Wealthy Affiliate Program Review

Why did I decide to review Wealthy Affiliate? Probably like most of you there is a bit of a story, but basically I like listening to podcasts while I train and one day I was listening to an episode that featured an entrepreneur that had built a huge international business in affiliate marketing. This was the first time that I had heard affiliate marketing spoken about in terms of legitimate business and decided that I wanted to know more about it. I started researching and found that it really is one of the few businesses that can be both a large multinational but also something that can be done by individuals. Initially when I was looking at programs I found the high profile ones that I am sure you have found already too. Programs like the Legendary Marketer 15 day program and Zach Crawford Affiliate Program, they all seemed really professional and very well funded and I even signed up to a few to see what they were like. While most of them were legitimate and had pretty solid structures (I will review all the ones I tried in different posts) I found myself feeling uncomfortable with them. Legendary Marketer has a really specific process that they want you to follow exactly, I feel that this is fine if you just want to do exactly as you are told but I was struggling to understand how I could turn it into a business as they seemed to want you to focus on promoting the platform itself, I didn’t feel comfortable doing this so kept looking for something else. While checking out a different program I found Wealthy Affiliate and rather than promoting a program to follow it seemed to focus much more on teaching you all about affiliate marketing, this was more what I was looking for so I decided to sign up for a free starter course to see what it was like.

What is Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate is NOT a “get rich quick” program and it is NOT a “hands off” program that is built for you. I would describe it more like an Affiliate Marketing University, everything you need is there for you to learn but you do need to study and you do need to put the work in to get the best results.

Wealthy Affiliate was launched in 2005 by Kyle Loudoun and Carson Lim who were both successful affiliate marketers in their own right, they got together and decided to build a platform where they could share what they had learned. Over the next 18 years the platform has evolved and become a one stop shop for everything you need to create an affiliate marketing business. Currently there are over 2.3 million members in Wealthy Affiliate from all over the globe and one of my favourite things about the platform is that I can ask questions and there is always someone somewhere online that can help and provide what I am looking for. If like me you are a complete beginner in affiliate marketing then this is a fantastic place to start your education and get the support you need to get started.

What Will You Learn With Wealthy Affiliate

When I was looking at affiliate marketing I did not have any idea where to start, I knew it involved helping to generate sales for other companies and that this could generate commission for me but that was it. I really did not know the first thing about websites and was not really into posting on social media. Since I joined Wealthy Affiliate I have learned so much and am still learning every day, but the main learning you will get from Wealthy Affiliate is:

• How to identify a sector for your business – Don’t worry if you do not have a “passion” that you think is worth promoting, I learned how to not only identify a “niche” as it is called in affiliate marketing but also how to expand it into 100’s of ideas.
• How to build your own website in under an hour – I know this sounds like click bait but the Platforms new Hub center will walk you through the process to create your own website in a matter of minutes. This alone was worth joining for me, if you had asked me before I would have guessed that building a website was something that would take a specialist weeks to do
• How to get traffic or visitors to your website – There are so many ways to bring people to your website and each one of them is covered in detail, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. Some people seem to use social media such as Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram etc while others use blog posts (this is my current preferred approach). Whatever you like to do you can learn how to do it better with Wealthy Affiliate.
• How to make money from your website – There are so many different ways to monetize your site that I was not aware off, the obvious one is promoting other peoples products but there are lots of ways to generate revenue without doing this such as Google ad sense (getting paid to have adverts on your site)

• You don’t have to do this alone – This is one of the big learnings for me as I have found that there are so many in the same situation that are happy to help you along and offer advice. I received an error message about my website one day, I tried googling it to find out what it meant as this was completely new to me but couldn’t figure it out, I asked the Wealthy Affiliate community for help and within 10 minutes I had 4 answers and my issue was sorted. I have never experienced support like this before, not even from paid support centers

Is Wealthy Affiliate Legitimate

There are so many sophisticated scams online nowadays that it can be really difficult identifying the businesses that are actually legitimate and worth signing up with. I need to feel 100% certain that everything is good and if it isn’t then I won’t commit even if there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with them. I usually approach this from 4 angles to make sure I feel comfortable with a company.

Google – A simple google search will usually reveal a lot about a company, if there is anything untoward about them you will usually find a lot of disgruntled people online complaining about them. You should do several searches to dig as deep as you can though as sometimes secrets can be lurking below the surface.

Official agencies – Every country has its own version of business rating systems, Trust Pilot is one of the biggest and it find that it usually gives a pretty good overview. Wealthy affiliate has 581 reviews on Trustpilot with an average score of 4.9 out of 5

Talk to people that are using or have used the business – This can sometimes be difficult especially if you are new to an industry but going on public forums such as Reddit can help to put you in touch with other users.

Do they have a free trial option – Any company that wants you to spend big money without letting you see what you will be getting first always raises a big red flag for me. I am super suspicious of companies that tell you how good they are but then ask you to make a big financial outlay up front. I signed up to Wealthy Affiliate using the free starter option and spent some time browsing the platform before committing. Even then I only initially signed up on a monthly membership until I felt really comfortable. Having these options really put me at ease and were a big part of why I got involved.

How Much Does Wealthy Affiliate Cost

If you decide that you want to get started with Wealthy Affiliate there are 3 levels to choose from and each one offers different levels of support and information.

Free Starter Membership: $0

If you are like me and really cautious then I would advise you to start with the Free Starter membership. It doesn’t cost you anything at all and will give you an opportunity to access the platform, start learning and see what it is all about. You will be able to listen to the 1000’s of members ask questions, see exactly what training is available and review check out the entire program to see if it is what you are looking for. It is only a starter membership though so you are limited as to what you can access. You can take the first set of training classes, get access to some of the research tools and get access to start setting up your very own website. You also get 7 days to ask questions in the platform to find out as much as you can

Premium Membership: $49 monthly / $497 yearly

This is the most popular membership package and can be paid monthly if you just want to dip your toe in and explore a little or you can pay annually and save some cash. With this membership you can create 3 websites, access all levels of the core training and 52 expert training sessions per year. You also get a Jaaxy starter research license included, this would cost you $19 month if you wanted to get this yourself and is invaluable in helping you to create content for your site. You will get 24/7 support in all aspects of your business, I have contacted the site support on 3 occasions with questions and have always had an answer within 15 mins max. If you sign up to this license and work through all of the core training you will have covered every aspect of creating and building an online business. I believe the membership is worth it just for this training especially if you are new to affiliate marketing like I was. If you wanted to, you could sign up do all the training and then cancel your membership and go it alone but I am pretty sure you won’t do that as once you get to see what is available you will want to stay and keep learning. But if you decide it isn’t for you it is very easy to leave and you won’t have spent much at all.

Premium Plus Membership: $99 monthly / $697 yearly

If you get to a level where you are taking your affiliate marketing really seriously and want to really step up your game then this is the membership package for you. You can build 10 websites with this package and get access to all training including more than 200 expert training sessions each year. You get higher levels of website support and premium levels of technical support too, including a personal messaging service. You also get a premium research license which would cost you $99 monthly if you signed up separately, if you are like I was and you currently don’t know the benefit of these research tools you will be blown away once you find out what they do and how much they will help you.

What is New In Wealthy Affiliate

Wealthy Affiliate has been going for almost 19 years and while I understand it has evolved a lot over the years, it has recently undergone the biggest update in its history, this is down to two main developments:

1. The new HUB system – Previously Wealthy Affiliate was a fantastic training resource and had everything that you needed to create and build an online business, but in Dec 2023 they took all of the tasks and processes they had built up over 19 years and put them together to create a single structured system that they called a Hub. This new Hub design walks you through all of the steps required 1 by 1 in a really easy to follow and understand method. I am quite a logical person and I really like the new system, I built my first website using the old system and found it really good but I have started building my new site with the new Hub process and it has blown me away with how much easier it is now. You don’t need to worry about what is next as it will help you through each part of the process, the training program has also been completely revised to run in parallel with the new Hub process.
2. AI Integration – The Wealthy Affiliate team have always been very open about AI and have been working on using it for a long time, in December 2023 they announced the full integration of AI into the HUB process. This means that during every step of the process of creating your new online business, you can choose to do it all yourself or get help from an AI tool. Everything from selecting your Niche / sector for your business through to writing content. You can decide how much support you get from AI and how to use it, as I write this it is still very new but so far it is transforming how online businesses are built. If like me you don’t know much about artificial intelligence then Wealthy Affiliate is worth joining just to learn this.

The Honest Pros and Cons of Wealthy Affiliate

Like any business there are Pros and Cons for Wealthy Affiliate, anyone that tells you there isn’t is either lying or completed deluded. However, a lot of what I would have considered to be negatives before have been resolved with the new development of the Hubs system and the integration of AI. This has really added some huge positives and resolved several negatives, but below are the main Pros and Cons that I have experienced so far:

Pro: There is a vast amount of training and knowledge in the platform, if you want to learn about affiliate marketing then this is the place to be, whether you want to use a website or social media there is information here to help.

Con: There is a vast amount of information, it is easy to get bogged down by trying to do everything. Unless you are prepared to be full time at this then I don’t think this is possible so you really need to focus on certain areas once you get going.

Pro: There is a massive community of like minded people here that are happy to help you and share their experience and knowledge. I have never seen a community like this and find it really helpful when I have questions

Con: There is a massive community here and some people seem to want to offer feedback for the sake of it rather than because it is useful. I would recommend connecting to a lot of people initially but then gradually filter out the ones that you don’t really click with.

Pro: This is a learning place where you will be provided all the tools to build a business and be given support to keep developing

Con: This is a learning place but you still have to do the work, Wealthy Affiliate won’t do it for you so don’t expect an instant “off the shelf” income stream

You can read more about what I think are the 3 BIGGEST benefits to joining Wealthy Affiliate here

The Big Question – Is Wealthy Affiliate Worth The Money

This is the big question that I have been asked a lot and I think the answer depends more on what you are looking for

If you are looking for an instant business that you can copy / paste to make money – Then the answer is NO, Wealthy Affiliate is not right for you as it won’t give you this

If you are completely new to affiliate marketing and want to learn about the business, the tools needed, ways to monetize your website, ways to generate traffic, how to analyse what is working and generally learn new skills that you will able to use over and over – Then YES, Wealthy Affiliate is definitely worth it for you

If you are not prepared to invest some time on a regular basis to build and develop your business – Then NO, Wealthy Affiliate is probably not right for you as you won’t get the full benefit from it

If you have heard about making money online but have no idea how you could ever do this and want to learn more – YES Wealthy Affiliate is worth it for you, sign up to a free starter membership and run through the free training sessions. This will already give you enough of an idea of whether this is something you want to do

If you have an idea for an online business but you have no idea where to start and are looking for some help to create and build your online presence – YES Wealthy Affiliate is definitely worth it for you, even if only for a few months until you have the skills and knowledge you need.

Overall, if you are unsure, I would recommend clicking the link below and check out what Wealthy Affiliate has to offer. If you like the sound of it sign up for a free starter package, take some training and have a look around. If it isn’t for you then you can leave but if it is then it could turn out to be the best link you have ever clicked on.

If you have got to this part then well done and I hope you enjoyed my review, if you have any feedback, questions or comments then please feel free to add them below as i love to hear what you think and will try my best to answer your questions

April 2024 Update

Wealthy Affiliate are also continuously improving and upgrading the platform so I have added a post on the April 2024 improvements to Wealthy Affiliate to keep this post as accurate as possible.

Good luck with your affiliate marketing

Pete