Can You Do Affiliate Marketing on WordPress? YES! Here’s How to Make $10,000/Month (+ Live Demo!)

Most people assume affiliate marketing lives inside email funnels or paid ad campaigns. The reality is that WordPress, the platform powering more than 40 percent of every website on the internet, is one of the most reliable places to build a long-term affiliate income stream. In this video, Alston walks through his own live site to prove it, and the placement methods he demonstrates are simpler than most beginners expect.

Whether you have a WordPress site sitting mostly unused or you are starting from scratch, this post covers every technique Alston demonstrates: adding affiliate text links, button links, and image links inside posts and pages, building a dedicated recommendations page, growing an email list, and choosing the right plugins without wrecking your page speed score.

What You’ll Walk Out With

How to add a clickable affiliate text link inside any WordPress post or page in under 60 seconds
How to use a button or image block to redirect readers to an affiliate offer without looking pushy
Why a dedicated “Recommended Products” page generates passive commissions long after you publish it
How Project 24 by Income School helps you replace your full-time income through blogging and YouTube in 24 months
Why Legendary Marketer’s 15-day bootcamp clarifies affiliate marketing fundamentals for beginners who are still unsure of the basics
How your email list becomes your most durable affiliate asset over time
What to know about WordPress plugins before you accidentally slow your site to a crawl
How to find which affiliate income model fits your skills right now at finder.platformproof.com

Can You Actually Do Affiliate Marketing on WordPress?

This is the question at the center of the video, and the answer is yes. WordPress is not just a blogging platform; it is a full content publishing system that lets you embed affiliate links in text, images, and buttons without any custom code or third-party software. Alston demonstrates this on his own site, AIstonGodbolt.com, a blog built specifically around affiliate marketing content. Before he even scrolls down on a single post, two separate affiliate placements are already visible: a text link and an image link, both pointing to Project 24 by Income School.

The strategic advantage of doing affiliate marketing on WordPress rather than a social media profile or a rented landing page is ownership. Your blog posts can rank in Google and bring in readers months or years after you first publish them. That traffic translates to clicks and commissions without you having to do anything additional. That is the passive income model Alston is actively building, and the site he shows in the video is a real, working example of it.

Three Ways to Add Affiliate Links Inside a WordPress Post or Page

Alston goes into the WordPress backend and demonstrates three distinct placement methods live, using a test post he creates on camera. Each method takes less than a minute to set up once you know where to look.

Method One: Text Links

The most common placement is a standard text hyperlink. Inside the Gutenberg block editor, you write your content as a paragraph block, highlight the words you want to make clickable, and press the link icon in the formatting toolbar. A small URL input box appears. You paste your affiliate URL there, and the link is live. During the demo, Alston uses ESPN as a placeholder URL to show exactly how the process works. In a real post, you would paste the affiliate link from Amazon, Bluehost, Income School, or any program you have joined as an affiliate.

Alston also recommends enabling “open in a new tab” for every affiliate link. This setting keeps the reader on your page while the affiliate site opens in a separate window. The reader does not lose their place on your article, and if they close the other tab, they are still looking at your content. For any affiliate program, a reader who stays longer on your page is more likely to click through and convert.

Text links work best when they appear naturally inside content that is genuinely teaching the reader something. A phrase like “you can learn the full system inside Project 24” that links to the course feels helpful rather than salesy. It fits the content and serves the person reading it.

Method Two: Button Links

The second method is a button block. In the Gutenberg editor, you click the plus sign to add a new block, type “button” in the search box, and select the button block from the results. You type your call-to-action label inside the button, something like “Click Here to Learn More” or “Get Started with Project 24,” and then add your affiliate link to the button’s URL field. Buttons stand out visually from surrounding text, which makes them useful near the top of a post, after a section explaining why you recommend the product, or at the bottom of the page where a reader who just finished the article is ready to take action.

Alston runs into a minor technical issue during the live demo where the button’s link does not appear in preview mode. He notes that this is a display quirk and not a structural problem with the method itself. The button block is standard Gutenberg functionality and works correctly in published posts. The core process is the same regardless of which affiliate product you are promoting.

Method Three: Image Links

The third method uses a clickable image. You upload or drag an image into an image block, then look in the right-hand sidebar for the “Custom URL” field. You paste your affiliate link there and optionally set it to open in a new tab. When a reader clicks anywhere on the image, they get sent to your affiliate URL. This method works especially well for branded products where the company provides promotional images, because a recognizable product photo tends to generate more clicks than a text link alone.

On his live site, Alston uses a combination of a text link and an image link both pointing to Project 24 on the same post. Doubling up like this means that no matter where a reader’s eye lands on the page, whether on the text or the image, there is a path to the affiliate offer. It does not feel aggressive because both placements are inside content that is genuinely about affiliate marketing. The recommendation fits the context.

The Recommended Products Page: Your Passive Affiliate Hub

Beyond individual posts, Alston maintains a dedicated “Recommended Products” page on his site. Every item on that page is something he has personally used or evaluated, and every item carries an affiliate link alongside a brief explanation of what it is and why he recommends it. This is a fundamentally different approach from dropping affiliate links at random. Each recommendation is grounded in a genuine reason.

The products on his recommendations page at the time of the video include Income School’s Project 24 (his primary blogging and YouTube course), Bluehost (a web hosting company he uses for site setup), Revolt Web Services (his own personal web hosting business, with a discount code in his YouTube video descriptions), and ScreenFlow, which is the screen recording software he uses to produce his videos.

A recommendations page is one of the most durable assets you can create as an affiliate marketer. It does not go stale the way a social media post does. Someone who finds it through Google six months from now can read it and click through when they are ready to buy. You earn a commission without doing any additional promotion. As long as the page stays live and the affiliate programs remain active, it keeps working.

Project 24 by Income School: The 60-Step System Behind Alston’s Site

Alston mentions Project 24 more than any other product in the video because it is the course that structures his entire approach. Project 24 is a program by Income School that maps out 60 steps for building a content site that generates enough passive income to replace a full-time job within 24 months. When Alston first enrolled, the course focused entirely on written blog content. Income School has since expanded the curriculum to include YouTube, so members now get instruction on building both a blog and a YouTube channel simultaneously.

One practical benefit Alston highlights is a free WordPress theme that comes with membership. That theme scores a 99 on Google Page Speed, which is a ranking signal Google uses when deciding where to place your content in search results. A faster site gives you a genuine competitive edge against larger, more established sites in your niche. For a newer blogger, that matters.

Alston also notes that Income School operates a group of members inside the Project 24 community. That peer environment gives beginners access to people who are further along the same path, which is one of the underrated benefits of a structured program compared to piecing things together from free YouTube videos alone.

Legendary Marketer: Build Your Affiliate Blueprint in 15 Days

For anyone who is still unclear about how affiliate marketing actually functions at a basic level, Alston recommends Legendary Marketer as a starting point. The program centers on a 15-day bootcamp format. Over those 15 days, you work through the core concepts of affiliate marketing and build a personal blueprint that spells out your approach: what you will promote, who you are targeting, and how you plan to drive traffic.

The curriculum covers both paid traffic and free traffic strategies. Free traffic is what you get from Google search results, YouTube search, or social media posts that do not cost money per click. Paid traffic is running ads on Google, Facebook, or other platforms where you spend money to get people to see your affiliate offer. Most beginners start with free traffic, but understanding how paid traffic works gives you a fuller picture of the options available as your income grows.

The reason Alston recommends this for people who are still confused is practical: you can set up every affiliate link on your WordPress site correctly and still not earn anything if nobody visits. The traffic question is as important as the technical setup question. Legendary Marketer addresses the traffic side directly, which is the gap many new affiliates discover only after they have spent weeks building a site with no visitors.

Not sure which of these programs fits where you are right now?

That is exactly what the Finder is built for. Answer a few short questions about your current skills, available time, and income goals at finder.platformproof.com and get a clear match to the approach most likely to work for you.

Building an Email List Inside WordPress

Alston identifies his email list as one of his core affiliate channels, and it is one that beginners consistently undervalue. The setup inside WordPress is straightforward: a plugin like the ClickFunnels plugin captures a visitor’s email address through a form. Once someone joins the list, you can send regular emails that recommend products and services relevant to what they originally came to your site to learn about.

Alston’s current practice is to email his list every Sunday with a preview of the YouTube topics he plans to cover that week. This keeps subscribers engaged and gives them a reason to stay on the list rather than unsubscribing. Over time, an active email list becomes more reliable than search traffic because you can reach those readers directly without depending on a Google algorithm update or a social media platform’s reach limitations.

From an affiliate income standpoint, an email list lets you promote offers to people who already know you, have read your content, and trust your recommendations. That trust translates into higher conversion rates than a cold visitor who arrives from Google and has never heard of you before.

How WordPress Plugins Work and Why You Should Use Them Sparingly

Alston explains the two foundational building blocks of any WordPress site: themes and plugins. Your theme controls the visual look and feel of the entire site, the layout, fonts, colors, and spacing. Plugins add specific features on top of that base. Every piece of additional functionality that is not built into WordPress itself can be added with a plugin.

Alston’s current plugin stack on his site at the time of the video includes the following:

A ClickFunnels plugin for capturing email addresses through opt-in forms on his pages
A resume plugin that generates and displays a printable resume at his About Me page
A Udemy courses plugin that displays his course offerings as visual cards
A YouTube videos plugin that embeds his channel content directly on the site

Each plugin adds genuine value to his site. But Alston is direct about the tradeoff: every plugin you install adds weight to your site, and more weight means slower load times. Slower load times push you down in Google search rankings and frustrate visitors who leave before your content even appears. His advice is to only install a plugin when you have a specific problem that plugin solves, and to remove anything you installed and stopped using.

The free high-speed theme he received through Project 24 scoring 99 on Google Page Speed is only meaningful if you do not cancel it out with a stack of unnecessary plugins. Speed is a tool, and keeping your plugin list lean is how you protect it.

Honest Drawbacks to Keep in Mind

Affiliate marketing on WordPress is not instant. Building a site that ranks in Google and attracts consistent traffic takes time, and that timeline is often longer than most beginners expect. Project 24’s name is not accidental. The 24-month timeline is a realistic planning horizon, not a minimum guarantee. Many bloggers report their first commissions arriving within three to six months of consistent publishing, but a full income replacement is a longer game.

The $10,000 per month figure in the video title represents a goal, not a specific result demonstrated in the video. Affiliate income tends to compound slowly over time. Early months produce little or nothing while your content accumulates and begins to rank. Later months can grow significantly as more posts index, more pages rank, and your email list grows. Anyone describing a fast path to four-figure monthly affiliate income is leaving out the compounding period that makes it possible.

There is also a real technical learning curve at the start. Setting up WordPress, choosing a theme, configuring plugins, and writing SEO-optimized content are skills that take time to develop. They are learnable, and courses like Project 24 and Legendary Marketer are specifically designed to shorten that curve. But going in expecting a steep early climb will serve you better than expecting a smooth ride from day one.

Find Your X

If you are not sure whether WordPress blogging is the right affiliate path for you, or whether a different online income model fits your schedule and skills better, start at finder.platformproof.com. Answer a few short questions about your current situation, available time, and income goal, and get a matched recommendation based on where you are today. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but there is usually one model that fits your situation better than the others.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to know how to code to do affiliate marketing on WordPress?

No. Adding affiliate links in Gutenberg requires zero coding knowledge. You highlight text, click the link icon, and paste a URL. Image and button links use the same point-and-click process. WordPress was designed to be operated without touching code, and for affiliate marketing specifically, you never need to look at a line of HTML.

Does WordPress charge extra for affiliate links?

No. WordPress does not restrict or charge for affiliate links. Your ongoing costs are your domain name, typically around $10 to $15 per year, and web hosting, which starts at a few dollars per month with services like Bluehost. The affiliate links themselves cost nothing to add and nothing to run.

Is a dedicated affiliate link plugin worth it?

Alston recommends against adding plugins unless they solve a specific problem you already have. Most affiliate programs give you a standard URL that works perfectly well as a plain link inside a post or page. Affiliate link management plugins can add useful features like cloaking or click tracking, but they also add site weight. Start without one and add it only if you reach a scale where managing links manually becomes genuinely impractical.

What exactly is Project 24 by Income School?

Project 24 is a step-by-step course that lays out 60 steps for building a blog or YouTube channel that can replace a full-time income within 24 months. The curriculum covers both written content and video content. Members also receive access to a WordPress theme that scores 99 on Google Page Speed, which is a ranking advantage for newer sites competing against established players.

What does Legendary Marketer’s 15-day bootcamp actually teach?

The bootcamp walks you through the core concepts of affiliate marketing and helps you build a personal affiliate marketing blueprint by the end. Topics include both paid traffic strategies and free traffic strategies. By day 15, you are supposed to have a written plan for how you will drive traffic to affiliate offers, not just a vague idea of “write content and post links.”

Can I promote multiple affiliate programs on one WordPress site?

Yes. Alston’s site simultaneously promotes Project 24, Legendary Marketer, Bluehost, and his own Revolt Web Services, all in the same space. The key is that each recommendation is genuine and relevant to his audience. Stacking unrelated affiliate offers from different industries on the same site tends to confuse readers and reduce trust. Staying in one niche with multiple related products is the approach that works.

How does building an email list fit into a WordPress affiliate strategy?

Your email list gives you a direct line to past visitors that does not depend on search rankings or social media algorithms. When you recommend a product in an email to subscribers who already read your content and trust your judgment, you get significantly higher click and conversion rates than from a cold visitor arriving from Google. The email list and the blog reinforce each other: the blog builds the list, and the list drives repeat traffic and affiliate sales.

How long does it realistically take to earn consistent commissions with a WordPress affiliate blog?

Based on the Project 24 framework Alston follows, you should plan for several months of publishing before you see meaningful search traffic and regular commissions. Most bloggers report their first scattered commissions arriving within three to six months of consistent content output. A full income replacement is closer to a two-year project for most people. The work compounds: every post you publish is another asset that can rank, drive traffic, and earn commissions indefinitely.

Sources

Project 24 by Income School: 60-step blogging and YouTube course for replacing full-time income in 24 months
Legendary Marketer: 15-day affiliate marketing bootcamp covering paid and free traffic fundamentals
Bluehost: web hosting service referenced in the video as a recommended affiliate product
Revolt Web Services: Alston’s personal web hosting business, mentioned with discount code in YouTube descriptions
ScreenFlow: screen recording and video production software used to create the video
AIstonGodbolt.com: Alston’s live affiliate marketing blog demonstrated throughout the video