Adam Cherrington’s program keeps popping up in ads with big promises about affiliate marketing success. You’re probably wondering if Adam’s Method is worth the money or if it’s just another expensive course that won’t deliver results. Adam’s Method is a real mentorship program that costs around $29,000 upfront plus $5,000 to $10,000 in ad spending, making it one of the most expensive affiliate marketing courses available. The program teaches a unique approach using newsletter ads instead of Facebook or Google, which helps avoid the ad bans that many affiliate marketers face.
The big question is whether this massive price tag makes sense for you. Some students report earning six-figure commissions after going through the program, while others complain about strict refund policies and constant upsells. Before you book a strategy call or hand over any money, you need to understand exactly what you’re getting into.
This review breaks down how the program actually works, what you’ll pay, and whether Adam’s background and teaching style match up with the hype. You’ll also learn about the traffic methods he teaches, what other students experienced, and if there are better options for building an affiliate marketing business without risking tens of thousands of dollars.
How Adam’s Method Works
Adam’s Method combines affiliate marketing with paid advertising through what Adam Cherrington calls “affiliate arbitrage,” where you buy traffic from ghost sources and send it to affiliate offers to generate profit. The program provides direct mentorship, proprietary tools, and training on phantom affiliate marketing tactics.
Affiliate Arbitrage Model
Affiliate arbitrage is the core business model behind Adam’s Method. You purchase traffic from paid sources at a lower cost and direct it to affiliate offers that pay higher commissions. The goal is to create a profit margin between what you spend on ads and what you earn from conversions.
Adam Cherrington teaches this model using ghost traffic sources instead of mainstream platforms. These include push notification networks, native ad networks, and in-app traffic sources. The approach relies on finding traffic channels with lower competition and cheaper rates.
You need to track your metrics carefully to make this work. You monitor cost per click, conversion rates, and earnings per click. If your math is off, you lose money quickly. Adam’s Method includes training on data analysis to help you identify winning campaigns and cut losing ones fast.
Paid Advertising Strategies
Adam’s Method focuses on paid advertising through hidden traffic channels rather than Facebook or Google. These ghost traffic sources include solo ads, newsletter buys, push notifications, and native ad placements. The idea is that these channels have less competition and lower costs.
You’ll learn to test multiple traffic sources at once. Adam teaches a strategy of rapid testing with small budgets to find what converts. Once you identify a profitable source, you scale up your ad spend to increase profits.
The program also covers fraud prevention. Ghost traffic sources often have bot traffic and fake clicks. You’ll learn techniques like IP blacklisting and placement exclusion to filter out bad traffic. These strategies help protect your ad budget from waste.
Mentorship and 1-on-1 Coaching
The Cherrington Experience includes six months of direct mentorship from Adam Cherrington or his team at Cherrington Media. You get access to regular coaching calls where you can ask questions about your campaigns. This personal mentorship is one of the main features of the program.
During coaching sessions, you review your campaign data with experienced affiliate marketers. They help you interpret metrics and make decisions about scaling or cutting campaigns. You also get feedback on your ad creative, landing pages, and offer selection.
The affiliate marketing mentorship includes access to a private community of other students. You can network with other affiliates running similar campaigns. Some students report this community access as valuable for learning what’s working in real time.
Core Tools and Resources
Adam’s Method provides several proprietary tools to support your affiliate marketing business. Protocol is Adam’s main software for identifying ghost traffic sources and tracking their performance. ScrapeBot and CropBot are Chrome extensions that help you find and resize images for ad creatives.
You also get access to Flexy, a landing page builder with pre-made templates. Metric Mover works with Flexy to help you create landing page variations for split testing. DIYTrax functions as a URL rotator for testing multiple offers or pages simultaneously.
Additional tools include Pixelpress for banner ad creation, Blaze for ad serving at scale, and No Escape for exit-intent popups. The affiliate marketing training covers how to use each tool in your campaigns. Some students find these resources helpful for streamlining their workflow and managing multiple campaigns at once.
Traffic Sources and Advertising Platforms
Adam’s Method focuses on paid traffic channels that most affiliate marketers don’t use. These include newsletter buys, push notifications, and native ad networks that operate outside mainstream platforms like Facebook and Google.
Newsletter and Email List Ads
Newsletter placements let you buy ad spots in other people’s email lists. You pay the list owner to send your affiliate offer to their subscribers. This approach gives you direct access to engaged audiences without building your own list first.
Solo ads are a specific type of newsletter advertising where you pay for dedicated emails sent only to promote your offer. Prices typically range from $0.30 to $1.00 per click. The quality varies widely between vendors.
Co-reg is another email-based traffic source where users opt into multiple offers at once. You capture leads during someone else’s signup process. This traffic tends to be less engaged because subscribers didn’t specifically seek out your offer.
Ghost and Phantom Traffic Channels
Ghost traffic sources are paid advertising platforms that operate outside the mainstream channels most marketers monitor. Adam Cherrington uses this term to describe traffic networks where your competitors can’t easily spy on your campaigns. The goal is to find buyers before everyone else discovers these platforms.
These channels include lesser-known ad networks, app-based advertising, and regional platforms. They often have lower costs per thousand impressions compared to Facebook or Google. However, they also carry higher fraud risks.
The term “phantom affiliate marketing” refers to using these hidden traffic sources to stay invisible to competitors. You avoid saturated platforms where everyone runs similar campaigns.
Push Notifications and Solo Ads
Push notification networks send clickable alerts directly to users’ devices. Networks like PropellerAds, RichPush, and MegaPush offer this traffic type. Typical costs range from $0.05 to $6.00 per thousand impressions.
These notifications appear even when users aren’t actively browsing. This creates opportunities for immediate clicks. But it also means the traffic quality can be lower than search-based traffic.
Push traffic requires careful monitoring because fraud rates can reach 20% to 60%. You need to use IP blacklisting and placement-level exclusion to filter out bot traffic. Without these steps, your ad spend disappears quickly without real conversions.
Native Ads and Media Buying
Native ads appear as recommended content on news sites and blogs. Platforms like MGID, Taboola, and Revcontent place your ads alongside editorial content. Costs typically run $0.20 to $12.00 per thousand impressions.
Media buying through these networks requires testing different placements and audiences. Cherrington Media, Adam’s ad agency, reportedly manages over $40 million in campaigns using these methods. The agency’s experience comes from years of optimizing native ad campaigns.
Native advertising works best when your ad creative matches the surrounding content. You need to test headlines, images, and landing pages constantly. Success depends on finding the right combination for each traffic source and offer.
Program Structure and Student Experience
Adam’s Method delivers mentorship through weekly Zoom calls, one-on-one coaching, and proprietary tracking software. Students face a steep learning curve with strict refund requirements, though some report significant commissions after months of testing.
Onboarding and Coaching Process
When you join Adam’s Method (also called The Cherrington Experience), you start with a strategy session that maps out your first campaigns. The program assigns you a mentor from Cherrington Media who walks you through the newsletter ad placement system.
You get access to daily Zoom calls where Adam and his team answer questions and review campaign performance. The personal mentorship includes help picking affiliate products, writing ad copy, and reading analytics spreadsheets. Virtual assistants handle some of the technical work like building landing pages.
The elite affiliate marketing mentorship model means you’re expected to test ads quickly and report results back to your coach. You’ll need to attend multiple coaching sessions each week and hit specific ad spend targets. Students say the onboarding can feel rushed, especially if you’re new to paid traffic.
Student Success Stories
Some students claim they earned over $100,000 in commissions within months of joining. Michael Der mentioned he started working with Adam five months before his interview and said he tests campaigns faster now with better structure.
Taigen Hegberg praised the personal mentorship and software tools. One verified report showed a 70% profit margin on successful campaigns.
But verified student success stories are hard to find publicly. Adam claims 95% of students succeed, yet most testimonials come from program materials rather than independent reviews. Students with prior affiliate marketing experience seem to do better than complete beginners.
Challenges and Barriers to Entry
The biggest barrier is cost. You need roughly $29,000 upfront plus $5,000 to $10,000 for ad testing. This puts the program out of reach for most people starting out.
The 90-day refund guarantee requires you to attend a set number of Zoom calls, spend thousands on ads, and submit detailed reports. Multiple students said they qualified but were still denied refunds. One person spent an extra $5,000 just to meet the refund requirements.
Beginners struggle with the complex Excel tracking sheets and fast-paced testing schedule. The mentorship pushes you to promote products like diet supplements that may not match your comfort level.
Pricing, Upsells, and Refund Policy
Adam’s Method carries a significant financial commitment that extends beyond the initial enrollment fee. The program includes mandatory ad spend requirements, potential upsells, and refund terms that make getting your money back difficult.
Initial Investment and Ad Budget Requirements
The core mentorship costs approximately $28,995 for six months of coaching. This fee only covers access to the program itself.
You’ll need additional capital for ad spend to actually implement what you learn. Most students require $5,000 to $10,000 in initial ad spend just to gather enough data to optimize campaigns. The ghost traffic sources Adam teaches require testing budgets because you’re working with less-known networks that need validation.
Some reviewers report being encouraged to take out loans to cover both the mentorship fee and the ad budget. That puts your total upfront commitment somewhere between $34,000 and $39,000 before you see any returns.
This isn’t a course you can complete without spending money on ads. The methodology depends on paid traffic.
Hidden Costs and Upsell Structure
Multiple student reviews mention unexpected costs that appear after enrollment. These include additional tools, upgraded access tiers, and supplementary training modules not included in the base price.
The exact structure of these upsells isn’t publicly documented. Some students report automated customer service interactions that promote additional purchases during the program.
You should budget beyond the stated $28,995 if you’re considering this program. The actual cost to fully participate appears higher than the advertised price.
Action-Based Refund Conditions
Adam’s Method has no standard refund policy according to most sources. One review mentions a 90-day action-based refund guarantee, but it comes with strict requirements.
To qualify for any refund under this policy, you must:
- Complete the entire program
- Implement all strategies taught
- Generate at least $5,000 in revenue within 90 days
These conditions make refunds nearly impossible for most students. If the methods don’t work for you, or if you can’t afford to continue the ad spend, your money is gone. The action-based structure puts the burden entirely on you to succeed before you can claim the program didn’t deliver.
Adam Cherrington’s Background and Credibility
Adam Cherrington brings an unconventional past to the affiliate marketing world, from running a guitar lessons business to building a media buying agency. His experience includes managing millions in ad spend, though opinions about his transparency and business practices remain divided.
Track Record in Affiliate Marketing
Adam started his online career with MadGuitarLicks, a guitar instruction business, before moving into affiliate marketing. He later founded Cherrington Media, a media buying agency that reportedly manages over $40 million in ad campaigns.
His path wasn’t smooth. Adam has openly discussed spending time in prison and rebuilding his life from scratch. This backstory shapes his marketing message, though some see it as more of a sales pitch than a credential.
Before Adam’s Method, he launched several other programs including the Invisible Affiliate System, Inbox2020, and Affiliate Cashflow Code. Each follows a similar pattern of low-cost entry products that lead to expensive upsells. He frequently refers to himself as a “super affiliate” and emphasizes his ability to avoid ad bans through newsletter placements.
Cherrington Media and Team
Cherrington Media serves as Adam’s main business operation and the foundation for his training programs. The agency handles paid advertising for various affiliate offers, primarily through email newsletter placements rather than traditional social platforms.
Adam works with a team that includes Seth Traub and other staff members who provide support during coaching calls. Students get access to virtual assistants who help with ad copywriting and landing page creation.
The team structure includes daily Zoom support and group mentorship sessions. However, reviews mention inconsistent support quality and rushed coaching sessions that feel too general for the high price tag.
Transparency and Reputation
Adam’s pricing model lacks upfront transparency. You won’t see costs listed publicly—you only learn the $28,995 price tag after booking a “strategy call.”
Reviews paint a mixed picture. Some students report six-figure commissions and praise his real-world experience. Others call him one of the worst scammers in the industry, citing refused refunds, aggressive upsells, and unmet promises.
Common complaints include:
- Refund policies with nearly impossible requirements
- Pressure to spend additional thousands on ads just to qualify for money-back guarantees
- Promotion of questionable products like diet pills
- Multiple program names that create confusion
The Better Business Bureau shows complaints about denied refunds even when students claim they met all conditions. This pattern appears across his various program names and offerings.
Program Ethics and Product Quality
Adam’s Method centers on promoting health supplements through paid advertising, which raises questions about the products you’ll be selling and the competitive landscape you’ll enter. The program prioritizes high-revenue offers over product quality, and students work in one of the most saturated markets online.
Niche Selection and Compliance
The program locks you into the health and wellness niche from day one. You don’t get to choose what you promote. Adam’s system revolves around health supplements that offer high commissions but often lack transparency about ingredients or manufacturing standards.
This creates potential compliance issues. The FTC has strict rules about health claims in advertising. When you run paid ads for supplements, you’re responsible for any misleading statements. If the products you promote make false health claims, your ad accounts could get banned. You could also face legal consequences.
The program doesn’t appear to address these compliance concerns in detail. You’re expected to run ads for whatever offers Adam provides, regardless of your personal comfort level with the products.
Promoting Diet Pills and Health Supplements
Adam has been documented promoting diet pills as part of his affiliate strategy. Diet pills are among the most controversial products in affiliate marketing. Many contain unproven ingredients or make exaggerated weight loss claims.
When you promote diet pills, you’re selling hope to people who are often desperate to lose weight. The products rarely deliver on their promises. This creates an ethical dilemma. You’re spending thousands on ads to push products that may not work.
Your reputation is tied to what you promote. Even though you’re just the middleman in affiliate marketing, customers remember who sent them to a bad product. Building a business on questionable supplements makes it harder to transition to quality products later.
High Competition Niches and Challenges
Health supplements represent one of the most competitive advertising spaces online. Big brands with million-dollar budgets dominate this niche. You’re competing against established companies that have optimized their ad campaigns for years.
This competition drives up your ad costs significantly. A click that might cost $0.50 in other niches can cost $3-5 or more in supplements. You need massive ad budgets just to stay visible. Most beginners burn through their budgets before finding a profitable campaign.
The high competition also means lower conversion rates. Customers see dozens of supplement ads daily. Breaking through that noise requires either exceptional ad creative or substantially more money than your competitors are spending.
Alternatives to Adam’s Method
If Adam’s Method doesn’t fit your budget or risk tolerance, you have other options for learning affiliate marketing and building online income. Some people prefer joining established affiliate programs directly, while others want structured training or focus on free organic traffic instead of paid ads.
Well-Known Affiliate Programs
You can join affiliate programs directly without expensive coaching. Amazon Associates lets you earn 1% to 10% commissions on products you promote. ShareASale and CJ Affiliate connect you with thousands of merchants across different niches.
ClickBank specializes in digital products with commissions ranging from 50% to 75%. Impact and Rakuten offer partnerships with major brands. These platforms are free to join and don’t require upfront ad spend.
The challenge is learning how to drive traffic on your own. Most affiliate programs don’t teach you marketing skills. You’ll need to figure out content creation, audience building, and conversion optimization yourself.
Other Affiliate Marketing Courses
Commission Hero by Robby Blanchard focuses on Facebook ads and costs around $997. The program teaches you how to run ads directly to affiliate offers using Meta’s advertising platform.
Wealthy Affiliate offers a community-based approach with SEO training starting at $49 per month. You get access to website hosting, keyword tools, and step-by-step lessons on building niche sites.
Native Ads Master Class by Tom Bell and David Ford teaches native advertising platforms like Taboola and MGID. These courses typically cost less than Adam’s Method but still require ad budgets of $1,000 to $5,000 to test campaigns properly.
Organic Traffic Methods and SEO
SEO lets you build traffic without paying for ads. You create content that ranks in Google search results and attracts visitors looking for specific information. This approach takes 3 to 6 months to see results but costs almost nothing except time.
You can learn SEO through free resources like Google’s Search Central documentation or YouTube tutorials. Paid SEO training programs cost $100 to $500 and teach keyword research, on-page optimization, and link building.
Local SEO focuses on ranking for searches in specific cities or regions. Service businesses like roofers, plumbers, and lawyers pay $500 to $2,000 per month for qualified leads. You build simple websites, rank them in local search results, and rent the leads to local businesses.
Building Sustainable Passive Income Online
Passive income online requires upfront work but generates ongoing revenue with minimal maintenance. Creating digital products like courses, ebooks, or templates lets you earn money repeatedly from a single effort.
Building an email list gives you direct access to potential buyers. You offer free value in exchange for email addresses and promote relevant products over time. This method works well when combined with content marketing or SEO.
Membership sites charge monthly fees for exclusive content or community access. Once you create the initial value, members pay recurring subscriptions. The challenge is retaining subscribers and continuously adding fresh content to justify the ongoing cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
People often have practical questions about pricing, what’s actually included, and how Adam’s Method stacks up against other training programs. Here’s what you need to know before making any decisions.
How does this affiliate marketing training work from start to finish?
Adam’s Method teaches you to promote affiliate offers using paid traffic from sources most marketers ignore. You start by joining the six-month mentorship program, which gives you access to live coaching calls with Adam or his team.
The program provides you with the Protocol tool to find traffic sources and teaches you how to use AI for creating ad copy and images. You’ll learn to buy traffic from push notification networks, solo ads, and native ad placements. Then you send that traffic to landing pages that promote affiliate offers in niches like health, wealth, or relationships.
You need a separate budget for running ads beyond the mentorship fee. Most people testing these methods need $5,000 to $10,000 in ad spend to gather enough data to optimize their campaigns. The goal is to spend less on ads than you earn from affiliate commissions.
Is this program legitimate, or does it have any red flags to watch out for?
Adam Cherrington runs a real business called Cherrington Media with 27 employees that manages over $40 million in ad campaigns. His background is documented and verifiable, including the difficult parts of his past that he discusses openly.
The program itself teaches legitimate affiliate marketing methods that work for experienced marketers. However, there are some concerning patterns in student reviews. Several people reported being encouraged to take out loans to pay for both the mentorship and the ad spend needed to implement what they learned.
The $28,995 price tag comes with no refund policy whatsoever. Some students also mentioned hidden upsells and higher ongoing costs than they expected. The BBB rating sits at 3.38 out of 5, which reflects a mix of both positive and negative experiences.
What does the Invisible Affiliate System include, and who is it best for?
The program gives you six months of live coaching access where you can ask questions and get feedback on your campaigns. You receive the Protocol tool for identifying traffic sources that aren’t saturated with competition.
Training modules cover AI tools for generating ad creative, landing page builders, banner ad creation tools, tracking software, and campaign management systems. You also get access to a community of other students working through the same methods.
This program works best for experienced affiliate marketers who already understand paid traffic basics and have capital to test with. Beginners without marketing experience or a financial safety net should look at lower-risk options first. The high price and required ad spend make this a poor starting point if you’re new to online marketing.
How does it compare with Wealthy Affiliate for beginners and intermediates?
Wealthy Affiliate teaches organic traffic methods like SEO and content marketing, while Adam’s Method focuses entirely on paid traffic strategies. Wealthy Affiliate costs around $49 per month or $495 per year, making it significantly more affordable than the $28,995 for Adam’s program.
The learning curve differs substantially between the two. Wealthy Affiliate gives you step-by-step training that works even if you’re starting from zero experience. Adam’s Method assumes you can handle complex tracking, data analysis, and significant financial risk from day one.
Wealthy Affiliate offers a 7-day free trial and monthly payment options with refunds available. Adam’s Method requires the full payment upfront with no refund policy. For beginners and intermediate marketers, Wealthy Affiliate provides a safer entry point with lower financial risk.
What do real users on Reddit say about their results and experience?
Reddit discussions about Adam’s Method are limited compared to other marketing programs. The conversations that do exist focus mainly on the high price point and whether the ghost traffic methods still work in 2026.
Some users mention that the traffic sources Adam teaches are real but come with fraud issues. One thread discussed how bot traffic and invalid clicks can eat up your ad budget quickly if you don’t know how to filter them out. Several people noted that the “hidden” traffic sources aren’t as hidden anymore since more affiliates have started using them.
A few experienced marketers defended the program, saying it delivered on the promised training but emphasized that success depends entirely on your ability to manage paid campaigns and handle losses during testing. Most Reddit users agreed that this isn’t something beginners should attempt.
The $28,995 mentorship fee is just your entry cost. You need a separate advertising budget of at least $5,000 to $10,000 to implement what you learn, though some campaigns may require more for proper testing.
Multiple student reviews mentioned unexpected upsells after joining. Some reported additional tools or upgraded access options being offered at extra cost. The exact nature of these upsells varies, but they weren’t clearly disclosed upfront.
You’ll also need to pay for traffic on an ongoing basis once you start running campaigns. Subscriptions for tracking software, landing page hosting, and other technical tools add to your monthly expenses. These costs continue as long as you’re actively running affiliate campaigns using the methods taught in the program.