| Course | YouTube Affiliate Masterclass + bonus course 7 Free Ways To Make Money Online |
| Creator | Greg Gottfried |
| Format | 59 videos (~5h 54m) · 21 PDF resources · 6.38 GB |
| Level | Complete beginners; no channel or subscribers needed |
| Core promise | Affiliate commissions from YouTube videos that reach buyers just before they purchase |
| Our take | A patient, click-by-click walkthrough; the method holds up, some screens and the bonus course show their age |
1. The big idea · 2. The commission engine · 3. Worked example: Camera Corner · 4. Case study: the $20 tripod video · 5. Risks and dated parts · 6. Inside the index · 7. Self-test · 8. About Greg Gottfried · 9. Verdict
The Big Idea: You Get Paid for Timing, Not for Views
The YouTube Affiliate Masterclass rests on one claim: an affiliate video doesn’t need to go viral, it needs to be found at the right moment. A buyer who is comparing two products tonight is worth more than a thousand casual viewers. Everything else in the course — the niche choice, the titles, the description layout — exists to put your link in front of that buyer.
“With affiliate marketing, that’s actually not our goal. We have a very specific goal in mind. And what that is, is to get people to watch our video at the perfect time.” — Introduction, What Kind of Videos to Make: Video Titles & Buyer Cycle
The second half of the idea is leverage plus shelf life. Greg Gottfried points out that the work is identical whether one person or ten thousand people buy through your link each month — no staff, no inventory. And a published video keeps working; he says videos from several years ago still bring in commissions. That is why the course spends so long getting one video right.
How a YouTube Affiliate Video Turns Into a Commission
Short answer: a viewer hears you mention the link, clicks it in the description or pinned comment, and buys inside the cookie window. Here is the full chain as the course lays it out across its first two modules:
research-stage topic
“link in the description”
line 2 or pinned comment
24 hours to 30 days
or a secondary sale
monthly
Steps 2–3: The Link Has to Be Asked For
Greg Gottfried calls the spoken reminder “hands down the most important” tip for affiliate videos. Without it, a convinced viewer searches for the product in a new tab and buys — and you earn nothing. His trick is to give a reason: there are similar versions, so use the link to get the exact one from the video.
Steps 4–5: Cookie Windows and Secondary Sales
A cookie is the window in which a purchase still counts as yours: 24 hours on Amazon, 30 days at the camera store Adorama (which Greg calls average). Inside it you also earn on items the buyer didn’t come for. These secondary sales are constant on Amazon — someone clicks your camera link, later remembers toilet paper, and you still get paid — but rare on single-brand stores.
Step 6: How the Money Actually Arrives
Most programs pay monthly via PayPal (a free personal account is enough); Amazon uses direct deposit, and some programs mail checks. The Legal & Taxes lesson says you don’t need a business to start — in the US you report it as other income — and suggests a single-member LLC (about $135 a year, he estimates) only around $50,000 in yearly profit.
Worked Example: Building “Camera Corner” From an Empty Inbox
The Getting Setup module doesn’t describe a channel; it builds one on screen, a camera-gear channel called Camera Corner. Following it end to end is the fastest way to see how much of the YouTube Affiliate Masterclass is practical detail rather than theory.
- Fresh Gmail first. One login for the channel. Usernames must be 6–30 characters and can’t contain “YouTube”.
- Name without the agony. About 90% of creators just use their own name, he says, which fits any topic. For a branded channel, BrandCrowd’s name generator turned “camera gear review” into Shutter Spot, Lens Lounge and Camera Corner.
- Handle close to the name. A dash fixed the taken handle. Names change any time; handles only twice per 14 days.
- Logo and banner in free Canva. Avoid crowned (Pro) templates and keep banner elements centred — phones, where most people watch, show the smallest slice.
- One-sentence About section. 1,000 characters are available; one line on what the channel covers is enough.
- A public contact email. The step beginners skip: companies look there to offer brand deals and sponsored videos.
Choosing the Program: Adorama vs. Amazon
Next, the same channel needs an affiliate program, and this is where the lesson earns its 13 minutes. Greg compares two real options for camera gear on three variables, not one:
| Variable | Adorama | Amazon Associates |
|---|---|---|
| Commission | 2% base; average order about $500, so roughly $10 | 4% (cameras fall under “all other categories”) |
| Cookie | 30 days | 24 hours |
| Buyer comfort | Big name among camera buyers | The checkout people trust most |
| Decision | Amazon for this channel — higher rate and the easiest place for a viewer to say yes | |
Applications look alike everywhere: use your own name if you have no company, and your channel URL as the “website.” On Amazon he skips the dashboard and copies short links for the exact product variant from SiteStripe, the bar at the top of the site.
“So find the products that you know are really good and just try to find the ones with the best commission rates.” — Getting Setup, How to Join Affiliate Programs
Case Study: The $20 Tripod Video, Decision by Decision
The course’s demo video reviews a $20 phone tripod, filmed with the beginner setup. What makes it a good case study is that Greg Gottfried narrates each small decision, including the ones he gets wrong first.
Before Pressing Record
Phone: 4K if available, 30 fps (60 for fast action), landscape, rear cameras — so shoot a test clip, because you can’t see yourself. The wireless mic is calibrated once: minus on the transmitter until it blinks twice, then plus three; on the receiver, minus to the bottom, then plus four. Aim for 5–15 minutes and open with credibility, like his fishing-boat captain introducing a beginner rod review.
Five Titles Before the Right One
Competitor titles full of typos still drew thousands of views — one reached 4,700 in six months — so clean work has room. He drafts in ThumbsUp.TV, which previews title and thumbnail together, and checks capitals in CapitalizeMyTitle:
| Draft (after brand + “Phone Tripod”) | Why it was rejected or kept |
|---|---|
| – Review | Too short; no reason to click |
| – Is It Worth It? | Wraps badly; “it” lands alone on the second line |
| – $20 Tripod Review | Says “tripod” twice |
| – Is It a Waste of Money? | Too many small words; weak at a glance |
| Review – Should You Waste Your Money? | Kept: bigger words, built-in curiosity, and “review” for search; only clipped in the small homepage view |
Description, Tags and Two Verification Snags
The video is uploaded unlisted and finished in private. The final title goes in three places: the title, line one of the description and the first tag. Line two is “Product link” plus the short Amazon link, then a brief summary and the affiliate disclaimer. He has tested adding “at no extra cost to you” and noticed no difference.
Tags come from YouTube’s search predictions, plus the Amazon listing’s own phrase (“64 inch phone tripod stand”), “is it worth it?” variants and broad terms like “best smartphone tripod for vlogging” — 492 of 500 characters in the end.
The snags are the honest part. The new channel had to verify before custom thumbnails and again before clickable links. For links, YouTube offered a 30-second face video, an ID upload or two months of growth; he chose the video and waited up to 24 hours for review.
“If you just go with a photo you took on your phone, a cool photo of that product, I think you’re going to do much better.” — Publishing Your Video, How to Make a Custom Thumbnail
He builds a text thumbnail (“$20 Tripod — Is It Worth It?”) and a plain phone photo of himself holding the tripod against a blank wall, and leans toward the simple one. For the pinned comment, he copies title and link from the edit screen, because pasted clickable links sometimes break.
The Risks Greg Gottfried Admits — and What We’d Add
Credit where due: the YouTube Affiliate Masterclass has a whole lesson on what can go wrong, and Greg says two of the four risks have already happened to him.
- A program shuts down. The biggest risk — so spread videos across several companies.
- Commissions get cut. His example: $1,000 a month from a video becomes $900 after a rate change.
- The platform changes. Keep your original files to re-upload wherever viewers move.
- AI floods the format. Blog-style saturation could reach video if AI footage passes for a real person.
An Honest Note on the Older Material
Some of the YouTube Affiliate Masterclass is visibly older. Demo searches are for “best headphones of 2023”. One example video, a Wix pricing breakdown, opens with “It’s October 2018”, with prices from that time. The verification step Greg calls “totally new” may look different today. None of this breaks the method; adapt the screens, don’t copy them.
The bonus course, 7 Free Ways To Make Money Online, is an earlier snapshot: Greg says there he hasn’t reached “$100,000 a month,” mentions about $2 per Udemy sale, and uses the old Ebates name. He also pasted a course’s sales copy, in quotes, into a description for keywords — we’d write your own instead.
YouTube Affiliate Masterclass Index Review: Where the Hours Go
The lesson-by-lesson list lives on the product page. For this YouTube Affiliate Masterclass Index Review we charted the shape of the index instead, computed from the real video durations: 35 masterclass videos (3h 35m 41s), 24 bonus videos (2h 17m 56s) and 21 PDFs, 6.38 GB in total.
Two things stand out in this YouTube Affiliate Masterclass Index Review. Setup and filming take more than half of the masterclass, so this is a hands-on course, not a strategy talk. And the bonus is lopsided: two tutorials — a 39-minute print-on-demand walkthrough and a 31-minute website build — account for over half of its runtime.
Four Files to Open First
- What Kind of Videos to Make (7m 04s) + the Video Title Ideas PDF — the buyer-stage logic and the title cheat sheet in one sitting.
- Types of Affiliate Programs (12m 27s) — the lesson Greg calls his favorite: low vs. high ticket, software and course commissions, secondary sales.
- The Publishing Your Video folder (~41m) — watch all six videos back to back; together they are the tripod case study above.
- Behind the Scenes: One of My Personal Channels (6m 38s) — the proof lesson, with real referral counts, commission checks and ad earnings from a small faceless channel.
Skip on a first pass: the 2018 Wix pricing example and any bonus folder you don’t need. Watch the longest lesson, How to Customize Your YouTube Channel (15m 18s), while actually doing it.
Self-Test: Are You Ready to Publish an Affiliate Video?
Six questions, every answer taken from the course. Decide first, then click. Miss three or more and the YouTube Affiliate Masterclass will save you a lot of trial and error.
1. A viewer clicks your bike link but buys a different bike on the same site. Do you earn?
Yes. It’s a secondary sale, and it still pays as long as it happens inside the cookie window. Greg says these are especially common on Amazon.
2. Which line of the description holds the affiliate link?
Line two, on its own line. Line one is the video title. Only the first two or three lines show without clicking “show more.”
3. An affiliate application asks for your company name and website. You have neither.
Use your first and last name, and paste your YouTube channel URL as the website.
4. Where do brand deals usually find you, according to Greg?
Through the public contact email in your channel’s About section. Companies look there to propose products and sponsored videos.
5. What goes in the first tag?
The exact video title. Then search predictions and variants, filling as close to the 500-character limit as you can.
6. Your new video has few views after a month. What does the course tell you to do?
Leave it alone and make the next one. Greg says some of his best videos took 60, 90 or 100+ days to take off.
About Greg Gottfried
In the course, Greg says he has done YouTube affiliate marketing for five-plus years and runs several channels, including faceless ones he keeps apart from his main channel so his audience doesn’t skew the numbers. By his own account, a single course review brought in roughly $12,000 in commissions, and his sample review script states over $1 million in commissions overall. He mentions VIP affiliate status with a couple of companies and a nearly $700 one-hour consultation with a YouTube expert. Signature advice: “Try not to get your head stuck in the analytics and just focus on making more content.”
How to Get the Course in 4 Steps
YouTube Affiliate
Greg Gottfried — YouTube Affiliate Masterclass
A start-to-finish course on earning affiliate commissions with YouTube review and comparison videos, on camera or faceless, plus the bonus course 7 Free Ways To Make Money Online.
- Introduction to Affiliate Marketing — programs, buyer cycle, risks
- Getting Setup — three camera setups, channel build, joining programs
- Making Your Video — recording settings, faceless methods, free editing
- Publishing Your Video — thumbnail, title, description, tags, captions
- After Publishing & Behind the Scenes — pinned comment, mindset, a real channel
- Bonus: 7 Free Ways To Make Money Online — 24 videos
What to Learn Next
The YouTube Affiliate Masterclass deliberately stops at the first videos and tells you to stop studying analytics. If you want to go further in one direction, these catalog titles point that way:
- Ranking in YouTube search: David J Woodbury — YouTube Ranking Master Class
- Finding more video ideas: Dar Lucey — The YouTube Idea Blueprint
- Writing tighter scripts: George Blackman — The YouTube Scriptwriter’s Playbook
- Growing the channel as a creator: Jason Lee — YouTube Creator Academy
- Builds a demo channel and a real video live, snags included
- Teaches a three-variable test for choosing programs
- Concrete settings: phone, mic gain, tags, description layout
- A dedicated, candid lesson on risks
- Proof lesson with the creator’s own channel data
- Almost everything runs on free tools
- Recorded around 2023; one example dates to 2018
- YouTube Studio screens and verification may differ today
- US-centred tax advice
- Bonus course is older and only loosely related
- Little on scaling beyond the first videos
YouTube Affiliate Masterclass FAQ
Is the YouTube Affiliate Masterclass still relevant in 2026?
The method is: research-stage topics, honest reviews, the link on line two and a pinned comment. Some screens, search examples and one 2018 example video are dated, so expect to adapt the clicks, not the strategy.
Which affiliate program should a beginner join first?
Greg Gottfried says most people start with Amazon Associates because it’s easy and proves the model, but he compares every option on commission rate, cookie length and buyer trust, and recommends several programs so one closure can’t wipe you out.
Do I need YouTube monetization to earn affiliate commissions?
No. Affiliate commissions come from the companies whose links you share. The course says a channel with zero subscribers can earn if its videos target buyers; YouTube ad revenue is a separate extra that comes later.
What must every affiliate video description include?
The title on line one, the affiliate link on line two, a short summary of the video, and a disclaimer that the link is an affiliate link and you may earn a commission from purchases.
How is the course delivered?
Digital files. Crypto payment only. Fast delivery is handled manually after payment confirmation. Download links remain available for 7 days; save your files locally.
Our YouTube Affiliate Masterclass Index Review comes down to this: it’s the course you take when you want someone to sit next to you while you build the first channel and publish the first video. Greg Gottfried’s real contribution isn’t a secret; it’s sequencing — timing over virality, a three-way program test, a description that puts the link where people see it, and the patience to let a video find its buyers. The dated screens are a small price for that clarity.
Get it through Courses On Budget and plan your first research-stage video tonight.
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Tool used in the course: Canva
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