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Updated: February 13, 2024

Reviews

The Ultimate Wealthy Affiliate Review

11 Things To Know Before You Buy

Wealthy Affiliate
2.5/5 2.51
Holly G.Brendan LongSteven Oliver40 Reviews | Rate This Course

This is the definitive Wealthy Affiliate review for 2024.

We’ve collected 35+ 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!)

Wealthy Affiliate Review

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Full of outdated, misleading info and bad advice.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
2.5/5 2.52

If you’re in a hurry, below is a video version of my Wealthy Affiliate review. (It’s a few 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…

About the Author

Niall Doherty

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 4 years (through 2023) I’ve earned $842,000 from my laptop, mostly via affiliate marketing.

I’m on a mission to accurately rate and review all the best affiliate marketing courses. My team and I have spent 900+ hours investigating these courses and getting feedback from real students.

All that to say: we know a thing or two about such courses 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 🏆

How does Wealthy Affiliate help you make money?

Wealthy Affiliate is a course and community that promises to teach you how to make money online with affiliate marketing.

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

How does affiliate marketing work?
This is actually just 1 of 3 ways to do affiliate marketing. Learn about the other 2 here.

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…

Wealthy Affiliate description

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 SmithGerrid 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 DavidGoodell 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 BrownThomas Brown

Does Wealthy Affiliate have a good reputation?

Not really, no.

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

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 dozens of verified Wealthy Affiliate students

A quick summary of my main complaints with Wealthy Affiliate:

  • Much of the core training material is rarely updated (examples)
  • The core training is riddled with bad advice (examples)
  • The core training is filled with misleading claims (examples)
  • The core training is very poorly organized (examples)
  • The lead trainers – Kyle Loudon and Jay Neill – appear to have had little success with their own affiliate sites since 2016 (read more)
  • Wealthy Affiliate offers no refunds (read more)
  • Members are explicitly encouraged and instructed to recruit other paying members to WA (read more)
  • The most “successful” students of WA seem to earn 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…

Jerry Huang 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)…

littlemama Wealthy Affiliate income

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 CharlesRay 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 BrownChris 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 ReviewerValidated Reviewer

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

Wealthy Affiliate Trustpilot rating

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.

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…

Wealthy Affiliate refund request

How is the training structured?

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

Wealthy Affiliate dashboard layout

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…

Wealthy Affiliate tutorials

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) does a live training class for the WA community each week, all of which are archived and can be viewed at any time. Premium Plus members also get several additional weekly trainings from experienced WA members (aka “Super Affiliates”).

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 RasmussenJonas Rasmussen

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

Wealthy Affiliate refund search

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 CharlesRay 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.

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
2.5/5 2.53

Wealthy Affiliate Alternatives

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

🏆 Best Affiliate Marketing Courses 🏆

1.The Authority Site System (review)
4.8/5
2.The Affiliate Lab (review)
4.6/5
3.Scale Your Travel Blog (review)
4.6/5
4.Blog Growth Engine (review)
4.5/5
5.Passive Income Geek (review)
4.4/5
6.Niche Site Profits (review)
4.3/5
7.Income School's Project 24 (review)
4.3/5
8.Blogging Fast Lane (review)
3.9/5
9.Perfecting Blogging (review)
3.8/5
10.Solo Build It (review)
3.7/5
11.123 Affiliate Marketing (review)
3.4/5
12.Passive Income Unlocked (review)
3.2/5
13.Jungle Influencer (review)
3.1/5
14.Affiliate Escape Plan (review)
3.1/5
15.Digital Worth Academy (review)
2.9/5
16.YouTube Affiliate Marketing System (review)
2.9/5
17.Home Business Academy (review)
2.7/5
18.Entre Institute (review)
2.6/5
19.Affiliate Marketing Success MasterClass (review)
2.5/5
20.Passive Income Pathways (review)
2.5/5
See all reviews of affiliate marketing courses »

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.

Read more about Wealthy Affiliate

Video review of Wealthy Affiliate…

Student Reviews of Wealthy Affiliate

Rate This Course
Holly G.
  • Validated Reviewer 1
  • Verified Student 2
  • Review Info 3
2.0/5
May 18, 2023
Earnings 4
way less than expected
Following Training 5
for more than 2 years

Buyer beware! There are many issues with WA

In 2018, I signed up with Wealthy Affiliate while looking for legitimate ways to build an online business. I wasn’t looking for get-rich-quick schemes and intended to treat this new venture as an actual business with hard work and dedication. Right away, I was concerned with what seemed to be a too-simplified approach to making money online. Still, as a complete newbie, I thought they knew something I didn’t.

A lot has changed in the online world since then. Believing that creating a website and writing a few high-quality articles with affiliate links will bring traffic and customers is not a reality in 2023. Any online business will tell you that getting traffic is hard, and targeted traffic even harder. A lot is involved in ranking well on Google, even with low-competition or long-tail keywords. For this reason, I feel WA gets people’s hopes up for a successful website without telling them it takes years of hard work to achieve that. And for some, that dream never happens.

The community within WA is not bad at all. There are some genuinely helpful people and kind souls to help you when you feel stuck, discouraged, or need some fresh ideas. For some, the WA’s ‘social community’ aspect could make their subscription worth it. It is true, however, about their internal ranking system. Many people add random unhelpful comments that provide no value whatsoever.

Another positive aspect is the Jaaxy keyword research tool included in the membership. This is the only reason I have kept my WA subscription. I have ranked pretty well for different keywords by using Jaaxy. I like the interface and trust its results. Yes, I could get Jaaxy without WA, but it would be more expensive.

The worst part about Wealthy Affiliate is their included website hosting and customer service. Oh, my goodness! Please don’t use this service if you start a website. I just went through one hellish experience with our local plant nursery website that led me to write this review. WA servers are awfully slow. My websites performed absolutely terribly, so that hurt my rankings.

The problem was transferring my websites to another hosting. WA black-listed plugins such as Jetpack, All-in-One WordPress Migration, etc. We also tried to transfer the site via SFTP but failed because critical files were inaccessible. When I contacted the WA Site Support, they rudely told me none of this was allowed and that they would offer a backup file that my new provider could restore. However, many file permissions were still missing. The new hosting service finally reinstated my site, but only due to their hard work and willingness to help me out of this crappy situation with WA.

Furthermore, if you stop paying for the Wealthy Affiliate Premium service, your website gets disabled. Then it will be deleted if it has been dormant for some time. Incredibly unethical business. Additionally, keep in mind that WA does not offer refunds. If you pay for the yearly subscription, it is a done deal. Are you not satisfied? Too bad.

Many issues with WA should cause you to pause. Other places offer valuable affiliate marketing training, so perhaps consider them instead.

Pros and Cons

  • The included Jaaxy Lite keyword research tool that I actually enjoy.
  • There are some helpful and kind people within the WA community.
  • Some of the training is pretty solid and will help you as a beginner in the online business world.
  • Do not host your website with WA! They have blacklisted any kind of migration, so you risk losing your site or having to settle for their terrible hosting service.
  • The value for money is not worth it. Much of the teaching is outdated and makes promises that aren't based on reality.
  • If you opt out of Premium membership, WA will disable your website until you pay the membership fee.
more ratings
Implementation 6
harder than expected
Presentation 7
3.0/5
Usefulness 8
3.0/5
Community 9
4.0/5
Support 10
2.0/5
Value For Money 11
2.0/5
Brendan Long
  • Validated Reviewer 12
  • Review Info 13
3.0/5
February 14, 2023
Earnings 14
none, still new to the course
Following Training 15
for 1 to 6 months

Too Much Community

I’m a neophyte and less than computer/tech literate, so that is having an impact on my progress and success. That said, I think there is a problem with information overload and less than clear transitions from one segment to the next. Also, a given function might have more than one name (label), thus compounding my sense of confusion. However, I did learn many new things and made steady progress.

My primary issue is with the community. Although promoted as a major asset in the course’s marketing, it leaves me cold. The community includes one of the Wealthy Affiliate founders, savvy WA affiliate marketers, and anyone in the WA world willing to give free advice. The result for me was confusion, instruction overload, and some astounded moments upon receiving contradictory advice. Additionally, the option to seek help from all three sources was confusing and not clearly explained on the site. I spent too much time responding to all of the advice and messages instead of getting on with the course.

Pros and Cons

  • Explains affiliate marketing to newcomers.
  • Moderately priced
  • Expands your thinking
  • Discovered some of training is dated through research
  • Some instructions were confusing
  • The community can be a hindrance
more ratings
Implementation 16
about what I expected
Presentation 17
3.0/5
Usefulness 18
3.0/5
Community 19
2.0/5
Support 20
2.0/5
Value For Money 21
3.0/5
Steven Oliver
  • Validated Reviewer 22
  • Review Info 23
4.0/5
January 14, 2023
Earnings 24
more than expected
Following Training 25
for more than 2 years

Wealthy Affiliate Review

I was a subscriber to the Wealthy Affiliate program and below are my thoughts on it.

The structure was very well thought out for people new to the world of having a website. Each module had a good number of tutorials, and you were walked through everything required to get an affiliate website up and running.

As you went through the modules, some more technical aspects were introduced and everything was included to give you a fighting chance. The technology they used was excellent, so things like website speed were of high quality.

The support was also really good. You could expect a response to a support ticket created within minutes.

I think the pricing is very fair. Each year there is a Black Friday deal where you can lock in a low yearly price.

I used Wealthy Affiliate to create a successful sports betting website that generated a very healthy income over three years. I would recommend WA to any newcomers to the affiliate marketing industry.

Pros and Cons

  • The course module layout
  • The helpdesk's lightning fast response to any questions you have
  • The large community - there's always somebody with more knowledge, willing to share it
  • It could have gone into more advanced affiliate tactics like link building, etc.
more ratings
Implementation 26
about what I expected
Presentation 27
4.0/5
Usefulness 28
4.0/5
Community 29
5.0/5
Support 30
5.0/5
Value For Money 31
5.0/5
Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 32
  • Verified Student 33
  • Review Info 34
1.0/5
November 30, 2022

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

WA is a waste of my money

If you plan on getting a premium membership of Wealthy Affiliate, then I would advise you to save your money. I think there are many things about this course you don’t realize until you spend a few years inside it.

  1. The training is too basic. You can get this training anywhere online for FREE.
  2. Hosting your website for $49 a month is expensive since the training is useless.
  3. Most of the people helping you in the online chat are beginners themselves.
  4. Kyle comes on the chat, but just to ‘chit-chat’ with everyone. He doesn’t really answer many website-related questions. When I asked him website-related questions he was either rude or completely ignored me.
  5. Some successful people get triggered if you ask them to check your website or give you feedback. They say that they have no time and that you are being rude by asking them a favor. I mean, you are paying for the membership, but a simple NO will do.

In my opinion, those people got successful by luck so they cannot help anyone, and they mask it with their arrogance. I asked them about other affiliate courses, but they always told me to stick to the training. They explained that I wasn’t getting results because I wasn’t doing the training well.

Then I told my mentor that I didn’t find the training clear. He said that he was able to do it, so he didn’t understand why I was complaining. One can easily tell how this will keep you in a self-blame loop. You might stay there for a very long time, thinking that it’s your fault and that you need to work harder when that is not the case.

Wealthy Affiliate’s training is outdated and was never intended to work in the first place. I believe it is a carefully crafted course for failure, making people think it is their fault. If you are a beginner, I’d suggest you do online research and take free courses rather than waste money with WA.

Pros and Cons

  • The live chat keeps you in the delusion that you are not alone.
  • An OK course for beginners, but it's wise to exit after 1-3 months and NOT host your website with them.
  • Your writing privileges can be taken away if you post anything even slightly against WA, their courses or their teaching strategy.
  • People are rude when you ask them REAL website questions. Most want to chit-chat and go home.
  • Sets you up for failure and makes you think that something is wrong with you, not them.
Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 35
  • Verified Student 36
  • Review Info 37
2.0/5
November 19, 2022

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

One word describing Wealthy Affiliate: Obsolete!

I’ve been a Wealthy Affiliate member for 8 years. I have published up to 1,000 articles across numerous failed sites by doing Kyle’s ‘Affiliate Bootcamp’ training. However, I still have no full-time income to match the hours and effort I have invested.

The reason(s) why I haven’t succeeded? There are several…

Firstly, I received bad advice at the beginning (i.e. niche selection). I blindly followed other Bootcamp members’ article/review topics, so it became a fierce Google-ranking battle.

Secondly, during tough times (traffic-wise), the WA Bootcamp community said “continue doing more reviews”. My organic traffic never exceeded 40-50 visitors per day with that advice. Currently, my 200+ blog posts on one site generate 20 visits daily (on a good day).

Also, I was recommended to use a bad keyword tool. When I compared Jaaxy to Long Tail Pro, Keyword Finder, and Semrush, I was shocked to discover that Jaaxy’s SEO metrics did not match up. Turns out I’ve been targeting highly competitive articles/reviews for years.

Furthermore, the training is outdated. Kyle has failed to update most of the core training to bring it in line with the strategies of today. Additionally, the WA co-founders fail to do what they preach – building and ranking blogs on Google in 2022.

I couldn’t see it before, but now I’m seeing the cracks in WA.

Yes, there are good tools (except Jaaxy) and the community can be helpful at times. But Kyle and Carson are more focused on “tweaking” WA for user experience when core training should be their #1 priority.

I’m lucky to make $3K/year in commissions promoting Wealthy Affiliate in the affiliate marketing niche. With better alternatives, I’m seriously considering calling it a day as a member and affiliate of WA.

Pros and Cons

  • Good blog builder tool (SiteRubix)
  • Blog startup training
  • Learned something about affiliate marketing
  • Bad advice in numerous areas
  • Some obsolete blogging strategies
  • No focus on advanced strategies (i.e. backlinks), you must join the Premium version for the good stuff
Jay Gumbs
  • Validated Reviewer 38
  • Verified Student 39
  • Review Info 40
4.0/5
November 11, 2022

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

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.
Ralph Lindgren
  • Validated Reviewer 41
  • Review Info 42
1.0/5
November 1, 2022
Earnings 43
way less than expected
Following Training 44
for 6 to 12 months

Wealthy Affiliate is a waste of money

I’ve been paying monthly for 10 months now. The training seems outdated as the content hasn’t been updated in years. I mean, a keyword Chrome extension is better than the keyword tool they suggest.

They also push heavily on you to promote the course and make commissions. If you decide to cancel your WA monthly payments, they will also cancel your commissions. Even if you don’t find any value in the membership, you can’t cancel it because the affiliate commissions are linked to your account.

Moreover, the domains you buy are locked into the platform, so if you cancel your subscription, you also lose your domains. It seems like everything is set up to lock you into their program. You need to stay a member so as not to lose the SEO rankings into which you have put precious time and effort.

The only positive thing is the forums. Although okay, there are a lot of other affiliates who promote the course and cover up any criticism. The majority of blogs and pages that praise WA are owned by these same members.

Overall, if you are new to affiliate marketing or online business, I suggest you avoid Wealthy Affiliate.

Pros and Cons

  • The forum is responsive
  • An MLM style affiliate program.
  • Outdated information
  • No way to transfer domains
more ratings
Implementation 45
harder than expected
Presentation 46
2.0/5
Usefulness 47
2.0/5
Community 48
3.0/5
Support 49
3.0/5
Value For Money 50
1.0/5
Pranali Patel
  • Validated Reviewer 51
  • Review Info 52
3.0/5
September 6, 2022
Earnings 53
more than expected
Following Training 54
for more than 2 years

Blogging Course for Beginners

I have built a successful blog following the training from the Wealthy Affiliate (WA) university. I was a premium member of the WA for 3 years. The carefully laid out lessons on building a successful blog were very helpful for a beginner like me who had no idea about blogging, WordPress, or building websites before purchasing this course.

As a beginner, joining WA was a game changer for me. The support, mentorship, weekly live classes, and accessibility to the like-minded community were very helpful in building a successful online business.

This blogging course provides absolute clarity about every single aspect of creating an online business. However, I did not find WA very helpful for intermediate bloggers like me. They have a Premium plus membership where you have access to live classes, but I did not find it to meet my needs as an intermediate blogger stuck at a certain level of growth plateau.

Pros and Cons

  • Step-by-step lessons on creating a website and content.
  • Affiliate marketing training.
  • Website technical support.
  • Not getting help from experts.
  • Community is great, but it's mostly beginners helping beginners which is not helpful.
more ratings
Implementation 55
about what I expected
Presentation 56
4.0/5
Usefulness 57
4.0/5
Community 58
3.0/5
Support 59
4.0/5
Value For Money 60
4.0/5
David Nelson
  • Validated Reviewer 61
  • Verified Student 62
  • Review Info 63
4.0/5
August 24, 2022

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

Incredible hosting service, okay keyword tool, okay training

My pure honest thoughts about Wealthy Affiliate is that they offer a steal of a deal when it comes to their hosting capabilities. You are getting access to build 10 websites all for the price of $499! You can also get major discounts on their membership at specific times – they usually always provide a major discount on Black Friday.

In addition to the hosting, you get access to a decent keyword tool that they call Jaaxy. Although Semrush and Ahrefs work much better, Jaaxy will get the job done. Still, it doesn’t allow you to see what other websites rank for unless you manually check all of their keywords which can be tiresome.

The core training is okay. It’s geared to getting beginners to take action, so if you have patience, their live weekly classes give a lot of good information on affiliate marketing. I must admit that I don’t have the patience to sit through an hour-long live class.

To be frank, the community is not my favorite aspect. In some cases, it can have that eerie cult atmosphere. There are some pretty cool people in WA, and then there are some of those people who are just way too nice to believe them. Also, the community ranking is based on the volume of contributions (often spam) that lead to ambassador ranking, hence the nickname “spambassador”.

For example, when someone gets indexed on Google, 30 people congratulate them on getting indexed. Getting indexed on Google doesn’t mean much if you aren’t willing to put in hard work and dedication to grow your online business. That means putting up 300+ posts on your website to get that Domain Rank increased, to get that traffic, and get those sales (or ad revenue).

Some people mention that there is a big emphasis on promoting the Wealthy Affiliate program. I disagree with that statement. They do offer an exceptional commission structure for their affiliate program, but they never ask you to slander competition and promote WA directly.

That is simply a writing style that many WA affiliates have developed since we are all free to choose how we run our promotions.

Pros and Cons

  • Easy hosting solution and all-in-one toolkit space for affiliate marketing websites.
  • Live classes are very valuable.
  • Some of the core training is subpar and outdated.
  • Jaaxy is not the most convenient keyword tool.
  • Hard to tell the real experts from the "spambassadors".
Muyivu Shafiq
  • Validated Reviewer 64
  • Review Info 65
4.0/5
May 29, 2022
Earnings 66
more than expected
Following Training 67
for 1 to 6 months

My Wealthy Affiliate Experience Review

Wealthy Affiliate is something I knew about via my big brother back in 2016. Based on what he explained, I loved the idea, and I joined the paid plan after finishing my trial.

I later gave up on Wealthy Affiliate. Not because it seemed unhelpful, but because I couldn’t afford the monthly $49 that was being charged.

During the few months I spent using the platform, I learned and gained a lot from them. I am no longer an active member, but I recommend Wealthy Affiliate for those who need to acquire prolonged practical knowledge and not those looking for an easy way to make money online.

I learned a lot about WordPress using Wealthy Affiliate. I have been using these WordPress skills to sustain a leaving even though I am no longer an active WA member.

Based on the quality of content and live webinars they offered, I am willing to join them again soon to gain more knowledge and access to their keyword research tools, such as Jaaxy and other SEO tools.

Pros and Cons

  • Quality and practical content.
  • Active community.
  • Quick and effective technical support.
  • Perhaps too optimistic an approach. People may think that it's very easy to earn using the platform.
  • Some content is outdated.
  • It is expensive for me.
more ratings
Implementation 68
easier than expected
Presentation 69
5.0/5
Usefulness 70
5.0/5
Community 71
5.0/5
Support 72
5.0/5
Value For Money 73
5.0/5
Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 74
  • Review Info 75
4.0/5
May 8, 2022
Earnings 76
way less than expected
Following Training 77
for 6 to 12 months

Wealthy Affiliate IS Worth Your Time if You're Just Starting Out

My experience with Wealthy Affiliate has been generally positive. The value of what is included in a paid membership is excellent, especially for a beginner.

The community is active, supportive, and helpful. One of the highlights for me has been my ability within the course to ask a question and shortly have someone direct me to an answer. At times, members seem to attempt to take advantage of WA’s community system to boost their “community standing”, but there are some real gems of knowledge on there who are willing to tell it like it is.

Overall, in my experience, I can confidently dismiss claims that WA operates like a cult.

With that said, I have diligently and gradually applied the lessons of the main course. But after 7.5 months I have not made any notable amount of money. Only a few bucks from my efforts so far. I have been increasingly going beyond the main lessons of the course in search of additional and supplemental information (both within and outside WA).

I’m gearing up to go back to the drawing board and reevaluate my options for learning how to take my affiliate website to the next level.

Wealthy Affiliate’s course is a great starting point for beginners to get up and running if you take the plunge and purchase a premium membership. Still, as you gradually gain knowledge and experience, you will find yourself searching for more substance.

If you are considering WA, keep in mind that they may end up as your starting point but not your end-all-be-all.

Pros and Cons

  • Availability of community for answering questions.
  • Easy to search the site for info to fill knowledge gaps.
  • The structure and layout of the main course and the community resources are easy to follow.
  • For a newbie it is hard to tell which information is outdated.
  • Some community interactions can be spammy/shallow.
  • Hit-or-miss success with methods.
more ratings
Implementation 78
about what I expected
Presentation 79
4.0/5
Usefulness 80
4.0/5
Community 81
4.0/5
Support 82
5.0/5
Value For Money 83
4.0/5
Taiwo Williams
  • Validated Reviewer 84
  • Review Info 85
2.0/5
May 3, 2022
Earnings 86
less than expected
Following Training 87
for 1 to 2 years

Disappointed for wasting my time, effort and money

I think when I first started this course, I was pretty excited. The spiel was good, and I think engaging with the other members was advantageous, as I was still finding my feet.

I’m not a newbie to affiliate marketing or having my own .com blog/website, so following along with the lessons was relatively easy.

However, over the couple of years that I was a paying member and doing almost everything that I learned in all of the lessons – even with my niche being a perfect niche to work with and earn some good money – I became stuck, like some stubborn gum under my shoe.

After a while – for me – it became too repetitive in the lessons, and the camaraderie of the members became quite cliquey and somewhat inauthentic. Sure, there were people making bank with their sites, but these were long time affiliate marketers. I felt like a fish swimming upstream after a while.

I looked at what I was spending as my monthly membership subscription fee, and I just cut off my loss. After all, the pandemic had come along, and my household had to tighten its belt.

So I decided to be a member no longer. To be honest, I wasn’t learning what I already knew.

I’m still an affiliate marketer, and I’m now finding lots of great and free content that doesn’t justify my membership anymore.

I still have my blog, and since I have left Wealthy Affiliate, I’ve started making some money. It’s not a lot, but it’s more than I made being a member at WA.

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 ability to access the courses whenever you wanted.
  • The navigation of the site was confusing.
  • The price was too high, as a lot of the content of the lessons can be found free online, or in online courses for half the price.
  • Losing your domain(s) when you decide to leave.
more ratings
Implementation 88
about what I expected
Presentation 89
3.0/5
Usefulness 90
3.0/5
Community 91
3.0/5
Support 92

haven't experienced it yet

Value For Money 93
1.0/5
James Jason
  • Validated Reviewer 94
  • Review Info 95
2.0/5
April 22, 2022
Earnings 96
way less than expected
Following Training 97
for 1 to 2 years

Wealthy Affiliate is not good any more

The concept of the course is really good because it is crafted in a way that even the newest affiliate marketers can grasp the ideas easily. The course material is explained perfectly and is easy to understand. However, that is as far as the good of the course goes.

For someone taking the course in 2022, the information is not applicable anywhere. Well, one can use the info to understand basic affiliate marketing but that is it. I say this as someone who has found success with several affiliate programs and have learned a lot from the process.

I have to give it to the community. It has much newer info than the course itself. This should be an indication to the course creators that they need to update the course and give the learners current info. Sorry to say this but the community part is the only value for money provided in the course.

All the same, I believe the course was good enough some years back and, if updated, it will be one of the most informative affiliate marketing courses. It just needs revamping!

Pros and Cons

  • The material is easy to understand.
  • The community is active and highly informative.
  • The course is explained step by step without any disjoints.
  • The content is outdated.
  • The websites they say will be built within minutes are of poor quality.
  • The promises they make about hefty returns from the course are impossible to achieve.
more ratings
Implementation 98
harder than expected
Presentation 99
4.0/5
Usefulness 100
2.0/5
Community 101
4.0/5
Support 102
3.0/5
Value For Money 103
2.0/5
Cindy Temple
  • Validated Reviewer 104
  • Verified Student 105
  • Review Info 106
4.0/5
February 27, 2022
Earnings 107
about what I expected
Following Training 108
for 6 to 12 months

Great value for the price

I initially started with the free version of WA in 2018 for another business since they offer so many tools built in. I upgraded to premium in 2021 to focus on a new niche project.

Let’s be real: hosting 10 Amazon-level managed WordPress websites (with premium plugins) for 50 bucks a month is unbeatable. The site content, keyword and other tools added in makes this a no-brainer for me.

The core training is pretty basic for affiliate marketing through a blog, but a great place to start and get your site up quickly. Sure it needs updates… WA has been around forever, but they do have new webinars done live weekly with Q&As which are highly relevant for today’s marketing. Beyond that I use other courses to supplement anything more targeted that is needed.

The community is also a valuable feature of the platform. There is no shortage of tips, ideas and resources from other users who have had success with various methods or tools they use. You can search for pretty much any internet marketing topic and find a free training on it that can at least get you started.

This is all packaged conveniently together and very reasonably priced. I can’t imagine what else to expect for $50 a month. And I would never expect a refund since no other web host that I know of would give one either.

In summary: with hosting, tools, training, and community for 50 bucks a month I consider wealthy affiliate an incredible value.

Pros and Cons

  • Hosting and tools included.
  • Community and support.
  • Amazing price.
  • Core training needs more updates.
  • Platform can be distracting.
more ratings
Implementation 109
easier than expected
Presentation 110
4.0/5
Usefulness 111
4.0/5
Community 112
5.0/5
Support 113
5.0/5
Value For Money 114
4.0/5
Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 115
  • Verified Student 116
  • Review Info 117
3.0/5
January 31, 2022
Earnings 118
none, still new to the course
Following Training 119
for 1 to 6 months

Wealthy Affiliates is outdated

I really loved the community they have and the concept behind Wealthy Affiliates but the design of the platform and teachings were somewhat outdated. With a better user interface along with more automation and current practices integrated, I think they could dominate the affiliate marketing niche and take themselves and their members to the next level.

Pros and Cons

  • Community.
  • The general idea of the platform.
  • The potential.
  • User interface.
  • Dated teachings.
more ratings
Implementation 120
about what I expected
Presentation 121
2.0/5
Usefulness 122
3.0/5
Community 123
4.0/5
Support 124

haven't experienced it yet

Value For Money 125
2.0/5
Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 126
  • Review Info 127
2.0/5
January 24, 2022
Earnings 128
way less than expected
Following Training 129
for 6 to 12 months

Wealthy Affiliate Review, Honest Opinion

Honestly, it seems the course and material are outdated and the interface is not up to par.

I tried to follow the lessons for days to set up a site based on one of the template options available… and I couldn’t even get my site name registered on the domain that the video showed it would be on. I followed every single step several times over and nothing. No real answers were given on how to solve the problem. And this was all within the introduction so I could only imagine it getting more inefficient as time went on.

I’ve read reviews and detailed analyses of how WA hasn’t been earning any real money for students via affiliate marketing. Rather, the only students making money are those few who promote Wealthy Affiliate itself. It immediately reminded me of just another Amway/Quixtar deal, where the revenue potential of the business itself has long been outdated and all that’s left is “selling the plan”.

It’s a good thing my instincts are pretty good. Otherwise, I’d be like so many others that tried to make online income through the promises given, just to realize they’ve been working on what appears to be a platform that has been outdated for several years now.

I’m sure WA’s intentions were originally good and they may be nice people. But if the product doesn’t keep up with the times, then it is best to look elsewhere.

Pros and Cons

  • The premise is fine.
  • They seem friendly overall.
  • A decent introduction to what affiliate marketing is.
  • Vague explanations of things.
  • Outdated websites to work with; seemed like they were created simply for image but not application.
  • Heavy MLM vibes.
more ratings
Implementation 130
harder than expected
Presentation 131
3.0/5
Usefulness 132
2.0/5
Community 133
2.0/5
Support 134
2.0/5
Value For Money 135
2.0/5
Jill Acaro
  • Validated Reviewer 136
  • Review Info 137
3.0/5
January 11, 2022
Earnings 138
none, still new to the course
Following Training 139
for 1 to 6 months

It Takes Time, Effort, and Money

I have been a premium member in WA for four months. I am computer savvy and a fan of technology, a 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.

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 sometimes answers and sometimes you have to remind him to answer. His username does not correspond with the name he signs with. They all plug the premium membership from the get-go. And then there is another higher level (Premium Plus) which they begin to recommend once you are a premium member. My first question to him was if I should follow or take into account anything special since I had already created multiple WordPress websites. I never really got a clear answer. Since I have a webmaster who set up and is managing the sites for me, I decided to push on with it.

At the beginning of the course, they explain keywords and content set-up for 1000-word posts. You have a lesson to critique others’ posts which I tried and was dismayed by the level. I decided to skip other people’s critiques of my content since I lacked confidence in their opinions.

My tutor told me that, with the premium membership, I could move my domains and house my websites on their platform. Every comment or question is an opportunity to make money for WA. It’s a lesson, and maybe valid, but I don’t happen to think that way. I personally hate high-pressure selling and pitching. I prefer to offer value and help my clients with something they need, that is so obvious they cannot turn it down. 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 Covid in its sixth mutation and the revolutionary changes in numbers and competition on the internet, all the out-of-date WA features noted by others must have increased. As an example, the keywords lesson is for people that are total beginners. This is good because I needed it, but I followed the lesson exactly. Twice I watched the video and read the text. Keywords are important because they tell search engines about the content of your webpage. You had better have this lesson clear or nothing of what follows is going to work because no one will see your posts. Initially, I spent 2 hours trying to get 5 keywords unsuccessfully in my niche using their criteria. It takes time to get the hang of it and a lot of practice and failing. So, I was demotivated and took a rest from the course. I got tired and frustrated and wrote my tutor but he answered to disregard that lesson! I feel that with 2 years of Covid, the competition is over-the-moon and maybe tweaking their keyword lesson would be a good idea. I did compare it with YouTube videos explaining keywords and it is more or less the same, which led me to think that keywords are a question of practice.

Furthermore, there is a lot of extra material in the course which complements the program (it’s rather mind-boggling). In keywords, there is an extra blog by the founder explaining another method that can be done with Google for free. WA’s method is based on using their paid software, Jaaxy. So, if you unsubscribe, you had better have another tool in mind for keywords.

3. My last thought is that with the amount of unstructured material, the student, first of all, needs some information about study methods according to their experience. 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 you have questions, you are advised to present them to the community at the end of each lesson. I tried that, but no one responded. Also, you have your tutor and big FAQ sections that they link to, which I couldn’t access. I wrote asking how to access it, but no one answered. So there are some growing pains that you expose yourself to when you sign up. It is a vast course with a lot of material. I’m not sure if I will continue but, for the moment, I’m there on the lesson teaching how to insert and prepare photos in your posts for SEO. It hasn’t begun to talk about the actual affiliate marketing part yet.

Pros and Cons

  • Covers the bases.
  • Support network.
  • Extra material.
  • Constant pitching.
  • Material can be overwhelming.
  • Requires a lot of practice to master.
more ratings
Implementation 140
harder than expected
Presentation 141
4.0/5
Usefulness 142
4.0/5
Community 143
3.0/5
Support 144
3.0/5
Value For Money 145
3.0/5
Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 146
  • Verified Student 147
  • Review Info 148
3.0/5
January 9, 2022
Earnings 149
less than expected
Following Training 150
for 1 to 2 years

My Wealthy Affiliate Review 2022

After my experience with the training at Wealthy Affiliate, I would not recommend the program anymore. So I would like to update my old review now.

The creators are legit but the program is so outdated that trying to implement the ideas was difficult on more current advertising platforms. WA does have an amazing support system and does provide more current training videos outside of the basic one, but finding specifically what you’re looking for can be difficult.

Pros and Cons

  • Community.
  • Creators are legit and very friendly.
  • Extra training videos that come with membership.
  • Outdated.
  • No refund policy.
  • Only positive reviews are accepted on the comment platform.
more ratings
Implementation 151
harder than expected
Presentation 152
3.0/5
Usefulness 153
3.0/5
Community 154
5.0/5
Support 155
4.0/5
Value For Money 156
3.0/5
Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 157
  • Review Info 158
1.0/5
December 3, 2021
Earnings 159
way less than expected
Following Training 160
for 1 to 6 months

Wealthy Affiliate Review

I joined WA after I saw a member of their community discussing it online. The platform initially seemed promising given the extensive community aspect and the variety of different tools and instructional videos offered to get you up and running.

As time went on I realised that not only was much of the information either outdated or readily available via a light browse on YouTube, but also that anything I developed on WA had to remain on their platform.

This I found to be very restrictive. Combine that with the fact they weren’t even giving relevant instruction pertaining to the current state of digital marketing, I was fairly annoyed as my initial impression of WA was quite good.

I then went deeper into the WA reviews written online. I quickly realised that much of the positives written about the program came from members of the community. I saw very little if anyone having much success or actually making any money. The sole focus seemed to be chatting with one another and promoting WA online.

As a whole WA seems to be a program/community that may at one time had validity and provided value. But they have failed through lack of effort to adapt and change with the times. They are instead choosing to double down on building a community which does not foster tangible results, and restricting members from building anything worthwhile independent of the WA platform.

Pros and Cons

  • n/a
  • The course material.
  • Structure.
  • Lack of tangible results or success from anyone in the community.
more ratings
Implementation 161
easier than expected
Presentation 162
3.0/5
Usefulness 163
1.0/5
Community 164
2.0/5
Support 165

haven't experienced it yet

Value For Money 166
1.0/5
Ray Charles
  • Validated Reviewer 167
  • Review Info 168
2.0/5
October 28, 2021
Earnings 169
less than expected
Following Training 170
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.
more ratings
Implementation 171
harder than expected
Presentation 172
4.0/5
Usefulness 173
2.0/5
Community 174
5.0/5
Support 175
3.0/5
Value For Money 176
2.0/5
Julius L
  • Validated Reviewer 177
  • Review Info 178
5.0/5
October 23, 2021

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

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
  • Validated Reviewer 179
  • Review Info 180
2.0/5
October 20, 2021
Earnings 181
less than expected
Following Training 182
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.
more ratings
Implementation 183
about what I expected
Presentation 184
3.0/5
Usefulness 185
3.0/5
Community 186
5.0/5
Support 187
4.0/5
Value For Money 188
3.0/5
Chris Brown
  • Validated Reviewer 189
  • Review Info 190
1.0/5
September 29, 2021
Earnings 191
way less than expected
Following Training 192
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.
more ratings
Implementation 193
harder than expected
Presentation 194
3.0/5
Usefulness 195
2.0/5
Community 196
5.0/5
Support 197
3.0/5
Value For Money 198
2.0/5
Goodell David
  • Validated Reviewer 199
  • Review Info 200
2.0/5
September 29, 2021
Earnings 201
way less than expected
Following Training 202
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.
more ratings
Implementation 203
harder than expected
Presentation 204
4.0/5
Usefulness 205
2.0/5
Community 206
4.0/5
Support 207
3.0/5
Value For Money 208
2.0/5
Jonas Rasmussen
  • Validated Reviewer 209
  • Review Info 210
2.0/5
September 29, 2021
Earnings 211
way less than expected
Following Training 212
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.
more ratings
Implementation 213
harder than expected
Presentation 214
2.0/5
Usefulness 215
2.0/5
Community 216
2.0/5
Support 217
2.0/5
Value For Money 218
2.0/5
Gerrid Smith
  • Validated Reviewer 219
  • Review Info 220
3.0/5
September 27, 2021
Earnings 221
less than expected
Following Training 222
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.
more ratings
Implementation 223
about what I expected
Presentation 224
3.0/5
Usefulness 225
4.0/5
Community 226
4.0/5
Support 227
4.0/5
Value For Money 228
3.0/5
Mia Green
  • Validated Reviewer 229
  • Review Info 230
4.0/5
September 27, 2021
Earnings 231
less than expected
Following Training 232
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.
more ratings
Implementation 233
about what I expected
Presentation 234
4.0/5
Usefulness 235
3.0/5
Community 236
2.0/5
Support 237
3.0/5
Value For Money 238
3.0/5
Thomas Brown
  • Validated Reviewer 239
  • Review Info 240
3.0/5
September 21, 2021
Earnings 241
less than expected
Following Training 242
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.
more ratings
Implementation 243
harder than expected
Presentation 244
3.0/5
Usefulness 245
4.0/5
Community 246
4.0/5
Support 247
2.0/5
Value For Money 248
3.0/5
Jamie Hickey
  • Validated Reviewer 249
  • Review Info 250
5.0/5
September 17, 2021
Earnings 251
more than expected
Following Training 252
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.
more ratings
Implementation 253
easier than expected
Presentation 254
4.0/5
Usefulness 255
5.0/5
Community 256
5.0/5
Support 257
4.0/5
Value For Money 258
5.0/5
Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 259
  • Verified Student 260
  • Review Info 261
3.0/5
September 16, 2021

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

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.
  • n/a
Boryana Stefanova
  • Validated Reviewer 262
  • Verified Student 263
  • Review Info 264
4.0/5
September 16, 2021

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

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.
Simon Crowe
  • Validated Reviewer 265
  • Verified Student 266
  • Review Info 267
5.0/5
September 16, 2021

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

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
  • Validated Reviewer 268
  • Review Info 269
3.0/5
September 6, 2021

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

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
  • Validated Reviewer 270
  • Review Info 271
1.0/5
August 28, 2021
Earnings 272
less than expected
Following Training 273
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.
more ratings
Implementation 274
easier than expected
Presentation 275
3.0/5
Usefulness 276
2.0/5
Community 277

haven't experienced it yet

Support 278

haven't experienced it yet

Value For Money 279
2.0/5
Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 280
  • Review Info 281
3.0/5
August 27, 2021
Earnings 282
way less than expected
Following Training 283
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.
more ratings
Implementation 284
harder than expected
Presentation 285
4.0/5
Usefulness 286
3.0/5
Community 287
5.0/5
Support 288
5.0/5
Value For Money 289
3.0/5
Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 290
  • Review Info 291
1.0/5
August 22, 2021
Earnings 292
less than expected
Following Training 293
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

  • n/a
  • Customer service.
  • Training material.
more ratings
Implementation 294
about what I expected
Presentation 295
2.0/5
Usefulness 296
2.0/5
Community 297
3.0/5
Support 298
2.0/5
Value For Money 299
1.0/5
Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 300
  • Review Info 301
1.0/5
August 20, 2021
Earnings 302
way less than expected
Following Training 303
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.
more ratings
Implementation 304
harder than expected
Presentation 305
2.0/5
Usefulness 306
1.0/5
Community 307
4.0/5
Support 308
2.0/5
Value For Money 309
1.0/5
Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 310
  • Review Info 311
3.0/5
August 19, 2021
Earnings 312
way less than expected
Following Training 313
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.
more ratings
Implementation 314
about what I expected
Presentation 315
2.0/5
Usefulness 316
2.0/5
Community 317
2.0/5
Support 318
1.0/5
Value For Money 319
2.0/5
Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 320
  • Verified Student 321
  • Review Info 322
2.0/5
August 13, 2021
Earnings 323
less than expected
Following Training 324
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.
more ratings
Implementation 325
harder than expected
Presentation 326
4.0/5
Usefulness 327

too early to tell

Community 328
3.0/5
Support 329
3.0/5
Value For Money 330

too early to tell

Validated Reviewer
  • Validated Reviewer 331
  • Verified Student 332
  • Review Info 333
1.0/5
August 12, 2021
Earnings 334
way less than expected
Following Training 335
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.
more ratings
Implementation 336
harder than expected
Presentation 337
2.0/5
Usefulness 338
2.0/5
Community 339
1.0/5
Support 340

haven't experienced it yet

Value For Money 341
1.0/5
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