Why Recruiting Affiliates Feels Harder Than It Should 

If you’ve tried recruiting affiliates for your course, you’ve probably experienced one (or all) of these: 

• People say “sounds good” but never promote 

• Affiliates sign up, drop links once, then disappear 

• You spend more time motivating affiliates than improving your course 

• Sales trickle in, but nothing close to “scalable” 

This is uncomfortable to admit, but it matters: 

Most course creators don’t have an affiliate recruitment problem. They have a system problem. 

I learned this the hard way. I assumed affiliates just needed higher commissions or more reminders. I was wrong. Completely. 

Research from multiple affiliate networks consistently shows that over 70% of affiliates never make a single sale, and most quit within the first 30 days. Not because they’re lazy but because the model they’re given doesn’t work for how most people actually promote. 

By the end of this article, you’ll understand: 

• Why traditional affiliate recruitment fails for course creators 

• The mindset shift that changes everything 

• A step by step affiliate recruitment system you can test immediately 

• Real examples: one failure, one success, and one Nigerian specific case 

No hype. Just what actually works. 

 

Part 1: Why Traditional Affiliate Recruitment Fails Course Creators 

The Hidden Assumption That Breaks Everything 

Most affiliate programs are built on one quiet assumption: 

“Affiliates are salespeople.” 

That assumption is wrong. 

Most affiliates especially creators, influencers, and educators are connectors, not closers. 

They’re good at: 

• Building trust with an audience 

• Sharing stories and experiences 

• Recommending tools they believe in 

They’re bad at: 

• Hard selling 

• Handling objections 

• Writing long sales pages 

• Chasing follow ups 

Yet most course creators recruit affiliates like this: 

• “Here’s your link” 

• “Commission is 40%” 

• “Let me know if you need creatives” 

Then they wonder why nothing happens. 

Failure Example: The High Commission Trap 

I once advised a course creator who offered 50% commission on a ₦40,000 course. On paper, that’s attractive. 

They recruited: 

• 18 affiliates 

• Mostly small influencers and educators 

What happened after 45 days? 

• 2 affiliates made a sale 

• 16 never promoted at all 

Why? 

Because the affiliates were expected to: 

• Explain the course 

• Justify the price 

• Convince people to buy 

They didn’t feel confident doing that. So they didn’t try. 

Lesson: High commission doesn’t fix a broken promotion model. 

Why This Is Worse for Course Creators (Than E commerce) 

Affiliate marketing works better for physical products because: 

• The product is familiar 

• The buying decision is simpler 

• Price resistance is lower 

Courses are different: 

• Trust threshold is higher 

• Buyers need education before purchase 

• The creator’s credibility matters 

If your affiliate system requires the affiliate to replace you, it will fail. 

 

Part 2: The Insight Stop Recruiting Sellers, Start Empowering Connectors 

Here’s the shift that changed everything for me: 

Affiliates shouldn’t sell your course. They should send people into your best sales environment. 

Once you accept this, recruitment becomes easier and retention improves automatically. 

The Connector vs Seller Model (Comparison) 

Aspect	Seller Based Affiliate	Connector Based Affiliate
Main role	Convince & close	Introduce & recommend
Skill required	Sales copy, persuasion	Trust, audience connection
Effort level	High	Low
Drop off rate	Very high	Much lower
Scalability	Poor	Strong

Most people can be connectors. Very few want to be sellers. 

Success Example: What Changed When the Model Changed 

One course creator switched from “affiliate link to sales page” to: 

• Affiliate link → automated webinar → timed offer 

Affiliates no longer had to: 

• Explain the full course 

• Handle pricing objections 

• “Convince” anyone 

They only needed to say: 

“This free training explains it better than I can.” 

Results after 60 days: 

• Fewer affiliates recruited 

• More active promoters 

• Higher revenue per affiliate 

Lesson: Reduce affiliate responsibility, and activity increases. 

Where Tools Like AffiGon Fit (Briefly) 

This is where platforms like AffiGon quietly help not by “finding affiliates,” but by: 

• Letting affiliates send traffic to a pre recorded webinar that feels live 

• Automatically routing buyers to the correct affiliate checkout 

• Removing attribution confusion 

The key point isn’t the tool it’s the structure. 

 

Part 3: The Actionable Affiliate Recruitment System (Step by Step) 

Below is a practical, testable system you can implement even with a small audience. 

Step 1: Redefine Who You Recruit (This Is Critical) 

Stop recruiting “anyone who wants to make money.” 

Instead, look for people who already: 

• Talk to your ideal students 

• Share educational content 

• Answer questions publicly 

Examples: 

• Micro influencers (1k 20k followers) 

• WhatsApp group admins 

• Telegram channel owners 

• YouTube educators with small but focused audiences 

Why this matters: 
Audience relevance beats audience size every time. 

Common mistake: 
Chasing “big” influencers who don’t care about your niche. 

How to measure success: 
Reply rate to your outreach (not follower count). 

 

Step 2: Change the Recruitment Message (Use This Script) 

Most affiliate invites fail because they sound like work. 

Instead of: 

“Promote my course and earn 40% commission” 

Try this structure: 

Simple outreach script: 

“I like how you teach [topic]. 
I run a short training that helps people understand [specific problem]. 
If you share it with your audience, I’ll handle the teaching and selling. 
You earn from anyone who joins through you.” 

Why this works: 
You’re offering relief, not responsibility. 

 

Step 3: Give Affiliates One Job Only 

Your affiliates should have exactly one task: 

Send people to the training. 

Not: 

• Explain modules 

• Answer pricing questions 

• Justify value 

Why this matters: 
Every extra task reduces action. 

Common mistake: 
Sending affiliates long documents and expecting enthusiasm. 

 

Step 4: Build a Sales Asset That Affiliates Trust 

Affiliates promote what makes them look good. 

That means your sales asset must: 

• Educate clearly 

• Build trust fast 

• Handle objections naturally 

This is why: 

• Long sales pages rarely work for affiliates 

• Webinars (especially automated ones) convert better 

In practice, this means: 

• The creator does the convincing 

• The affiliate stays credible 

Measurement: 
Revenue per click (RPC), not just clicks. 

 

Step 5: Make Attribution Foolproof 

Nothing kills affiliate motivation faster than: 

• “I think I made sales but I’m not sure” 

• “Someone said they used my link, but it didn’t track” 

Affiliates need confidence, not just commission rates. 

This is where systems that hard link the buyer journey to the affiliate (instead of relying only on cookies) matter. It’s one reason creators move away from manual setups as they scale. 

 

Nigerian Context: What Changes (And What Doesn’t) 

Affiliate recruitment in Nigeria has unique realities: 

What’s Harder 

• Payment trust issues 

• Data costs 

• Skepticism from audiences 

What’s Easier 

• Strong WhatsApp and Telegram communities 

• Relationship based trust 

• Willingness to share value first content 

Nigerian Example: WhatsApp Based Affiliates 

One Nigerian course creator recruited: 

• 12 WhatsApp group admins 

• Each group had 300 800 members 

Instead of asking them to “sell,” they: 

• Gave them a short invite message 

• Asked them to share a free training 

Result: 

• Lower volume traffic 

• Higher conversion than Instagram 

Lesson: In Nigeria, trust circles outperform public hype. 

 

Counterargument: “Shouldn’t Affiliates Learn to Sell?” 

You might be thinking: 

“If affiliates learned sales, wouldn’t results improve?” 

In theory, yes. In reality, no. 

Because: 

• Teaching sales takes time 

• Most affiliates didn’t sign up to become salespeople 

• Your business shouldn’t depend on changing other people 

The smarter move is: 

• Build a system that works with human behavior, not against it 

 

My Biggest Mistake (And Why I’m Sharing It) 

I used to believe: 

“More affiliates = more sales.” 

That was wrong. 

More affiliates without structure = more noise. 

What actually matters: 

• Fewer affiliates 

• Clear roles 

• A strong central sales asset 

Once I stopped chasing numbers and focused on enablement, everything improved. 

 

Key Takeaways (Don’t Skip This) 

• Affiliates are connectors, not closers 

• High commission doesn’t fix a weak system 

• Recruitment works when promotion feels easy 

• Webinars outperform static pages for affiliates 

• Nigerian audiences respond better to trust than hype 

 

Soft Next Step (No Hard Sell) 

If you want to test this: 

• Pick one affiliate 

• Give them one link 

• Send traffic to one strong training 

• Track results for 14 days 

That’s enough data to know if your system works. 

If you’re curious how automated webinar systems make this easier to manage at scale, you can explore how it works on the AffiGon platform but the strategy itself works even before tools. 

Question for you: 
What’s the biggest reason your affiliates haven’t promoted yet confidence, clarity, or trust?