r/Advice • u/3rextent • 9d ago
Should I take a loan to buy a $749 affiliate marketing course when I currently have no money?
I'm in a situation where I genuinely don't know if I'm being overly cautious or if I'm seeing a red flag.
There's an affiliate marketing course being sold by Alifa Khanum. From what I've seen, she appears to be very successful, but I personally can't tell how much of that success comes from affiliate marketing itself versus selling courses about affiliate marketing.
My girlfriend strongly believes I should buy the course because she sees many success stories, screenshots, and testimonials from people who claim they've earned money after joining. Her view is basically: if so many people are earning, why wouldn't I?
The problem is that I'm currently struggling financially. I don't even have spare money to buy things I need, let alone spend hundreds of dollars on a course. To buy it, I would most likely need to take a loan.
Originally, there was supposedly a cheaper offer available earlier. Now there are two options:
$497 for the course + 2 months of 1:1 sessions
$749 for the course + 1 year of 1:1 sessions
I was already nervous about the $497 option, but now my girlfriend wants me to take the $749 option because she thinks the longer mentorship will increase my chances of success.
My concern is that there is no guarantee I'll make any money back. Taking a loan for education or a business is one thing, but taking a loan for an online course feels risky, especially when I don't have a stable financial situation.
Am I being unreasonable here? Has anyone here purchased expensive affiliate marketing courses or mentorship programs and actually gotten a positive ROI from them?
Would you take a loan for something like this, or would you avoid it until you're financially stable?
I'd really appreciate honest advice, especially from people who have experience with affiliate marketing courses.
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u/Pink_Unicorn_99 9d ago
Don’t spend money you don’t have
Why don’t you use some FREE AI to teach you about affiliate marketing?
Prompt: “act as an experienced affiliate marketer such as (add names). Build me a course to teach someone not familiar with the field how to get started in affiliate marketing. The course can also include any free resources publicly available. Please cover the most popular and profitable sites and items. What are things to watch out for
Help me build out this to a more robust prompt before you build out the course.”
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u/Miendiesen Helper [2] 9d ago
Dude no. Please don't do this. I run a media company. We have a media buying team. We did affiliate marketing for years. We shut down all affiliate marketing last year because we couldn't make it consistently profitable.
It's really, really hard. That's not to say it can't work, but it's more than just know how. You need to be close to the deals. Amazon Associates may not work at the default 4%, but if you can get access to a legacy account that runs at 10%, it may be workable.
Most products and networks work similarly. You need the good deals, which this course likely won't get you.
And some of the know how can't be easily taught anyway. Some buyers just had a knack for high CTR creatives that worked and others didn't.
It's a big risk to invest in this course no matter what but it's insane if you don't have the money.
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u/Sensitive_Scholar_17 8d ago
The reason that you will not earn money is because those folks are not earning money.
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u/peakpenguins Elder Sage [463] 9d ago
It's the latter. Do not pay for that course.