February 3, 2022

Wealthy Affiliate Review: 13 Pros and Cons [2022 Honest Insight]

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I’ve been a member of Wealthy Affiliate since September 2018. There are a ton of opinions about it out there so I wanted to do a full transparent Wealthy Affiliate review that's up to date. 

Wealthy Affiliate is an affiliate marketing course with the tools and community to help people make money online with an online business. It is not a “get rich quick and easy” program and the most common complaints are about some of the old training.

Warning!! This is a thorough Wealthy Affiliate review for 2022.

If you'd rather watch a 20 minute video I made instead of reading this, click here

I’m going to address all arguments made for and against Wealthy Affiliate so you have it all in one place. I promise to you right now that I will show you both the pros and cons, so you can make a more informed decision. 

But I’m going to make this clear up front... 

I recognise I am biased towards Wealthy Affiliate as it’s what has helped me grow 3 websites to make money without any experience. Also, if you do click on any link on this page and eventually become a premium member, I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you (and I will send you some bonuses & provide 1-1 support). Read my full disclaimer here.

Wealthy Affiliate Review

The overview and rankings

Name: Wealthy Affiliate (wealthyaffiliate.com)

Founder: Kyle Louden and Carson Lim in 2005

Type: Affiliate marketing training, tools and support

Price: Free starter membership; $19 for month 1 then $49 per month or $495 a year for premium 

Best for: Beginner affiliate marketers (who are serious about creating an ethical online business)

Wealthy Affiliate Pros

  • Take action quickly
  • Affordable and no upsells
  • Includes the tools you need
  • Weekly live webinars & updates
  • Helpful and active community

Wealthy Affiliate Cons

  • No refunds
  • Some core training needs updating 
  • Emphasis on promoting WA
  • Information overload

Summary

Wealthy Affiliate has the training, tools and community to help people make money online with affiliate marketing. It is not a “get rich quick and easy” affiliate program. It teaches people how to create content that can be found on search engines to get free traffic every month. 

Make Time Online Rating: 91 out of 100 

Recommended: Yes

No credit card details required

My Story

It all started on a sunny day in Essex, England, in August 2017.

Sarah, my wife, and I were sipping our coffee, chilled on my parent’s sofa when she asked…

“Do you want to start a blog?”

I had no idea how much those 7 words would shape my life. Read the “About Mike” page to learn more about this story.

I didn’t even know blogging was still a thing in 2017!

In fact, I had no idea that people could actually earn money from a blog! But after trying it out for a while and speaking to some people in this mysterious “blogging world” we realised some people were making a full-time income from it. 

And others were making way more than I’d ever be able to as a teacher.

So it became a puzzle of mine to put the pieces together to figure out how they do this.

As you read each word in this Wealthy Affiliate review you will see how it has helped me to put a lot of the pieces together.

Remember, I do make a commission if you were to join Wealthy Affiliate on a paid membership through a link on this page. It does also mean I will personally help you 1-1 learn how to build your online business. 

BUT...

I am not going to blow their trumpet to convince you to give it a go.

I will be completely honest about my experience and show you the full picture so you can make an informed decision.

My First Online Sale…

Man, I remember the day that I made my first bit of money online.

It’s such a weird feeling that is super hard to explain.

I was in freezing England after the Christmas break. We were out at dinner with my parents before we were heading back to Qatar when I got this buzz on my phone.

“Amazon Associates”.

I recently had an email from them saying I had about a week left on my account to hit the required 3 affiliate marketing sales in your first 180 days.

So I didn’t think much of it as I’d hardly used any affiliate links from Amazon on my website.

Then I clicked it and…

I made a massive…

$1.03!

This may sound weird but this was possibly the greatest $1.03 I have ever or will ever earn.

Why? Because it was passive income.

I did the work once… and it paid me in the future.

Someone had read my review of Rich Dad Poor Dad, clicked the link and bought the book!

More than anything else, it was proof that I can make money online.

2022 update…

It’s actually quite crazy how much I have learnt about affiliate marketing and online businesses since September 2018. I’ve spoken to dozens of 6 figure online entrepreneurs on my podcast (Make Time Online), who share how they started and their best tips. 

I also know how much there still is to learn.

But here’s the truth:

I cannot fail if I don’t quit.

How many types of business can honestly say that?

Long story short...

Here is what has started happening to my website within one year…

I am getting over 30,000 people to find my website every month for free!

This is all from Google and exactly what Wealthy Affiliate has taught me how to do. My ongoing costs are really low and this was possible to build when I was a full time PE teacher. 

The truth is I actually focus other websites mainly now including Strong Home Gym. I completely outsourced the writing for this website to someone else (apart from updating some posts like this!)

But this is not the only method of traffic I have been taught…

I also know how to use social media and work with other online entrepreneurs to drive traffic to my website for "viral traffic".

I’ve even used what I’ve learnt to start a new website and get hundreds of people to the website per day almost instantly…

Now, I can almost hear your mind thinking…

So what?

Traffic is not money.

Well, here’s the secret amigo…

Yes, it is!

I just didn’t know that until recently…

Income Update…

If you’re like me (and Jerry Maguire) the only thing you are probably interested in is seeing the money.

So I’m not going to hold anything back…

You’re probably thinking…

So what?

“It's taken over 2 years to get to a stage you can quit your full-time job?!”

The thing that I want to make clear is this:

  • There are multiple streams of income (I have made money from different affiliate programs)
  • The rate of growth is exponential (at the start of 2020 I hadn't earnt anything significant)
  • I am a PE teacher by trade! I. Did. Not. Know. This. Stuff!

What I have learnt has come from following the step-by-step training and help from people within Wealthy Affiliate.

But enough about me.

Let’s get back to the Wealthy Affiliate review...

What is Wealthy Affiliate?

The Wealthy Affiliate program is an online community with tools and affiliate marketing training that helps people build an online business. The core training helps members learn how to build a website and create content using affiliate marketing that can be ranked in search engines. 

It was founded by Kyle Louden and Carson Lim in 2005 as a service to provide people with low competition and highly searched keywords. They were affiliate marketers and realised a gap in the market. 

But it’s changed a LOT since then and now includes:

  1. 100+ Step-by-Step Affiliate Marketing Course Training Lessons
  2. Super Simple Website Builder
  3. Web Domain Marketplace
  4. State-of-the-Art Web Hosting (10 websites for premium members)
  5. Jaaxy Keyword Research Tool
  6. Affiliate Program Marketplace (this didn’t even exist when I started at the end of 2018)
  7. Weekly Live Training Webinars
  8. User Generate Training
  9. Worldwide Community: >2 Million Members
  10. 24/7 Technical Support Team on Standby

Check out this 4 minute inside video, which gives you an inside sneak peak and summarises it all…

Simply put, if you want to start an affiliate marketing business then Wealthy Affiliate provides all the tools, training and support you need to get the solid foundations laid.

One of the best things is that there are no surprise upsells or costs...

How much does Wealthy Affiliate cost?

There are 2 memberships at Wealthy Affiliate. The starter membership is completely free. The premium membership costs $19 for your first month then $49 per month or $495 per year.

It seriously is completely free to try out and no credit card details are required.  

This is one of the main reasons why there are over 2 million people that have joined as a member (side note- there is nowhere near 2 million people still active inside the community- some people just join for free than do nothing).

Many people starting ask…

Do I need to become a premium member?

My short and honest answer to this is…

Yes, if you want to make money.

If you are totally new to online marketing then check out the free membership so that you can get a feel for if this is something that suits you or not. 

You will learn a ton just from the free training, but it takes time and real work to see results. You simply won’t be able to learn everything in one month. 

Are there additional costs?

No. 

Nada. 

Zilch.

This is by far the best thing about Wealthy Affiliate compared to anything else I have seen.

Sure there are other great affiliate marketing training platforms out there but every single one of them requires you to spend more money. And usually you don’t know about this up front. 

Some additional costs that other affiliate programs will recommend are:

  • Website hosting ($70+ a year for a terrible host- good hosting can cost $30 a month alone for one website… WA gives you 10 high quality hosted sites with 24/7 support)
  • Email autoresponder ($15+ a month… WA’s training shows you how to start making money without using email marketing)
  • Keyword research tool ($10-$99 a month… WA provides Jaaxy in the membership)
  • Clickfunnels or a "funnel builder" ($97 a month… totally unnecessary for most people starting, WA never recommends these)
  • Upsells for more training (it is impossible to pay more than $49 per month for WA. That price includes everything)

You’re probably thinking this is starting to sound too good to be true. 

So are people actually making any money using Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate success stories

Chances are, you still have a ton of questions about Wealthy Affiliate and are wondering if it can work for you. 

So let's dig into some of those questions I had when I started...

Can I actually make money from Wealthy Affiliate?

Instead of just telling you, I want to show you some real people who started WA as newbies. They are now all successful affiliate marketers and share how they did it...

Meet Jerry- Joined May 2016

The 21-year-old college drop-out consistently makes 4 figures+ a month from Wealthy Affiliate and affiliate marketing.

Do you notice the rate of growth in his income too?

Oh, and did I mention he just made over $100k in a week from a new course he made?

Wealthy Affiliate sets people up to be real online entrepreneurs. Not box them into using one method. 

Meet Grace aka LittleMama- Joined Sep 2016

The little darling of Wealthy Affiliate knows how to get paid on tap. Notice the rate of growth after making her first major affiliate marketing sale...

  • Her first annual membership referral was in November 2017
  • To $40k commissions in 2018

Will I Have to Promote Wealthy Affiliate?

Absolutely not.

As you continue to read this Wealthy Affiliate review in 2022 you will realise there are 2 training paths you can take.

Meet Zarina- Started site in October 2017 

Zarina had a pretty serious surgery and only started taking things seriously in October 2017. 

It took her 2.5 years of part time work on her affiliate marketing niche site and now she’s making over $3.5k a month...  

It's possible to build this affiliate marketing business with part time work.

Meet Juan- Joined May 2015

This affiliate marketer makes money mainly from promoting other products on Amazon.

Will it Take Ages Before I Make Money?

How long is a piece of string?

It is entirely up to a number of factors including:

  • How much time you put into it
  • If you follow the training
  • Whether you collaborate and help out others

Meet Dylan- Joined Aug 2015

Dylan refined his tactics after working at Wealthy Affiliate for over a year. His new website generated over $4,000 in month 7!

And yes it is possible to sell affiliate sites…

Will I Have to Put in Tons of Time?

This Wealthy Affiliate success story may help you decide…

Meet Steve- Joined Aug 2016

Here is a list of what he does:

  • Works a full-time job
  • Competes in “Iron Man” events (this is a full-time job just training in case you didn’t know… it’s heaps of swimming, cycling then a marathon to finish)
  • Manages a travel website
  • Spends quality time with his wife and friends

He is not a guy that has 40 hours a week to put into his affiliate marketing online business… but he makes 4 figures a month!

He was even a massive sceptic when he first joined…

Now, if this is not enough proof click here to see a whole load more.

An important thing to also be aware of here is that there are also a LOT of people that don’t make any money using Wealthy Affiliate. To make this work you will HAVE to put in time and effort to get any results. 

Saying that, there are also many people that make good money since joining WA and never share their results. Either they don’t have the time or desire to do this, or they don’t want “copy-cats” to steal their ideas. 

By now you probably want to know more about the... 

Wealthy Affiliate training

Wealthy Affiliate’s training is based around a 4 step model:

  1. Choose an interest
  2. Build a website
  3. Attract visitors
  4. Earn revenue

Click on any of those links to see the free training about each stage. 

There are various types of training within Wealthy Affiliate, including:

  • Written text
  • Over the shoulder videos
  • Live webinars
  • User generate training (from WA members)

I also go into more detail about the pros and cons of Wealthy Affiliate later in this review. 

But for this section we will just focus on the 2 core training affiliate programs…


1. Online Entrepreneur Certification

The Online Entrepreneur Certification (OEC) is the route to take if you want to grow an affiliate marketing online business in any niche you want. 

There are 5 levels inside the Online Entrepreneur Certification:

  • Level 1: Getting started
  • Level 2: Building your own traffic producing website
  • Level 3: Making money
  • Level 4: Mastering social engagement
  • Level 5: Achieving maximum success through content creation

Here is a video I’ve made, which walks you through all of this in much more detail to give you a real inside look…

Side note- I would also highly recommend checking out another member’s training inside WA. Dylan’s training called “How to create a 6 figure website” walks you through some higher level affiliate marketing strategies he personally used to create multiple successful affiliate niche websites. 

2. Affiliate Bootcamp

If you cannot think of any niche you would like to get started with, then you can use the "Bootcamp" to create a business around the promotion of Wealthy Affiliate. 

The 7 affiliate marketing courses inside this route include:

  1. Getting your business rolling
  2. Content, keywords and conversions
  3. Giving your site social value
  4. Get visual. Get aesthetic. Get a brand through media
  5. Knowing your audiences and catapulting your referrals
  6. Bing, Yahoo & the power of PPC
  7. How to scale successful PPC campaigns

I personally strongly advise people NOT to start with this route. It's far better to use the Online Entrepreneur Certification training for a number of reasons:

  • The "make money online" niche is so competitive (there are tons of people who write Wealthy Affiliate reviews, promote WA or other courses that are similar and they dominate the search engines).
  • Why would anyone trust you when you haven’t got any proof yourself?
  • It is much easier to get traffic from Google in a smaller niche than the “make money online” one to start with.

So you’re probably wondering...

Can you make money with Wealthy Affiliate?

Here is something that most affiliates won’t tell you...

It is very unlikely you will ever make good money directly from Wealthy Affiliate. There are literally millions of people that know about it and a ton of them try to promote Wealthy Affiliate. The odds are not in your favour here… believe me! 

GASP!

SHOCK! 

HORROR!

So is there any point in using Wealthy Affiliate then?

Well a better question to ask would be...

Can you earn money from affiliate marketing using the Wealthy Affiliate training and with help from the Wealthy Affiliate community? 

Yes… the Wealthy Affiliate success stories above are proof that you can.

It’s not easy and affiliate marketing is a competitive industry.  

But everything you need to succeed is within the platform. Especially if you can be persistent and think of this as a long term online business model. Be open to the different income streams possible from creating websites, and the options are endless.

Is Wealthy Affiliate a scam or legit?

Wealthy Affiliate is completely legit and not a scam.

The training teaches people how to write content to be found on search engines and how to use affiliate marketing to make money from this.

However, some affiliates promote Wealthy Affiliate as a get rich quick scheme… which it’s NOT!

This is a big reason why some people call Wealthy Affiliate a scam. 

People get fed up after a few months if they haven’t made any money and point the finger. After all, some online newbie promised them they could make serious dollar quickly (remember, it took me 3 months of working weekends and evenings to even see my first dollar! #replacenetflix)

Here’s another common thing I hear about the "Wealthy Affiliate scam"...

“Wealthy Affiliate members call everything else under the sun a scam to claim that Wealthy Affiliate is the only thing that works.”

Here is what the training actually teaches... 

The key with all of your reviews is to offer your readers a comprehensive and accurate experience. It is OK to offer your opinion, but it is important that you do not falsify statements within your actual reviews.

Are there people that abuse this and end up calling tons of things a scam?

Sure!

It’s people’s interpretation of the training that has created this. So is Wealthy Affiliate a scam?

You can be the judge of that yourself. 

Is Wealthy Affiliate a pyramid scheme? Is it MLM?

Wealthy Affiliate is not a pyramid scheme or MLM program.

It is possible for members to earn money promoting any products or services with the help from Wealthy Affiliate’s tools and training.

The confusion around this comes because it’s possible for members to earn affiliate commission from promoting Wealthy Affiliate. 

 First of all let’s get this straight…

What’s a pyramid scheme?

A company that promises members payment for recruiting more people into the company rather than offering a service or product. 

As you’ve already seen, Wealthy Affiliate offers some crucial online business services and products such as:

  • Website hosting (every decent website you have ever been on pays for hosting)
  • Jaaxy- the Keyword research tool (most affiliate marketers will pay for a tool like this)
  • Training on how to create your own website to promote anything you want (there are tons of other courses that provide only the training)

BUT…

You can earn money by “recruiting” (aka being an affiliate for) Wealthy Affiliate. This is where the confusion comes from as some people think this is the ONLY way to make money from Wealthy Affiliate due to the thousands of WA reviews out there!

It’s not a Multi-Level-Marketing company either as affiliates don’t recruit a “downline”.  

For example, if you were to join Wealthy Affiliate from a link on this page and become a premium member eventually, I would earn a commission. But if you then tell a friend about it who joins from your link, you would get a commission and I wouldn’t get a commission or bonus from that. 

Simply put… 

It’s possible to use affiliate marketing to earn money from multiple income streams. Whereas it’s only possible to make money from MLMs by selling one company's products or recruiting more people into the company. 

Other Wealthy Affiliate reviews online

I’ve spent hours going through what people have to say about Wealthy Affiliate. I did this a lot before I joined and again each time I have updated this review (this is version 3 now).

It’s safe to say that Wealthy Affiliate is a bit like marmite. 

There are tons of people that claim it is the best thing since sliced bacon. 

Whilst there are a lot of other course creators that have been called out and scrutinised by Wealthy Affiliate members due to the “Bootcamp” training. 

Imagine having your baby (a course you spend months or years creating) put under a microscope and getting tons of people’s opinions on it!!

Anyhoo… 

To save you hours of digging, here are the most common opinions about the pros and cons of Wealthy Affiliate...

Positive Wealthy Affiliate reviews

  • Get up and running quickly
  • Affordable and no upsells
  • It has everything you need to start making money online
  • Hosting for 10 websites
  • Weekly live webinars
  • The community
  • Continually updated

Negative Wealthy Affiliate reviews

  • No refunds
  • Outdated training
  • Not enough information about niche selection
  • Irrelevant ranking system 
  • Too much emphasis on promoting Wealthy Affiliate
  • Information overload

Here is the best negative review of Wealthy Affiliate I have found and it really does raise some interesting points (it’s about 13 minutes)...

However, here is a “response” to this video by another Wealthy Affiliate member (this is 40 minutes long but answers everything and is very honest)…

Like I say it's like marmite!

If you watch these 2 videos it will pretty much summarise everything you need to know about Wealthy Affiliate. But if you’d rather not spend 30 mins watching these (on x2 speed… life hack right there), then here is the summary of what they chat about...

Pros of Wealthy Affiliate 

 1. Get up and running quickly

If there's one thing I want you to take from this Wealthy Affiliate review it's this...

If you are new to online marketing, then getting up and running quickly is by far the biggest pro for Wealthy Affiliate in my opinion.  

The tools and training can get you and up and running within your first week. You can even build a website for free right now here using the website builder.

Here’s a quick walkthrough of how you actually do that...

Will you start making money within your first week from affiliate marketing?

Absolutely not. 

Anyone or any training that tells you otherwise is just after one thing…

Your money!

Online marketing/ affiliate marketing and “making money online” has developed a bad reputation. This is due to the amount of false advertising and “get rich easy” schemes out there.

  • They know people want to make money. 
  • They know people want to do it quickly. 
  • And they know people don’t want to work hard for it. 

So they claim you can do that if you just “pay $497, right now!”

Getting started means you get to actually take action quicker and it’s by taking action that you will actually learn what you do and don’t need to do. 

Enough podcasts and business books! 

Just do it! #nike

Learn the one thing to get you to the next stage. Then learn the next thing. WA helps you do that.

2. Affordable and no upsells

The most you will ever spend on Wealthy Affiliate is $49 per month. 

It’s impossible to spend any more. 

They do not recommend “use one of the extra amazing keyword research tools for another $99 a month, ClickFunnels for $97 a month... oh and get this hosting for $15 a month” like pretty much every other training I’ve seen.

The price you see is the price for EVERYTHING you need to build your business...

3. It has everything you need to start making money online

Wealthy Affiliate provides you with:

  • Keyword research tools
  • Website hosting (every site needs this- you can host 10 sites at WA)
  • The 1-1 support from the person you join Wealthy Affiliate with (use this link to get my help & additional bonuses you see at the bottom of this Wealthy Affiliate review)
  • 24/7 support from the site support and WA community

Normally, just figuring out which website hosting to use and what this even means can take a couple of days to figure out when you are starting! 

With Wealthy Affiliate it’s all there in one easy to access place.

4. Hosting for 10 websites

Wealthy Affiliate made a huge update to their hosting in early 2020. 

Kyle and Carson pumped millions of dollars into improving this and I have to say it’s made a pretty big improvement to website load times. 

If you read a review at the start of 2020 or before you may even see “members have slow affiliate sites” as a negative of Wealthy Affiliate. 

Here’s mine (under 2 seconds is very quick!)…

If this doesn’t make sense right now all you need to know is that if your website loads fast, people will be more likely to wait for your site to load. This means they stick around more and don’t “bounce” off the page. 

Google recognises this and boosts fast websites in their rankings (meaning more visitors to your site, aka traffic, which means more money from affiliate links... yada yada yada). 

There are a lot of terrible website hosting sites out there with terrible support and slow loading sites. They often look super cheap up front (i.e. start from $2.95 a month) to entice people in, but you have to lock into a 3 year deal to get this and pay extra for email addresses and site security etc... 

*cough* Bluehost *cough*

Many beginners buy all of this thinking they are saving money then give up with their idea just 2 months later and $250 out of pocket! 

5. Weekly live webinars

Jay Neil is Wealthy Affiliate’s lead Live trainer. 

He hosts a live webinar every week on a Saturday for 60-90 minutes.

You can jump on to the live chat with other members during the training or watch it on catch up if you miss it (including all the previous webinars). Some of the previous trainings include:

  • Using Google Analytics
  • Pinterest marketing
  • Branding
  • Converting visitors to buyers
  • Email marketing
  • Funnels
  • Selling your own products
  • Local SEO
  • eCommerce and Dropshipping
  • Hotseats (he will choose a few WA members websites to review and provide feedback)
  • And much more

I have to say this is one of the best features. If you have any online business idea that you would like to pursue then you can find out more from these webinars.

He often “batches” topics together so you can get 3-5 weeks on the same topic that goes into it in more detail. Wealthy Affiliate doesn't just teach you one method of making money. It provides you a holistic approach to "online business".

And you can almost guarantee someone else within the Wealthy Affiliate community has done what you are looking to do...

6. The WA community

I knew nobody that "did online marketing" before I joined WA. 

I now have dozens of people I personally know. I can message them at any time of the day to find out a whole range of stuff. 

There will be times when you have a weird question that pops into your head. And that’s where the WA community really comes into its own!

2 million people have joined WA, which means you can get answers to your questions almost immediately. 

Write a question anywhere in a comment thread and tick the “ask community for help” to get something answered. 

If you have a small issue you can hop on the 24/7 live chat.

If you join Wealthy Affiliate with this link and don’t get the answer you want, I will see your question and help you. Even if I don’t know the answer I will 100% know someone that does. 

7. Continually updated

WA has already changed so much since it first started. 

As I said, I’ve seen a ton of reviews about it. So I really understand there are some people that look from the outside in, nit pick and call it out for the flaws (see the complaint section for more). 

But like I already mentioned Kyle and Carson have just made a huge update to the website hosting servers. And since I joined at the end of 2018 they have added a brand new feature to find affiliate programs because people requested this. 

They really listen and are active inside the WA community every day. 

2022 update: There has also been a huge Wealthy Affiliate re-structure. A ton of new training, layout and support is now on offer at Wealthy Affiliate. 

Wealthy Affiliate cons & complaints

8. No refunds

Wealthy Affiliate makes this very clear and does not hide this. 

The Wealthy Affiliate Premium Membership and Paid Services are billed in advance on a monthly or yearly basis (as per the option you have chosen when you purchased Services) and are non-refundable for the subscription period they are purchased for.

You can read this and more in the WA terms

The reason is because there is a free starter account and you can try the full premium membership for $19 for your first month. 

It then costs $49 per month. 

This gives you so much time to see if the training and platform suits you or not before deciding to upgrade to an annual plan or continuing further.

You can cancel anytime and if you don’t put your card details in there, you’ll never be charged a penny. 

Just make sure that if you plan on cancelling your membership that you give yourself plenty of time to get your website transferred off to another hosting server. Site Support will help you to do this efficiently, but once you are no longer a paying member it's much harder to get support. 

9. Outdated training

I joined at the end of 2018 and I must say this is something I noticed then! There are some training sessions that were no longer relevant, for example...

Google+ doesn’t exist any more. But one of the training modules still exists for it!!

Many people worry that a lot changes online and the best “new” practices change. However, some of the videos were recorded as early as 2014…

It is true that what worked a few years ago in affiliate marketing doesn’t always work as well today.

But everything that is taught within Wealthy Affiliate are long term and proven strategies. Nothing is a short term fix or jumping on the newest hot trend that may disappear like Tik Tok... it shows you how to write quality content and get your site ranked on Google. 

The core training and philosophy behind how to build an online business always lasts:

Write really helpful content that helps people

Wealthy Affiliate teaches completely white hat affiliate marketing techniques. Many other affiliate marketing courses often teach grey/ black hat "link building strategies" that result in your site getting penalised from Google. WA's motto is that if you write the best content that exists, your stuff will rank eventually and pick up "organic backlinks" over time.  

The live training every week goes into more detail and depth on current and specific tactics and strategies. The Core training and Wealthy Affiliate course is really to help you get up and running with good foundations. 

2022 Update: Kyle and Carson announced that Wealthy Affiliate’s core training will be totally revamped and updated by the “end of summer 2020”. You can read Kyle’s full post here about these changes.

As you can see WA is always changing for the better and Kyle and Carson are still active, present and looking for ways to improve...

10. Not enough information about niche selection

I’ve heard a few people complain about this one. 

The core training doesn’t really go into much detail about how to do competition analysis. 

There’s a lot of things you can do to find if your niche idea could work such as:

  • Keyword research (find high traffic, low competition keywords)
  • Competitor analysis
  • Look for appropriate high ticket affiliate products to promote
  • Buy an “aged domain”
  • Etc. etc.

If I were starting a new site now, I would do this.

But when I started, I had no idea what half of those words meant!

Wealthy Affiliate doesn’t make it overwhelming to get a site up and running. The truth is that your first website probably won’t be your best anyway! 

Mine certainly wasn’t!!

A website's direction can change... a lot!

Spending a couple of months getting overwhelmed with what niche to choose before you start is a great way to end up doing nothing. If I had to do this at the start I probably would have given up as it would seem like too much!

There’s a lot to be said for jumping in the trenches and learning things as you go. 

Learn something.

Take action.

Learn a bit more.

Take action. 

That’s what you’ll get from WA until you understand everything you need to create a profitable website. 

Here’s the honest truth though...

If you are looking for thorough analytical niche selection training, Wealthy Affiliate probably isn’t for you. I have an alternative recommendation at the bottom of this Wealthy Affiliate review that may just float your boat!

But if you’re someone looking to take action, learn things as you do it and adapt then it may be a good fit. 

Hey, doesn’t that sound similar to what all entrepreneurs need to do? And yes, if you are looking to create a profitable website, blog, or online business, you are an entrepreneur!

11. Irrelevant ranking system 

Ah the “spambassadors”! 

This is one part of Wealthy Affiliate that I’m not a fan of. 

The ranking system inside WA is pretty much pointless and is based on how much people post blogs in there or comment with others. 

Remember there are over 2 million people that have created an account with WA. It’s great that there are so many full time online business owners in there and it’s a great way to connect with people that you can learn from. But it also means there are people in there that are beginners that may not always offer the best advice. 

... yet they could be ranked in the top 25 Wealthy Affiliate members because they comment on stuff all the time. Or write blog posts about the weather or anything on their mind!

When you ask a question in the WA community just be sure to cross check your answers. 

If more than one person says the same thing then it will probably be good advice! 

12. Too much emphasis on promoting Wealthy Affiliate

Here is what Wealthy Affiliate recommends you do to start…

The OEC route shows you how to create a niche website in anything you want it to be. 

However, this is the wording that annoys some people (and to be honest I can see why)…

If you are REALLY STUCK at this point and you cannot decide on a niche, perhaps you may be interested in the make money/affiliate marketing niche. If you don't have a niche at this point, this will be your niche and we have an Affiliate Bootcamp dedicated to those that are interested in promoting Wealthy Affiliate.

Guess what? A lot of people get really stuck with choosing a niche!

But here’s my advice again…

Do not start with the Bootcamp route!

It’s really competitive because, like I say, there are tons of people that are “really stuck” on choosing a niche. 

And if you have no proof of getting your website ranked on Google or making money using the training then it’s a really hard sell!

Top tip- the more specific your niche is, the easier it will be to rank on Google and start seeing results.

You can choose a broader domain name i.e. www.weightloss.com so you can expand eventually to tons of weight loss topics. But focus on only writing about one thing for your first 30 posts or so i.e. running for over 50’s and reviewing running shoes, equipment and clothes etc.

13. Information overload

There is a lot going on inside Wealthy Affiliate with the live chat, blog posts, individuals training’s etc.

If you’re not careful you will find yourself jumping around and trying to take on too much at once.

The training exists for a reason. 

Trust it and follow it!

The final question I'll answer in this epic Wealthy Affiliate review in 2022  is...

Bottom line: Is Wealthy Affiliate worth the money?

Do you want me to tell you honestly?

You’re sure? 

OK, but you won’t like it.

Here it is...

It depends. 

I told you that you won’t like it!

I hate cop out answers so here's what I mean... it’s not worth the money if you are this person:

  • Jumps on shiny objects every 2 months
  • Gives up as soon as there is a problem
  • Work too many jobs, have 5 kids and up to your eyeballs in debt
  • Wants to become “financially free” next month (stop kidding yourself if this is your first gig online)
  • Want a “done for you system” to “make it rain” (again this doesn’t exist… but if you ever find it, hook me up!)

If you can honestly say you are willing to put in 10+ hours a week of work for the next year and are serious about starting an affiliate marketing online business, then yes Wealthy Affiliate is worth the money. 

That is exactly how I started at the end of 2018.

And to be honest if I had taken another of the affiliate marketing courses, I probably would have thrown in the towel sooner.

Other training out there requires you to spend a lot more money up front and can be “too technical” for beginners. When I started I wasn’t sure what I was getting into and by taking action straight away, I found out what I enjoyed and built on my knowledge and improved my skills over time.

Alternatives

Like I mentioned earlier, there are other affiliate marketing courses out there that are legitimate. I want you to have all the options and make an informed decision that is right for you…

The Authority Site System: $997 (you can get it for $599 through the webinar below)

Click here to get the free 1 hour webinar (I learnt a ton from this alone!)

Summary

If you love stats, analytics and really want to take a very precise business approach to building an “authority site” (writing content to get ranked on Google and using affiliate marketing) then this may be the one for you. 

The niche analysis is very detailed as they argue it's the most important stage to success for your site. 

Positives

  • Analytical people seem to love these guys training 
  • A lot of detail into backlinking methods and techie ways to create an online business

Negatives

  • You will need to allow additional costs for hosting ($15+ a month) and Ahrefs (a keyword research tool for $99 a month) & even potentially outsourcing content.
  • Advises some pretty techie stuff (not great for newbies)- this is for people serious about creating an affiliate "authority site" 

Project 24: $449 for 1 year and $199 per year after + web hosting

I have not reviewed this course yet as I want to do it justice and buy the course first- a project (pun intended) for next year!

Summary

The focus is on creating a blog in a niche and using high quality content to get backlinks over time. This approach is very similar to WA’s training methods!

Positives

  • It does not recommend any other tools other than hosting. They actually don’t even recommend keyword research tools. 
  • Very white hat approach to blogging

Negatives

  • No other tools provided- You’ll need to allow the cost of website hosting (at least $100 a year for a semi-decent host) 

Commission Hero: $997 + upsells + tools needed = $7,429 for one year 

Read my Commission Hero review here.

Summary

If you want to get into using Facebook ads then this is one of the better ones I’ve seen for an affiliate marketing course. 

The focus is on using Facebook ad campaigns to get “leads” quickly to your Clickbank sales funnel. If you can make an ad campaign “profitable” then it’s possible to scale quickly and throw more money into ads to make more money.

Positives 

  • Some people claim to have gotten decent results

Negatives

  • Ads need tweaking, it’s possible to lose access to your Facebook account  
  • Clickbank products generally suck
  • You need to have spare cash to throw at this one and be prepared to lose a lot of money before turning a profit. 

Recommendation and bonuses

If you are new to online marketing or looking for an all in one package with:

  • Tools
  • Training
  • Community and support

Then I would recommend trying out Wealthy Affiliate for free. If you already have a good understanding of affiliate marketing and basic SEO I would recommend checking out the TASS free 1 hour webinar & course (use that link to get a 40% discount). 

The way I’ve used Wealthy Affiliate is to build the foundation of my online business. 

It’s kind of like my “base”. 

It’s how I learnt how to write “content that converts” and get more and more visitors to my websites every month for free. I’ve even hired a full time writer from the Philippines, thanks to another WA member training! 

It’s also helped me connect with so many great affiliate marketers, host my websites, use the Jaaxy keyword research tool every month and actually start making an income online. If I ever want to learn more about a particular strategy or technique then I can easily search for the information inside Wealthy Affiliate to understand the basics. 

There’s never any pressure to upgrade to the premium membership.

But if you do get a "premium membership” and join with any link on this page, I will chuck in some bonuses to help get you off to a good start…

BONUS #1, Hypnotic Cheatsheet & Analogy Book ($67 Value)

  • Insert scientifically proven words into your writing that helps to keep your readers engaged and hooked to the end.
  • Make editing your writing much quicker. 
  • Persuade and seduce your readers to take action that can help them.

BONUS #2, 1000+ Amazing Keyword Ideas & Guest Posting Opportunities ($99 Value)

  • Get 1000+ low competition (not many websites writing about them) keywords with a lot of traffic (this is how you can get free traffic from Google every month)
  • Quickly improve the “authority” of your website by “guest posting” (writing a post for them to link back to your website) to some amazing websites
  • Save hours of time from having to do this research yourself
  • BONUS #3, Personal Business Blueprint + Checklist ($139 Value)

    • I’m also giving you this Personal Business Blueprint where I’ll give you specific instructions to help you start on the right foot and plan your schedule.
    • I’ve also created a custom daily task for week 1 to assist you in Wealthy Affiliate’s training.
    • This is NOT found anywhere else and NOT available to any other WA members!

    BONUS #4, Top WordPress Themes & Plugins Guide ($97 Value)

    Not sure what themes & plugins to use for your website?

    • If you’ve tried WordPress, you know WordPress has a TON of themes and plugins. I understand it’s confusing for beginners.
    • So, I’ve created this guide to help you based on my experience.
    • This guide will be extremely helpful to kickstart your website!

    Simply join Wealthy Affiliate through any link on this page and I will send you a welcome message straight away. Upgrade any time within your first week and I'll send you the bonuses instantly. 


    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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