How To Make Money With Wealthy Affiliate

Updated: November 11, 2021
Reviews

The Ultimate Wealthy Affiliate Review

11 Things To Know Before You Buy

Wealthy Affiliate

This is the definitive Wealthy Affiliate review for 2021.

We've collected 20+ reviews from verified WA students. And I have personally signed up to Wealthy Affiliate as a premium student multiple times over the years, spending 50+ hours reviewing the community and training materials.

(Have you taken this course? Add your rating!)

If you want to know:

If Wealthy Affiliate can help you make money online
If the training is still effective nowadays
The common complaints people have about WA
If the whole thing is legit or a scam

Then you've come to the right place.

Wealthy Affiliate – Key Points

About	A course and community that promises to teach you how to make money online with affiliate marketing.
💰 Price	Some lessons free. $19 first month Premium. $30-99/month thereafter (more info)
😍 Pros	Decent training on affiliate marketing fundamentals.
😩 Cons	Full of outdated, misleading info and bad advice. Strong MLM vibes. No refunds.
Verdict	The WA training may have been effective several years ago, but much less so now.

Overall Rating

     2.4/5 2.4 ²

About our 31-factor editorial review process

If you're in a hurry, below is a video version of my Wealthy Affiliate review. (It's a couple of years old but little has changed with WA in the meantime.)

Wealthy Affiliate claims to be the best affiliate marketing platform and training to help you make money online. They offer an all-in-one solution that seems to have been effective up until about 2016. Nowadays, most of their successful students seem to be earning the majority of their affiliate income by convincing other people to sign up for Wealthy Affiliate.

Jump to…

The best affiliate marketing course?
How does Wealthy Affiliate work?
Who is this course for?
Wealthy Affiliate reputation
Are students getting results?
Price (and discount) info
Refund policy
Course structure

Praise
Criticism
Other things you should know
Should you join?
Alternatives
Leave your review
Ask a question

About the Author

Hey, I'm Niall Doherty.

I quit my last 9-to-5 job back in 2010.

Since then, I've earned my living online in various ways. Over the last six months I've earned an average of $17,617 per month, mostly from affiliate marketing.

I'm on a mission to accurately rate and review all the best affiliate marketing courses. My team and I have spent 500+ hours investigating these courses and getting feedback from real students.

All that to say: we know a thing or two about affiliate marketing and making money online.

The Best Affiliate Marketing Course?

We're on a mission to find the best affiliate marketing course, based on our own extensive research plus feedback from real students.

Unfortunately, Wealthy Affiliate doesn't make the top of our list…

🏆 Best Affiliate Marketing Courses 🏆

Here's an image from their free training showing you how affiliate marketing works…

Wealthy Affiliate basically aims to help you set up a website, promote products on that website, and earn a commission for every sale you refer.

There are two main tracks to the core training…

Affiliate Bootcamp promises to teach people how to create a website promoting Wealthy Affiliate.
Online Entrepreneur Certification promises to teach people how to create an affiliate website in a non-MMO niche. For example, your site could be about dog training, pool cleaning, or website hosting.

Within those two core sections and the rest of Wealthy Affiliate, you'll find 100's of training modules of varying quality and recency.

Who is Wealthy Affiliate for?

Wealthy Affiliate sells itself as a platform for anyone interested in affiliate marketing…

However, I would say it is mainly a platform for people with no experience with online business or affiliate marketing, who are looking to grasp the basics before quickly moving on to more advanced training.

This is a sentiment echoed by several verified students…

I think the Wealthy Affiliate course is a fair deal for people with no experience at all in areas like how WordPress and affiliate marketing work… Years after I used the course and advanced my knowledge on affiliate marketing, I would say WA is too shallow, though. This includes the premium plan.
Gerrid Smith

I would recommend the course to people who want to have a rough idea of how affiliate marketing works but NOT anyone that wants to make money from it. You will be disappointed!
Goodell David

While the training promised to cover everything one would need to succeed in the business, I found it quite shallow and had to research deeper. I used the program mostly as an outline or summary of what to do, then dig deeper from external sources.
Thomas Brown

Read more reviews from Wealthy Affiliate members
Full list of ways to make money online (including better options)

Does Wealthy Affiliate have a good reputation?

Not really, no.

Wealthy Affiliate is owned by Canadian entrepreneurs Carson Lim and Kyle Loudon.

Kyle and Carson have been in business since 2005 under the corporation name Niche Marketing, Inc.

Wealthy Affiliate claims to have helped more than 1.4 million students over the years, making it the most popular affiliate marketing course in the world.

No experience necessary — Above: words from the WA website

However, I'm hesitant to recommend anyone sign up for Wealthy Affiliate.

I say that as someone who:

Has earned more than $200,000 from affiliate marketing in one year
Has signed up as a premium WA member multiple times
Spent 45+ hours reviewing the training and community
Surveyed lots of verified Wealthy Affiliate students

A quick summary of my main complaints with Wealthy Affiliate:

Much of the core training materialis rarely updated (examples)
The core training is riddled withbad advice (examples)
The core training is filled withmisleading claims (examples)
The core training is verypoorly organized (examples)
The lead trainers – Kyle Loudon and Jay Neill – appear to have hadlittle success with their own affiliate sites since 2016 (read more)
Wealthy Affiliate offersno refunds (read more)
Members are explicitly encouraged and instructed torecruit other paying members to WA (read more)
The most "successful" students of WA seem toearn most of their money from referring other people to WA (examples)

I cover several of those problems in my video review of Wealthy Affiliate.

But the main reason I recommend you avoid Wealthy Affiliate, is simply that very few students seem to make money from it…

Are Wealthy Affiliate students getting results?

You would think so from reading all the positive reviews of Wealthy Affiliate posted on other blogs or Trustpilot.

But take a closer look at such reviews.

Often you will find that the person giving the positive review is making most of their income by referring other people to Wealthy Affiliate.

Jerry Huang is a prime example.He once boasted of earning 85% of his affiliate income by promoting Wealthy Affiliate…

A WA member called littlemama has a similar story, reporting that she earns about 75% of her income by referring other people to Wealthy Affiliate and its keyword research tool (Jaaxy)…

More MLM-style Wealthy Affiliate "success stories"

It's no surprise to find so many WA students actively promoting Wealthy Affiliate itself, since 60% of the core training is devoted to showing them how to do exactly that.

This is why many people come to view Wealthy Affiliate as a pyramid or Multi-Level Marketing scheme:

Many of the "success stories" seem to be students making money primarily by convincing other people to sign up for the program.

It's a complaint we've heard repeatedly from Wealthy Affiliate students…

Inside the course, they are really pushing the students to invite others to join. I would say this is a double tragedy; they sell you a course then use you to make even more money by inviting others!
Ray Charles

Very early into the course, I realized that they keep asking you to invite premium members to them. This raised my suspicion and I decided to dig into their reviews online. Funny thing is that most of the people who claim to have made significant money from Wealthy Affiliate, earned their commissions by referring others to WA.
Chris Brown

If you're new to affiliate marketing then do yourself a favour and ignore any positive reviews of WA you see – and you will see a lot of them; commissions for promoting WA can be huge – and look elsewhere.
Validated Reviewer

But those MLM-style success stories aren't enough to explain all the positive ratings and reviews for Wealthy Affiliate on Trustpilot…

Turns out that the owners of Wealthy Affiliate "actively manage" their reputation on Trustpilot, and have used "various marketing campaigns" to increase their rating there…

Wealthy Affiliate Trustpilot reputation management — A post by WA co-founder Carson Lim inside Wealthy Affiliate.

Read through the reviews of Wealthy Affiliate on Trustpilot and you'll notice something remarkable:

The vast majority of people who leave a positive review of Wealthy Affiliate seem to have earned very little money online.

Barbara Richnow is a prime example.

She posted a glowing 900+ word five-star review of Wealthy Affiliate on Trustpilot…

Just a few days later, Barbara posted within Wealthy Affiliate that she was celebrating 4 years in the program, but had yet to create her website…

In other words, Barbara had spent 4 years and more than $1000 on the Wealthy Affiliate training, never created a website – and therefore presumably never earned much income as an affiliate – and yet still gave WA a positive review and a 5-star rating.

🤯

Unfortunately, Barbara is not alone in giving high praise to a program that has failed to help her make money online.

More praise for Wealthy Affiliate by unsuccessful students

To conclude this section, the vast majority of positive reviews you'll see of Wealthy Affiliate come from two types of people:

Affiliates who earn a commission if you join WA through their link
Excited and hopeful students who have yet to earn significant affiliate income

In contrast, better affiliate marketing courses we've reviewed show many of their students having success without promoting that same course to others.

How much does Wealthy Affiliate cost?

There are three membership levels in Wealthy Affiliate:

Starter – free
Premium – $19 first month, then $49 per month.
Premium Plus – $49 first month, then $99 per month.

The free membership gives you limited access to the training material, Wealthy Affiliate community (7 days only), and website building tools.

You can save money on the Premium and Premium Plus memberships by paying for a year in advance. Premium Yearly costs $495. Premium Plus Yearly costs $995.

The free training in Wealthy Affiliate is a decent introduction to affiliate marketing, and the content is mostly up to date.

But be warned!

The free membership is nowhere near enough to help you build a successful affiliate site and make money online – everything in there is geared towards converting you to a paid account.

If you do want to give Wealthy Affiliate a proper try, I'd recommend starting with a free membership, then availing of the $19 offer for the first month of Premium.

Wealthy Affiliate Discount?

There are a couple of ways to save on your Wealthy Affiliate membership.

One is to pay for an annual subscription rather than paying monthly. Last I checked, the yearly membership works out 16% cheaper.

Wealthy Affiliate also seems to do a big discount offer each year around Black Friday. I've seen them offer up to 45% off their annual Premium and Premium Plus plans during that promotion.

Refund Policy

Officially, Wealthy Affiliate does not give refunds.

As per the WA Terms of Service:

The WA terms of service page specifies no refunds

Given that, if you are tempted to try Wealthy Affiliate for yourself, I recommend you sign up for a monthly membership and test it out for a few weeks.

But be very hesitant to upgrade to the yearly membership option.

Focus on yearly upgrades — Above: Kyle writes in a Premium-only lesson that affiliates should encourage other members to upgrade to yearly.

All that said, I've seen multiple reports within WA of affiliates noticing that some of their referrals received refunds (example).

So it does seem to be possible to get a refund, though the process for doing so remains unclear.

Meanwhile, some students report that their refund requests are ignored…

How is the training structured?

Once you sign up for a Premium account, your Wealthy Affiliate dashboard will look like this…

As you can see, the program looks and feels more like a social network than a training program.

The core training consists of two separate tracks:

Online Entrepreneur Certification (OEC)
"a 5 phase (50 lesson) series of courses walking you through the process of creating and growing a business within absolutely ANY niche that you want."
Affiliate Bootcamp
"a 7 Phase (70 lesson) series of courses walking you through the process of creating and establishing a business in a niche related to the promotion of Wealthy Affiliate."

About 40% of the core training is devoted to the OEC, and the other 60% to Affiliate Bootcamp.

(Yes, you read that right: the majority of the core training is about how to promote Wealthy Affiliate itself.)

The lessons within the core training are all in text format, often with an accompanying video or two to explain more visual concepts. Kyle writes and presents most of this training.

If you'd like to get a feel for Kyle's teaching style, check this video:

Outside of the core training, there are 100's of tutorials created by members of the WA community…

These are of varying quality. Often the person teaching the information does not appear to have any significant experience with the topic.

Jay Neill (aka magistudios) also does a live training class for the WA community each week, all of which are archived and can be viewed at any time.

As a Wealthy Affiliate member, you also get access to the Jaaxy keyword research tool, which seems decent but is rarely mentioned in lists of the top keyword tools.

Jaaxy keyword research example: Wealthy Affiliate scam — Above: testing out a random keyword in Jaaxy

You also get your own social media-like profile page on Wealthy Affiliate, where other members can post messages. Once you sign up, you'll notice that lots of members drop by to leave you some words of encouragement.

As noted elsewhere, much of the motivation for posting such messages seems to be a desire to climb the internal "Ambassador" leaderboard…

Wealthy Affiliate Ambassador leaderboard

You may find the layout of Wealthy Affiliate somewhat confusing and overwhelming, as this student did…

I was very confused by how they organized it. For example, they will be talking about some concepts in chapter 2 as if the learner knows them only to go and 'introduce' them in a later chapter. You need to go through the whole course before you start figuring out which step should come before the other.
Jonas Rasmussen

Thankfully their search function works quite well, so you can always use that to find what you're looking for…

Green Lights 🟢

Here are a few things to like about Wealthy Affiliate:

Decent training on affiliate marketing fundamentals
Lessons are short and simple, easily digestible.
7-day (limited) free trial and only $19 for your first month.
White hat throughout
Many students love the sense of community

Red Flags 🚩

A few things about Wealthy Affiliate that might give you pause:

Lack of significant success stories from students.
Too MLM-y for my liking (60% of core training is about promoting WA)
Core training is rarely updated (examples)
The lead trainers – Kyle Loudon and Jay Neill – appear to have had little success with affiliate marketing since 2016 (more info)
Core training is filled with misleading claims (examples)
Core training is riddled with bad advice (examples)
Core training is missing crucial info (examples)
Core training is poorly organized (examples)
Silly and distracting internal ranking system (more info)

Other things you should know

You may see claims that Wealthy Affiliate is one of the more affordable ways to learn affiliate marketing. But keep in mind that the cost of 2 years' membership in Wealthy Affiliate is comparable to the cost of lifetime access to an alternative course. So if you're in it for the long run, Wealthy Affiliate can end up being far more expensive than alternatives.
Don't expect to earn any money from the free SiteRubix websites you get as a Wealthy Affiliate Premium member. As noted elsewhere, those sites are practically useless.

The sites they help build are too sketchy that they look unprofessional. I don't think any serious consumer would follow through on such websites. The bounce rate you get from the free sites you get in the course is alarming!
Ray Charles

Is Wealthy Affiliate worth it?

Not really, no.

Despite the few positives listed above, be wary when signing up for Wealthy Affiliate.

Sure, you can go through 20 training lessons for free, then sign up for the $19 special offer, slog through all the Premium material in a month, and then cancel your account before you get charged again.

As a newbie doing that, you'll learn a lot in a few short weeks.

But, as you've seen throughout this review, the majority of what you learn in WA is either outdated, misleading, or flat-out wrong.

If your goal is to start making money online and eventually become a successful affiliate marketer, you'd be much better off investing in a better alternative.

Learn more about affiliate marketing

Wealthy Affiliate – Key Points

About	A course and community that promises to teach you how to make money online with affiliate marketing.
💰 Price	Some lessons free. $19 first month Premium. $30-99/month thereafter (more info)
😍 Pros	Decent training on affiliate marketing fundamentals.
😩 Cons	Full of outdated, misleading info and bad advice. Strong MLM vibes. No refunds.
Verdict	The WA training may have been effective several years ago, but much less so now.

Overall Rating

     2.4/5 2.4 ³

Wealthy Affiliate Alternatives

Here are the top affiliate marketing programs we've reviewed…

🏆 Best Affiliate Marketing Courses 🏆

Other ways to make money online

Your Thoughts on Wealthy Affiliate

Have you taken this course yourself?
Add your rating so others can see if it's worthwhile.
Do you have a question about this course?
Let us know below and we'll try find the answer.

Wealthy Affiliate Reviews

Rate This Course

Ray Charles

Validated Reviewer ¹
Review Info ²

October 28, 2021

Earnings ³	less than expected

Following Training ⁴	for 1 to 2 years

You Will Hardly Make Anything

Wealthy Affiliate is one of those courses I would say promises too much, delivers a little at the beginning but the value decreases the deeper you move into it. Here are some reasons why I say this:

1) The authors promise a lot, such as making thousands through affiliate marketing, which I openly say was a lie. If anything, the "testimonials" in the course made money referring others like me to sign up for the course.

2) They put all the good content in the free course and the first month which they offered on a huge discount. The first month cost about $19 and the subsequent ones between $30 and $49. I'm not sure if these are the same rates now. As you will realize, they charged less at the start then increased the rates. Sadly, the good content is only found in the first few lessons; the rest of the course is repetition and lots of promises.

3) Inside the course, they are really pushing the students to invite others to join. I would say this is a double tragedy; they sell you a course then use you to make even more money by inviting others!

4) Believe it or not, I hardly made anything from the website they helped me to create plus the months of learning they put me through. The sites they help build are too sketchy that they look unprofessional. I don't think any serious consumer would follow through on such websites. The bounce rate you get from the free sites you get in the course is alarming!

Pros and Cons

Easy to follow.
The content is spread out so the student is not clouded by information overload.
It is affordable.

There is too much marketing from the authors on the inside.
The information is misleading and you will not earn even $10 in a year.
The authors give promises throughout the course that never materialize.

Implementation ⁵	harder than expected
Presentation ⁶	     4.0/5
Usefulness ⁷	     2.0/5

Community ⁸	     5.0/5
Support ⁹	     3.0/5
Value For Money ¹⁰	     2.0/5

Julius L

Validated Reviewer ¹¹
Review Info ¹²

October 23, 2021

This reviewer has a business relationship with the course creator or a competitor. Not included in overall ratings.

Wealthy Affiliate works

I joined WA in 2019 and I have seen results. I do now rank regularly with my website on the first pages of search engines, without paid advertising, or similar strategies. All are white hat SEO tactics taught in this course.

I agree some training needs to be updated, but people spending time in the community would know that if you write about it in the comment area or directly to the creators, it will be updated. Not sure if there are many other affiliate courses offering that option! So in my view, the critics are welcome, but more or less they are just haters who try to blame everyone else instead of taking personal responsibility.

Pros and Cons

Teaches white hat SEO.
Low price.
24/7 real, helpful community and direct access to CEO.

Training could be updated automatically.

Validated Reviewer ¹³
Review Info ¹⁴

October 20, 2021

Earnings ¹⁵	less than expected

Following Training ¹⁶	for more than 2 years

Great community but outdated training

It seems easy to get started. All is good until I had this feeling that most of what is being taught was great several years ago but not enough for today. Yes, you can start a website in a few minutes but it is ugly and far from one that will earn money.

It is easy to get caught up with the community aspect and writing blog posts, reviewing other's sites, etc. but then you realize all the time you spent hasn't gotten you further along with your own site.

I think overall it is good if you know nothing about website building but you need much more than they give you. I believe the ones who make the money are the ones promoting WA as an affiliate, not the ones actually using it.

Pros and Cons

Easy to begin.
Affordable with an annual plan.
Learned the basics.

Easy to focus on community interaction, not building your own site.
A lot of bad advice given from members who have little to no online experience.
The rewards/badges given for participation and milestones seem childish like you are in the scouts vs. building a business as the primary goal.

Implementation ¹⁷	about what I expected
Presentation ¹⁸	     3.0/5
Usefulness ¹⁹	     3.0/5

Community ²⁰	     5.0/5
Support ²¹	     4.0/5
Value For Money ²²	     3.0/5

Chris Brown

Validated Reviewer ²³
Review Info ²⁴

September 29, 2021

Earnings ²⁵	way less than expected

Following Training ²⁶	for 6 to 12 months

It's an MLM scheme

Very early into the course, I realized that they keep asking you to invite premium members to them. This raised my suspicion and I decided to dig into their reviews online. Funny thing is that most of the people who claim to have made significant money from Wealthy Affiliate, earned their commissions by referring others to WA.

Well, the content makes sense especially for new entrants into affiliate marketing but they should have prioritized training over trying to make more money from people that had already paid for the course. In as much as they are coaching us on affiliate marketing, they should not take this as an opportunity to make more money off us. This makes the whole thing look like a typical Multi-Level Marketing scheme.

The other red flag I saw is that they offer no refunds even if you felt the course gave you no value for money. I think a genuine "school" should not worry about refunding its students if they are offering legit coaching. Unfortunately, WA will not refund anything to anyone. I think they low-key know that the course is not worth it in the real world so they had to safeguard their profits.

Pros and Cons

The free course prepares you for the bigger picture.
Presentations are neat.

They focus more on getting you to recruit other people than on training you.
There is no refund policy.
The content cannot be used in today's affiliate marketing approaches.

Implementation ²⁷	harder than expected
Presentation ²⁸	     3.0/5
Usefulness ²⁹	     2.0/5

Community ³⁰	     5.0/5
Support ³¹	     3.0/5
Value For Money ³²	     2.0/5

Goodell David

Validated Reviewer ³³
Review Info ³⁴

September 29, 2021

Earnings ³⁵	way less than expected

Following Training ³⁶	for more than 2 years

Much of it is a lie

Wealthy Affiliate was a good course back in the day when I was referred by a friend. The lessons are presented professionally and the steps are clear and easy to follow. The problem, however, is that they promised too much which I never experienced throughout my training (and after) despite adhering to them fully.

For example, they promise to help you create a website that will attract traffic easily and lead to thousands in sales. To be honest, the free websites they offer will hardly get any traffic. They are so bold as to promise that you can create a website in under a minute (sigh!) which will function fully and start generating profits in a short time. The type of website you end up with is a sore sight that no self-respecting customer would trust. You will have to go beyond WA and set up a proper website.

Generally, much of what they promise is not true. I would not blame them because they are in it for the money. You will struggle trying to make any money using their training and this is something that the general subscribers always feel. I would recommend the course to people who want to have a rough idea of how affiliate marketing works but NOT anyone that wants to make money from it. You will be disappointed!

Pros and Cons

Easy to follow.
Step-by-step instructions.
It is short.

They overpromise everything.
The course receives no updates at all.
You will hardly make any money using their methods.

Implementation ³⁷	harder than expected
Presentation ³⁸	     4.0/5
Usefulness ³⁹	     2.0/5

Community ⁴⁰	     4.0/5
Support ⁴¹	     3.0/5
Value For Money ⁴²	     2.0/5

Validated Reviewer ⁴³
Review Info ⁴⁴

September 29, 2021

Earnings ⁴⁵	way less than expected

Following Training ⁴⁶	for more than 2 years

Do not purchase Wealthy Affiliate Premium

My overall feeling for the Wealthy Affiliate course is that it is not worth a dime of anyone's time. I was very confused by how they organized it. For example, they will be talking about some concepts in chapter 2 as if the learner knows them only to go and "introduce" them in a later chapter. You need to go through the whole course before you start figuring out which step should come before the other.

I also think the whole thing is too old to make digital marketing sense today. If you use the content to try and make money today, you will end up with frustrations and $0.00 in annual earnings. There are tons of wrong information and misleading claims which I believe are made to spice up the course and lure customers into purchasing it.

It is only when you start applying the lessons in real life that you will realize how misplaced the whole thing is. If you need to study affiliate marketing, try something newer as Wealthy Affiliate will confuse you more than it will inform you!

Pros and Cons

The community shares a lot of helpful info.
There are regular webinars.
The videos presentations are outstanding.

A lot of wrong information.
Too many promises that never materialize.
The training is shallow overall.

Implementation ⁴⁷	harder than expected
Presentation ⁴⁸	     2.0/5
Usefulness ⁴⁹	     2.0/5

Community ⁵⁰	     2.0/5
Support ⁵¹	     2.0/5
Value For Money ⁵²	     2.0/5

Gerrid Smith

Validated Reviewer ⁵³
Review Info ⁵⁴

September 27, 2021

Earnings ⁵⁵	less than expected

Following Training ⁵⁶	for 1 to 2 years

Decent Training on Affiliate Marketing

I think the Wealthy Affiliate course is a fair deal for people with no experience at all in areas like how WordPress and affiliate marketing work. Many courses jump into the actual training on affiliate marketing without considering that the user might not know how to manage and run a website. Wealthy Affiliate trains on some basic WordPress functions which are quite handy throughout the course.

In terms of affiliate marketing, the lessons are simple and very well explained that I grasped the concept after a few hours. Better still, all of these are introduced in the free membership plan. This gave me an idea of what would be expounded in the full course.

Years after I used the course and advanced my knowledge on affiliate marketing, I would say WA is too shallow, though. This includes the premium plan. What I have acquired from experience and more courses is nothing you can find inside WA. You need to sign up for more courses if making money is your idea of affiliate marketing.

If the authors are digital marketing gurus like they claim, they should've enhanced the overall content by now to accommodate newer concepts. All in all, the value for money is fair because you will be able to do basic WordPress functions and understand affiliate marketing pretty well. This will make future courses much simpler since WA is a worthy foundation course.

Pros and Cons

Great affiliate marketing knowledge.
Free basic WordPress training.
Sturdy course to introduce one to affiliate marketing.

It repeats itself at times.
Keyword research info is wrong and misleading.
It is too costly for the basic information that one gets.

Implementation ⁵⁷	about what I expected
Presentation ⁵⁸	     3.0/5
Usefulness ⁵⁹	     4.0/5

Community ⁶⁰	     4.0/5
Support ⁶¹	     4.0/5
Value For Money ⁶²	     3.0/5

Mia Green

Validated Reviewer ⁶³
Review Info ⁶⁴

September 27, 2021

Earnings ⁶⁵	less than expected

Following Training ⁶⁶	for 1 to 2 years

Good Course for Affiliate Marketing Newbies

I was introduced to the free membership plan when I was overly new in affiliate marketing and website creation. To be honest, for a free course, the content was informative and I was able to understand this concept quite fast. The free course, however, is pretty skinny and one cannot earn anything from the free website they offer.

The premium training offered more goodies in that even the website based on SiteRubix can make some money. The premium offer is an expanded version on the free membership only that this time, you get a taste of how earning real money through affiliate marketing works. The presentation of the course was fair although it felt rushed. I think for a paid service, the tutors should spread out the material and ensure each step is fully addressed before graduating.

On the other side, I think the course is not useful today. The content is the same as what we had way back in 2017. A lot has changed and some of the things in the course no longer exist or they have been simplified. The marketing approaches, for instance, are too traditional if you compare them with the current ones. They do not mention approaches like using Etsy and similar sites to create your own shop using affiliate links. This is a popular method today but the course focuses on distributing links and waiting for people to purchase through them.

The course was beneficial to me but I would not recommend it to anyone now. There are tons of free materials that can replace WA now and have much better information.

Pros and Cons

The free course gives a clear outlook of how affiliate marketing works.
The language is simple and easy to understand.
Their methods made me some real money.

The course is rushed (too much info dispensed within a short time).
They promise quick and easy cash but you end making very little.
The course serves the authors more than it does the customer. They make easy cash but we have to struggle.

Implementation ⁶⁷	about what I expected
Presentation ⁶⁸	     4.0/5
Usefulness ⁶⁹	     3.0/5

Community ⁷⁰	     2.0/5
Support ⁷¹	     3.0/5
Value For Money ⁷²	     3.0/5

Thomas Brown

Validated Reviewer ⁷³
Review Info ⁷⁴

September 21, 2021

Earnings ⁷⁵	less than expected

Following Training ⁷⁶	for 1 to 2 years

It was good but now it's outdated!

As a former subscriber of premium Wealthy Affiliate training, I can honestly say that the program worked for me. I signed up in 2015, and I was able to start a profitable affiliate business from it. My website, Wigsmaster, is a result of the program. I learned to collect in-demand items and pool them together under my shop.

While the training promised to cover everything one would need to succeed in the business, I found it quite shallow and had to research deeper. I used the program mostly as an outline or summary of what to do, then dig deeper from external sources.

Looking at the training program today, it is the same as it was when I paid for it. No update has been made. I think if anyone was to use it today, it would not add any value to them nor lead to any successful affiliate business. The strategies are outdated and much of the content would not apply on modern websites, let alone guarantee any success. In short, the program was worthy back in the day. Today, it is not!

Pros and Cons

It was easy to follow and understand.
It had real-life scenarios used all over the course.
The outline was clear and allowed you to research further.

There was insufficient support.
They overpromised the expected outcomes.
It was too long.

Implementation ⁷⁷	harder than expected
Presentation ⁷⁸	     3.0/5
Usefulness ⁷⁹	     4.0/5

Community ⁸⁰	     4.0/5
Support ⁸¹	     2.0/5
Value For Money ⁸²	     3.0/5

Jamie Hickey

Validated Reviewer ⁸³
Review Info ⁸⁴

September 17, 2021

Earnings ⁸⁵	more than expected

Following Training ⁸⁶	for more than 2 years

My honest review of Wealthy Affiliate

I can confidently say that it's a first-rate educational experience for those looking to create a successful career out of affiliate marketing. By following the Wealthy Affiliate training, you'll learn from those who've been successful in the past and those who are currently rolling in the dough as affiliates, as well as from their four university-level courses.

In addition to getting to be trained by the true experts on affiliate marketing, you'll also get access to proprietary software tailored for this type of business – something that costs about $30 per month or so at other places – but is free with your membership at Wealthy Affiliate.

Pros and Cons

Includes the tools you need.
The community is active and very helpful.
Weekly webinars and events.

Information overload.
Some of the training needs updates.
A big emphasis on promoting WA.

Implementation ⁸⁷	easier than expected
Presentation ⁸⁸	     4.0/5
Usefulness ⁸⁹	     5.0/5

Community ⁹⁰	     5.0/5
Support ⁹¹	     4.0/5
Value For Money ⁹²	     5.0/5

Validated Reviewer ⁹³
Verified Student ⁹⁴
Review Info ⁹⁵

September 16, 2021

This reviewer has a business relationship with the course creator or a competitor. Not included in overall ratings.

My Wealthy Affiliate experience

As a member of Wealthy Affiliate, I have mixed emotions in regards to their premium training. I joined a few years ago and while I did see some positive results, I needed to dig for information from other sources to get my business off the ground. The way things are set up at Wealthy Affiliate is that the premium training will get you to 60% of what you need to know.

There are plenty of members in Wealthy Affiliate, and experienced marketers usually post helpful content. However, if you are new to making money online then you will most likely look past certain things other members post. It is natural for beginners to follow the premium training and not know the importance of tips that are provided by experienced members in the community.

For instance, there is no mention of the importance of building backlinks within the premium training. I had to learn that on my own, and it can take some time to figure out certain things that are not emphasized enough in the core training. It is mentioned the importance of building a social media presence, but there is no training on how to do so. I learned Pinterest and Facebook marketing, PPC advertising, and building a funnel on my own. Unfortunately, this is like the 40% of things you need to know to really be successful.

You can build the foundation and get the knowledge as a beginner, but you need to be motivated and do more than just follow the premium training if you want success after joining Wealthy Affiliate. I can say that your success also depends on who refers you into the program. Now that I am more experienced I can teach things to the people I refer that they will not see in the core training.

Pros and Cons

Beginner-friendly easy steps to understand.

Important things you need to know are not mentioned in the core training.

Validated Reviewer ⁹⁶
Verified Student ⁹⁷
Review Info ⁹⁸

September 16, 2021

This reviewer has a business relationship with the course creator or a competitor. Not included in overall ratings.

Why Wealthy Affiliate Is Still Worth It

I joined Wealthy Affiliate in 2018, and I became a premium member the very next day. The premium training of Wealthy Affiliate is what allows me to blog for a living today. While the paid training is not without its flaws, it's more than worth it. The community alone is a priceless support system every marketer and blogger needs, especially at the beginning of their working online journey.

There is a common misconception about Wealthy Affiliate, coming mostly from people who have never been members. Considering everything a person gets from the platform, building a business through Wealthy Affiliate is cheaper than doing it without it. Perks such as a free website, web hosting, premium keyword research tool, and so much more are way more expensive if you get it without a package deal.

I'm still a premium member three years after joining Wealthy Affiliate and have no intention of leaving the platform anytime soon.

Pros and Cons

Great for beginners.
Easy-to-follow video lessons.
The community of like-minded people is outstanding.

Some lessons need an update.
No in-depth training on backlinks.
No detailed training about Pinterest.

Validated Reviewer ⁹⁹
Verified Student ¹⁰⁰
Review Info ¹⁰¹

September 16, 2021

This reviewer has a business relationship with the course creator or a competitor. Not included in overall ratings.

Great when combined with supplemental training from external sources

I've been a premium member of Wealthy Affiliate since January 2007 (when you could only join as a paying member). I'm still an active member, and I can comment on the good and bad from my experience.

I think Wealthy Affiliate is great for beginners as it will teach them the basic ideas about running an online business and get them going in a hands-on way. The core training is practical, so by the time you've finished, you will have a website with content online, and you can build from there.

It does have some very crucial stuff missing, and the training isn't updated as regularly as it should be. I would advise that as a student to find supplemental free training as I've always done myself. I was able to build a couple of successful websites with the help of Wealthy Affiliate.

Just two years after I joined, I was making around $8k a month promoting both Wealthy Affiliate and a ClickBank diet program until about 2012. A Google algorithm change wiped that out.

The new Wealthy Affiliate training came out around that time, and I followed that and built up a nice monthly income again. I'm doing this full-time, by the way. My success has always been because of a combination of Wealthy Affiliate training and supplemental advice from outside of the program.

Pros and Cons

The course is very practical – you'll be doing the steps as you go along and have a website up and running by the time you've finished the course.
Step-by-step instructions with video explanations for those who prefer learning that way.
Tools you need are included, so you don't have to spend money externally – web hosting, domains, etc.

The course isn't updated as regularly as it should, even though there's a button you can click to suggest updates.
There are crucial omissions in the course, which is why I suggest following external sources in addition to the course.

Validated Reviewer ¹⁰²
Verified Student ¹⁰³
Review Info ¹⁰⁴

September 16, 2021

This reviewer has a business relationship with the course creator or a competitor. Not included in overall ratings.

Wealthy Affiliate isn't perfect but it's been a game changer for me.

I joined way back in 2016 when I was in exactly the right place to take action. My first impression was how supportive the other members were. I really appreciated that.

I worked through the course steadily over a few weeks and built out my first affiliate website and kept going. I'm not technical at all but the website builders were easy to use. I contacted Kyle and Carson a few times and they always got back to me directly. That started my affiliate marketing career and it's all thanks to this course.

Pros and Cons

Structured training.
Community support.
Beginner-friendly action steps.

Should be updated more regularly.
So-called community "experts" don't always know what they're talking about.
Technical support can be a bit hit-and-miss.

Validated Reviewer ¹⁰⁵
Review Info ¹⁰⁶

September 6, 2021

This reviewer has a business relationship with the course creator or a competitor. Not included in overall ratings.

Money Takers

I have been a member of Wealthy Affiliate for several months. You might say that several months is not much. But for me, an unemployed person without income, the £35 monthly subscription is something. If you are looking into affiliate marketing and thinking you'll grow rich in let's say, 3-4-5 months, FORGET THIS! It will never ever happen.

Even with dyspraxia (a neurological disorder), I've pushed myself to write 80 articles or more. WA sends you some here and there emails, showing that your work, your articles are found by Google, Bing, Yahoo. And? So what? Who cares about this? These search engines will never give you a penny! Please do not waste your hard earned money on this!

Pros and Cons

Community.

Unhelpful answers given by the "ambassadors".
Outdated training.
Site support doesn't help you as much as it should.

Validated Reviewer ¹⁰⁷
Review Info ¹⁰⁸

August 28, 2021

Earnings ¹⁰⁹	less than expected

Following Training ¹¹⁰	for less than 1 month

Not much good to say about Wealthy Affiliate

Wealthy Affiliate is a very basic course. There are plenty of videos and content to consume, but there isn't a lot of value in them.

They do offer the option of getting started for $10 for the first month. So if you really want to try it out, you can watch all of their videos for just $10, as long as you remember to cancel. I wouldn't recommend this, as your time is better spent watching free YouTube videos with more current info, but it is an option.

I recommend against creating your website with their software. You don't need it. It doesn't make WordPress any easier. WordPress is already easy. The point of their software seems to be to give people a reason to pay them for years and years. Overall, I don't recommend this product.

Pros and Cons

Only $10 for the first month.
Lots of videos.

Info is super basic.
A push to complicate WordPress by adding their own software layer.
Forced community.

Implementation ¹¹¹	easier than expected
Presentation ¹¹²	     3.0/5
Usefulness ¹¹³	     2.0/5

Community ¹¹⁴	haven't experienced it yet
Support ¹¹⁵	haven't experienced it yet
Value For Money ¹¹⁶	     2.0/5

Validated Reviewer ¹¹⁷
Review Info ¹¹⁸

August 27, 2021

Earnings ¹¹⁹	way less than expected

Following Training ¹²⁰	for 1 to 2 years

Worth your time, just not your money

I think Wealthy Affiliate is great for someone who's starting out (i.e. someone who's new to affiliate marketing). The general teachings are significant in terms of knowing the basics of affiliate marketing. However, from my personal experience, I don't recommend this course for anyone trying to make money online.

Their teachings work in theory but not in practice. Not to mention the course itself is severely outdated, and they don't really go into much detail in terms of how to get proper leads and how to use social media for marketing your business, among other things.

As I said, WA is excellent for beginners and learning the basics of affiliate marketing, but it's not ideal for making money online. If I was to spend money on this course, it would be for the sole purpose of learning about affiliate marketing. It's a great investment in terms of education and knowledge, but not for business and making money.

Pros and Cons

Customer service is excellent.
The supportive community and great teaching style (you follow along as they teach).
Great investment in terms of educating yourself on affiliate marketing.

The course is too theoretical (not practical enough).
The course is outdated. The teachings are based on stuff that maybe could've worked in 2015 but definitely wouldn't work in 2021.

Implementation ¹²¹	harder than expected
Presentation ¹²²	     4.0/5
Usefulness ¹²³	     3.0/5

Community ¹²⁴	     5.0/5
Support ¹²⁵	     5.0/5
Value For Money ¹²⁶	     3.0/5

Validated Reviewer ¹²⁷
Review Info ¹²⁸

August 22, 2021

Earnings ¹²⁹	less than expected

Following Training ¹³⁰	for 1 to 6 months

Wealthy Affiliate Is Not Worth It

The material was outdated and not worth the time. It seemed to be more of a social platform, with many offering their advice/opinions. Customer service was sorely lacking. Once I realized that the cons outweighed the pros, I left before the monthly charges could kick in. Trying to truly learn about affiliate marketing from this course was more like trying to find Waldo.

Pros and Cons

Customer service.
Training material.

Implementation ¹³¹	about what I expected
Presentation ¹³²	     2.0/5
Usefulness ¹³³	     2.0/5

Community ¹³⁴	     3.0/5
Support ¹³⁵	     2.0/5
Value For Money ¹³⁶	     1.0/5

Validated Reviewer ¹³⁷
Review Info ¹³⁸

August 20, 2021

Earnings ¹³⁹	way less than expected

Following Training ¹⁴⁰	for 6 to 12 months

It was probably good in its time but way outdated now

I was naive enough to get sucked into WA. It's not a scam by any stretch, but I think the owners are too dishonest and misleading about how easy it is to make money with affiliate marketing.

I guess the biggest problem is that the training is WAY outdated. I went through several modules, and I didn't see a thing about link building, a fundamental principle of SEO. Website tools like Elementor aren't mentioned either which is incomprehensible in my opinion.

If you're new to affiliate marketing then do yourself a favour and ignore any positive reviews of WA you see – and you will see a lot of them; commissions for promoting WA can be huge – and look elsewhere.

Pros and Cons

Free training is enough to get a taste.
Pretty accessible for beginners.

Outdated training.
Basic concepts like link building are barely mentioned.
Community is cult-like in the way it silences negativity.

Implementation ¹⁴¹	harder than expected
Presentation ¹⁴²	     2.0/5
Usefulness ¹⁴³	     1.0/5

Community ¹⁴⁴	     4.0/5
Support ¹⁴⁵	     2.0/5
Value For Money ¹⁴⁶	     1.0/5

Validated Reviewer ¹⁴⁷
Review Info ¹⁴⁸

August 19, 2021

Earnings ¹⁴⁹	way less than expected

Following Training ¹⁵⁰	for 1 to 2 years

Be Wary of Wealthy Affiliate

I readily admit that I learned a number of helpful things from Wealthy Affiliate about setting up a website, the importance of creating engaging and consistent content, using images, leveraging comments, and creating links for affiliate products. And, initially, I thought the community was a great bonus.

It didn't take long to realize, however, that there was little substance behind either the training or the community. The training was over six years old, literally obsolete in many instances, as well as filled with worthless "take a break" lessons that seemed to be there for no other purpose than to push one through to the next billing date.

The community "Ambassadors" weren't experts of any kind, just people who wasted more of their time interacting on the platform to move up the ranks, and they tended to get very touchy if one dared question their advice. When I first joined, there were legitimate affiliate marketers on the platform with definite knowledge to share, but they got pushed out by those who were there to chat/socialize over building an online business.

If one had a serious customer service or billing issue, there was nowhere to turn; there was only Tech Support to handle website concerns. If one dared voice a complaint in the general community, one would, literally, get skewered by the cult of devotees.

When I finally decided I'd learned all I could and wanted to get away from the toxicity of the community, I discovered it was no easy feat to take my websites with me. It took me a few months of careful investigation to extricate my work successfully from the program.

I was lucky enough to have found information telling me that I needed to move my domains and sites BEFORE my membership ended. Wealthy Affiliate makes it appear you'll have 30 days to move your site, but they deny access once your payment has lapsed. I know personally many people who lost their sites and all their work because of this. For this reason alone, I would not recommend anyone join Wealthy Affiliate.

Pros and Cons

Learning the basics of setting up a website.
Gaining a general idea of how affiliate marketing works.

Training is so outdated as to be virtually useless in any practical sense.
Having no avenue with which to address customer service/membership issues.
The community – they were toxic beyond belief to anyone not buying 100% into The WA Way.

Implementation ¹⁵¹	about what I expected
Presentation ¹⁵²	     2.0/5
Usefulness ¹⁵³	     2.0/5

Community ¹⁵⁴	     2.0/5
Support ¹⁵⁵	     1.0/5
Value For Money ¹⁵⁶	     2.0/5

Validated Reviewer ¹⁵⁷
Verified Student ¹⁵⁸
Review Info ¹⁵⁹

August 13, 2021

Earnings ¹⁶⁰	less than expected

Following Training ¹⁶¹	for less than 1 month

This course helped me get my foot in the door of making money online

I signed up for Wealthy Affiliate over a year ago, and I honestly don't remember all the ins and outs of it. I quickly abandoned the platform because it seemed too spammy and non-technical to me. I found myself constantly receiving messages from random students and instructors, and nothing I got seemed all that valuable. While the course videos are clear and well done, they move at a snail's pace for anyone with the slightest technical inclination.

The premise of the course seems dubious to me. What are the odds that a beginner with no background in the online marketplace will magically stumble upon a profitable niche, and will also have the discipline and skills to build a successful affiliate marketing site. I suppose it's possible to generate passive income using this training, but I realized that I could make money by learning skills and offering services that add value to real clients, so I quickly pivoted to that.

I'm now working as a web developer and while it's certainly not passive income by any stretch, I'm just better suited to this work than whatever is happening in Wealthy Affiliate. For me personally, the best thing I can say about this course is that it was a first step in taking action to invest in myself for generating income online.

Pros and Cons

It got me started in the world of working for myself online.
The course content is clear and well done.
People are positive and upbeat, and there's no shortage of them to communicate with.

Seemingly unrealistic outcomes.
Too much hand-holding (boring).
Not particularly interesting and doesn't seem to add much value.

Implementation ¹⁶²	harder than expected
Presentation ¹⁶³	     4.0/5
Usefulness ¹⁶⁴	too early to tell

Community ¹⁶⁵	     3.0/5
Support ¹⁶⁶	     3.0/5
Value For Money ¹⁶⁷	too early to tell

Validated Reviewer ¹⁶⁸
Verified Student ¹⁶⁹
Review Info ¹⁷⁰

August 12, 2021

Earnings ¹⁷¹	way less than expected

Following Training ¹⁷²	for 1 to 6 months

Not worth the energy and the money

Wealthy Affiliate was my first attempt at making money online, a little bit before Covid-19 started to hit hard. I had no knowledge whatsoever about online marketing or affiliate marketing. I've read a few good recommendations about Wealthy Affiliate and decided to give them a shot, at least for the free training.

The free training looks legit, and they teach what back then seemed very valuable, like the importance of keywords and SEO, things I barely knew anything about. Since the free material seemed legit for a novice like me, I bought the premium membership, and then I started to realize that this website is very outdated and that it doesn't give real value.

It's been a year and a half since I stopped being a premium member (I had been a premium member for only a week), and this is what I wrote about the experience with Wealthy Affiliate back then:

"It always felt that something doesn't add up. It was like traveling back in time: the more you progress in the course, the earlier the lessons seem to be recorded. All those "welcome" messages from different WA members did feel a bit like a cult of too-friendly people, who don't really care who you are. My ranking on the site kept going up and down for no apparent reason – I was ranked around 171,000 yesterday, and now I'm ranked 149,025. I thought to myself – there are more than 1.5 million people here, how am I ranked so high so fast without really doing anything besides the training? Where are all the other million people?

There is also a "site feedback", where you need to leave 2 feedbacks to other people in order to get one yourself. Those websites were so badly designed and written, most of them either promote (very poorly) WA, or promote niches that Kyle suggests in his videos, like losing belly fat or hair loss. It's like people there have no imagination or passions. It was even a bit creepy."

Back to our days (August of 2021), I find it hard to believe that they have improved ever since. I wouldn't recommend them at all.

Pros and Cons

They give you a basic understanding of what online marketing is.
They teach important basic terms, such as niches, SEO, affiliate marketing.

The course is poorly constructed, with videos from different times in the past.
A false display of guidance and community.
The course is not suited for the online reality of today.

Implementation ¹⁷³	harder than expected
Presentation ¹⁷⁴	     2.0/5
Usefulness ¹⁷⁵	     2.0/5

Community ¹⁷⁶	     1.0/5
Support ¹⁷⁷	haven't experienced it yet
Value For Money ¹⁷⁸	     1.0/5

Validated Reviewer ¹⁷⁹
Review Info ¹⁸⁰

July 8, 2021

Earnings ¹⁸¹	way less than expected

Following Training ¹⁸²	for 1 to 2 years

Disappointed for wasting my time, effort, and money

When I became a member of Wealthy Affiliate, I had a lot of expectations. The sales copy was good, and I thought that I'd succeed in making money online. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case for me.

The training was quite hectic and chaotic and I wasn't too impressed with the layout. As a premium member, I expected a higher caliber, to be honest.

I was a member for approximately two years, and I felt I lost a lot of money on the platform, together with wasting my time – it's time I cannot get back.

Pros and Cons

The often friendly community who were there to help you.
The free domain names as long as you stayed with the platform.

The often chaoticness of the training.
The price I felt was too much for what was being offered.
Lack of refund.

Implementation ¹⁸³	about what I expected
Presentation ¹⁸⁴	     2.0/5
Usefulness ¹⁸⁵	     2.0/5

Community ¹⁸⁶	     2.0/5
Support ¹⁸⁷	haven't experienced it yet
Value For Money ¹⁸⁸	     1.0/5

Validated Reviewer ¹⁸⁹
Verified Student ¹⁹⁰
Review Info ¹⁹¹

May 19, 2021

This reviewer has a business relationship with the course creator or a competitor. Not included in overall ratings.

My Wealthy Affiliate Review 2021

My overall experience at Wealthy Affiliate has been a good one. The support and training that you get from the community is really top-notch.

If I had one complaint it would be in regards to the bootcamp and entrepreneur training. The information is often outdated. For example, they show you how to sign up for Pinterest but when you go to the site it looks completely different and you have to try to navigate it yourself. Their software for writing content also seems glitchy, but I think that's something I haven't figured out how to do properly yet.

Pros and Cons

Affiliate marketing basics.
Community.
Support.

Outdated.
The software can be glitchy.
Only positive reviews are accepted on the comment platform.

Rate This Course

29 Questions & Answers

Hi,

Nice to see your video review of WA and thanks for taking the time!

I am a premium member in WA but don´t want to rate it yet as I´ve only been here a week. I am computer savvy and a technology fan, serial entrepreneur in the personal and professional development field, international exposure, training, travel… Created 5 websites and 3 limited corporations, traveled to 43 countries, been a digital nomad since 2013. That´s my bio elevator speech.

1. I am turned off by WA´s high-sell, constant pitch dressed in the "caring helper" style. They assign you a tutor and he writes to you to offer help and from get go plugs the premium membership. My first question to him was if I should follow, or take into account anything special, if I had already created more than one WordPress website. I never really got a clear answer and since I have a web master that set up and manages them for me, I decided to push on with it. He did write back and say that with premium I could move my domains and house, I think he said 10, websites on their platform. See what I mean? For them every comment or question is an opportunity to make money, ensnare you. I´ve lived in Thailand and if you are in Bali you will understand, that their hook (make 6 figures blah, blah, blah) combined with the pressurized sell, doesn´t balance very well with their guise as educators, guides, helping hands there to cooperate.

2. Now with post-Covid and the revolutionary changes, all those out-of-date features you mentioned in your video must have increased! I just finished lesson 8 that deals with keywords. I realize that the lesson is for people that are total beginners, but I followed the lesson to a t, twice I watch the video and read the text. My method is to use the cell phone for the class instructions and follow it on the computer. 2 hours trying to get 5 keywords unsuccessfully in my niche using their criteria, (international education, experiential learning…as I said above). I might have one keyword according to their parameters, horrible. I´m excellent at brainstorming but the results demotivated me. I got tired and frustrated and wrote my tutor (see his answer below telling me to disregard that lesson). I feel that (with almost 2 years of Covid) the competition is over-the-moon and that their keyword lesson is good for the waste paper basket. It needs to be totally rethought, revamped and presented differently.

Hi Jill, you don't have to care too much about the keyword data at the moment.

For new websites, you should focus on creating relevant and quality content for your website first in order to show your expertise or authority in the niche.

After that, you may start targeting low competition keywords to drive traffic and make money. So don't get stuck on finding keywords, but creating more quality content first.

3. My last thought is that with the amount of material and unstructured information (as mentioned and reviewed in your video), the student first of all needs some information about study methods. I am extremely organized and used to tackling complex problems, determined and consistent, but a person with no or only basic experience would be overwhelmed. To illustrate my point, just consider the contact and help methods at one´s disposal. They say there is a live chat in the lessons, but I couldn´t get it to work. Then if there are questions to present them to the community at the end of each lesson. I tried that but no one commented. Also, you have your tutor and a big faq sections that the link to, in the text suggesting it, didn´t work. I wrote asking how to access it, but no one answered as I just mentioned above. For me its a problem of dimension; they have growing pains and have grown too big for their pants.

All my best,
Jill Arcaro
1. Hi Jill, thanks a mil for sharing your experience with WA. I was hoping it would have gotten better over the past couple of years but it sounds like it's still disappointing and ineffective. I'd be very interested to hear what you think of it once you've spent more time as a premium member. Thanks again.
My full story below
WA or Wealthy Affiliate is nothing but fraud/scam, cult sort of speaking "community" that will give you fake sense of "helpful community vibe" and at the end steal your hard earned money.
Back in early 2018 I was, as most of people, trying to look for a way to get some extra earnings online from my home and I found WA. Sadly I didn't do that much review checking as they had free registration and later some "promotional deal" for premium membership, which as per them will give you so much insight into best ways to make money, assistance from their owners etc.
What I got to see was quite opposite, very few or NO answers or help from their "great business owners" as well as this cult sort of speak community that will trick you into continuing with your "premium membership". When I realized this is 100% fraud I was like ok, I gave it a shoot and I failed lost some money but its fine it was just a trial.
Of course they will not state clearly that their subscription will be extended automatically unless specified differently so I was charged with their FULL prices and lost a lot more money for nothing. I tried complaining but of course I didn't got my money back. I learned my lesson in very hard way.
During these past 3 years I was receiving their special WA membership offers via email (for black Friday new year and all other holidays, although I unsubscribed) and finally when I got another email for this past black Friday I decided to go on that cheating website and delete my account.
Now to my big surprise when I logged in I had ZERO RIGHTS in doing anything on MY ACCOUNT. If I wanted to access my personal message history with their owners or any other WA member I first need to pay for another premium membership. Same thing for any other clickable option on their fraud website (from accessing your own account settings in order to delete my account or to even change my profile photo). I made huge mistake and I posted on profile photo myself and my son (why don't ask me, stupid, dumb mistake). I wanted to delete that photo but I was not able. Now to my surprise as they recently changed their website I was able to go to public chat. And I started blasting them how they are cheating, taking money from people and not even let them delete the account without PAYING to do that. Moments later their "cult members" or money stealing members started how this is not possible, how WA is great for all their members, but what mostly interested them was why I am able to write in the chat and I'm not paying member. That it is a glitch, and must be fixed. They kept assuring me that if I write to Kyle owner I should be able to access my account settings and change my photo. Of course the only thing that happened is that I got the message that my chat privileges are revoked or terminated and now the only thing that I can see on WA when I log in is to PAY in order to do anything.
I explained to their "customer support" that I want to access my account settings (all in order to delete account and profile photo with it) and "kyle" or leader of this cult contacted me via email saying this "You don't have write access because your account is current NOT live. When you resubscribe, you will regain access to your account/settings/etc."
You cannot even delete your own photo, you cannot log in to your account settings, and you cannot delete account. All you can do is pay again for premium membership. This is disaster and one of worst fraud sites that I have ever seen, and trust me anyone that come and tell you different don't mean well to you. They have multiple accounts that they are posting from, reassuring people that what people like me is "evil and not correct", and if you want trust them and not the person that paid for their "services".
To summarize DO NOT pay for anything on this platform as this is 100% fraud.

P.s they will have several "review platforms" created by themselves through which they will remove any realistic but negative reviews of their platform and keep convincing you that they are the next best thing that will happen to you
1. Hi Marko,
  
  You cannot even delete your own photo, you cannot log in to your account settings, and you cannot delete account. All you can do is pay again for premium membership.
  
  They might have something in their terms and conditions that covers them legally here, but if you were in Europe I don't think they'd be able to do that to you under GDPR rules. With that you have "the right to be forgotten" and would be legally entitled to have your data removed from their servers.
BTW to continue on my main "review" of WA as business concept. I was receiving their spam emails all this time, so I decided to go there and just delete my account, delete my profile photo and get done with this fraud business. What i got to see (as explained before) is that I cannot access anything or do anything unless I pay AGAIN 🙂
But due to their new "redesign" I guess I was able somehow to post in community chat. Which I did, and asked why I cannot access my account, I stated how I was cheated and how this is all just a fraud, within very short time my "chat privileges" were revoked (which btw I'm fine with as Im not paying for their "premium" anymore) but I was told that I should be able to access my account settings and that they will look into this. Very next day all my comments in their chat were deleted and my chat was disabled. They will try to create false feeling of some kind of successful community but all this WA is is 100% fraud. Do not give your hard earned money to this cheaters.
1. Hey Marko,
  
  Do you know if they deleted your data/photo as well like you wanted them to initially?
Absolute scam. I wont talk too much about positives as I didnt got to see too many as "premium user".
The only benefit that you will get using WA platform is premium robbery. They take your hard earned money and in return (as author mentioned) they offer little or nothing.
What they will actually do is make your subscription extend automatically (which they will not mention in very visible way) and if you somehow miss this info, or stay without internet they will keep charging you for absolutely nothing.
On top of this when your subscription expire what they will do is they will cancel your "benefit" (like there was any), but with benefits they mean that you cannot access your premium account that you were once able, not in sense seeing their great "money making tips" but you wont be able to access your account settings, personal messages that you exchanged with anyone and best you wont be able to even change your photo. So imagine you have placed a photo that now you don't want to be visible, you are not able to unless YOU PAY. Anything that you want to do on this "platform" is related to paying and getting nothing in return. There is dozen of people that pretend there is some kind of "nice helping community" on WA, but actually it is just not even well hidden fraud. Stay away from this website or be ready for some very unpleasant experience.
This is not just an angry person that lost his money, this is 100% honest review of their "services" and business concept. It is 100% fraud.
1. Hey Marko,
  
  Thanks for sharing your experience.
  
  So imagine you have placed a photo that now you don't want to be visible, you are not able to unless YOU PAY.
  
  This is disturbing. I would have thought they'd have an option for people to delete their accounts/data without having to sign up as a paid member again. Did you contact them about this?
What happened to all the comments that were here?
1. Ah, sorry about that, Steve!
  
  I made some technical updates to the review yesterday and it was easiest to duplicate the original post and republish. I forgot to transfer the existing comments over. Fixed that now. Thanks for the heads up.
This is an AMAZING review!
Surprise surprise everybody…welcome to the TRUTH about WA 🙂
Excellent job.
And, yes, I agree, The Authority Site System is a MUCH better option for people who are looking to succeed with affiliate marketing & SEO.
Thank you for this review Niall. I was a WA member for one year and I didn't renew after that because I made absolutely no money from it. I was (and still am) new to affiliate marketing and I was dumb enough to do the bootcamp which was a big mistake for me. I learnt about WordPress and keywords so it wasn't a complete waste of time but the training and support was pretty useless for the most part so I kind of gave up.

I still want to get back into the affiliate marketing game and Authority Hacker seems like the way to go. Maybe when I have the money available I'll give it a look, cheers!
1. Thanks for sharing your experience, Tom.
  
  I've listed some free affiliate marketing training resources in this article if you'd like to give them a look.
Hey Niall, This is the most transparent and telling it like it is REVIEW of OLD W.A. My YEARLY PREMIUM membership just expired today March 17, 2020, and I agree with you in that PROJECT 24 is juST THE OPPOSITE of what W.A. is. I was nervous to not continue with W.A. because I became used to SITE CONTENT and then just upload to word press, I will say that through W.A. I have learned how to confront the WORDPRESS BEAST and now I am able to make websites and well, that's about it, their info is old, super outdated and I just never felt motivated by them at all, Kyle and Carson dont motivate me at all, and I hated all the EMAILS from people I dint know welcoming me i had to place all W.A. e mails as spam because it was overwhelming, I won't complain and give my back to them like a traitor, I think its fine because of the support and detailed videos one get as a total newbie, but I learned all I need from them and I am ready to take go all in with PROJECT 24, NOW I NEVER SAW AUTHORITY HACKER BEFORE but i rather not even hear them out, I really like the 2 who represent Project 24 and there is a lot of love that is felt with their work and what they offer. Enough about them and I will definitely follow you Niall but I can't seem to fathom away that W.A. somehow did you wrong somehow for this review to be so explicit and well earned I would say. They do push their internal cult a lot with no gain for me except the fact to tell all the newcomes how great this place is and I never even made a DOLAR with them yet!
Thank you!
Finally, someone telling it like it is. WA is pure garbage. I bought into it at the end of 2018 when I was just stumbling around the "how to make money online" world and was a complete newbie, and back then all I could come across were positive reviews of WA, but now looking back it's pure garbage and I don't recommend it at all! It's like a cult.
The only reason why I'm not totally bitter is because it pointed me in another direction of actually learning SEO and actually learning other business models to make money online.
I think the only reason it has so many positive reviews is because of their Affiliate program which basically has LOTS of people making full-time income solely through recommending WA. They make a living telling people how to make money online and that's all they've done.
ANyway, the whole thing is morally flawed if you ask me.
As for the training its pure "write about your passions" gargabe. They don't introduce people to SEO and they don't even mention backlinks to ranking in Google lol.
Thanks for this.
Hi Niall,
Thank you for this honest review on WA, I joined WA premium 5 days ago with the $19 offer as the free training seemed great me (an affiliate marketing newbie) so I decided to upgrade. However I soon started having concerns and many things struck me as odd on WA.
First of all I realised the training videos got older as you progress and also lack good quality information.
Secondly, the amount of unrealistic positive comments that endless people posted on my page was eerie and just weird.
That was what mainly pushed me to do further research on WA and I came across your review, which accurately summed up my experience with WA.
So glad I was saved! But also disappointed…
Thanks once again
Ash
1. Hey Ash,
  
  Thanks for sharing your experience.
  
  the amount of unrealistic positive comments that endless people posted on my page was eerie and just weird.
  
  Yeah, it started to feel like a cult to me, so many people blindly praising and encouraging despite seeing very few positive results themselves.
  
  So glad I was saved! But also disappointed…
  
  I've listed some better alternatives to Wealthy Affiliate here, including several free training resources.
  1. Hi Niall,
    Thank you for the review. It's been very helpful. I signed up for the WA free membership and as a newbie in affiliate marketing I found the layout of the site outdated even though I did not start any of the suggested courses. I'm so glad I didn't waste my time and my money!
That was a great save, Niall. I just became a premium member at WA about a week ago (paid the 19.99 for the first month). I started as a complete novice, and indeed in the beginning the material seems very legit. The lesson about keywords (9th lesson in the first phase, so it's still in the free section) blew my mind (in a positive way), so I decided to give the premium membership a shot.

But it always felt that something doesn't add up. It was like traveling back in time: the more you progress in the course, the earlier the lessons seem to be recorded at. All those "welcome" messages from different WA members did feel a bit like a cult of too-friendly people, who don't really care who you are. My ranking on the site kept going up and down for no apparent reason – I was ranked around 171,000 yesterday, and now I'm ranked 149,025. I thought to myself – there are more than 1.5 million people here, how am I ranked so high so fast without really doing anything besides the training? Where are all the other million people?

There is also a "site feedback", where you need to leave 2 feedbacks to other people in order to get one yourself. Those websites were so badly designed and written, most of them either promote (very poorly) WA, or promote miches that Kyle suggests in his videos, like losing belly fat or hair loss. It's like people there have no imagination or passions. It was even a bit creepy.

Anyway, when I realized that the course is just glued together from different times I started having my doubts, despite my original enthusiasm, and then I googled some criticism about WA and thankfully found your post. That was a hell of an eye-opener. I'm lucky I paid only 19.99 once. I'll cancel my membership and look into other programs. So thanks a lot!

A question: I built a website through WA (a paid domain, I add it here – no WA promoting intended, honestly. It's about learning Hebrew). Does this website by any means belong to WA or is it entirely mine? I posted only one post there (besides the "About me", which also took me time to write), and if I need to build a new website I'd do it, but I prefer to keep working on the one I've already built.

Thanks and have a lovely 2020!

Ori
1. Hi Ori,
  
  Thanks for the comment. I'm glad you found my review helpful.
  
  I thought to myself – there are more than 1.5 million people here, how am I ranked so high so fast without really doing anything besides the training? Where are all the other million people?
  
  Good point!
  
  Most of those 1.5 million people just have free WA accounts. There are probably a few thousand Premium members (which adds up to major $$$ for WA).
  
  All those "welcome" messages from different WA members did feel a bit like a cult of too-friendly people, who don't really care who you are.
  
  That felt creepy to me as well, although apparently some people love this kind of "community" and stick with WA because of it.
  
  Does this website by any means belong to WA or is it entirely mine?
  
  Oh, it's yours. But WA doesn't make it easy for you to transfer the site elsewhere. They have lots of information about how to transfer a website TO their hosting, but nothing about how to transfer a website AWAY.
  
  Log into your WordPress installation on WA and look for Tools > Export. That would be the easiest way to download all your content. Then you can use Tools > Import on a new WordPress installation on a different host. You'd still have to configure the theme and settings though.
  
  An alternative is to use a complete WordPress migration plugin like this one. That should transfer all your themes and plugins as well, so you'd end up with an exact copy of your site on a different host. I haven't used that plugin myself but the reviews look good.
  
  Let me know how it goes for you!
  1. Thanks for your reply, Niall. That means a lot. I'm going through your website and rethink all my online business ideas.
    I guess I'll try the plugin, if I still think that going on with that website is a good idea.
Holy Crap, this is by far THE Best Wealthy Affiliate Review online – you need to be WAY past page 3 of Google for Wealthy Affiliate. Throw some internal links at this review if you haven't yet, and get a few good external links going to help it rank better. Shoot me an email if you want help with that (no cost, just good advice if you need it).

More people need to be aware of the Wealthy Affiliate Scam, and unfortunately pages 1-2 in Google are just one giant circle jerk of "join my #1 free training", or "join the #1 affiliate marketing training program (according to me, who's made zilch online!)"

Great stuff

Thanks (can't share my real name, please don't use it if you respond),

Jason
I am a sucker but thanks to your video Niall not any longer. Kyle's lessons are so boring with his weak, soft voice and lack of enthusiasm or variety…. Favorite with a "u"? He certainly covered that one. 🙂 Great accent Niall and great review!!

Best regards
1. Hey Martin,
  
  Thanks for the comment, and the kind words. I don't recall the "favorite with a U" part. Was that in the core WA training?
Hello Nial my name is Lori and it is 1:10 am Sunday December 1st of 2019. I am here to notify you that I have officially DEBUNKED your video review of Wealthy Affiliate. With all of the half-truths and lies on the video that I have debunked I ask you now to take down your video review and remove all content from your written review that pertains to the video. Of course you can always leave them where they are and know that my website has debunked you. Here is the link to the article https://whywealthyaffiliats.com/4jgc
Do be aware that this is the internet and my review is already beginning to circulate. Thank You.
1. Hi Lori,
  
  Thank you for the comment, and for taking the time to respond to my review on your own site. I think it will be helpful for people to click through and see what the website and content of a passionate WA member looks like.
  
  All the best.
  
  Update: it might also be interesting for people to check out Lori's public profile on Wealthy Affiliate, and see how she progresses with the training.
2. Lori, your passion is admirable but unfortunately your response is terribly written and fails to address the vast majority of Niall's points. Also I don't think I have ever seen so many spelling and grammatical errors in one article before. In fact even your URL has a spelling error in it.
  
  You have to remember that people will be reading a thoroughly researched, well written article on a good looking website (eBiz facts) and clicking through to your website and reading a reply full of errors, that looks basic at best. It might be an idea to fill out your response and correct all the errors first as it is likely to do more harm than good for Wealthy Affiliate
3. Hi Lori,
  
  I have to agree with Niall and Jim K's points here and ask what you're hoping to achieve with your 'debunking'. If you're trying to de-legitimatize Niall's review of WA to the outside world, I'm afraid you're most likely going to fail. If you're hoping to reinforce the positive feedback loop/echo chamber within the WA community, then maybe you'll succeed.
  
  For context, I've never joined WA, but I work professionally as a writer covering online tech and the internet for a website that has 4 million+ monthly visitors and generates $100,000s in annual revenue. So take the following points as constructive criticism.
  
  It's difficult to take seriously an affiliate review website that spells 'affiliate' wrong in the domain name, and is so clearly biased towards WA. Likewise the incredible number of basic grammar and syntax errors in your text. I suggest using free tools like Grammarly and Hemingway App to review the errors and fix them before too many people read your post.
  
  I'd also take into account that Niall has been working online for many years, while you've been doing so for about 4 months. you may want to take his insights into consideration. If not, ignore the comments from your fellow WA members and take a look at the former WA members commenting on their negative experiences below.
  
  I could go on, but I think if you actually took time to consider the replies to your comment from people unbiased and more experienced than you (and the POV of former WA members), you may rethink your hastily written reaction to Niall's well thought out and researched review.
  
  I wish you luck in your online journey and hope that WA doesn't hold you back from achieving your goals.
4. Do bE aWaRe!!!11!!
  
  LOL what a crock – her "review is beginning to circulate", meaning she posted it on her Wealthy Affiliate Profile, so other WA members can see what a bad person you are for badmouthing their lord and saviour, Kyle.
I was interested in WA only for the fact that they provide so many tools and hosting for up to 50 web sites– if I am not interested in their courses because I just want to have so many web sites, is their premium plan a good deal or where should I go for this kind of low cost package for multiple web sites? Maybe their tools and hosting are not worth the premium price? Like I said, the course aside, what about the rest– (even though the course is their main product)?
1. Hi AB,
  
  No, I don't think that's a good idea.
  
  For one thing, 25 of those 50 websites are on .siterubix.com subdomains, and you're not going to rank those sites easily so they're essentially worthless.
  
  For the remaining 25, you're still going to have to pay for the domains, and WA's prices for domains aren't the cheapest ($14-16 each).
  
  Say you did create 25 websites on WA's platform. That would cost you $350/year for the domains, and you'd also be paying at least $359/year for your WA subscription. SO that's more than $700/year for hosting + domains for 25 sites.
  
  That wouldn't be a bad deal if WA's hosting was actually "world class" like they claim it to be. But in reality, their hosting is nothing special.
  
  Oh, and they don't make it easy for you to transfer sites away from their platform, as mentioned in my review.
  
  All that considered, I think you're way better off buying your hosting and domains from a company that does hosting and domains as their main thing (not as a side business). I've heard great things about Siteground, though I'm not sure how their pricing compares.
  
  You can probably get a better deal and better service using Dreamhost though. I've used them happily for years.
2. Their hosting, in my experience, is very poor.
  
  I moved my sites to Hostinger and pay $4.50 a month for unlimited site hosting, SSL, Cloudflare and mailboxes, etc, and the hosting and support there is ten times better than I experience at WA.
  1. Thanks for sharing that, Steve.
Hi Niall
I spent the whole day (not literally) on your WA review! The result is a massive headache. It got me thinking because there are some issues you highlighted that are so true and disturbing on my part.
Been there over a year. I won't say it is time wasted because I came in as a complete beginner with absolutely no direction whatsoever.
Didn't have a niche idea, didn't know what the heck is a niche. I went for the suggested Bootcamp. I regret massively! Stupid, stupid, stupid me!
Well, I learned a lesson, for that I'm glad.
Now I'm at the crossroads.
See, I'm not one to be easily swayed but this time I need to do something because I don't have money or time to waste. My life is almost a mess and I must get up and start earning real money.
What on earth should I do???
Niall,
1. Hi Jane,
  Sorry about the headache! And don't blame yourself for WA. They're very persuasive and hide their flaws well. I'm sure there are thousands of people out there who feel the same way you do after spending several months in WA.
  
  What on earth should I do???
  
  If you need to earn money ASAP, forget about online for now. Just go get a regular offline job. Even if it's a crappy job, at least it gives you a regular income. Once you have some stability, you can go back to building an online business.
  1. Niall,
    
    You gave her excellent advice. If you would have told to join one of your affiliated services, I would have questioned your credibility.
    
    That doesn't mean you're off the hook though, Lol.
    
    What it does mean is that you scored a point with me that caused me to look further into your reviews.
    
    That probably doesn't matter to you which is fine… Just wanted you to know that.
    1. Hey Meangirl, thanks for that. It does matter 🙂
I wasted 18 months here and I wish I had this review before I joined.
From day 1 to day 63 I had an issue with my account which no one helped me with and I lost my free month, my $19 month and it wasn't until I became a paid member that my website starting working properly. I gave it a benefit of a doubt as I was new to this making a website and affiliate marketing. I even joined annually as I felt I was getting the hang of it. Long story short I spent over $1000CAD and I made, not one cent but I did make my rank up to position 18!!! Whoppie [email protected]#*£#%@!!!!
I went on to opening my own ecomm site. With hard work for 3 months straight, by the end of my Q2 I had made almost $12K and my my next 2 quarters looks to double that. I don't want to say affiliate marketing is dead because ppl are making a 6 figure income (it takes Time to reach that figure) but I can surely say if you like throwing your money, join wealthy piece of crap!!
1. Hey Floyd, thanks for sharing your experience.
  
  That sucks that you spent so much on WA ☹️
  
  But congrats on the ecomm success! If you'd ever like to share your story in an interview here on this site, let me know!
I just completed the free training and the idea of signing up for premium was so enticing but there was something off about the whole thing. When you mentioned how rank was determined by commenting and not actual sales I finally understood what it was that was bothering me about WA. I was taking advice from people who had a very basic grasp of affiliate marketing, but they only gave that advice because they were like kids that got a gold star sticker for doing their homework.
As a total beginner would you advise against going premium for a month to learn the basics and then finding another place to learn or is it so outdated that its not even worth one month? Thank you for your review.
1. Hey Eric,
  
  Yes, I would advise going against premium even for a month. The best part of the WA training is the free stuff. It goes rapidly downhill in the later (premium) modules.
  
  Also, as I found out, if you sign up for Premium for one month and then cancel, they completely lock you out of your account. You don't just revert back to having the same access as a free member. So your account is useless if you start paying and then stop.
  
  I've reviewed two other big affiliate marketing courses since WA – TASS and Project 24 – and they are both much better. I also listed some quality free affiliate training resources in this article.
  1. Hey Naill,
    
    I was reading your comments and I noticed that you said, "Also, as I found out, if you sign up for Premium for one month and then cancel, they completely lock you out of your account."
    
    Are you locked out of Wealthy Affiliate? Do you make affiliate sales despite the one star you give their service?
    1. I was locked out of my original account, so I couldn't get any credit for referrals. So I signed up for a new account and didn't upgrade to Premium on that one.
      
      Just checked my stats and to date I've sent 3,560 unique clicks and been credited with 1 sale. That's a 0.02% conversion rate 😛
      
      Not sure why anyone would click on one of my links and buy WA Premium after reading this review, but there you go!
      1. I see! I'm wondering how many duplicate accounts Wealthy Affiliate has! I've read many comments that people had to start a new account for reasons like they didn't have access to their original account. It got me thinking that your math might be wrong about how much money Wealthy Affiliate made. As you can see, this Coronavirus Pandemic has given me too much time on my hands! I might be overthinking things! HaHa!
Hi Niall,
Thanks for making this detailed review for us about W.A. Finally, someone is willing to tell the world the truth about WA. BTW, will you look at other companies that provide Done-For-You affiliate niche site? I'm looking at Human Proof Designs, they look legit but their price is too high. Look for other alternatives…
1. Hey Ted, thanks for the comment.
  
  Finally, someone is willing to tell the world the truth about WA.
  
  I know, it's ridiculous how biased most other reviews are. Clearly a lot of people are happy to overlook all of WA's serious flaws to try make a quick buck by recommending other people sign up for it. That really pisses me off.
  
  BTW, will you look at other companies that provide Done-For-You affiliate niche site? I'm looking at Human Proof Designs, they look legit but their price is too high.
  
  Yes, I hope to review them all eventually. HPD is on my list. I don't know anything about it yet, but in general I'm wary of "done-for-you" sites. They sound way too good to be true!
2. Hey Ted, you might want to check out this interview done by Doug Cunnington.
  https://nichesiteproject.com/debate-done-for-you-sites-vs-building-niche-sites/
  
  If you know nothing about building a niche site and affiliate marketing, it's better to learn the fundamentals and build one from scratch to experiment with the process first hand IMO.
  
  Well, unless you have a big budget and very limited time to spend. In that case, you might want to consider buying a more established website that's already getting traffic and making some money. But niche sites like that is definitely going to cost a lot more.
  
  Regardless of what, you'll have to know the fundamentals to make your HPD site works (getting traffic, monetizing etc). HPD might speed up your first two steps, but you will have to have a strategy to grow it afterward.
  
  I believe Doug Cunnington and Miles Beckler bought sites from HPD, and they are (quite) openly sharing their plans on their websites. It might be a good idea to see how they do it if this is your first time.
  
  Miles: https://www.milesbeckler.com/affiliate-marketing-website-example-month-001/
  
  Doug: https://nichesiteproject.com/amazon-affiliate/aged-site-case-study/
Another Unhappy WA Member

Great review Niall and it is pretty much spot on.

I think at one point WA was a leader in affiliate marketing training, but basically they seemed to have rested on their laurels and forgotten about what made them successful in the first place – good training! The training is hugely outdated and there seems to be little or no inclination to update it.

The basic knowledge I acquired when I joined in 2016 was fine and I am grateful for that, but the longer I have been there the more and more unhappy I have been.

Initially this stemmed from terrible experiences with Site Support. I bought a premium theme (one of the most popular around) and as soon as I installed it on my WA hosted site I had massive problems. The theme wasn't displaying properly, it would take ages to load the WordPress Editor, then after doing some editing it wouldn't save and I would get a message saying: "Site Support cannot fulfill that request" and I would lose all my work.

Site Support were no help at all and continually blamed it on the theme/plugins, and even on occasions deactivated plugins without telling me which messed with my site even more.

Now I know it was because WA hosting has massively outdated PHP but at the time I wasn't aware of this.

Eventually I went to the theme developers and they told me, essentially that the hosting was terrible (see PHP issue above).

I moved the site to a new host and it immediately started working properly and a lot quicker and without issue.

At that time a number of other people were posting blogs/questions on WA with similar issues – so whenever I saw them I always backed the person up and explained I had had massive problems with hosting and no help from Site Support.

All of a sudden I was logged into WA and had a message saying: "Your write access have been revoked". I couldn't post blogs, answer questions, reply to PMs, I couldn't do anything, except just read and watch everything going on.

Most shockingly I couldn't contact Site Support!

I still have three sites hosted with WA and whenever they have gone down I can't contact Site Support to let them know. Which I think is pretty disgraceful.

Thankfully my main site is hosted elsewhere and these three sites aren't hugely important to me.

And guess what I contacted Kyle and Carson 27 TIMES (no exaggeration) about this and never got a reply. I still have my write access revoked but when my subscription expires in November I will be leaving WA (and moving hosting for my three other sites elsewhere as well).

Someone once wrote that WA members have a "toxic positivity" and I have to agree. When I log in I read so many pointles blog posts and then numerous replies from other members extolling the wonders of the post and saying how incredible it is.

I honestly think the platform is dying a slow death, especially as the MMO niche becomes more difficult to crack, and unless WA do something drastic I am not sure where they will be in 3 to 4 years.
1. Wow, that's a damning indictment of WA's hosting right there. I knew it wasn't as good as they claimed but I didn't realize it was that bad!
  
  basically they seemed to have rested on their laurels and forgotten about what made them successful in the first place
  
  I think that about sums it up.
  
  WA have built themselves a big oil tanker and it's increasingly in need of a complete overhaul, but it's moving so fast that it takes a long time to turn it around. It'll be interesting to see if they do manage to redeem themselves or if WA's best days are behind it.
This review is epic! And, from my personal experience with WA, entirely spot-on.

I joined WA a year and a half ago having tinkered with a few blogs and knowing nothing about affiliate marketing. So I will acknowledge that I did learn some basics and, initially, I was caught up in what I now refer to as "the hype of possibility" championed by the community. But it didn't take long for a whole lot of things to stop adding up, and you have covered in detail so many of the issues that one would think any intelligent WA member would find concerning.

From my personal experience, I have had a legitimate customer service issue go unanswered and unresolved because "messaging Kyle" doesn't get the results so many claim that it does. I have also witnessed first-hand a Live Chat comment being "held and altered" to eliminate some details (about the lack of PHP updates) before it was posted (Big Brother, anyone?!). And I have seen the quality of WA blogs devolve from legitimately helpful business-building posts by knowledgeable internet marketers to predominantly posts of personal nature more suited to Facebook than a platform devoted (supposedly) to creating a profitable online business.

One practice I don't see addressed in your review is WA's ability to ban members from participating in the community at their discretion. To an extent this is understandable because some people don't know how to behave like decent human beings from behind their keyboards. But WA uses this power to silence anyone who brings up a legitimate issue that WA wants to keep under wraps.

Having one's "write access revoked" means one can't ask questions of the community, participate in Live Chat, answer Private Messages, blog withing WA. Given the quality of the community, these aren't maybe such big concerns. One can't communicate with one's own referrals, though, and I know that would make me pretty angry were I busying myself building my business around promoting WA.

But that's not even the worst of it. The real kicker is that, once writing privileges are revoked, ONE CAN NO LONGER CONTACT SITE SUPPORT FOR LEGITIMATE TECHNICAL ISSUES AFFECTING ONE'S OWN WEBSITE!

WA holds your very business hostage if you don't hold your tongue.

I cannot comprehend why anyone would think their hosting company deserves that kind of power over their website(s). But the problem, of course, is that most members have no clue this can even happen.

I feel fortunate that I have successfully moved my few domains and sites away from WA, and I will be cancelling my WA membership when it comes up for renewal in November. Like I mentioned, I did learn a few things, so I don't feel totally duped, but I am far from a happy member. I guess I'm just old-fashioned, but when I'm paying for a service, I expect training that's kept current, responsive customer service, and transparent business practices. Obviously there are an awful lot of people who no longer value such things, so they are quite happy at WA.
1. Hey, thanks for the comment!
  
  posts of personal nature more suited to Facebook than a platform devoted (supposedly) to creating a profitable online business.
  
  Well said! I got that impression as well. I've seen a lot of WA members – especially older members – who seem content just to be part of the community and learn a few basic things about WordPress. If they make any money from affiliate marketing, well, that's just a bonus.
  
  One practice I don't see addressed in your review is WA's ability to ban members from participating in the community at their discretion.
  
  Personally, I haven't noticed this during my time in WA.
  
  I thought I'd surely get banned when I wrote this very critical blog post in WA but was pleasantly surprised to see it stand, and it even got a response from Kyle – albeit an empty one.
  
  I do agree it's unwise to host a website on WA though.
  
  Aside from the fact that their hosting is nowhere near as "unparalleled" as claimed, there is a dangerous "lock in" effect. Lots of members feel like hosting on WA is the only option when they begin, and then WA provides no guidance on how to move your site to a different host later. That leaves a lot of people feeling like they have to keep paying WA membership fees or else lose their website.
  1. I, too, am shocked that your WA post was allowed to stand. I have seen many other similar posts and comments disappear from the platform without a trace. I guess Kyle felt he had much to gain by replying to you, but all I see is more of his typical dodging, finger-pointing, and whining. And the usual comments from his adoring fans. I got a good chuckle out of more than one of those! haha
    
    As for the hosting, I was, thankfully, able to migrate my sites away from WA without issue (and without needing assistance from WA tech support), but I made sure to do this while my WA membership was active. I've come across too many posts by past members warning that it's a fatal mistake to think WA will work with you after you cancel membership despite the claim that you "have 30 days" to move your site(s). Resolution seems to be a choice of either coughing up money for another month of membership to regain the access necessary to transfer hosting or walking away from the site(s) you've created. I feel for any unsuspecting member who gets caught up in that B.S.
Hi Niall,
Brilliant! that is all I can say about your review.

You were literally like a sherlock holmes while doing
this review 🙂
The framework you used to put all this data together
and collect all the data is a real masterpiece.

You have put so much hard work into this. I really doubt
if anyone can create a better review of Wealthy affiliate
than yours.
I am 100% sure there will be no other review of Wealthy affiliate
which is honest and detailed like this, anywhere on the internet.

I know because I have seen a lots of them-either by affiliates of
Wealthy affiliates or by competitors of WA-both of them are not
honest and only shows one side of the coin.

Your review on the other hand is really transparent and honest.
I have been saying these through chats and comments in Wealthy affiliate
for a while.

Although Kyle says some updates are coming, I haven't seen anything yet.
I also got some hatred from some Wealthy affiliate addicts for pointing out
the defects in Wealthy affiliate system.

The thing is most of the Wealthy affilate members have no clue about the
make money online niche and other affilate marketing courses.

So they can't see how much better and advanced are the other courses in
the market.

With that said, I am an yearly member in Wealthy affiliate. Wealthy affiliate
is good in the sense that, it is helpful for someone without the basic knowledge
of affiliate marketing, wordpress niche sites, creating content and SEO.

I think there is no other "All in one" solution-training+hosting+keyword tool
for affiliate marketing than Wealthy affiliate.

But what Wealthy affiliate is good updated training. The core training teaches
fundamentals of affiliate marketing and the weekly webinars dive deep into
them + other advanced things.

Compared to other courses Wealthy affiliate doesn't teach more advanced stuff,
also there are no recent case studies of niche websites earning decent profits.

If they can update the core training or hire other good affiliate marketers to
teach the lessons, then Wealthy affiliate will be really amazing.

When it comes to success of niche sites, it comes down to choosing a profitable
niche, doing good keyword research and publishing helpful content.

Someone following the Wealthy affiliate training do learn these basic things
and I believe that it will help them to build a profitable niche site.

I can say this, because I have read so many success stories in Wealthy affiliate
by just sticking to these fundamentals.

Even though link building is helpful, there are so many new case studies
showing that we can rank and profit from niche sites even without links.

I guess that is the reason Wealthy affiliate is not teaching link building.
They believe that getting natural links is penalty proof compared to
manual link building.

Once again, Niall, I really appreciate you for your hard work in putting
together this great review.

I am looking forward to your review of Income school and Authority site system.
I believe these are the two best affiliate marketing courses available in the
market now.

Both have a different take on building a niche site. As far as I know both
courses have got results for their students.
1. Thanks for the comment!
  
  Always good to hear from actual WA students.
  
  I get the appeal of the "all in one platform" that WA tries to be, but I'd argue that it actually makes people overly dependent on WA, and they sell their hosting and keyword tool as the best in the industry, which simply isn't true.
  
  You mentioned as well that a fundamental part of success is choosing a profitable niche, but Kyle says many times in the core training that it doesn't matter which niche you pick, which is baffling. He even doubled down on that when I mentioned it in my WA blog post a couple of weeks ago.
  
  I really don't see why they can't hire some AM's who have proven success in 2019. Given all the money WA makes, they should easily be able to afford better training and faster updates. The fact that those things aren't happening tells me that the owners have gotten too comfortable.
  
  As for the success stories in WA, I've seen very few that pass the smell test. Almost every time I dig deeper into them, it turns out they're only successful referring other people to WA, or their "success" amounts to a few hundred dollars per month after years of trying.
  
  What legit success stories there are have usually done significant study outside of WA to achieve their results.
  
  As for link building, I agree that it's not always necessary, but given the strong correlation between links and rankings, it seems crazy that WA would ignore the topic completely. Based on Kyle's comment on my WA blog post, I get the impression that he considers link building to be black hat SEO, but I'd disagree with that. Link building can be done in a white hat way, and if you're in a competitive niche I'd consider it essential.
  
  Anyway, thanks again for leaving such a thoughtful comment. I really appreciate it!
  1. Hey Niall,
    
    I agree with you on all the points you have
    mentioned above.
    
    What makes you stand out from all other
    bloggers is that, you are really intelligent,
    thoughtful and really honest with your reviews.
    
    You see things as it rather than twisting the review
    for your own benefit.
    
    I really respect you.
    
    I am excited about all your upcoming reviews on the
    "best affiliate marketing courses".
This is a kind of mother of all bombs. I was also a member of wealthy affiliate and quit it in 3 months. And I joined them back in 2017. Their advices and teachings are not only outdated then but also they were lies. Affilorama is also like that, I would say it's even worse. It upsells products once you sign in and you kind of gets sucked in to purchasing lot of things that won't even make you a dime. I think on the internet there's a big scam going on when it comes to affiliate marketing. Every week one kind of guru pops up claiming to take you to a promised Land. Affiliate marketing works, but not in the way these gurus claim. The only thing that these gurus want is your money .
1. Thanks for the comment, Lok.
  
  I've heard from a few people now who tried WA years ago that it wasn't actually much better before, so perhaps my Robert De Niro analogy isn't quite appropriate!
Good review.
Have you considered reviewing affiliate marketing mastery from projectlifemastery.com?
Curious to know your candid thoughts and whether it's worth such a high ticket price.
1. I wasn't familiar with that one but just took a quick look. The guy behind it has quite a large following, but no idea how legit he is.
  I'll add his course to my list, but it will be a few months before I get a chance to look at it properly.
You really did your research! Thanks for saving me the hassle of a program that clearly is very outdated, poorly managed, and overall not helpful.
1. Thanks for reading, Jada!
I am currently a Premium member of WA. I found WA by accident through a site that was promoting WA. I didn't sign up right away. A few days passed and I went to the WA site to see what they were talking about. Everything sounded good (naturally) so I signed up for the free membership. It didn't take long before I realized that the "golden tickets" were hidden in the Premium membership.

Like a drug dealer trying to get a new customer, WA offers the first month of Premium for $19 (after which it's $49 per month). I took the snort to see how good the "high" would be. Even though I'm fairly new to affiliate marketing, it didn't take long before I came crashing down and realized the "training" was, overall, ineffective. I found it disturbing that Kyle's videos referenced things on the WA website that no longer existed. With each progressive video, I found myself wondering why Kyle didn't explain the reason behind doing X, Y, Z.

To me, WA is the affiliate marketer's Facebook – a place to socialize under the guise of building a profitable website. It seems Kyle, Carson, and Jay have left the "guidance" to the WA community and the only Wealth Affiliates are Kyle, Carson, and Jay.

And, yes, I will be leaving before the $49 rate kicks in.
1. Thanks for the comment, Nikki.
  
  Good point about the WA videos referencing old stuff in the program. The interface is completely different in a lot of them, and you can no longer find things where Kyle says you can.
  
  I'll also be canceling my subscription before the $49 rate kicks in.
A comprehensive, thorough and well thought out review! The sheer effort Niall put into this shows how committed he is to this business.
1. Thanks, Andrew!
Yeah, I've been a member of Wealthy Affiliate since 2015. It's great if you are a complete totally new beginner to online marketing. It's an all in one platform with training, blog posts, live chat, kw tool etc… Oh and hosting 🙂

Training wise, I agree with the previous comment that the TASS course is much more valuable as it goes deeper in stuff like niche research.
1. Yeah, there's some value in it for complete beginners, but since WA doesn't sufficiently teach much beyond the basics these days, people are unlikely to actually earn any money from affiliate sites they build through that training.
  
  Which kind of defeats the whole purpose.
It was great when I joined in 2012.

They have slowly put more emphasis on teaching people how to refer others to WA though, and that's compounded negatively over the years to the point where the whole thing feels a bit like an MLM. The founders don't live and breathe niche sites anymore so their training is somewhat dated. Also, as most people review scams and MLMs as a way of suggesting WA as a better alternative, the majority of members are MLM rejects with a "duplicate everything" mentality. Most of them have reviewed The Authority Site System at some point without actually buying it, for example. They just copy each other's reviews.

WA has a place to some extent because it does teach you the basics in a legit way, so despite its failings, it has a purpose to serve.

That said, when I joined it was full of members who were making money as niche leaders and sharing their experiences with the WA community, whereas now there's little value in the crap people share. I left a few months ago after being subbed for 6 years.
1. Hey WD, thanks for the comment.
  
  A member for 6 years and left a few months ago… that about says it all. I think the only way WA can be valuable to serious affiliate marketers these days is if you own a time machine 😛

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