Welcome to my Wealthy Affiliate Review 2022! In this review, we will go through every aspect of Wealthy Affiliate. You will find out exactly why they have a community of more than 1.4 million members worldwide.
What makes Wealthy Affiliate unique is its state-of-the-art web hosting service, domain registration, keyword research tool, and a very reasonable affiliate program.
Many of their members are beginners, so you will fit right in. Their platform is built on simplicity, so you can focus on what’s important.
There, you can find various topics on affiliate marketing and how to build a profitable online business with their experienced members.
Lately, I’ve had some not-so-serious people sign up for Wealthy Affiliate. Please read the important message down below. I will be very straight with you, no bs!
Completely Free To Join. No Credit Card Required During Registration.
Wealthy Affiliate Review Disclosure
I am not just a random affiliate marketer who is only reviewing a product and service to make a quick buck. I’m an actual member of Wealthy Affiliate who has been with them for years.
Wealthy Affiliate introduced me to what is known as affiliate marketing. As the name implies, Wealthy Affiliate is a well-known affiliate marketing platform that provides almost everything you need to succeed.
Unfortunately, many Wealthy Affiliate Review is extremely biased. All they really want is for you to sign up through them as a premium member. It makes sense because that’s where they make the money.
That’s why I ask all of my viewers NOT to upgrade to the premium membership plan. At least not until you’re sure that Wealthy Affiliate is the platform for you.
At the end of the day, I don’t know anything about your financial situation. Can you afford the membership fee ($49.00 per month)?
Also, are you ready to become a producer rather than a consumer? In order to make money as a blog owner, you must produce valuable content for your audience.
I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate, so my opinion is biased too. But I will try my very best to inform you of the platform to help you make an informative decision.
If you do sign up using my affiliate links and become a premium member, I will get compensated in the form of a commission.
Note: I do update this Wealthy Affiliate review regularly to ensure that I am providing you with the latest information.
Hi, My Name Is Eric
My name is Eric, a solo entrepreneur who started Smart Affiliate Hub with the sole purpose of learning and teaching.
It was all thanks to joining Wealthy Affiliate, where I acquired the knowledge and skill to start a blog and pursue a career in affiliate marketing.
No matter what you decide to do, the first step is the most crucial step needed. If you don’t take the first step, you will never succeed, it’s that simple.
“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”
– Warren Buffett
In honesty, without Wealthy Affiliate, there is absolutely zero chance that I would have a website today.
Although I am no longer as active on their platform, they’ve provided me with the knowledge that I am still grateful for today.
Table of Contents
Wealthy Affiliate Review
Name: Wealthy Affiliate
Description: What is Wealthy Affiliate? Wealthy Affiliate is an all-in-one affiliate marketing platform. Founded in 2005 by Kyle and Carson, two entrepreneurs from British Columbia, Canada.
Summary
Thank you for checking out my Wealthy Affiliate Review. Overall, I think Wealthy Affiliate is an amazing all-in-one affiliate marketing platform. If you are new to affiliate marketing, you can learn a lot from their training courses. If you are not new to affiliate marketing, you can still benefit from web hosting, keyword research tools, and more.
Pros
- Been around for ages!
- Updated regularly.
- All-in-one for affiliate marketers.
- Available free membership.
- Beginners oriented.
- Amazing server uptime.
Cons
- Can be overwhelming when learning.
- English language only.
- Self-promotion is not allowed.
- Free membership is unavailable in certain countries.
- Customer service is exceptional, but not amazing.
- You’ll lose access to your account if you cancel your premium membership.
What Is Wealthy Affiliate?
In a nutshell, Wealthy Affiliate is an all-in-one platform with a community of aspiring individuals paired with courses to help you succeed in affiliate marketing.
Wealthy Affiliate has been around for over 15 years delivering state-of-the-art training for those who would like to pursue a career online. Most specifically, the affiliate marketing industry.
They currently offer 3 membership tiers for their users to choose from. The most common tier is their free membership plan. It provides limited access to their services, but it gives the user a test drive on what to expect if they would like to unlock the entire platform.
Over the years, Wealthy Affiliate has undergone lots of changes. The following timeline is based on an infographic by Infographicjournal.com.
The Year 2005:
On this day, Kyle Loudin & Carson Lim launches Wealthy Affiliate. In the beginning, Wealthy Affiliate was simply a keyword list membership website.
It catered to internet marketers who are looking for keywords with high search volumes. At the time, they did not offer free membership and the monthly membership cost was $29.99.
The Year 2006:
One year after launching, Wealthy Affiliate added training programs to teach people how to utilize their keyword lists to drive traffic. At this time, the cost for membership also went up by $10.00. Effectively driving the monthly membership cost to $39.00.
The Year 2007:
SiteRubix is currently their proprietary WordPress builder. This ultimately changes their entire business model. Starting from a keyword list membership website to a website building platform.
The Year 2008:
This year, Wealthy Affiliate spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop and upgrade its hosting services. This also introduced what was known as SiteRubix 2.0.
Unfortunately, SiteRubix 2.0 was scrapped, so more resources can go toward other developments.
The Year 2009:
This year was huge for Wealthy Affiliate. They hired another senior team member and slowly overwhelmed their competitors. Wealthy Affiliate now has a training center with video course training.
However, the price did go up from $39.00 to a split $97/47 price point. Later that year, premium membership was introduced.
The Year 2010:
Wealthy Affiliate re-launches their internal blog.
The Year 2011:
Being a growing company, Wealthy Affiliate has integrated Live Chat to assist its members with questions and problems. Street Talk was also launched with commenting enabled.
The Year 2012:
A ranking system was introduced to encourage their members to socialize within the community. By being helpful, you can quickly rise up the ranks. Jaaxy Keyword Research Tool was also introduced, so members can use it to find keywords with high search volumes.
Level 4 Training: Social Engagement Certification was also released at this time. Lastly, people who are unsure of Wealthy Affiliate can now sign up as free members.
The Year 2013:
Wealthy Affiliate releases classrooms for those who want to teach other members on certain topics. Members can now send private messages to each other. SiteRubix is back and is now their official hosting platform.
The Year 2014:
You can now bookmark content within their platform. Level 5 training released for, “The Business Of Content” and “Achieving Maximum Success Through Content Creation.”
The Year 2015:
Websites hosted on Wealthy Affiliate are now more secure than ever. They’ve also increased their processing power to facilitate the huge influx of new members. Lastly, SiteComment was launched along with a credit system to help you get more comments on your website.
The Year 2016:
Besides web hosting, you can now purchase, transfer, and manage your domains in Wealthy Affiliate. SiteProtect was also introduced to help you reduce spam on your websites at no extra charge. All premium members will now receive FREE SSL certifications for their websites.
What I Like About Wealthy Affiliate
- Receive step by step training which is perfect for those who are new to blogging and affiliate marketing.
- Available keyword & niche research tool. This will help you find low competition keywords as well as niche topics for your future online business.
- Not sure if Wealthy Affiliate is for you? Take advantage of their free membership to test drive their platform before making a commitment.
What I Don't Like About Wealthy Affiliate
- Wealthy Affiliate offers a ton of information which can cause information overload.
- I wish Wealthy Affiliate offers more advanced lessons to those who are already experienced in affiliate marketing.
- Wealthy Affiliate is kind of expensive or the average user who wants to upgrade to their premium membership.
Is Wealthy Affiliate A Scam?
Wealthy Affiliate is not a scam. They are an all-in-one platform for aspiring affiliate marketers.
When you sign up as a free member, you will receive limited access to their various educational resources. These resources include training, live chat, a keyword research tool, webinars, step-by-step action plans, and much more.
As you progress through the levels, you will learn about different topics related to making money online such as content creation for affiliate marketing.
Unlike what you might discover in the past in relation to making money online. Wealthy Affiliate is not a get rich quick scheme. The idea of making money fast does not exist.
Instead, they go over what’s important such as mentality, discipline, consistency, and the idea of problem-solving. These are all required to operate an online business.
To ensure that you are fully prepared, they will equip you with the right training, tools, and resources.
However, as a beginner, you might be skeptical about Wealthy Affiliate and I don’t blame you. There are a ton of Wealthy Affiliate reviews that are extremely biased with only one goal in mind; to get you to sign up.
After all, people who promote Wealthy Affiliate earns a commission through their affiliate program. But I promise to offer you my biased, yet honest opinion paired with detailed information to help you decide if WA is the right platform for you.
Again, do not upgrade to their premium membership right away. I want you to sign up as a free member and explore their platform first. I want you to be sure that affiliate marketing is for you before you spend a single penny.
Why Some People Believe That Wealthy Affiliate Is A Scam
Unfortunately, the make money online community is plagued with fake reviews and false claims. Wealthy Affiliate is no exception. You might’ve heard horrible things about Wealthy Affiliate and you might’ve heard awesome things about Wealthy Affiliate.
That’s why I’ll try my best to give you my honest opinion on Wealthy Affiliate. With that said, I’d like to give you a few reasons why I thought Wealthy Affiliate is a scam when I first started taking interest in their platform.
Reason #1. Mis-promoting Wealthy Affiliate
I am still a member of Wealthy Affiliate, and mis-promoting Wealthy Affiliate is something I can’t stand behind. What happens is small numbers within the Wealthy Affiliate community go out there and badmouths every other program and claim that Wealthy Affiliate is better.
I don’t have a problem with giving an honest opinion, but when someone makes up bullshit to earn a quick buck. That in my opinion again is not good for yourself nor for the reader who is searching for real information.
Hence why I always give my readers an option to try it out. If they don’t like something, simply reach out to the creator or your bank and ask for a refund.
This terrible practice gives Wealthy Affiliate a bad name. As a matter of fact, when thinking from a non-member’s point of view. It seems like Wealthy Affiliate only teaches their members to bad mouth others in order to promote themselves.— Obviously, this is not true, but there are bad apples wherever you go.
Wealthy Affiliate does talk about writing product reviews. However, they never told anyone to write dishonest reviews. How people write their articles is beyond their control.
The truth to the matter is, product reviews are great ways to drive traffic that are in the buying phase. They are people who are ready to buy but just needs to hear a few more opinion before pulling the trigger.
Reason #2. Competitors Are Claiming That Wealthy Affiliate Is A Scam
Wealthy Affiliate is a business in the online business education industry. It teaches people how to make money as an affiliate marketer and most importantly how to make money ONLINE.
As much as I like this industry, there are also lots of bloodsuckers out there ready to drink your blood and take your money without giving you any value.
Yup, there are many competitors to Wealthy Affiliate who leverages the popularity of their platform in order to promote their own.
Similar to some of the bad eggs from within Wealthy Affiliate. Many affiliate marketers are mis-promoting their own product or service by talking smack about Wealthy Affiliate.
Tips: That’s why I recommend everyone to take product reviews with a light-grain of salt. Try it for yourself if you really want to know more about the product or service. If you end up not liking it, just reach out to the creator or your bank account and ask for a refund.— When doing so, please check their return policy. Generally, legitimate sources will have no problem giving you a refund.
Reason #3. Spammer Links All Over The Internet
Like most make money online opportunities. You will find lazy people seeking the easy way out. Instead of building a brand or doing things the right way. They resort to spamming affiliate links all over the internet. This happens within the Wealthy Affiliate community as well.
The good news is, Wealthy Affiliate frowns upon spamming. When you’re learning how to make money through their certification courses, you can rest assure that no spam will be taken lightly. If someone sends you spammy links within the Wealthy Affiliate platform. Report that user and they will get kicked out of Wealthy Affiliate.
Again, it’s not that Wealthy Affiliate is a scam. It’s just that any popular platform will have users with ill-intent trying to leverage them for their own gains.
The Perfect Affiliate Marketing Platform
Wealthy Affiliate started as a keyword research platform. Basically, you would use them to conduct keyword research for your blog.
They were a huge success in that industry but wanted to do more. Today, Wealthy Affiliate became the all-in-one platform for affiliate marketing.
In just a short few years, they transformed their platform to provide the right tools, training, and resources. So far, Wealthy Affiliate has helped over 4.4 million affiliate marketers worldwide.
They’ve also been in business for approximately 15 years. And for a company to last this long, they’ve certainly done something right. So rest assured, they are not your typical get-rich-quick scheme.
What's Different About Wealthy Affiliate?
Wealthy Affiliate is not only an affiliate marketing platforms in the market. There are other players as well.
What differentiate Wealthy Affiliate from others is there time in business. They have been in business for over 15 years!
Another big differentiator between Wealthy Affiliate and other platforms is how community-based they are. They are known for having one of the most active member bases in the industry.
Most people question how this can be a benefit since many of their members are beginners. How great of advice can a beginner give? Well, the truth is, most beginners don’t answer questions. Instead, they usually listen and learn.
The people who are actively helping others are seasoned affiliate marketers. They have been in the business for years. So it doesn’t matter what time of the day it is. If you have a question, chances are, an experienced member is right there to help you out.
So if you need help, the live chat feature is one click away. Or if you become a premium member, you can reach out to others through direct private messaging. Sometimes you might even catch the founders in the live chat as well.
Kyle and Carson, the founders of Wealthy Affiliate are not stuck up individuals. In fact, they care very much about their members. Instead of spending time on their mansions, yachts, and private jets. They are actively involved in the community.
In addition, Wealthy Affiliate offers everything you need such as website building, website hosting, domain registration, keyword research tools, webinars, training courses, and more.
Lastly, you can’t teach people about affiliate marketing if you don’t provide an affiliate program yourself. So Wealthy Affiliate offers their own affiliate program for you to earn a commission for recommending others to their platform.
Wealthy Affiliate Pros And Cons
Wealthy Affiliate Pros
They are a legitimate platform no doubt about it. With over 1.4M members on its platform, it really does speak for itself.
#1. BEEN AROUND FOR AGES
We’ve all seen companies come and go. Those who have been around for decades have proven themselves to be different. They have been around for over 13 years now. A company does not last 13 years if they were not legitimate. This really tells you that they are the real deal.
#2. UPDATED REGULARLY
Their website gets updated regularly. Some are quality of life updates, but some are core updates to really help take your online business to a whole new level.
Unlike many other similar platforms, you will find up-to-date training courses and tools on WA.
#3. ALL-IN-ONE FOR AFFILIATE MARKETERS
To make things simple and organized, they offer web hosting, website builder, keyword research tools, affiliate programs, expert webinars, live chat support, affiliate marketing for beginners (courses), classrooms, etc.
If you go through the training courses, you will learn how to utilize all that WA offers right in their platform.
#4. FREE MEMBERSHIP
WA offers a free membership plan for those who want to test drive their platform. It is however restricted but should give you a good taste of what their platform is all about. This is the plan that I recommend all users to stick with at least until they figure out whether or not WA is for them.
#5. BEGINNERS ORIENTED
This is kind of a pro and a con in my opinion. WA’s affiliate marketing training course is perfect for those who know nothing about affiliate marketing or how to build a website.
For expert affiliate marketers, you might not find WA very helpful simply because you probably already know most information found in their training courses. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of the keyword research tools and other resources offered in WA.
#6. AMAZING UPTIME
Websites hosted on their platform experience amazing uptime. This is a crucial part of operating an online business. Your storefront needs to remain online for as long as possible. At any given time, website downtime can cost you sales.
Wealthy Affiliate Cons
This can’t be a brutally honest Wealthy Affiliate review if I don’t go over the cons of WA, so here it is!
#1. A LITTLE OVERWHELMING FOR BEGINNERS
When I first signed up for WA, I was a bit overwhelmed. Their platform offers a lot of information and it’s easy to get lost. Although, over the years, they have redesigned their website to be more user-friendly. But for beginners, it can still be a little overwhelming.
#2. ENGLISH ONLY
I know there are many people out there in various countries who are interested in learning how to make money online. Unfortunately, WA is English only. Personally, I have visitors coming from all over the world and English is not their primary language. Maybe one day, WA will support multilingual.
#3. YOU CAN’T SELF PROMOTE
Although I do understand why. They want to minimize spam as well as people getting hacked for visiting malicious websites. However, since WA is a community, knowing who is truly an expert can help you determine if the advice should be taken. Getting advice from someone who just started or has a similar experience as yourself is not that helpful.
#4. FREE MEMBERSHIP IS UNAVAILABLE TO CERTAIN COUNTRIES
Again, this one is a pro and a con in my opinion. The Excluded countries are Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, and Vietnam. *If you are from any of these countries, you can still sign up, but directly as a premium member. This is due to fraud and spam.
#5. CUSTOMER SERVICE IS OKAY
For the most part, their customer service is okay. They do help and can resolve most of your issues. But when it gets too complicated, it might take a few conversations to resolve your issues.
#6. CANCELING PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP IS NOT A GOOD IDEA
If you are currently earning a recurring commission through WA. You will stop getting paid if you cancel your premium membership. This is not too bad since most people earn enough commission to cover their monthly membership fees.
The big one however is for those who are not earning a commission. If you cancel your premium membership, you will lose access to your website. It will still be accessible once you re-register for the premium membership. You can, however, migrate your website to a different web-hosting provider before canceling your premium membership.
Things To Consider Before Signing Up For Wealthy Affiliate
Unlike a decade ago, affiliate marketing has become extremely competitive. Before, you can simply build a website, join a few affiliate programs and wait for the money come pouring in.
Nowadays, it’s all about building a reputation for yourself and your website. You do so by building a readership through helpful content. You no longer write for money, you write with the intent of helping your audience. The money is just the byproduct of your work.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to choose a platform that shows you the proper strategies to do affiliate marketing. Education is really the key to being competitive here. The more you know compared to the person next to you, the more advantage you have.
Wealthy Affiliate is all about teaching you how to create a website that attracts quality visitors. They’ll provide the tools and training necessary for this to happen.
For example, I can’t stress enough how helpful their keyword research tool known as Jaaxy is.
The truth is, you can find almost anything these days on the internet. But as a beginner, you might not know where and how to start. When I first started, I was relieved that I was in a community with like-minded individuals who are happy to give each other a helping hand.
With that said, Wealthy Affiliate is a great platform for starters. For more experienced individuals, you can still take advantage of their keyword research tool and their web hosting services.
Here are a few things to consider before you sign up for Wealthy Affiliate:
- Are you willing to spend time and effort? Wealthy Affiliate is not a get-rich-quick scheme. You’re not going to magically become rich overnight. In order to succeed, you have to be willing to invest time and effort into growing your online presence.
- Are you willing to create high quality text-based content? If you hate writing, then you can pretty much forget about this. The base of what they teach is text-based content creation. In short, you will be writing a lot.
- Are you willing to invest in yourself? Over the past 3 years, I’ve invested thousands of dollars into Smart Affiliate Hub. Are you willing to make sacrifices and invest in services like email marketing, plugins, themes, etc?
- Can you afford to pay for premium membership? Although, Wealthy Affiliate is free to join. They do offer a premium membership plan for $49.00 each month. This is not a small price to pay for many individuals.
My recommendation still remains the same. I don’t recommend signing up for the premium membership right away. Affiliate marketing is not for everyone. It’s best that you give it a try through its free membership before you subscribe to unlock all of its features.
Wealthy Affiliate Course Overview
Besides web hosting, they are a platform that includes training, tools, and resources to help you achieve success. Where Wealthy Affiliate truly shines is its affiliate marketing training course. After all, you can find cheaper web hosting services elsewhere like Hostgator.
LEVEL 1 Getting Started
This is an introduction course by Wealthy Affiliate. It will show you how to navigate their website to utilize their tools and resources.After completing level 1, you will have your very own website built and ready for content creation.It's a great way to get a taste of what you'll be getting if you upgrade to their premium membership.If you hate reading, Wealthy Affiliate has you covered because each lesson includes a video that covers what is being taught.The following is what you'll be learning:
- Understanding how to make money online
- Choosing a niche topic for your online business venture
- Building your very own website in around 30 seconds
- Setting up your website for content creation
- Getting your website ready for search engines
- Creating your first piece of content on your website
LEVEL 2 Traffic Generation
In order to access this course, you'll need to become a premium member. This is so you can purchase and use your own domain name. One that will essentially become your brand.In short, you will be building on what you've already done in level 1. Except, you are now taking your online business more seriously.
- Buying your own brandable domain name
- Transfer your free website from level 1 to the new domain name
- Setting up your websites email address using your domain name
- Full breakdown on traffic generation using your contents
- Getting your website ready for search engines
- Using visuals that makes your content easier to digest
- Understanding the importance of long-tail keywords
- How to build trust with your audience in order to grow as a business
- Setting yourself up to become an efficient producer
- Learn how to become a Wealthy Affiliate Ambassador
LEVEL 3 Making Money
By now, you should have a fully operational website with a few pieces of content. Also, your blog should start receiving some traffic. So for level 3, you will learn all about monetizing your website to make money.
- Understanding what you must do to make money online
- Learning about affiliate programs and networks
- Finding indepedent affiliate programs related to your niche
- How to add affiliate links to your posts and pages
- Introduction to Amazon Associates where you can find millions of products
- How to leverage product reviews to make money
- How to get paid for showing ads on your website
- How to maximize your earning potentials
- Introduction to Google Analytics for tracking your website
- Recap on the purpose of your website
LEVEL 4 Leveraging Social Media
Here you will learn all aspects of Social Media and how you can leverage them to increase exposure of your website. Also, having a strong social media presence is a strong indicator that your website is helpful.
- Using Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter to share your blog posts
- How to engage with your audience through comments
- How to use Facebook the right way to create discussions
- How to use image based Social Media platforms like Pinterest
- How to use Twitter to create engaging tweets that spreads the word
- Using Google Plus to share our blog posts (currently phased out and will be replaced soon)
- How to utilize Wealthy Affiliate's community
LEVEL 5 Content Creation Success
Content is essentially the core of your online business. Without content, your business is simply an empty shell. Here you will learn how to create quality content that is both engaging and problem solving.
- Understanding the importance of content creation for your business
- Setting up Google Search Console for the first time
- How to get your website indexed by search engines
- Enhance your content through the design of your blog
- A breakdown of your traffic potential over time
- Creating structure for your blog post to ensure it fits all aspects of quality content
- Ensure that your content has intent (purchase a product or sign up for your email list)
- How to inject intent within your comments
- How to get indexed on Bing and Yahoo
- Setting up a long-term plan for your online business
Overall, I think Wealthy Affiliate’s training course is extremely thorough. And what’s most important is how often it gets updated. Which is extremely important since the affiliate marketing industry changes so often. Ensuring that you receive up-to-date information is absolutely required for your success.
Wealthy Affiliate Affiliate Bootcamp Overview
Wealthy Affiliate also offers their very own affiliate program. It’s one of their opportunities for their members to make money for promoting their platform. To ensure that their members are promoting their platform properly, they have additional training called the affiliate bootcamp.
Most people don’t like this idea because the majority of the reviews out there on Wealthy Affiliate are biased. It’s made from people who only wants to earn a quick buck. But nonetheless, it’s offers valuable lessons that you can apply to other affiliate products that you promote in the future.
Phase 1 Getting Your Business Rolling
The trainings found here are very similar to what you'll find in their introductory course. In addition, it will go over the benefits of promoting Wealthy Affiliate. What I find intriguing is that they offer a all paid for Vegas trip where you can meet the founders and other successful affiliate marketers.
Phase 2 Content, Keywords, and Conversions
The main focus on phase 2 is content. Basically, you will learn how to create content, utilizing the right keywords, and how to make your content convert. Conversion can be either sales or lead generation.
Phase 3 Giving Your Website Social Value
First, you must have quality content that's worth sharing. Next, you'll want to make sure that your content can be easily shared by your audience.
Phase 4 Getting Visual
Here you will learn how to get visual with your content. It should still be mainly text, but adding visuals such as graphics, charts, and pictures can make it far more appealing for your audience.
Phase 5 Knowing Your Audience & Catapulting Your Referrals
Knowing your audience is very important since you are producing content that caters to them. Here they will talk more about content creation but more importantly the intent of your writing. Kyle will also go over more about simplifying the process of writing an article. He will also talk about using YouTube as an additional source of traffic. And lastly, he will show you to conduct keyword research.
Phase 6 Bing, Yahoo, & The Power Of PPC
Besides organic free traffic from search engines, they will teach you how to get traffic through pay-per-click methods. For example, Google Ads, Bing, Ads, etc. Kyle will also go over more about getting your content indexed on Bing and Yahoo. This is because it takes a little longer for those 2 search engines to recognize new content.
Phase 7 How To Scale Successful PPC Campaigns
During this last phase, you will learn how to use keywords to optimize your PPC approaches. This is a nice way to give your website a boost while you are working on search engine optimization.
Wealthy Affiliate's Web Hosting Up-Time
Wealthy Affiliate offers one of the best website hosting services in the market.
My friend who started months after I joined, didn’t want to pay for the premium price of WA.
Instead, he decided to run his website on a different provider. The slow speed and downtime were more than enough for me to justify the cost.
Not only will an unstable web hosting service provider cost you precious time on the internet, but it can also negatively affect your SEO.
What good is an online business if it experiences a lot of downtimes?
High Speed Plus Double Hosting
Your Website Is Backed Up Everyday
I have not had the honor to take advantage of recovering from a backup image of my website on WA.
However, I have used a service called VaultPress. It’s the ideal plugin if you have a website with lots of content.
However, if your website breaks, Wealthy Affiliate’s Support Team is more than capable of restoring your website without any difficulties. And trust me,
I’ve had them restore my website for more than half a dozen times in the past. This is not uncommon amongst beginners who have never operated a website in the past.
Who Should Sign Up For Wealthy Affiliate In 2022
Wealthy Affiliate provides a great opportunity for people who are not doing so stellar financially or would like to seek the ultimate freedom of life. So if you want to depart from your regular job and become your own boss, Wealthy Affiliate is a good place to start.
In fact, I highly encourage you to sign up for WA since it is free to try.
However, the main purpose of this review is to help you decide if WA is for you. After all, there’s no reason to waste your time on something that won’t work for you.
First, I will cover who should sign up for WA. Later, I will also cover who shouldn’t sign up for Wealthy Affiliate.
They are a great platform for those who are brand new to the affiliate marketing industry. Don’t get me wrong, even experienced affiliate marketers can also enjoy the benefits of WA membership. But the training offered at WA is aimed to help beginners to learn from no experience.
As long as you are realistic with your expectations, as well as apply the knowledge that you’ve learned. You will be well on your way toward success. Remember, any real business takes time to be profitable, so you’ll want to dedicate at least 6 months to a year before seeing any results.
WA is also an excellent platform for those who want everything in one location. For example, you don’t need to purchase website backup software, website security, website hosting, domain name, etc from a different source.
WA provides it all in one place. On top of that, you will find step-by-step training courses to guide you on how to utilize the resources provided to you. You can literally run your online business through their platform alone.
Who Should Not Sign Up For Wealthy Affiliate In 2022
While I do encourage you to sign up for the free membership at Wealthy Affiliate. Running an online business is not everyone’s cup of tea. For that reason, I want to go over who should not sign up for Wealthy Affiliate.
It all comes down to your expectations. If you are looking for an easy way out such as creating a full-time income in a matter of days, weeks, or a few short months. WA will not meet your expectations.
Most businesses take years to be profitable, fortunately, an online business will not take that long. However, it’s still a business, so time and effort will be required.
If you’re looking to make money fast, getting a real job is definitely going to be a better option for you. But if you’re serious about building a real sustainable online business, you can always come back at a later date. Remember, you can always sign up for Wealthy Affiliate’s free membership.
If anyone offers you a make money fast opportunity, it’s likely to be a scam and you should stay away from it. WA will never promise to teach you how to make money fast.
Also, if you don’t like to write, please don’t sign up for WA. Besides video content, a big part of what they teach revolves around text-based content creation.
Text-based contents are what you find on search engines like Google. Great content helps drive traffic to your website from search engines.
In other words, you will be writing a lot and I mean, a lot…
Here in Smart Affiliate Hub, I write a lot to produce content for people like you to read. In fact, this Wealthy Affiliate review alone contains thousands of words.
If you don’t want to write, then I don’t recommend signing up. Writing is pretty much one of the requirements as an affiliate marketer. Unless you’re a content creator on YouTube.
Regardless, there’s no easy way out. You’ll have to put in the work.
Remember, only you can determine if affiliate marketing is for you. That’s why I don’t recommend signing up for the premium membership until you are serious about building a real online business.
Is Wealthy Affiliate A Pyramid Scheme?
In short, no, Wealthy Affiliate is not a pyramid scheme. First, what makes a business a pyramid scheme?
A pyramid scheme occurs when people are getting paid to recruit others. And those recruits will continue to recruit on their own and this continues going down the ladder. The most important part is nothing of value is being sold.
Those who are late into the pyramid scheme will benefit the least due to the market being saturated. WA, on the other hand, is totally different. They do offer an affiliate program for their members to refer others to their platform.
However, they do offer products and services such as web hosting, training programs focused on teaching new and existing affiliate marketers.
Wealthy Affiliate Success Stories
The best way to judge a program is by looking at the success of its users. *I know many of them personally.
Wealthy Affiliate Success Stories are readily available for anyone to see. It’s also a great place to get some motivation from those who have made it.
On the right-hand side of the picture above, you’ll see WA’s live chat system in action.
There you will find other affiliate marketers helping each other out by asking and answering questions.
However, it does require premium membership to use.
On a daily basis, you’ll hear from other affiliate marketers talking about their recent success. Whether it is an increase in traffic or income. They are all positive signs that Wealthy Affiliate is changing lives.
Littlemama From Wealthy Affiliate
Littlemama has been with Wealthy Affiliate since September 07, 2016. Roughly a year before I joined. She has always been an inspiration to me from the very beginning.
In 2018, she broke a few records such as:
- A huge jump from 236 referrals in March to 358 referrals in April.
- Gained 20 referrals in a single day!
- Broke her milestone of achieving over 1000 visitors in a single day.
- Earned two additional Jaaxy Keyword Research Tool Sales.
- And lastly, made more money than prior months!
- You can follow her website growth in Wealthy Affiliate. Seriously, she is one heck of an inspiration. It really shows that perseverance do pay off as long as you put in the work.
CLD111 From Wealthy Affiliate
Cld111 joined Wealthy Affiliate back on June 01, 2009. That’s a total of 11 years as a member! In 2017, she decided to get back into affiliate marketing and have been seeing success since.
Her income isn’t great (according to her claims), but we really don’t know what she did back in 2009. One thing we do know is that she is progressing.
Year after year, she is breaking her affiliate income record and it’s truly amazing! This goes to show, if you put in the work, you will eventually see the results.
The results are not immediate, but the time will come. I can’t wait to see what else is to come for Cld111 for 2020.
DJ-Drea From Wealthy Affiliate
Dj-Drea joined Wealthy Affiliate back on October 24, 2014. Utilizing their training resources, she is now an affiliate marketer promoting Amazon products.
Back in 2016, she shared her success story boasting an impressive earning of $500.00 in a single month. It might not seem like much, but success is success.
It doesn’t matter how much money was made. The point is the training works and affiliate marketing works. If you can make $500.00 in a single month as an additional income, that’s money you wouldn’t have made. Seriously, amazing!
Ericcantu From Wealthy Affiliate
Ericcantu joined Wealthy Affiliate back on January 06, 2017. Like Littlemama, he was and still is an inspiration to me. I guess he caught my attention because his name is also Eric.
But regardless of his name, his success on Wealthy Affiliate really shows. In the blog post that he shared boasting $4,000.00 per month is breathtaking!
That’s equivalent to someone’s full-time income working a regular job. But Eric gets the freedom that a typical employee wouldn’t have. He’s able to work from home and generate a livable income for his family.
How To Make Money On Wealthy Affiliate In 2022
METHOD #1. Wealthy Affiliate's Affiliate Program
As the name implies, Wealthy Affiliate is all about affiliate marketing, so it only makes sense that they also include their very own affiliate program where you can earn money from.
METHOD #2. Leverage Your Blog On Wealthy Affiliate
As a member, you can create your own blog posts within the platform. Since they have been around for quite some time, you can often rank highly on the search engines much faster compared to a new website.
If someone finds your blog posts from a Google Search and signs up as a free member, you’ll earn a referral!
The only downside to this method is that your effort is only going to potentially generate a new referral.
It doesn’t really allow you to build your email list or promote other affiliate products. So if you’re running a blog of your own, it’s one less content that you could’ve added to your own blog to further scale it.
METHOD #3. Create Training Courses
After becoming a premium member, you can start creating your own training courses after 3 months. This gives you enough time to learn and explore other areas of affiliate marketing.
Similar to writing a step-by-step tutorial on your blog, you can create a course to help other members while earning extra money on the side.
There is already a ton of training but with the evergrowing nature of make money online industry. There’s always a demand for updated information.
Obviously, mediocre training will not get you very far. Your earning potential is based on your rank. Your rank will increase when people view, comment, or like your training.
METHOD #4. Use SiteComment 2.0
By becoming a certified commenter on Wealthy Affiliate (commenting on other people’s blogs).
You can provide value to other members and earn money while you’re doing the favor.
You can become a certified commenter based on the following criteria (based on a 30-day period):
Minimum of 50 comments offered
Minimum of 80% approval rate
Maximum of 20% skip rate (not interested)
In the beginning, you might find it stressful to keep up with the membership cost.
Fortunately, with the introduction of SiteComment 2.0, you can now earn 100s of dollars per month which can cover the costs of membership plus a little extra for snacks!
METHOD #5. Building Your Own Affiliate Marketing Business
Now the biggest moneymaker is not made within their platform. You’ll need to use their tools to advance your own blog. After all, the purpose of Wealthy Affiliate is to teach you how to build your own online business.
By going through their online entrepreneur certification course, you’ll learn how to build your own website that can potentially attract thousands of visitors each month.
With affiliate marketing, you can use your website to promote affiliate products for your niche without having to stock any physical inventory. Basically, you act as the bridge between the consumer and the producer.
There are many people who built Amazon affiliate websites designed to specifically promote Amazon products. Learn how to make money on Amazon.
By building your own online business, you’ll have an asset that belongs to you. Some people prefer to use YouTube as their business platform, but what happens if YouTube decides to shut you down by removing your videos?
What Is Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus?
Despite all the chaos going on in the world. Wealthy Affiliate released its latest membership plan in November of 2020. Their upgraded membership plan is known as Premium Plus.
With this release, they’ve also updated their website to be more modern. In addition to looking good, the functionality has also improved. The update is aimed toward helping you become more successful in your online venture.
The motivation behind all of the change is to stay on top of technology. As kyle mentions in his official launch video. Companies like Facebook, YouTube, tend to keep up-to-date with the latest technologies and the latest advancements in technologies.
By staying on top of technology and constantly updating their platform. They are able to provide you with the latest products to help grow your online business.
In fact, I learned that many agencies have used Wealthy Affiliate to help their clients develop their websites.
The Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus costs $99.00 per month or $995.00 per year. It’s definitely not cheap, but you do get their enterprise edition for Jaaxy Keyword & Niche research. That alone is $99.00 per month.
But if you look at Wealthy Affiliate’s Premium Plus plan as a bundle, the price definitely justifies what you’re getting.
Is Wealthy Affiliate Worth The Money?
Seriously, is Wealthy Affiliate worth the money? Wealthy Affiliate is only worth the money if you are willing to put forth time and energy toward building an online business.
Also, if you’re only looking at Wealthy Affiliate as a web hosting service provider then it’s totally not worth it.
For $49.00 per month as a premium member, you can get top notch web hosting. In fact, that’s probably enough to get yourself a VPS.
But if you look at Wealthy Affiliate as an all-in-one affiliate marketing platform, then the price is more justifiable.
In fact, that’s what Wealthy Affiliate is known for. You’ll not only get to manage your domain, host your website, but you’ll also get access to their keyword research tool, training resources, and much more.
How Much Does Wealthy Affiliate Cost?
Wealthy Affiliate offers 3 membership plans: Free, Premium, and Premium Plus. There’s no one size fits all when it comes to Wealthy Affiliate. To help you get a better understanding of the value between the different membership plans. I will provide you with the features that each membership offers.
Free Membership
- 2 Free websites + hosting: Sub-domain names included
- Access to a limited Keyword Search
- Free access to introduction course to get you started
- Access to Affiliate Boot Camp Course #1
- 24/7 Community Support
- Opportunity to earn money while you’re learning
- SSL (secured socket layer) is now included for free
Premium Membership
- Host up to 10 websites at one time
- Access to their keyword research tool (lite edition)
- Full access to advanced affiliate marketing training
- Access to weekly live webinars
- Access classrooms made by pros in the community
- 52+ expert classes each year
- Intermediate website & hosting package
- Enhanced hosting security
- 24/7 website support
- Earnings from promoting Wealthy Affiliate increases significantly
- 1-on-1 coaching from the person who referred you as well as the founders of Wealthy Affiliate
Premium Plus Membership
- Host up to 50 premium websites at one time
- Access to their keyword research tool (enterprise edition)
- Full access to advanced affiliate marketing training
- Access to weekly live webinars
- Access classrooms made by pros in the community
- 200+ expert classes each year
- Advanced website & hosting package
- Advanced hosting security suite
- 24/7 website support
- Earnings from promoting Wealthy Affiliate increases significantly
- 1-on-1 coaching from the person who referred you as well as the founders of Wealthy Affiliate
Premium
For Home Business and SolopreneursPeoplePremium Plus
For Extremely Serious PeopleIn Conclusion
Thanks again for reading my Wealthy Affiliate Review 2022. I’ve noticed that many people who sign up for Wealthy Affiliate are not doing so great financially. They are either retired individuals, recently lost their job or those with huge medical expenses. My best advice is to sign up as a free member.
Invest your time in learning and building your demo website. You can always upgrade to the premium membership at a later date. Again, at $49.00 per month, that’s less than $2.00 per day.
The biggest problem I’ve seen in the make money online industry, as well as Wealthy Affiliate, is, “expectation“.
Even though they are a great platform to start off your affiliate marketing adventure. Your mentality is what determines your success.
If you are expecting to create a full-time income after weeks or months. You are ultimately setting yourself up for failure. Remember, it takes time to run a successful business and your online venture is no different.
If you are looking to make money fast. Please don’t consider signing up. You are seriously better off getting a real job.
They can only teach you how to build a real business over time.
I hope you find this Wealthy Affiliate Review helpful. If you are still wondering if Wealthy Affiliate is legit. I’d say sign up for the free membership only.
During your first 7 days, you will have access to PREMIUM features. If you like it, great!
If you don’t find value in what you get from Wealthy Affiliate. Simply continue on as a free member for life. I hope to see you at Wealthy Affiliate and I look forward to helping you achieve success.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, Wealthy Affiliate is free as long as you don’t upgrade your account. They do offer premium and premium plus unlocks with huge upgrades to your account.
As a starter, I would stick with the free membership for as long as you can. Give yourself a few weeks to test the water and see if affiliate marketing is a career path for you.
Note: I don’t earn a commission if you remain a free member. But I’d rather you try it out and see if you like it first.
No, Wealthy Affiliate is not a Ponzi scheme. They are actually a service-based website that offers web hosting, domain registration, keyword research tool, and affiliate marketing training resources.
Members of Wealthy Affiliate however can promote them in exchange for a commission.
If I can get a dollar for every time I get asked this very question, I would be a very wealthy man right now.
To be honest, it varies depending on how much time and effort you are willing to put into building your website.
I didn’t make a dime during the first year, but slowly, I was making money even when I wasn’t actively on my computer.
So in short, yes, you can make money on Wealthy Affiliate as long as you learn and apply what you learn from Wealthy Affiliate. But to make money, it can take months or up to a year.
I’ve seen people earning hundreds of dollars for the first 2 years and eventually earning thousands of dollars per month.
For the first 7-days, you are given limited premium access, but after 7-days, you will revert back to the regular free membership status. Your free membership status never expires.
Wealthy Affiliate offers a way to find products to promote in their platform called, affiliate program search. There you can find various products on different niche topics. You can check for specific categories making it easy to find.
No, and that’s what makes affiliate marketing such a great way to start making money online as a beginner.
You’re basically promoting other people’s products and services to earn a commission.
No, there are no hidden fees. Everything is pretty transparent on Wealthy Affiliate. When you upgrade your account to premium or premium plus, you will see exactly what you’re paying for and how much.
Your initial sign-up cost for the premium membership is however discounted to $19.00. That will be shown on your Wealthy Affiliate page, but it’s completely optional.
Yes, Wealthy Affiliate offers its own proprietary keyword research tool known as Jaaxy.
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