5 Best Affiliate Marketing Books For Beginners (2023)
So maybe you’re just getting started with affiliate marketing, or maybe you’ve got another business idea and you want to expand your knowledge base. Either way, this list of affiliate marketing books will help you find what you’re looking for.
It is easy to get lost in the sea of information available without ever really finding what you are even looking for. In this list, I’ve handpicked the books that have personally helped me along my affiliate marketing journey. They’ve each not only helped me with the skills necessary to succeed, but also helped me see things from a different perspective to improve my approach, and revenue.
What Are the Best Affiliate Marketing Books for Beginners?
For me, what makes an affiliate marketing book worth the read and my recommendation is that the author takes a no fluff approach to delivering the information in an easy to understand way.
The affiliate marketing industry is full of different snake oil tactics and strategies that sound good, but do not really get you anywhere. Every book on this list was handpicked because it has something valuable and different to offer beginner and veteran affiliate marketers than any other book also on the list.
Whether you are a brand new affiliate marketer or you already have a successful affiliate business, every book on this list plays a key role in the world of marketing and will provide you with key information in the area it specializes in.
Disclaimer: There are affiliate links on this page. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive compensation at no additional cost to you.
#1: Insiders Guide to Affiliate Marketing by David Sharpe
Overview
Written by 9 figure earner and extremely successful affiliate marketer, David Sharpe, this book does a really great job of breaking down the fundamentals of an affiliate marketing business and the beginning stages of launching a business.
This is perhaps one of the best affiliate marketing books if you are looking for something to give you a very clear understanding of how the affiliate marketing business model works and the evergreen strategies that are used by the leaders of the industry and have been time tested.
David Sharpe is a mastermind of affiliate marketing secrets, and he isn’t afraid to share them.
Highlights
Little Left To Be Desired: A very thorough overview of everything you need to know and should expect if you’re considering starting a business with the affiliate marketing business model.
The Things No One Else Talks About: Compliance is a touchy subject and most educators in the affiliate marketing industry avoid it. Dave Sharpe does a great job of introducing this topic.
Automation: While this guide doesn’t give you the step by step of setting up your back end automations, it does give you the foundation you need to approach and create an effective but simple automated system.
A Long Term Play: Dave Sharpe puts a lot of emphasis on the actual business and that it is not a “get rich quick” business model. He does a good job of explaining how to get started, get momentum, and then maintain the momentum.
Breaking Into The Market: One of the largest sticking points of new affiliate marketers is finding a niche and profitable products to promote in that niche. Dave Sharpe makes this process clear and simple.
Pricing
The cost of “The Insider’s Guide to Affiliate Marketing by David Sharpe is $1.99. It is immediately accessible as a digital eBook, and no physical copy exists at this time. With its purchase, Dave Sharpe also includes his digital marketing course, The 15 Day Online Business Builder Challenge for free.
Final Thoughts
This book gives you the how-to for starting an affiliate marketing business from scratch. If you’re looking for affiliate marketing secrets from a marketing legend, then Dave Sharpe is your best bet.
Also consider reading our Legendary Marketer Review, of which David Sharpe is the founder and specializes in the online business of affiliate marketing.
#2: Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson
Overview
Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson makes #1 on this list because of how valuable the traffic getting strategies it contains are to anyone in the field of marketing. This book will give you what you need to attract your target audience to your business and offers.
Brunson reveals all of his hidden secrets to increasing your digital presence, finding emerging traffic trends, as well as how to turn clicks into loyal customers.
Highlights
An Evergreen Traffic Approach: The traffic strategies uncovered are not reliant on any temporary platforms or emerging trends. They are time tested and won’t be going away.
Identifying Your Dream Client: This book breaks down the importance and how-to of defining your target audience to get the best results out of your affiliate marketing efforts.
Social Media Marketing: Brunson covers the ins and outs of building strong relationships with your audience using organic marketing methods.
Funnel Strategies: Russell uncovers his secrets for turning views into clicks to keep your sales funnel full of prospects.
Funnel Hacking: A detailed approach to reverse engineering the marketing efforts of your competition.
Final Thoughts
Most of us get into affiliate marketing because we want to make extra income (or a lot of income) while simultaneously cutting down on the time we spend actually working.
While this book is not a “how to” for affiliate marketing specifically, if you want to have a very profitable affiliate marketing business then the skills and strategies taught by Russell Brunson in this book will be essential.
#3: If You’re Not First, You’re Last by Grant Cardone
Overview
The title of the book, “If You’re Not First, You’re Last,” may be catchy, but it also embodies all of the philosophy of what this book is all about. This is not specifically about affiliate marketing, but is aimed at all marketers, salespeople, and business owners who are looking to maximize their success as entrepreneurs.
Grant puts a very large emphasis on not only succeeding, but being #1 above all else. Ironically, this book didn’t make #1 on THIS list, but it would make #1 on many others, and the information inside of this book is still valuable for affiliate marketers.
Highlights
Proactive vs. Reactive: Cardone talks about the importance and power in proactively hunting down your leads and customers, instead of waiting for them to come to you.
Outperforming The Current Economic State: Grant gives his strategies for growing and scaling your business and reach, regardless of an economic upturn or downturn.
Leveraging Your Current Network: Cardone explains how to leverage your existing connections and use them to expand your network and likeness using free referral strategies.
Persistence is Key: Grant believes that the most common mistake that salespeople and marketers make is giving up too early and assuming that a prospect isn’t interested. He emphasizes aggressive and frequent follow up to capture customers and leads.
Set Bold Targets: The idea of setting massive goals and doing whatever it takes to outperform those goals as fast as possible, and the steps necessary to do so.
Final Thoughts
This truly is a pivotal read and fits well in my stack of affiliate marketing books. This book offers a lot of actionable and motivating advice on strategies to dominate any market and leverage as many opportunities as possible.
The emphasis on not just succeeding, but being number 1 and rising to the top is what separates this book from all of the other generic advice offered by wealthy entrepreneurs.
#4: Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Overview
In “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki, the author tells his story of growing up with his biological poor dad and his best friends’ rich dad, and their profoundly different attitudes towards education, success and money. This book will completely change the way you look at money, societal standards of what is “normal”, and train you to look at things through a completely different lens.
For affiliate marketers and online business in general, especially someone who is a complete beginner and new to entrepreneurship, this entire book is like a mindset hack that will take you out of a discouraged, broken mindset and train you to think like the wealthy.
Highlights
Conventional Education Leads To Financial Struggle: Kiyosaki emphasizes the importance of financial education and the lack thereof in the current curriculum for young students. This leads to a poor relationship with money and the inability to make smart financial decisions that lead to financial success.
Gaining Assets and Avoiding Liabilities: Kiyosaki teaches the difference between Assets and Liabilities and how it relates to the average consumer. For example, a liability is something that takes money out of your pocket (like a car) and an Asset is something that puts money IN your pocket (like real estate).
Intro To Investing: Kiyosaki covers the importance of investing as a strategy for creating wealth and additional income streams with methods like business investments and real estate.
Mindset is Key: Perceiving challenges and obstacles as opportunities is a key matter in this book. Your mindset can be the difference between success and failure.
Embracing Risk: Financial risks are part of the wealth building process. Being able to analyze and take a calculated approach to financial risk is a key component of generating wealth.
Final Thoughts
While this one is not something that will immediately come to mind when we think about affiliate marketing books, it gave me a completely different perspective on money, allowed me to respect it more, and helped me to really understand that as I approached business, thinking like an employee or following societal standards of thinking when it comes to money was not going to help me in succeeding with any venture.
#5: Copywriting Secrets by Jim Edwards
Overview
In “Copywriting Secrets” by Jim Edwards, the author breaks down 31 of his most valuable copywriting secrets that will drive more sales in your business, get more clicks to your funnels, and higher return on your ad spend. Copywriting is everything for an affiliate marketer.
Being able to write good sales copy will be the difference between creating videos, ads, emails, funnels, blog posts and everything else that will convert sales at a very high level, or all of those things not converting at all.
Highlights
Knowing Your Audience: Edwards breaks down the importance and how-to of understanding the exact pain points, desired outcomes, and needs so you can tailor your messaging to speak directly to them in a way that will resonate with them and convert them into leads and customers.
Creating Effective Headlines: The first thing your visitors will see is your headline. Knowing how to craft one that incites curiosity and grabs attention is crucial to generating a lot of sales as an affiliate marketer.
Becoming A Storyteller: Stories are the most relatable way for your audience to connect with and understand your message. You can connect with your viewers on a personal level, making your more memorable and persuasive..
How To Handle Objections: Your audience will have objections, or reason that your solution won’t work for their problem. Curating your copywriting to handle this for you will give them a direct, clear path to buying your product.
Clear Call To Actions: Giving a strong call to action will direct your readers to do exactly what you want you want them to do. This book breaks down the science and strategy to writing an effective and relevant call to action, whether it be to get them to purchase, subscribe, follow, etc.
Final Thoughts
“Copywriting Secrets” by Jim Edwards is an excellent resource for affiliate marketers looking to improve the quality of their promotional content. The book’s emphasis on understanding the audience, creating attention-grabbing headlines, and the power of narrative provides significant ideas for marketers looking to engage deeply with potential customers.
Edwards stresses overcoming objections, which is an important ability for affiliates trying to persuade their audience of the value of the products they represent. The tactics for creating attractive calls to action can immediately improve conversion rates, resulting in more clicks and purchases from affiliate links.
Overall, this book provides the elements to creating convincing affiliate marketing text that sells.
Why Are These The Best Affiliate Marketing Books?
Simply put, affiliate marketing is just a form of generating revenue through digital marketing. It is a great way to generate revenue online without the need of your own products, support teams, payment processors, and can be accomplished via social media, blogging, can even be an extension of an existing business to generate more revenue.
These affiliate marketing books made this list because they are all unique and powerful with the marketing information and strategies that they deliver. These are not simply 5 books that give you the same basic overview of affiliate marketing. They all dive deep into different skill sets that are needed to run a six figure business generating affiliate income and be your own boss.
In order to be successful, you need to not only learn affiliate marketing, but you also need to learn the proven strategies that have been used by veteran internet marketers that have been in the industry for different reasons with different goals in mind.
In Conclusion
I hope you found this list of the 5 best affiliate marketing books helpful and it allowed you to find some of the information you are looking for. There is a plethora of information out there about affiliate marketing but on ryanhalbertofficial.com, I only want to deliver you the information that will propel you forward in the direction that you need to go, so you can be successful. Is affiliate marketing even legit? Read my comprehensive breakdown on how affiliate marketing works here.
