Welcome to my Wealthy Affiliate Review.
In this post, I will answer the question if “Wealthy Affiliate” is worth your time in 2024.
The affiliate marketing branch has gone through a lot of changes in the last couple of months causing a lot of affiliate marketing websites to suffer.
As a result, Wealthy Affiliate has gone through a lot of changes but are they effective? Is it still a platform that people can use to learn how to earn money?
To answer these questions, I’m going over:
- The learning process
- The pros and cons
- The earning potential
- The most common complaints such as it being outdated
- The changes made to the platform.
It's common knowledge that Wealthy Affiliate requires a lower financial investment than most affiliate marketing courses out there but does that mean it’s lower in quality?
Let’s find out.
Wealthy Affiliate Review Overview
Name: Wealthy Affiliate
Website: wealthyaffiliate.com
Founder: Kyle Laudon & Carson Lim
Product Type: Affiliate Marketing Training platform
Earning Potential: $100 - $10.000/month
Price:
Starter Membership, Free
Premium, $49/ month — $359/ year
Rating: 8/10
![wealthy affiliate logo wealthy affiliate logo](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/a754fa1ee27e8179b2de69504572cbd0_cropped_1563208801_optimized.jpg)
Summary:
Wealthy Affiliate is an online marketing training platform that teaches people how to make money online through affiliate marketing.
The platform has more than 1.5 million members all over the world and has helped millions of people with creating a business that brings in a full-time income.
The barrier to entry is low because of the free starters account and gives you access to the to the free starters course.
These lessons will teach you the basics of creating a website that can make money with affiliate marketing.
Rating: 8/10
Recommended for people that:
- Have no experience with making money online.
- want to learn how to make a full-time or side income online.
- are looking for passive income.
- want to work from their laptop anywhere in the world.
- want the freedom to work whenever they want.
What is Wealthy Affiliate?
Wealthy Affiliate is an online marketing training platform that helps people create websites that they can use to make money online by promoting affiliate products and earning commissions.
The platform was created by Kyle Loudon and Carson Lim two successful affiliate marketers with 20 years of experience in the field.
Kyle — Co-founder of Wealthy Affiliate
![Kyle from Wealthy Affiliate Kyle loudon](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kyle-loudon.jpg)
Carson — Co-founder of Wealthy Affiliate
![Carson from Wealthy Affiliate Carson Lim from Wealthy Affiliate](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Carson-Lim.jpg)
The platform has more than 2 million members and has been named the #1 online marketing platform multiple times in the last few years.
I was amazed at how many people were making money online thanks to Wealthy Affiliate despite starting out with no skills. They just followed the training and got these kind of results.
![Jerry H Sept 2018 income full Jerry H Sept 2018 income full](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Jerry-H-Sept-2018-income-full.png)
![Tmaltz Tmaltz](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Tmaltz.jpg)
Can you still follow the WA training and earn money?
Since I value your time I’ll get right into it.
Wealthy Affiliate has been around for roughly 20 years.
In this time a lot of people have earned money simply by following the wealthy affiliate training.
During these 20 years, the affiliate marketing industry and the marketing industry in general have changed.
So is the training at “Wealthy Affiliate” still effective?
Yes, but some independent thinking is required to make it work.
The updated 2024 core training does a great job of teaching you the foundation and the live classes vault has more than 700 hours of videos with advanced training.
That said, you’ll still have to do some independent thinking to set yourself apart to increase your earning potential.
This isn’t something any platform will do for you but for some reason, a lot of people expect it to.
If you’re willing to spend time separating yourself from other affiliate marketers then Wealthy Affiliate is still a great option.
What makes Wealthy Affiliate special compared to other “make money online” products?
Wealthy Affiliate is a community
Unlike most products, this is an actual platform with +2 million members that you can mastermind with.
The members are encouraged to help each other and get rewarded by the platform for doing so in multiple ways.
Direct access to the founders Kyle and Carson
Most products have a support team that you can email or at the most chat with but they don’t give you direct access to the owners.
Kyle and Carson are highly active on the platform and place blog posts about new things they learn almost every day. You can also talk to them directly by using the private chat function.
24/7 Support for your business
Wealthy Affiliate members have access to high-quality tech support for their websites and also get provided with website support tools, keyword research tool, and a website builder.
It is all included in the package the moment you become a member.
Simple step-by-step practical training
The problem with trying to learn how to make money online on your own is that there’s is too much information on the internet and often vague and conflicting.
This makes it easy to get lost and never arrive at your destination.
Wealthy Affiliate has created a well-structured step-by-step training that makes sure you don’t waste time doing unnecessary trial and error.
You’ll take the straightest way to create a successful online business without needing prior experience.
What Method Does Wealthy Affiliate Teach To Make Money Online?
Wealthy Affiliate teaches you one of the most simple ways to make money online.
You'll direct people to merchant websites (example: Amazon, Ebay, Walmart, and others) that have what we call affiliate programs.
The moment that someone you referred to one of these websites buys something on it you'll earn a commission.
In other words, your job is simply to guide people to the products they want to buy and in exchange you'll earn money.
How much money you earn differs from product to product.
For example, let’s say you have a website about travel, hotels, etc. You could talk about travel bags and direct people to Amazon.com.
![travel bags Amazon travel bags Amazon](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/travel-bags-Amazon.png)
Let's say the commission rate for luggage is 5% and you recommend the Bric USA luggage model in the picture above of $1850,00.
You'll earn 5% of $1850 which is $74 every time you direct a person to Amazon.com and they buy a travel bag.
If you're able to get 1 person a day to buy this travel bag you'd earn $2072 in a month.
This can be done with any product.
I have seen people make money with things like Football Snack Helmets, Headphones, Horror movies, Climbing gear, Anime, Books, Paint Brushes, Online Courses and other products.
We call this method for making money online Affiliate Marketing.
What are the benefits of affiliate marketing?
1. It’s a cheap method for making money
The financial risk of affiliate marketing is low because you're making money promoting other people's products.
You don't have to invest time and money in creating a product and you don’t have to “accumulate” product volume as they do with MLM’s .
This makes it an easier and safer method for people that don't have any money but are interested in making money online.
2. You Can Work From Anywhere
Affiliate marketing is done from your computer which means you can do it from anywhere as long as you got a good internet connection.
While a lot of affiliate marketers work from home or coffee places you also have a large group that relocates to other countries or just keep traveling while they're making money online.
3. Earn money by making content about your interests
Affiliate marketers attract potential customers by creating helpful content and suggesting products of the companies they partner up with. Luckily in every branch, there are companies that accept affiliate partnerships(for free).
This means you can make content about almost anything depending on the companies you partner up with.
- You like surfing? Partner up with a company with a surfboard affiliate program.
- You’re into film making? Partner up with a company selling camera’s. lighting, etc.
- You like marketing? Partner up with a company selling marketing products, etc.
4. You Don't Trade Money For Hours
With affiliate marketing, you won't get paid based on the hours you work. instead, you get paid for every person buying a product based on your recommendation.
This is why a lot of people try to rank their content on Google. Content that gets ranked on Google gets website traffic passively.
This means even when you don’t work people will keep clicking on the content through Google and you earn money.
You'll have to put in some work in the beginning but once the business is set up money will keep coming in no matter how much you work on your business.
Affiliate Marketing is not:
Multi-Level Marketing:
- To earn money you don’t have to purchase and resell overpriced products.
- You don’t have to recruit people.
- There’s no monthly threshold you have to meet to stay “active”.
A Get rich quick scheme:
There’s no such thing as overnight success. You’re setting up an actual online business that requires investing time and energy but once it’s set up it’s one of the closest things to passive income.
A Ponzi scheme:
You are not investing money into a mysterious opportunity that’s supposedly going to 10X your investment without knowing how it works. There’s a clear and logical business strategy that can be explained in 2 minutes.
The biggest online Rating website Trustpilot.com confirms that it's not a scam. It has a 4.9 star rating based on 500 reviews.
![WA Trust Pilot rating WA Trust Pilot rating](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/WA-Trust-Pilot-rating.jpg)
The Business Model in 4 Simple Points
- Build a website and pick a niche you're interested in.
- Create content and recommend helpful niche-related products
Example: If your content is about travel recommend Travel bags, Travel Creditcards, Thermo mugs, etc. - Put affiliate links in your posts that go to the website where they can buy the product.
You'll be taught how to get these affiliate links. - When someone that came from your website buys the product you earn a money.
Is Affiliate Marketing An Outdated Business Model?
There are billions of people buying products online every day.
As long as people buy products online the affiliate marketing model will never be outdated.
…And that's not going to change any time soon.
This is why the affiliate marketing model you’ll learn at Wealthy Affiliate will always be relevant.
Pros and Cons of Wealthy Affiliate
Pros
- Beginners friendly
The training on Wealthy Affiliate is made for people that have zero experience with Affiliate Marketing. Anyone can learn how to make money online with the training. - High earning potential
Most members that have finished the training and have a decent amount of content on their website earn somewhere between $500 and $10K/month. - Structured Task-Oriented training
You’ll build your business by following the tasks laid out in every lesson. It prevents you from focusing on the wrong things and making the journey longer than it needs to be. - Live Classes
+400 hours of video training about everything regarding internet marketing. This is by far the most footage I have seen a product offer. They add classes weekly and also have a special event called “the hot seat” where people get live feedback from an online marketer with 10 years of experience.
Cons
- The amount of information might seem overwhelming
As I said before, there are over 400 hours of educational material available on Wealthy Affiliate. This doesn’t mean you have to go through everything to make your business work.
A lot of the extra material is about taking your business to the next level after experiencing your initial success. Just focus on the online entrepreneurship training and take it from there. - The website is a bit unorganized
In my opinion, they could do a better job of showing you what the platform has to offer. I have been on the platform for almost 4 years and I'm still finding features I knew nothing about. This can be a bit frustrating sometimes. - The community can be distracting
It's a community with more than 2 million like-minded people. This means you can easily get distracted by talking to people for hours and not get any work done.
How To Get Started
1.Create A Business Hubs & Follow The Training
At the end of 2023, Wealthy Affiliate said goodbye to its original core training called the Online Entrepreneurship Certification Training.
They’ve made attempts to update it over the years but it was missing some features to help build out their member's site architecture (predominately content-wise).
The Business Hub is your website’s back office that provides you with guidance while building your website. It shows you with the help of AI which content subjects need to be covered to convey authority.
It contains the core training and divides every general task that needs to be done to build your business into milestones that you can achieve.
In the Core Training you’ll learn:
- How to create a simple but professional-looking website (Without Coding).
So you can build credibility A.S.A.P. without wasting time learning all the technical stuff. - The proven formula for making money online and how to put it into action.
The exact steps that you need to take to start your business without taking detours. - How to attract visitors that are already interested in buying your products.
No need for cheesy sales pitches. The marketing techniques you'll learn will only attract people that are interested. - How to create an audience using social media (Without needing to show your face.).
Sell multiple products to your audience by increasing your retention rate and make more money. - How to use AI to save time while building your business
Learn how to create visuals, blog posts, and analyze your content results with the help of AI.
The lessons are task-oriented and easy to follow and frequently get updated.
The education keeps up with the changes happening in the online marketing industry so you’ll always be on the forefront.
At the end of every lesson, you’ll get tasks that gradually help you with creating your business before going to the next lesson.
By doing this they provide you with a plan of action that keeps you on the right track.
2. Create A Website And Use The Wealthy Affiliate Online Tools.
All members get free access to the Wealthy Affiliate Research tools that’ll help you find opportunites to get more people to your website.
You’ll also be set-up with a website you can use to direct people to the products you’re promoting so you can start earning commissions.
I have noticed that a lot of people get worried about the fact that you need to create a website but Wealthy Affiliate has made that process really simple thanks to their website builder.
I made this website without knowing anyhting about coding.
3. Get Ranked To Get Website Visitors
You can promote the best product in the world but if nobody knows about it you won’t earn any money. This is why Wealthy Affiliate focuses a lot on attracting website visitors.
![january 29th weekly visitors edited january 29th weekly visitors edited](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/january-29th-weekly-visitors-edited.jpg)
Wealthy Affiliate teaches the most up to date strategies for ranking your website on the first page of Google and getting thousands of visitors every month (without spending money on advertising).
More Traffic => More Clicks => More Money
The fact that you’re reading this proves it is effective because I’m willing to bet you found my website by clicking on a link that was on the first page of Google.
You'll also learn additional ways to promote your content with channels such as YouTube, Pinterest, and more in the Expert Live classes.
4. Join An Affiliate Program And Start Earning Commissions
The final step is to join an affiliate program, choose an affiliate product, and start earning commissions.
There are thousands of affiliate programs online that offer products for all niches.
You can either do the research of finding a good affiliate program yourself or you can use the "Affiliate Program" Search function on Wealthy Affiliate to find affiliate products for your website.
You'll receive affiliate links from them that you can place on your website.
![Affiliate Program search Affiliate Program search](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Affiliate-Program-search.jpg)
How Much Does Wealthy Affiliate Cost?
Wealthy Affiliate offers 3 membership tiers that all serve different purposes.
The free membership, $0 The Wealthy Affiliate Premium Membership, $49/ month or $497 yearlyThe Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus Membership, $99/ month or $697 yearly
The free membership
The free membership is available for everyone who signs up for it. You can sign up simply by giving your name and email address.
No Credit Card information is needed to sign up so you don’t have to worry about money being taken off your credit card if you don’t cancel your subscription.
The purpose of the free membership is to give people an idea of how Wealthy Affiliate works and what type of teaching they use.
In the past, I used to get a lot of questions about whether you can make money with the free plan and use that money to pay for the premium membership.
In theory, it is possible to earn money with the free membership but the chances of succeeding with that are extremely slim in my opinion.
This is because a lot of the knowledge that is needed to earn money consistently is only available to premium members.
As a free member, you’ll be provided with:
- 1 test website
- 1 Business Hub
- Unlimited Hosting
- Basic training ( 8 Classes)
- Keyword research tool (limited access)
- Limited Help & Support
![Online certification course Online certification course](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Online-certification-course.png)
The Wealthy Affiliate Premium Membership
The Premium membership is for those who have decided that Wealthy Affiliate is a good fit for them and want to start earning money.
The majority of my time on Wealthy Affiliate I spent on this membership plan. This plan gives you access to I’d say 90% of the features on Wealthy Affiliate.
You can earn money with the theory and resources available on the premium plan.
As a premium member, you’re provided with:
- AI Author Platform
- The complete core training
- The affiliate boot camp training
- Weekly Expert Training Classes (+500 hours already available to rewatch)
- Keyword Research Tools
- Trend Research Tool
- Unlimited Hosting
- 3 Websites
- 3 Business Hubs
- 24/7 Website Tech Support
- And more.
Click here to see the entire list of Premium features.
The Premium membership costs $49 a month, it’s basically the same as buying a cup of coffee a day.
The Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus Membership
The Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus is for those who want to take it to the next level and start to scale their affiliate business.
The Premium Plus memberships mostly consist of extra expert classes and resources to manage a higher number of websites and those that need more storage and speed.
The Expert classes are hosted by around 12 experts who have multiple affiliate websites and earn 5 to 6 figures a year.
In these classes, they talk about scaling with paid advertising, hiring employees, sales psychology, advanced AI marketing, building agencies, and more.
As a Premium Plus member, you’re provided with:
- Everything in Premium
- AI Author Platform
- Daily Expert Training Classes
- 10 Websites
- 10 Business Hubs
- And more.
What some of the most successful members had to say about Wealthy Affiliate
Below you'll find the opinions of three super affiliates ( Marketers earning more than 10K a month). The thing they all have in common is that they created their websites with the help of Wealthy Affiliate.
![Mike founder affiliatemarketertraining Mike founder affiliatemarketertraining](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Mike-founder-affiliatemarketertraining.png)
Mike
Full-Time
Affiliate marketer
I have never seen a better support system for new online marketers. Not only that, but with the constant course updates, WordPress site building tools, and weekly live training for premium members, you don't have to worry about this program becoming outdated.
— Founder of Afiliatemarketertraining.com
![John founder startmakestopwaste John founder startmakestopwaste](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/John-founder.jpg)
John
Full-Time
Affiliate marketer
if you are ready to put in the work and change your situation and open up your eyes to what is really possible online you have absolutely come to the right place! This is like a library of knowledge that also is filled with new knowledge all the time as new techniques evolve online on how to make money.
— Founder of Startmakestopwaste.com
![Nathaniell founder onemorecupof-coffee Nathaniell founder onemorecupof-coffee](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Nathaniell-founder.png)
Nathaniell
Full-Time
Affiliate marketer
The community at Wealthy Affiliate is simply the best one online. The most supportive. The most engaged. It's the best place to be long term if you want to build and grow an affiliate website.
— Founder of Onemorecupof-coffee.com
What Made Me Give Wealthy Affiliate A Chance
1. Wealthy Affiliate has outlived a lot of other platforms
Wealthy Affiliate has been helping people with creating businesses since 2005. It’s been active for almost 17 years.
While other platforms have started and vanished Wealthy Affiliate stayed strong during those 15 years.
![about wealthy affiliate About Wealthy Affiliate](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/about-wealthy-affiliate.jpg)
2. Wealthy Affiliate has more than 1.5 million members
You rarely see platforms that have more active members than some countries have inhabitants. That’s not something you can achieve with mediocre service.
This made me think that Wealthy Affiliate works for a large variety of people and if it worked for them it could work for me.
3. Wealthy Affiliate rates high on the biggest user rating websites
One of the best ways to find out if a product is legit is by learning about other people’s experiences with the product. You can find these on user-rating websites.
On trust pilot one of the biggest user-rating websites Wealthy Affiliate has a 4-star rating and is reviewed 39 times. This lead me to believe that I could make money with Wealthy Affiliate.
4. The Success stories
Most products have a max of 4 or 5 testimonials from successful users but Wealthy Affiliate has a success story area with thousands of success stories.
It’s kind of insane how many people have posted success stories but when you think about how long Wealthy Affiliate has been around it’s not that strange.
![littlemama Affiliate Marketing Success Story Grace](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/littlemama.jpg)
Take a look at some of the success stories that people post in the Wealthy Affiliate success area.
5. Wealthy Affiliate has a free starters account
You can join Wealthy Affiliate for free and see what the training and everything else is all about.
More than 40% of all the features are accessible with the free account so it should give you enough of an idea to see if it’s something for you.
You don’t need to fill out credit card information or anything like that so you have nothing to lose.
Get A Free Membership And See What Wealthy Affiliate Is All About
Wealthy Affiliate complaints
Wealthy Affiliate definitely isn’t a perfect platform.
When you Google Wealthy Affiliate review, you’ll notice that some of the high ranking websites aren’t a fan of Wealthy Affiliate.
Some of these complaint are well founded while others are more than likely the cause of not spending enough time on the platform itself while reviewing.
I’m going to address some of the biggest complaints I have seen on high ranking websites.
"...Wealthy Affiliate is outdated..."
This is one of the complaints I hear the most about Wealthy Affiliate.
I have been a member of Wealthy Affiliate for 4 years and in that span, they’ve updated the whole website 3 times.
It went from this...
![Old Wealthy Affiliate main screen Old Wealthy Affiliate main screen](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/edit-main-screen.jpg)
and now with the newest 2022 update it looks like this...
![WA main page WA main page](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/WA-main-page.jpg)
They also bring out multiple new videos courses a week about everything you need to know about affiliate marketing look at the content calendar below.
![Wealthy Affiliate Video calendar of june Wealthy Affiliate Video calendar of june](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Video-calendar-of-june.jpg)
Every class also has a button to the side where you can request an update should that be necessary.
![WA update picture WA update picture](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/WA-update-picture.jpg)
Could you find old content on the website? Sure.
Wealthy Affiliate leaves their old content on the platform just in case people need them for educational reasons.
That doesn’t mean updated versions of those videos aren't made regularely thanks to the request update buttons.
"...Wealthy Affiliate gives really bad SEO advice..."
An argument that’s been brought up by a lot of critics is that they give bad SEO advice and don’t go in-depth enough.
If this was true why are people still ranking on Google and earning money?
I do agree that it is better to get advice from instructors rather than random members because some don’t have the experience to answer questions properly.
"...Wealthy Affiliate doesn’t offer refunds..."
The moment you enter the purchase page the first thing you’ll see is them mentioning that they don’t offer refunds but there’s a good reason for that.
Most affiliate courses can offer refunds because they only offer theory, case studies, and private coaching without having the chance to try it out in practice for free.
Wealthy Affiliate offers these same 3 things but also offers a free starters account with free hosting, limited access to their marketing research tools, and full access to their content producing tools.
You can immediately try out what you’re learning without paying for website hosting, domain names, etc.
The purpose of the free starters account is to find out if the teaching style works for you to the degree that you can put it into practice without difficulty.
The free starters account allows you to create 2 fully functional test websites that can be seen online by others with which you can determine if going premium could be an option for you.
To be able to provide people with the option to create real websites and give them the opportunity to test out the content producing tools on them costs a lot of money.
If they’d offer refunds there’s a chance that offering the free account wouldn’t be possible.
After that, you also get the first month for $19 with which you get access to the full main training, access to founders, main instructors, technical support, content producing tools and marketing research tools.
This should be more than enough opportunity to judge if it is worth going all-in with.
"...Wealthy Affiliate not teaching you about backlinks is bad advise..."
This is something mentioned in dreamgrows review and Ebizfacts review which are currently ranking high on Google.
Wealthy Affiliate teaches for the most part to rank on Google through topical authority instead of proactively building links.
Here’s a video of the creator of the affiliate lab which ironically is the affiliate course both dreamgrow and Ebizfact recommend talking about getting traffic without building links.
Don’t get me wrong I do think backlinks are important to have.
I am a massive fan of linkbuilding because it can speed up the process of ranking and give you the chance to rank for keywords you normally wouldn’t.
That being said, not being able to rank without proactively building links isn’t true.
I do think it takes a lot more effort when it comes to SEO research and picking a niche.
Either way you’re spending a lot effort on proactively building links or SEO research.
It's up to you to choose.
Do you want to combine proactive linkbuilding with gaining topical authority?
That’s fine and courses like The Affiliate Lab do a wonderful job of teaching that.
It’s without a doubt a top tier course but if you’re on a tight budget there’s no need to immediately buy an affiliate marketing course of $997.
You could simply read the comprehensive link building guides from Backlinko and combine it with the teaching of Wealthy Affiliate and save some money in the short term.
"...The teachers aren’t active in the space no more..."
According to a lot of high-ranking reviews, Kyle and Carson haven’t been in the affiliate marketing space since 2016 which is not true.
Kyle still makes videos every week were he demonstrates his findings regarding changes in affiliate marketing.
![Wealthy Affiliate Kyle live class Wealthy Affiliate Kyle live class](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Kyle-live-class.jpg)
They do use some old websites in their videos such as the football snack helmet websites but those are simply to illustrate that the pool of niches you can choose from are bigger than you think.
Aside from Kyle, Carson, and Jay there are a lot more live video class instructors that are currently active in niches such as cryptocurrency, learning laguages, precious metals IRA’s, and more.
![WA Live class instructors WA Live class instructors](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/WA-Live-class-instructors.jpg)
"...Wealthy Affiliate is disorganized..."
I do think there’s a bit of truth to that.
Aside from the full core training they have the live classes which contain more than 500 hours of video content which you have access to the moment you become premium.
I do wish they would’ve added a bit more of the in-depth content from the live classes to the core training.
This is why I always advise when you feel even a little bit stuck to type the subject in the live classes searchbar.
There’s never been a time I have done that and didn’t find multiple 2 hour seminars talking in-depth about even the smallest details of a subject.
That being said, I think it’s a fair critisism.
"...Wealthy Affiliate has MLM qualities..."
In the reviews, they say that Wealthy Affiliate isn’t an MLM but has “MLM qualities”.
1 of the arguments was that they rank their members just like MLM’s do. Forums do the exact same thing does that make every forum a potential MLM or pyramid scheme?
Another argument was that the highest paid members only make money by promoting Wealthy Affiliate.
Let’s say that was true they’d still have to be able to rank high through SEO in the make money online/blogging niches which are some of the most competitive niches out there.
That just proves the teaching is effective.
It’s also not that hard when you rank on Google to add affiliate links from other companies to your pages and earn money from them.
Most WA affiliates also earn money through other programs.
Example: Jerry who's now a super affiliate also earns money through Thrive Themes and a series of other affiliate products.
![Jerry his income from affiliate marketing Jerry his income from affiliate marketing](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Jerry-his-income-from-affiliate-marketing.jpg)
"...Wealthy Affiliate feels like a cult with all the welcome messages and the overenthusiastic way they talk about Wealthy Affiliate..."
Yeah, this complaint I agree to a certain extend with as someone that isn’t the most social person.
People are incentivized to interact with each other to increase their member rankings which results in an overkill of people complimenting you for all your acheivements on Wealthy Affiliate.
That doesn’t mean you’re obligated to do the same.
To this day, I don’t really understand why some members are so obsessed with increasing their rankings but it’s just something I learned to live with.
It can lead to a lot of backlink opportunities and other collaborations though.
Do I think reviewers' bad-mouthing Wealthy Affiliate are doing that with bad intent? No. Most of the high ranking reviews I have read seemed genuine.
I just think they haven’t spent enough time on the platform to judge it properly or have very different philosphies about succeeding with affiliate marketing.
It just remind me of the saying “All roads lead to Rome”.
There is more than 1 way to reach the goal.
My Final Thoughts
Wealthy Affiliate definitely isn’t perfect.
Not everyone agrees with their teachings but people are ranking and earning money using their teachings.
That being said, they give you the opportunity to put some of teaching in action without needing to pay for website hosting and domain names that you’re stuck with for a year.
I am of the opinion if you can’t spend multiple hundreds of dollars at once because you’re on a tight monthly budget it is a great solution and worth your time because it gets the job done.
Ready To Start Making Money Online?
if yes, then I want to give you some personal tips that’ll help you with succeeding on the Wealthy Affiliate platform and speed up your progress.
- Fill out your profile and upload a picture
Wealthy Affiliate members with a complete profile are often seen as people that take the training seriously. As a result, other members are more willing to help them. - Take the training seriously
The training works but you have to take it seriously and you have to go through every step. I have learned that even the little things that don’t seem that important have a huge influence over your success. - Ask A Lot of Questions
I have had a lot of help from Wealthy Affiliate members when it came to creating my websites. Don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions. - Watch the live-classes (Premium Feature)
The live-events are in my opinion the most valuable thing on Wealthy Affiliate aside from the training. The lessons you’ll learn there exceed most products online right now. They also evaluate websites live so you can learn from other people’s mistakes and their victories. - Say Hi!
I'm also active on the Wealthy Affiliate profile. My username is RGiersthove and I'm always ready to answer your questions. Let me know if you need anything and I'll see what I can do for you.
"You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone;
change begins at the end of your comfort zone"
~ Roy T. Bennett
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The Next Wealthy Affiliate Success Story?
![proof How to make money online with affiliate marketing](https://realdigitalsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/proof.jpg)
Get your Real Digital Success Exclusive bonuses
Important* This bonus package is temporary because I can only divide my time enough to coach a small group effectively and it's not up to me to decide how long I can give out the Wealthy Affiliate Premium discount.
Sign up for Wealthy Affiliate below and get:
Bonus #1: 59% Discount on Wealthy Affiliate premium
If you like the free account and decide to go premium within 7 days you’ll receive a discount for the first month of premium.
Bonus #2: The Diamond Traffic Guide
The moment you go premium you get access to The Diamond Traffic guide.
The guide designed to get insane amounts of traffic to your website.
It’s the same guide that:
- Shows the method that got Expert marketer Kyle founder of Wealthy Affiliate 2200 clicks overnight after a Google update.
- Explains Google’s disgust for article marketing and how to get around that.
- Teaches you how to get “side effect” keyword rankings.
- Explains the role of social media in keyword ranking.
- Shows how you can use the news to get massive traffic.
- How to outsource your work to automate traffic growth.
- and much more.
Bonus #3: A Personal Affiliate Marketing Coach
The moment you sign up I’ll contact you and explain how you can get the most out of Wealthy Affiliate and how you can get your bonus.
You’ll also have me in your corner while you’re on your affiliate marketing journey to make sure you reach your goals as soon as possible.
Since I can’t divide my time among a lot of people this bonus is temporary so if you’re interested sign up quick.
Bonus #4: Access to all Future Bonuses for Wealthy Affiliate
As we’re speaking I’m busy creating a guide that focuses on getting sales even if you’re competing with Affiliate Marketers that have been in the game for 8+ years.
While a lot of people say that affiliate marketing is over saturated there are affiliate marketers that have gotten to 4 figure incomes in record times because of the principles in this guide.
I’ve taken some of the principles of Perry Belcher one of the founders of digitalmarketer.com and one of the best salesmen in the world and 2 of the top 10 Clickbank affiliate marketers and merged that into 1 simple guide.
Sign up and the moment I release it you’ll get it for free!
No Credit Card Info Needed!
More Questions About Wealthy Affiliate?
If you have any further questions feel free to leave a comment and I'll reply as soon as possible.
Want to get an answer about affililate marketing in general immediately? I'd advise you to take a look at my frequently asked questions page.
Coming from someone who’s been through several different endeavors, failed and then succeeded through Wealthy Affiliate I definitely agree with the points you’ve included in this post. Wealthy Affiliate is more than what meets the eye – it’s a true ecosystem for affiliate marketing and everything surrounding that. There are so many aspects to this very ecosystem that I always come out feeling that I’m ripping them off because I get such a great deal for the value. That’s true customer satisfaction and more than that WA gives you zero excuses to not be successful if you’re willing to put in the effort and be patient.
Heey Ryan!
Thanks for the comment. It’s nice to see other people that have gotten as much value out of it as I did. I feel like Wealthy Affiliate gets undervalued by a lot of people while its one the few platforms that actually makes good on its promises.
Hey man,
I just wanted to say your assessment of WA is spot-on! I’ve seen a lot of people promoting WA and trying to explain it but you’ve done a really great job here. In face, I’d argue you should most of this post on the WA site as a blog for new users. You’ve taken the time to show the new interface and explained what’s in each area very well. It would go a long way to answering new members questions off the bat.
It totally agree that what really sets WA apart from other programs is it’s community. This is the only place I’ve ever seen that truly does have members helping each other, just to help, and not trying to sell you something or get hired by you, etc.
Here are the primary benefits of WA in order of best to less-best (I don’t think there’s a bad or worse option at WA so less-best is the best I can do):
1) Community – WA really is almost a social media place for those looking to start or better their online business. I have made a ton of friends here and actually spend more time on WA’s live chat than all the other social media platforms combined.
2) Training – There’s something for everyone at WA. Whether you’re a newbie, at an intermediate level or a pro, there’s always something to learn and people very grateful for any help or advice you might share with them.
3) Hosting – I saw you touch a little on the hosting platform but it’s really is great! It’s super fast, uses the WordPress platform and includes SSL. When I first started with WA I actually kept my old host and just pointed a domain to WA while I checked it out. I now register all my domains directly with WA and will move the one I was pointing when it’s up for renewal.
Thanks again for the great review. I think this will help more people to understand what WA is and how it can help them.
P.S. – For others reading this comment, feel free to say hello if you decide to check WA out and sign up with a free account. My handle there is Merlynmac and you can usually find me on multiple times throughout the day.
Heey Scott!
Thanks for the comment! I fully agree with the points you made here.
That’s a good idead! I’ll put it in a post for new users on the WA website. I’m adding you as a friend at WA 🙂
I have been doing some serious research on how to make money online. I am tired of my job and I would love to be able to make a full time income online. First of all, is it possible to make a full time income with Wealthy Affiliate? The other question I have is about the free membership. You said there are 10 lessons included with the free membership, how many lessons are there in total in you upgrade? As a free member do you get full access to everything for the first 7 days, then you get a stripped down membership? Sorry for all of the questions, I have been burned a few times in the past with making money online programs, so I want to know what I am getting into. Thanks, and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Your headline to start this review I think speak volumes to how good Wealthy Affiliate is
The training is second to none with support and a strong community support means there will always be an answer to a question not far away.
I joined wealthy affiliate in 2017 not knowing anything about the platform. The training I undertook via step by step video training helped me build a website from scratch. Today I have 5 websites.
How did you find WA when you started?
Hey Darren
Cool to hear! I found the website by accident. I was trying to find some content about email marketing and before I knew it I was on the wealthy affiliate website and since it was free I tried it out. I’ve been hooked ever since.
This is a really in depth and honest review.
As a member of Wealthy Affiliate, it can go without saying that people can offer different opinions.
I for one, have been a member for 4 years, I have followed the training that you have mentioned here, I have engaged with the community, I have employed the techniques talked about on the live WAbinars and I have been quite successful obtaining good amounts of traffic to the website I have built.
On saying that, I have also seen people fall by the wayside and quit due to lack of progress.
It is important to know that this is not a get rich quick scheme. Like any business, it takes time, effort and dedication. If you follow the rules, you will learn and most likely be successful. If you chose to skip sections because you think you know better, then you will more likely fail.
I have only good things to say about Wealthy Affiliate, but there is one area for me that needs addressing.
In my opinion, the training packages should be taken care of by the owners and the live training sessions. I am not too keen on members being able to create their own training.
Very often, I feel there can be a conflict of information and opinion due to this. Do you have a thought on this?
Excellent post, I enjoyed reading it.
Chris
Heey Chris,
Thanks for the comment.
I fully agree when it comes to making your own training package or adding some kind of gatekeeper that evaluates all the self created training modules.
I have seen some gems between them though.
You know, I have been looking into starting an online business for quite a while, but I don’t know very much about creating websites. After reading through your review of Wealthy Affiliate, I am starting to see the light. It looks like the training platform is very easy to use, and with the massive support team in the community, you can get assistance with any issue you might have
Rogier, Thank you for sharing this information… I thing this is my game changer! Clay
Good to hear!
It won’t be easy and it’ll probably take awhile but having the support of the community helps a lot. There were multiple times thoughts about quiting creeped into my head but then you read other peoples stories and see what they’re doing which will help with motivation and cutting the learning curve.
I really enjoyed your post because of how informative it is. I, too, am part of the Wealthy Affiliate community and I agree with you that it’s one of the most complete platform there is. I’ve done some of the training and it really taught me a lot. My favorite feature is the actual community within WA, you can comment on blog posts and support each other. And what makes it even better is that everyone is rooting for everyone.
Yeah my favorite part is the community aswell. I remember signing up for premium and almost immedietely getting messages from people offering help and stuff.
What a comprehensive and enthusiastic review of Wealthy Affiliate. All you said were all positive. Is there anything you can say that is negative? I wish to see some cons in your review as well. Just a thought, don’t be bothered by it. I’m just curious why I can’t see even one flaw about Wealthy Affiliate from you.
Well it’s not really a flaw but it would be nice if they expand more on their teaching when it comes to Youtube and Instagram. You can make a lot of money without using Youtube or Instagram but I feel like a huge opportunity is left on the table.
Hi Rogier,
I rarely post comments on the internet, but I couldn’t go without thanking you for this detailed and honest review.Today while I was searching on “how to make money online” I came across a top 5 review in which Wealthy Affiliate was #1.. Nowadays I’m always suspicious of sites like that because I have had some bad experiences in the past. So I decided to do some research which led me to your article, and I must say that after reading all that information I learned quite a lot and will definitely give Wealthy Affiliate a try.
Cheers,Nick.
Hey Nick!
Glad to hear you learned a lot from reading my review. Wealthy Affiliate is the real deal.
If you have questions let me know when you’re on the other side 😉
Thank you for this very detailed review of Wealthy Affiliate. I like how you broke it down to the various aspects of the site. You answer all questions here from what it is to how it works plus some additional info that’s good to know. Looking forward to more of your reviews. Keep up the good work!
Heey Johel!
Thanks for the kind words. I normally don’t do a lot of reviews but some programs are really need to be told about especially nowaday when there are so many scams out there.
Wealthy Affiliate really is a game changer.
I’ve been with Wealthy Affiliate since 2015 and it is the best thing I’ve ever stumbled across online! I was trying to find out how to get traffic to my website and how to get my website ranked when I came across WA. Everything I ever need to know plus more is there, along with great tools and support. If anyone is looking to make money online I highly recommend joining Wealthy Affiliate.
Heey Lynne
Thanks for the comment. Thanks to wealthy affiliate I’ve learned so much about search engine optimization and other ways to drive traffic to your website that I even get job offers from people.
Wealthy Affiliates is this the first and final money making produc tyou’ll ever need Review is a great review. I love everything about wealthy affiliate. wealthy affiliate also lets you build a WordPress website in 30 seconds on their Site Rubix’ platform.
I also love Wealthy Affiliates live chat helpline. You can get help anytime of the day 24 /7. I score this review 100 out of a100 because you cover a lot of information. When you are part of wealthy affiliate you can’t say enough good things about them.
Thank you again for this great review
Heey Quinn
Thanks for the comment and the kind words. I also really like the live chat helpline. The fact that there’s is always someone online there to help you quick really makes a difference.
Hello Ryan. I have heard of Wealthy Affiliate before. I am so pleased to hear of so many positive reviews of this company’s service. I have done much research on affiliate marketing. It is true there is so much conflicting information about this on the internet. I have also encountered many scams. It is hard to know who to truly believe. I have a small business at home. I grow and sell plants. My mom makes beautiful professional quilts. She and i are both on Facebook and share a professional website as a team. I am currently hoping to do a blend of affiliate marketing at the same time i am promoting my own products. I wanted to ask you if the training at Wealthy Affiliate would also help me and mom to advertise our own business website? Will this training teach us to market our own products as well? Please give me more information. I am desperately looking for the right training source that i can afford. I have seen some really expensive programs on the Internet. Please tell me what you think. Does Wealthy Affiliate use Click Funnels and other homemade funnels for marketing purposes? I want to know more. Thank you for your awesome information you shared here in your blog!
Hello dear teem good aftr noon. I have heard of Wealthy Affiliate before. I am so pleased to hear of so many positive reviews of this company’s service. I have done much research on affiliate marketing. It is true there is so much conflicting information about this on the internet. I have also encountered many scams. It is hard to know who to truly believe. I have a small business at home. I grow and sell plants. I am currently hoping to do a blend of affiliate marketing at the same time i am promoting my own products. I wanted to ask you if the training at Wealthy Affiliate would also help me and mom to advertise our own business website? Will this training teach us to market our own products as well? Please give me more information. I am desperately looking for the right training source that i can afford. I have seen some really expensive programs on the Internet. Please tell me what you think. Does Wealthy Affiliate use Click Funnels and other homemade funnels for marketing purposes? I want to know more. Thank you for your awesome information you shared here in your blog!
Hey Muhammad.
Thanks for commenting. The basic courses at Wealthy Affiliate mostly go over marketing products on your website with SEO. It doesn’t matter if they’re affiliate products or your own products. At Wealthy Affiliate, they teach you how to do everything from the ground up so they don’t use Clickfunnels but teach you how to create your own funnels.
That being said, in your case most value will come from the live classes where they’ll not only go over SEO as a long-term strategy but also Google and Social media paid advertising.