Affiliate marketing has a bit of a bad reputation for scams and tricks, but Alex Micol, the co-founder of the Scalers media buying team proves that if you work hard, stay true to yourself, and genuinely help others, you can build a really successful affiliate marketing business all on your own, without needing any employees.
In a recent podcast interview, Alex talked about his journey from being a teenager who made Facebook fan pages to consistently making over $10 million a year just from affiliate marketing. He shared a bunch of practical tips and things he learned along the way, and also talked about his ideas on spirituality, personal growth, and living a meaningful life.
Alex didn't start out in affiliate marketing to become some kind of "guru" or sell courses. His main goal is to help others achieve financial freedom while still finding balance and happiness in their lives. This article will summarize the best parts of the interview, focusing on how Alex Micol makes more than $10 million per year through affiliate marketing and the most helpful advice that Alex Micol shared for both new and experienced marketers.
Stay up-to-date with the latest affiliate marketing news, articles, guides, and case studies. Subscribe to our Telegram Channel today!
Alex Micol
Early beginnings with Facebook fan pages
Alex's journey into affiliate marketing and digital entrepreneurship started when he was just 12 years old. He loved football, especially Cristiano Ronaldo, and felt a bit lonely because his friends didn't share his competitive spirit. So, he turned to Facebook as a way to connect with others who had the same interests.
Alex didn't even realize it at the time, but he stumbled upon the world of affiliate marketing while exploring Facebook. He was really into Facebook fan pages, especially ones related to Ronaldo. He spent a lot of time on the computer, learning about Facebook and trying out different things.
One day, Alex discovered that he could create his own Facebook fan pages. He started with a page called "Cristiano Ronaldo videos" and invited all his friends to like it. He was thrilled when he got around 100 likes, but he couldn't help but wonder why other pages had so many more followers. This made him curious and motivated to find out their secrets.
For the next few months, Alex worked hard to grow his Facebook page. He reached a thousand followers, which made him really happy. But he didn't stop there. He wanted to have the biggest Ronaldo fan page with 100,000 followers. It took him around eight months to achieve that goal, but unfortunately, his page got stolen. Despite this setback, Alex didn't give up. He started over again.
Growing the Facebook fan pages and learning how to monetize
After his initial experience, Alex discovered that he could make his pages grow faster by connecting with other fan page owners. He did things like sharing each other's content and locking exclusive news or content behind a like on his page. These tricks worked, and Alex started seeing quicker growth.
Then, something amazing happened. Facebook introduced a feature that recommended pages to users. Alex learned how to get his pages recommended to people who liked official Ronaldo or football fan pages.
He woke up one day to find 50,000 new followers, and within a week, one of his pages had a million followers. It was incredible because his posts were receiving up to 25 million impressions through just one page. Companies started offering him money to promote their products or services to his large audience, and he quickly realized that it made sense for them to pay him for this because TV advertising costs a lot of money to reach a lot of people.
With this new understanding, Alex started accepting money offers and even sold the pages he had built. For example, when the PlayStation 4 was released, he created a page about it, built its following, and then sold it. He would keep some of the money to buy the actual PlayStation 4 and move on to the next project. It was an exciting way for him to make money and pursue his interests.
Exposure to affiliate marketing
While in high school, Alex was hired by a big sports media company in Eastern Europe. It was a huge achievement for him, especially considering his young age and limited resources. He even had a chance encounter with the company's owner, which felt like a special moment. Alex was responsible for managing their Facebook fan pages, including one for Dimitar Berbatov. It was a great opportunity, and he got to meet the team in person.
As time went on, Alex realized that affiliate marketing and Facebook fan pages had become his thing. He was good at it and passionate about it. He had come a long way from being a young teenager with a small Facebook page to working with a famous sports media company. He learned a lot about online marketing, engaging with an audience, and the power of social media platforms.
However, the problem was that he couldn't fully implement his ideas. Despite this, the money was good. Alex was making around $2,000 to $4,000 per month from both his job and selling ads on his own Facebook Pages. This was quite impressive considering he was still in high school at the time.
At some point, Alex realized that he wanted to focus on what he was building because he believed he was doing something right. Even though his teachers said he wasn't doing well in school, he was making more money than them, so he must be doing something right. With this in mind, Alex decided to quit his job and pursue his own ventures.
Alex started reading books that were highly recommended, like "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill and "Rich Dad Poor Dad." He even attended a seminar by Jordan Belfort when "The Wolf of Wall Street" movie was popular. It was during this seminar that he heard someone say you could make $70,000 a month, which fascinated him.
Alex began visualizing achieving that level of success. He invested his own money in new Facebook pages and bought American fan pages. He would then drive traffic to affiliate websites to earn commissions. It was a risk for him to spend $300 on a page with 100,000 followers, not knowing if it would work out. But it did, and he started making his money back every day.
During his last year of high school, Alex worked hard all summer to learn more about his ventures. His schedule was intense, with school ending at 4 pm, working until 1 or 2 am, maybe using weed to help him sleep, and waking up at 6 am to continue working before school. Some months, he was making $5,000 to $10,000. By the time he finished high school, he had saved up $50,000.
By the end of high school, Alex understood that he wanted to continue building on his success. The next logical step was to drive traffic to websites. This led him to the question: why would websites pay him for sending them clicks? The answer was that those websites had ads, and people invest in ads to sell products.
So, Alex realized that if he wanted to take his success to the next level, he needed to further climb the ladder. That's when he discovered affiliate marketing. It was a remarkable journey to think about how he got there simply through his natural curiosity. He wanted people to understand his experience from the perspective of natural curiosity.
Because he pursued this path out of natural curiosity, Alex enjoyed the entire process. Many people these days focus solely on making money without appreciating the journey. When he talks about his experience, you can tell that he genuinely enjoyed every step of the way. There were many "a-ha!" moments that gradually guided him down different paths as he learned.
When Alex finally realized that affiliate marketing was the right path for him, he had no idea what he was getting himself into at first. It was his first time investing in ads, which came with its own set of technical challenges.
Learning and building a sustainable online business
Even though Alex was successful in making money from his engaged online audience, he realized that he had limited knowledge about affiliate marketing and optimizing his audience and offers. To learn more, he attended industry events like Affiliate Summit out of general interest. He saw many people achieving impressive success without corporate support or formal education. However, he also noticed that some were promoting "get rich quick" schemes that seemed exaggerated or unsustainable in the long run.
Although he felt tempted to follow flashy strategies that promised quick gains and a luxurious lifestyle, Alex's inner conflict made him realize that these desires didn't align with his core values. He understood that it was more important to build something substantial rather than chase short-lived illusions or empty pleasures.
Determined to create a long-term and ethical business, Alex identified three key factors for successful affiliate products: the brand's quality and reputation, the availability of video and photo assets, and fair commission rates (aiming for 20-40% of the product price). When he returned home, he started small by purchasing Facebook traffic for low-commission offers. He expected to face some initial losses but consistently tested and made small improvements.
Tracking sales was challenging back then, as tools like the Facebook pixel didn't exist yet. Alex had to figure it out on his own with the help of friends. Initially, he bought traffic from various sources like popup ads or even porn sites just to get started. It was a strange experience because he didn't have the structure of school to keep him busy. Alex had 24 hours a day available and had to learn self-discipline. After a few months, despite facing some losses where he lost a few thousand dollars, he was fortunate enough to have enough money invested to continue.
Eventually, Alex started to figure it out and began making around $100 per day, which was a big achievement for him at that time. That's when he fully committed himself to learning about affiliate marketing and driving ads, shifting his focus away from Facebook pages.
Scaling success
As time passed, Alex learned how to scale his campaigns on Facebook ads. With profitable results, he shifted his focus toward offers that had higher customer lifetime values while still maintaining competitive commission rates. With this in mind, he chose to put all his resources to running Nutra offers that had proven to convert well at scale through repeated testing of various creative approaches.
Initially, Alex spent a few thousand dollars per month on advertising. However, his campaign ROIs allowed him to rapidly scale the ad spend and he maintained it by continuous split testing. By establishing direct relationships with suppliers, Alex had the flexibility to design customized sales processes and leverage the best-performing ad creatives across multiple advertising channels.
To reach more people with his ads and still stay in control, Alex delegated some of the work to other people. He set up systems and databases that let him keep track of every sale and show ads to people who had already shown interest. This helped him make money from customers all around the world. He learned a lot from his experiences, like what made customers stick around longer and how to spend less money to get new customers.
He also built strong partnerships with advertisers that lasted a long time.
By focusing on nutra offers that had a high AOV, Alex was able to negotiate better commission deals. He managed different offers on different advertising platforms, and at his best, he made over $30 million in total commissions. But it's important to know that only around $2 million of that was actual profit.
Reflecting on this success, Alex says that the real value of affiliate marketing is being able to tap into big networks of companies that are willing to spend a lot of money on getting new customers.
While it might seem like a lot of money, Alex wants to make it clear that affiliate revenues don't mean you're rich. There are many costs involved, like paying for ads, having staff to help with administrative work, testing products, and always finding ways to make ads more effective. The real goal is to have freedom - to live life the way you want without depending on just one source of income.
Defining success: Growth, impact, and fulfillment
While working in affiliate marketing brought Alex material comforts, he began to prioritize non-material growth as his purpose evolved. He explored the use of entheogenic plant medicines like ayahuasca and mushrooms, which helped him let go of conditioned beliefs that clouded his clarity and compassion. Guided by shamans in ceremonies, he experienced a melting away of unconscious psychological barriers, revealing higher truths that were difficult to access through purely intellectual means.
This expanded perspective showed Alex that true freedom goes beyond control, labels, or the consensus reality that society constructs. He discovered that genuine fulfillment comes from understanding one's place within the interconnectedness of the universe, rather than seeking validation through vanity, envy, or material possessions.
Affiliate marketing became a means for him to build meaningful relationships, express his creativity, and give back to others, rather than becoming his sole identity.
With a more liberated mindset, Alex found new avenues to inspire positive change that aligned with his natural talents. One of them was creating his own YouTube channel, in which he shares tons of affiliate marketing knowledge.
He also started to speak at affiliate marketing conferences and other industry events to explain his business approaches and perspectives on the industry’s changes.
Another was joining podcasts. This provided a platform for him to engage in open discussions with other people in the industry as well as sharing his experience to the audiences.
Affiliate marketing tips from Alex
If you're new to affiliate marketing, Alex has some advice to help you get started. He suggests beginning with small-scale Facebook ads that promote lower-priced gadgets (under $100) from trusted networks like Clickbank or Digital Altitude. These networks offer more control over customizing landing pages. Using pre-made video content from promoters can speed up your initial testing, as the sales data will naturally optimize the creatives.
Instead of solely focusing on commissions, Alex recommends pursuing a deeper understanding of clicks and views with an open mindset about your budget. Small daily losses can teach you more than big wins. Providing quality support, offering refunds when necessary, and ensuring reliable order fulfillment build trust, which is crucial when you're ready to scale up.
To stay aware of your competition, Alex suggests using tools like AdSpy or Mangools. You can replicate successful formats while adding your own unique spin. It's a good idea to outsource certain tasks to lighten your workload, but make sure to keep the core strategy in your hands. Once you start generating steady profits, you can tap into influential communities through influencer marketing.
Brands prefer affiliates who promote their products ethically and consistently generate demand across different offerings. Building long-term relationships with clients gives you more freedom and opens up possibilities for growth.
The key is to take consistent action and learn by doing, without getting caught up in overthinking hypothetical obstacles. With focus and care, affiliate marketing can liberate you in more ways than just financially.
Conclusion
By sharing his journey in affiliate marketing, Alex Micol offers a valuable case study that demonstrates the true potential and scalability of this model when approached with authenticity and sustainability.
He highlights the importance of maintaining a natural curiosity, conducting extensive testing, having a clear vision, and being willing to prioritize long-term goals over immediate rewards. By focusing on serving both customers and partners, everyone involved benefits, and the potential for passive earnings to grow significantly over time increases.
While numbers and financial success are impressive, Alex's underlying message goes beyond measurable outcomes. He emphasizes that when we approach our work with a genuine sense of purpose, we naturally thrive and make a positive impact. With care and understanding, any field can become a powerful tool for creating meaningful change beyond what we initially imagined.
