Wealthy Affiliate Review: Scam or Legit?

If you’re interested in affiliate marketing, chances are you’ve heard of Wealthy Affiliate. With over 1.4 million members, it’s one of the biggest names in the game. But with so many scams out there, it’s natural to wonder if the training program is legit.

As a seasoned member of Wealthy Affiliate for over three years, I’m here to share my honest review of the program. I’ll give you the inside scoop on the pros and cons, so you can decide if it’s the right fit for you.

Before we get started, I want to make it clear that I’m not here to push you into joining WA. There are plenty of other options out there, and I’ll be sharing some of the best alternatives later in this article. I’ve personally tried out several affiliate marketing courses, so I can help you find the best fit for your needs.

So, is Wealthy Affiliate worth your time and money? Let’s dive in and find out.

Key Takeaways: Wealthy Affiliate Review

• Name: Wealthy Affiliate
• Website: www.wealthyaffiliate.com
• Special Offer: Get Free Instant Access Here
• Owners: Kyle & Carson
• Overall Rating: 4.7/5
• Pros: Premium website hosting; comprehensive video training; live support; no upsells
• Cons: Training material can be overwhelming; free plan has limited access; not allowed to sell within WA
• Price: $49/month
• Verdict: Wealthy Affiliate is the most reputable and affordable platform for building an affiliate marketing business from scratch. You will get everything you need, including training, web hosting, keyword research tool, technical support, and much more.

Below is what I’m going to cover in this Wealthy Affiliate review.

What is Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate is an all-in-one platform on which you can build your entire affiliate marketing business. It combines training, software, and website hosting in one. This makes the whole process of making money online much easier.

It is a one-stop shop where you only have to pay a membership fee and get everything you need to build your affiliate marketing business.

If you are new to online business and have no idea about online marketing or affiliate marketing, Wealthy Affiliate can give you a step-by-step guide.

Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts”.

Who founded Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate was co-founded in 2005 by two Canadians, Kyle Loudon, and Carson Lim. Previously, Kyle Loudon and Carson Lim were very successful bloggers and online entrepreneurs.

When Wealthy Affiliate first launched, it offered only a keyword list membership that provided databases of keywords, but Kyle Loudoun and Carson Lim didn’t stop there.

The platform has become the most popular training portal in the world, enabling others to build successful online businesses using the model developed by Kyle Loudoun and Carson Lim 

Wealthy Affiliate is more than just a training program. It is an all-in-one platform that provides all the necessary tools and support resources for online entrepreneurs.

Wealthy Affiliate provides all the services needed to build an online business in one place, including training, tools, hosting, support, and domain registration.

Who is Wealthy Affiliate for?

Wealthy Affiliate is a platform that helps people make money online through affiliate marketing. It’s a great option for 

• Beginners who are looking for a comprehensive, all-in-one solution in affiliate marketing. 
• Advanced affiliate marketers who want high-quality hosting and keyword research tools

However, Wealthy Affiliate is not for you if you want to make money in a few weeks. To make money with Wealthy Affiliate, you have to build a website and create content to drive traffic. 

Building a successful online business takes time and effort, and it’s realistic to expect it to take at least 3-6 months before you start seeing revenue.

Get Free Instant Access to Wealthy Affiliate Here

How does Wealthy Affiliate help you make money?

Wealthy Affiliate is a digital learning platform designed to provide you with the tools and knowledge necessary for successful affiliate marketing.

Unlike other affiliate marketing courses, WA gives you free access to their training and a free website. This means you can start a free account to see how their platform works without paying anything.

Through detailed instruction and hands-on practice, you will learn how to create a niche site, target low-competition keywords, drive traffic to your website, and convert that traffic into lucrative affiliate sales.

How is the reputation of Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate (WA) has been around for 17 years and has a strong reputation, with a 4.9 rating out of 523 reviews on Trustpilot. WA responds to every comment, whether positive or negative, to address any concerns.

From reading the comments, it seems that the positive feedback on WA is more detailed than on other training programs, making it more likely that the feedback is genuine.

For example, one reviewer, Cory, mentioned building over 20 websites and successfully selling two of them since joining WA. This is possible because WA allows paid members to host 20 websites on their platform. 

Another student, Nicky, gave WA a four-star rating but mentioned leaving WA for other platforms and then returning because WA was the best choice.

On YouTube, there are also reviews from members who have been with WA for many years.

For example, this member Vitaliy Gershfeld shared how WA has helped him build profitable blogs based on his passions and interests.

With lots of success stories, the common trait among successful members is a consistent commitment to their business. 

WA is known for teaching only white hat techniques, which are ethical and long-term sustainable methods.

Black hat techniques, which give an unfair advantage or short-term results, are not taught in the community as they can become useless or penalized if search engine algorithms or advertising platforms change.

Get Free Instant Access to Wealthy Affiliate Here

How is the training structured?

There are various training programs on Wealthy Affiliate:

Online Entrepreneur Certification (OEC)

The Online Entrepreneur Certification (OEC) is a 5-module course with 50 lessons designed to guide members through the process of building and growing an affiliate marketing business in any niche. The modules cover:

• Getting Started: Introduction to affiliate marketing, niche selection, and setting up a website.
• Building Your Own Traffic-Producing Website: Techniques for creating content, optimizing for search engines, and driving traffic.
• Making Money!: Strategies for monetizing websites through affiliate programs and other methods.
• Mastering Social Engagement: Leveraging social media to promote businesses and engage with audiences.
• Achieving Maximum Success Through Content Creation: Advanced content creation techniques, outsourcing, and scaling strategies.

Affiliate Bootcamp

The Affiliate Bootcamp is a 7-module course with 70 lessons focused on promoting Wealthy Affiliate itself. This course is ideal for those interested in the “make money online” (MMO) niche. The modules include:

• Getting Your Business Rolling: Setting up a website and understanding the basics of promoting Wealthy Affiliate.
• Content, Keywords, and Conversions: Creating content that converts, keyword research, and SEO.
• Giving Your Site Social Value: Using social media to drive traffic and engagement.
• Get Visual, Get Aesthetic, Get Results: Enhancing website aesthetics and using visuals effectively.
• Knowing Your Audiences & Catapulting Your Referrals: Understanding target audiences and increasing referral conversions.
• Bing, Yahoo, & The Power of PPC: Utilizing pay-per-click advertising to drive traffic.
• How to Scale Successful PPC Campaigns: Advanced strategies for scaling PPC campaigns.

Additional Training

• Weekly Live Events: Conducted by Jay Neill, these webinars cover various topics such as SEO, content marketing, and social media strategies. Members also have access to a library of over 500 past training sessions.
• Premium Plus Classes: Premium Plus+ members can access over 300 live expert training sessions per year, covering a wide range of topics related to online business and marketing.

What else can you get with Wealthy Affiliate?

When you join Wealthy Affiliate, you can also expect the following:

Industry Leading Site Hosting

Wealthy Affiliate is not just an education platform. It also provides the leading Managed WordPress Hosting. Dealing with hosting issues can be a headache to many online entrepreneurs.

WordPress managed hosting is more secure than unmanaged hosting. Many unmanaged hosts are cheap like $3.96, $5, $10. But that’s just the most basic package. There are a lot of additional upsells. You should not expect anything good for this price.

Wealthy Affiliate is different. It is a provider of managed WordPress hosting. It takes care of everything for you, including security, speed, backups, reliability, spam protection, privacy, etc.

Its state-of-the-art hosting is super-fast, secure, and reliable. It integrates seamlessly with SiteRubix and Site Domains. You only have to pay a membership fee and you can host up to 10 websites with Wealthy Affiliate.

Wealthy Affiliate offers great prices for managed WordPress hosting compared to other companies. Here is the comparison:

• Pagely (5 Websites) = $199 per month
• WPEngine (10 Websites) = $115 per month
• Kinsta (10 Websites) = $200 per month
• Wealthy Affiliate (10 Websites) = $49 per month! (included with Premium)

Community

Wealthy Affiliate is a very community-centric platform.

Unlike other training programs where you can only learn from the instructor, Wealthy Affiliate creates a learning environment where everyone can share their ideas and experiences.

Whenever you encounter difficulties, you can ask for help from thousands of members around the world via live chat.

The interface is really like a social media platform. You can easily contact anyone on the platform, including the owners.

There is a discussion thread for each lesson. You can see questions from members and answers from other experienced members of the founders of Wealthy Affiliate.

This is the power of community-based learning, which allows you to get help whenever you need it. Because you can not expect instructors to be available all the time.

Premium Research Tools

Building an affiliate marketing business requires keyword research tools for search engine optimisation. Wealthy Affiliate has a well-known and powerful keyword research tool called Jaaxy.

You can use it to uncover profitable keywords, validate market trends and find relevant affiliate programs. A similar keyword research tool would cost around $100 dollars per month.

With Wealthy Affiliate you can save a lot of money because you don’t have to pay extra to use Jaaxy.

Powerful Site Builder (SiteRubix)

Wealthy Affiliate’s Site Builder will help you create a website in minutes. If you’re not a techie, you may feel overwhelmed with installing a WordPress website.

With SiteRubix from Wealthy Affiliate, you can break down the process into 4 easy steps:

1. What kind of website do you want to build? (Free domain or Private Domain)
2. Name your website
3. Choose a design for your website
4. Build Your Site

It is very intuitive and anyone can do it.

Site Comment & Site Feedback

When you create a brand new website, it’s normal to have no visitors for the first few weeks. This can be frustrating. However, Wealthy Affiliate has Site Comment and Site Feedback tools.

With Site Comment, Wealthy Affiliate members visit your site and leave a comment on your post. Members must leave a quality comment to be approved.

Spamming is strictly moderated by Wealthy Affiliate. With a number of quality comments on your web pages, you’ll have a higher chance to get ranked on Google. Because engagement rate is one of the factors considered by Google.

Site Feedback is another feature that allows you to get other members to visit your site and give you suggestions for improvement. This is very useful when you’re creating your website for the first time.

You’ll get a lot of constructive advice on layout, content, design, etc.

Get Free Instant Access to Wealthy Affiliate Here

How much does Wealthy Affiliate cost?

Generally, Wealthy Affiliate costs either $0 or $49 per month or $497 per year if you choose to pay annually.

Wealthy Affiliate has three membership levels:

• Starter Membership: it is FREE to join (no credit card is required). You can get limited access to the training, tools, 2 websites, live help (for the first 7 days), and hosting services.
• Premium Membership: You will get access to everything on the platform. It costs $49 per month.
• Premium Plus Membership – In addition to what you have with Premium Membership, you will get access to all advanced training and better web hosting. It costs $99 per month.

Any Discount?

When you sign up with Wealthy Affiliate, you can take advantage of a number of discount options. One option is to sign up annually instead of monthly. Annual membership is currently 16% cheaper than a monthly membership.

Every year around Black Friday, Wealthy Affiliate also offers a significant discount. There was a 45% annual discount on the Premium and Premium Plus plans.

Refund Policy

Some bloggers said Wealthy Affiliate doesn’t offer any refund. That’s completely FALSE!

Wealthy Affiliate can refund its premium members in Full.

As you can see from the WA member pmk82’s record of affiliate commissions. Two of his referrals have successfully received refunds.

To get a refund, you can simply ask WA’s support team. 

Besides, WA makes it easy to cancel your premium membership and stop all future billing.

Here are the steps:

1. Click Settings
2. Go to the “Subscriptions” page
3. Scroll down & click “Cancel Billing”
4. DONE!

Are students getting results?

Yes, Wealthy Affiliate has helped a lot of their students become successful Internet entrepreneurs. Of course, as in the case of many other digital programs, some might have failed.

But here’s a list of some inspiring success stories:

Wealthy Affiliate Success Story #1

Since joining Wealthy Affiliate in 2010, Nathaniell has built several profitable websites, allowing him to easily sell a website for at least $30,000 

He is one of the most amazing members at Wealthy Affiliate as he has managed to make $126,000 per month with just one website. I have also learned a lot from him.

Wealthy Affiliate Success Story #2

Steve has been with Wealthy Affiliate since 2009. After training with Wealthy Affiliate, he is now a very successful affiliate marketer. He can earn $9,000 a month with one website, which is a full-time income that many employees envy.

Wealthy Affiliate Success Story #3

Dylan joined Wealthy Affiliate in 2015. Over the years at Wealthy Affiliate, he has built and sold several websites. He is good at selling Amazon products. In just 7 months, he has already earned over $4.5K in commissions from over a thousand sales.

There are just a few examples of Wealthy Affiliate success stories. 

Praise for Wealthy Affiliate

1. Easy To Use

Wealthy Affiliate has developed a system that allows you to set everything up quickly and easily. 

With the right tools and training, you can be up and running within a week. That means you can literally set up your website and start driving traffic to your site. Even if you don’t pay a penny, you can still get one easy-to-build website as a free member!

However, you shouldn’t expect to make money in a week. WA is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It offers you a system that will help you build a long-term and legal fortune. If someone tells you otherwise, he or she is probably a scammer.

2. Reasonable Price

Unlike other online programs, with Wealthy Affiliate, you don’t have to pay thousands of dollars to get started. all you have to pay is $49 per month. Everything is included in this price: Web hosting, keyword research tool, writing tool, website builder, technical support, etc.

On the other hand, other affiliate marketing courses would usually recommend you sign up for expensive keyword research tools such as Ahrefs ($149/month). 

If you choose an annual subscription, you will even save 15%.

3. All-In-One Training Platform 

Wealthy Affiliate is not just an online course. It’s an all-in-one training platform to help you start an online business. 

You get the following benefits from Wealthy Affiliate:

• Comprehensive and step-by-step training
• Tools for keyword research
• Premium hosting of up to 10 websites 
• One-on-one support from other members
• WA community for asking questions
• Site support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

If you join other online programs, you would have to spend many days figuring out what web hosting to use, what keyword tools or software to subscribe to, where to look for support, and so on. But with Wealthy Affiliate, you have everything under control.

4. Superior Hosting

When you join Wealthy Affiliate, you can host up to 10 premium websites. In early 2020, WA’s hosting was extensively updated.

Kyle and Carson have invested millions of dollars in improving web hosting technology, and this has greatly improved website load times.

Here you can see the loading speed of my website hosted on Wealthy Affiliate’s server:

You can see that the performance of the website is almost perfect. So if someone tells you that Wealthy Affiliate’s hosting is bad, do not trust them and test it yourself.

Wealthy Affiliate knows how important the speed of a website is, and that’s why it has invested a lot of money in improving its technology. All you need to know is that if your website loads fast, the likelihood of people visiting your website increases. Google increases the ranking of fast websites for a better user experience.

There are many terrible websites hosting services out there with unreliable customer support and slow-loading websites. At first glance, they look super cheap (e.g. $2.95 per month) to attract new customers, but you have to sign a 3-year contract and pay extra for things like email addresses, website security, etc. So do not fall for these cheap shared hosting offers.

5. Weekly Live Webinars

Jay Neil hosts the weekly webinar. Every Saturday he hosts a live webinar lasting 60-90 minutes. If you missed it, you can watch the recording.

Jay has not missed a webinar in many years. Over the years he has covered many topics. Here are some topics you can learn from his webinar:

• Using Google Analytics
• Pinterest marketing
• Branding
• Converting visitors to buyers
• Email marketing
• Sales funnels
• Selling your own products
• Local SEO
• eCommerce
• Dropshipping
• On-page and off-page SEO

You can see that some topics do not belong to affiliate marketing. Yes, you are right. Wealthy Affiliate does not just teach you a way to make money. It provides a holistic view of “online business” and you can become an expert in online business.

6. Helpful and Active Community

Wealthy Affiliate has more than a million members. It’s kind of like a small Facebook focused on affiliate marketing.

Members share a lot of insights on how to make money online. Wealthy Affiliate makes it extremely easy for you to get help from others. You can post a question, which will appear in the newsfeed. Or you can ask questions via private message or live chat.

You can chat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and there is always someone there to answer you because Wealthy Affiliate has members from all over the world.

7. Regularly Updated

The founders, Kyle and Carson, are constantly improving the Wealthy Affiliate platform, be it the user interface, training content, hosting technology, software, etc.

They reinvest the money into Wealthy Affiliate for the benefit of all members. Many other gurus simply collect your money and disappear. Wealthy Affiliate is different because they really care about the success of their members.

Kyle and Carson are very busy, but they always spend some time on the platform helping members and collecting feedback for further improvements. That’s why Wealthy Affiliate has been around for more than 15 years and is still growing fast.

8. High-Paying Affiliate Programs

I have participated in many affiliate programs, but I have never seen an affiliate program as good as Wealthy Affiliate.

If you do not know what to promote after joining Wealthy Affiliate, you can easily join their affiliate program. As a member, you can earn a 50% commission on every sale.

The nice thing is that the commission is recurring, which means that you will earn a commission every month as long as the member you referred remains a member.

This is not a pyramid scheme or MLM, which I will explain later. There is nothing wrong with an affiliate program because it is completely legitimate, and even Fortune 500 companies have these types of affiliate programs.

Since WA offers great value to its members, there is also nothing wrong with recommending the platform to your friends or family. You can also learn how to make a passive online income after joining the program.

9. Beginner-Friendly

Even people with no experience in online marketing can follow Wealthy Affiliate’s step-by-step guide. The core training consists of both text and videos. You can either read the instructions or watch the demonstration videos. I have found that learning both ways is the most effective. It’s easier for you to retain the knowledge and apply it to your business.

If you have any questions about the training content, you can leave a comment, and Kyle or other members will help you.

10. Technical Support is Available 24/7

If you are not a techie, you may be worried about the technical issues that arise when building your website. The good news is that Wealthy Affiliate has taken care of this for you.

Wealthy Affiliate’s SiteSupport is here for you 24/7. Wealthy Affiliate has technical teams in different countries to help members all over the world.

Whenever there are technical issues on your website, just send a private message to SiteSupport and they will respond to you within minutes. The support team is very helpful and friendly.

It is really unbelievable that technical support is included in the small membership fee. Imagine if it would cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars to hire an employee to help you with technical problems. So you can really save a lot of money with Wealthy Affiliate.

Get Free Instant Access to Wealthy Affiliate Here

Criticism of Wealthy Affiliate

1. No Refund

I have noticed that some new members complain that Wealthy Affiliate refuses to refund the membership fee after they have paid it.

The “no-refund” policy is clearly stated in the terms and conditions when you checkout. 

In any case, if you truly want a refund, you can actually email WA.

If you aren’t satisfied, they will usually refund you. 

2. Outdated Training

Some people complain that education is outdated and needs to be updated. This statement is true only to a certain extent.

WA has existed for more than 15 years and the platform has so much training. Some training is created by the members.

It is understandable that some training on the platform is outdated given its vast amount of training. In some cases, the old trainings are still valuable, so you should not remove them. When it comes to principles and strategies, they usually still work. It may only be the interface of some software that changes.
In terms of the core training, Wealthy Affiliate updates them regularly to make sure they remain current and easy to follow.
Every week, there are new trainings and live webinars. There is no need to worry about not having enough training. You should rather worry about whether you have enough time to complete the training.

3. Pointless Ranking System

If you have tried Wealthy Affiliate, you can see that there is a ranking system for all members. The ranking system makes the community look like a game.

The ranking system is not about how much you make. It’s just a measurement of your activities and engagement on the platform.

So if you interact with other members, make comments on the blog posts, and answer people’s questions, your ranking will increase.

I don’t know why some people complain about it, because I do not think it does any harm. It just makes it more fun in the community and is a recognition for the members who are helpful.

In fact, I think it’s a brilliant system for supporting and actively shaping the community. When you ask questions in the community, other members will proactively answer your questions. You will be amazed at how selfless people are and how they are willing to take the time to help you.

4. Too Much Focus on Promoting Wealthy Affiliate

Wealthy Affiliate has some modules where members learn how to promote Wealthy Affiliate and earn a commission.

However, it doesn’t mean members are encouraged to only promote the platform itself. 

I’ve seen many members building different niche sites e.g. relationships, eCommerce, finance, etc. You can use what you learn from the training to promote any affiliate products. 

However, since WA offers generous commissions and their affiliate tracking system is reliable, some members have put more effort into promoting the program. 

5. Training Materials Are Overwhelming

Some people complain that Wealthy Affiliate contains too much information. In addition to the core training, you can see a lot of blog posts from members, live chats, questions from members, etc.

It’s true that there is a lot of information on the platform, but I do not find it annoying.

You can select what to read and digest. It’s all up to you and nobody forces you to read the stuff you are not interested in.

Some members actually share amazing hacks they found in their blog posts. I really like the posts of the members.

As for the live chat, it really gives you the opportunity to get instant help from other members. Some experienced members are very active in live chat to answer others’ questions. This is really very helpful.

6. Expensive

I see some people complaining about the price of Wealthy Affiliate. They say $49/month is overpriced and compare it to a cheap hosting service like Bluehost or Hostinger.

Obviously, these people haven’t signed up with Wealthy Affiliate or tried the program.

The reason is that Wealthy Affiliate is not just a web hosting company. It offers much more than that.

As I said earlier, you get access to comprehensive training, keyword research tools, website creation tools, writing tools, premium web hosting for 10 websites, community, technical support, etc. The $49 membership fee includes all of this, not just the web hosting.

Besides, the web hosting service offered by WA is not a cheap, unmanaged shared hosting, but managed WordPress hosting.

So, if you want to compare the price of Wealthy Affiliate’s hosting service with other hosting services, you’ll have to go for comparable offerings like Kinsta or WP Engine. These are other great Managed WordPress hosting services, but they are much more expensive than WA.

7. Wealthy Affiliate Is A Cult

Some reviews are accusing Wealthy Affiliate of being a cult club. The point is that their members interact with each other by leaving meaningless comments.

However, they don’t understand that the main goal of WA is to create a supportive environment. That is why it includes some elements of social media where entrepreneurs can network with each other.

I don’t see a problem with members welcoming new members. Isn’t it nice to have someone welcome you when you start something new?

My experience with WA members has been very positive and friendly. You won’t get laughed at if you ask stupid questions.

I’ve been in other community groups, and they’re not as friendly.

You can ask any questions at Wealthy Affiliate if you’re having trouble. You’ll always find some helpful members there.

8. Members Can’t Make Any Money

Some reviews say WA members don’t make money from the workout. There are even people who say the training doesn’t work.

It’s true that not everyone makes money with Wealthy Affiliate. This is true for all online programs that teach people to make money online.

Ultimately, the results depend on how you apply the training and how much time you devote to your business.

It’s the same as in traditional schools where everyone doesn’t get an award.

That said, there have been plenty of success stories at Wealthy Affiliate.

9. Lots of Biased Reviews From Their Affiliates

It is true that Wealthy Affiliate has an affiliate program and there are many affiliates. If you sign up with the program through their links, they will receive a commission.

However, it doesn’t mean their opinions are dishonest.

Successful affiliate marketers only promote products or services they really believe in or use themselves.

Most affiliates are Wealthy Affiliate members. As a result, they have used WA’s service and are satisfied with it.

The negative reviews, on the other hand, are written by non-members who have never used Wealthy Affiliate.

Who should you trust? The real member or not the real member? Of course, you should trust someone who has actually used Wealthy Affiliate because they know best.

10. Inexperienced Coaches

I’ve seen one negative review complaining about Kyle’s abilities. According to some, he doesn’t know affiliate marketing and doesn’t have a successful affiliate website. For this argument, they check the traffic on Kyle’s sample teaching site.

In the training, Kyle only uses a few dummy sites for demonstration purposes. Everyone knows the sites are not for money-making purposes.

So you do not see a lot of content on the site. I think it’s ridiculous to use the dummy site to prove that Kyle does not know anything about the subject matter.

In fact, most gurus do not disclose their most profitable affiliate sites. Because this would attract lots of rivals who’d copy them, making them instantly unprofitable.

Plus, Wealthy Affiliate has millions of members worldwide and has been around for 15 years. It’s worth millions.

How did Kyle build one of the most popular platforms if he’s not a good marketer?

In fact, Jay Neill knows so much about online marketing. Just send him a message and you’ll see how knowledgeable he is about affiliate marketing.

Get Free Instant Access to Wealthy Affiliate Here

Wealthy Affiliate Complaints: Valid or Not?

If you google online, you may have seen some complaints about Wealthy Affiliate. The most notorious negative review is from a man named Niall Doherty, who runs a blog called eBiz Facts.

This blogger eBiz Facts only gave Wealthy Affiliate a 1-star rating?!

If you look at his blog, you will see that he has given bad reviews to many other well-known online programs to attract visitors to his website.

Remember that the rating is not given by the real users or customers. It is just an artificial rating given by Niall Doherty himself, who does not actually attend the courses he has rated.

I suspect he makes a lot of money badmouthing Wealthy Affiliate, which is a good tactic when it comes to driving traffic, but not moral.

He gives Wealthy Affiliate a one-star rating, which is ridiculous. But it works well when it comes to getting people’s attention on the internet. This is because Wealthy Affiliate is a well-known and popular online platform.

It is very rare that someone gives Wealthy Affiliate a star when compared to other affiliate marketing programs. But as you can see, his post is highly ranked on Google, so his strategy works when it comes to Google ranking. That’s why he keeps repeating this strategy on his blog.

I noticed that he also removes all the comments that are against his views and keeps only the comments of some unhappy Wealthy Affiliate members. This gives a strong but false impression that Wealthy Affiliate is bad.

However, it seems that after reading our criticism of his manipulation of Wealthy Affiliate’s rating, he allowed real users to submit ratings for Wealthy Affiliate on his website. Shortly thereafter, Wealthy Affiliate’s rating went up.

You should understand that in business no one can guarantee your success and it’s not possible to let everyone become successful.

It’s like in school, some students get an award and others fail the exam even though they receive the same lessons from the same teacher. It’s the same with Wealthy Affiliate. There must be some students who fail due to many factors and reasons. But these students may scold and blame Wealthy Affiliate for their own failure.

In reality, you cannot blame Wealthy Affiliate. Wealthy Affiliate really does offer everything it can to facilitate your success and support your entrepreneurial journey.

So I recommend you to go to Trustpilot to see the real customer reviews, where Trustpilot verifies and approves every review before publishing it. Trustpilot doesn’t manipulate the customer reviews like Niall Doherty.

By the way, here are the few complaints he made, which I think is pretty funny:

• No refunds (there is already a generous free plan for people to play around the platform, so it makes no sense to offer additional money-back guarantee)
• Outdated training (new training are added every week)
• Too much emphasis on promoting Wealthy Affiliate (Wealthy Affiliate members are doing many different niches to make money online)
• Wealthy Affiliate members are not making money (there are many success stories indeed)
• Wealthy Affiliate hosting is slow (you can do the testing yourself, don’t trust Niall Doherty)
• Wealthy Affiliate is too expensive (Wealthy Affiliate is much cheaper than other affiliate marketing courses on the market)
• Kyle’s example website has little traffic (It’s funny that Niall Doherty expects Kyle to create a lot of content and promote a dummy website used for teaching and demonstration purpose only.)

However, I found out that a very successful affiliate marketer, Nathaniell, refutes Niall Doherty beautifully in a YouTube video. In case you do not know who Nathaniell is, he is a very successful affiliate marketer who makes a 6 figure income every month.

His website called One More Cup of Coffee is a much more established website than eBiz Facts. So for me, his words are much more convincing and trustworthy than Niall Doherty’s.

Actually, you may wonder why Niall Doherty spends so much time writing his Wealthy Affiliate review.

He pretends to be an honest detective and went to Wealthy Affiliate to harass the members and capture screens. Basically, he simply wants to tell people to join Authority Hacker instead of Wealthy Affiliate. He is the super affiliate of Authority Hacker.

The reason is simple: authority hacker is much more expensive, so he can earn more commissions when people join through his affiliate link. He does everything for his own benefit and not for the readers’.

So do not trust the words of Niall Doherty. In my opinion, he is a very biased and dishonest person.

Another blogger Craig said 99% of Wealthy Affiliate members can’t make any money?!

You can also find a negative review written by a former member of Wealthy Affiliate whose name is Craig.

Craig’s website was abandoned a long time ago, so you won’t see any new post updates.

When I read Craig’s post, I feel like I’m reading the grumblings of a loser. Should you trust the words of a loser? Probably not.

It’s funny that Craig hasn’t managed to make money himself and assumes affiliate marketing is a dying business model.

In fact, Statista predicts that affiliate marketing spending in the U.S. alone will reach $8.2 billion by 2022, more than triple what it was 10 years ago. 

Also, Craig complains that 99% of the people at Wealthy Affiliate can not make money. The problem is, where did Craig get the data? How did he come up with that number?

It seems that just because he failed himself, he assumes that everyone else is failing too, which is a ridiculous assumption. Throughout his report, you can not see that he provides any solid evidence.

There are actually many success stories at Wealthy Affiliate, which I will show you in the next section.

And then Craig complains that it’s very hard to make money. But he did not mention how many hours he dedicated to his business.

If he said that he put in 10 hours a day and still did not make a dime, then maybe that would be more convincing. But if you look at his website, there are only a few posts, which means he is a very lazy person.

A slacker like Craig can never succeed no matter what programs or tools you use.

Besides, making money is never easy. Wealthy Affiliate doesn’t claim to be a get-rich-quick system. If you’re impatient and lazy like Craig, you shouldn’t sign up with Wealthy Affiliate.

If you want to achieve financial freedom, you have to commit to this by devoting time and effort. Nobody in this world, including Wealthy Affiliate, can guarantee your success. Only you can guarantee yourself.

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Wealthy Affiliate Lawsuits: Was WA Sued?

In 2015, MOBE, a multi-level-marketing company, sued Wealthy Affiliate for defamation after Wealthy Affiliate’s co-founder, Kyle Loudoun, wrote an article calling MOBE a scam.

MOBE tried to force Wealthy Affiliate into bankruptcy as a result of the cost of defending itself in court. The lawsuit ended up costing Wealthy Affiliate $500,000. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) later accused MOBE of operating a pyramid scheme.

The company misled its members into believing they would earn a financial gain but actually earned none. The higher-ups in the pyramid benefited financially as more people joined and made purchases. The FTC eventually shut down MOBE and the complaint against Wealthy Affiliate was dismissed.

As you can see, this lawsuit has nothing to do with Wealthy Affiliate’s legitimacy. Rather, it shows that WA founders are not afraid to speak the truth.

As for other false claims against Wealthy Affiliate’s legitimacy, they stem from the fact that the accusers do not understand at all how WA and affiliate marketing works. These claims come from people who wanted to get rich quick with affiliate marketing or did not have affiliates to begin with.

Is Wealthy Affiliate a pyramid scheme or MLM?

Wealthy Affiliate is not a pyramid scheme or MLM. It’s a legitimate platform that provides various tools and services to help online businesses succeed. WA members can promote any products or services they want and earn a commission on the sales made through their unique affiliate link.

Pyramid schemes are illegal and operate by recruiting people to invest money in the promise of getting rich quick. These schemes don’t offer any products or services and only rely on recruiting more members to pay the previous ones. That’s not the case with Wealthy Affiliate.

Wealthy Affiliate provides various tools and services for online businesses, such as website hosting, keyword research, and comprehensive affiliate marketing training. Members can make money by promoting any product or service they choose, not just Wealthy Affiliate’s products. Yes, you can earn a commission by promoting Wealthy Affiliate, but that’s not the only way to make money with the platform.

MLMs or multi-level marketing programs, on the other hand, are legitimate companies that rely on a network of distributors to sell their products. The distributors can also recruit other people to join the network, and they earn a commission from the sales made by their recruits. However, MLMs often have a bad reputation because they can be perceived as pyramid schemes.

Unlike MLMs, Wealthy Affiliate affiliates don’t recruit downline members. They simply promote any product or service they want, and they earn a commission on the sales made through their unique affiliate link. This is a standard practice in the affiliate marketing industry and is not illegal or unethical.

Is Wealthy Affiliate a scam or legit?

Wealthy Affiliate is not a scam. It is a legit online platform that has existed for more than 15 years. You won’t see a scam lasting for more than a decade. Usually, scams received lots of complaints from the Better Business Bureau and were shut down by the Federal Trade Commission within a few years.

Founded in 2005, Wealthy Affiliate has been constantly updating their course materials and other features. The founders are still active on the platform. If you have any questions, you can simply reach out to them. 

At the time of this writing, WA has a 4.9 rating out of 539 reviews on Trustpilot. In contrast, most online programs only have a 1 to 3 star rating.

I’ve read both positive and negative comments. It appears that most reviews are genuine. 

Is Wealthy Affiliate worth it?

If you’re not sure whether Wealthy Affiliate is worth your time and money, then let me tell you that it definitely is.

First of all, you can try Wealthy Affiliate for free, which is a great way to get started without any risk. And as someone who’s been a student of Wealthy Affiliate, I can tell you that it’s one of the best platforms I’ve ever come across for affiliate marketers.

With Wealthy Affiliate, you don’t have to worry about anything else. They provide you with everything you need to build a successful affiliate marketing business, including keyword research tools, writing tools, website-building tools, and more.

You don’t even have to worry about buying a domain name or using website hosting from another provider. You can set everything up within Wealthy Affiliate, and they’ll take care of everything for you.

The step-by-step training might not be helpful for very experienced digital marketers, but it’s a great way for newbies to get solid knowledge and achieve success in affiliate marketing. And if you ever have any questions, you can always attend a live webinar to learn something new and get your questions answered.

The best part is that the price of Wealthy Affiliate is very reasonable compared to other online programs. And unlike other programs, you don’t just get video tutorials – you get access to a whole community of experts who are there to help you out.

Another great thing about Wealthy Affiliate is that they’re a reputable company that doesn’t force you to stay forever. You can cancel your premium membership at any time.

And if you’re worried about losing your websites if you cancel your membership in the future, don’t be. Since WordPress is an open-source system, you can easily transfer your website to any other web host in the future by making a backup copy of the database.

Where to Join Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate has a very simple pricing scheme. It has a free and premium membership.

If you want to have an in-depth look or feel about Wealthy Affiliate, you can sign up for the starter membership here (no credit card required). You can be a free member forever with no time limit.

And as a starting member, you get instant access to the community, live chat, over 500 training modules, 2 classrooms, networking, comments, 1 free website, and the keyword tool.

So I recommend you at least set up a free account and see for yourself.

If you’re serious about your business and want to get the most out of Wealthy Affiliate, you can upgrade to the premium membership later. Then you’ll be able to access everything. After that, there will be no more upsells.

I hope this review of Wealthy Affiliate helps you in your decision to join Wealthy Affiliate.

If you’ve any questions, feel free to comment below. Or if you register a free account, you can contact me directly at Wealthy Affiliate. I’m always here to help.

Other Things You Should Know About Wealthy Affiliate

1. Is Wealthy Affiliate free?

As a starter member, you will have access to the Online Certification Level 1 Course and will be able to build one website (free Siterubix domain), including free domains and free hosting.

Wealthy Affiliate offers two types of memberships: starter membership and premium membership. You can upgrade from a Starter Membership to a Premium Membership at any time (but there is no pressure on you to do so).

2. What are the differences between the Starter and Premium memberships?

The starter membership at Wealthy Affiliate provides limited access to the features, but the premium membership takes it to a whole new level by unlocking all the features. Most people join Wealthy Affiliate as a Starter member and then upgrade to the Premium membership. The choice is yours.

3. How do you make money with Wealthy Affiliate?

At Wealthy Affiliate, you’ll learn how to do affiliate marketing, build an affiliate website on a topic of your choice, and build an audience through Google and social media.

You’ll also learn hundreds of ways to make money from your website.

4. How is the support of Wealthy Affiliate?

In my opinion, the support is excellent.

In my experience, contacting Wealthy Affiliate’s support team is quick and easy.

Both Carson and Kyle can be reached via direct message and respond quickly to your inquiries. 

Note that you have the option to speak with him confidentially. I like that it doesn’t have the appearance of a faceless company. That’s why the population there’s so voracious.

There’s also the tried and true “Email Us” page.

With the help of Carson, Kyle, Jay, and the rest of the team, as well as the users themselves, the community is excellent.

5. How long does it take to make money with Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate is not a get-rich-quick scheme.

Google takes time to rank your website, building your website with very helpful content takes time and it takes time to become an authority in your niche.

How long it takes to make your first sale or replace your full-time income depends on the niche you chose, the quality of your website, the amount of content you can publish, and how much time you can spend on it.

6. Do I have to promote Wealthy Affiliate’s program to make money?

You do not have to! If you know someone who might be interested, you can promote Wealthy Affiliate and earn money, but you do not have to.

The Wealthy Affiliate program is NOT a pyramid scheme where you have to harass your friends, family members, and social media groups in order to earn money online.

Wealthy Affiliate teaches its members how to build a real online business, and members can make money promoting a wide range of products in such wide-ranging niches as exercise equipment, dog accessories, leadership courses, and kitchen appliances.

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Wealthy Affiliate Alternatives

There are other reputable online programs that can teach you affiliate marketing. I want you to have all the options so you can build a successful online business.

Authority Site System

Are you interested in building an authority website? It can be a tough task, but The Authority Site System is here to help. This complete affiliate marketing course takes you through the entire process step-by-step, from market research to website setup, content creation, and ultimately, making money.

Nowadays, it’s more difficult than ever to build an authoritative website due to increased competition. Mark Webster and Gael Breton, the creators of The Authority Site System, have plenty of experience in building authority sites and can help guide you through the process.

While link building is a focus of Authority Hacker, it’s not the only way to build an authoritative website. In fact, link building doesn’t always work. If you’re a beginner, Wealthy Affiliate’s clear step-by-step instructions might be more appealing than Authority Hacker’s emphasis on using tools.

Legendary Marketer

Legendary Marketer is a 15-day online course where you work with a dedicated business coach to develop a comprehensive strategy for your business. As the name suggests, Wealthy Affiliate is primarily about helping you create a website that attracts visitors and sells affiliate products.

To help you start and grow your online business, Legendary Marketer offers a wide range of products. Legendary Marketer’s flagship product is the 15-Day Online Business Builder Challenge.

With the help of the 15-Day Online Business Builder Challenge, you can learn how to start your own online business.

You will be paired with an experienced business planner who will help you develop a thorough strategy for your business. The 15-Day Challenge focuses primarily on developing a business value ladder as part of a comprehensive business strategy.

However, many claims that Legendary Marker is nothing more than a pyramid scheme built on the backs of unsuspecting customers and full of unnecessary and overpriced add-on products.

Savage Affiliates

Franklin Hatchett, the creator of Savage Affiliates, has put together this step-by-step guide on how to build a website and turn it into a source of passive income through affiliate links. Basically, you promote other people’s products and earn a commission for any sales that result from your promotion.

The aim of the course is to teach you how to get your website to rank highly on search engines like Google, which will bring in more traffic and therefore more potential earnings. Sounds good, right?

Savage Affiliates comes with 10 modules and over 200 videos to help you learn the ropes. And don’t worry, the videos are top quality and cover everything you need to know. There is a range of video formats, from Franklin Hatchett talking directly to the camera, to demos of him actually building a website, to animated whiteboard explanations. Plus, he’s a funny and engaging teacher who shares his own experiences with affiliate marketing in a relatable way.

You can choose between the standard or “Super Pack” version of the course, with the latter being more advanced and therefore more expensive. But either way, Savage Affiliates could be your ticket to earning some sweet, sweet passive income.

Commission Hero

Commission Hero is a course created by Robby Blanchard. It teaches you how to generate traffic from Facebook ads to landing pages. These landing pages help you to collect emails that allow you to pitch affiliate products from ClickBank.

To give you a clear picture, below are the steps you will learn from Commission Hero:

1. Create Facebook ads that drive traffic to your landing page
2. Create landing pages to promote an affiliate program or collect emails
3. The customer clicks your affiliate link to buy the product and you get a commission

The process is simple, but there are a lot of hidden costs and the learning curve is steep. For example, it is difficult to manage Facebook ads and the ad costs can eat away at your hard-earned money quickly.

That means unless you can afford to lose money, it is not a good idea to promote affiliate products by running Facebook ads.

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