep in mind: this book is absolutely for affiliate beginners.
If you have started your own affiliate business or built multiple websites already, there isn't going to be much information here that's new. A successful affiliate marketer while know the information here. As will those experienced at blogging.
This is one of those books on affiliate marketing that very specifically focuses on beginners and getting started.
While beginner focused with a particular emphasis on how to get started, this book focuses a lot on concepts along with early steps which makes it last against the test of time better than most books dealing with online affiliate marketing.
There are many links and resources given to help out beginners.
While it's a nice effort to go a step extra to be helpful, keep in mind this is where traditional hardcovers or paperbacks struggle to stay relevant because many of those resources are no longer live.
An online marketing course like the ones we recommend below are better for actual current marketing and affiliate resources.
However, for a true novice this is actually a pretty decent book. The focus on affiliate concepts, common practices, and practical guide to starting an online business focused on affiliate marketing allow it to still be relevant and useful.
Even years after the original publication date.
There will be some certain information in the book that is a touch outdated, especially with using social media to drive traffic or make money but this is a solid buy for beginners.
Check current pricing on this book on Amazon!
Buy Now on Amazon3. Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday
Trust Me I'm Lying might be the best title for a book ever. This is also one of the best books on marketing out there as Holiday's experience in watching media shift and the blogosphere shift gives major lessons on how media really works. And just how easy it can be to manipulate.
Holiday does a great job using real life examples. Part online history, part biography, and teeming with lessons on how “going viral” and hacking a message into online news sources works, the lessons here are incredible.
Understanding these online systems is crucial if you want to push attention to your websites. This is true whether they are affiliate based or business based.
Doubly so if you're looking at a marketing business in the long-term.
While the focus here is on media, the lessons are fully relevant to Internet marketing. If you fully understand the concepts this book teaches, you have the tools to create content and marketing strategies that do some major work for you.
When you get started with your online education, Trust Me, I'm Lying should be top of the reading list. It's one of the few advertising books I re-read fairly consistently.
Check current pricing on this book on Amazon!
Buy Now on Amazon4. Performance Partnerships by Robert Glazer
Robert Glazer's Performance Partnerships is a book every serious affiliate should read. This isn't about setting up an affiliate marketing website. It also doesn't look at starting a business. This guide to affiliate marketing is all about the industry.
The book takes a step back to do more of a deep dive into the industry.
Glazer's book focuses on giving a high-level understanding of how affiliate marketing works, how it should work, and why even with affiliate sites you need to look at growing relationships with the visitors to your site.
This is taking a deep dive into the ideas behind how things work. Any marketing plan or marketing strategy you take on for your online business will be that much stronger and nuanced because you will look at the industry, how it really works, and what drives results.
This book isn't trying to replace online courses.
This is a different angle on understanding affiliate marketing and it is a great book that will help you not lose sight of the big picture. That's important because it's easy to do when in the weeds.
Great book that holds up. This book is one of the best ways to understand the markets better. When you do that, you will see more success with all your affiliate endeavors.
Check current pricing on this book on Amazon!
Buy Now on Amazon5. Affiliate Marketing: Launch a Six Figure Business with Clickbank Products, Affiliate Links, Amazon Affiliate Program, and Internet Marketing by Noah Gary & Michael Fox
Amazon isn't the only major affiliate program out there. This book is a guide to affiliate marketing that focuses on one specific affiliate.
Clickbank is one of the largest affiliate options out there and specializes in selling e-books and other online courses or products. Among many affiliate marketers Clickbank is a favorite affiliate platform.
This is because many of the products listed on Clickbank offer very high commissions and pay-outs.
Some of the largest programs also hire professional copywriters, meaning their sales pages convert.
When you can offer a product you know sells very well and you get a 50%, 60%, or even 80% cut you're feeling pretty good about your affiliate marketing revenue. Certainly beats the 4.5% average from Amazon.
There are two things that really stand out about this book. The first is that it is in-depth.
This is a guide to affiliate marketing for Clickbank that goes start to finish. There's almost 300 pages of good material in this book diving into every part of how to make money with Clickbank.
The second thing that sticks out is that this is a book that gets updated.
That really is the only way that an affiliate book can stay relevant in digital marketing year after year.
The Amazon listing is updated by the authors who update the book every couple of years when a new edition is necessary to stay relevant.
Check current pricing on this book on Amazon!
Buy Now on Amazon6. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
What will help you stick out from 20 copycat template affiliate sites? Understanding the lessons of this book.
Purple Cow by Seth Godin is a book that is absolutely legendary in the marketing world. This is a book that has earned that level of hype.
Seth Godin is an absolute giant in marketing and Purple Cow uses a great little story to bring home in simple terms how good marketing really works. The title goes to a story told in the book.
Paraphrased, it basically asks “If you were driving through the countryside seeing hill after hills, fields full of cows, and then saw a cow that was purple – wouldn't you stop to see what was going on?”
This book talks about sticking out, how to get attention. There might be arguments about the best ways to get attention for your websites, but doesn't sticking out trump them all?
After all the more attention you get as a blogger, the more clicks you can get on affiliate links, the more quickly you can build passive income from your blogging efforts.
Seth Godin's book helps you get there.
This is a fantastic book with easy to read content. Useful, thought-provoking, and unique, this is one of the most powerful marketing books out there.
Check current pricing on this book on Amazon!
7. Crushing It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
Does Gary Vaynerchuk aka “Gary Vee” really need an introduction at this point?
One of the biggest names in marketing Gary Vaynerchuk is bold, brash, and one of the most popular business inspiration models out there. Especially when it comes to information on social media marketing.
If you've only had a limited amount of exposure, it can be easy to dismiss Gary as a sort of inspiration/self-help business guru but that would be a major mistake.
I'm embarrassed to admit it took me longer than it should have to start following Vaynerchuk. Because my first exposures were small clips mashed up in inspirational videos playing to the side while I was working.
But once you pay attention, it doesn't take long to see that this marketer is someone special.
Extolling hard work, dreaming big, and jumping on new emerging social media platforms or technological changes to stay ahead of the competition. Vaynerchuk is an unusual blend of endless energy, highly motivational speaker, and detailed tactician.
The lessons he teaches can be used for any marketing business (if you're interested don't miss our list of marketing business name ideas), any affiliate marketer, or just about any business period.
This is outstanding content and you honestly can't go wrong with any of his books but Crushing It! in particular focuses on fundamentals and big picture strategies to stay relevant. No matter what happens to the social media or changing affiliate programs of the time.
Gary Vee's insight into social media marketing alone is worth the purchase.
This book should be in your library already. If it's not, add it to the top of the list for must buy books this month.
Check current pricing on this book on Amazon!
Buy Now on Amazon#8: Work Energy by Jim Harmer
Jim Harmer is one of the big names behind the Income School, one of our favorite online programs. It's one of the top three affiliate programs online right now. Jim's first book is a great read.
The firsthand account of how he went from struggling worker to wealthy Internet marketer is excellent and relatable.
The information on how focus and work results are crucial delves into how to find both when they seem in short supply.
This book is a great combination of motivation, tactics, and personal story that ties it together and brings it home. Great for beginners just looking at marketing, making money online, or affiliate marketing.
There are a lot of important points here that are often overlooked. All the affiliate marketing secrets in the world don't do you much good if you can't find the time to work.
And make that time productive.
For those of you who know you need to focus more, to be able to stop procrastinating and really produce, this is an especially good read.
Sometimes there's a disconnect between what you know you need to do in your head and what you actually do. Jim Harmer's book really helped me start bridging that gap between plan and action.
This is a very well-written book and a very good read. You'll want it as part of your business book library.
Check current pricing on this book on Amazon!
Buy Now on AmazonOnline Affiliate Programs vs. Books
There's a reason most of the recommended affiliate marketing programs are online. Whether it's keeping track of the newest changes to search engine optimization (SEO) because of a new Google Algorithm, changing ROI of certain social media platforms, or Amazon changing its commission structure once again.
On top of that there's simply the credibility issue. Affiliate marketers make their money online. They build niche websites, test online marketing in real world conditions, and adjust accordingly.
It only makes sense that someone used to doing business online would teach how to do that online. Same platform, so why would you move your business?
This doesn't mean there aren't useful books when it comes to learning affiliate marketing. But if you want to learn to make money as an affiliate then you need to follow affiliates who have done it.
You'll find most of them teaching online.
Online courses can be edited on the very day that things change. In addition to this, there are so many different topics that fall under getting better results as an affiliate marketer. Because of that, places like blogs and YouTube just make more sense.
There's nothing wrong with reading the great marketing works that have been published out there.
In fact it is a great part of picking up the skills needed to succeed online.
But if you want to stay up on the affiliate world then you really need to look at a trustworthy online program.
Right now there are three that really stand out for affiliate marketers.
Income School
So you're convinced that in addition to the great books mentioned earlier in this list, you also need online guidance. Great! The key is making sure if you're going to pay for a course, you set yourself up with one of the best.
Since we already briefly mentioned it, let's start with Income School. Founded by buddies Ricky and Jim, there's a lot to love about this program.
First, it's one of the most beginner friendly programs out there. Even if you've never set up a website, you can walk into the Income School program and get up and running in no time, learn more in our full Income School review.
There's plenty here for even the most experienced affiliate marketers, as well. When they brag at sharing all of their affiliate secrets, they don't lie.
They share favorite keywords, topics that they're excited about, a profitable niche list, and even the keywords/articles that get them the most traffic.
They know they can rank affiliate sites in virtually any niche. So they're not concerned about others coming after them.
That type of transparency also makes for a truly in-depth affiliate marketing course that not only serves as a complete guide to affiliate marketing but it is also worth every penny.
If you have passive income dreams but don't know anything about blogging this is a great program to get going.
If you haven't seen them, check out their amazing YouTube channel. Then do yourself a favor and turbo charge your affiliate marketing efforts by purchasing their course.
Check out the Income School Program here!
Sign up for the Income School ProgramAuthority Site System
We're obviously big fans of the guys at Authority Hacker. They know their stuff inside and out and have some of the best step-by-step SEO systems out there. They have built an incredible business out of creating excellent affiliate websites.
Then another off teaching others how to become successful affiliate marketers.
If you're looking for a guide to affiliate marketing that gives both a step-by-step option as well as in-depth help with advanced techniques, then you will be hard pressed to do better!
Are you a true beginner affiliate marketer? Someone with moderate successes who can't seem to break through as an Amazon Associate?
There's information here that can help you correct your mistakes and use a repeatable system to keep building new profitable niche sites.
All of these individuals can benefit from the Authority Site System. From the initial setup guide for beginning affiliates to their powerful link gathering techniques for SEO, there's something for everyone.
You're not going to find information like this in even the best affiliate marketing books. In fact, if you want to know more you can check out our Authority Site System review.
Check out the Authority Site System here!
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
Making Sense of Cents is a really great website. This not only features Michelle's own personal journey when it comes to learning about making money online, which is a great story in and of itself.
This blog goes into a lot of detail about side hustles, paying off debt, making money, and has some outstanding guest posts from others who managed to do the same.
The blog is incredibly popular for good reason. Michelle knows how to thrive at affiliate marketing.
The blog Making Sense of Cents offered many pieces of great free advice.
You could find multiple different ways to make money online from home as well as learn of the many options many young people took to pay off debt (becoming an affiliate marketer or Amazon Associate were both frequently popular options), and more.
However, she never laid out a complete guide for replicated what she did. If you were looking at step-by-step blueprints or the best practices for creating revenue with an Amazon business just wasn't there. Despite the very high demand.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is the program that finally answers that demand.
This program is going to be a better way of learning how to create a business to make money with your online content than any book you will be able to purchase off of Amazon.
This program now takes all of Michelle's knowledge and experience and puts it into this one program for creating an affiliate marketing business.
Check out Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Program Here!
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing ProgramImportance of Timeliness
There are two things that never change about affiliate marketing. One of those things is looking at how the base fundamentals affiliate marketing works.
Understanding these concepts doesn't guarantee success, but it's much harder to succeed without them.
The other is that things change. Then change again. Then maybe even change one more time once again.
This brings home the need for the good marketing books to teach fundamentals and the online courses to keep you up to date with what's going on in the online affiliate world. Times change and strategies from 6 months ago might not work today…much less strategies from 5 years ago.
Good fundamentals and long-term affiliate planning matters. As does the willingness to keep on learning.
No matter how much you know about affiliate marketing, there's always more.
That's why the best in the field are always up on what others are doing, marketing websites worth reading, and testing to see what changes with every Google update.
A combination of the best books and best programs can go a long way to giving you the tools you need to start building an affiliate marketing empire.
In Conclusion
There are many great resources out there. Whether getting the most out of the Amazon Associates program or learning how to move to making money beyond Amazon, this combination of printed works and courses will not only help you get started but help get you there, too!
Whether you prefer book learning or online affiliate courses, you know the resources you need to succeed building affiliate sites online to create future passive income.
Remember that no matter how good the books you read are, it's only a matter of time until they start getting out of date.
The online business of affiliate marketing changes frequently and you need an updated online affiliate marketing program to keep you up on the most recent changes.
Take these tools, use what you learn, and put in the massive work to get started on your affiliate journey today!
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