Wealthy Affiliate is one of the most highly reviewed affiliate marketing websites you’ll find online. This Wealthy Affiliate Scam Report will shed light on what Wealthy Affiliate promises and what they actually deliver. Is there a Wealthy Affiliate scam going on, or is this affiliate marketing training platform legit?
How exactly does Wealthy Affiliate work? How much money will it cost you to finish the training? Is the training substantial? Is this a pyramid scheme? Do you get 1 on 1 coaching? Are there expensive training modules and upsells you need to continue to buy? How much can you expect to make with Wealthy Affiliate websites?
Let’s examine this affiliate marketing training platform inside and out so you can determine for yourself if Wealthy Affiliate is a scam or legit. I’ll break down the training, tools, and resources so no stone is left unturned.
Wealthy Affiliate Scam Report – Is Wealthy Affiliate Scam or Legit?
This Wealthy Affiliate Scam Review is going to cover the following:
- How does Wealthy Affiliate work?
- Is the Wealthy Affiliate test drive really free?
- What do you get with your Wealthy Affiliate free starter account?
- Is there eventually an upsell to premium? How much will it cost you?
- What do you get with Wealthy Affiliate’s premium training?
- How much bang for your buck do you get?
- Is Wealthy Affiliate worth it?
See for yourself in the video below why Wealthy Affiliate turned me from skeptic to believer. I’ll show you point by point why it is now my #1 recommendation for anyone looking to start an online business. I’ll also share how I was able to earn a $4k month in my first year.
How Does Wealthy Affiliate Work?
Wealthy Affiliate has been around since 2005 and is a training platform and global community that teaches you how to build your own online business in affiliate marketing. For a deep dive into how affiliate marketing works, check out my article here.
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is all about connecting people with what they’re searching for online.
It means choosing a profitable niche, attracting your target audience to your niche website, and then turning that traffic into conversions and consistent monthly revenue.
Technically, you could use Wealthy Affiliate’s training to drive traffic to a network marketing business. However, Wealthy Affiliate itself is not an network marketing business. It is 100% affiliate marketing. There are no downlines, and no recruiting.
Wealthy Affiliate’s promise is to provide you with the tools, training, and support, you’d need to complete these 4 steps so that the end results is you having your own successful affiliate marketing business.
So Is the Wealthy Affiliate Test Drive Really Free?
That’s a screenshot from the Wealthy Affiliate enrollment page. To get started all you enter is your email address and create a username. There is no payment information required.
With most “freemium” trials you still enter payment information. We’re used to this with sites like Netflix and Hulu. With those platforms, unless you cancel before your trial period ends you can expect your credit card to be charged. This isn’t the case at Wealthy Affiliate. It’s free to start, no payment information necessary, and you can stay free as long as you like.
So what’s the “catch”?
Well, you don’t get 100% of Wealthy Affiliate’s training with the free starter account. Some of the Wealthy Affiliate complaints I’ve seen claim to be misled by this. Truly though, it is clearly labeled as a starter account, so I don’t believe this is misleading at all.
What Do You Get With Your Free Starter Account?
The picture below is a screenshot of the training tab inside the Wealthy Affiliate members’ area. The two main training curriculums inside WA are the Online Entrepreneur Certification (50 lessons) & the Affiliate Bootcamp (70 lessons).
With your free starter account you’ll get full access to Level 1 of the Online Entrepreneur Certification Course and Level 1 of the Affiliate Bootcamp.
The free starter account isn’t a “look but don’t touch” type of training. As you can see by the screenshot below, by lesson 4 you’ll have your website up and running.
You’re not going to complete all these in a day or two. These are in depth course lessons. The first ones explain how WA works, how affiliate marketing works, and then you actually start building out your website.
As you can also see, Lesson 3 is about choosing a niche. This means you have full creative control over what your online business is going to be about. Most platforms I’ve reviewed are 100% about promoting their content and don’t give you that choice.
Particularly eye opening is Lesson 9 on keywords. Even with your free account you’re get access to understanding how to target the largest audiences possible for your niche and start using the integrated keyword research tool.
When it comes to building your website, even if you’ve never done this before, it won’t be an obstacle for you. You’re walked through key steps in building your website right, from the right plugins to start with and the tools to make sure it can handle all the traffic you’ll be getting.
It will be up and running in a matter of minutes.
I’ve never built a website before and I left these lessons not only happy with the ease of doing so, but I also felt like I completely understood how I was going to scale this business for the future.
With your starter account you also get access to the first 10 lessons of the Affiliate Bootcamp. These are closely related to the OEC training, but are for those who are maybe having trouble choosing an interest or niche they would like to pursue. With this Affiliate Bootcamp course, you get a preselected niche to build in: the “make money online” niche.
So What’s the Catch With the Free Starter Account? Are There Upsells?
Yes, from the free starter account there is the upsell to a premium account. However, unlike other training platforms I’ve reviewed, Wealthy Affiliate takes a completely different approach to this.
I thought the upsell would get me access to the next 10 lessons, with more expensive upsells and training modules to follow as I got deeper into the training.
Instead, there are no future training module upsells that you have to continue to buy. Premium gives you access to 100% of Wealthy Affiliate’s training available.
After going premium, there wasn’t one area inside the platform I couldn’t get into. Going premium also unlocks Wealthy Affiliate’s weekly live webinar training. These occur weekly on Friday nights, and if you miss the live class you get access to the replay starting the next day.
I checked this catalog of replays and there’s easily over 300 hours of webinar training available covering a wide array of topics.
The only additional costs in the platform are for registering your own paid domain and another for unlocking additional features in their free integrated keyword research tool called Jaaxy.
The domain upsell is actually a really good deal. Your own .com, .net, or .org domain will cost you only $13.99-$15.99 per year with Wealthy Affiliate. There are enough features included with their hosting package that the same type of hosting could easily cost $150-200/month elsewhere.
How Much Does It Cost When You Upgrade to Premium?
As you can see, your first month of premium costs you $19. This gives you 100% access to everything Wealthy Affiliate has to offer. You then have the options of paying month to month, paying every 6 months, or paying once a year.
The best bang for your buck is obviously yearly premium. With yearly premium you’re paying less than $1/day at $359. Click here to see everything you get with Wealthy Affiliate Premium.
A normal upsell for affiliate marketing training platforms like this is somewhere in the ballpark of $99-$299 with several training modules to follow anywhere from 2x to 10x the cost of the original buy in. This is not true with Wealthy Affiliate.
What Do You Get With Wealthy Affiliate’s Premium Training?
The training, tools, and resources available to you inside Wealthy Affiliate premium can almost be overwhelming. It includes step by step guidance in website building, community support, live training from experts, endless classrooms, forums, member training, and much more including a great hosting package for all your websites..
WA’s training is thorough and I found it to be 100% eye opening. It’s set up for both the absolute newbie & experienced marketer & is by far the most affordable all inclusive deal I’ve come across.
Wealthy Affiliate Scam Report Summary
In my opinion you are getting quite a lot of training for your buck with Wealthy Affiliate. As the training progresses you go from the basics all the way to expert level strategies including email marketing, social media marketing, traffic building, conversions, landing pages, squeeze pages, email autoresponders, Pay Per Click Campaigns, and much, much more.
Not only are the main training curriculums thorough, but you also get a global community to help you when you need it. Members regularly message you, welcome you, congratulate you on your accomplishments, and even check in just to see how you’re doing.
Through WA’s training I was able to go from nothing to substantial revenue in months.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s work involved. You have to be consistent, build quality content, create a positive user experience, and more. But you’re trained on how to do it every step of the way.
Final Thoughts
Wealthy Affiliate is an affiliate marketing training community that promises to train you in a well rounded course curriculum showing you all the aspects of affiliate marketing.
With a free starter account option available, Wealthy Affiliate allows you to test drive the first several lessons of the curriculum. This includes being able to start building your own website.
Through the tools, training, and support, Wealthy Affiliate can help both the beginner and seasoned vet increase traffic to their niche website and learn how to turn that traffic into consistent conversions and revenue.
If you find the training is helpful and you’re learning, upgrading to premium gives you access to 100% of the training for less than $1/day with no training module upsells to follow.
It is the opinion of this blogger that Wealthy Affiliate is 100% legit. It’s my #1 recommendation for anyone looking to get started in affiliate marketing. Create Your free starter account and try it out for yourself. Going through my link means getting me as your personal support coach. I look forward to helping you in every way I can to reach your goals.
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I have to admit. You cover your bases well. I saw your WA YouTube review, decided I liked it, then decided to take just one more look to see if it could possibly be a scam. And whose article do I find? Yours! lol you got me coming AND going! SOLD! Thanks for the great info and review!
haha hey that’s what it’s all about, right? Thanks so much for chiming in! I think you’re going to love the training and I look forward to helping you in every way I can!
Interesting article have bookmarked this for the future reference because I have quite an interest in this topic. Thanks for sharing
Jason 🙂
Thanks for the comment, Jason!
A free account that’s ACTUALLY FREE! lol what a concept! 🙂 Nice.
Amen to that! Thanks for the comment!
I have been operating with Wealthy Affiiliate for a while and I wanted to chime in that it has really been a cool ride. Truth is it has taught me a lot, and the community is wow and really helpful. It’s been way more than I expected and I look forward to where this journey takes me. Thank you for the post!
Congratulations on taking that first step in your journey ahead! If you ever need any help with anything feel free to message me from inside WA! Thanks for the testimonial!
When did you find Wealthy Affiliate and get started?
It was January of 2017, just a little over 3 years ago. It’s really amazing how much has happened since then. I’m looking forward to what the next 3 years bring. Thanks for the question and comment!
I found your review both interesting and honest. It was an easy read and you explain things well. Probably the reason you’re doing well with business. Keep it up!
I really do appreciate the kind words. Thank you! I owe all my success to my training at Wealthy Affiliate. Thanks for the comment!
This was a very comprehensive review of the program. I started a sports blog about three months ago. two months later I began exploring the most efficient ways to monetize it when I came across Wealthy Affiliates. The value proposition made a lot of sense, so I actually transferred my blog in order to get hosting through WA. The tech support is first rate. If I ever run into a minor glitch with my blog, they can either solve it based on the information I provide them. Pretty happy with what I have seen so far.
I really appreciate you chiming in with your perspective. Site Support is second to none. Thanks for commenting and I wish you continued growth and success with your sports blog! Go Cowboys! lol
What a wonderful and thorough explanation of here. I just wanted to make sure you understood how engaging your words are. I really enjoyed them. This really is a motivation for all the beginners, including me. I fall into the category of someone who has seen it all and it’s refreshing to finally see something promising. Thank you for that and continued success to you and your business.
I appreciate the kind words! Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed this and thank you for the comment!
Hi Eric,
I swore up and down this was just another free trial with billing automatically done after the trial expired. Great video to prove me wrong. I wouldn’t have known had it not been for the video. Thank you!
Partha
Glad to help! Thanks for the comment!
Hi,
That’s a very good and detailed review of Wealthy Affiliate. I signed up a year ago, and I also began as a free member. I can confirm all the points you made here. Personally, from day 1 it was clear to me that this platform was the real deal, and after running across so many scams online, I was relieved to have finally found a decent, honest platform that was designed to help people succeed.
After only a week I became a Premium member, and you’re right, being Premium unlocks all of Wealthy Affiliate’s goodies; the training, webinars, comumnity support and help, research, even access to an affiliate program data bank. Wealthy Affiliate is an amazing platform, and – like you – I can highly recommend it.
I very much appreciate your testimonial. Thanks for the comment and I wish you continued success with your business!
Yeah, WA is definitely a legit product and it’s one that helped me build the most visible NFL uniform-related blog on the internet today – that’s according to MOZ. I’ve also created a site that markets and sells my own products, so the Wealthy Affiliate platform, despite its name, is about more than simply affiliate marketing, allowing it to be a fantastic tool for success in literally any niche, affiliate marketing or not.
In your opinion, what are some of the affiliate niches out there that make money the fastest? I know many are looking for quicker ways to make money these days, so which ones are in the highest demand?
That’s spectacular and impressive. It’s great seeing success stories out there! As far as the fastest niches to jump into that pay out the fastest, there’s no such thing. A conversion is a conversion is a conversion. The real key to choosing a successful and profitable niche is to choose something you have a genuine passion for or interest in. When you connect your target audience with what they’re looking for consistently, no matter the niche, you now have the most potential for profitability. Thanks for the comment!
Count me in as a believer! I joined up with Wealthy Affiliate through the link above and I came back to confirm that it didn’t ask me for money to sign up. Everything is laid out very easy and Kyle the co-founder walks you step by step through everything. Upon joining you get a step by step walkthrough and are taken directly to the training. I also received a welcome message from Eric directly and he made himself available to me. I responded to his message and he responded back within the hour. I feel there is a real sense of community here and I’m looking forward to the experience!
Very happy to see you taking this step! I think you’ll find the training very eye opening just as I did. I look forward to helping you in every way I can! Thanks for the testimonial!
Hey Eric,
I spent a lot of money and time with pyramidish schemes (which made me spend on a lot of nonsensical stuff after charging a hefty upfront fee) before I started researching affiliate marketing. In line with what you’ve said, it looks like WA has an awesome community. I’m inspired by your income and look to emulate you through WA.
Cheers
Joshi
Of all the affiliate marketing training courses I’ve found, Wealthy Affiliate tops the list. Thanks for your comment!
Hi Eric!
Great review with all the information someone who is thinking about joining to Wealthy Affiliate would like to know. I initially clicked on this article because I thought it was someone looking to bad-mouth WA. I’ve been a Premium member for a few months and I couldn’t be happier. It’s true, the starter account is totally free, without even having to enter your credit card number, and that’s the thing that caught my attention when I began. I stayed because once you are premium, you really have access to EVERYTHING, and you don’t find this kind of information anywhere for $49 a month.
I hope many the Wealthy Affiliate community because of your article, they will find a very generous and kind community here.
Best,
Mariana
Thanks for the great comment and testimonial, Mariana!
Wealthy Affiliate is not a scam. I signed up earlier this year with them and am not looking back.
They have a great community of supportive members new and experienced. If you have a questions someone will get back to you quickly.
Also if you have technical issues with your website they have techhelp available 24/7. One time I had an issue late at night. I contacted their site support and within a matter of minutes they began helping me resolve the issue.
The lessons are easy to follow and well laid out. Kyle (one of the co-founders) has done a great job of this through each and every tutorial.
The more time in a day you can devote to studying and practicing the lessons in the beginning the quicker you will progress. Take a passion of yours or pick something you are interested in to develop into an online business. All the time members post their success stories which is one of the many reasons I love the WA community. Constant positive reinforcement!
Thank you so much for this testimonial. It’s a great time to be a part of Wealthy Affiliate and I highly encourage anyone on the fence to take full advantage of the free starter account by clicking the link above 🙂 Thanks again for the comment!
Hi Eric, what if I want to sell t-shirt? Can wealthy affiliate teach me how to drive traffic for my t-shirt business?
Absolutely! Affiliate marketing is all about building traffic to your business no matter what niche you’re in. The training you get at Wealthy Affiliate is 100% about building organic, free traffic and learning how to continue to scale it using all the best tools possible at your disposal like Jaaxy to find the best traffic-getting, low competition keywords so your content is the answer to your target audience’s searches, no matter the niche. Great question!
Hi Eric, I liked your approach with this review of Wealthy Affiliate. With there being so many scams out there on the internet today, it is hard to trust anything or anyone, and I like how you answered the main questions I had with regards to WA. I’ll be checking it out with the free start as soon as I submit this comment! Great Article, thank you.
Welcome aboard! I look very forward to helping you in every way I can 🙂
I like your approach with this Wealthy Affiliate review. I’ve gotten into some bad deals before and I’m always a little nervous when a new opportunity comes around. Thanks for your honesty and for sharing your results. Really got me excited now! A $4k month in the first year is well worth it!
Thank you for sharing your honesty. For me Wealthy Affiliate has been everything I wanted and more. I can’t recommend it highly enough, and the best way for me to show that it works is to show that the training delivers. That $4k month was huge for me. Thanks so much for the comment!
I like that WA offers a free course. What better way to show confidence in what the company is selling than to offer a what seems like a trial period to examine the product before purchasing. They put it out there, some of what they offer, and respect the buyer enough to not keep them in suspense on what it is they are buying into. WA has my full respect.
When I found the free starter account to be legit, I was sold. It’s my top recommendation for its refreshing, straightforward approach, and I fully stand behind my backing of Wealthy Affiliate. Thanks for the comment!
This looks like what I’m looking for. Is the wealthy affiliate online platform really set up for newbies like me? I’ve dived into new concepts before and then almost quit but I’m so motivated for this to work if I give it a shot. With the help of training I think I could do it.
Absolutely! This training is the best I’ve found online and it works for newbies and online veterans alike. I think you’ll have a great time with the training and community especially. Get started! I can’t wait to do everything I can to help you out 🙂
Hello Eric, did you know about affiliate marketing prior to the training with Wealthy Affiliate?
No, none at all. In fact, whenever I saw the “affiliate” tab at the bottom of sits like Amazon, or Best Buy, I honestly thought it was more for employees of the company or something. Learning about partnering with merchants and affiliate programs really blew me away. This training was very eye opening to me and I never looked back 🙂 Thanks for the question!
Hi Eric,
No beat about the bush here on this article. Great review! You have hit on all the major points I’ve been looking into, no question there. I like the way you write it is a no-nonsense type of writing, it’s great. Is the offer still up for being my personal 1 on 1 coach? I’m a self motivated person, but just in case I have some questions…
Thanks for the great review
Regards
Janet
Absolutely, Janet. That’s what I’m here for. Going through any of my links locks me in as your coach and I’m more than happy to help answer any questions you have, big or small. Thanks so much for the kind words!
Hi,
Thank you for reviewing Wealthy Affiliate. I’ve been looking into similar training platforms, but you just don’t know anymore with these online courses, they all seem to be worried about just sales… But then this free trial comes up and I see a difference. Thanks for breaking down exactly how this all works. I’m looking forward to giving it a shot.
Thanks for chiming in. Agreed. The free try was exactly what drew me in, and once inside, I never looked back. I look forward to helping you in every way I can 🙂
Dear Eric,
Your article was spot on. All I ever find in my searches are training platforms that cost a fortune and their “coaching call” sounds way more like a sales call to me. Is there any kind of weird coaching call involved? I love that there are no upsells. Thank you for putting this together. Have you helped many people like me who were brand new?
We’ve all been there. All over social media I see the hype machines. The fact is you need straightforward training to build a successful business, and you can’t buy shortcuts. And to answer your question, no there are no weird coaching calls that turn into sales calls, lol. I’ve helped people from all over the world get started, and the vast majority are people like me and you starting out for the very first time. I really look forward to seeing you on the inside 🙂 Take care!