Founded in 2005 by Kyle Loudoun and Carson Lim, Wealthy Affiliate has grown to become one of the most popular affiliate marketing training courses on the internet. However, being the most popular does not necessarily mean that they are the best in the industry. There are some good sides to Wealthy Affiliate, and there are also some flaws in their training course.
In this Wealthy Affiliate review, I will be sharing my honest opinion about Wealthy Affiliate’s online marketing training course and its platform. As a premium member since 2016, I will be sharing my opinion on why I still believe that Wealthy Affiliate is a good program but it’s overhyped.
This is not one of those fake reviews you see all over the internet including social media. I’m writing this to share my experience using the platform.
Before I start getting into details, let me start by explaining what Wealthy Affiliate is all about for those that don’t know it.
What is Wealthy Affiliate?
Wealthy Affiliate is a community-driven online marketing training course that claims to teach you how affiliate marketing works and how to make money on the internet as an affiliate marketer.
Their course is currently one of the most popular affiliates marketing training programs online with a huge affiliate marketing community.
As of the time of writing this Wealthy Affiliate review, their platform is one of the most searched for affiliate marketing training platforms on Google, especially for those interested in learning how to make money online with affiliate marketing.
Generally, it’s not about how popular a platform or product is, rather it’s more about the value that the product has to offer.
Who are the Founders of Wealthy Affiliate?
The platform was founded in 2005 by two Canadian entrepreneurs, Kyle Loudon and Carson Lim. Both of them started out as online marketers, and have track records to show their success. Wealthy Affiliate was initially founded under a company name Niche Marketing, Inc.
How does Wealthy Affiliate work?
Wealthy Affiliate training course offers free and premium membership. As a premium member, you will have access to all of their training modules, including their two core training modules: Online Entrepreneur Certification and Affiliate Bootcamp. They also provide additional weekly seminar classes.
Here is a quick insight into their training modules;
Online Entrepreneur Certification;
The Online Entrepreneur Certification program consists of 5 courses, which are divided into 50 lessons in total. This course aim at teaching you how to build and grow a content business within your chosen niche. It includes
How to get started (Level 1) – A 10-lesson course that will teach you how to create a successful online business that generates revenue.
How to build your own traffic producing website (Level 2) – This 10 lesson training is aimed at showing you how to get highly relevant traffic in any niche, without spending any money. No matter what niche you choose, traffic is essential for your content business to be successful. Learning how to generate traffic effectively will ensure your success.
How to monetise your website to start making money (Level 3) – Here is where you will learn different ways how to monetise your blog/website. Basically, you will be learning how to make money with your website.
Mastering social engagement (Level 4) – This lesson will teach you how to use social media and other social marketing techniques to promote your content including social networking.
Achieving maximum success through content creation (Level 5) – This training will help you learn how to use content to scale your business in the most effective and efficient way.
Affiliate Bootcamp
The Affiliate Bootcamp is a 7 phase training series (with 70 lessons) that teaches you how to effectively promote Wealthy Affiliate’s platform. This training is mainly focused on their platform. In my opinion, I believe you will achieve greater results if you focus on your own content at this stage, and don’t get caught up in the intention of this module.
Here are the lessons included in this training;
- Phase 1 – This is 10 lessons that will get your business rolling.
- Phase 2 – Learning keywords research, related content creation and conversions.
- Phase 3 – Learning how to create social presences for your business.
- Phase 4 – This is more about branding and the visual side of your website.
- Phase 5 – Knowing your audiences and catapulting your referrals.
- Phase 6 – Learning how to use Pay Per Click (PPC) to promote your business – using platforms such as Bing and Yahoo.
- Phase 7 – Learning how to scale a successful PPC campaign.
As I’ve previously mentioned, you don’t have to promote Wealthy Affiliate, you surely have a choice. However, ironically, many of their students get stuck in that process of starting out with promoting WA’s platform as their first affiliate marketing business to promote.
I can tell you from experience as a member of the platform since 2016; when I was new to internet marketing, I got caught up in the Wealthy Affiliate promotion circle, and that caused me a lot of setbacks.
I was busy chasing a highly competitive niche, which led to little to no results and I got discouraged at some point. I believe this is why a lot of WA students are finding it difficult to achieve success, and a high number of them get discouraged and quit.
To be honest, the only person benefiting here is Wealthy Affiliate, and I think it’s a wrong move because it ends up affecting their reputation.
As a word of advice, choose your niche wisely, follow your plans, and don’t get caught up in the sweet promises of making quick money by promoting WA’s affiliate link.
No doubt that WA is a good product to promote, however, I’ll suggest you only promote it as just one added product if it’s within the niche you chose. In that case, you can grow your website faster within your core expertise.
Who is Wealthy Affiliate for?
Wealthy Affiliate’s platform is for anyone that wants to learn how to make money online with affiliate marketing. It’s also for anyone that wants to learn how to become a successful blogger.
Generally, their goal is to provide comprehensive training to people who want to learn online/affiliate marketing and make money online without having any technical skills.
Although Wealthy Affiliate is a good starting place for aspiring affiliate marketers, I still believe that Project 24 by Income School is a better choice that will give you quicker results.
Having said that, It all depends on your budget.
My Personal Experience using Wealthy Affiliate Platform
I got into the make money online in 2014 with buying and selling. Out of my search for better opportunities, I discovered Wealthy Affiliate in 2016. At the time, I was relatively new to how to make money online with affiliate marketing.
Although I was still making some money online then through buying and selling stuff on marketplaces like eBay, and also from my stock trading.
Nevertheless, my new discovery of the affiliate marketing business got me pumped and I was eager to learn how this business model works.
I joined Wealthy Affiliate in 2016, although, before I joined the platform, I had self though myself the basics of affiliate marketing.
Ever since then, I have learned and contributed to the platform in my own little way. But the question is this; did I get any value from using the platform when I first started?
As I previously mentioned; I got caught up in the circle of promoting their platform which was what influenced me to choose the first niche I choose. Looking back now, it was a really bad idea that cost me some valuable time.
I can’t blame it all on WA because it was my choice to get myself caught up in the Affiliate Bootcamp training and believed it was as easy as they said. In the end, I did learn a lot from the experience.
One of the points to bear in mind is that Wealthy Affiliate does have a lot of good training modules, but with lots of outdated training also.
What makes them stand out among other training platforms is the platform’s community. Truth be told, they do have one of the most passionate online communities I’ve found to date (you can quote me on this).
Their members are genuinely willing to help each other and with zero tolerance for spammy advertisements (you wouldn’t find any ads on their website). You can simply verify these facts for yourself.
Personally, I have tried quite a lot of affiliate marketing courses; Wealthy Affiliate, Affilorama, Project 24, and many more. Some are good, and some are a pure waste of time.
I can’t take away the fact that their community is outstanding with good-minded people; however, I believe that their affiliate marketing course is kind of overhyped.
Is Wealthy Affiliate worth it in my opinion? If you are just getting started with a limited budget and you will need a lot of helping hands, I will recommend that you start with them based on the inclusive free tools and their community help.
However, if you can learn on your own and you have more budget, I will suggest you go with any of the following courses; Project 24 by Income School, Affiliate Lab, or Authority Hacker. Although, you are not really learning on your own; because all of these other platforms do have their own communities. The difference is that their communities might not be as social-driven as WA.
Is Wealthy Affiliate a Scam?
Wealthy Affiliate is not a scam, the platform offers legitimate affiliate marketing training programs with lots of positive feedback from their customer. They have a lot of valuable resources that can help you in learning how to build your own successful blog.
However, there are lots of misleading claims online by some of their students that are eager to make some affiliate commissions, and also, there are lots of misleading information online by some bloggers who just want to discredit Wealthy Affiliate’s training just to promote an alternative course or courses and get paid commissions.
I don’t have any problem with people sharing their opinions as long as it’s the true story. This is one of the places where a good learning foundation comes into play. My point is that there are a lot of unethical ways of online marketing on the internet.
Some marketers will do anything possible just to get affiliate commission even if it involves them lying. Personally, I’ve been a member of Wealthy Affiliate since 2016, and despite that, I still believe that their platform is overhyped in some ways. However, that does not make the course bad, it’s my opinion.
For example; you can have two cars and prefer one to the other, but that does not mean that the one you prefer is better than the other. It’s just a preference. There is always room for a clear conviction that clarifies this is good or bad, and that is beyond preferences.
Sorry, I have digressed a little.
Here is a piece of advice; if you’re in doubt of their legitimacy, I’ll suggest you join their FREE starter membership account and play around the platform for as much as you want, watching all the available free training videos.
By doing that, you will be able to make your own informed decision if you think the course is worth it or not.
One thing to bear in mind while learning online marketing is the importance of having a solid foundation first. If you don’t know anything about building an online business, you should start with the basics. Getting the foundation wrong can lead to a lot of wasted time and money. But when you get it right, you stand the chance of building a profitable online business.
Is Wealthy Affiliate worth it (do you get value for your money)?
Wealthy Affiliate is a good online marketing training program for aspiring online marketers. Their training program is one of the few online marketing courses with value for money and beginner-friendly.
If you are just getting started in online/affiliate marketing and you have a limited budget to spend on the training and required tools and resources; then Wealthy Affiliate is likely your best option.
Why is Wealthy Affiliate worth it for Beginners?
There are three sides to this, and here are my reasons;
1. Mentorship – Their community is an amazing place to get that early-stage support that will keep you motivated when you are just getting started and learning. Trust me; those early days can be very discouraging when you are doing things on your own. Especially when you are writing articles for months without any results to show on your affiliate sites.
2. Free keyword research tool – They provide you with a keyword research tool called Jaaxy. Using their keyword research tool is a no-brainer when you compare the price with other premium keyword research tools out there. This will obviously save you a lot of money. Also, with their keyword research training lessons; using Jaaxy is really a no-brainer for newbies.
3. Free hosting package – as a member, you will be able to host your websites with them using their Siterubix platform. Although, as a premium member, you will get the option to host about 10 websites in your account. Unfortunately, the free member account is quite limited, but it is still worth it when getting started.
The 3 points mentioned above are the reasons I believe that Wealthy Affiliate is worth it for beginners based on value for money. However, as in the world of successful entrepreneurs, results is all that matters in the end.
How Much Does Wealthy Affiliate Cost? – PRICES.
Wealthy Affiliate has three membership packages with the option to pay monthly or yearly (on their monthly plan, the first month is half price). Here are the account packages they offer:
- Starter Membership is $0 (it’s completely FREE),
- Premium – $49 (per month), or $499 (yearly),
- Premium Plus – $99 (per month), or $999 (yearly).
What Tools does Wealthy Affiliate Provide to their Premium Customers?
As a member, you will have access to their keyword research tool called Jaaxy, and some other tools such as their website builder.
Jaaxy keyword research tool is a freemium keyword research tool that can help you with your keyword research processes. The tool is a feature-rich keyword tool that can help you find long-tail keywords with low competition.
Generally, this keyword tool is enough for you to get started in researching for wining low-competition keywords that you can quickly rank for on search engines like Google or Bing.
Aside from the keyword tool, WA does provide you with some other helpful tools to get you started, such as their easy-to-use WordPress website builder, and a secure WordPress web hosting called SiteRubix. SiteRubix is quite an intuitive web hosting platform that is suitable for creating and hosting affiliate sites.
These are just a few of the tools to expect as a premium member of Wealthy Affiliate. You will be getting more than what I have listed above.
What Training does Wealthy Affiliate provide?
They offer a variety of training programs designed to help online marketers in creating successful affiliate websites. Their training includes an Online Entrepreneur Certification course which consists of 5 modules (50 lessons), and an Affiliate Bootcamp training of 7 modules (70 lessons).
They also provide you with weekly live video training classes, a dedicated question and answer community, interactive discussions, and step-by-step task-based lessons.
What Support does Wealthy Affiliate provide?
As a Wealthy Affiliate member, you will have access to their 24 hours dedicated live support system that is available seven days a week and 365 days a year.
Aside from their dedicated live support team, you will also get support from their online helpful community support system that includes live Q&A support, interactive discussions, and private response from Wealthy Affiliate co-founders.
Wealthy Affiliate Pros and Cons
Like any other business, Wealthy Affiliate does have its own advantages and disadvantages.
Pros of Wealthy Affiliate
- Its Free to get started – their FREE Starter Membership plan is $0,
- Well-detailed affiliate marketing basics that will help you solidify your online/affiliate marketing learning foundation,
- A highly responsive support system that you’re sure of getting your questions answered,
- Well-detailed affiliate marketing training programs,
- Real value for money,
- A clear plan of action to guide you through your learning process and implementation process,
- Access to lots of video training courses, proven step-by-step guides and tutorials,
- Huge online community with thousands of active members every day. Meaning; more support and helping hands,
- Access to task-based tutorials through their interactive classrooms,
- 24-hours live and interactive help system. You’ll get help from other members, including the founders,
- Access to a profitable list of keywords with high traffic and low competition. The keywords are regularly updated to keep up-to-date with changing trends,
- Access to their advanced keywords research tool,
- Easy-to-use WordPress website builder,
- Weekly live video training classes,
- Affiliate marketing certification programs,
- Zero tolerance for any form of spam activities. Meaning; their online community is a spam-Free community (ads are not allowed),
- Well-advanced affiliate referral program with the opportunity to create passive income.
Cons of Wealthy Affiliate
- The platform is overhyped.
- There are other better affiliate marketing training programs that will give you quicker results in building profitable affiliate sites.
- Too much misleading information online by WA affiliate marketers in the name of promoting WA’s platform for commission. Some of their affiliate marketers are going as far as writing negative reviews about other affiliate training products just to be able to recommend WA.
- The FREE Starter Membership account is too basic.
- Their training can be quite overwhelming because it requires time. You will need to invest lots of time in the learning materials.
- Most of the tools that WA offers are restricted to their platform. For example; if you cancel your WA subscription, you will not be able to move your websites.
- Wealthy Affiliate’s premium plus membership account is quite expensive.
- Their community can get quite noisy and overwhelming.
- Due to the social nature of their community, it can get very addictive if you’re not careful. You might end up spending more time daily only socialising on the platform.
- Wealthy Affiliate’s premium membership account is not an option for anyone seeking free learning resources.
Do I Recommend Wealthy Affiliate?
If you are new to online marketing and with a limited budget, In such a case, I do recommend Wealthy Affiliate as a good source to start learning the basics of affiliate marketing.
However, if you already have some online marketing knowledge and you want some quicker results, I do not recommend Wealthy Affiliate in such a case. There are other better alternatives for marketers with intermediate or experienced knowledge in online marketing.
However, the alternatives are more intense. So, if you are not ready to learn at such an intense level, I will suggest you start with Wealthy Affiliate.
Wealthy Affiliate Alternatives – what are the Best alternative to Wealthy Affiliate?
There are four online/affiliate marketing training programs that I do personally recommend, but they might be a little too intense for anyone that is completely new to affiliate marketing.
These online marketing training programs are great, however, they might not be the best option for a complete newbie in terms of cost.
Here are my best alternatives to Wealthy Affiliate;
Project 24 by Income School
Project 24 is a comprehensive affiliate marketing training. This online marketing training course will teach you how to make money online blogging within 24 months. The course is very in-depth and well laid out. Although, the Income School Project 24 course is only available on a yearly subscription.
At $449, the annual membership cost is almost similar to Wealthy Affiliate’s premium package if you choose to pay yearly. Nevertheless, there are more tools priced in the Wealthy Affiliate’s cost.
Project 24 does also have a very helpful community of knowledgeable online marketers.
The Authority Site System 3.0 by Authority Hacker course
The Authority Site System course by Authority Hacker is another good training program for anyone that wants to build a successful niche or authority website/blog.
Their program is informative, accurate and more detailed in regards to the industry trend. However, the course is not cheap; the membership fee for Authority Site System 3.0 is $997, which I believe will likely be out of most beginner’s budgets. Especially when you add up other costs like hosting, keyword research tools and other tools.
Aside from the initial cost, the Authority Site System online marketing training course is a good option to learn and get quick results.
They also have an advanced training course called AuthorityHacker Pro. This training is primarily for those that are already making money with their website/blog and want to learn how to scale up their website revenue.
Affilorama
Affilorama is one of those online/affiliate marketing training courses that was a really good option back in the day. But with the changing trend, it’s currently behind other great online marketing courses.
Although they do have some advanced learning materials with some good traffic strategies, nonetheless, I don’t think that’s enough to get a desirable result.
One good side to them is that they do offer a $1 TRIAL for 30-days, which is a good starting point for any aspiring online marketer.
Clickbank University
Clickbank University is a branch of Clickbank Marketplace. It’s another fairly good affiliate marketing training program that is far more than just learning affiliate marketing. This training program involves both learning affiliate marketing and how to create your own digital products.
Also, by using Clickbank University, you stand a better chance of success, especially if Clickbank marketplace is one of the affiliate marketplaces you want to promote products from.
One of my reservations about Clickbank University is the level of the upsells they offer. If you decide to join their platform, you’re far more likely in spending more than you expect due to lots of upsells.
The membership fee for Clickbank University is $47 per month, however, you should expect a lot of upsells.
Bottom Line
Building an online business from scratch is definitely a journey, and can be quite demanding. There is a lot to consider; such as learning how to choose a profitable affiliate marketing niche, how to do proper keyword research, how to write an engaging blog post to promote a good affiliate product, and much more. The list is endless.
However, building a successful business online such as a content site is very much possible, you just have to understand that it does require a lot of hard work and time.
If you are willing to put in the time and dedication, I am sure you can achieve the financial freedom that you are seeking.
I hope you find this Wealthy Affiliate review helpful?
Now over to you. Which affiliate marketing course has worked for you, or which do you need to learn more about?
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.
In the meantime and while success awaits you; I wish you all the best…
FAQ – Wealthy Affiliate Review
What is Wealthy Affiliate Program?
Wealthy Affiliate is an affiliate marketing training program, primarily for aspiring affiliate marketers. The platform does include a community of affiliate marketers that are fully engaged on a daily basis.
Is Wealthy Affiliate legit?
Wealthy Affiliate is a legitimate affiliate marketing training program with a lot of positive customer feedback online. You can read Wealthy Affiliate on Trustpilot review to learn more.
Is Wealthy Affiliate a scam?
Wealthy Affiliate is a reputable platform and not a scam. Like any other business, they do have both positive reviews and bad reviews online.
Is Wealthy Affiliate Worth It?
Wealthy Affiliate online marketing training program is worth buying if you are ready to put in the required work and make use of the resources provided.
Why Choose Wealthy Affiliate?
There are lots of reasons why Wealthy Affiliate might be your best choice. Talking from experience, you are likely to benefit more as an aspiring online marketer based on their all-inclusive tools that are priced in their training program.
Is Wealthy Affiliate Free to Join?
Wealthy Affiliate does offer a free starter membership account to get you started. The free account does provide you with some reasonable resources in learning affiliate marketing. Although the free account is limited, nevertheless, you can always upgrade to their premium membership account if you think it will be beneficial to you.
Is Wealthy Affiliate Worth the Money?
Wealthy Affiliate is one of the cheapest online marketing courses on the internet based on the addon that is priced into the monthly plan. Its monthly plans are $49 for their premium account and $99 for the premium plus membership fee.
Is Wealthy Affiliate a Pyramid Scheme?
Wealthy Affiliate is an online marketing training program that teaches you how to build and monetise a quality content website for recurring income. They are not a pyramid scheme.
How does Wealthy Affiliate make money?
Wealthy Affiliate makes money from the monthly subscription they charge for their Premium membership accounts.
How do I Delete my Wealthy Affiliate Account?
If for any reason you’re not happy using Wealthy Affiliate after you’ve signed up for their Premium account; you do have the option to close your account. Here is a quick walkthrough on how you can delete/cancel your Wealthy Affiliate account.
Blog post: How do I delete my Wealthy Affiliate account.
Video: How do I delete my Wealthy Affiliate account.
How do I join Wealthy Affiliate?
If you’re interested in joining Wealthy Affiliate to try out their FREE Starter account, you can join it here.
Wealthy Affiliate vs Clickfunnels – which is better?
Wealthy Affiliate is an affiliate marketing training program, while Clickfunnels is a sales funnel tool. Both companies are completely different…
Wealthy Affiliate vs Empower Network – which is better?
Wealthy Affiliate has far more to offer you than Empower Network.
Where can I read Wealthy affiliate BBB review?
read Wealthy Affiliate BBB reviews here
Where can I read Wealthy affiliate TrustPilot review?
read Wealthy Affiliate TrustPilot reviews here
How can I get Wealthy Affiliate Black Friday deal?
Wealthy Affiliate Black Friday deal only comes once a year, and that is through Black Friday weekend. Sign-up here to get notified when their next black Friday deal is live.
8 thoughts on “Wealthy Affiliate Review: Is This Online Marketing Course Worth It?”
Hey John,
This program sounds amazing! I think it would be great to work from home and make a decent living. Usually I find that work from home schemes only take my money. It’s awesome that you can sign up with wealthy affiliate and learn a real business for no money at all! Do the courses make it easy for people who don’t have a lot of internet or computer experience?
Hi Rusty,
You don’t need any experience to get started with Wealthy Affiliate.
Wealthy Affiliate is the only community where you can honestly learn Affiliate Marketing from A-Z without any upsells! Please correct me if I’m wrong? Just in case you know any better program?
Please, don’t get me wrong; there are other good products out there; and some of them I’ve also reviewed. But my point is; all other products that I currently know off or tried – they all have upsells at some point.
Wealthy Affiliate seems like a fantastic way to make some serious money online as an affiliate marketer. 🙂
With so much value when it comes to the tools, training and support, it’s very hard to say no to WA. Especially when I can begin my online business for free too.
I can see there are some CONS to WA. But surely when you’re earning a great income every month, it will make them irrelevant? 😛
Thanks for the review
Neil
Thanks for the feedback Neil!
I totally agree with you.
The fact is; Wealthy Affiliate Program can mostly be measured with personal experience; and in my own experience – it’s worth it!
Thanks,
John.
Hi, John. That’s a lovely review you got of wealthy affiliate. I dont think there’s is a program out there that can come anywhere close to WA. Since I joined I have learned so much about the world of internet marketing. This program is something I would recommend to anyone thinking of making money online.
Hi Leonard,
I totally agree with you; there is so much to learn at Wealthy Affiliate; starting from the basics to advanced level of affiliate marketing. The experience is truly worth it!
Thanks,
Hey John and fantastic review! Wealthy Affiliate is to me the greatest system for earning money online. I have looked at many of them and truly believe that this is the best site for educating novices on how to start and take them to the pro level if that person is willing to put the study time in and follow the well laid out items to be done.
I really believe your site explains the program very well and you should have great success John!! Take care.
Thanks Hassan!
I must admit, Wealthy Affiliate is truly a life changer!
In my opinion; Wealthy Affiliate is the best affiliate marketing training program for any newbie willing to truly learn how to make money online!
I still intend to add more helpful post about Wealthy Affiliate at some point. People need to know these facts.
Basically, it’s not about promoting Wealthy Affiliate; to me; it’s more about what Wealthy Affiliate has to offer!
I actually joined the platform this year, and i can proudly say; the results and the experience are far above my expectations!
John.
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