Is Wealthy Affiliate a Scam? – My Personal Experience)

Is Wealthy Affiliate a scam? Today I am going to show you what exactly is Wealthy Affiliate.

Again this will be a very in-depth analysis that will help you to understand the Wealthy Affiliate platform and what you will learn as a member.

Of course, if you are interested in learning how to make money online with affiliate marketing and earning affiliate commissions.

I have also written a Wealthy Affiliate review, Wealthy Affiliate Case Study and answered some other questions such as:

• Is Wealthy Affiliate a Pyramid Scheme or Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)?
• Is Wealthy Affiliate Safe and Legitimate?

You will need to read all of those articles to help you make informed decisions.

 With a quick search on Google about “How To Make Money Online” you will get over 4 530 000 000 search results.

With such results, you are completely lost in terms of finding legit programs and the right systems that work to make decent money online.

They are many shiny objects on the internet that promise people the world.

Other programs pay a penny to complete online surveys and other micro-jobs.

It is hard in the online world and scammers are watching you too.

Some people have tried all the programs, lose some money and waste a lot of time until they find the right program that actually works.

It is like kissing all the frogs until you find your prince charming (the right program or system).

Probably you have kissed some frogs and now you are wondering if Wealthy Affiliate is the next one that might turn into your prince charming.

Let’s find out together…

What does Wealthy Affiliate teach?

The main purpose of Wealthy Affiliate is to teach it is students how to build a blog-style website and start earning affiliate commissions.

Wealthy Affiliate will teach you how to build a blog-style niche website in 4 simple steps.

They teach how to find Low-Hanging Fruit Keywords that will help to rank your website fast on search engines and generate free traffic.

This is how Wealthy Affiliate Teaches:

Once you have picked your niche. You will need to write helpful content that attracts really people to your website.

In short Wealthy Affiliate will teach you how to rank your affiliate websites with White Hat SEO and start earning affiliate commissions.

White Hat SEO is a Google-approved SEO strategy that you can implement to rank your website on the Search Engine and get organic traffic.

My reason for writing this article

The reason for writing this article is not to sell you the Wealthy Affiliate membership. It is for educational purposes.

I realised that most of the Wealthy Affiliate reviews you find on the internet are misleading.

There are 2 types of Wealthy Affiliate reviews you will find on the internet:

• Positive Wealthy Affiliate Reviews and
• Negative Wealthy Affiliate Reviews

But most of them have been written by people with a dollar sign in their eyes and I will explain why.

Positive Wealthy Affiliate Reviews

Almost the positive Wealthy Affiliate reviews you will find on the internet are mostly from Wealthy Affiliate members.

The point is to show you how the platform work and what you will get within the training with the intention to sign you up for the membership.

Of course, if you are interested in the affiliate marketing business.

The good thing is Wealthy Affiliate offers free membership to check out the program and gives you free tools to practice what you are learning.

Then you will decide if Affiliate Marketing is a good business model for you.

Therefore, if you like the training and the platform you can upgrade your membership for only $49 per month.

Then if you sign up through my affiliate link or anyone who refers you to a Wealthy Affiliate the person will earn $23.5 commission without any additional cost to you.

The membership includes:

• All Levels of Affiliate Marketing Training
• Website Builder
• Website Hosting
• Keyword Search Tool
• Unlimited Support

You will need those tools if you are serious about starting your online business.

Negative Wealthy Affiliate Reviews

All the negative Wealthy Affiliate reviews you will find on the internet are mostly for people who are promoting other programs.

They are looking for loopholes to promote their programs and mostly Authority Hacker or Affiliate Lab.

Let me show you how much those programs will course you and why those affiliates are promoting them

Authority Hacker

Authority Hacker cost $997 for lifetime access and they do not offer any free trials.

You will have to rely on their 30-day money-back guarantee if you do not like the training.

Therefore, Authority Hacker does not offer any tools. You will need these tools below:

• SiteGround (web hosting) – $3.99 per month
• Domain name – $16 per year
• Ahrefs (Keyword Search Tool – $99 per month (7 days free trial)

This will be your monthly expense. Even if you request your refund you can not recover $118.99 for tools

Affiliate Lab

Affiliate Lab cost $997 for lifetime access no free trial and no refund. They do not offer any tools.

You will also need those tools:

• Web hosting – $2.95 per month from Bluehost
• Domain name – $15.99 per year
• Keyword Tool – $99 per month
• Surf SEO – $49 per month
• Other WordPress plugins to help your website run fast $50 per month

Those are monthly expenses.

Therefore, Authority Hacker and Affiliate Lab pay up to $500 commission to their affiliates.

I hope you understand why there are some negative Wealthy Affiliate reviews. The point is to sell you those High Ticket Affiliate Programs.

I bet if Wealthy Affiliate was paying the same rate of commission many of those affiliates will promote it.

Now that you understand how the industry can be a little unethical.

Let’s talk about what you will get as a Wealthy Affiliate member.

First, let me introduce myself

I am Franck Chanda originally from DRC (Congo) in the Central-Western of Africa and I am a French speaker.

Therefore, if you find any spelling errors in this article you just need to understand. Lol

 I am currently living in South Africa.

I have a degree in Industrial Engineering and I did my 2 years of internship after graduating. Since my internship, I never get any job.

I am living in a foreign country and I have bills to pay. I ended up doing Uber Eats just for me to survive. 

I was tired of Uber Eat and all the race rats of delivering food and trading my time for money.

I started searching “How To Make Money Online“.

I was one of the luckiest who did not fall into scams. I kissed the right frog at once. Lol

Unlike other people, they fall into scams before they find a legit program.

I joined Wealthy Affiliate in May 2018 and quit 3 months late.

I was expecting overnight success as most people do when they are looking for a quick solution.

Plus the $49.00 membership was a lot for me.

Remember I am staying in Africa $49.00 is a lot of money.

But I did the math Wealthy Affiliate Premium membership cost only $1.63 per day.

I do spend more than that in a day.

I had to make a tough decision.

Whether I continue delivering food with Uber Eat for the rest of my life or continue looking for an Industrial Engineering job and compete with millions of candidates. 

I had to cut unnecessary things and put Wealthy Affiliate Membership in my budget.

In December 2018 I resubscribed as Premium Member from 2019 to 2020 when I decided to show my Wealthy Affiliate experience below are my earnings.

Wealthy Affiliate training works and it will work for you too. But it needs a serious commitment and investment in long-term success.

I also have another website that is bringing me $1,500 to $2,000 per month with free traffic.

I have learned how to design a website as a complete beginner, write content that generates free traffic and earn affiliate commissions inside that wealthy affiliate platform.

You can drive-test the training for free and judge it by yourself.

There is nothing to lose.

It won’t cost you any penny and you do not have to provide a credit card.

You have to put in mind that some of the Negative Wealthy Affiliate Reviews, you find on the internet only focus on loopholes of the platform.

I would be lying if I say Wealthy Affiliate Training is perfect. But it is among the best Internet and Affiliate Marketing Training in the world.

When it comes to the affordability and the tools that you get as a member. Wealthy Affiliate is the best.

You have to put in mind there is no perfect company.  iPhone, Uber and Microsoft also receive negative reviews, it is normal we have different expectations.

But if you look closely as I explained before.

Those negative Wealthy Affiliate Reviews are referring you to High Ticket Affiliate courses that will cost you a whopping $1000 or more.

Can I also include some upsell and tools?

Do your due diligence.

They are a lot of people out who will try to convince you that Wealthy Affiliate is not for you.

They are very good at that and they can even try to convince you that 6 is 9. 

They see Wealthy Affiliate training from a different perspective or a high commission rate blindsided them.

When you look at their websites they are doing exactly what Wealthy Affiliate is teaching.

Then you will understand they are on the mission of making money not helping people.

It is a bit unethical in this industry…

With Wealthy Affiliate, you can not make a commission until your referral decides to upgrade their membership.

Unlike other Internet and Affiliate Training.

You need to pay upfront before you get your hand on the training.

WealthyAffiliate.com is very confident with what they are teaching and you can start for free and get your free website to kick start your online business. 

Anyway, With today’s technology and the fast internet, you can find almost everything for free.

So there is no need to spend a whopping $1000 on an online course.

By way, I use Wealthy Affiliate not just for the training. As Premium Member you have absolutely everything you need to start a successful business online.

• Keyword Research
• Web Hosting
• Site Builder
• Support and the community 
• 1-on-1 coaching

You are in essence getting a $40,000 education, for $19 the first month and then $49 thereafter. That is what makes Wealthy Affiliate a beast in this industry and more popular.

If you want everything in one place and to run your online business with fewer hustlers then Wealthy Affiliate is what you need.

Is Wealthy Affiliate Training for Everyone?

No! This is not a size fits all. I know what I am talking about. Let’s see if Wealthy Affiliate is for you or not!

Wealthy Affiliate Training IS NOT For You If:

• You are looking for a “get-rich-quick-scheme” or a “push-button” to riches.
• You are a quitter and you give up if you face the first setback.
• You are not willing to take any action.
• You can not commit or invest in the long-term success

Wealthy Affiliate Training Is For You If:

• You are looking for a reliable and 100% legitimate way to make money online and build a stream of income
• You are willing to put in the effort and take action
• You want to achieve financial freedom
• You want to make some extra money full-time or part-time
• You are tired of your current job and you want more out of life
• You want to have the freedom to make money online, work whenever you want and travel wherever you want
• You can follow simple steps and guidance
• You want real support from real people to make money online

I believe you understand now that this training is not for everyone.

It is only for those who can commit to making REAL money online and changing their financial situation

Wealthy Affiliate Work Training

Wealthy Affiliate teaches people the skills needed to start making money online as an Affiliate and Internet Marketer.

There are two main courses that you will learn as a Member of Wealthy Affiliate which are:

1. Online Entrepreneur Certification
2. Affiliate Bootcamp

1. Online Entrepreneur Certificate

This training has 5 courses and 50 modules. It includes video and text that will walk you through the process of creating your NICHE website and start making money online.

Introduction ( Getting Started) – Level 1

 In this module you will learn:

1. Create and start working towards a list of new financial and non-financial goals
2. Choose your starting point NICHE for your business
3. Learn how to optimize your website using WordPress
4. How to create quality website content
5. Quickly and easy creation of your own low competition keyword lists
6. Discover the process of earning revenue online
7. Gain instant access to over 590,000 niches
8. Build your very OWN niche website
9. A simple and free way of making your site search engine friendly
10. Understanding the keyword research process

This module can also help you to earn money offline by helping people with Web design while you trying to figure out how to make money online.

As Starter Membership, you will have access to level 1 only

Getting Traffic (Visitor) – Level 2

Below is what you will learn in this module:

1. Understanding the Principles of Website Traffic
2. Choosing a Domain That is Ready for Success
3. Setting Up Your Domain Specific Email Address
4. Creating Content That Converts
5. Making Your Content Beautifully Engaging
6. Getting Loads of Traffic From Product Reviews
7. Transferring Your Website to Your Domain
8. Building an Experience That is User Based
9. Getting Unlimited Traffic from Low Hanging Fruit
10. Become Proficient Using the WordPress Editor

Without Traffic (Visitors) you do not have a business and you can help local businesses to increase traffic to their websites and get paid.

Do not leave money on the table create a stream of income online and offline.

Making Money – Level 3

Below is what you will learn in this module:

1. Fully comprehend the “Customer Purchase Lifecycle” process
2. Understand the benefits of affiliate networks
3. Understanding the NUMBERS associated with a lucrative business in the online world
4. Where to gain instant access to promote MILLIONS of products within every niche imaginable
5. Monetizing product reviews on your website
6. How to benefit from Google Adsense on your site
7. Understanding the difference between earning big commissions or working for pennies on your site
8. A tricky advertising technique that very few people know about
9. How to earn money through affiliate programs in your niche
10. How to effectively incorporate affiliate links into your content
11. Leveraging affiliate promo materials (images & banners)
12. How to add “shopping” widgets to your website
13. How to get INSTANT access to product news within your industry
14. Using publishing network alternatives to your advantage
15. Earning revenue through singular product reviews

Mastering Social Engagement – Level 4

Below is what you will learn in this module:

1. What Does Social Marketing Mean to Your Business
2. Making Your Website a Place to Engage
3. How to Become a Facebook Powerhouse
4. Using Visuals to Attract a Following
5. How the Twittersphere Works and How YOU Can Benefit
6. Leveraging Google
7. Making ALL of your Activities Online Social by Nature
8. Easy, Simple and Effective Ways to Earn Through Sharing
9. How and When to go into “Share Only” Mode
10. Why Social Engagement is More Important than Social Marketing
11. How to Amplify the Sharability of ANY Content That You Create
12. Understanding Facebook EdgeRank
13. Using Pinterest to Explode Your Campaigns
14. How to Compose an Effective Tweet
15. Implementing Google Authorship to add to Your Credibility, Brand, and Click-through
16. How to Earn Consistent Revenue by Socializing at Wealthy Affiliate
17. When it is RIGHT and WRONG to use a Social Medium
18. Setting Yourself Up for a Lifetime of Social Engagement and Success!

This module alone can help you start your Digital Marketing Agency and Help local people with Social Media Marketing.

Therefore, if you want in-depth training and to start your Digital Marketing Agency you can try Digital Course Secrets by Kevin David

Achieving Maximum Success Through Content Creation – Level 5

Below is what you will learn in this module:

1. Creating Content With the Intent to Sell
2. Create a publish a new review utilising a “call to action”
3. Injecting Comments With Intent
4. Create one new post targeting a new keyword

This module can help you to be a freelancer on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork and start generating income as a content creator while you work on your website.

2. Affiliate Bootcamp

This training has 7 phases and 70 lessons. The entire training will teach you how to create your own website and start promoting Wealthy Affiliate and earn recurring commissions.

Introduction to Wealthy Affiliate Bootcamp – Phase 1

Below is what you will learn in this module:

1. Understand the WA Affiliate Program Opportunity
2. Learn How You Can Make It To Wealthy Affiliate Conference in Vegas.
3. Finding and Creating a Successful “Authority” Style Domain
4. How to Set and Reach Extraordinary Affiliate Goals
5. How to Share Content Within Wealthy Affiliate and Earn
6. Creating a Massively Successful WA Affiliate Campaign

WA Affiliate Bootcamp – Content, Keywords and Conversions – Phase 2

Below is what you will learn in this module:

1. How to Make Your Content a Wonderful Reader Experience
2. Mastering Conversions Through Your Content Flow
3. Properly Using Affiliate Links so Everyone Benefits
4. The 6 Rules to Creating Quality Content
5. How to Avoid the Biggest Visual Mistakes on Your Website
6. Maximizing Your Profits By Leveraging Products That You Are NOT Promoting

WA Affiliate Bootcamp – Giving Your Site Social Value – Phase 3

Below is what you will learn in this module:

1. How to Add Social Plugins to Your Website
2. What Social Networks You Need to Use and Which Ones to Avoid
3. Effective Sharing Techniques
4. The Financial Benefit to Contributing to WA
5. The True Benefits of Going “Social”
6. How to Write Socially Engaging Content
7. Creating a Website That is Socially Friendly With Google

WA Affiliate Bootcamp – Get Visual, Get Aesthetic and Get a Brand Through Media – Phase 4

Below is what you will learn in this module:

1. How to Create a Pinterest Account
2. How To Create a new blog post and “pin it”
3. How To Create at Least 5 More Pins & Organize Them Into Appropriate Categories

WA Affiliate Bootcamp – Knowing Your Audiences & Catapulting Your Referrals – Phase 5

Below is what you will learn in this module:

1. How to Write With Intent
2. A Community Commenting Project
3. How to Get Your Comments to Convert
4. Harnessing the Power of Youtube
5. Amplifying Your Conversions Through Subtle Content Additions
6. The Best Way to Share to Encourage Engagement
7. Blasting Traffic Using Video

WA Affiliate Bootcamp – Bing, Yahoo, & The Power of PPC – Phase 6

Below is what you will learn in this module:

1. An Introduction to PPC on Bing Ads
2. Letting Bing Know How to Find Your Pages
3. How to Create a Quality, High CTR Ad Group
4. Refining Your Campaigns for Maximal Conversion Rates
5. To Direct Link or Not to Direct Link
6. Spying on Your Competition For Your Benefit
7. How to Submit Your Website to Bing
8. Creating a BingAds Account
9. Tracking Free & Premium Referrals Through PPC
10. Using Hidden Pages
11. How to Properly Leverage the Content Network

WA Affiliate Bootcamp – How to Scale Successful PPC Campaigns – Phase 7

Below is what you will learn in this module:

1. Properly Creating and Setting up a Google Adwords Account
2. How to Set-up Google Conversion Tracking
3. Creating High CTR (Click Through Ratio) Ads
4. Maximizing Review Pages With PPC
5. Using Comparison Tables to Maximize Conversions
6. To Direct Link or Not to Direct Link
7. Creating Long Term PPC Success
8. Understanding How to Create Relevant PPC Specific Page
9. Setting Up High-Quality Score Ad Groups
10. Managing PPC Prices for Maximum Benefits
11. How to Get Google Adwords Support When You Need It
12. The Relevance of Checkbox Strategy
13. Maximizing Your Profits By Understanding the PPC Math

What Members are saying about WA Training

They are many things you need to know about the Wealthy Affiliate Training below are included a few comments for the WA Member.

Other Wealthy Affiliate Comments…

Wealthy Affiliate Tools and Features

Like I said before what makes Wealthy Affiliate popular and stand out is not about the affiliate training is the tools and the community.

Site Builder

Let’s face it whenever you want to start your online business you will need a website and WA offer fast web hosting.

Site speed is one of the facts that Google consider when it comes to Website ranking.

Below is what you will get as a member of Wealthy Affiliate

Weekly Webinar

As a Premium Member, you will have access to the weekly webinar with Jay which will help you to scale up your business.

The webinar helps me to improve my SEO skills and my Local SEO as I am always looking to build a stream of income whether online or offline.

Jaaxy (Keyword Tool)

When it comes to keyword research I use Jaaxy it helps me to find low-competition keywords that people are searching in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing for my website ranking.

Jaaxy is the Keyword Tool that you can have as a member of Wealthy Affiliate.

Therefore, if you find my review on Google or other search engines It is because of Jaaxy.

It helps me to analyse my competition and how to outrank them.

Affiliate Program Search

You will also find Affiliate Program Search in the platform this will help you to find products to promote in absolutely any NICHE.

Live Chat

Live Chat is where you can interact with other members and ask questions if you need help. The Live Chat is more Like Facebook Messager

Help Center

The Help Center is where you can request help if you have issues with your website or other technical support.

You can also send a private message to other members of the community and more.

The screenshot below says it in a million ways.

Wealthy Affiliate Community.

The WA Community is very engaging and helpful when you need help that is what make wealthy affiliate a beast in this industry.

The best part of the community is Kyle and Carson are also engaging in the community and you can also talk to other successful members for advice.

Why You Should Join Wealthy Affiliate?

If you are someone with passion, a hard worker and you are tired of your 9 to 5 job and you want to make money in the comfort of your home without a damn boss.

Wealthy Affiliate is the right platform for you.

The truth is most Wealthy Affiliate members focus on building a brand with Affiliate and Internet Marketing.

What they are not aware of is the skills that you learn on the platform can help you make some extra income even offline.

You can provide essential services to Locate a Business and even become a freelancer. Do not leave money on the table.

• You can make money as a Freelancer with Fiverr and Upwork
• Help Local Clients with Web Design, Company Profiles. Local SEO and Marketing Compagn
• Content Marketing
• copywriting
• Video Animation

How Much Can I Earn with a Wealthy Affiliate

Wealthy Affiliate’s primary objective is to teach it is a member how to make money with the internet by following their passion.

You will learn how to choose your Niche, How to do your Keyword Research and how to build a revenue website and earn commissions from a different product.

That is not all the platforms make sure that you have the best service and tool that can help you to scale up your online business.

Therefore, if you are interested in the MMO ( make money online) niche you can promote Wealthy Affiliate and earn commissions for everyone you refer to the platform.

Below is how much you might earn with the Wealthy Affiliate Affiliate Program

Do not expect to earn this amount with little to no work. Making money online needs extra hard work and focus.

Therefore, if you need money right away this platform is not for you and what you need right now is a job that will reward your work.

If you are tired of living paycheck to paycheck and you want to make money from anywhere in the world without a damn boss this platform is for you.

Wealthy Affiliate Complaint

Unnecessary Post

The Wealthy Affiliate platform is been designed as a social network you can find a lot of unnecessary posts from other members that can distract you from building your business.

However, there is a lot of motivational posts and successful post from Wealthy Affiliate member. My advice to the member please post something worth sharing and focus on your business.

Overnight success

Making money online takes time if you are looking for Overnight success this platform is not for you and the business model.

Wealthy Affiliate training teaches members how to get organic traffic and this takes time and Google does not trust a new website.

It will take a bit of time to start seeing decent traffic (visitors) to your website.

Therefore, if you follow the training and work toward your goals you will need to expect to see money within 3 months or 6 months

All this depends on your hard work, the competition in the niche you choose and the demand of the market.

To be honest, most people join the platform with high expectations which is why 90% of new members quit in less than 3 months.

Making money online needs hard work, consistency and determination. If you want to make money right away then Wealthy Affiliate is not for you.

The benefit of Wealthy Affiliate Training

Wealthy Affiliate training opens up your mind to entrepreneurship and it will help you to build a stream of income online.

I am making money online and offline. Can simply use canva.com and design my local client Company Profile and make quick bucks.

Yes, Canva is free. But without the Wealthy Affiliate training would not know it and there are a lot of free tools that you can find in the training.

So far I have learned:

• To Make money with the Internet
• Blogging
• Web design
• Online Advertising
• SEO

Besides making money online with these skills you can make some extra income by helping local businesses as a consultant.

Is Wealthy Affiliate a scam – Final Verdict

Wealthy Affiliate is an online platform and community for Internet and Affiliate Marketers, the platform was around since 2005.

I have seen platforms like this before but most of them have a short lifespan. Others always rebrand their name to run away from negative reviews like AWOL Academy

Now it is called Fullstaq marketer

Some have been showdown by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) for Example M.O.B.E (My Online Business Education)

Wealthy Affiliate is still in operation until now.

Therefore, Wealthy Affiliate is a legit platform that teaches people how to make money online with Affiliate marketing.

You can join Wealthy Affiliate for free, unlike other programs that are bound with the 30 money-back guarantees and to get your money back is quite a hustle.

If you are an existing member or ex-member of Wealthy Affiliate please share your experience whether good or bad it does not matter as long as it helps my reader to make an informed decision.

Thank you for your support!!!