The Open Case Study
Show every step of a real result and your affiliate links convert themselves.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 86%
The Open Case Study is Flynn's approach to affiliate marketing: instead of talking up a product, you publicly pursue a real result and document every step, embedding affiliate links to the exact tools you use along the way. He built a website in the security-guard training niche — a field he knew nothing about — and shared daily progress. When it hit number one on Google on day 73, affiliate earnings for the tools he'd named spiked because people saw it work and copied the process. The method extends to podcasts and YouTube, where transparency and real results drive conversions far better than product hype.
Origin
Flynn discovered affiliate marketing on his original architecture-exam site in 2008 and refined the open case study format across Smart Passive Income, most famously with his 2011 security-guard training niche site experiment.
Core principles
- 01Give away the entire process for free and embed the tools you use as affiliate links within the steps.
- 02Proof of a real result you achieved publicly is more persuasive than any claim.
- 03People follow the same process and buy the same tools when they've watched it work step by step.
- 04Never promote a product just because it pays — the wrong recommendation can ruin your reputation in an instant.
How to run it
- 1
Pick a real result to chase in public
Choose a concrete outcome — like ranking a brand-new website on Google — and commit to pursuing it openly, even in an unfamiliar niche.
Pro tip You don't need to be an expert in the niche; the value is in showing the repeatable process.
- 2
Document every step openly
Share the keywords, tools, hiring choices, and articles as you go, holding nothing back behind a paywall.
- 3
Embed affiliate links in the steps
Within the free, high-value walkthrough, link to the exact tools you're using so followers can replicate with the same stack.
Pro tip Use a link shortener like Pretty Links so the affiliate URL is memorable on podcasts and video (e.g. website.com/descript).
- 4
Recommend only what serves the audience
Vet every product so it genuinely helps your audience; a single bad recommendation can destroy trust instantly.
Pro tip Prefer software with recurring commissions — those payouts stack month over month.
Watch out Promoting the wrong product for a payout can ruin your reputation in an instant.
In the wild
In 2011 Flynn built a website from scratch in the security-guard training industry — a field he knew nothing about — publicly sharing keywords, tools, writers, and articles every day. On day 73 the brand-new site hit number one on Google.
→ Affiliate earnings for every tool mentioned in the process went through the roof as viewers copied the exact steps and stack.
Flynn made a YouTube video demonstrating Descript's Overdub feature and its usefulness for podcasters, including an affiliate link. The video accumulated over a million views in nine months.
→ That single video accounted for $40,000 in affiliate commissions, one of a dozen-plus tools he covers on the channel.
Common mistakes
Promoting for the payout
Recommending a product because it pays well rather than because it serves the audience can destroy hard-won trust in a single post.
Hiding the process behind a paywall
The persuasive power comes from openly showing every step; gating it removes the proof that makes people follow along and buy the tools.
Is it for you?
Best for
Creators building affiliate income who can document a genuine process or result on a blog, podcast, or YouTube.
Not ideal for
Anyone unwilling to show real work or tempted to promote products purely for commission.
From the transcript
“on day 73 this brand new website hit number one in Google and on that day my affiliate earnings for all the tools that I…”
“it's very very important to select the right products the ones that you know are going to serve your audience and everybody wins in that…”
From the episode
Pat Flynn: Online Business 101, How to Generate 6 Figures of Passive Income and Create a Cult of Superfans
Pat Flynn