Learn Affiliate Marketing
The Real Playbook
No guru BS. No $997 courses. Just what actually works, from someone building it in public — with real numbers, real programs, and honest timelines.
Read the framework →The Curriculum
Read these in order. Each article builds on the last. By the end you'll have a working plan, real programs to apply for, and a realistic timeline to your first commission.
The 7 Criteria to Evaluate Any Affiliate Program
Commission rates are a trap. Use this 7-criteria filter before you apply — written from running programs in the wild, including the ones that look great and pay pennies.
How Affiliate Cookies Actually Work — 30 vs 90 Day
Cookie duration defines how long your work persists. Here's the real attribution math from Amazon (24h), Shopify (30d), and WunderTools (90d) — and why your consideration window dictates which programs you should run.
Commission Structures Compared — Recurring vs One-Time, % vs Flat, Cookie vs Payout
Recurring vs one-time payouts, percentage vs flat CPA, and cookie window vs payout-speed tradeoffs — across SaaS, crypto, email, e-commerce, and online courses. Concrete numbers from live programs.
Easy vs Hard Affiliate Programs: How to Evaluate Approval Difficulty Before You Apply
Some programs approve in five minutes. Others reject you after a six-week manual review. Here's the approval-difficulty framework — traffic thresholds, niche restrictions, manual review, and network gatekeeping — so you apply where you'll actually get in.
How Affiliate Links Work — Click, Disclosure, Cookie, Redirect
How merchants and networks actually issue your tracking link, what FTC + network ToS require you to disclose, what the cookie/attribution window is doing in the background, and the redirect best practices that keep you clear of affiliate-abuse teams.
Recurring-Revenue Affiliate Programs — A Beginner's Guide to Compounding Commissions
What recurring and RevShare commissions actually are, why they compound better than one-time payouts, how to find programs that offer them, and 5 real recurring programs we run ourselves (CEX.IO, Kit MCP, WunderTools, Hostinger, SEMrush).
How Affiliate Marketing Actually Works
Kill the myths. Understand the real mechanics — from click to cookie to commission — and why most affiliates fail before they start.
How to Pick Your First Affiliate Programs
Commission rates are a lie. Learn what actually matters: EPC, cookie duration, payout terms — and the programs we use ourselves.
Your First $1,000 in Affiliate Commissions — A Realistic Timeline
CommissionStack hit 421 clicks in 16 days with 9.22% CTR. Here's the exact week-by-week plan we'd follow if starting from zero.
Crypto Affiliate Programs & RevShare — A Beginner's Guide to How They Work
How crypto exchange affiliate programs diverge from SaaS (trading-fee RevShare vs. subscription %), what RevShare means in crypto specifically, three reference programs walked through (CEX.IO, Coinbase, Binance), the FTC disclosure load crypto affiliates carry, and the five things to verify before joining.
Build Your First Affiliate Email Funnel with Kit MCP
A solo-affiliate build plan on Kit MCP's free tier: opt-in landing page to a 5-email welcome sequence to a weekly broadcast cadence to one contextual affiliate link per send — weekend-build scope, no domain or paid ESP required.