Wealthy Affiliate Review: Is It a 1Stop Platform to Trust?

Wealthy Affiliate Review

Company Name: Wealthy Affiliate

Website URL: www.wealthyaffiliate.com

Founders: Kyle and Carson

Community: Over 2.1 Million

Overall Ranking: 4.8/5.0

TrustPilot Ranking: 4.9/5.0

Research tools: 4.8/5

Customer support: 5/5

Training Classes: 4.8/5

WordPress Hosting: 5/5

Websites: 5/5

Affiliate Program Search: 5/5

Table of contents

Online Businesses: An overview

Wealth Affiliate: Who are they?

About the Founders of WA

Membership Categories

• Basic membership
• Premium membership
• Premium Plus membership
• Membership Subscription costs at Wealthy Affiliate

Wealth Affiliate Training Programs

• What is the Philosophy behind WA training programs?
• Free beginner’s Test drive
• Online Entrepreneur Certification course
• The Ongoing Expert Classes (52+ per year)
• Coaching and mentorship
• Dissemination problems and suggested mitigation approaches

Website Building and Hosting

Research tools for Affiliates

Wealthy Affiliate, Affiliate Program: Affiliate Bootcamp

• Affiliate Bootcamp Training
• Commission structure for WA affiliates
• Pros and Cons of Wealthy Affiliate

Complaints About WA

• Wealthy Affiliate is a scam
• Wealthy Affiliate’s course content and training are outdated
• Wealthy Affiliate has no refund policy
• Wealthy Affiliate is expensive
• Wealthy Affiliate sells the dream more than the substance
• Wealthy Affiliate instructors are incompetent in what they teach
• One can succeed by only promoting Wealthy Affiliate itself
• One cannot succeed as an affiliate if he/she trains at Wealthy Affiliate
• Good reviews are written by affiliates

Conclusions

 

Online business: An overview

There are many online companies that offer or claim to offer world class training that would help anyone to start a successful online business, especially leveraging with Affiliate marketing. One such company is Wealthy Affiliate. In this review I will show you whether Wealthy Affiliate is legit or a Scam and if it is worthy considering a a 1Stop platform for training in Affiliate Marketing. Keep on reading.

E=commerce is flourishing and many a business aspire to have a presence on the internet. Accordingly, owning and running an online store is one of the aspirations of each business owner. Along with this development, is the load placed on the owner of the business to produce, advertise/promote and sale to the consumers. As with most of the challenges, this one too has called for innovative solutions, namely; offloading some of the burden and give it to a third party, and in turn, recognize his/her contribution by sharing revenue!! This is how the concept of affiliate marketing came into play!!

However, although you have come across information on the world wide web intimating that anyone can run an online business, it does not mean that you do not need any knowledge in the field of online business. As a matter of fact, you will require training to understand how to go about your online business. Moreover, when it comes to affiliate marketing business, there is a section of voices indicating that you do not need to own a website!! All of these and more enticing information out there, simply lure you into a sort of fantasy world where you think of earning quick revenue by doing less. The outcome is that you lose even the little you have to some fraudulent online business promoters.

That being said, in this review, I am going to explore one of the most successful online training platform, Wealthy Affiliates [WA], that claim to only provide you with the training to enable you start an online business. Moreover, Wealthy Affiliate promises to also walk you through, step-by-step into the process. Does this platform, WealthyAffiliate.com, live up to its claims or it is just like other click baits that offer superficial courses? Is it a 1stop platform for training, hosting, and running an online business as it claims? Can Wealthy Affiliate WA be trusted?

At the end of this review you will have discovered whether WA lives up to its acclaimed standards or not. You will also be in the position to make an informed decision to either work with them or not.

Wealthy Affiliate: Who are they?

Wealthy Affiliate was founded in 2005 by two successful Affiliate marketers: Kyle and Carson, as an initiative to help other people succeed online. Starting as a small platform, Wealthy Affiliate has continued to grow through innovations in design technology, marketing, and support, to become not only the leader in the affiliate industry but also in innovations that are driving the industry. No wonder, at 19 years now in operation, Wealthy Affiliate has a foothold in 193 countries worldwide and boasts of 2.6 Million+ members, 10,000 + new businesses built monthly, 23,000 + people helped daily, and 1800 expert coaches.

These strides have not been achieved handily; the founders have and continue to innovate to make the platform grow even further into the future. While Kyle, one of the founders, has taken up leadership in the training wing of Wealthy Affiliate, Carson is leading the technology wing.

The training wing led by Kyle has designed the training sessions/classes that integrate both text Notes with live videos. More support and mentorship are provided by the expert classes, where learners actively interact with the experts. Besides, the Wealthy Affiliate community is also an active support family that actively provides real-time advice to anyone with a question concerning any problem encountered in either training or running an online business. I hasten to add that the community encourages its members through blogs and live chats. This innovation in the training makes the Wealthy Affiliate platform endear to its community. No wonder, that some are starting to call Wealthy Affiliate a “cult”.

On the technology wing, Carson has assembled a team of dedicated experts that work behind the scenes to design, lay down the infrastructure, and improve the software and IT technology on which this platform operates. In the past two years they have revolutionized the platform by integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and introduced Hubs as the work office of their clients. His team encompasses programmers, and Data science, and IT technology experts, who are the wheels propelling the technology advancements at the Wealthy Affiliate platform.

Currently, Wealthy Affiliate is a 1Stop platform for anyone who wants to understand and operate an online or an affiliate marketing business. Education, website building and hosting, research tools, AI-driven content writing & SEO strategies as well as affiliate programs/networks are available in one place. The integration of these two wings to operate as one entity is what separates WA from other Affiliate platforms.

About the Owners of Wealthy Affiliate

Kyle, one of the owners of Wealthy Affiliate business, began marketing in college, as a sidetrack from the original focus of specializing in computer programming. Kyle took computer science in school, primarily focusing on programming, but quickly found a love for the business & marketing components of the web. Carson, a co-owner with Kyle of Wealthy Affiliate has a background training in Computer Science. What is also interesting, as an incentive in the partnership of these two, is the fact that Carson has a passion for teaching, having grown up and raised by parents who themselves were great educators.

Armed with a degree in computer science and a natural passion for teaching, along with a degree in computer programming and a natural passion for business, Carson and Kyle applied these capabilities to create Wealthy Affiliate [WA] business. Their business incorporates their knowledge in IT and training, and since its inception in Sept 2005, Wealthy Affiliate is helping people succeed in establishing online businesses.

At Wealthy Affiliate, you will learn about Internet marketing and how to build an online business from experts. Kyle and Carson bring a combined 30 years of experience with Internet marketing, having started independently before joining forces in 2005 to create WealthyAffiliate.com.

With his vast experience, Kyle and Carson, along with an experienced team they have thus far assembled, have made it possible for everyone coming to WA from various backgrounds, to get the training and to eventually succeed in running an online business of his/her choice.

Membership Categories

Starter membership

This is the free membership each one gets when he/she registers and creates a free starter account at Wealthy Affiliate. You can dive into the training to check Wealthy Affiliate training out for yourself if it will be worth your investment, and it is completely risk-free. Moreover, this free membership will enable you to have access to the first 5 lessons of both the Online Entrepreneur Certification [OEC) course and the Affiliate Bootcamp (ABC), along with the ability to create a free website and receive a free domain. In a nutshell, by the end of the stater training, you will have:

1. Had an Introduction to Wealthy Affiliate and how it can help you,
2. Had a detailed overview of how online business works,
3. Chosen a Niche/direction for your online business,
4. Built your Website, and
5. Known the next steps to take in your business.

It is then that you can choose either to remain with Wealthy Affiliate or not to continue with it.

Premium membership

After going through the test drive, you will have seen whether Wealthy Affiliate Training is for you or not and you will be in a position to make an informed decision to upgrade to full premium membership. As a premium member, you will receive training that will enable you build an online business and manage it successfully.

In addition, premium membership entitles you to be part of the Wealthy Affiliate community, which is not only of like-minded internet Entrepreneurs but a supportive force that will from time to time encourage you and also provide expert advice, that will enable you to surmount some problem you may encounter along the way through your training.

 

 

Premium Plus membership

Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus+ membership is described as the ‘Power User Package’ which entitles you to get 100% access to everything Wealthy Affiliate Premium membership has, plus over 200 expert classes per year, compared to 52 for Premium membership. In essence, you are sharpened even more in your chosen niche by more advanced training thereby acquiring more advanced tactics in running online businesses. If you had decided to go affiliate marketing, perhaps you may be beyond the 3 niche websites that Premium class can support, and contemplating adding on more.

Should this be the case, then be advised to upgrade to Premium Plus membership, whose package will include building and hosting up to 10 premium websites, with an advanced website and hosting package included, along with an advanced security suite and priority expert private help.

Besides, as a Premium Plus+ member, you also get access to the Enterprise version of Wealthy Affiliate’s keyword research tool Jaaxy included; meaning that you will upgrade from the Jaaxy Lite Research Platform of Premium membership to Jaaxy Enterprise version

With all of these, Wealthy affiliate is one of the most affordable training platforms available to date. Moreover, you are allowed to upgrade and downgrade to either of the two categories of membership any time you want.

Let’s explore the costs at Wealthy Affiliate in a little more details:

Membership subscription costs at Wealthy Affiliate

• Wealthy Affiliate Free Starter Account: $0.

Wealthy Affiliate offers a free starter package, which allows any prospective student to test drive the training before committing to upgrading to paid membership options. The recent upgrades to the package has made it even more accessible and valuable for newcomers. The updated package now includes enhanced training modules, improved tools, and increased support, all designed to ensure that beginners can hit the ground running. The starter package offers a richer experience from the get-go, allowing new users to build a solid foundation in affiliate marketing with fewer obstacles.

• Wealthy Affiliate Premium:  $41.58/mo

When you have upgraded to Premium membership you get full access to 100% [complete package] of Wealthy Affiliate’s core training: all 5 levels (50 lessons) of the Online Entrepreneur Certification and all 7 levels (70 lessons) of the Affiliate Bootcamp.

In the Premium package, you will be entitled to building up to 3 niche websites from which you should start to earn, and in all these, your hosting fees are all included within your membership.

• Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus+:  $58.08/mo

The Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus+ membership entitles you to get 100% access to everything Wealthy Affiliate Premium membership has PLUS over 200 expert classes per year. In addition, you also get access to the Enterprise version of Wealthy Affiliate’s keyword research tool Jaaxy ($99/month value) included. Meaning that you will upgrade from the Jaaxy Lite Research Platform of Premium membership to Jaaxy Enterprise version

In addition, you can be allowed to build and host up to 10 premium websites with an advanced website and hosting package included along with an advanced security suite ($250/month value) and priority expert private help.

With all of these, Wealthy affiliate is one of the most affordable training platforms available to date. Moreover, you are allowed to upgrade and downgrade to either of the two categories of membership any time you want.

Wealth Affiliate Training Programs

Needless to emphasize, the training at Wealthy Affiliate is going to make you become well-equipped to build and
advance successful online businesses of any size. I hasten to add that with either the premium or Premium Plus+ memberships, your online entrepreneurial path to success will be shortened drastically with the training here at Wealthy Affiliate.

Are these claims by Wealthy Affiliates realistic or are just click baits? What exactly entails Wealthy Affiliate Training program at all membership levels? Let’s have a look:

What is the Philosophy behind WA training programs?

The philosophy behind WA training is to teach their clientele how to create a successful, long-term business within the online space. That is why such values as focusing on the people’s (niche, audience) needs or interests, on one hand, and your passion and interests, on the other hand, are emphasized in WA training. When any business focuses on having its customers satisfied, that is when it grows and remains afloat from generation to generation. More importantly, such a business will have loyal customers who will, in turn, also propel it further through referrals to their friends.

Because of this philosophy, WA does not promise you that their training will lead you to become rich quickly and with minimum effort. What is emphasized is the passion for what you want to promote to your audience, interest in learning in order to convert your passion into tangible reality, and focus on the interest of your audience/customers/niche (s).

Free beginner’s Test drive

The free beginner’s test drive is intended to give you a test-run such that thereafter you will be in position to make an informed decision as whether you should continue or not with complete training with wealthy Affiliate. In the test drive, you will have access to the first 5 lessons of both the Online Entrepreneur Certification [OEC] core training along with access to the first 5 lessons of the Affiliate Bootcamp [ABC]. In a nutshell, you will be introduced to two arms of training where you have a liberty to continue with both or to concentrate on one.

Online Entrepreneur Certification course

The Ongoing Expert Classes (52 for Premium and 200 for Premium Plus+).

As a premium or Premium Plus+ member, you have expert training by experts in online businesses and leveraging affiliate marketing, in particular. These are real-time expert training, whereby the learners have the chance to directly interact with the expert and ask the hosting experts live questions before, after, and during the training sessions. These are valuable training, that not only complement the core lessons, but also enrich you with more knowledge on a diversity of topics ranging from WordPress hacks, how one can use Youtube and other social media channels to grow an online business, e-commerce principles, and applications, local marketing, and of how these channels will help you improve your website rankings.

Coaching & Mentorship

Apart from the regular classes, at Wealthy Affiliate you can get help at any time directly from the founders, Carson and Kyle, as well as some of the top gurus in affiliate marketing in the world. This is where Wealthy Affiliate’s philosophy is displayed by the management team.

You will be offered answers to your question and if it is related to the training, you will be offered direct coaching and help you need at every step on your journey at Wealthy Affiliate. To them, NO question is a dumb question. Surely, there will always be an expert to give you support instantly at every turn within the Premium and Premium Plus experience.

Dissemination problems and suggested mitigation approaches

Premium and Premium Plus members have weekly expert classes taken by various experts. Many times the topic is very captivating but when it comes to dissemination then the problems begin.

One of the problems is poor illustrations whereby the would be actions to follow is so blurred that it is hard to follow. In some instances, one example is brought up in every lesson conducted by the same expert, which I think need to change. Let the screen-shots be clear such that the action can be clearly seen and replicated.

Moreover, some experts move very fast and in essence, leave the learners behind. I do advise that the experts take those attending as non=experts who must learn from them. Even when you fall back a bit to the same point it may be what actually learners need. Of course whose who feel that they know will feel bored, but it ensures that you have not left anyone behind.

Website Building and Hosting

Managed WordPress Hosting

Wealthy Affiliate manages the Hosting of your domain on WordPress and has some of the fastest servers in the world. In addition, it has a sophisticated security suite, and speed platforms that have been developed to interface with WordPress, thus making your site not only very secure but also among the highest-ranking websites around. Premium membership entitles you to get WA Premium level-hosting seal, with the ability to host up to 3 websites on your own domain.

For Premium Plus membership, you are entitled to a level-hosting seal of up to 10 websites on your domain. This is awesome! For any affiliate to operate 10 affiliate niches must be a guru! Compared to other companies, Wealthy Affiliate platform offers far more advanced services at very reasonable rates.

Research tools for Affiliates

The Hubs: Revolutionizing Workspaces

Wealthy Affiliate’s latest innovation, the Hubs, is a game-changer for affiliates looking to streamline their work processes. These Hubs are personalized digital work-spaces designed to centralize your campaigns, projects, and tasks. Imagine having all your tools, resources, and work-spaces organized in one place, tailored to your specific needs. Whether you are a beginner setting up your first affiliate campaign or an experienced marketer juggling multiple projects, the Hubs offer a level of efficiency that simplifies your workflow and enhances productivity. Moreover, Hubs have empowered users to work smarter by offering a seamless, organized workspace that caters to their unique needs.

Typically, from keywords research to the writing of content, the whole process is guided and steered by AI technology that is embedded within the platform. This has not only made content creation fast, but it is also seamless.

Jaaxy Research Platform. Depending on your membership, you will have access to either Jaaxy Lite (for premium membership), or Jaaxy Enterprise (Premium Plus+ membership), research platforms, respectively. Keywords and understanding your website rankings will be a big part of your business. As for Starters, the initial training is intended to explain fully the concept of affiliate marketing as well as online entrepreneurship in details before embarking on the core training.

By the time starters decide to upgrade to either premium or directly to premium plus+, they are ready to undertake on the core and extensive training where these tools will be fully taught and applied. As you will discover, Jaaxy Lite and Jaaxy Enterprise provide unlimited keyword searches. Therefore, I advise that you take the advantages of Premium membership and enroll to the starter test drive, if you have not already done so or upgrade to premium and enjoy unlimited benefits  of developing your website quickly.

Wealthy Affiliate, Affiliate Program: Affiliate Bootcamp

Wealthy Affiliate runs one of the most successful Affiliate programs with a recurring commission. Having started first as affiliates, the program was designed with the needs of the affiliates in mind. To join their affiliate program, WA provides you [the prospective affiliate] with Training as well as expert coaching to enable you to advance your skill set as an affiliate, while at the same time exposing you to some of the leading affiliate marketers in the world.

Enrollment in this affiliate program also called the Affiliate Bootcamp, introduced you to the Affiliate Bootcamp training that should enable you to be a successful affiliate, that will promote WA to other people. Critics of WA have labeled this to be a kind of multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme, but I think this is not true.

Members of the WA community are free to either join its Affiliate Program or promote other products/services/brands, without promoting WA. As the commissions accrued from the promotion of other products/services depend on how many visitors convert into actual buyers, also the commissions from the promotion of Wealthy Affiliate depend on how many people enroll in WA training through your promotional efforts. These are your conversions.

Affiliate Bootcamp Training

Having enrolled in the Wealthy Affiliate program, you undergo an intensive Bootcamp 7 Course (70 Lessons), training that should equip you with knowledge and tools to enable you to succeed as a WA affiliate. Regardless of whether you are a newbie or an advanced marketer, this training lays a firm foundation for WA affiliates, by employing both applied and hands-on knowledge along with supporting tasks to create a very successful online business in the niche.

Many affiliates of the WA program are successful, and some have either created or are creating full-time businesses because of Bootcamp. Moreover, the Bootcamp does not end at earning regular commissions from WA, but every year supper affiliates of WA Bootcamp meet with the founders of WA in Vegas for further Bootcamp training, as well as mutual interaction with successful affiliates. This is an incentive since all costs are paid for by WA.

…………………. You want to be part of this successful affiliate program, enroll to the free test drive course and upgrade to Affiliate Bootcamp training to a successful WA, affiliate…………………….

Commission structure for WA affiliates

The affiliate program at Wealthy Affiliate is one of the most lucrative programs. Its appeal hinges on the fact that affiliates earn a RECURRING commission. As illustrated below, an affiliate will earn $10 in commissions when the person referred onto the platform upgrades membership to premium.  Subsequently, he will continue to earn $11.25 per month for as long as the person that converted into a WA customer remains on the platform as a paying active member. If the person referred upgrades to premium plus+ then the affiliate will earn $20 one-time commission and will continue to earn $23.25 per month for as long as the person that converted into a WA customer remains on the platform as a paying active member.

Moreover, if you are a Premium or Premium Plus+ member of Wealthy Affiliate, you get double the commissions as an affiliate and you also get to take part in their $1 credit program, which allows you to earn from free members you sign-up and convert by setting-up their accounts. You also earn money with each domain your referrals buys.
That is not all!! When someone sets up his/her account, he/she is granted a free domain, which is a bonus for upgrading to a $49 monthly subscription. This converts very well and almost everyone decides to stay after the first month because of the value, the quality of the services, the help they get, and the overall positive experience offered here at Wealthy Affiliate. The commission structure is shown in the figure below.

Pros

• Free Test Drive of the training, stay free as long as you like
• Extremely affordable. Even at its highest tier, Premium Plus+
• No “a la carte” training modules you have to continue buying to finish your training
• No experience needed, complete newbies can join
• Easy to follow both text and video tutorials
• Fully customizable websites built on WordPress
• You can earn while you learn
• Receive thorough, straightforward training from basics to expert level affiliate marketing
• Complete freedom of direction for your business
• Global Community of accessible, like-minded peers
• Full accessibility to founders, mentors, and experts
• 1 on 1 coaching and support available
• Spectacular hosting package included with Premium Plus+ membership for building fast, responsive websites
• SSL security built into all websites
• 24/7 Live chat
• 24/7 Live support

Cons

• You can be overwhelmed at the amount of training available
• Not a “done for you” platform, real work and a dedication to learning are needed to succeed
• Not get rich scheme

 

Complaints About Wealthy Affiliate

Wealthy Affiliate is a scam

A scam is an illegal plan / dishonest scheme/ fraud, for making money, especially one that involves tricking people. With this definition of a scam, then Wealthy Affiliate is not a scam. Wealthy Affiliate has existed for 17 years, now, and is currently 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. From Newbies to Experts in affiliate marketing, you will find a home at Wealthy Affiliate. Indeed, it is a 1Stop platform for those seeking to learn and run an online business, especially those leveraging affiliate marketing.

Wealthy Affiliate’s course content and training are outdated

Wealthy Affiliate’s course content and training have been deemed outdated, A review by one called Karl first released on April 24, 2021, and updated on January 20, 2022, makes a scathing attack on the content of Wealthy Affiliate courses.

In his attack he asserts that Wealthy Affiliate training lacks in key aspects of training such as SEO and most especially, backlinks. He asserts that backlinks are an indispensable ranking factor. This is how he puts it: “If you’ve got a new site, you’ll be dead in the water without them [backlinks].

But why is Wealthy Affiliate not so much taken up by backlinks? Is it because they as Wealthy Affiliate trainers do not understand them? Certainly not. However, Wealthy Affiliate warns against paying the Private Blog Networks [PBNs] companies, to create for you backlinks simply to “trick” search engines that the linking website trusts your website enough to associate itself with your domain. This means that the search engines will trust your website as well, and as a consequence, traffic to your website will increase.

It should, however, be noted that Private Blog Networks companies, purchase a large portion of expired domain names that had already established domain authority and then post basic content to each website included in their network. When you pay them, then they will include backlinks to your website and immediately traffic will increase to your website.

Should this be so, and if this is your goal, then PBNs really help you achieve it. Your SEO is suddenly increased, along with attendant generation of passive traffic and leads to your website. All of these are good and the success enjoyable until google finds out!! At this point, the marketing strategy will quickly become a disaster. This type of approach to backlinks is what Wealthy Affiliate is against and thus encourages their students to avoid.

However, you may guest post articles to authority blogs and add backlinks to your website and this is acceptable. Moreover, you not only gain from backlinks but also your authority in such niches will be boosted. So, in case you’re wondering, yes: Google hates PBNs and intentionally tries to penalize people who use them.

Recall that Wealthy Affiliate philosophy is that learners build a long-lasting business, progressing slowly but systematically. Such an approach of “tricking” search engines can achieve short term results and not lasting results, and thus need not be instilled among the clients, and that is why they are avoided.

Another point of contention is about good and bad niches. In this review, Karl asserts that Wealthy Affiliate training on how to choose a niche is outdated because it emphasizes focusing on what you are passionate about, and you have such interest to see that you learn to make it successful.

In this, he may not be alone, especially if the philosophy is on making quick money. He then goes on to suggest such niches as: Travel, Video games, Music, Food, Health, & Pets, as the possible niches one may be passionate about and that they are already saturated, and no newbie can manage to beat the competition. I think this assessment is correct. But does Wealthy Affiliate training teach that one can choose such broad niches as those listed as examples above?

Certainly not. Wealthy Affiliate trains their clients to avoid broad niches and narrow down to a specific niche, that may be part of the broader one. For instance, if one was passionate about health, a good niche may be on something like “Back Pain” management in either men or women or prevention of hair loss in women, etc.

In my view, the reviewer perhaps was not sincere in his assessment of the course on niche selection, although he claimed to provide an unbiased review!!

Another Wealthy Affiliate training approach that emphasizes communicating to your audience is scrutinized. The major contention seems to be a misunderstanding this to mean ignoring relevant keywords, on whose basis, your posts or pages will be ranked. Those of us who have taken training with Wealthy Affiliate know that this accusation is false. At Wealthy Affiliate you are taught how to communicate to your audience yet optimize your content with relevant keywords that will help your site to rank high in search engines.

Moreover, Wealthy Affiliate, and specifically Kyle, has also been accused of providing outdated keyword research tools i.e., Jaaxy. I wonder why he said it was outdated although he had never heard of it!! This is what this reviewer of Wealthy Affiliate said: “………what’s a Jaaxy? I’ve never heard of this thing. Seems like he’s just promoting because it makes keyword research look easy and it’s included in Premium”. Then he goes on to promote Ahrefs, as the best keyword research tool.

Again, here I see a lack of sincerity playing a big part in assessing Wealthy Affiliate training. If you confess to not knowing the Keyword research tool at one platform in the first place, then you cannot at the same time say that it is inferior to what you know!!. It would rather have been better to understand Jaaxy and then compare it on merit with Ahrefs. Chances are that the two tools complement each other.

Even then Wealthy Affiliate does not teach that only Jaaxy can be used in researching keywords, but approach keyword research holistically, and using Jaaxy to fine tune your keywords to find out those with low competition.

……………………………To understand clearly the Jaaxy Keywords Tool, check here…………

Finally, another outdated part of the training brought out was the choosing of a domain name that is the exact match of the keyword you want to rank (niche). This is what is said: “Google penalized these sites a long time ago Check the results for how to lose belly fat on Google: He ain’t there”.

For sure a site not ranking in search engines such as google depends on many things, but what tops the list is not its domain name. Is the site active? Does it provide what those searching the internet are looking for? Is its content optimized to rank in search engines? I think these could be more important than a domain name.

Wealthy Affiliate has no refund policy

There are many training programs offering online courses that have refund policy whereby if they wished to terminate the membership, then the membership fee is refunded. However, Wealthy Affiliate has no such policy, and it clearly explains why in its terms and conditions section: “The reason why Wealthy Affiliate doesn’t offer a refund is that there is a free starter membership, and you can try Wealthy Affiliate for free with some limitations”. The starter membership is enough for you to understand and experience the whole platform.

Wealthy Affiliate is expensive

Some people have complained about the price of training at Wealthy Affiliate as being high compared to other platforms. They assert that $49/month is too expensive.

My take is that the price may indeed be high for some people although when compared with what is included in the $49 per month at Wealthy Affiliate i.e., access to comprehensive training, keyword research tools, website building tools, writing tools, premium web hosting of 5 websites, community, technical support, etc. this is far the cheapest platform, by all standards.

For example, many Expert Coaching programs elsewhere cost $5,000+. and ClickFunnels is $2,500 per year. The comparable cost for website hosting at WPEngine.com is $3,000 per year, yet Keyword tools like Moz cost in the range of $1,200 – $6,000 per year. These costs are hidden from you when enrolling and keep coming up as you go along.

But Wealthy Affiliate package ($588) of an entire year for a Premium member entitles you to many (instead of one) expert coaches, the supper support of the community, in addition to the comprehensive training along with web-building and Hosting tools.

From this analysis, you can agree with me that the Premium cost of $49 per month, is the lowest cost, yet for the most comprehensive platform in the industry for building online businesses.

That mentioned, I must point out that Wealthy Affiliate’s rates for one paying annually are far lower than the $588. For instance, If you level up to Premium Yearly through the Black Friday Rewind offer, you will be getting a discount of approximately $25 per month.

Also, as a bonus, if you decide you want to stick around on this exclusive pricing the following year, then you have the privilege to access the “Forever Pricing Promise”! These offers further make Wealthy Affiliate a much more affordable platform compared to others.

Wealthy Affiliate Sells the Dream More Than the Substance

Whoever thinks that a foundation course is “cheap” and one may do away with it does not understand the learning process, leave alone how knowledge is acquired. No one is born a guru in anything.

If Wealthy Affiliate courses are the best for a newbie and turn him/her into a guru, then they have substance and not dreams. The all-around and in-depth training you will find at wealthy Affiliate. Maybe one thing should be emphasized: Wealthy Affiliate does not do for you the business, but rather teaches one to do it through hands-on experiences.

The training involves practical hands-on, where you learn how to do what you have learned. You can even review the course several times and try the assignment. If everything seems to not work out, then you may seek guidance and you will receive it. I do not regard this as selling dreams, but the real substance.

Wealthy Affiliate Instructors are incompetent in what they teach

Some of the negative reviews have made a swipe at the founders of Wealthy Affiliate themselves intimating that these fellows are no longer understanding current trends in the affiliate marketing field, but rather locked in how the business was run seven years ago.

Most of the blows have been directed at Kyle, who is recognized as the brain behind the operation, as well as the main trainer and face behind the Wealthy Affiliate brand. Thereafter, the reviewer goes on to show that Kyle’s websites he uses in training are non-functional and therefore, he, Kyle, having left the affiliate marketing career, is concentrating on teaching aspiring affiliates using outdated material.

This specific review by Karl, this is what he says: “Kyle Loudon is the co-founder and face of Wealthy Affiliate, and the guy you’ll see in the most of the training sessions. I get the feeling he’s the real brains behind the operation. Kyle is an affiliate marketer turned instructor and marketing chief. Carson Lim is the designer and co-founder – Kyle’s right-hand man. Apparently, he’s responsible for making ideas comes to life…whatever that means”.

You can see that the founders are being shown as deeply involved in the day-to-day operations of their company, making sure everything runs perfectly.

After this see what he says next: “Kyle and Carson are too busy yachting around the world with supermodels to keep up with their affiliate sites, because the ones they provide are way out-of-date, dead, and not even earning much money at all anymore”. These two people, who are very dedicated to see that everything goes well at their company, are at the same time yachting around with supermodels!!

One last blow directed towards Kyle, and you will make your final judgment about this reviewer: “Again, I’m pretty sure Kyle was making good money as an affiliate marketer when he started this. Then, it blew up. Now he just keeps his basic training videos up, has Jay do webinars for updating members, and spends his riches at nightclubs in Monaco”.

I wish my judgements were wrong in this matter. But according to me this reviewer wanted to prove his earlier assertions that Wealthy Affiliate training was indeed outdated because it was being run by individuals who cared little about the program content as they cared for their luxurious life.

In other words, they were indeed not honest, but rather were interested in earning your money but offering you dream and not the substance since they had no interest to upgrade their training!!. However, the truth about the main brains behind the operation could not be erased from his very narrative.

Once again, I leave it to you to either agree with me or with him.

One cannot succeed as an affiliate if he/she trains at Wealthy Affiliate

Some reviews bluntly state that Wealthy Affiliate members fail to make any money with the training, and yet more are saying that the training doesn’t work.

There are many reasons why a business may fail to pick up while in the very niche you are a player, they are those that have succeeded. As with all other training programs out there, not all who have trained surely succeed. It is squarely, the same at Wealthy Affiliate. So, one to single out Wealthy Affiliate reveals his/her insincerity and ulterior motives.

In fact, Wealthy Affiliate has many success stories where some members become financially free. Most, if not all the experts that give expert webinars are members of WA and successful Affiliates. They trained with Wealthy affiliate and applied the principles thus taught them.

Deviating a little from the category above is the review by Karl, which I have referred to above, that gives out two categories of people who can succeed with the Wealthy Affiliate training: As he puts it they are:

• a) “what-the-hell-is-affiliate-marketing people”: If you are so new that you won’t even know where else or how to get help, there’s nothing wrong with poking around WA and getting some free basic knowledge and help from the forum. That will set you in the right direction; and
• b) People who care more about community than knowledge: There are a lot better courses out there than Wealthy Affiliate, but there aren’t many better communities. If you want just some basic affiliate marketing training with the help of a large and thriving community behind you, give Wealthy Affiliate a try.

This gentleman is interesting. In one post he praises the courses at Wealthy Affiliate and in the same post repudiates those praises. I will quote from his review for you to make the judgment. This is what he says:

“Premium [Training] does cover all of the basics of earning a living as an affiliate marketer, including:

• Generating free traffic: Getting your own domain, keyword-rich content, breaking down traffic, using visuals, and lessons on productivity.
• Making money: The basics of affiliate marketing, finding affiliate programs, how to leverage product reviews, how to insert Amazon links, and how to capture data.
• Social media: Setting up accounts, engaging with your audience, how to use each platform, posting within WA, and branding.
• Content creation: Overview of the industry, how to get indexed, improving readability, writing within a structure, and goal setting.

So, even if the advice is outdated, you’ll still have a solid base to grow on”

Please judge for yourself if this reviewer was sincere!! In one instance one cannot make money by acquiring knowledge through training with Wealthy Affiliate, yet in another instance, the course is good to make the trainee earn a living!! Interesting indeed.

One can succeed by Only Promoting Wealthy Affiliate Itself

Having an affiliate marketing background and being well-grounded in teaching how to run an online business with a great bias on affiliate marketing, appears to create a false impression that Wealthy Affiliate cannot run its own affiliate program.

On the contrary, Wealthy Affiliate has its own affiliate program along with a fully developed training course whereby the members that have decided to become Wealthy Affiliate affiliates get fully trained on how to promote Wealthy Affiliate and earn a commission.

I have already shown you the commission structure, which makes Wealthy Affiliate’s affiliate program not only very attractive but also one of the best, with a recurrent commission. Besides, apart from such generous commission to their affiliates, Wealthy Affiliate’s affiliate program has one of the best tracking systems which solves the technical issues that may arise. That’s why many people like promoting Wealthy Affiliate.

That said, it does not mean members on Wealthy Affiliate only promote Wealthy Affiliate. Moreover, it should not be construed that the affiliates of Wealthy Affiliate are in some tricky way “pushed” to promote Wealthy Affiliate.

To be honest, you will voluntarily choose to be an affiliate of Wealthy Affiliate, and then you will be enrolled in their affiliates training course: The Affiliate Bootcamp.

Otherwise, many members of the WA community are working in different niches, such as relationships, eCommerce, Finance, Karate, and gardening, to name but a few.

Good Reviews Are Written by the Affiliates

The assertion that an affiliate of Wealthy affiliate cannot write a critical review does not hold water. In the first instance, most of the affiliates of Wealthy Affiliate are the real members of Wealthy Affiliate, meaning that they do not only use the service of Wealthy Affiliate, but also do evaluate it regularly. So, in my view, they are well-placed to make an accurate review of the company.

One glaring observation is that most of the negative reviews [above 90%] are written by people who are not Wealthy Affiliate members and who have never used the service of Wealthy Affiliate. Moreover, many of such reviewers, see Wealthy Affiliate as a hindrance to the progress of other training platforms [they themselves are trying to promote] and purposely cast Wealthy Affiliate in a bad light to scare away the prospects, while at the same time fronting one of their choices.

I find that a review by a real member is more trustworthy compared to that of a non-real member of Wealthy Affiliate because it is based on full knowledge and with no hidden interest in fronting a rival company. Even more disturbing is the fact that most negative reviews are written by affiliates of rival companies, thus making them biased, to say the least.

Overall Evaluation and Recommendations

In this brief review I have tried to present facts about Wealthy Affiliate as I know it. I have also shared my view concerning the negative reviews that are out there on the web.

In my assessment I can say that Wealthy Affiliate is a 1Stop platform to trust, where you will find everything, you need to learn how to set up an online business. You will meet comprehensive training, with a supportive community, which will further enrich your learning experience.

Besides, with all the offers made by Wealthy Affiliate, the costs are really very low compared to rivals in the training field. What is shown on their website is inclusive of everything you need for the training. No hidden costs to ask from you from one-course module to another.

I, therefore, recommend to Wealthy Affiliate platform and advise that you enroll for the starter test-drive membership. Do not look elsewhere, they are a legitimate company with 17 years of experience in online business training, with special leverage with affiliate marketing training.

………………you want understand how to start a successful online or affiliate marketing business enroll to the free test drive course and upgrade to Premium training at WA, platform….. This is your 1Stop platform you can achieve an all-round training in not only affiliate marketing, but online business in general.

Conclusion

You have shown you both the good and the bad about Wealthy Affiliate and I have also weighed the authenticity of some of the negative reviews about this company. If one was to weigh the good and bad one the scale, the good out-weigh the bad.

Every company has what is good and what such a company identifies as its brand. One can be better in one aspect, while another is better in yet another aspect. It is my belief that other training companies offer training unique to them.

However, in the field of affiliate marketing training field, Wealthy Affiliate is the brand you should look for. You will not only receive training, but you will also build your websites, access keyword tools, and have your website hosted at a fixed cost. This is your 1Stop platform to trust.

Should you be interested in verifying what I have said of Mr. Karl’s review of Wealthy Affiliate, click here

My Final Opinion + Special BONUS!

Join the starter, it’s $0. If you do not like it, please do not fear to come back here to my site and yell at me (seriously). Please, be assured; as I have mentioned, it is free. Upon joining, I will make sure to get in touch with you within the first hour. However, I want you to make me one promise that you will set up your account if you do join. It is simple and you will be walked through it upon joining WA.

Join Wealthy Affiliate, it’s $0. Get Rolling Now!

How to Claim Your Bonus…

When you join your FREE Starter Account, you will be offered a bonus if you decide to become a PREMIUM member in the first 7 days (including a free domain). When you create your account at Wealthy Affiliate, I will be personally contacting you on your profile with my “hello” and some more information about WA, how to get help from me, and how to claim your bonus. You will never know what you have been missing all of these years until you step foot inside of Wealthy Affiliate.

If you have any comments or questions, please leave them in the
comment/question box below and I will make sure you get answered
(probably within 1 hour). Thank you.

Cheers

Joseph Hawumba

Founder

ommegaffiliates.com