Book Reviews: Affiliate Marketing by Noah Gray and Michael Fox

Hello, readers and writers! I’m here to bring you another review, this time of a book which I think will be very helpful to freelancers, bloggers, and pretty much anyone looking for an extra source of income. It might even give you some ideas for help in advertising your self-published works. The book I am reviewing today is Affiliate Marketing: Launch a Six Figure Business with Clickbank Products, Affiliate Links, Amazon Affiliate Program and Internet Marketing by Noah Gray and Michael Fox.

Have you ever seen a banner ad on a blog, perhaps related to the post it accompanies? Or a little rectangular Amazon ad on a website, maybe advertising a high-end vacuum or the latest George R.R. Martin novel? If so, you’ve been exposed to a concept called affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is when companies “allow people who sign up as marketers to promote their business and/or products” (Affiliate Marketing, Loc 527). Virtually anyone can do it if they know how; to make money, however, you have to know how to do it well.

In Affiliate Marketing, Noah Gray and Michael Fox teach readers not only how to begin affiliate marketing companies but to how to optimize their experience and earning prospects. Over twenty-two chapters, this book covers everything about affiliate marketing from its definition and getting started to promoting your campaign, mistakes to avoid, and even the details of specific affiliate programs. By the time you’re done reading, you’ll be able to jump right into this pursuit of good—although not always easy—money.

I have to admit that I briefly dipped into the Amazon Affiliate Program. However, I failed pretty badly. Now, thanks to Gray and Fox, I know why I failed and how I can better approach this endeavor. I didn’t even understand how large the scope of affiliate marketing is before reading this book or that there were programs outside of the Amazon Affiliate Program that I could check out.

Gray and Fox thoroughly and comprehensively dissect the various aspects of the affiliate marketing concept. Each chapter and section cover a different, although equally important, part of the process and avenues one can take while becoming an affiliate marketer, including multiple networks and affiliate programs readers can investigate. I especially found the sections on defining affiliate marketing, the Amazon Affiliate Program, and the mistakes that affiliate marketers make helpful. The book even gives instructions and suggestions on how to create websites which affiliate marketers use to promote products and services.

For the most part, Gray and Fox’s writing is smooth and easy to follow. They keep the language simple enough for most readers to understand without talking down to them. Of course, the topic necessitates the use of technical terms such as “Content Management System” (CMS). Still, these terms are never overly complicated. Even if you’re not a computer expert (guilty!), you would still be able to understand these terms. Gray and Fox try and define terms which seem more technical or advanced than the novice affiliate marketer is accustomed to. Even when they don’t, readers can decipher the meaning from context without too much effort.

The only real problem I had with Affiliate Marketing is the structure. All of the information is necessary. Regardless, I feel that some sections would have made more sense if organized differently. For example, I think that the advantages and disadvantages of affiliate marketing would work better when Gray and Fox are defining the concept and providing its history so that readers can decide sooner if this money-making opportunity is right for them. I also think that they should lump the information about what one should post on their site with the chapters on website traffic and structure.

These personal structural preferences aside, Affiliate Marketing is a very handy guide for those wanting to make money through online ads. It’s well-written, I only noticed a handful of proofreading errors, and the authors leave no stone unturned while describing the concept. I highly recommend reading this book before diving right into affiliate marketing. Trust me, I made that mistake with the Amazon Affiliate Program, and this book will save you wasted time.

I would actually go one step further and suggest reading Affiliate Marketing with Blogging for Dummies. A website or blog is key for online affiliating marketing, so I think that these books together would help you make the absolute most out of the experience.

Affiliate Marketing is available as an e-book and in paperback through Amazon.

Know of a book I should read? Want your work reviewed on this blog? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com or message me on Fiverr and we can arrange something.