• Home >>


Wealthy Affiliate Review

Wealthy Affiliate Review - Update 2023

I've been a paying member of WA since 2013 and an active affiliate.

WA is one of the few training communities I promote because:-

  • WA works for people that implement the training.
  • The skill set you learn is timeless
  • WA provides a free membership level to enable people to try without risk

WA will work for people in any niche. You'll learn and have access to (even as a free member)

  • Niche research - so you pick ones with great profit potential
  • Specific Keyword Research - finding keywords are like finding gold 🙂
  • How to create content based on those keywords so that you attract visitors from search engines
  • How to monetize the visitors you get and build a dependable business.

A Hype free, quality experience.


NOTE: from an affiliate perspective I used (2017 -19) to send Bing now Microsoft PPC traffic to this review. I now promote WA to my email lists which is more profitable. 

Personally, if you're considering WA join as a free member and really test it out, as questions of the community, and see if it feels 'right' for you.

WA will work if you do.

The review that follows is a little out dated but still useful (I hope).

UPDATE 2018 - 2019

The year of the FTC takedowns (think BIG network marketing companies like Digital Altitude and MOBE)...

GDPR Compliance (a set of International regulations to essentially protect people online... with real teeth).

Makes you wonder what is a safe and proven business model to follow...

From the above I would suggest one that puts people first.

Meaning doesn't mislead, doesn't abuse.

Treat people right.

Wealthy Affiliate teaches people how to build a real long-term business that treats people right.

This review will help you decide if the Wealthy Affiliate way is right for you...

Wealthy Affiliate Summary

Wealthy Affiliate Logo

Online Entrepreneurship Training Community

Features

Wealthy Affiliate offers more features than I can list (though I'll have a go below)

User Friendly

WA offers so much information it almost becomes distracting.

Price

Best FREE training on the net. Premium available for those that want it.

Summary: Wealthy Affiliate teaches people how to create a website that attracts visitors from search engines (Google etc). This is achieved by learning how to find low competition keywords that you can create content around.

This is a skill-set that once lerned can earn you money for the rest of your life ...let that sink in a moment.

WA has over 10 years experience in training these skills and has a thriving community of fellow entrepreneurs all striving to help each other... think Facebook for online marketers.

Does Wealthy Affiliate have 'real' success stories from ordinary people?  ...click here to find out>>>


Pros

  • Unlimited Free Membership
  • 1 free WordPress sites
  • Free video and text training covering how to set your site up properly.
  • Free keyword tool
  • 7 Days of unlimited access to the WA community.
  • Premium membership option for those that want to learn more.
  • Premium includes full access to everything in WA. There are no up-sells or hidden charges.
  • Premium membership included free hosting for up to 50 sites (25 your own domain 25 WA free sites)
  • Plus so much more...

Cons

  • So much going on it's hard to remain focused.
  • Allow at least 6 months before your site really starts to gain traction with Google
  • Only 7 days full access to the community - could be longer.

Premium membership $19 discounted 1st month
$49 per month thereafter 

Can cancel at anytime and return to free membership

What Is Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate is an online training site and very active community of users.

The training teaches people how to make money online by selecting a topic or niche and then creating a successful website about that topic.

Getting Started - The 4 steps to making money online

Wealthy Affiliates Success Formula!

Follow the training and you’ll create a website that contains content that attracts visitors from search engines and can be monetized in a variety of ways (usually by allowing the placement of paid advertising or by promoting affiliate offers that are relevant to your audience)


WA offers both a free and premium membership.


Free members get two websites (free) that enables you to experience the training and community, whilst you build your first website with ZERO risk.


Premium simply goes a lot deeper within the training. I’ve covered the training in more depth later, but want to stress that there is no pressure to upgrade to premium.


The idea here is that you can try everything, and start seeing success before upgrading to premium.


People ask when should they upgrade to premium. Remember you never HAVE to, but once you start seeing your site visitors grow, and your confidence increase your ‘gut’ is going to tell you when to upgrade.


The WA Community is simply awesome. Over 100,000 like minded people intent on encouraging and helping each other succeed!


The  community helps in so many ways, the kind words are simply encouraging, the effort people put in to helping is inspiring.


And on a practical level the visits and site comments really make Google take notice of our sites. Which in turn further fuels our success.


It really is like being a member of a club, with banter and friendships… hard to put a value on stuff like that.


Also the two founding members of WA Carson and Kyle are very active encouraging people and answering questions.

Free advice from real online millionaires!

Founders of Wealthy Affiliate Kyle and Carson

Founding Members Kyle and Carson

Founded in 2005 WA also continues to evolve. The training is continuously updated to keep pace with changes to the online world.


In fact Kyle recently posted…


Read Kyles recent blog posts here

Read Kyles Posts here>>>


There have also been extensive updates to the Wealthy Affiliate platform and back office technology.


This is also HUGE… the value in having access to current techniques is vital in this fast changing online world.

Who’s Wealthy Affiliate For?

Who's Wealthy Affiliate for?

WA Really Is For EVERYONE!

Wealthy Affiliate teaches people how to create websites that attract targeted traffic and earn revenue.

This is a skill set that is potentially valuable to everyone...

  • Physical shop owner who wants more customers
  • A Student that wants to earn money to pay for fees
  • A retired person who could profit through their knowledge
  • A hobbyist who can help others and therefore profit
  • Or, someone like myself... an old goat who'd like to fund a freedom lifestyle...

The list could potentially be endless…

Who doesn’t want to know how to make extra money?

In terms of existing knowledge and ability, you don’t need any. If you’ve got a computer and can connect to the Internet your going to be fine.

It’s the whole purpose of giving people two free sites and training…


… to let people test if for themselves.

Why Does Wealthy Affiliate Work?

One of my personal favorite WA success stories is Vitaliy. 


Vitaliy inspired me to try some new ideas which have worked for me ever since (thanks V).


Anyway the Video below is Vitaliy take on Wealthy Affiliate (read a must watch)...

I hope you enjoyed Vitaliy's video.


Vitaliy is a straight shooter.


He tells it as it is.


He's also a really talented marketer and shares some awesome content on Vitaliy's WA blog...



Most people that try to make money online fail... this is the Elephant in the room. Don't simply ignore it!

The elephant in the room with all this 'make money online stuff' is that depending on which reports you believe...


98% of people make less than $1000 per month from their online business, with most making nada!


With that being said how can I hand on heart advise you to try your hand at affiliate marketing?


Because it offers POTENTIALLY very worthwhile rewards for very little risk...


If...


You try it out the right way.


The free membership option is fantastic for risk free, zero cost experimentation.


The community spirit seems to inspire and drag people through when they hit the roadblocks that befall most new endeavors.


And the core method is in my opinion is the easiest system for a beginner to visualize and implement.


Visualize?


Let me explain.


The core method that Wealthy Affiliate teaches is how to use tools to identify what information people are searching for online (keywords). Specifically information that is not currently well catered for already...


In other words these tools tell you exactly the subject matter (keywords) for your content (can be text, video, pdf, audio - text is the obvious one).


Your job is to simply create that content in any way you like (text, video, pdf, audio) according to the WA training.


Text and video are the main content delivery methods that people and search engines both love.


So if I told you what you had to write about, how many words to write, gave you tips on style and ways to make it engaging, can you begin to picture what needs to be done?


You will already have done similar work at school.


It need not be more complicated than that.


Most affiliate training pushes folks to build email lists (excellent advice but difficult for beginners), or create their own products (again good advice) but is way to advanced for most people.


Wealthy affiliate simply shows you how to find the keywords, and how best to present it on your website so people enjoy it and search engines want to list it (gets you free visitors and earns you money).




So your journey will probably be something like...


Join WA... WTF! - Overwhelm.


Follow the step by step training - Still a steep learning curve... but is that  a light I see ahead...


End of the free training period (do this at your own pace) - You'll have a website ready to add content to and a notional confidence that you know what's required. You'll take action fulled by HOPE.


This is the worst part where most people fail. Hope is a very combustible fuel that soon runs out.... unfortunately it often runs out before results start to build our confidence and replenish our hope.


Expect it to take 6 months of work to see results.


Why do the results take so long?


Great question.


It sucks.


It's because it takes time to EARN the TRUST from Google and the other search engines.


But results will come.


Read more Wealthy Affiliate Success Stories here. You'll notice the same pattern ...success comes to those that stay the course.





There are ways to accelerate this...


1. Get good at keyword research.



2. Create awesome content.



3. Learn how to promote your content better.



The good news is you only have to learn 1 of the above to have success. Average content and great promotion works fine...


As does great keyword research and average content.


When you manage to line all three up...  hang onto your hat!



The reason Wealthy Affiliate works is because it's a simple proven marketing system, that people can quickly visualize, understand AND IMPLEMENT.

Combine it with great training and a supportive community all the tools you need (free) and you have the ingredients to bridge the lag between taking action and seeing results.

Is Wealthy Affiliate A Multi-Level Marketing Business?

Is Wealthy affiliate a Multi Level Marketing Company

ABSOLUTELY...

NOT!

Though I can see why somebody researching WA might thinks so...

WA has over 400K active members, and a community that is based on supporting and helping each other.

I've heard new members say about feeling almost freaked out by the warm welcome...

Until they realized it was genuine!

Something they simply where not expecting in the make money online space.

Also if you look for bad reviews of WA, you can't find any (I can't).

Why's that?

Is it because like a network marketing or MLM company everyone is promoting WA therefore all reviews are bound to be good?

Again no, most members of WA don't promote WA. The focus of the training is to show you how to create a profitable successful website that is focused on the niche of your choosing. Not WA.

The option to promote WA is there if you don't have a niche, or like me your fascinated by the whole make money online journey, and want to write about it.

And while we're on this point I would encourage anyone new to this to NOT start out trying to promote WA.

The reason?

Because it's 10x harder to make money in this space than any other niche you care to mention.

So just to confirm WA is an online service company, providing training, hosting and software services to it's members (both free and paid).

If you do choose to promote WA there is no complex commission plan like the ones used by the MLM's. You simply earn a commission from the people you refer as an affiliate whilst they remain a premium member.

There is no down-line, or pass-up commissions or any of the other shenanigans associated with multi-level businesses.

Another tell-tale sign is that you can promote WA as a free member. No MLM could operate like this.

The reason there are no bad reviews?

It's a fair offer...

Free trial, premium service discounted for the first month, $47 per month thereafter.

You're free to 'cram' your training into a few premium months, and return to a free membership... because that's fair... isn't it.

And yes, if you cancel premium to return to free membership, you can always reinstate premium membership again when your circumstances suit you.

Also if you look at the WA sign up page...

What's missing?

Hype.

Images of fast cars, and easy money.

No countdown timers or other scarcity BS.

WA is simply a company that has operated for over 11 years, and provides a value based service... no hype required.

What Do You Get With WA?

WA Training


My Training Page lists some of the most popular of the training courses with a brief description of each lesson and a link directly to that tutorial.


The tutorials are usually both video and text with a simple set of objectives to complete at the end of each.


Each lesson also has a really helpful comments thread, where members and trainers ask and answer questions. This really makes learning easy and fun to follow along with. Example below…

Wealthy Affiliate view of the comments thread that follows each lesson

Also if you have any questions you can simply search the whole community.


I recently was interested in how members where using the popular bookmarking site Reddit.com to promote their sites… this is what I got…

Shows how you can search the whole Wealthy Affiliate community by keyword search terms. Reddit is the example shown.

The above screen shot shows that for my search term ‘Reddit’ I have the choice of various training tutorials as well as blog posts and q&a threads.

How awesome is that?


The community


Depending on your perspective possibly the most valuable aspect of WA (what price do put on friendship?).


Literally thousands of people, with most willing to help and encourage new members along the journey.


Kyle and Carson are not the only millionaires who actively help people everyday within the Wealthy Affiliate community!



Wealthy Affiliate Tools


Keyword Tools – 2018 update. The free keyword tool is now integrated with Jaaxy. Meaning a slicker free experience and seamless linking to Jaaxy (free or premium) for heavy duty keyword work.


Don’t be put off by free – The Free WA keyword tool is really good it's all I ever use.


Website Express – Build a fully function WordPress website with WA recommended plugins already installed in 3 clicks of your mouse and under 60 seconds of your time. With over 1400 Themes available to choose from getting your site to look the way you want is super easy.


Premium members get also get unlimited hosting services.

Wealthy Affiliate Membership Comparison Grid



Wealthy Affiliate Hosting


I must confess to taking WA's hosting services completely for granted.


It wasn't until I had a few sites hacked that I came to realize just how awesome Wealthy Affiliates Hosting Services actually are. 


To put matters right I created a post to go into the hosting side of things in more detail...

Click here to read about Wealthy Affiliate WordPress Hosting...


Does It Work?

Yes; if you follow the step-by-step training and take consistent, persistent action. Though success rarely comes overnight.

Wealthy Affiliate teaches proven online marketing principals leveraged through the use of your website and efforts.

Click here for examples of successful wealthy affiliates…


Customer Service

Wealthy Affiliate Customer Service and 24/7 Live Chat

The only query I’ve personally ever had was answered the next day by Kyle!

Summary

If your looking at any form of learn how to…

  • Blog / Blogging
  • Build a Website
  • Make Money From Adsense
  • Sell Affiliate Products
  • Turn Knowledge Into Profit
  • Start a Business From Home
  • Profit From Amazon
  • Find leads For Your Business
  • Promote a Physical Business
  • Learn Paid Advertising / PPC
  • Understand and Leverage Social Media
  • Video and YouTube Marketing

You simply have to evaluate Wealthy Affiliate


Here's how...


Click here join WA as a FREE Member and give the tires a damn good kickin...

Wealthy Affiliate Challenge 2014 free membership sign up

Is Wealthy Affiliate
A Scam Or Legit

For a program that's been running for well over 10 years you'd imagine there must be some skeletons in the closet...


And I guess there are some valid issues...


If you you really want to see all the Wealthy Affiliate complaints you should read this post >>>


The two biggest legit issues with WA are...

 

  • The number of scam reviews posted by WA affiliates 
  • The time it takes for people to succeed with WA

WA does try to encourage beginners look outside of the make money online niche, but offers the option of promoting WA for people who cannot think of an alternative.


The Wealthy Affiliate Bootcamp training does encourage people to write product reviews because they're easy to rank and offer so many new product opportunities.


The training shows people how to properly research and write accurate informative reviews. The problem arises because people tend to cut corners in an attempt to speed up production.


Hence we see a lot of poorly researched reviews that call competing products scams and offer WA as the alternative.


Not good.


The other Wealthy Affiliate criticism is the time it takes for people to see results. 


Unfortunately what WA teaches isn't any form of hack, or loophole.


It's a long term proven strategy (see WA success stories) and does take time to build momentum. 


The problem with this industry is volume of 'shinny objects' which all promise fast and easy money...


Super compelling these lure people like flies to *@$#.


I know I've been caught so many times.


If only I'd shut myself off from this crap and concentrated on what I know works...


Wealthy Affiliate offers free membership and money back guarantees so why not try it and decide for yourself.



What's New For 2018...

Having now been a member over 3 years. The point I can add now that I couldn’t have before is the continuous improvement and investment that Kyle and Carson pour into Wealthy Affiliate to ensure it remains the best affiliate training community on the web.

I’ve now seen for myself 3 years of commitment and achievement that Kyle & Carson can be rightly proud of.

This continuous improvement is in terms of...

Training updates to ensure the core training is always current with an ever changing online landscape – or – Take consistent action following the training and your success is only a matter of time (not if but when).

Community powered initiatives such as ‘Site Comments’, ‘Site Feedback’ and ‘Site Health’ that help ensure your site is on target (site comments and feedback are particularly awesome).

Ongoing improvement to navigation and look & feel. WA has so much helpful content the problem is how to file and access it elegantly… a continuous loop of test and feedback ensures this aspect is always improving.

Jan 17 has started with a 'BANG' of additional VALUE...
FREE SSL encryption for all WA hosted domains. Not only FREE but ONE CLICK set up!

Free SSL is a biggy (Google love secure websites)... well done WA.

What else will 2017 bring?

One of the things that makes WA stand out is that it offers people a 100% FREE membership option, that includes step by step video training and TWO FREE WEBSITES...

Can there be a fairer way of showing people your services?...


Click here to check WA out for yourself FREE of charge...

Wealthy Affiliate Bonus 2018


So over the years I built up this long list of stuff I could give you as a bonus for checking out WA.

But though my intentions were true.

You don't need more marketing stuff ...in fact you need less...

  • Distraction
  • Stuff to learn
  • Stuff to muddy the water

You see the system that WA teaches simply works.

And there are lots of ordinary people having success with this system to prove it.

The secret to success with this system is...

FOCUSED ACTION.

Do as the system tells you... practice makes perfect.

You're unlikely to succeed overnight.

But succeed you can. This is an ability you can learn.

It's not a gift your either born with or not.

Here's my bonus... It's a menu of affiliate marketing case studies, and a link to free mindset conditioning material from people like Tony Robbins and Earl Nightingale ...for me this is the secret sauce, and I would encourage you to build a little of this into your daily routine.


FUN LEGIT SIDE HUSTLE?


HERE'S MINE >>>
  • Robert says:

    That was a great and extensive review of Wealthy Affiliate. I know of many people who have started their successful online careers through the training that is offered there.

    The information you have provided is quite thorough and makes a great case for joining. I’m going to share this on Twitter for my followers. Thanks for providing this information.

    Robert

  • JohnV says:

    Great looking review – it really does say it all.
    Life just gets better!

  • Derek Marshall says:

    Hi there,

    Fantastic review of wealthy affiliate. I am a member, and I do like like it. I have to say that it is not perfect as there is no proper social media training given, in this day and age Kyle really ought to make a complete course on social media, much more detailed in the lesson or two that is there and a course on video marketing and SEO also. (although covered SEO could do with an extra course on its one to explain fully what we can do to optimise our content bot on page and off page SEO) PODcasting is not covered either, so WA has it faults but it is getting better all the time.

    • admin says:

      Some interesting points Derek,

      Yes, I’d go so far as to say that if your interested in learning about pod-casting specifically without all the other stuff that makes up a successful website you may be better off checking out somebody like Pat Flynn who does extensive podcasts and also has a stella rep.

      For me personally I do the minimum Kyle suggests with social media as it’s really not my thing at all.

      In terms of SEO I do have a lot more experience, both good and bad. Before WA I used to follow Becker and some of the other respected SEO’s. The problem with SEO is that you don’t have to do much before you start to stray onto dangerous ground. Particularly off site SEO and backlink building. I’ve partially lost some very profitable sites due to doing what turned out to be short term SEO tactics. WA’s ‘strategy’ of unique good quality content created with a specific intent isn’t very sexy, but it works, isn’t confusing, and is as evergreen as anything is ever likely to be online.

  • Julius says:

    Hello Richard,

    Thank you for this detailed review. It’s could be very useful for newbies who wants to start an online business! I’m a member of WA myself and I really love it. The community is awesome and the training is really easy to follow. I really suggest for everyone to join.

    Greetings from Lithuania!

  • Alex says:

    Hi Richard,

    This is the coolest review on Wealthy Affiliate. I am a member of WA too and I would like to endorsed on what you said in your post here.

    I know so many online marketing newbies who turned into experts just by following the online training and support at Wealthy Affiliate. It is an amazing training platform. There are so many success stories being shared among the members and I have high hope in this training platform.

    There are so many internet scams out there and I have tried them out. The disappointment comes close after the purchase. WA is quite the contrary: Once you step into, you are totally overwhelmed by tons of SEO training and tips.

    • admin says:

      Thanks Alex,

      I’m glad you’re enjoying WA.

      Personally I love reading the success thread within WA as there are daily stories to inspire and motivate. I’ve also created a post on my daily action plan which helps me keep my focus in an industry that’s buzzing with distraction. You can read my daily action plan here if you’re interested.

  • stefan says:

    Hi there! Thank for this great WA review!

    I have started my online business with WA in July 2015 and I don’t regret! I have learned all about affiliate marketing and how to rank high in the search engines. My articles are getting higher and higher thanks to the amazing training and support from the community. I must say that it took a long time before I made my first dollar, but now I can see that I am on the right track for bigger payouts. I hope to earn a full-time income by 2017 and WA will continue to be essential for the future of my business.
    I recommend anyone who want to become free from a job to do the same. There is no better way to make money online.

    • admin says:

      Thanks Stefan,

      Yes it takes time to learn how to do this, and create your own system for getting work done.

      If you realise your full-time income next year, surely this would have been the best 3 years education EVER!.

      By the way if your reading this thinking you have to remain a premium member of WA the whole time… you don’t. The way to do this on a budget is start free, test things out, if you like it, go premium and study HARD for as long as it takes you to (I’d budget for about 4 months) then you can go back to being a free member. You can always go premium again later if you want to.

      You can join WA for free here…

  • Henry says:

    It’s a joy to visit sites that are clean-looking, easy to read & navigate. Must be part of Wealthy Affiliate, hehe!
    I remember, not very long ago you didn’t have a chance to buy custom domains from Wealthy Affiliate &.. BANG, the next thing you know, WA is offering domains too. Crazy right? They just get things done without robbing you blind. It’s absolutely great to see how this community is thriving.

    We all know, nothings perfect, not even Wealthy Affiliate, there’s always room for improvement & that’s only a good thing – Everyone can contribute to make this place a little bit better. The dynamic environment within this community is the next level thing.

    I feel the same way about seeing success before upgrading to premium. It is very possible. Perhaps this is what we can emphasize even more? ..to show people everything isn’t about greed move – Some of us love to share our passion & the revenue that comes from it is a great bonus on top of it.

    • admin says:

      Yes Henry, WA just keeps getting better.

      And your 100% right the community and it’s ability to make change is what sets WA apart from other good training programs. 400,000 PLUS active members make for something really special.

      Thanks for commenting Henry and good luck with your online journey…

  • Sangeeta says:

    A great and a detailed review about Wealthy Affiliate I have come across till date. As I currently involved with WA, I can say that it is the best platform I have ever come across to grow an online business. off course, we need to put our 100% efforts, time and hard work to learn the entire training. And above all, the community is always there to help you whenever you stuck at any phase.
    Currently i am a premium member of WA and looking forward to extend my membership year after year. 🙂

  • Marty says:

    Hi Richard, I like the straight forward approach. There are so many glittery things trying to get attention so they can fleece you. Is wealthy Affiliate expensive and how long does it take to earn money? Is it expensive to try it out.
    When someone tells me they can show me how to make a lot of money the first thing I ask them is ” what is the buy in?” If they can’t answer that I’m done with it.
    So what I am asking is what is the buy in for Wealthy Affiliate? Can I build a successful marketing business without going broke first?

    • admin says:

      Hi Marty,

      Thanks for stopping by, and great questions.

      Before answering your questions, lets be clear what WA is and what it teaches people.

      WA is a membership training community, teaching people how to build a successful website using a proven strategy.

      It’s not a business opportunity Per se. Therefore there is nothing you HAVE to pay for.

      Because you may not have any idea what’s involved in creating a website, WA encourage people to join as free members so they can ‘get their feet wet’ so to speak.

      Meaning build a free website, experience the WA training, and the WA community and see if its to your liking.

      You can stay as a free member fro as long as you like… no restrictions.

      However if you like the idea of building your own profitable website, you are going to need to develop two CRITICAL skills.

      1. Keyword research – to find the keywords that will attract visitors to your site and give your content the opportunity to help them and maybe earn an affiliate commission in the process.

      2. Content creation – Your website needs to provide help and value to visitors to facilitate their trust in your advice and recommendations.

      You also need to know how to promote your website / content, but if you get good at 1 & 2 your success is going to come much faster.

      So if you complete the free training with WA you’ll have a website set up, you’ll understand how money is earned on line, and you’re ready to decide if you want to invest further in your own education.

      WA offer premium training at $47 per month which is reduced to $19 for the first month so that you can again try things out.

      So though I guess you could pay $19 and consume all the training in one go, I think more realistically I’d suggest you budget for 3 / 4 months at $47 to get you EVERYTHING you need to create a successful marketing business based on your website.

      The only other costs you should budget for are buying your domain and hosting it. Domains cost about $15 per year (often less with deals) and hosting can be as little as $3 per month from (Hostgator.com are good for basic shared hosting).

      I don’t think there is any other proper business that can be set up for such a small amount.

      So I hope that answers your questions… no forced buy in, and if you opt to go premium you’ll have a proper website based business up and running including training, domain and hosting for under $150… does that sound good?

  • Ilyssa says:

    I have to say that I love Wealthy Affiliate and highly recommend it. I have been a member for seven months and have learned so much. I have also met really nice and supportive people. I look forward to continuing to learn from not just the lesson available on Wealthy Affiliate, but the experienced members as well.

    • admin says:

      Hi Llyssa,

      Yes, WA is not like any other forum I’ve ever been part of… hard to explain really. Bit like Facebook for entrepreneurs (no cat videos).

      For anybody thinking of joining WA free membership, make sure you add a profile picture and get involved with the community (park your skepticism for a week) you really should experience the whole package.

  • Jane says:

    Hi,

    I’m looking at getting started online but have ZERO experience.

    Can I start earning money with the free version of Wealthy Affiliate?

    Thanks for your help 🙂

    • admin says:

      Hi Jane, great question.

      I would say it’s unrealistic to expect to make money with the FREE Wealthy Affiliate Website, because if you have zero marketing skills you’ll struggle to get people to visit your website.

      The real purpose of the free WA sites is to let people experiment with website and content creation to decide if it’s a business model you’ll enjoy.

      The problem the free WA websites have is that though Google and the other search engines will index your content they will won’t send you the full potential traffic. Why?. Because search engines monitor websites for quality purposes, and new websites on free platform are considered lower quality – until they prove otherwise.

      The solution to this problem is buying your own domain name and hosting your own website (under $50 per year). This signals to the search engines that your serious about your website. You’ll still have to work hard creating quality content to build trust, but if your keyword research is good you can get traffic much faster, and with traffic comes the opportunity to earn money.

      The easiest ways to earn money when your site attracts traffic presuming you don’t have your own products or services to sell, is to allow others to buy advertising space on your website (Google Adsense is a great program for this), and / or to promote affiliate products.

      Hope this helps 🙂

  • Wendy says:

    This was a wonderful review of Wealthy Affiliate. You really covered everything. I love that you are very open and “real” about that fact is the results come only from doing the work. The biggest question I get from folks is, How long before I make money?” And I always tell them, It depends on if you are willing to do the work. Success takes time and dedication. And you make that very clear.

    As an affiliate marketer who is a member of WA, I can totally vouch for the website as the best training website for those who want to make money with niche marketing.

  • JohannHR says:

    Wealthy Affiliate looks fascinating. But is it for email marketing or website work? If the second, do you know about an interesting hosting place because I have heard it can be confusing finding a right place for it.
    About the keyword tool, is it always free or is it free in testing time?

    • admin says:

      Hi Johann,

      WA first teaches people how to create a profitable website which boils down to learning how to find profitable keywords and then creating content around those keywords. This is the foundation for a lucrative business, and many of wealthy affiliates top earners do no more than this….

      However like an onion has many layers WA also teaches other forms of marketing and promoting your websites, paid methods, video marketing, social media, and email marketing to name the obvious ones… the amount of skills / layers you could add to your core abilities is up to you.

      In terms of hosting WA FREE gives you 2 free WordPress websites and free hosting in order to test things out. Once you’ve decided you want to take this seriously you really should buy your own domain and host it yourself.

      This is super easy and very affordable (under $80 for a whole year including both the domain and hosting).

      You can get the hosting from one of many very affordable hosting providers. I use Hostgator shared hosting for some sites and they’re great value.

      Because I’m a premium member with WA I also use the WA hosting which is free with my premium membership. WA hosts my most important sites now because it’s faster, designed around WordPress and is way more secure than Hostgator.

      I can justify my monthly WA membership costs on the hosting savings alone (I also claim the membership as a tax deductible 🙂

      Oh! I forgot to mention if you start by building a free WA website and then want to migrate it to your own domain name WA have made it so easy it’s crazy… literally under 2 minutes… so coool!

      Re the keyword tool. WA offer a free tool which is really good and free forever, and also Jaaxy which is a premium product but has a free trial. Jaaxy is the best keyword tool I’ve ever used… seriously fast (you can get free trial access to it here...)

      Also if you access my FREE WA Bonus resources I’ve provided some additional training on using free keyword tools which is pretty darn good in my opinion… get access to my WA Bonus here.

      Best thing is to join WA for FREE and see what you think there really are no strings attached.

  • Richard,

    I enjoyed your review and I’ll look into WA. Having once been a proofreader, I’m sensitive to errors and there’s one in your discussion:

    “When I was researching WA I was looking for great, current intermediate to advanced level training, because I indented to both invest in my knowledge as well as promote that product…”

    “indented” should be “intended”

    Best regards,

    Bruce

  • Hi

    This is by far the most detailed and the most comprehensive review of Wealthy Affiliate I ever saw! And every word is true because WA lives up to it. I am already a premium member so I cannot join again, but I will definitely promote WA as the best online affiliate training program there is.

    Take care

    • admin says:

      Thanks Nicolass, I’ve been a member of WA for over three years and the updates and improvements seem to be coming faster each year. Congrats and thanks go to Kyle and Carsen who continue to strive to make WA the best it can be.

  • Shaikha says:

    Hi Richard, Thanks for this info.
    one question: i saw your other blog/information about 4percent program of Vic, and you have explained it as very nice program. my question is which one is REALLY good? WA or 4pcnt. or if you can guide me which one to start first? i dont know how long this blog is here so lets see if you will reply soon 🙂

    TIA

    Shaikha.

  • >