Andrew Tate is one of the most talked-about Internet celebrities this month. He went viral on TikTok without even having an account of his own.
“How?” you ask. Although Tate had a professional kickboxing career and a stint on Big Brother UK years ago, most of his fame stemmed from his paid online community called Hustlers University and the genius affiliate marketing strategy he used to promote it.
We’re about to dissect the viral tactics behind Hustlers University’s success. Buckle up—this is about to be one wild ride.
What is Hustlers University?
Hustlers University is an online community and course that claims to teach its participants how to make money online from various digital skills.
According to the sales page, these are the skills that are currently on the Hustlers University roster:
Stock analysis
Stock analysis is the examination of a particular stock to provide investment information to potential and current shareholders.
Options plays
An options play is a type of trade that involves the purchase or sale of options contracts.
Crypto analysis
Cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses cryptography to secure its transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets.
DeFi
DeFi is an abbreviation for Decentralized Finance. It’s a movement that’s taking the financial world by storm with the goal of making financial services available to everyone, regardless of location or income.
E-commerce
E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services online, usually on a platform like Shopify.
Copywriting
Copywriting is writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing.
Freelancing
Freelancing is the act of working for oneself instead of an employer. (This isn’t really a skill. It’s more of a profession, but whatever.)
Flipping
Flipping is the act of buying something for a low price and selling it for a higher amount.
Financial planning
Financial planning is the process of creating a roadmap for your financial future.
Business management
Just like it sounds, business management is the process of running a business.
These are just the skills that Tate currently offers inside Hustlers University. He may plan to add more in the future, but we’re not certain of that. (We’ll explain why in just a minute.)
Membership pricing
For an online membership/course, Hustlers University is relatively affordable. It costs $49.99 per month to join, and you get access to the content and community as a paying member.
Andrew Tate claims that anyone can get rich by joining Hustlers University.
Allegedly, Tate strategically selected the course material to focus on skills that “anyone anywhere” can use to rake in the dough.
In the video on the Hustlers University sales page, Tate compares himself to Morpheus from the 1999 film The Matrix.
“If the matrix is real and you are watching this video, I am Morpheus. I am the guy trying to wake you up from slavery,” Tate says.
Tate is likely using the term “slavery” to refer to the lack of financial freedom, which is a major pain point for his target market. Then, he pitches Hustlers University as a school that can teach anyone how to get rich.
On the sales page, Tate also uses imagery like stacks of money, expensive cars, models, and sky-high bank account balances to appeal to entrepreneurial hopefuls.
It’s clear who Tate is speaking to: people who don’t have money but want to get rich.
Believe it or not, the most profitable skill taught inside Hustlers University is not listed on the sales page.
Theoretically, you could make money from any of the skills Tate advertises. There are lots of successful copywriters, freelancers, e-commerce gurus, and crypto lords in the world.
But there’s one aspect of Hustlers University that Tate doesn’t directly advertise—its rockin’ affiliate program.
Let’s back up—what is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based advertising in which a business rewards an affiliate for each customer brought to the company by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts.
In other words, if you get someone to sign up for Hustlers University through your unique link, you earn money (a cushy 50{c8122336fa184b41b825475f39221c7fa2e59423b242708028c1f2502555c53f} commission to be exact).
The way it works is that each affiliate gets a special link from Tate. This is called an “affiliate link.” When someone clicks on this link and signs up for Hustlers University, the affiliate gets credit for referring the customer.
If you’re not familiar with affiliate marketing, you might be wondering how this could possibly be profitable. After all, 50{c8122336fa184b41b825475f39221c7fa2e59423b242708028c1f2502555c53f} of $49.99 is only $24.99.
But affiliate marketing is a numbers game—meaning that the more people you can get to sign up, the more money you’ll make. And Tate’s system is pretty damn good at getting people to sign up.
Remember how we said that Hustlers University is relatively affordable? That’s important because people are likelier to sign up on a whim.
Tate has also created an entire ecosystem around Hustlers University—with a YouTube channel, podcast, and social media accounts dedicated to promoting the school.
This adds up to many potential customers clicking on affiliate links and signing up for the course.
And that’s how Tate can make millions of dollars from Hustlers University… by getting other people to do the heavy lifting (a.k.a. marketing) for him.
This isn’t to say that affiliate marketing is easy. It’s not. In fact, it’s a lot of work.
But if you’re able to generate a decent amount of traffic and get people to click on your affiliate links, it can be an extremely lucrative way to earn money.
Affiliate marketing is not new, either.
Tate’s not the only one cashing in on this strategy. There are many other course creators and online entrepreneurs who use affiliate marketing to promote their offers.
Here are a few examples:
Pat Flynn
Pat Flynn runs a very popular blog and podcast about online business. He also has an affiliate program for his course, Power-Up Podcasting. As of August 2022, the course sells for $799—so even a fraction of that price could result in a fat paycheck for an affiliate.
Tony Robbins
Tony Robbins is a world-renowned motivational speaker, life coach, and author. He also has an affiliate program for his products. He offers a 15{c8122336fa184b41b825475f39221c7fa2e59423b242708028c1f2502555c53f} commission, which could be a sizeable chunk of change if an affiliate sells a high-ticket product.
Ramit Sethi
Ramit Sethi is a personal finance guru who has written several bestselling books. He also used to offer an affiliate program for his course, Zero to Launch. The investment for the course was over $2,000, so affiliates had a great opportunity to earn money from promoting the course across their social media outlets or websites.
Although we can’t find the Zero to Launch course on Sethi’s site anymore, so many people have written about the course (and shared their affiliate links, of course) across the Internet.
But how could a low-ticket offer like Hustlers University have an attractive affiliate program? We’re about to get into that.
Cobratate’s strategy for promoting the Hustlers University affiliate program
First things first—the high commission and low price point combination is a good look, at least for affiliates who are hungry for money.
But that’s not the only smart move behind the affiliate strategy. Andrew Tate also happens to be a walking meme with endless viral-worthy statements to make.
Instead of promoting the course by himself, Tate solicits the help of his Hustlers University students to spread the word.
Here’s how it works:
Tate asks his students to post about the course on social media and their blogs. He also encourages them to share their affiliate links with their followers.
In return, the students get a 50{c8122336fa184b41b825475f39221c7fa2e59423b242708028c1f2502555c53f} commission for every sale they generate. And since the course is $49.99, it doesn’t take many sales to start racking up some serious dough.
At first, it seemed like a harmless marketing tactic—but then we realized that it was a breeding ground for scammers.
Allegedly, some students promoting the course started sharing fake reviews and making false claims about the program to increase sales. We can’t verify whether the reviews were real or fake because only the creators (and perhaps Tate himself) know for sure.
But that’s not going to stop us from speculating.
Hustlers University reviews: real or fake?
The million-dollar question (no pun intended) is this: are the Hustlers University reviews real or fake?
Unfortunately, we can’t say for sure. But we can watch some of the most popular videos about the course and make our own judgments.
With over 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform today. It’s no surprise that there are many Hustlers University reviews and promotional videos on the app. Let’s take a look at a few of them:
@tateindigo Why havent you joined?? #motivation #success #andrewtate #hustlersuniversity #linkinbio ♬ Cornfield Chase – Hans Zimmer
This is a compilation of Hustlers University “success stories” and clips of Tate speaking as well.
It’s important to note that there are many Andrew Tate “fan accounts” that post videos of Tate himself talking about how much money people are making from Hustlers University. This is an example.
As you can see, the account has a Hustlers University affiliate link in its bio. The account owner may be earning a commission from every sale they generate.
This video has over 91,000 likes at the time of us writing this article. It’s safe to say that the messaging in the video impacted a lot of people, which could translate into thousands of dollars in affiliate commissions.
Neuroscience suggests that people buy with emotion. In other words, we’re more likely to purchase if we feel strongly about whatever a brand is promoting.
The “success stories” in the video above certainly tug at the heartstrings. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing—as long as the successes are legitimate.
@jazzab1 First steps of joining hustlers university! #hustlersuniversity #hu #hustlersuniversity2 #andrewtate #tate #crypto #stocks #money #hustlers #hustle #moneytok #millionaire #hu2 ♬ original sound – Jazza
In this video, @jazzab1 describes his experience in signing up for Hustlers University.
He says there is a lot of information inside, but he was able to get personalized recommendations by defining his placement in one of four categories:
- Cash poor, time poor: No money or time
- Cash rich, time poor: Good cash flow but not enough time
- Cash poor, time rich: Weak cash flow but a lot of time to work with
- Cash rich, time rich: Good cash flow and lots of time
What’s interesting is that our buddy Jazza does not have an affiliate link in his bio. This is likely because he does not have 1,000 TikTok followers yet. That is one of the requirements to get a clickable link on the platform.
Do you think Jazza hopes his Hustlers University videos will blow up so he can promote his affiliate link? Only time will tell.
@teenagecopywritingstud #NikeShesBallin #hustlersuniversity #andrewtate #PerfectPartner #ITriedItIPrimedIt #PrimarkSummerUp #fyp #cobratate #tate #tattoo #tate #financial #financialfreedom ♬ Lazy Sunday – Official Sound Studio
@teenagecopywritingstud is another faceless profile in which the account owner shares their experience with the copywriting program inside Hustlers University.
Unlike Jazza boy, this user does have an affiliate link in their bio. So if they’re able to generate any sales, they’ll earn money.
The account has over 29,000 followers and a 45-part series on their Hustlers University experience, so you can do the math on their potential commissions.
Like it or not, the Hustlers University affiliate marketing strategy is an ingenious one.
Some people even believe it is a pyramid scheme or multi-level marketing (MLM) setup[5] . But we’ll let you make that decision for yourself.
It’s not certain what Tate’s true intentions are with his online school, but it’s no secret that he is making millions from it.
Whether you believe in the program or not, there’s no denying that it’s a money-making machine—and the people who promote it are also cashing in big time.
