Interested in learning how to make money at Wealthy Affiliate? Ever dreamed of having your own blog, website, or YouTube channel earn real revenue and become a real business you can call your own? This Wealthy Affiliate Review is going to show you how.
UPDATE: There is a much more current version of this Wealthy Affiliate review right here. With all new pricing and features, WA is still my top recommendation!
How to Make Money at Wealthy Affiliate
Through Wealthy Affiliate’s step by step affiliate marketing training, you’ll learn how to make money by monetizing your very own niche websites, how to grow and monetize your social media like YouTube, Instagram, and more. You can also take part in Wealthy Affiliate’s own affiliate program for massive returns.
I’m going to show you how simple, but straightforward training can take you from affiliate marketing newbie to affiliate marketing expert much quicker than you think. No background in building websites? Don’t know what affiliate marketing is?
In January of 2017, I was in the exact same boat. Yet, after a few short months of taking in Wealthy Affiliate’s training, following the step by step lessons, building as I learned, I had a legit affiliate marketing website I could call my own.
And it was earning real money.
Here’s the most important thing to know before you go any further: Wealthy Affiliate is not a get rich quick scheme. It’s not some “done for you” system you just plug into and do no work. This is not network marketing or MLM. This is straightforward affiliate marketing training, and while I can’t promise your results, I can show you what’s possible by sharing mine.
Training That Delivers!
• Turn your own website into revenue
• Step by step training, tools, & support
• Get me as your support coach
What is Affiliate Marketing and How Does it Work?
Affiliate marketing is the business of connecting people with the products and services they’re already looking for online. It’s a multi billion dollar per year industry and always growing.
Bloggers & YouTubers use affiliate marketing all the time to turn their blogs, websites, and YouTube channels into revenue! Ever wonder why they make those reviews? Affiliate marketing!
You don’t need products or services of your own to be successful in affiliate marketing. If you do happen to have your own stuff you’d like to sell, like photography, or software, or sports memorabilia, it works for that too.
But let’s make one thing clear: You can make full time revenue simply by connecting people with what they’re already looking for online through affiliate marketing!
Just like the graphic shows above, by partnering with trusted merchants and sending traffic their way, you’ll earn commission percentages over and over again with each sale. And when you’re trained on how to get your content at the top of Google’s search results pages, this means massive, targeted, free traffic!
And in the world of affiliate marketing, traffic equals REVENUE!
Related Article at WorkFromYourLaptop.com!
Check out “Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It?” for a detailed look at how the affiliate marketing process works! I break down all the elements from the graphic above and show you the affiliate marketing process in action!
Wealthy Affiliate’s Track Record
Wealthy Affiliate isn’t the new kid on the block. Established in 2005, WA has over 1.4 million members in 193 countries. It’s truly a global community.
The 4 Core Steps to Making Money at Wealthy Affiliate
Simple and straightforward, yet thorough and complete. Wealthy Affiliate’s training lessons walk you through each step of building your business. You’re not cutting corners, or building cookie cutter, copycat websites. You have full control of every aspect of your affiliate marketing business from direction to aesthetics.
When choosing your niche, you’ll be shown examples of what works and what doesn’t so you can narrow your niche down to one you’re happy moving forward with. You’ll build your websites on the Wordpress platform. Wordpress is by far the most popular platform to build a website on with almost limitless customization.
Don’t worry if you’ve never done this before. I was in the exact same boat and the video tutorials make it absolutely doable. You also have 24/7 support for any questions or technical issues you ever need help with and they answer within minutes.
And once you’ve set the foundation, it’s time to start building traffic and earning revenue. That’s what Wealthy Affiliate’s training is all about.
Related Article at WorkFromYourLaptop.com!
Check out “How Does Wealthy Affiliate Pay You?” for 3 clear cut ways to earn consistent revenue through the Wealthy Affiliate affiliate marketing training platform!
Wealthy Affiliate’s Core Training
With over 120 in-depth course lessons & video tutorials, one on one mentorship, weekly live webinars & live training, 24/7 live chat, 24/7 site support, hundreds of forums & classrooms filled with member training, over 300 hours of catalogued live training, and the best keyword research tool for SEO you’ll find online, Wealthy Affiliate gives you all the tools necessary to succeed.
The Online Entrepreneur Certification is a 5 phase, 50 lesson series of courses that walk you through the process of growing your business within any niche you want.
Step by step video tutorials show you the way. They’re easy to follow, thorough, and I found them very eye-opening. You’re not going to zoom through these in a week. You really want to focus on learning here. You’ll be reaping the benefits from this training for years.
And if you’re not sure of your niche, or don’t know which of your passions or interest you want to pursue, the Affiliate Bootcamp takes you through the very lucrative process of participating in Wealthy Affiliate’s own affiliate program.
When you create your own free starter account you’ll have access to the first 5 lessons of each curriculum. It isn’t a “look but don’t touch” starter account. You’ll be building as you learn.
BRAND NEW! Wealthy Affiliate’s Weekly Expert Classes (Premium Plus+)
Something new that’s been added to Wealthy Affiliate are the Premium Plus+ Expert Classes! These classes (over 200 per year) are taught by Wealthy Affiliate members who have become experts themselves, reaching super affiliate status and success from this exact training.
They cover a wide array of topics, all relevant to becoming an expert in affiliate marketing.
From choosing your niche, to going full time on YouTube, to tips and tricks for building beautiful websites that convert, to mastering funnels, to monetizing your Instagram following, to mastering WA’s keyword research tool Jaaxy, the information in these expert classes is priceless.
If you miss a live class, don’t worry! You’ll have the replay available to watch starting the very next day. There are over 400 hours of live training available in the Wealthy Affiliate catalogue with unlimited replays available.
Want a full walkthrough of what you get with Wealthy Affiliate Plus+? Check out the video below!
If you’d like to skip past the free starter account and jump right to your own 2 week free trial of Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus+ you can do that here.
How Much Does Wealthy Affiliate Cost?
Wealthy Affiliate Free Starter Account: $0.
As advertised, WA’s free starter account is just that: free! No payment info necessary to get started. You’ll have access to the first 10 lessons of both the Online Entrepreneur Certification core training along with access to the first 10 lessons of the Affiliate Bootcamp.
Wealthy Affiliate Premium: $19 first month, then $49/mo
With Premium membership you get full access to 100% of Wealthy Affiliate’s core training. This is the complete package. That’s all 5 levels (50 lessons) of the Online Entrepreneur Certification and all 7 levels (70 lessons) of the Affiliate Bootcamp.
You’ll be able to build up to 3 niche websites to start earning from and your hosting fees are all included with your membership.
Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus+: $49 first month, then $99/mo
With Wealthy Affiliate Premium Plus+ you get 100% access to everything WA Premium has PLUS over 200 expert classes per year & the Enterprise version of WA’s keyword research tool Jaaxy ($99/month value) included free with all its bells and whistles.
You’ll be able to build up to 10 premium websites with an advanced website and hosting package included along with an advanced security suite ($250/month value) and priority expert private help.
I looked at a lot of platforms before finding Wealthy Affiliate and I’ve reviewed many, many more after joining. Trust me, these are the best price points you’ll find online for such a complete training platform.
Create your free starter account, then upgrade, downgrade, cancel, do anything you like.
If you want to upgrade to Premium Plus+ for a month to enjoy that first month’s savings, then back down to regular Premium, do it! Want to upgrade straight to Premium Plus+ on day 2, GO FOR IT!
In the middle of the free starter account when life gets in the way? No problem. No payment info is entered for your free starter account so you can walk away with no risk.
Gone are the “a la carte” training modules so popular with other platforms that you’re forced to buy to continue your training, each more expensive than the last. It’s time to put those other platforms charging THOUSANDS for their training in the rearview.
Wealthy Affiliate Pros and Cons
Final Thoughts
In my experience, Wealthy Affiliate is the most straightforward, thorough training platform for getting started in the world of affiliate marketing. The affordability of the full premium package solidifies the platform as a winner.
I owe 100% of my success to this platform, I’ve had nothing but a positive experience from it, and I encourage you to try it out for yourself.
What affiliate marketing training platforms have you tried out in the past? Were you burned by upsells? Do you have a questions about Wealthy Affiliate’s training? Questions about Premium Plus+?
Check out the FAQs below, and also feel free to leave a question or comment in the comments section below. I look forward to hearing from you! I hope to see you on the inside!
FAQs
What’s the difference between Wealthy Affiliate Free, Premium, and Premium Plus+?
The free starter account gives you access to the first 10 lessons in both the Online Entrepreneur Certification & Affiliate Bootcamp. Within these lessons a lot is covered. You’ll learn all about how affiliate marketing works, the power of keywords, and more. You are also freely allowed to begin building your site and trying out WA’s different tools for yourself.
With Premium membership you get full access to 100% of Wealthy Affiliate’s core training. This is the complete package. You’ll be able to build up to 10 niche websites to start earning from and your hosting fees are all included with your membership.
Premium Plus+ gives you everything Premium has plus over 200 expert classes per year you can learn from. You’ll be able to build up to 50 premium websites and you’ll have access to the Enterprise version of WA’s keyword research tool Jaaxy ($99/month value) with all its bells and whistles. You also have priority support and an enhanced hosting package included free ($250/month value).
Do I need my own product or service to get started?
No, you do not. You can be very successful without having any products or services of your own. If you do have your own product or service you’d like to promote, more power to you. Use Wealthy Affiliate’s training to get massive traffic to your site and products! Traffic is the absolute key to making sales of any kind.
Can I apply this training to a website I already have? Can I build a website on a domain I already own?
Yes, you can apply the training at Wealthy Affiliate to vastly improve your already existing site. You can also optionally move your existing site over to WA’s hosting. WA’s hosting package is included with premium membership and compares to $200-$250/month hosting packages elsewhere.
Can I buy a .com, .net, or .org domain through Wealthy Affiliate, or do I need to do this through outside hosting like GoDaddy?
Both free and paid domains are available through Wealthy Affiliate. You can buy your own .com, .net, or .org domain directly through Wealthy Affiliate for only $13.99-$15.99/year.
Is Wealthy Affiliate a pyramid scheme or MLM (multilevel marketing) scheme?
No, it is not. There are no downlines or recruiting involved. You are not required in any way to promote Wealthy Affiliate or even take part in its affiliate program. You can concentrate your business in any niche of your choosing. Your commissions are based on your efforts alone and no one else’s.
Is it really free to join?
Yes. Wealthy Affiliate is free to join. You don’t enter any payment information when creating your free starter account.
Is Wealthy Affiliate legit?
Wealthy Affiliate is legit. The atmosphere of success and community starts at the top. When I qualified for the chance to meet Kyle and Carson along with the other leaders of WA at the Super Affiliate conference in Las Vegas I left truly inspired. The entire focus of the week was on how to continue improving the platform. The roundtable meetings we had during the week were spent discussing ways to help members further succeed. I encourage you to take the platform for a test drive and see how much you learn. I look forward to seeing you on the inside!
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Hey, Eric!
I’ve been a part of Wealthy Affiliate for a few years now and it’s been nothing but great experiences (any technical bumps I had were quickly resolved thanks to the live chat). I’m also pretty sure I joined because of one of your YouTube videos reviewing AWOL academy, so fancy meeting you here again!
(Also, I noticed that the only “cons” listed in your review are barely cons at all, which is funny to me)
Thanks for sharing,
Isaac
Congratulations on your WA journey! If you ever need any help at all, don’t hesitate to reach out. Thanks for sharing and thanks for the comment!
I heard about Wealthy Affiliate a few years ago. And I even signed up for a free account. It was nice to see how nice and inviting their community is. But then, a lot of work came in at my previous job, and I just put affiliate marketing on hold. I am coming back now and see this cool new feature, the Wealthy Affiliate’s Weekly Expert Classes. I’ll check them out. Thank you!
Welcome back! WA is always growing and updating and it only gets better. If you have any questions at all, feel free to ask. Thanks for the comment!
Hey Eric,
This is an amazing review! I want to thank you for doing such a thorough job in explaining all of the caveats within this platform. This is just what I am looking for and I am signed up! I hope I can do as well as you within the first two years!
Thanks for the information, this really did it for me!
Chad
You’re very welcome! See you on the inside!
Good day, Eric Cantu.
Great explanation of how to make money as a wealthy affiliate participant. I admire how you provide extensive information on everything from how to succeed to the benefits and drawbacks of wealthy affiliate, even going so far as to use yourself as a success case study. No stone was left unturned. The only thing left for visitors to do is take action. Your blog is where I anticipate to get my feeds.
I really appreciate the kind words. It means a lot. Thank you so much!
This is a great post. Very easy to understand, but also giving the impression that you have to put in some solid work to make this work. I’ve grown tired of all the programs that make it sound like you’re going to win the lottery when you join.
Thanks for sharing this.
Agreed! I feel the more straightforward you and honest you are the better. That’s exactly what WA is all about. Thanks for the comment!
To anyone reading this who is on the fence, this is an awesome review on wealthy affiliate! I am currently a member in my second month and am loving it . The trainings are well thought out and structured . Which I feel was really important for my personnal growth and the fact that you learning and earning puts the icing on the cake . Amazing support and another confirmation that I am on the right path .
Keep up the great work! Thanks for sharing your story!
How long did it take you after starting Wealthy Affiliate to start reaching your goals? Traveling the world is AMAZING! Really good website and I like the way you write because it’s like you’re talking directly to us. Following you on instagram! This is the kind of post I’ve been looking for. Thanks again!
Thanks, Mason
I really hit my stride with Wealthy Affiliate at around the 6 month mark. I could see the momentum building, and so it pushed me forward, and then in my 11th month I had a huge month filled with commissions and I never looked back. Thanks for the comment!
Hi Eric
I’ve just begun my affiliate marketing journey and I’ve gotta say this is one of the best written detailed review I have ever read on any product, not just on WA. This is the kind of detail I was looking for. Thank you!
I can see how your making great commissions with WA with such good writing. I hope that one day I will be right up there too. I know is not a race and I am in it for the long term.
Thanks
Kevin
Thanks so much for the kind words! I owe all my success to Wealthy Affiliate. The training delivers, bottom line. See you on the inside!
I found your article as I was showing my nephew all about how to get started with affiliate marketing. You tell it all much better than I could, lol. I signed up with Wealthy Affiliate 6 years ago, and I couldn’t be happier. I also think its hosting is the best and the support team!
Thanks so much for sharing! Agreed! Thanks for the comment!
Hi Eric. I was looking for a way to sell my artwork online when I came across your post. I wanted to come back and comment a quick thank you for bring me to WA. The lessons are easy to follow, and I really enjoy the training. The community is great, I get an answer for every question or problem in minutes. By the end of my first week as a starter member, my website was launched and I decided to go premium and learn more. I seeing my site ranking in the search engines and traffic coming my way. I’m so excited! This training really works! thank you so much!
Regards,
Debora
These are the kinds of comments I love reading! Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Debora!
Woah! Those results are inspiring! That is truly so mind blowing how you managed to maintain your passion and dedications without giving up on yourself or your blog. How did you manage to stay motivated throughout all that time until you started seeing results? Thanks for writing this! I enjoyed it!
I appreciate the kind words! I think it’s important when you get started with training like this to simply focus on learning. I told myself I would follow the training to a tee for 6 months without any expectation of revenue or commissions. I wanted to put my nose down, absorb the info, and after 6 months I’d see how much I had learned.
After just a week I felt like I had my mind blown, lol. I was learning so much that I never knew existed, especially with keyword research in particular, and after that I was hooked.
I decided to direct my blog to people just like me looking for training like this. When you’re truly interested in the content, pushing out consistent content is so much easier. I think a couple months in I got my first affiliate commission. That pushed me forward even more.
I wish I could take more credit, but the training simply delivers. Thanks for the comment!
Hi Eric,
I wanted to ask you a specific question about your own experience with Wealthy Affiliate. I have been thinking about getting into affiliate marketing for a very long time, but every platform that I have ever looked into always seems to promise that you will see a profitable return very quickly. I really enjoyed your review about Wealthy Affiliate because it seemed completely honest in explaining that it’s not a get rich quick plan and that you will have to work at it for quite some time before you see any kind of return from it at all. Right now I am currently working full time and given my position at this time, I know I can not just walk away from my job right now. Currently I am thinking about trying to find something else to do part time that I could work at for a little while with the hope of eventually seeing some sort of return. This leads me to my question. In the first year that you were working with Wealthy Affiliate, do you have any idea the amount of hours you may have averaged per week before the month that you saw the 4K return. I would really appreciate any response that you have to this.
Thank you very much.
When I began, I started from absolute scratch. I followed the training to a tee and hit the training every day. I was creating content, building out the site, progressing through the training, applying what I learned, and doing my best to have consistent progress. That’s what’s key. It’s not something that comes together overnight. You’ll start from scratch as well, but as you work consistently, that’s where progress begins to take shape. If you hit the training for an hour a week, you can expect the same kind of results as if you worked any other job for an hour a week. Get consistent with it, hit the training consistently each day, hit it on the weekends, and you’ll find that you’ll slowly start getting addicted to it. Sitting down for “an hour” turns into hitting the training for 4 hours because you get immersed in great content and you’re LEARNING! The bottom line though is that it all comes back to you. I didn’t put any timelines on my success or compare what I was doing to anyone else. I just told myself that if I can hit the training for 6 months and just focus on learning that I would take a look at how much I had learned at that point and go from there. Notice I didn’t put any kind of timeline on commissions. All I did was tell myself I’d trust the system and see how much I had learned. When that’s your focus, everything else falls into place. Let me know if you have any more questions. I saw you posted this question in another spot too so I’ll answer it there as well. Thanks for the comment!
I am most definitely interested in learning more. The concept of a simple approach with step by step training is something that appeals to me and the fact that you write and speak from personal experience makes it so much more appealing as it has an “evidence base” built on experience.
I want to learn and know more as I would like to participate if this really is as good as you say. Thank you for a terrific post. I particularly like how you describe the business cycle with a summary picture, right up front! See you on the inside!
Thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate them. I look forward to helping you in every way I can. I think you’ll really enjoy the training. Focus on learning and everything else falls into place!
Thanks for the thorough post. I know for sure WA doesn’t work on the MLM business model, but can someone working with MLMs use the training to promote their networking business? Would it be possible to generate leads this way? It’s that something that’s possible to do? I wonder what’s your take on this.
At its core, Wealthy Affiliate is all about driving targeted traffic to your content. If you wanted to use that ability to drive traffic to your website that promoted an MLM, so be it. While I personally don’t feel the network marketing business model is a sustainable one, there are plenty who do and who can use WA to do so. Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for posting this. Is the free test drive a free trial where after 7 days or so I get charged? I saw that you didn’t have to enter payment information so I was wondering how that worked. Great job summarizing the training and highlighting key points. 🙂 I’m looking forward to seeing how it all works.
Your free starter account gives you access to Level 1 of the training and you don’t have to enter any payment info whatsoever. You can even start building out your website with your free starter account and you’re free to keep the account free as long as you like. When you decide to upgrade to premium, you unlock 100% the training, At that point you would enter payment info and choose your price point. Premium works out to less than $1/day. Thanks for the question and the comment!
I have been a member of wealthy affiliate for a couple of years now. I was showing my cousin online and we came across your review and I can tell you that you’ve done a better job and showing the platform than I could have, lol. When I first joined, I was warmly welcomed and it was very nice to have everything I needed all in one spot. Currently as I comment this, there’s a live webinar going on and it goes on very often. This is a great review. Thanks!
Keep up the good work and thanks for the comment!
To be honest, the way you have simplified the details of wealthy affiliate and the various things that could enable one to make money online through it is good. Did you find it hard starting from scratch? Are there extras that you have to pay for down the road that aren’t included here? Thanks
Starting from scratch was the only way to go for me so I didn’t really have a choice, lol. But I loved it. The video tutorials were perfect for how I learn. Once you go premium you get 100% of what WA offers. The only extras would be for registering you own domain like a .com, .net, .org, etc. and those are super cheap at around $1/month. Thanks for the comment!
Thanks so much for sharing this. You are right about so many not get rich quick schemes out there. All I ever see are the “pyramids”, but with this I feel like if you are willing to put in the work you can really create something that lasts. How long have you been doing this?
I started in January of 2017, so just over 3 years. Best business decision I ever made! Thanks for the comment!
Thanks Eric, your testimony about wealthy Affiliate is awesome! I love the way you have explained it. The figures tell the story they say, and the track record shows that this is something real. Did you really have no background at all before you got started? I’m a complete newbie and I’m wondering if there’s any previous training you had that helped.
WA is truly set up for the complete beginner. If you already have experience building websites, you’ll be that much further ahead, but I had ZERO background in this area. The step by step training with video tutorials made the process one that I could follow. Don’t hesitate! It’s free to try so try it out and take full advantage! 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
Hey Eric, it sounds like the training is great but I have a couple of questions regarding the hosting. I have a blog hosted with A2 Hosting and it’s fairly fast. How fast is hosting at Wealthy Affiliate in comparison to say Bluehost or Hostgator? I mean their shared hosting. Also, can I still use my own Wordpress theme and will I be able to use the same plugins I have installed on my site? I use Thrive Architect to build my pages etc. Will I still be able to use that to create my posts and pages?
Great questions… the hosting at WA is very, very fast. What you get at Wealthy Affiliate compares to what you’d pay $200-$250/month for elsewhere. I was blown away. And yes, all websites built through WA are Wordpress based. Thrive is completely available to use. Thanks for the comment!
Great review, very informative and detailed. Your conversational style is what won me over. I’m needing to learn how to build websites so this sounds like a perfect idea for me. I hope you don’t mind being my coach! I will definitely sign in (your article is tempting to sign in!).
Thanks so much for the comment! I’ll see you on the inside!
Hi Eric
From your review, Wealthy Affiliate really sounds like a great place for beginners. There’s so many programs out there that over promise and under deliver. Were you a 100% complete newbie? In your opinion, can an experienced affiliate marketer still get value from Wealthy Affiliate? Did you use any outside resources or is your success 100% from Wealthy Affiliate?
What’s up, Richard! Thanks for the question. Wealthy Affiliate is solid for both beginners like me and for experienced affiliate marketers. You can apply the training and resources to a site you’re creating from scratch or to an existing site that is needing that extra push to get more traffic. Every single thing I know about affiliate marketing was directly taught to me by WA’s training. It also directs you to solid outside resources like email responders, etc. to fully round out your website and monetizing ability. Thanks again for the comment!
Eric Cantu presents an honest unbiased revioew of both affiliate marketing and Wealthy Affiliate. He presents the info in a non hyped non high pressure manner. Not once does he tell you that it is a get rich quick scheme. Afiliate marketing is not an MLM where you join a company or organization and then try to get others to join, It is a business that starts off slowly but with hard work and dedication you can make successful. .
I appreciate that very matter of fact summary of my article, Dave! lol Thanks for the comment!