February 10, 2022

Keala Kanae Review: Is Fullstaq Marketer a Scam? [2022 Review]

If you're new here, take this quick make money online quiz to discover what route is the best one for you

Chances are that you've seen Keala Kanae on YouTube (or some other social media platform). 

He clearly intrigued you enough to consider giving whatever he was selling a go. 

So here you are looking for a legit way to make money online.

Now, as I'm not an affiliate for any of his courses I'm going to be totally honest with you about who Keala Kanae is, what his courses are all about and how much they cost.

That way you can make an informed decision if it's right for you or not...

Disclaimer:
This Keala Kanae review has been thoroughly researched with information and testimonials that are available online to anyone in the public. Any conclusions drawn by myself are opinions.

Fullstaq Marketer Review

The overview and rankings

Name: Fullstaq Marketer (used to be called AWOL Academy)

Founder: Keala Kanae

Type: Affiliate marketing training using paid ads

Price: $997 to start + $6,000 upsells

Best for: People that have a lot of excess cash and want to make money using social media ads and don't care about what they sell. 

Fullstaq Marketer Pros

  • Keala has proven experience
  • Legit training & model
  • Mentor support with highest price package
  • Refund policy exists

Fullstaq Marketer Cons

  • Unclear costs to start
  • Upsells & VERY expensive
  • Hidden additional costs
  • Paying for traffic = dangerous game for beginners
  • Few success stories

Summary: Keala Kanae has made a lot of money from affiliate marketing. In 2015 he and a friend created AWOL Academy to show people how they did it. Fullstaq Marketer is the revamped version of this and was created in 2019.

It costs $997 for the basic course but you will likely need to buy more of his courses to make any money. 

Make Time Online Rating: 45 out of 100 

Recommended: Nope.

What is Fullstaq Marketer about?

Fullstaq Marketer is Keala Kanae's newest course. It teaches people how to use paid advertising on social media to make money from affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing entails promoting the goods or services of third parties in exchange for a commission for each successful referral.

FullStaq Marketer is an interesting affiliate marketing program in that you are mostly instructed on how to promote the program itself.

This becomes visible only after signing up for the Business Launch Challenge (BLC).

FullStaq Marketer markets itself as a platform for those who are new to affiliate marketing and to generating money online in general.

Because Keala Kanae is somewhat contentious, FullStaq Marketer is somewhat problematic.

Together with Kameron George, he once ran the AWOL Academy affiliate marketing training.

Many individuals feel that FullStaq Marketer is an entirely distinct course, despite the fact that it appears to be an updated version of AWOL Academy. According to rumors, the latter was discontinued because to overwhelmingly poor customer evaluations.

The fact that FullStaq Marketer went live in 2019, the same year its predecessor was decommissioned, tells you a great deal about it.

Despite Keala's endorsement of both courses, which is typically a green light, I advise you to approach his products with care.

Although he is an extremely popular course provider, we would expect his affiliate marketing results to be somewhat more transparent. I would argue that this makes him a "guru," which is ironic given that he advises avoiding these kind of individuals.

 

What the frick is affiliate marketing?...

Affiliate marketing is simply making money by selling other people's products. 

Usually it works something like this...

Fullstaq is very similar to Keala's previous course called AWOL Academy, which he and Kameron George created in 2015.

But they split ways and Kanae started Fullstaq in 2019. 

You can learn a bit more about what AWOL Academy taught in the 8 minute video below (which is very similar to Fullstaq Marketer)...

Sounds interesting, right?

Now, I can almost hear your mind screaming...

Who is Keala Kanae?

Keala Kanae is an online marketer who teaches people how to make money online.

He has had two courses that show people how to use social media ads and affiliate marketing. 

But really... Kanae is a guy from Hawaii. 

Hey that rhymes! (sort of)

He did pretty well with Empower Network.

A company that the owner himself admitted was "fake and bullshit".

But the fact is, he's made a lot of money from affiliate marketing. 

Since then he's gone on to make a s*** ton of money by teaching people how to make money from his two courses... AWOL Academy and Fullstaq Marketer. 

Keala Kanae net worth

It's estimated that Keala Kanae is worth over $30 million. 

However, it's not clear exactly how much Keala is worth (I'm not sure he even knows).

I'm not sure why people care about this, but apparently someone's net worth is important if you're going to be learning from them.

According to Forbes and Huffpost AWOL Academy generated over $30 in annual revenue in 2017. 

But enough about all this...

Let's dig into what his course actually does!

Ready to make passive income online?

Hey, I'm Mike.

I created a passive income online within a year. I had no marketing skills or online experience when I started. 

How does Fullstaq Marketer work?

Fullstaq marketer is an online training program that teaches people how to make money with affiliate marketing. It mainly focuses on "paid traffic" approaches such as running Facebook ads or YouTube ads. 

This is probably why you've seen Keala pop up regularly on your Insta, FB and YT. 

But the Fullstaq website is poor with a capital P. 

It claims to be...

The World’s Greatest Internet Marketing Training.

Yet it is incomplete with 2 out of 4 programs still saying "coming soon". This is now over a year after it started.

The main target page claims you will receive a free download when you enter your email address...

I tried 3 different email addresses and am yet to receive it. 

But because I'm a research ninja you can actually just click here to get the free download (no email address required, although it's average at best & I wish I didn't waste my time there).

However, it conveniently takes you to a webinar page to start the 2 hour funnel into his premium courses.  

Inside Fullstaq Marketer

Like I mentioned earlier, Fullstaq is very similar to AWOL Academy.

Here is a comparison between the AWOL sales page & Fullstaq sales page...

There is a lot more info about AWOL online but I did some serious digging to find out what's inside Fullstaq...

And how much Fullstaq Marketer costs...

Fullstaq Accelerator: “Set Yourself Up With a Rock Solid Foundation”  ($997)

This is supposed to be for beginner affiliate marketers. 

It will give you:

  • Fullstaq 101: Introduction to digital marketing and internet income
  • Fullstaq Onboarding: Get started and using the Fullstaq resources
  • Fullstaq Edge: Master your mindset and remove limiting beliefs
  • Funnel Labs: What it takes to build, launch, and fill a sales funnel
  • 1-1 Advisor call: A sales call to help you decide what extra courses to buy

Here's the issue...

To really get going you will 100% need to invest in at least one other course. 

This training will give you a taster of what you can do. It shows you how to build the funnels and connect the tools. 

But it won't show you how to actually run the ads (how you get visitors with this method). 

Luckily for you this is where a 1-1 "advisor call" will help... (that's a joke)

Traffic Labs: “The Secrets to Generating a Flood of Website Visitors”  ($1,997)

This course will show you how to actually run ads on social media platforms like Facebook to bring visitors into your sales funnels.

Without visitors your funnels, sales pages and offers are totally worthless (see why you need this course too?) 

The good news is paid traffic can really work. 

When you find a way to make a campaign profitable you can literally print money (spend money on ads to make more money). 

The bad news is what the "gurus" don't tell you...

Paying for ads can be VERY fickle. 

You can find something that works one day but next week it's losing you money. 

  • Algorithms change all the time
  • Your account can get blocked for no apparent reason  
  • And you can throw thousands down the potty to find that one profitable ad (you NEED to be prepared to burn cash here)

This type of traffic works much better when you are promoting your OWN course, with your own upsells and pricing. 

I prefer using FREE traffic for affiliate marketing

Conversion Labs: “Struggling To Convert Your Leads Into New Customers?” (Coming Soon)

That traffic you're now generating from paid ads is useless unless you learn Keala's "most coveted conversion secrets". 

If this is similar to AWOL academy like the rest of his training, then this course will include:

  • Epic Story Telling
  • Mind Control Hacks
  • Live Sales Formula
  • Evergreen Sales Formula
  • High Ticket Sales
  • Affiliate Tracking

Fullstaq has been going since 2019 and this still hasn't been released on his site. 

Masters Labs: “Masters Create Their Own Success” (Coming Soon)

This course will show you how you can create your own courses to really scale your online business. 

Topics include:

  • Mindset Hacks
  • Wealth Strategies
  • Solopreneur to CEO

Again this section isn't up and running yet. 

Fullstaq Elite: “Building, Growing, and Scaling Online Businesses” ($5,800... possible to get this for ~$4,000 if you already have another package)

This course is not on their website because it's...

… reserved for our most serious clients who know that Building, Growing, and Scaling Online Businesses is the key to creating a lifestyle by their own design. It’s for the Wise Marketer that understands the value of peaking behind the curtain.

This includes mentoring and access to Kanae himself plus all of the other courses. 

Not for the faint hearted. 

This is only available for deadly serious online marketers that would like to go down a similar route of created courses with a ton of upsells. Most likely to make money by showing other people how to make money. 

I actually read another review that said he bought the $997 course but didn't actually learn how to run any ads. On the "advisor call" he was "advised" to spend $4,000 more to learn this stuff (see the review section later).

Also note that there are many other similar courses out there, such as:

Fullstaq Marketer cost to join

It costs between $997 and $6,000 to join Fullstaq Marketer.

As you've already seen, it varies for different products and you will likely need more than just the initial $997 course.

But the costs do not stop there...

Fullstaq Marketer monthly cost

The minimum additional cost you will need to actually apply this course is $370 a month.

There are a ton of tools that Fullstaq will recommend you need to use such as:

  • Website hosting ($100+ a year i.e. Bluehost)
  • Email autoresponder ($30+ a month i.e. Convertkit)
  • Funnel builder ($97 a month i.e. ClickFunnels)
  • Tracking software ($30+ a month i.e. ClickMagick)
  • Ads themselves (at least $200 a month)

But you won't be told that anywhere on the Fullstaq website!

Sure, you should see this as a business expense.

But I can guarantee if you're new to this is will take you a good few months to start seeing any return on your money (yeah, I learnt that the hard way).

Keala Kanae reviews online

Fullstaq Marketer is a training program that claims to teach you everything you need to know about making money online. The main method taught is using paid ads to make money from affiliate marketing.

But all you probably care about is whether it actually works or not. 

The best way to really tell if it can work is by seeing what others say that have taken the course. 

I checked out tons of YouTube videos, review sites like BBB and SiteJabber and other people's reviews online.

Here is a summary...

Common positive Fullstaq Marketer reviews

  • Keala Kanae is the real deal
  • You learn some really cool techniques to make money online
  • Real people are making money from this 

Best positive review I've seen online:

Fullstaq has 3 programs not 3 videos. 
The programs are very in-depth. You get your money’s worth. And yes, people are indeed making money on the training. 
I’ve been in this 2 yrs and they have lots of training, and opportunities with top-notch trainers. It isn’t a rip-off unless you decide not to work your behind off. 
It does take dedication. Support is there, sometimes it takes a few emails but when you get their attention finally, everything gets fixed. 
They make good on their promises. Definitely NOT a scam. Keala is a very unique individual.

Common negative Fullstaq Marketer reviews

  • It's hard to get traffic from the $997 course
  • It's really expensive and you have to buy more upsells to learn everything
  • They claim to have a 14 day refund policy but they won't refund me
  • There are some very bold claims and make it sound easy to earn $100k in 1 year no matter what your experience
  • It suggests software that is different from what they actually use (i.e. recommending lead pages but use ClickFunnels)

Best negative review I've seen online:

So I bought into Fullstaq about a month ago. I bought the $997 course for beginners. Well, it showed me how to build and put everything together.
But they do not show how or where to run ads at, or anything about running ads on Google or Facebook.
I’m not rich at all and I live paycheck to paycheck right now but I’m working towards getting out of that situation.
Now I know it’s not going to happen overnight, but the motherf*ckers showed me how to build the funnel and connect the programs, but they couldn’t show me how to run the ads unless I pay $4,000.
The coaching call — all he wanted was money. They didn’t give a f*ck that I spent a $1,000 to do the program out of the $1,600 I had for the next two weeks.
So needless to say I think if you do buy, buy the $4,000 one. And I have to say they are somewhat scam artists.

Is Fullstaq Marketer a scam?

Fullstaq Marketer is a legit course. 

It will provide you with the training to make some money from affiliate marketing.

However, the sales funnel does not make it 100% clear what you will be expected to do or how much additional funds you will need to make this system work.

That is the main reason why so many people call Fullstaq Marketer a scam. 

Tired of MLMs? Check out how I make money online here!

Fullstaq Marketer pros

There are a few things I really like about the course...

#1 Keala is the real deal

Keala actually has made a ton of money from affiliate marketing. 

Need the proof?

Here it is...

Man, I hate it when people do this crap. 

They could be a bunch of overdue bills for all we know!

Anyhoo, he has actually made money from affiliate marketing. 

Is it from the methods he teaches or is it mainly from his expensive courses? It's hard to say, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt here. 

#2 Legit business model training

Affiliate marketing is a totally legit business model. 

I've personally spoken to dozens of real people that make 6-7 (and even 8) figures a year from affiliate marketing on the Make Time Online podcast. You can listen to any of these chats right now. 

The training you will get here will definitely come with some decent value if you are new to all of this. 

#3 Mentor support comes with the $6k upsell

Having a 1-1 mentor is so important with online marketing. 

You can save thousands of dollars and years of wasted effort by getting the support from someone that's "got the T shirt". 

Pay $6k and you can get this today!

Btw- check this out to see how you can get 1-1 mentorship and support from a huge online community for a fraction of the cost.

#4 Money back guarantee [maybe]

Originally I saw their 14 day money back guarantee. 

I figured...

"Well that at last gives people peace of mind, but I sure bet they have a high refund rate". 

Then I saw this complaint out on BBB...

I signed up with this company on 8/9/2018. They advertise that with their system you can make $100,00 a year or more. They advertise to purchase on top of their course: ataama, get response, lead pages, and clickmagick. 
I spend $15,000 to get into their program but have not received $1,000 worth of value yet. [note this was when Keala sold AWOL, his very similar course before Fullstaq]
This course is a waste of time, and their 14 day money back guarantee is a scam because you cannot complete even 10% of the material by 14 days. This is how they secure is their customer and give them a fake money back promise.

Now I'm not so sure if this is a positive at all anymore!

And I personally wouldn't risk paying $6k now to check the course out only to find I can't get a refund like they claimed I could. 

Fullstaq Marketer cons

So here are some of the concerns I have about Fullstaq...

#1 Unclear costs to start & poor quality website

The website is very shady about what you actually receive and need to pay to actually join the course...

There are generic words on the site but no real substance. 

Clicking on some links take to you to the "contact" page instead of the page it suggests it will. 

There's hardly any proof this really works and it basically relies on the 2 hour webinar to sell this to you. 

For such a high ticket course it really should be a lot better.

This is a huge red flag to me!

#2 Upsells make this VERY expensive

It really makes it seem like you will learn all you need to learn from paying $997. 

This couldn't be further from the truth. 

It actually appears the $997 course is really a teaser to get you hooked on the concept but not give you enough training on how to actually set up ads etc. 

Without traffic your sales pages and funnels are as useful as a chocolate teapot. 

#3 Hidden additional costs

Even if you fork out the $6k for the full shebang, you're not done...

You HAVE to pay for ads and additional tools to make this system work at all...

Like I mentioned earlier this is totally fine and it really can work. 

The issue here is that this is not made clear up front!

#4 Paying for traffic is like playing with fire to new marketers

Paying for traffic gives you the chance to potentially make a huge bonfire quicky.

With an occasional wood top up it can continue to provide you heat for months to come and cook all of your favourite meats...

But it also has the potential to burn you like a mother fudger. 

If you don't know anything about online marketing, you will quickly learn how many things can go wrong. But you won't any of the foundational knowledge to know how to fix it.

#5 Very few success stories

For the "world's greatest internet marketing training" you'd expect to see a lot of raving reviews online about it. 

You would expect to see income proof and a whole range of testimonials. 

However, all I could find was a couple of 90 second videos from random people saying "lovely things"... aka wishy washy crap...

There's no proof these people have made anything. 

There's no proof these people have taken the course. 

And there's no proof that the training really works. 

Ready to make passive income online?

I've created a growing passive income online with no marketing skills or online experience... 

I've made a special video for you to explain exactly how I did this.

My opinion - Fullstaq Marketer & Keala Kanae review

When I first saw Keala Kanae & Fullstaq Marketer I thought...

However, the more I've dug into big KK, the more I question how genuine this really is. 

  • There is a really poorly maintained website
  • The lack of great testimonies and income proof is a worry
  • Training that is still "coming soon" 
  • Bottom line... this is clearly not Keala Kanae's main focus

This is really only suited for you if you:

  • Have around $10k spare to invest into this
  • Don't have high morals and don't care about what you sell or who to
  • Can dedicate a ton of time to sorting out the funnels and tweaking ads regularly

His ads & courses make it seem like you need to try and trick people into buying stuff from you.

Then you need to conveniently miss important info so they need to buy more stuff from you.  

And I actually think that he thinks this is how you have to do it to make money online.

I can tell you it's not the only way...

How I make passive income online

In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was. 

Once I learnt about it, it just seemed like a great business model that can grow over time using the power of the internet. 

So I tried to figure it out by myself... that got me nowhere fast.

Then I fell for some terrible online scams. 

But eventually, I found Wealthy Affiliate. It teaches long-term proven strategies to build an online business with all the tools & support needed. 

And this happened...

Once you learn the process of getting thousands of people to find your website every month (for free) there really is not limit to what you can achieve online. 

I've reviewed hundreds of courses or programs that claim to help people make money online. And I've spoken to dozens of 6-7 figure online entrepreneurs on my podcast.

This is by far the best place I've seen to help beginners get set up on the right foot. You can read my full Wealthy Affiliate review here (including the pros and cons!) 

Or you can watch an insiders video I made that explains exactly how it works here.  


About the Author

Mike Beatty has built a passive income online whilst working as a full-time PE teacher without any marketing or technical experience. Learn more about how he's done it here.

Mike Beatty

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