What is Wealthy Affiliate About – My 2018 Complete Review
As a happy member of WA for 5 years I am often asked, what is Wealthy Affiliate about? Today I will tell all in this complete review of 2018, both the pros and cons. You will find out how anyone, even you, can build and run your own profitable online business.
First, what Wealthy Affiliate is NOT
In this day and age, many people are looking to make enough money online so they can quit their 9 to 5 jobs and work from home. This is very much possible, especially as a member of Wealthy Affiliate, WA, but not in the way many people expect. And here is the reason why.
Despite what you may think, earning a lucrative amount of money on the internet requires a lot of work, determination, and patience. No one has ever made thousands of dollars per month working legitimately at home on the internet within a year, unless they were scamming people.
Wealthy Affiliate is not some sort of a get-rich-quick scheme and it is not a money making program where you have to sell any kind of product or service. As a member of WA you do not have to buy any products to get paid and you do not have to recruit people into a downline.
In short, everything you may think or expect WA to be about, based on its name Wealthy Affiliate, it is not. You can become “Wealthy” as a member but it will not happen within weeks or months and it will not happen if you do not first learn how, then build your website, work hard, and be patient.
So what is Wealthy Affiliate all about?
In a nutshell Wealthy Affiliate is like an internet university. Not only do they teach you everything you need to know to operate your own successful online affiliate marketing business, but they also give you all of the tools and resources needed to succeed.
With the education and website building tools, you can make money from anywhere in the world.
Unlike the majority of other make money online opportunities, WA offers so much more for such a low price and with NO upsells. Even the two other reputable affiliate marketing training communities that I know of, Affilorama and Solo Build It (SBI), cannot even come close to what Wealthy Affiliate offers.
These two other training platforms, though legitimate and with good content, both have unnecessary upsells and courses that will make you spend more money than you need to. Another thing to watch out for is the freshness of their training. The last thing you want to learn are outdated techniques.
However the training at Wealthy Affiliate is always up to date. Practically every year I have been a member they have updated their courses to reflect the changes that happen all the time within the internet marketing world. Their training is always fresh, just as Google requires.
Low Cost – Easy Training – Helpful Community
There are many things I love about Wealthy Affiliate, which I will display below in my Pros and Cons list, but my three favorites are the low cost, the easy training, and the very helpful community. It is almost impossible to not get any of your questions answered within 30 minutes.
This was one of my initial fears when I first joined. How can I get a timely answer to a question I may have if I happen to be going through the training at 3:00 in the morning? But with close to 1,000,000 active members from all over the world, getting answers at any time of the day and night is possible.
With members from all over the world, it is easy to get your questions answered quickly day and night
The training is presented in an easy to understand step-by-step approach, perfect for the complete beginner. The courses are task-based lessons that are in the form of a complete video with text tutorials to walk you through the process. Plus you can take each lesson as many times as you wish.
How would you like to build all of your WordPress websites in under a minute after clicking a button? The 4-step process is so simple anyone from 15 to 100 years old can do it. You might think all of this would cost a fortune but it’s only $49.00 per month. Plus your first 10 lessons are FREE!
You are NOT required to spend more than $49 a month at WA
When you consider the enormous amount of easy step-by-step training videos and tutorials, the interactive classrooms, the weekly Live Training Webinars, the free keyword research tool, the automated website builder, the free WordPress websites and hosting, $49.00 per month is a steal.
Other than the fact that the training is top-notch and current to all standards of Google SEO, Search Engine Optimization, I believe the reason that Wealthy Affiliate is rated #1 has to do with how much quality you get for such a low price and with NO Upsells.
The owners of WA are more concerned that their quality education and online business building resources are always affordable to all of their members. This is why they let you start the training for free, to give you a taste of what is to come, and then offer you TWO different ways (Monthly or Yearly) to pay for their Premium Membership.
When it comes to step by step affiliate marketing for beginners and even those with experience, Wealthy Affiliate wants to provide every opportunity for everyone to succeed. With the majority of other training platforms offering upsells for higher quality training, WA does the opposite and gives you everything for less cost.
There is ONLY one additional cost of $13.99 per year, but it is not mandatory. Some may think this is an upsell but in fact this is for the cost of your website domain name. This can be purchased from WA or you can purchase a domain from outside sources like GoDaddy or NameCheap.
Personally, all of my domain names are purchased from NameCheap, and then all I do is point them towards the WA name servers. Before Wealthy Affiliate became a domain registrar last year, they were recommending NameCheap as a reputable source for domain names, at a slightly lower cost.
Wealthy Affiliate is all-inclusive, offering low cost domains and Free SSL Certificates for encryption security
Your success is Wealthy Affiliate’s #1 priority
I cannot give enough thanks to the creators and owners of WA, Kyle and Carson, for all that they have done to give every member the chance to succeed. Unlike those other two legit affiliate marketing training programs I mentioned above, WA cares more about your success than making money off of you.
Where those other programs charge you in the hundreds for premium training and technical support, Wealthy Affiliate gives you everything you need for their low $49 per month. And when it comes to things like domain names, they have no problems with you going outside of WA for a cheaper price.
As I mentioned above, Wealthy Affiliate will even give you the opportunity to save even more money by offering their Yearly Premium Membership for $495.00 ($1.36/day). Again, WA is more concerned that you get quality training and support so you can succeed, than trying to milk more money out of you.
Do you want further proof? Every year in November from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, WA runs its yearly membership sale. They will give every member the chance to SAVE MORE MONEY and lock in a yearly price of $299.00, which is a $196.00 savings on their regular Yearly Premium Membership cost.
This I feel is the reason why Wealthy Affiliate has been steadily growing in membership since its inception in 2005. I know that I will NEVER QUIT being a member here. Since joining in August 2013 I have gone on to make a lot of money, all thanks to the easy to understand training.
Here is a recent example of my monthly commission payment in the WA Affiliate Program
Your success depends on YOU
Even though I have high praise for the Wealthy Affiliate online education and website business building platform, there are some things that can be problematic, especially for the newcomers. Let us be reasonable here, there is no perfect opportunity for success because everyone’s work effort will differ.
As a premium member of WA, you are given everything you need for success. The only thing missing is what they cannot provide and that is your own determination to reach your goals and the patience to see it through. Success takes time and hard work. If you understand this you will succeed.
Do not be fooled into thinking that making a lot of money on the internet will be quick and easy. Those who make this claim are most likely scamming you. Wealthy Affiliate will never hype up your expectations because they know the truth, success solely depends on how hard you work.
That being said, you will not find a better opportunity for achieving success with your very own unique online business than you will as a member of WA. Below in my Pros and Cons list, I will truthfully point out the Cons, and there are several, but the Pros fully outweigh them.
The Pros and Cons of Wealthy Affiliate
PROS
- You can join WA and take the first 10 lessons for FREE, no credit card required
- As a Free Starter Member you get 1 Free WordPress website
- Free access to the SiteRubix WordPress website builder
- Super easy 4-step website building process
- Websites programmed-for-you & hosted within 1 minute after clicking the Build button
- All in One SEO Pack and EWWW Image Optimizer plugins installed on all websites
- Free access to the WA Affiliate Program
- You can earn affiliate commissions while you learn
- 1-on1 coaching
- Live Chat to get your questions answered quickly
- Your personal affiliate blog
- Learn how to do keyword research
- Access to 30 Free keyword searches in the Jaaxy Keyword Research Tool
- Learn the basics of SEO, Search Engine Optimization
- Learn how to make money in affiliate marketing with companies like Amazon
- Complete video walk-throughs of how WA works and its affiliate program
ABOVE IS AVAILABLE TO FREE STARTER MEMBERS. IN ADDITION, BELOW IS FOR PREMIUM
- 10 WordPress websites hosted on a free sub domain or your own domain name for NO additional cost
- First month of Premium discounted at $19.00
- Complete access to all 50 Online Entrepreneur Certification Course lessons
- Complete access to all 70 Affiliate Bootcamp lessons
- Access to all 13 interactive classrooms
- Access to the Live Weekly Webinar Training with Live Q&A session
- Unlimited FREE keyword research in the Jaaxy Keyword Research Tool
- Full daily website backups and full security package
- Access to Tech Support 24-hours per day, 365 days per year
- Website analysis, comment and feedback platforms
- Website health details
- Free SSL Certificates for encrypted security
- Anti-Spam protection on all websites
- SiteSpeed, a proprietary WA technology to speed up websites for higher rankings
- Create training tutorials and get recurring payment based on their popularity
- Become Wealthy Affiliate Ambassadors
- Ability to become a Super Affiliate and get an all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas
Yes, I realize that is a lot of Pros for both Free Starter and Premium Members, and there are more that I did not even mention. Things like giving you the ability to check the Google PageSpeed Insights from within the WA platform and the State-of-the-Art best managed WordPress hosting in the industry.
However Wealthy Affiliate is not perfect and there are several Cons which I will list below. I do not want to sugarcoat this review and want to be straight up honest. I will say that the owners of Wealthy Affiliate do listen to the complaints of their members and try to address them with each update to the WA platform.
CONS
- When first starting the WA platform, which is a very active place, can be overwhelming
- New members can sometimes feel rushed with the countdown timer on their free-trial period
- There are 7 countries, because of high incidences of fraud, that are excluded from free membership
- When selecting their own niche, new members can blindly accept the pre-chosen niche of promoting WA, instead of taking the time to find a more suitable niche
- Even though the Wealthy Affiliate community is a very inviting atmosphere, members can waste too much time socializing instead of learning and building their website businesses
- Wealthy Affiliate has an internal ranking system that I feel makes members motivated to rise in, when in fact it does NOT contribute to the success of their own websites
- Some, not all, of the video lessons by Kyle can be a bit drawn out because he explains things in great detail.
In regards to that last Con, the WA technicians made it possible for every member to increase the speed of the video playback so those videos that are a bit drawn out will be much faster. I really like this new upgrade because I remember saying a few time, “Come on Kyle. Get to the point already. ” LOL
Multiple ways to earn money from Wealthy Affiliate
As a premium member of Wealthy Affiliate you have multiple ways to earn money just by using their training and development tools. The obvious and most long-term lucrative way is to create and manage your own affiliate marketing website. The process of online affiliate marketing is quite simple.
Click the above image to view the Free Video Training of how affiliate marketing works
The above image gives you a visual representation of the simple process of making money in affiliate marketing. If you would like a more in depth explanation of how the process works, just click on the image above and it will take you to a FREE WA LESSON describing the process of making money online.
Now there are other ways you can earn revenue through the training at WA. One of the fundamental processes in having a successful website is understanding Keyword Research and SEO, Search Engine Optimization. Every website owner needs to know these in order to succeed.
However many website owners, especially small to medium sized companies, do not understand how to do SEO and thus will pay good money for people to perform this on their websites. Seeing how you will learn this and content creation at WA, you will have the ability to freelance your knowledge for money.
LEARN HOW TO HURRICANE AND EARTHQUAKE PROOF YOUR EARNINGS
Additional ways I make money from my WA training
In keeping with the freelance opportunities available for the knowledge every member of WA receives, I personally have made extra money by writing SEO content for other people’s websites. I went up on to Craigslist and did a search for writing opportunities.
Though there are many other internet content writing websites, most of them pay very low for your content. Craigslist posts are actual small company owners looking for true SEO content writers. Having this knowledge from the WA training for your own website, will help you land a freelance writing gig.
I found a company, BD Bargains in Brooklyn, NY that had an eBay Store, and they were looking for a content writer that understood keyword research and SEO. What a perfect opportunity! I already had knowledge in posting on eBay and I had a firm grasp on keywords and SEO.
Using the knowledge from the WA training, I was able to make $231,00 for only 14 hours of freelance work
The above image from my PayPal account shows you how much I was paid for only 2 hours per day of writing. I have also made money doing content writing for the websites of other Wealthy Affiliate members, one long time member paid me $120.00 every week for a 2,000 word blog post.
How to GET PAID while taking the training at WA
Up in the list of Pros near the bottom I mentioned that as a premium member you are allowed to create training for the community and get paid. A nice little perk for becoming knowledgeable in affiliate marketing website design, can earn you money as you learn. Here is how.
Let us say that you are having great success with getting a lot of organic traffic coming to your website by sharing your links on social media. This is something every person with a website would like to learn how to do. So you create a training tutorial for the WA community, showing how you did it.
The more views, likes, comments, shares and interactions that tutorial gains, the more you will get paid. Now mind you it is not a lot but $10.00 per month per tutorial is better than nothing. And as time goes by this amount can increase. The below image show how much I made in February 2018.
In February 2018 WA paid me $82.00 for creating training tutorials and $10.00 for 10 free referrals
You can also earn commissions for getting people to take the WA training. Every member gets their own affiliate blog, which quickly gets indexed into Google. If someone searching Google reads your blog and decides to join WA, you will get a commission up to $23.50 per referral recurring every month.
Do you want an All-Expenses paid trip to Las Vegas?
Every member of Wealthy Affiliate can get an all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas every February. All you have to do is get 300 people to sign up for their premium membership within a full 365 day year. If you can do this, you will be flown to Vegas and put up into a suite at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino.
You will then get to meet the owners, Kyle and Carson, plus many of the other members that you interact with inside the WA community. Unlike the conventions that those MLM companies throw to rev up their members, the WA Las Vegas Conference is more like an intimate board meeting with perks.
Plus those MLM conventions will not pay your way. Whereas Wealthy Affiliate will pay for your roundtrip airfare, hotel accommodations, dinner, entertainment, and even provide a little bit of spending money for gambling or whatever you wish. To learn more, click the below picture.
Click Image Above to Learn About Las Vegas 2018 and How You Can Make it There Next February
All of this on top of the amount of money you can make as a member of WA. Their affiliate program pays out millions of dollars every year. The below image shows you how much you can earn every month from people you sign up to WA, if you decide to join their free affiliate program.
Act NOW and join Wealthy Affiliate today for FREE!
I could go on and on about all of the benefits you will have being a member of Wealthy Affiliate. Not only can you make money in so many ways, but you will learn skills that you never thought you would have. And you can take these skills and go out and get a part-time or freelance job.
Do you want to taste financial success and make money even while you sleep? If yes and if you are a motivated person that is looking to take a hobby, an interest or a passion you have and create a profitable work from anywhere affiliate marketing business, WA is the right choice for you.
I took my interests in Natural Health and Wellness, Video Games and Drop Shipping and created three different income streams by just writing about these niche markets. There is absolutely no need to buy or sell anything. Just communicate in writing the information you wish to share on your chosen niche.
When you click this JOIN FREE TODAY link, I will personally become your 1-on-1 mentor within WA in addition to all of the other individuals and trainers. With all of this help and support, plus the easy to follow training, it will be hard for you to fail, unless you quit. If you have any questions please leave them below.
Click above image and Wealthy Affiliate will walk you through all 4-steps leading to financial success
It’s true what they say about Wealthy Affiliate. The training is top notch! The community takes care of you and is there with you every step of the way!!! You can even start for free…I mean come on…so awesome! If you are on the fence with this one DO IT!!! You will not regret it! Thanks for your insight Robert!
You are welcome Bruce. Thank you for your comment. It is nice to see other very satisfied members of Wealthy Affiliate still here after many years. I know for me, I will never leave this AWESOME experience, especially when the owners keep adding new training and resources for FREE!!!
Every other so-called training opportunity in Affiliate Marketing like Affilorama and Solo Build It, all charge their members extra money for upgrades. Whereas we here at Wealthy Affiliate get all of this and more for NO EXTRA cost to our already low monthly membership. I LOVE WA!!!
Wow! Now this article is jam packed with information. A no nonsense honest look at Wealthy Affiliate I might add!
If someone is on the fence about choosing Wealthy Affiliate, I feel that they will be convinced to “go for it” after reading this honest review.
After all, Wealthy Affilaite is free to join and very reasonably priced to go premium!
Thank you Clyde. There was actually a lot more information I could have provided in this review, because what Wealthy Affiliate offers is far beyond what I mentioned here. But I tried to reveal the real meat and potatoes of the WA training and community experience.
There is a simple reason why WA is known as Wealthy Affiliate University. Because you get a university-level education in website design, WordPress, keyword research, SEO, and many different types of internet marketing to make money with at home.
Great review! WA is one of the sites I was looking at last year as I basically typed “earn money online” into Google and got tons of responses.
Some were obvious scams, some I had to listen to webinars before I decided that I did not want to spend money when they would not tell me what I was getting.
And then there was Wealthy Affiliate, who were offering a 7 day trial.
It really annoys me that people present making money online as “easy”. No, it is not. There is a massive learning curve that is never ending. But every day gets a little bit easier.
What would you say is the most challenging part of getting started with affiliate marketing, besides picking a niche and a domain name?
I agree with you Irma, too many people either are promoting or believing that making money online is easy. Though the concept of how it works is easy, getting it set up and running properly is the more difficult part.
Thankfully the majority of hard and difficult steps in getting your affiliate marketing business website up and running has been simplified at Wealthy Affiliate, making it absolutely perfect for the complete beginner.
Between the free to join starter membership, the 7 day trial at the premium member level, the ease of building a functional WordPress website, the step-by-step training, the very helpful community, and tech support 24 hours per day, nothing can match what WA offers.
All of the other so-called opportunities out there are either scams or are too expensive to actually get your business started with all of their upsells for better training. This is another reason WA is better…THERE ARE NO UPSELLS. All of the training is for $49.00 USD
Your readers will appreciate this review that is very awesome, Wealthy affiliate has the best online training on the planet and I would encourage anyone to become a part of this community that is helping so many people to have online success.
This is true Norman. I have tried many different kinds of training programs and ALL of them cannot come close to the Wealthy Affiliate training. Only at Wealthy Affiliate can you take 20 complete training lessons for free.
And only WA will not charge you any upsells on training tutorials beyond their super low price of $49.00 USD per month.
All of the other so-called affiliate marketing training courses charge two and three times more and have upsells. The owners of WA care more about their member’s success than ripping them off of their money.
Very comprehensive review of what Wealthy Affiliate is all about in 2018 Robert!
I particularly liked your points on what Wealthy Affiliate is NOT, it often amazes me when people leave Wealthy Affiliate, and I think it’s because they think that that can make quick, easy money, and aren’t prepared to put in the required work to make it happen!
You have covered so many great features of WA, that you would really have to be crazy not to give it a red hot go!
I know when I first discovered WA in 2013 that’s how I felt, and like you, I am never leaving!
Awesome review, Robert, thanks 🙂
John
Thank you John for your comment.
I agree that when most people are either thinking of joining Wealthy Affiliate or have just joined out of curiosity, they are under the impression that they can make easy money here. Unfortunately for them, something like what they are looking for doesn’t really exist anywhere online and certainly not at WA.
Like I have told many people, Wealthy Affiliate is like an online university that can make anyone with determination into a wealthy online affiliate marketer. If they are willing to be patient, take the time needed to learn the proper steps, and work hard to achieve their goals, they will experience success.
But if people who are longing to make their living wages in a work from home online business do not actually work hard to get there, they will continue to be scammed by that next shiny object that tricks them into thinking great wealth online is simple. Wealthy Affiliate provides all the training, tools and resources. It is up to the members themselves to achieve their goals.
Hi Robert.
Great article! In fact, possibly the most comprehensive review of Wealthy Affiliate I’ve read.
As a member myself, I don’t need to be convinced of course, but I still actually enjoyed reading this.
So many folks try to oversell WA by making it sound super quick and easy. You tell it like it is – a great platform for those of us prepared to put in the effort.
Thank you Thomas. I am happy you enjoyed my 2018 review of Wealthy Affiliate. I agree with you that too many people try to oversell WA by making it sound quick and easy.
Though there are several things within the Wealthy Affiliate platform that are quick and easy, like the building of the actual WordPress website framework, building the business itself will take lots of time and hard work.
All types of businesses, both brick and mortar and website-based, all require the owner to work hard to grow them from scratch. However the Wealthy Affiliate training helps to simplify the process, but still requires an individual to put in an effort.
Great Post! This is the best review of Wealthy Affiliate that I have yet to read. I am totally sold on joining this community and learning the real legit way to make money online. Thanks for sharing.
You are welcome Raymond. I am glad you liked my Wealthy Affiliate 2018 Review. There is no better place online that will teach you all you need to know to become a successful affiliate marketer than Wealthy Affiliate. And you can get everything for the lowest monthly price in the industry, after getting the first 10 lessons for free.
Hi Robert, I’m already a fan of yours back at Wealthy Affiliate. I recently joined – January 2018 – and have learnt so much in a relatively short period about that which is crucial to success as an online entrepreneur. Whether you want to simply have a personal blog that will produce an income for you in some way or if you want to pursue the path of being an affiliate, I cannot imagine that there is better schooling available anywhere other than WA.
Thanks for a thorough review.
Brian
Hey Brian! Thank you for stopping by to read my Wealthy Affiliate review for 2018. It is my pleasure to know you are not only a follower but a fan of mine back at WA. Just like the entire WA educational experience, I do my best to give back to the community by way of helpful training tutorials to promote your success.
Like you and so many others past and present, I have learned quite a bit, more than I thought I could in such a short period of time. I believe this is a result of how easy it is to learn within the Wealthy Affiliate community. The way Kyle presents the lessons, it makes them perfect for the complete beginner. I try to do this as well in my tutorials.
When you can make the learning process not only easier but also laid back and fun, absorbing knowledge will come easier. I enjoy helping members like yourself to experience success both in the WA training and website building process. Those that came before helped me to get going on my financial freedom journey and now it is my turn to pay it forward and help those who follow me.
LOL, you had to stretch a bit for that last con, Robert. Regarding upsells, I’ve been thinking lately of how much money these guys actually leave on the table by not upselling their member base. They could easily recommend their favorite tools, services, additional training, etc. and pocket some nice additional revenue, but they don’t.
Very thorough review. Congrats on your success.
Thank you Chris. I am pleased you found my 2018 Wealthy Affiliate review thorough. I wanted to provide my readers with as much important information as possible without boring them with too many details. But that last con is a bit true because I have seen some members express this in the comments of Kyle’s videos. Even Carson jokes about it.
I for one am very happy that Kyle and Carson do not require upsells within the Wealthy Affiliate program. This is one of the main reasons why WA is head and shoulders above any other all-inclusive online training program. These guys make enough by NOT milking money from their members but still provide more than enough valuable training and tools for success. It’s proof of their legitimacy.
Hi, thank’s for this very detailed review.
All my questions are actually answered already here but one thing does interest me. How long did it take you to earn your first money with a website and how much did you work for that?
I think to build a website is one thing but to learn to sell things is another story. Is there some training on sales techniques provided as well?
I am a very bad seller my self, I know and this is something I would need training for sure.
You are welcome Stefan. Happy you liked my review of Wealthy Affiliate. When I first started it took me about 5 months of working a few hours a day before I earned my first amount of income. Perhaps if I were not also learning the techniques of how affiliate marketing worked I could have earned sooner.
However I am happy that I didn’t rush through the Wealthy Affiliate training because there are many subtle pieces of information that help to enhance the learning as well as earning process. The one major technique I learned was NOT to create your website content to sell products but rather to promote the products.
I know that may seem backwards when it comes to making money but IT WORKS! People are going to buy from someone who’s opinion they trust, more than someone who is trying to sell to them. The only way to build up this trust is to help your potential buyer to better understand the product you are promoting.
Help your potential buyer with all of the facts, the pros and cons, comparisons, and try to answer the questions they may have by fully explaining the products you promote. Then leave it up to your website reader to buy or not. Do not try to force them into buying. That does not build trust. Affiliate Marketing is about helping your visitors to make an informed decision.