Wealthy Affiliate is a popular affiliate marketing training platform.
(in-depth Wealthy Affiliate review)
Wealthy Affiliate cannot be considered a strict pyramid or Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) scheme, but it does have elements of both.
According to money.howstuffworks.com:
The main characteristic of a pyramid scheme is that participants only make money by recruiting more members.
Investopedia defines MLM like so:
Multilevel marketing is a strategy some direct sales companies use to encourage existing distributors to recruit new distributors who are paid a percentage of their recruits’ sales.
By those definitions, at first glance Wealthy Affiliate would qualify as both a pyramid and MLM scheme.
But let’s try give them the benefit of the doubt.
A WA member named Jerry Huang wrote a post at my.wealthyaffiliate.com explaining why he doesn’t consider Wealthy Affiliate to be multi-level marketing.
To summarize Jerry’s points, WA can’t be considered MLM because:
- WA doesn’t restrict you to only promoting WA itself.
- WA doesn’t require you to recruit your friends or family members.
- WA doesn’t require you to do any face-to-face selling.
- WA has one one level of referrals (ie not multi-level).
- WA members don’t “recruit” people. They “invite” people.
Okay, some fair distinctions.
(Except for the last one. That’s just silly.)
But before we give WA a pass here, let’s see what founder Kyle Loudon had to say about MLM’s in this 2015 blog post:
Some excerpts from that article, followed by my comments…
There are two core training series inside Wealthy Affiliate:
If you choose door number two above – the Affiliate Bootcamp series – you are, in fact, always trying to “suck in that next person to your downline.”
And while you are not required to pay continuously for WA in order to promote it, you do receive double commissions on your referrals as a paying member.
Back to Kyle:
Gee, that’s a little awkward.
Because all WA members are ranked according to their contributions to the WA community (details here), and the top 25 are referred to as “Ambassadors.”
They even have a leaderboard:
Kyle again:
Hmm.
Did you see my other article where I calculated that WA generates revenues of $10 million per year?
And the one where I went through 50+ recent WA “success stories” and discovered that very few of them could actually be considered successful?
🤔
Back to Kyle:
By that definition, anyone who follows the Affiliate Bootcamp training inside WA is part of an MLM scheme.
What else you got, Kyle?
And that, my friends, is EXACTLY my impression of Wealthy Affiliate.
An impression heavily reinforced by the examples below.
Wealthy Affiliate students making money by promoting Wealthy Affiliate 🤨
TDomena: a new WA commission nearly every day
Here’s a public blog post by WA member TDomena – #8 on the Ambassador leaderboard above, btw – in August 2019:
Did you catch that?
It seems TDomena is finally making good money as an affiliate marketer… by promoting Wealthy Affiliate!
Jerry Huang: 85% of affiliate earnings from promoting Wealthy Affiliate
Remember this guy from earlier?
It’s the same story with him:
littlemama: 75% of affiliate earnings from promoting Wealthy Affiliate
A WA member called littlemama has a similar story, reporting that she earns 75% of her income by referring other people to Wealthy Affiliate and its keyword research tool (Jaxxy)…
Here she is reporting $81,532 in earnings as an affiliate for WA over 4 years…
Mike AffTraining: $100+ per day promoting Wealthy Affiliate
Here’s another prominent affiliate of WA proudly announcing that he earns $100 per day referring people to the program…
Frank Stealth Secrets: up to $10,000 per month promoting Wealthy Affiliate
Frank confesses to promoting Wealthy Affiliate for many years, and has earned as much as $10,000 in a single month by convincing other people to join the program…
Unfortunately, this is what most “success stories” look like in WA nowadays.
Most of them appear to be students who earn the majority of their income by referring other students to Wealthy Affiliate.
We’ve heard this complaint repeatedly from folks who have tried WA…
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
Ray CharlesVery 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 BrownIf 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 ReviewerIn contrast, better affiliate marketing courses we’ve reviewed show many students earning significant income from unrelated affiliate programs, instead of primarily recruiting new students to the same training.
And so, I repeat:
Wealthy Affiliate cannot be considered a strict pyramid or Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) scheme, but it does have strong elements of both.
(Have you seen other examples of Wealthy Affiliate students earning most of their income by promoting Wealthy Affiliate? Drop a comment below or contact us here. We will add new examples to this post as we find them.)
The problem with 99% of Wealthy Affiliate reviews
The vast majority of Wealthy Affiliate reviews are overly positive and optimistic in an attempt to get you signed up via an affiliate link. Each referral is apparently worth $121, so there’s a strong incentive for folks to promote WA by any means necessary.
Only three lessons into the free training at Wealthy Affiliate, you’ll see this:
Combine that with a generous affiliate program, and it’s no wonder the internet is filled with positive reviews of WA.
Plus, there are literally 70 core lessons teaching people how to promote the damn thing. Compared to only 50 lessons for folks who are not interested in the make money/affiliate marketing niche 🤔
Several affiliates show off income reports in their reviews.
Like this:
These people are literally bragging that they make money from Wealthy Affiliate…
…BY PROMOTING WEALTHY AFFILIATE!
Major chutzpah right there.
Next time you see a Wealthy Affiliate review, ask yourself two questions:
- Does this person show any proof of affiliate earnings from the past two years?
- Are they earning significant income promoting something other than Wealthy Affiliate?
If the answer is NO to either question, slowly back away.
Read more about Wealthy Affiliate
- Wealthy Affiliate Review
- Wealthy Affiliate: Positive Reviews, Poor Results
- Wealthy Affiliate Scam?
- Is Wealthy Affiliate a Pyramid Scheme? Is it MLM?
- Wealthy Affiliate’s Kyle Loudon & Jay Neill
- How Much Money Does Wealthy Affiliate Make?
- The Wealthy Affiliate Affiliate Program
Video review of Wealthy Affiliate…
Wealthy Affiliate Alternatives
Here are the top affiliate marketing programs we’ve reviewed…
Hey Niall! Thanks for the breakdown. However, I just wanted to share my perspective as a newbie. By newbie, I’m pretty new to affiliate marketing (although I’ve understood what it was for years and wish I started MUCH sooner haha) and to the WA community (brand new, not even a week in yet).
I will admit that I obviously cannot speak from an advance or expert point of view. It isn’t very reassuring to hear that some more advanced marketers may not feel like they’re getting a lot out of even the more expensive Premium + membership. But as I am a beginner, I’ll happily share my beginning perspective 🙂
I looked at some of the top affiliate programs you recommended, and while they may be awesome, they’re cost-prohibitive for me…and many other “newbies”. While I’m new to affiliate marketing, I have had several some experience with online (and offline) business, so of course, I was very aware that when I signed up for my free WA account last year that I would be enticed to upgrade to a paid membership. Which is now ~$46/mo (for Premium) as of July 2023 at least.
This didn’t turn me off because even the most expert marketer can’t convince me to buy something I either don’t want or need or that’s way out of my current budget. I’m a sole provider and caretaker for my chronically sick husband so I try to make “responsible” money decisions.
Anyway, I was impressed by the community so far, not just the friendliness but the helpfulness. Kyle himself has already answered several of my questions and so has the blogger who’s link I used to become a member.
It may seem small, and it is of course great business and smart marketing, but I have never had an someone to reach out to me just because I used their affiliate link (and yes this continued even after I paid for the upgrade haha)…and yes even on subscription models. Because I understand it’s advantageous to their pockets to “butter us up” so we want to say, but hell I must say…it’s working! 🙂
Even if this communication falls off soon, it’s literally more than what MOST course creators/companies do.
In fact, I also recently paid $300 (for ONE installment) for a live course (not affiliate marketing or WA affiliated) and have sent three emails and used their FB group and have not gotten ONE answer. And they have already restricted me from just the second module because they haven’t received a “payment authorization,” although the payment isn’t due until tomorrow. And based on the breakdown of the course (8 weeks released on a drip), I SHOULD have access to the first 2 Modules even if I decide not to move forward.
Also, although WA is budget conscious for most. Let’s say not considering those that have been with WA for YEARS (and there are many), the average new member has a 4-month retention rate and they have Premium (that’s still under $200) for months of access to lots of training, community, step by step.
In fact, in just under a week, I’ve already started working on my first affiliate website. Something that I hadn’t pinned down until I joined WA. Not that it would have been impossible on my own of course, but even knowing that I’m paying “just” $46/mo, all the support and training made me really focus.
I narrowed down my niche (with the help of WA community and tools), chose a name, set up an account/dashboard for WP (their training made WP, which I used before years ago) feel like less of a mountain to climb and am already working on my About page. Last week this time, I was still deciding which direction to go.
Like I said, all beginner stuff and, sure all things I could find for free online (you still get access to a decent amount of content on their free level as well) or even in a more costly (upfront cost) program.
Also, I don’t really see the big deal with some people earning most of their affiliate income from WA. I understand it but when you think about it, does it matter? Even if one of the examples you gave, the guy still earned over $800/mo from other online ventures. That may be chump change to guys like you but to someone that’s a beginner and I’m talking…that’s nothing to sneeze at.
And from what I’ve gathered just through observation, MANY affiliates seem to have 1-2 main “breadwinners” as far as what they promote. For some, it may be Clickfunnels, for some it may be a particular product or company, for some, it may be WA. This also really makes sense as well since it’s an established name with loads of content and training, lots of incentives to upgrade, and a great place for us newbies to start.
Am I claiming it’s perfect? Of course not! I’m so new I don’t have too many complaints but I’m sure some may arise at some point. But even if I only stay 4-6 months, get my first affiliate site up and running, and make a few sales (from my niche and/or WA works for me 🙂 for just ~$185-$276. That still sounds like a good deal. And hopefully even a few affiliate sales would help me either break even or break into profit…which is more than what some businesses can say in less than a year.
I also like the fact that they don’t own my WP sites and I’m able to move them if I decide to leave the WA community…that was a big deal for me.
Finally, I say this with respect because I could be wrong, and I truly don’t think ANY affiliate commission is “wrong” if the product/service is something you believe in and it’s hurting anyone. But aren’t you also gaining a commission from the affiliate programs you’re promoting too?
I get that they may not be your main “bread and butter,” and I respect that. But there also felt like a little bit of shaming here on your end. So what if one marketer earns the bulk of their affiliate earnings from essentially promoting an affiliate platform/program, and one earns it from dog food, makeup, etc. etc. Most of the same concepts apply, and as long as the program/platform is LEGIT, and helping people (even beginners), what’s the issue. So kudos to the people you posted!
I don’t care if that’s how they made their first $1 online or their first $10,000 MANY people make ZERO or even lose money. So while I somewhat understand your sentiment, I do not fully agree. Maybe I’ll change my mind as I get more experience and affiliate wisdom under my belt haha…seriously.
Again thanks for the review and for all the other ones I’ve read over the years. Finally subscribing! (Blame my ADHD brain for taking so long, not my heart haha)
Hi Candace, thanks for the comment. I’d love to hear how you feel about WA a few months from now, once you’ve had more time to put the training into practice.
The problem I have there is when those people are telling others to join WA because it will help them make money, while using their own earnings from promoting WA as proof. That’s way too MLM-y for my liking. A lot of affiliate marketing courses have their own affiliate programs, but I like seeing courses where most of the success stories are from students who ARE NOT primarily promoting the course itself. That shows that the course is teaching people how to build real, self-sustaining businesses, rather than just teaching them how to sell the same training to other people.
Be careful with that. I have heard from many WA students over the years who had trouble moving their sites off of WA. It is possible, but they don’t make it easy.
Anyway, I wish you all the best with WA. I’d love if the training improved so I could happily recommend it to people.