My Honest 2020 Wealthy Affiliate Review
Welcome to my Wealthy Affiliate review. When I first stumbled upon Wealthy Affiliate in 2007 I had to pay the full price just so I could see what it looks like and what it really is. This program has changed a lot in the past 13 years and you can try it out completely Free.
In this Wealthy Affiliate review I will try to answer all of your questions and help you make an informed decision.
The starter account is $0, no catch, no credit card required – so you could decide if it’s right for you without risking a single dime of your hard earned money.
I’m sure you would agree with me that falling for scams and losing money is not fun at all. I have wasted over $1,000 when I was looking for a way to earn some money from home.
I have bought every single hyped-up product that crossed my path and promised to make me rich and I became very skeptical about the whole idea of making money on the internet. This is why when I found Wealthy Affiliate (WA) I swore to myself it would be the last program I ever try. I almost moved on with my life believing there is nothing but scams online.
Wealthy Affiliate Review – Table of Contents:
- What is Wealthy Affiliate?
- Wealthy Affiliate Pros vs. Cons
- Is Wealthy Affiliate for You?
- How Much Does Wealthy Affiliate Cost?
- Wealthy Affiliate Earnings Potential
- Wealthy Affiliate Success Stories
- Wealthy Affiliate FAQ
- Wealthy Affiliate Complaints
What is Wealthy Affiliate?
Wealthy Affiliate is an online community with over 100,000 members and a training center. Founded in 2005 by Kyle and Carson, Wealthy Affiliate has become one of the most reputable and highest-rated resources to teach you the ropes of digital marketing and online business.
Whenever I talk to someone about WA – I always start by saying it’s not some money making scheme, easy system to riches or pyramid scam. So what is Wealthy Affiliate? Wealthy Affiliate is first of all an online entrepreneurship community and a marketing training center.
If you think that you will start making money by simply joining WA – I would suggest you walk away, it’s not going to happen. This is probably the biggest difference between WA and all the other online programs – Wealthy Affiliate does not sell hype and false promises, it doesn’t promise to make you rich overnight and it doesn’t promise you a shortcut to overnight millions of dollars. However, this program promises to teach, train, educate and support you. If you are willing to start and run a successful affiliate marketing business, keep reading.
Before we go any further with this Wealthy Affiliate review, I need to make one thing clear because I want to be totally transparent with you.
I am an affiliate for WA. This means that at no extra cost to you I will receive a commission should you sign up to Premium membership. This statement might make you think that this review is biased and I understand it. My goal through the years has been providing people like you with honest and accurate information.
This is why you will find GOOD and BAD reviews on this very blog. I only recommend products and services that I have tried and found great value in. I’ve been approached by “Earn Money Online” programs that offered to pay me $100-$750 commissions per sale. After looking inside those programs I often realized that their prices are way too high for the services that they provide and naturally I refused to promote them.
Of course we all want to earn a living from the comfort of our home but I refuse to do it when I think it’s unethical or dishonest. All that said, I hope you keep on reading this review and make a decision of your own.
Wealthy Affiliate Pros vs. Cons
Pros:
- Clear Plan of Action
- All levels of training – Beginner and Advanced
- Video training, Step-by-step Tutorials and Courses
- 10,000′s of community members
- 13 Full, Interactive Classrooms with tasks to complete
- Live & Interactive Help from owners and expert members
- 1 Free Easy-to-Build Website (you will also learn what to do with these sites)
- State of the Art Website Hosting
- A strict spam free environment.
- No up-sells, ever. (except Premium, of course)
- $0 Membership. Yes, completely FREE!
Cons:
- Too much information that can be overwhelming. Although WA has a great step-by-step training, it’s easy to get distracted. WA does a great job providing a clear training however with thousands of members posting their questions, progress and stories – it’s very easy to get side-tracked (at least for me).
- Sometimes I catch myself spending too much time on Live Chat – it’s addictive. This however takes away my time that I could spend on working.
- Not allowed to advertise/sell within WA. (This should be a warning for spammers who want to join WA just so they could try to sell something). Sometimes I feel like I have written an awesome review on this very blog and I want to share it with WA community but I understand that it isn’t allowed. In the end it’s all for a good reason.
- Starter membership is great for beginners however an upgrade to paid premium is highly suggested in order to access advanced training. The free membership is kind of a “preview” into the full Wealthy Affiliate membership.
- The biggest “con” for me personally is that Wealthy Affiliate is mostly catering to Beginner and Intermediate marketers. It’s lacking some information for the Advanced marketers.
Is Wealthy Affiliate for You?
I must admit that WA is not a perfect choice for everyone. Wealthy Affiliate teaches people how to build a business and/or how to expand a business and take it to the next level. So in one word it teaches you Marketing. If you aren’t willing to learn and to take action than the whole concept of making money online isn’t for you.
So who can really benefit from this program?
- A person who wants to make an extra income to supplement their salary. Let’s put it this way: no everyone looking to make some extra money is looking to replace their salary. An online business can be a part time thing, providing you with some extra income.
- Stay at home moms and dads who have some free time and are willing to spend it in front of the computer. We already spend quite a bit of time starring at screens while scrolling through our social media pages. We can use that time to actually make money.
- Students who want to earn some extra income to help them pay for their tuition. Some college students actually built 6-figure businesses from their dorm, using Wealthy Affiliate. These kind of stories make me wish I discovered affiliate marketing when I was much younger.
- Business owners and e-commerce owners who want to get more visibility and more sales online. At wealthy affiliate you will learn how to do affiliate marketing, how to get more traffic to your website, blog, shop, YouTube channel, etc. These marketing techniques can apply to existing businesses.
- Retired folks who have free time and want to supplement their pension. Because let’s admit it, learning new skills is just fun, especially if these skills can help you pay the bills.
- People who are fed up of 9-to-5 and want to start their own business. Many Wealthy Affiliate members have been able to quit their “day job” to do affiliate marketing full time. I actually fall into that very category. I first started looking for information about earning online simply because I was fed up with my full time office job and I couldn’t stand the thought of having to do that for the rest of my life.
- Digital Nomads – people who want to be able to live anywhere in the world because they’re producing an income on the Internet and are not attached to a physical location. Traveling while working is not the easiest thing to do – but it certainly is doable. Many travel bloggers (if not most) are using this exact model to sponsor their travels.
As you can see, WA is good choice for everyone who is seeking to earn money from home, however you must understand that you will have to invest your time and effort in order to make it work. This program will teach you how to BUILD a business – and any business, online or offline requires an investment of time, effort and usually money. The big difference between starting an online business instead of a traditional brick and mortar business is that you do not need a start-up capital to get started online. You do not even need any money to join Wealthy Affiliate, the basic starter account gives you all you need to get started: including 2 free hosted websites, training and all the support you need. What Exactly Do You Get Inside? Wealthy Affiliate only costs $49/month. Update: Wealthy Affiliate is now FREE to join! (Join now)
Websites
Wealthy Affiliate websites, by membership level
Support and Research
Access to Wealthy Affiliate support and research, by membership level
Training
Access to Wealthy Affiliate trainings, by membership level
In the screenshots above you can see some of the benefits and features of the platform. This wealthy affiliate review is already long so you can see the full list inside the platform. The program has two (2) different membership levels: the basic and the premium. This is really awesome because you can join without spending a single penny, look around, meet some people, create your own website (hosting included) and see how it goes.
If you love it like I do – you will join Premium for even more benefits or you could still build an online business using your free starter membership, no strings attached. This alone makes Wealthy Affiliate so much better than any other program or opportunity – there is no risk of losing money to something that might not work. Put your credit card away and get a ZERO dollar access! What you get with your 0$ starter membership:
- Instant access to over 500 training modules
- 1 free website along with free hosting
- Access to 2 classrooms
- Live support from the owners for the first 7 days and support from many experts inside WA!
- 30 keyword searches a month
- Phase 1 of the Boot camp course, teaching you how to build an authority website.
Claim Your $0 Membership Now!
What you get with as a Premium member ($19/month first month, then 49$/month):
- Live Video Classes every week! You can participate in these classes as they go on. These classes are incredible as they allow you to learn the latest most efficient marketing strategies and techniques.
- Over 300 hours of recorded live classes, yes you can replay them.
- Instant access to over 500 training modules
- 10 free websites along with free hosting. Personally I don’t think you’ll ever use 10 of them. I’ve been doing affiliate marketing for 13 years and I do not run 10 websites but it’s nice knowing that you have access to that.
- Website Backup and Website Security Package
- Access to all 12 classrooms as a Premium Member
- Unlimited Live support from the owners and support from many experts inside WA!
- Unlimited keyword searches
- All phases of the Boot camp course (7 modules)
- 100% higher commissions.
- Private Messaging – Unlimited
- Private access to my support.
- Private Access to Webinars
- Private access to Kyle and Carson
- Website Tech Support – 24/7
- Website Analysis
- Keyword Research Tool – unlimited number of searches
- … and a lot more!
The most valuable benefits of Wealthy Affiliate (in my opinion) are the step-by-step approach to building a business and the support from Kyle, Carson and many expert members. Most other affiliate marketing are lacking the support and the clear action plan. I have tested dozens of different programs over the past 13 years and nothing comes close to the quality of Wealthy Affiliate. However, my most favorite part of Wealthy Affiliate training are the Live Courses. Every Friday there is a new course, streamed LIVE. These courses talk about the most efficient marketing strategies of the moment. Premium members not only get the front-row seats to these classes, they also get to participate in these LIVE sessions by asking questions.
How Much Does Wealthy Affiliate Cost?
There are 3 membership levels within Wealthy Affiliate.
The starter membership is free and will always remain that way.
The Premium membership costs 49$ per month, however the very first month of Premium is only 19$ USD.
Wealthy Affiliate newest package, the Premium Plus costs 99$ per month. It offers even more expert classes, 50 websites, access to Jaaxy Enterprise and other perks. The Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus is a new membership level that became available in late 2020. I have not tried this membership yet as I am still on the regular Premium membership.
If you decide to join as a Premium member on a yearly base, Wealthy Affiliate will cost you $495 for 12 months($93.00 OFF) which comes down to about $41 per month. With a yearly membership you will also receive 100 Free Community Credits ($50.00 Value) and 1 Free .com Domain ($14.00 Value).
Wealthy Affiliate Live Video Classes
This part of Wealthy Affiliate has become one of my favorite. Every single week WA offers a live video class where you can learn something very specific. During this video class you also get access to live chat where you can ask questions and communicate with other members.
Here are a few examples of live video classes:
These live classes touch on different subjects that are relevant and important today. One of the reasons I am still a member of WA is because I am able to keep on learning new information.
The video classes are also recorded and available for replay whenever you want to watch them. There are now well over 300 training videos available.
Wealthy Affiliate Earnings Potential
I often get this question from new WA members and people who haven’t joined yet: “What is the earning potential with Wealthy Affiliate? How much money can I really make in a year?” There is no specific answer to this question. Some people make a few bucks a month; some make $100,000+ per month.
Although there is no exact answer to this question I can tell you this: The amount of money you can earn is directly related to what you do and how you do it. The folks who are highly successful have one thing in common – they followed the training to the dot and they took massive action. Learning how to do something is great but you need to apply this knowledge in order to actually start earning.
Don’t take this statement as a rule but if you do go through WA training and build your business the way WA teaches you I don’t see why you can’t make $50,000+ in your first year. Most beginner internet marketers fail online because they do not follow a plan of action, get distracted by new shiny products that promise millions overnight and because they do not take enough action. Wealthy Affiliate will help you with all of it: Provide you with a realistic plan of action, courses that you need to follow and tasks you need to complete. Stay focused and you will be successful. Need more motivation? Check out some of my earning:
Have you noticed that these screenshots come from different websites? This is because I diversify my earnings so I get commissions from different companies. There are hundreds if not thousands of places online where you can earn money.
I am sure you can see the potential. I have never made millions of dollars online but that’s mostly because I am lazy and I prefer to travel and ride my motorcycle around town instead of working. The more effort you put in the more you earn, that’s the secret to success.
Make Money Doing What You Love
Although Wealthy Affiliate will teach you different marketing strategies that are very helpful for any kind of business, they do concentrate on affiliate marketing. Affiliate Marketing means that you get paid a commission whenever someone buys a product that you recommend. Most companies offer affiliate programs (Amazon, eBay, Target, Airlines companies, credit card companies, etc.). Since more and more people buy things online instead of going to traditional stores (for obvious reasons) it’s only wise to claim your share of these sales online. What I always loved about WA is that they encourage you to do what you love – this makes running a business a lot more fun and profitable.
Affiliate Marketing Examples
For example, if you love video games – you should start a website that talks about video games and helps people make a purchasing decision. If you love motorcycles – you can start a website that talks about motorcycles, motorcycle accessories and parts to make your bike better. On this website you can tell people about all of those awesome products and tell them where they can buy these products (Amazon, etc.) and whenever people make a purchase – you get a commission! You do not need to take care of the warehouse storage, shipping, payments, customer service – you simply help people find the products they already want and you get paid for it.
This is by far my favorite business model ever. Now, don’t be scared, Wealthy Affiliate will provide every single detail you need to know in order to do all of this properly. Once again, simply follow the step-by-step training and ask questions whenever something is unclear – the WA community is there to help you through every step.
I Am Living Proof Wealthy Affiliate Works
I already mentioned that I have been a member since 2007. In October 2020 I celebrated 13th year with WA community. 2021 will be my 14th year with Wealthy Affiliate. You might ask: “Alex, why remain inside the program for so long? Haven’t you learned everything there is to learn about online marketing?”
Well, this is another huge benefit of Wealthy Affiliate Platform – they stay updated! The online world changes fast. Kyle and Carson are extremely talented at keeping up with these updates and providing the most recent news and working strategies.
If you research any successful millionaire entrepreneur you will realize that they constantly learn new things. They attend seminars, hire coaches, read books, meet experts in their field – they stay updated and learn something new every single day. There hasn’t been a single time that I came to Wealthy Affiliate and haven’t learned something new – this is the reason I am still a member and still excited every time I log into my account.
“Learn Something New. Every Day.”
Wealthy Affiliate Community and Support
The community aspect is also something that I really love and something other programs fail to provide. If you have difficulty with anything in the process, many members will able to help you instantly in WA Live Chat but what I love most is that people share their ideas and experiences. Listen to these experiences, learn from other people’s mistakes and brainstorm with others!
Whenever I need an opinion on a new website I am creating or a new article I am writing – WA members are always there to share their opinions with me. The whole feel of an active community is simply amazing and Wealthy Affiliate is the only place where I have found such experience.
Ask Your Questions
There are many other online forums and programs that talk about making money online but whenever you ask a simple question many users will reply with: “Dude, this stupid question has been asked many times before – just google it!” – You will not get this kind of reply on WA. Wealthy Affiliate is a learning center so there are no stupid questions, every question is important and people will try to answer it as well as they can. However if you do not feel comfortable asking a question (don’t be shy, just ask!) you could simply look through the resources and questions other people asked – I can almost guarantee you will find your answer within minutes.
You Don’t Need to Believe Me!
Wealthy Affiliate Success Stories
Hundreds of Wealthy Affiliate members are sharing their success stories with the community. To be honest, I really enjoy reading these stories as they are very motivational! Here are just a few examples of Wealthy Affiliate success stories:
Over $1 Million earned through Affiliate Marketing
Making $1,000 in 3 days
Earning almost $200 from 1 sale
Here are more recent success stories from WA members:
$700+ Commission in One Day – What I’ve Learned
$7200 Results! How to Make Money Online Now
1 Year of Hard Work! From $39 month to $2,233 month!
So YouTube Just Paid Me $2,053.47
$286 Per Day? My Friend Said “Don’t Do It!”
I can keep on going but I am sure you get the point by reading these Wealthy Affiliate reviews and stories.
A detailed look inside Wealthy Affiliate membership!
Wealthy Affiliate 2020 Updates
Wealthy Affiliate was launched in 2005 and it has been growing and improving for all these years. The founders invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into the platform every single year. When I first joined in 2007 the site looked completely different and I must admit, it had less training and less support. They had less tools and the site navigation was complicated.
However things have changed. There is a lot more training available. This includes video training. The free hosting that you get at WA is top-notch and is comparable to plans costing $50/month and more.
The support is amazing and is available 24 hours a day since Wealthy Affiliate now employs a full team of support staff.
Every website hosted at Wealthy Affiliate now has the ability to get FREE SSL. This is something that has conventionally cost $50+ per domain elsewhere. It’s as simple as clocking the ON/OFF toggle. This certificate is incredibly important since Google has announced that an SSL certificate is a website rankling factor.
Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus
Premium Plus is the all new membership level at Wealthy Affiliate that was announced in the late 2020. With Premium Plus at 99$ per month you will get access to more websites (50), faster site speeds, more training, more support and so on.
To be honest with you, I have not tried the Premium Plus yet so it simply wouldn’t be right for me to encourage you to join that level. It does seem targeted to more advanced users, however I think that if you’re ready to join premium – try the regular Premium first. If you feel like you need more – feel free to check out the Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus.
Many other updates and features are coming to WA platform this year and I’ll keep this wealthy affiliate review updated whenever they’re released.
Frequently Asked Questions (Wealthy Affiliate Wiki)
I get lots of questions about Wealthy Affiliate. Here I’ve picked the most frequent questions and answered them. If you’ve got a question don’t hesitate using the comment form below and I’ll add it to this Wealthy Affiliate wiki.
Is Wealthy Affiliate Legit ?
Yes, Wealthy Affiliate is a legit company, based in BC, Canada. Wealthy Affiliate has been active since 2005 and remains very active in 2020. There are currently thousands of members using this platform to learn internet marketing and to learn how to build a successful online business. You don’t have to trust my promise that their training courses are legit, you can try it out as a free member. The basic membership allows you to see what’s inside the platform without making any commitments or payments.
Can you really make money with Wealthy Affiliate?
The short answer is: it depends. Wealthy Affiliate community offers a large amount of incredibly well-organized training courses that will teach you how to build an online business. This means setting up a website, creating high quality content, generating targeted traffic and converting your visitors into customers. WA does not promise to make you rich overnight – and that’s something you should understand fully. In order to earn money you’ll need to not only learn the theory but also take action.
I am not very technical, I’ve never built a website. Can I still use Wealthy Affiliate?
Of course you can! One of the greatest things about Wealthy Affiliate is the fact that it’s built with YOU in mind. Every single step of online business building is explained in great detail, with text and video tutorials. This training makes WA very easy to use even for complete beginners.
Do I have to promote Wealthy Affiliate to Make Money?
No, You don’t have to promote WA. Wealthy Affiliate does provide an amazing affiliate program but you aren’t obliged to promote it to earn money. Unlike MLMs and other “business opportunities” WA will never force you to annoy your friends and family by trying to push them into your “down-line”. WA is all about teaching you how to set-up a real online business where you can sell and/or promote any service or product that you can find in stores or online.
Is Wealthy Affiliate a pyramid scheme?
No. If a new member joins Wealthy Affiliate Premium using your affiliate link – you will earn a commission. Just like if you send a new customer to Amazon, eBay, Walmart or any other business that has affiliate programs (most businesses). However WA does not have any levels, downlines, uplines or anything else resembling network marketing, multi-level-marketing or pyramid schemes. If that’s what you’re looking for, WA is not for you.
I don’t have a product to sell. How can Wealthy Affiliate help me?
Wealthy Affiliate teaches you how to build an affiliate marketing business. You can certainly learn how to create and sell your own product. However, WA will also teaches you how to make money by simply promoting other people’s products! You can work with such giants as Amazon, Walmart, Apple and many others and earn commissions on products these companies already sell. How cool is that?
Wealthy Affiliate is Free to join. What’s the catch?
You should be skeptical when offered something of great value for $0. So what’s the catch when it comes to Wealthy Affiliate? The free membership gives you access to a small part of WA. In order to get more advanced training you’ll have to upgrade to premium membership. That’s the catch. However, I recommend starting with a FREE membership so you could get a feel of this platform and decide if you should upgrade. Free membership is enough to actually start earning as an affiliate. As Premium member you get access to more training and support.
If I build my websites with WA and then decide to leave, will I lose my websites?
No, you get to keep your websites for as long as you want. Many online programs don’t allow you to take your website with you if you decide to leave them. However, Wealthy Affiliate will never take your website away if You cancel your membership. In fact, you have 30 full days after cancellation to transfer your websites wherever you want! As a Premium Member – you get the ability to build 10 sites.
How long does it take to make money on Wealthy Affiliate?
I get this question a lot! Unfortunately there is no answer to it. There are so many variables that it’s simply impossible to estimate the timeline of success. It all depends on your work ethics, your ability to take action, the industry (or niche) that you will create your business is, the amount of work you’re willing to put in and many many many other factors. I have seen people start making money with their online business in their first week, I have seen many others who took 1 year to see their first sale.
I’ve personally asked many successful WA members how long it took them to start making money, many told me it took from 3 to 6 months. Once again, there is NO general rule to it.
Why is Wealthy Affiliate not available in my country?
Wealthy Affiliate Premium is available to everyone and in every country. However, Wealthy Affiliate Free Membership is not available to 7 countries at the moment: Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam. I do not own Wealthy Affiliate and I don’t know why this decision was made so I can’t offer any other details or support on this subject. If you live in one of these seven countries you can still join the premium membership of WA at any time at a regular price of $49 per month.
Does Wealthy Affiliate work in Canada?
Yes, Wealthy Affiliate works in Canada. In fact, it works in every country. WA teaches you how to build an affiliate marketing business online. As long as you have access to internet you can start building your own business. I am based in Montreal, Canada but I know many members who live (and successfully earn an income) in Australia, UK, Germany, Poland, India, Ukraine, Russia, France, Chile and many many other countries.
Is Wealthy Affiliate a scam?
Unfortunately the whole industry of internet marketing has earned quite a negative reputation. This happened mostly because of dishonest folks who would scam people by promising to reveal a secret shortcut to millions for a simple fee of $197 (or $39, or $57, or $1,997). As I often mention throughout my blog and my podcast, there isn’t an easy way to riches. What makes Wealthy Affiliate very attractive is their starter membership. With this FREE membership you only get access to a small part of WA training but it’s more than enough to show you the tremendous value you will get inside, without risking a single penny of your hard-earned money. Is wealthy affiliate a scam? No.The simple fact of letting people in for free eliminates any possibility of Wealthy Affiliate being a scam.
I am trying to create a free starter account on Wealthy Affiliate but it’s telling me I already have one.
There could be several reason for this error. You might have already created an account in the past and you forgot about it. Someone might have created an account using your email address. Someone might have created a account using your IP (internet connection in your house) and WA thinks it might be a duplicate account. Since I do not run or own WA I cannot help you with this. You can contact WA support directly and see how they can help you out.
How do I make money from Wealthy Affiliate system?
If you have read this Wealthy Affiliate review thoroughly you understand that WA is not a “money making system” of any sort. You don’t earn money from Wealthy Affiliate (although you can if you promote them). The main point is that you use WA as a training platform where you learn how to start an affiliate marketing business in any industry and than make money from that business. You also use Wealthy Affiliate support if you have any questions or get stuck along the way. Thousands of people within the community would love to help you out whenever you need help.
How do I get paid commissions online?
Different companies and networks online offer different ways of payment. For example if you are an affiliate of Amazon, they will pay you out through a check, gift card or a direct bank deposit. Some companies prefer to pay you by PayPal while other might go a different route. If you want to know how a company pays out the commission you can simply do a Google search on their affiliate program.
Wealthy Affiliate Complaints and Negative Reviews
If you have spent any considerable amount of time researching Wealthy Affiliate you might have realized there are not many negative reviews of WA online. Whenever you think of customer’s rant and feedback you realize that unhappy customers are a lot more tempted to leave a bad review online than the satisfied once. This is true for restaurants, dentists, car dealerships and of course online training programs. Well over 1,000,000 people have joined Wealthy Affiliate since 2005 and as you can see the vast majority is completely happy with Wealthy Affiliate and everything it has to offer. This is why it’s almost impossible to find any bad press about WA online.
WA members are welcome to review the program, unlike many MLM members. MLMs companies force their members to sign a non-disclosure agreement, meaning that these people will never be able to publicly review and expose the company and its practices. I managed to find a few negative Wealthy Affiliate reviews and complaints online and I came to the conclusion that these reviews were written for personal reasons. Mistakes happen, misunderstanding happens and every single business will have at least one customer who isn’t going to be happy.
I openly disclose the fact that I will receive a small affiliate commission if someone decides to join WA Premium using one of my affiliate link. I often tell people that they are free to join WA without using my link but I encourage them to do so if they liked my review and the effort I put into explaining what it is and what it does. If someone thinks I don’t deserve being compensated, they can join directly through WA main site, without using my links, no hard feelings. The goal here is to answer all the questions about WA.
Now that I think about it, I never go to a restaurant that has one hundred 5 star reviews and not a single bad review – it’s impossible that every customer is 100% satisfied. My point is that out of 1,000,000+ members and 15 years in business Wealthy Affiliate received very few negative reviews from customers. How much does that tell you about a company?
Wealthy Affiliate Complaints
Most Wealthy Affiliate complaints that can be found online are about billing issues. I’d like to show a few of them to you.
As mentioned in this review and on WA website, starter membership is completely free, you don’t even need to put in your credit card details. So this membership stays free unless a customer willingly clicks on Upgrade to Premium, fills out billing information and credit card information. In this case WA offered the first month of premium membership at a discount, only $19 instead of the normal $49. Their order page makes it clear that it’s a 1 month promotion and then the customer will be re-billed $49 per month, every month, until they cancel.
It is clear that this complaint comes from someone who did not read the order page (the information is stated at the top of the page, in BIG letters). This customer is also unaware of how monthly billing for a service works.
My internet provider automatically charges my credit card every month. My phone provider does the same. Utility companies, subscription boxes, email providers and many other companies work like this. How this specific customer is unaware of subscription billing is beyond me.
Forgot About Signing Up
Here is another example of a customer who left a wealthy affiliate complaint.
This person signed up as a premium member and opted for a yearly subscription, instead of monthly, because it is much cheaper. After a few months the customer completely forgot about their WA membership. I’m sure I wouldn’t forget something that I paid almost $400 for but that’s me.
A year later, the customer failed to cancel their subscription and was automatically charged for another year. By the way, cancelling your premium membership is quite simple and straight forward at WA. You do not need to send them emails or contact support team. Simply click on your account settings in the member’s area and cancel your subscription.
This customer forgot that they signed up for a paid service. Can you really blame WA for it?
Wealthy Affiliate Issues
As you can see in the screenshots, these complaints have been closed as WA decided to help these past customers, even though it’s clear that the customers forgot about what they purchased or failed to read the numbers and conditions on the top of the order page.
Now if you have a complaint about Wealthy Affiliate, I invite you to submit a comment on this very review.
See You Inside Wealthy Affiliate!
As I am finishing up this Wealthy Affiliate Review I realize this is the longest review I have written for anything or anyone – I guess I truly am very excited about WA ? At this point I would like to invite you to check out Wealthy Affiliate for yourself – it is completely free after all so you’ve got nothing to lose. Once you’re inside, don’t forget to pass by my WA profile and say hi. Still have questions? Please use the comment form below. I’d love to hear from you!
Alex Sol
Whats the quickest someone made money. I just want to supplement my income.
Markita, the quickest way to make money is to sell something that you own.
This isn’t about “get rich quick schemes” but about building a real, successful business.
How long does it take for a business to make money? Sometimes a day, sometimes years. It really depends on what you do and how you do it.
Alex can this be done in the Philippines?
Hi Emma.
The beauty of online business is that it can be done from virtually anywhere in the world, as long as you have access to internet. I know many people in Philippines who are doing it. I also know a lot of people who moved from the west to Philippines (because of cheaper cost of life) and the online possibilities 😉
Can you make a website talking about books? And also multiple subjects
Yes you can start a website talking about books. Just last week I published a blog post about 30 best business books and it quickly became the most shared post of this blog ever 🙂
Now I would suggest against starting a website that talk about “everything”. It is a lot easier to create a successful website that concentrates on a specific niche (interest).
Alex
This seems that it might be possible for me. I am 57 years old and went back to school 2 years ago. I will be graduating later this month with an AS in computer science. Right now, I am still unemployed. My question is: Approx how much time do you need to invest when you start up. About 3 years ago, I tried a program, that I spent 10 hours a day for over 5 weeks just in training, plus the $$ I put out, only to find out it was a pyramid scam. Time is valuable to me with my volunteer church commitments. I just don’t want to find out that I put in a lot of time for nothing.
Jo, I know what you mean.
To be honest with you, the more time you invest (especially at the beginning) the faster you’ll see the results. Now one of the biggest issues that I see in the online marketing space is that people spend all of their time learning and NO time putting the knowledge into action. When I first joined Wealthy Affiliate, I would spend 1-2 hours learning and then spend the rest of the day applying this knowledge into my business (building a website, generating traffic, whatever). THIS exact strategy allowed me to see the first online income within the first 2 weeks and it only grew from there.
Alex
My name is Diana and I am very excited to join.
I like to start from Monday.
Also,there is a lot of information. How do I know what to see, do first.
I need a map on info followed by action plan.
Hi Diana.
One of my favorite things about Wealthy Affiliate is their interactive training. The training is easy to follow and you would need to complete certain tasks before moving on to the next lesson.
There is a lot of information available and their approach makes it very easy to process. You begin with clicking the “Get Started” button and just follow the instructions 😉
Alex
Hi Alex,
I would just like to comment on Wealthy Affiliate from the perspective of the older generation. Being a Grandma in her 60s, starting something new like internet marketing is quite a challenge. I tentatively joined WA for free but in just 4 days I was hooked and paid immediately for a year membership.
The community was so amazing. I had many questions which were answered in minutes, not hours or days as is so often the case. I learnt so much it was mind-boggling. The amount of information on this site is amazing. The tutorials, live videos, bootcamps, lessons and not forgetting the constant support of the owners Kyle and Carson and all the WA members of which there are thousands.
My only regret is not finding WA earlier. If you want to read an older person’s perspective about WA please do – [click on Ches’ name to see the site]
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain – abundant knowledge, many friends, a community spirit and an extra income. Go for it!!
Hi. I am Jinny and have two girls. I am really interested in Join WA.
But I am not good internet person and English too.
Do you think I can do that ? I want to do something at home while my kids in at school time. Thank you Alex !!
Hi Jinny!
When I joined WA in 2007 I was a total newbie to all of that. I didn’t know how to make sites or create content or anything really, you can say I wasn’t “good at internet”.
I’s like to mention that English is my 4th language so this part was hard also. However, with time and practice I got better at technical stuff and at English as well.
Hope this helps,
Alex
Hi, I’ve been looking into WA for a few weeks now, and still haven’t read anything negative about it, I still have a couple of questions if I may.
Premium membership is 49.00 per month, but , is there some offer of 29.00?
Also, one of my problems is that I’m always worried about giving any bank formation online , except PayPal ,is there any solution to this?
And last, is there a advantage to a bilingual person,let’s say, Spanish /English ?
Hi Jose.
Premium membership is 47$ per months but your first month is only 19$. There is also a yearly Wealthy Affiliate Membership that comes out to about $30 per month.
As far as I know you can only pay for WA Premium with Paypal or Credit card, so no need to give out your bank information.
I think that there is an advantage of speaking more than one language. The Spanish-speaking market is growing online so it takes people who speak Spanish to sell stuff to these customers.
Many times I have seen people take a great idea or a working business and adapt it in another country 😉
Alex
Hey Alex, thanks for your review. I loved how honest and heart felt it was. I just want to ask you one thing. I am so determined and hard working and would definitely put forth effort into this but I guess I have this fear of trying my hardest to build my website(s) for like a year or 2 and not seeing any progress. Is it possible for me to fail and to have lost a ton of money? I don’t believe WA to be a scam I just fear I’ll never be able to succeed. What are your thoughts?
Hi Michelle.
Unfortunately it is possible to fail online, in fact many people do.
However, I have noticed the occurrence of the same pattern for those who fail: lack of effort and lack of consistency.
Personally I do not believe that if you put in a year of effort into building a website and you will fail in the end. If you truly work hard on it, it will eventually pick up.
Now about losing a ton of money – that’s up to you. I always suggest a little investment for at least web hosting and domain name (both available within WA). When I first started online marketing I was only pay my monthly membership fee at WA. At this point I am paying for a lot more services and products, however I don’t see the need to invest more than $300-$400 for the WHOLE year.
Now the fear of success (and fear of failure) is a completely different question. But as they say, if you keep on doing what you’ve been doing you’ll keep on getting the results you’ve been getting. I’d rather regret trying something and failing at it than not trying and spend the rest of my life wondering “what if…”
Alex
yes wealthy affiliate is only website where we can learn lots of thins online, i always love this website because i learned marketing from basic from here.
I am in college in my final year. I should be graduating in 1 to 1.5 year. I have a goal of making about $100,000-$200,000(+)/year within the next 2/3 years with multiple income streams I already am with an marketing company and they have given me 5/6 mini websites. But I want to have as much income streams as possible in other niches, along with the online business I have already. I have some idea about generating traffic to my mini websites, but I want to know how to convert the traffics into sales and leads; both for my current business and other niches. Do You think that’s possible if I join with wealthy affiliate? Also how much can I make having just a free account? Do you think I can just make $5/$10 with a free account in a few weeks? I am not really looking for money right now, just something that I can legitimately built up within 2/3 years of time. Making $5/$10 with a free account in short few weeks in wealthy affiliate will justify the cost(money and time) for me. Also I am a speech problem which often leaves me unable to communicate properly with others and had impacted in job searches in the past and will probably impact in the future. Will my speech problem be a hindrance to my goals if I join WA? What is your opinion? Please let me know ASAP. Thanks!
Hi Siddiq.
I am glad to hear you already have some experience with online marketing and niche sites.
No one can guarantee the time frame or the amount of money that you could possibly make. When I first joined WA in 2007 it took me 1 or 2 weeks to make a first $33 sale. In the next few weeks I made about $300 (not sure of exact numbers since it was so long ago). On my 4th or 5th month I was making more than my office job was paying me. This is my personal experience but different people have different work ethics, different understanding of things so naturally different experiences.
Making $5/$10 per day as a free member is totally possible. In fact there isn’t really a limit to what you can earn. The difference between free and premium is basically the fact that in premium you get more support and a lot more training. Free membership is basically just to give you a taste of what’s coming 😉
Alex
Hello,
Thanks you your reply. I have a few more questions, that’s ok. I noticed in WA research there is 30 articles in 30 days challenge with minimum of 400-500 words. Does every one of my 50 domains(free & purchased) must have some articles in order to make sales? How long does the articles(also how many words just about?)have to be to be ranked in the first page on google? Can I take ideas, keywords, knowledge about certain topics from other articles and do some of my own research on them and put them into my articles; even if I have not have used or done them personally? Do the articles gets edited and reviewed in WA before being published on the individual’s domains? Whats the procedure for article and domain revision for the best relevant traffic, ranking and sales?
Sincerely,
Siddiq
Are you planning to have 50 active sites?
I would recommend against it, since it is hard to properly manage a few sites especially at the beginning. Concentrate on 1 site (or 2), start creating content, start earning money from it and then start considering expending. But yes, whenever you start a website you will have to create content for it.
If someone ever guarantees to rank you on the first page of Google – they are trying to scam you. There are personal experiences and ideologies that seem to work, however Google does not reveal it’s SEO factors. In some niche I only see very long articles being ranked at the top (2,000+ words), in other niches 500 word articles rank on the first page so it really depends.
Yes, you can read other articles, do your research and then write your own articles on the subject, as long as you don’t copy someone else’s work because your website will simply get penalized by Google. Wealthy Affiliate does not edit and review your articles. You can pay for such services on other websites but that would be very expensive.
Hi Alex,
Over above the membership cost if 19 usd for the first month then how much minimum budget do I require to drive traffic to generate sales for cpa/cb products per month per website?
Will I get real time advice as to which articular types/methods of traffic are currently working for a particular niche I’m trying to promote?
What are paid methods of traffic do u promote?
Thanks
hussein
Hi Hussein.
Wealthy Affiliate constantly updates and improves its training to stay updated and relevant.
From what I have seen over the years more WA members concentrate on creating amazing content which drives traffic completely free. However, there is also training available on PPC and other paid traffic methods.
Personally I do not really use any paid traffic avenues for my online business. This blog for example gets all the traffic for free.
Alex
In WA I will be educated by books and video
Wealthy Affiliate runs a very detailed and easy to follow training system.
There are training guides online, video courses and even Live video training. All of that comes with support.
I’ve been reading through a lot of your posts during the past few days. It’s great to see so many comments – that also means the things I was going to ask about the WA training have already been asked & answered. 🙂
I’ve built some adsense sites before so not a total newbie as far as making sites go. I can use WordPress. But I’d like to learn more about the marketing side of things. Do you still think that WA is worth doing or should I take, say an Udemy course in online marketing?
Chris, I can’t answer your question with 100% certainty.
Personally, I prefer WA for a more general knowledge and the community. Whenever I have a question I can just post it there and usually someone will answer and help me out.
Udemy is awesome but I would recommend against it for such general courses as “online marketing”, because you can’t simply pack all that info into 1 small course. However, if you know exactly what you need (for example: a step by step guide to re-targeting your site visitors through Facebook advertising platform) than a specific course that goes deep into that subject could be a great idea.
Hello my friend!
I must say the whole information you wrote about wealthy affiliate is just awesome. I am from Venezuela, and i wonder if i have the chance to join WA like people from Canada or the US. Is there a possibility for me to have a successful website and get paid like most of you, taking into account the place where i am from?
Regards!
Edwin, there are more and more affiliate companies that cater to the Spanish speaking markets, so you can totally start a business in Venezuela.
However, since it’s all about running an online business you can also create a website in English and serve everyone from USA/Canada/UK/Australia, etc.
Alex
Great site! Question, do you get paid on people joining from this site?
Thanks and a well written.
Hi James.
As mentioned in the review and throughout Extra Paycheck Blog, I am an affiliate for some of the products and services that I mention and recommend. I proudly display that fact because I love the companies I work with.
Whenever someone joins WA starter membership through my links I am not paid. However, I do receive an affiliate commission for those who join the premium membership. I realized that once I started mentioning this fact more often, I got more sales. Besides the fact that going through my links doesn’t cost any extra o the customer, I am often able to get discounts from the companies I work with and I pass on these discounts to my blog readers 😉
Alex
Hey Alex, thanks for taking the time to reply, much appreciated.
I like what I see.
Have a great day.
James
Hi Alex
I’ve read every single word about the WA review and must confess that I’m sold by your great work about the company. You’re very good in review. You didn’t leave not even one stone unturned. As a result, I’m so grateful for the good work you’ve done by far. It goes without saying that WA has done an exceptional job with you indeed.
Thank you so much for addressing all my concerns I had before reading your article. Great work!!!
Thank you Alphons.
I get a lot of question about Wealthy Affiliate. Writing this review wasn’t that difficult because I already knew the information people wanted the most. I am sure it’s still missing some answers but I look over it once a month and add relevant information whenever needed 😉
To be honest though, I am surprised by the amount of content I am able to produce. When I first joined WA in 2007, my English wasn’t all that great and It was incredibly difficult for me to write more than 400 word article. Now I am putting out 7,000 words blog posts.
Practice, hard work and time investment pay off 🙂
Alex
I am just starting out, looking at this option. Wealthy Affilate looks better than other programs I have signed up too. I am very wary of joining yet another system that promises the earth. But delivers nothing, like you alex I too have been sold every duff program out there, I just really wanna know, is this wealthy Affiliate truly at last a training program where you can “do this, do that, build a website, and finally get some commissions for all your hard work?” If even I made just $10 it would still be more than I am making now!
Hi Steve.
Wealthy Affiliate offers a very comprehensive and easy to follow process.
Also don’t forget that you can join the basic membership completely free. This will give you a very good idea of what WA is like and if it’s a good fit for you 😉
– Alex