Wealthy Affiliate Review: A Scam Or The Best Deal Ever?

Wealthy Affiliate review

Here is the deal, online pals - I'm planning to take more than 15 minutes of your time.  My Wealthy Affiliate review will require around 3,500 words and you need to know this from the start.

That being said, I can't keep my head buried in the sand any longer:

Considering how much BS about this platform is being poured out online recently...

Well, I feel like you should have the real facts from somebody on the inside before you make your mind up whether to join it or not.

This post may contain affiliate links.  See my disclosure here.

Wealthy Affiliate - A Look From A Distance

Now, if you ever tried to make money online and searched for a teaching program that will show you how to do that, I doubt that you haven't come across Wealthy Affiliate (WA).

Chances are, you saw this name being mentioned not just on a single occasion, but probably over and over again.

However, let's say that you're hearing about it for the very first time in your life.  Then, just type WA on Google and explore the top results for a while.

Or how about I do you one better and you the time?

Above all, there is no way that you'll get to read a Wealthy Affiliate review without a simple, clear message that has been repeated from top to bottom within each and every post:

Wealthy Affiliate marketing

Ultimately, WA is the best place to learn how to make a full-time income online.  Moreover, this teaching university transforms ordinary people into experienced bloggers who rule the affiliate marketing space on the web.  Therefore, you would be crazy to look elsewhere because at the end of the day WA doesn't have and will never have a real competition that could beat its impressive results.

As a member that has been with WA for quite some time, I can't be more honest when telling you that all of the above is simply not true!

But we're getting way ahead of ourselves, let's take one step at the time.

Wealthy Affiliate Review - Most Common Complaints

Before I elaborate further on everything I've just told you, how about we explore the negative opinions you most likely are already aware of?

Firstly, there is a good amount of people online who are convinced that all WA's members make their money simply by writing tons of bad reviews on competitive products just so they would promote the program as the better solution.

Secondly, most of the users have mediocre results at best but they're trying to convince you otherwise so you would join WA as well.

Lastly, (and that's my favorite one!), WA is a cult where the members are willing to do whatever it takes to suck more people in and get them to pay membership fees month after month.

Wealthy Affiliate review

Speechless, right?  Ain't those statements mind-blowing or what?

Certainly, they are.  Moreover, some of them are not completely over-reacting and I'll get back on that.

But first, in order to get to the bottom of all things WA and separate facts from fiction, you need to know what this platform actually is and how it does its line of work.

What Is Wealthy Affiliate?

Basically, WA is an online teaching platform that aims to provide you with everything you need to start a successful business online.

To clarify, we're talking about a whole university, including blogging/business lessons, classrooms, live webinars every week, tools, support, and community.

Above all, what WA focuses on is walking you through the process of choosing your interest, creating a website, driving organic traffic, and monetizing your site through the affiliate marketing model.

Wealthy Affiliate review

That's what WA does in a nutshell.  And that's how any online business is coming to life for at least 20 years now.

OK, everything so far sounds sweet and delicious, doesn't?  Then where all the confusion and negative opinions are coming from?

Well, the only reasonable explanation will require an in-depth look at both types of membership (free and premium) and how the members are using them to the best of their advantage. 

The Free Membership Of Wealthy Affiliate

First and foremost, it goes without saying that as a free member you won't have to pay anything at all.  As stated on WA's Homepage, you can keep your credit card's details for yourself.

Moving on, what being a free member is going to do for you?

Well, here is what you're getting out of WA for free:

  • 2 websites - also for free
  • Beginner training course
  • Phase 1 of the Affiliate Bootcamp training (10 lessons)
  • Website backup
  • Videos walk-throughs
  • Affiliate program
  • Live help (first 7 days)
  • 1-1 coaching (first 7 days)
  • Keywords research tool - 30 searches

So, how does WA looks up until now?

Which Part Of The Free Membership Is a Scam?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but nobody can't deny that even the starter membership of WA is a pretty sweet deal.

Generally, you'll receive more than basic knowledge on how the money making business online works, you'll choose your niche and build your first website in a matter of minutes through the SiteRubix platform (also free to use).  In addition, you'll learn how to do proper keyword research and you'll have 30 free searches from the Jaaxy keyword research tool.

Related:  How To Do Keyword Research The Smart Way

Wealthy Affiliate review - the free membership

Not to forget, even as a free member, you'll have your own unique affiliate link.  Meaning, you can start to make money without paying a single cent through Wealthy Affiliate's affiliate program from day one.

Although you don't have to promote the platform if you choose not too, the decision is entirely up to you.

What do we know so far?

Actually, it turns out that WA jump starts your online business with 2 websites, affiliate marketing, keywords research education, and support completely for free.  Plus, it gives you the chance to begin earning online from your very first day.

That being said, do you find even a hint of a scam in here?  In your opinion, considering how much you are getting absolutely for free, how exactly are you being scammed, especially knowing that the only personal info you're giving to WA is your name and your email address?

Personally, I can't find anything that even remotely smells of a scam, can you?

Wealthy Affiliate Review - The Premium Membership

To clarify, you can stay a free member of WA for as long as you wish.

Although in case you decide to upgrade within the first 7 days, your first month as a Premium member will cost you only $19.

Now, let's make a complete breakthrough of this membership's prices:

a) Monthly - $49

b) 6 Months - $234 = $39/month

c) 12 Months - $359 = $29.92/month

However, those prices are just numbers unless you know what you'll receive in exchange for your money, right?

Let's see, I'll need a couple of paragraphs at least...

1) 50 Websites

And no, that's not an honest mistake on my part!

As a Premium member of WA, you can build a total of 50 websites on their server through the SiteRubix platform.

2) Free Hosting

Yeah, website hosting is a necessary expenditure when you own a website.

However, Wealthy Affiliate is not going to make you pay for that.

Believe it or not, the platform will host your blog for free on its servers.  Moreover, that goes not only for the free websites provided but for the ones you would like to buy as well.

To clarify, as a Premium member of WA you can build 25 websites with a domain you have bought + 25 free websites and the hosting on all those 50 sites will be free of charge.

Alright, but is their hosting any good and what does it come with?  Well, see for yourself:

  1. Website Space - 30 GB
  2. Hosting Speed - at Amazon c.3 large
  3. Instant DNS Setup
  4. Unlimited Domain Email + Unlimited Data Transfer
  5. A bandwidth of 500,000 visitors per month
  6. SSL, Spam Protection Features, and Site Speed - free of charge

3) Full Access To All The Training

So, here we are talking about both of the training courses - the Online Entrepreneur Certification and the Affiliate Bootcamp.  You may want to acknowledge that the lessons from both can be applied to any niche imaginable.

Further, there are the weekly webinars - about 1 hour long, covering different topics related to starting an online business, and you can watch the replays within the database in case you missed them.

Not to forget, training classrooms are included as well - learn even more about SEO, Social Media, content marketing, etc.

Plus, full and unlimited access to Jaaxy.  In other words, you're going to have a free keywords research tool that you can use over and over again for life.

premium membership of Wealthy Affiliate

Besides, the supporting community of around 4 million people has to be mentioned as well.  Honestly, I doubt that I have to comment on how important the help of like-minded people is when you're building an online business.

Lastly, there is a professional tech support 24/7 and you can contact the owners of WA, Kyle and Carson, personally, at any time you have a question.

I think that pretty much covers what you're getting as a paid member of WA.  Now, it's time to explore why certain people have a problem with that membership and where the negative reviews are coming from.

Is The Paid Membership Of Wealthy Affiliate Going To Scam You?

Basically, this is going to be the answer to the second most common complaints I talked about at the beginning of this Wealthy Affiliate review.

First and foremost, I could never truly answer it unless you are fully aware of how much the affiliate program within WA is paying its members for each of their referrals who upgrade to Premium Membership.  For full info and all the numbers, you can check out this post.

Generally, the most repeated line within the complaints is stating that WA's members are heavily promoting the platform just so they would make money over and over again through recurring affiliate commissions.

Let's see where the truth is positioned in here, shall we?

1) You Don't Make Recurring Affiliate Commissions From Free Members

Meaning, WA is not going to pay you for every single person you introduce to the platform.  Currently, it's fair to say that only 1 in 8 people ever decides to upgrade their membership.

OK, so does this mean that the WA's members are left without any opportunity to earn an income unless their referrals become paid members?  Even more, probably that's why all the fuzz about joining WA is, right?

Actually, this statement couldn't possibly be further from the truth!

Firstly, the affiliate program of the platform is just one piece of all the ways its members earn their living online.  For instance, a big part of those 4 million people are in completely different niches than the "make money online" one, so to promote WA it doesn't even make sense for their business.

Secondly, considering the training of WA is focused on monetizing your site through affiliate marketing, do you have any idea how many affiliate programs are available currently?

what the training of Wealthy Affiliate is focused on

Thousands and thousands, and all in different niches!

Subsequently, why should a person focus mainly on promoting WA when the possibilities for commissions from all those affiliate programs are countless?

As a paid member of WA, I do promote the platform.  But the same way I promote hundreds of other products that I use, trust, and find valuable for my audience.

Therefore, why promoting WA could be considered scammy and how is that any different than promoting any other affiliate program that pays recurring commission as well?

It may have something to do with the monthly price of the membership, right?  

Speaking of...

2) The Premium Membership Of Wealthy Affiliate Is Too Expensive

Is it really?

First and foremost, let's have a look at your situation if you're not a paid member of WA.

Starting with your web hosting service:

  1. 50 Websites - on WA ($49), on Pressable ($90), on WP Engine ($250)
  2. Bandwidth Included - on WA ( 500K/Visitors per month), on Pressable (100K), on WP Engine (400K)
  3. Site Builder Included - on WA (Yes), on both Pressable and WP Engine (No)
  4. Instant DNS Setup - on WA ( Yes), on Pressable and WP Engine (No)
  5. Email Accounts - on WA (Unlimited), on Pressable and WP Engine (No)
  6. Site Health - on WA (Yes), on Pressable and WP Engine (No)

In other words, are you seeing what I'm seeing?  Even more, how about you do the math yourself and tell me how much your business is going to cost you per month on other platforms compared to WA?

And what about the keywords research tool?

As I already mentioned, being a paid member of WA will give you unlimited access to its professional keywords research tool Jaaxy.

But what if you go for SEMrush instead?  Well, get your credit card ready to be charged $99,95 (Pro), $199,95 (Guru), $399,95 (Business)...PER MONTH!

To sum up, no matter how you may want to look at WA and how many people are trying to bad-mouth it online, numbers don't lie!

Above all, the paid membership will deliver for you a world-class affiliate marketing education, hosting, and keyword research tool for a price that no other platform can even hold a candle to it.

Personally, I'm using the yearly plan of WA.  By the way, it does cost me $0,82 per day...

P.S. - did you know that Jaaxy is currently Number 2 on Brian Dean's list of the best keywords research tools for SEO in 2019?  Here, have a look for yourself in this article

Wealthy Affiliate Review - Additional Thoughts

Hold on, I haven't forgotten that we have 2 more issues to confront, as promised at the beginning of this post.

How about we start with the stated "unethical behavior" of the WA's members?

The Connection Between Wealthy Affiliate's Members And Negative Reviews

Generally, I can't speak for all my colleagues inside the platform, even though I've made tons of friends there.  But I'll do my best to address what's the deal with all the negative reviews coming from WA's members.

Firstly, do you have any experience in the working online business?  If you do, then already know - 90% of the products that are advertised as money-making machines are total and complete BS.  Honestly, I've written tons of bad reviews so far and I stand firmly behind each and every one of them.

Related:  10 Making Money Online Scams To Escape From In 2019

Well, when a product is nothing else than a scam, I have to call it what it is.  And that's what the rest of WA's members do as well.

the connection between Wealthy Affiliate and the negative online reviews

For example, ClickBank offers a lot of low-quality money making products, but they have a couple of good ones as well.  Subsequently, my reviews on Digital Marketing Career Blueprint and ClickBank University are excellent even though they are not about WA.

Even more, not all of the negative reviews written online belong to our members.  So, how come we are more unethical when our job in than any other online marketer?

Wait, I know - because we offer WA as an alternative solution to the products being reviewed!

Then again, after everything you got to read so far, can you give me a single reason why we shouldn't?  After all, isn't WA a much better platform to create and develop a successful business online?

Wait, the members couldn't be that successful as they're trying to make it sound, right?  Which brings me to the next point...

Are Wealthy Affiliate's Members As Successful As They Make It Sound?

On that, I'll let a picture to do all the talking:

success story example 1 from Wealthy Affiliate

success story example 2 from Wealthy Affiliate

success story example 3 from Wealthy Affiliate

Basically, I could finish this Wealthy Affiliate review with screenshots of my friend's achievements - I see photos like these ones on daily basis inside the platform.

Personally, my own numbers can't quite compare to theirs yet and that's OK - this fact only keeps me inspired and motivated to catch up with people who have a couple of years more experience than me.

At the end of the day, these fellow bloggers are not magicians.  After all, what they did to get this kind of impressive results is simply following the training provided by WA.  

Besides, considering WA focuses on teaching you how to rank your site on Google and drive organic traffic from the search engines, to achieve this level of online income becomes just a matter of time and consistency.

Until we are at the topic of magicians...

No, Wealthy Affiliate Is Not a Cult!

Hate to be the one to break it to you, but there is nothing supernatural going on inside Wealthy Affiliate.

On the contrary, this is the warmest and supporting blogging community I've ever been a part of and I'm not over-reacting by saying that.

As much as the Tech Support may be helpful, the WA's members are there for each other even more.

Here, you'll have to take my word for it.  Unless, of course, you become a part of it as well and you'll get the chance to see for yourself! 

Wealthy Affiliate Review - My Closing

Quite frankly, I hope that all your questions about Wealthy Affiliate got their answers today.

But let me make my point perfectly clear:

The bottom line is, there is no such thing as the "best training program" for starting a successful business online.  And WA is not the only one, there are few other platforms that will get the job done as well.

However, what makes WA to stand out and to be the preferred choice of millions of people is the fact that this online university offers the ultimate all-in-one package.  Meaning, everything you need to create and develop your online business is put together in a beginner-friendly place for more than affordable price.

Alright then, any questions or opinions you would like to share?  Ask me anything in the comments section below!

8 thoughts on “Wealthy Affiliate Review: A Scam Or The Best Deal Ever?”

  1. First of all thanks for providing us such a detailed and easy to understand review about Wealthy Affiliate Network. Secondly, it looks so amazing to sign a network which care so much for its members and provide unlimited support and care. I have one question for you, “Do they sell Domains within the system as well? If yes than what is the normal price they ask for a single domain?

    1. You are so welcome.
      I’m glad that you appreciate my review on Wealthy Affiliate, I did my best to do the platform as much justice as I can.
      And yes, it is amazing and so are the members – I’ve been a member for 2 years now and I don’t see that changing any time soon.
      Now, on your question:
      Yes, there are available domains within the platform you can buy.
      The price is between $11 to $15/year.
      Let me know if there is anything else you need to know about Wealthy Affiliate.
      Best of luck!

  2. The first time I came across Wealthy Affiliate, I signed up. It is just the ideal training I have been looking for. Right now, I wouldn’t change to any other platform because there is none like it with the training, the support and for the money.

    1. Hey, Carol, I back you up on this completely.
      Good to know that more and more people are getting to the truth of what Wealthy Affiliate really is.
      Talk to you soon!

  3. Very nicely done post! I love your honest straight forward approach. I too am a member of WA, since 2017 and now have three websites. I had one website with Weebly but it was fairly expensive, costing me a couple of hundred dollars to host just one website for a term of 2 years. With WA, I can add a lot more websites, for no extra charge. The Themes are right here, at no extra charge, and the help is bar none. I recently began using the new WordPress version, called Gutenberg, which many seem to hate. I thought I would hate it too, but actually kind of like it after trying it out on my newest website. However I ran into a problem with editing in Gutenberg, posted the question in WA and within a few minutes, I already had the right answers from a few other members! WA is a very friendly and helpful community at it’s core. That’s my 5 cents worth 🙂 Maddy

    1. Thank you so much, Madeleine!
      I worked really hard on this article, wanted to make sure my audience will get the chance to learn the truth about Wealthy Affiliate.
      Too many people have a totally wrong idea about this online training platform.
      3 websites, lol! That’s awesome!
      Personally, I hate Gutenberg, but I write my content with Thrive Architect so it’s not a problem for me.
      Best of luck and tons of future success!

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