Want To Learn Affiliate Marketing Fast? Here Are I’ve had a lot of people ask me lately why I’ve gone to the trouble of creating my own Skool group.
After all, blogging email marketing still works, right?
And Facebook groups are free.
So why go out of my way, spend money, and build something on a platform most people haven’t even heard of yet?
The truth is, I didn’t just “decide on a whim.”
I did my homework, I looked at what’s working in 2025, and I thought carefully about how I want to serve people long-term.
The result?
A community I’m proud of… and one that I believe gives me (and my members) a massive edge compared to sticking with email or trying to juggle another Facebook group.
Let me break down why…
Blogging Is Dying

That’s probably a contentious statement to make here on a blogging platform!
But it’s not one I make lightly.
If blogging isn’t dying then it’s evolving into something different.
The blogging landscape was very different when I firststarted building WordPress sites.
SEO was easier, there was less (but still significant) competition from other bloggers and AI wasn’t a thing.
Since then, I’ve found that Google has deindexed and will not re-index one of my blogs.
Google, of course, are of zero help in letting you know what rules they think you’ve broken.
So I resorted to using ChatGPT to diagnose why Google is resolutely ignoring that site.
After days of research into a variety of possible SEO issues including site load speed, checking if the site had any penalties, looking to see if something in the headers and code and content of the site were triggering Google in some way, ChatGPT came to this conclusion:
“You’re not breaking any of Google’s rules, there are no penalties against your site, there are no issues with headers or other SEO tags and site code and content is fine so the reason Google will not index your site is… because they don’t like you or your site for some reason they will not divulge.”
Hmmm… so maybe there are penalties against me or my site that are not available for public view, especially to me.
Another reason blogging is dying is because of that AI Overview that appears in a lot of Google search results these days.
How AI (Gemini) generates those overviews is by scanning multiple sites about the search term, scraping the relevant content and then summarizing it for display in the AI Overview.
However, the sites the information is scraped from get no new visitors and any potential sales from affiliate links are also lost.
Google just steals the content without offering any kind of recompense or reward.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve no intention of putting a lot of time and energy into creating content only for Google to steal the gist of it in a millisecond.
So I don’t think the future of affiliate marketing lies in blogging.
Nor do I think that informational blogs (not based on the affiliate marketing model) will fare much better because of AI.
Email vs. A Skool Community: What’s the Real Difference?

I love email; I’ve used it for years.
But here’s the hard reality: people don’t open their emails like they used to.
Your message lands in a crowded Inbox, squeezed between a bill notification, a discount from Amazon, and half a dozen “spammy” offers.
Even if your subject line is sharp, you’re fighting for attention in a place most people are already overwhelmed.
Email is still a powerful marketing channel and is expected to keep growing over coming years but it’s also becoming harder to get eyeballs on your offers.
Email marketing is still something I’ll do but it will not be my primary marketing channel any more.
It does offer one advantage over everything else though: you own your email list while you rent everything else.
Compare email marketing to a group or community… when someone joins, they’ve chosen to be there.
They’re raising their hand and saying, “Yes, I want to be part of this conversation.”
That’s a totally different dynamic.
Instead of blasting out messages and hoping someone clicks, you’re creating a space where people are already tuned in.
In a Skool group, conversations don’t disappear into the void (like they do on Facebook).
They stack, they grow, they get referenced again.
New members can walk in and instantly see value from old posts, ongoing discussions, and shared resources.
Try doing that with email – it just doesn’t work.
Email is great for one-to-many communication.
But a community?
That’s where you get one-to-many-to-many.
Your members don’t just interact with you; they interact with each other.
And that’s where the magic happens.
Why Not Just Use Facebook Groups?

Okay, fair question.
If community is so powerful, why not just set up shop on Facebook?
After all, it’s free, and billions of people already use it.
Here’s the thing: Facebook Groups are noisy, cluttered, and out of your control.
You don’t own the platform.
You’re at the mercy of Facebook’s ever-changing algorithms that decide who even sees your posts.
And let’s be honest, how often do you log into Facebook to focus, learn, and grow… versus just scrolling mindlessly, clicking memes, and getting distracted by cat videos?
Skool is different.
It’s distraction-free.
When members log in, they’re not being bombarded with ads or notifications designed to pull their attention away.
They’re there for the group. Period.
It’s designed for learning and engagement.
Skool combines community, courses, and gamification in one simple, clean package.
That means I can share structured training, host discussions, and keep people motivated to participate, all under one roof.
With a Skool group, while I am renting space on someone else’s platform, very little is likely to change behind the scenes to disrupt my Group.
Facebook can shut down a group any time, for any reason.
With Skool, I have more control over my community, my content, and the way people experience it.
Yes, it costs money.
But here’s the way I see it: free isn’t really free if you’re constantly losing members’ attention to Zuckerberg’s algorithm.
Why Skool Is Built for the Future

I’m a big believer that the way we connect, learn, and share online is shifting.
The old methods – endless email blasts, social groups drowning in spam, “like-and-comment” engagement hacks – are losing effectiveness.
People want real connection.
They want a place they can trust, where they can learn, grow, and get results without noise.
That’s what Skool delivers.
Here’s what convinced me:
- Higher engagement rates: Skool groups consistently show better participation compared to Facebook groups. When people log in, they’re active. They’re not distracted.
- Built-in gamification: Members earn points for contributing, which makes the group fun and rewarding. That drives natural momentum. Members can earn points to access certain courses so that incentivizes engagement and interaction.
- Integrated courses: I can offer structured training right inside the group. No need to juggle a separate platform.
- Self-Hosted Videos: Skool lets you upload videos onto their platform where they’re hosted at no extra cost. There’s no need for a separate platform like Vimeo, YouTube or Loom. Videos are only accessible to members so there’s no chance of video content “leaking”.
- Searchable archives: Posts and discussions don’t just vanish like they do on Facebook. Members can always find valuable content later.
It’s basically the perfect mix of a community hub, a classroom, and a mastermind group, all rolled into one.
Why I Personally Chose This Path
I didn’t create my Skool group just to follow a trend.
I built it because I see where things are heading.
The rise of AI, the flood of people turning to online entrepreneurship, the growing demand for communities that actually help people, all of this adds up to one conclusion: people need guidance and connection more than ever.
And I want to be in the best position to provide that.
With a Skool group, I can:
- Build trust faster than with email alone.
- Create a space where members feel seen and heard, not just marketed to.
- Share resources, ideas, and updates in a way that doesn’t get buried under spam filters or social feeds.
- Foster real relationships that go both ways.
At the end of the day, this isn’t just about building a group for me. It’s about building a community for us.
The Bottom Line
Sure, I could’ve stuck only with email.
I could have taken the easy route and created yet another Facebook group.
But neither of those options felt like they’d serve people at the level I wanted to.
Skool gives me the best of both worlds: the personal connection of a community with the structure of a learning platform.
Yes, it takes more effort.
Yes, it costs money.
But the payoff is a group that’s actually worth being part of.
Skool is not cheap at $99/mo but it is a cost that’s well worth it.
But they recognized that that cost put if out of reach for a lot of people so in the last couple of months Skool introduced their new Hobby Plan which is only $9/mo.
Yes, one-eleventh the cost of the Pro plan! And you can try it out free for 14 days:
The only things missing are some bells and whistles that you don’t need but maybe nice to have.
You can certainly live without them; every other aspect of Skool Pro is in the Hobby Plan.
If you’re serious about growing in this new era, especially with AI reshaping everything around us, then having the right community is non-negotiable.
And that’s exactly why I’ve gone to the trouble of creating one.
Because I know the value of being surrounded by people who are learning, building, and sharing the journey together.
That’s not something an inbox or a Facebook feed can give you.
So that’s the “why” behind my Skool Group.
Curious what happens when affiliate marketing meets AI?
That’s exactly what we explore every day inside my FREE AI Commissions Lab Skool Group – it’s free, friendly, and has a growing number of marketers learning how to use AI to earn smarter, not harder.
Here’s what included, with more and more being added:
The 7-Figure Affiliate Playbook Video Course – The exact strategy I follow to earn $1K+ days with affiliate marketing using content + automation ($497 Value)
The AI Behind This 7-Figure Business video masterclass
One New Video Per Day About Using AI [NEW]
7-Figure Email Marketing video course [NEW]
AI Marketing Training video course [NEW]
Basic Introduction to using ChatGPT video course
Intermediate ChatGPT for Internet Marketers video course
ChatGPT GPT 5 and Updates video course [NEW]
How To Use Sora 2 video course [NEW]
AI Business Blueprint ebook
2 Additional Traffic Generation video courses [NEW]
Join My Group and Community Today!

All the best,
Gary Nugent
Check out my Instagram posts and reels here:
Follow me (@aiaffiliatesecrets) on Instagram
P.S.: Don't forget, if you want to create an internet income of your own, here's one of my recommended ways to do that:






