If you’re looking to start an online business, both Wealthy Affiliate and World Ventures are popular choices. But when it comes to sustainability and revenue, which of these models is the better choice? World Ventures travel club reviews are a mixed bag. Some call the travel club a scam while others can’t get enough of it.
But what about Wealthy Affiliate? Can an affiliate marketing training platform give you a more consistent business model with sustained revenue without needing to recruit?
In this Wealthy Affiliate vs World Ventures review I’m going to share my personal experience with the two platforms. I’m going to compare and contrast the two, listing pros and cons for each. Finally, I’ll show you how an affiliate marketing platform destroyed an actual travel club when it came to seeing this world.
Wealthy Affiliate vs World Ventures Travel Club Reviews – Who’s Better?
This Wealthy Affiliate vs World Ventures review will examine the following:
- What’s the difference between network marketing and affiliate marketing?
- Do you need to be a part of a travel club to travel cheap? Is World Ventures a scam?
- Are the World Ventures membership dues worth it?
- How does Wealthy Affiliate’s training platform work?
- How much money can you make with Wealthy Affiliate?
- Is there a Wealthy Affiliate scam?
- Which is the best business for travel? Wealthy Affiliate or World Ventures?
Network Marketing vs Affiliate Marketing: What’s the Difference & How Does Each Work?
The main difference between Wealthy Affiliate and World Ventures is in their business model. World Ventures uses a network marketing compensation plan and Wealthy Affiliate teaches affiliate marketing.
Network Marketing 101
With network marketing (also known as multilevel marketing), you are looking to recruit a team. This team will be called your downline.
You’re going to buy the product or service the business revolves around for yourself, and you’re going to gather customers to buy that product as well. With your downline you are recruiting them into your team and teaching them to do the same.
Network marketing usually gets grouped together with pyramid schemes. It’s important to note that pyramid schemes are illegal and network marketing & multilevel marketing are not.
The compensation plans vary from MLM to MLM, but most involve some variation of either unilevel, binary, or matrix setup.
One of the key factors when it comes to network marketing is that to achieve the high ranks and revenue that is shown in the presentation, you’ll need your team to produce. Big time.
No matter how incredible. your solo efforts are, you’re not going to reach the top ranks doing this alone.
Affiliate Marketing 101
On the other hand, affiliate marketing is the process of connecting people online with the products and services they are searching for.
You can do this with or without your own website, and you don’t need products or services of your own to be successful.
In a nutshell, you partner with merchants like Amazon, Target, Apple, Walmart, etc., and when you connect your target audience with the products they’re looking to buy from these merchants, you earn commissions.
You do this buy creating content on your website, or on YouTube, or through social media. Your audience finds this content that then leads them to the products or services you’re marketing for.
There is no downline or recruiting. Affiliate marketers also tend to have many different products they market for as opposed to a single product or service.
Also unlike network marketing, your revenue depends solely on your efforts. Your revenue doesn’t depend on anyone else’s success but your own.
As you can see, these are two completely different approaches to online business. Now that we understand these differences between network marketing and affiliate marketing, let’s take a look at these two individual platforms.
You Should Be Here! World Ventures Travel Club Review
Let’s start at the very beginning. I’m someone who has a major passion for travel.
In a little over 3 years, when I started solo traveling in September 2016, I’ve made my way to 23 countries. So when it comes to traveling, I know what I’m talking about. (If you love travel pics you can follow my instagram @batmantravels.)
Naturally, World Ventures popped up on my radar. At the beckoning of my cousin who was a rep, I decided to try it out myself for a year as a customer.
I want to first be absolutely clear on something. I LOVED my World Ventures Dream Trips. The people I met were incredible & I fully enjoyed my vacations. However, does this travel club make travel cheaper? And how does it stack on the business side?
Watch the video below to get an understanding of how World Ventures works. See why the math doesn’t really work on the discounts, and how World Ventures’ own annual income disclosure statements reveal there is a shockingly high fail rate on the business side.
Check out My Full Review!
Want to deep dive into how World Ventures works? Check out this full review that the video above is based on. Get a detailed picture of the compensation plan and whether it’s worth it to join this MLM travel club.
Now I’m by no means picking on World Ventures. The truth is, most network marketing businesses fall into the same dead end path.
And in World Ventures case, when your success is dependent on team building, and 86.4% of your team are literally making zero revenue, as shown in the income disclosure statement, it’s hard to be a success story.
World Ventures Pros & Cons
Wealthy Affiliate Review: How Does Affiliate Marketing Stack Up?
As I mentioned at the top of this article, Wealthy Affiliate is a training community aimed at showing entrepreneurial minded people how to build a successful online business in affiliate marketing.
There are no downlines, no recruiting, and because of this the training & compensation is much more straightforward. However, as with any business, success with this will take work, focus, and patience.
Check out the video below and learn how to make money with Wealthy Affiliate. I share the training, pricing, and my own personal results to give you an idea of what’s possible.
If a firefighter who had never built a website before can do it, trust me, anyone can.
Check Out the Full Review!
Check out the full article the video above is based on and see why Wealthy Affiliate is the best affiliate marketing training platform you’ll find online.
The tools, training, and resources provided inside the Wealthy Affiliate training platform give you what you need to create a business you can call your own.
Does it take work? Yes, it does. But the training you receive in this platform will benefit you for years to come. You depend on no one else for your success, and you have complete freedom not only with the direction you want to go in, but with scalability as well.
The sky’s the limit.
Wealthy Affiliate Pros & Cons
Final Thoughts
Wealthy Affiliate and World Ventures represent two business models that are very different in their approach. After trying both, I can clearly see which one offers the better chance at success for someone looking to build their own business.
World Ventures’ network marketing business model relies on recruiting and teaching your downline to do the same. With MLM you follow the system, trust the system, and continue to recruit to make the system work.
With Wealthy Affiliate, the cringe factor of recruiting is far in the rearview, and it’s all about focusing on learning. It takes work, patience, and the ability to be teachable. You’re given all the tools necessary to get your affiliate marketing business off the ground, and it’s an option that won’t break the bank.
The numbers don’t lie. Am I biased. Sure. And that’s because affiliate marketing has allowed me to see this world more than I ever thought possible, even beating out a travel club when it came to sustainability. I think that speaks for itself.
If affiliate marketing is something you’d like to get started with, I highly encourage you to create your free starter account. It’s my #1 recommendation for a reason, and I’ve had nothing but a positive experience with it.
Feedback, Follow, and Subscribe!
I hope you enjoyed this article! Please follow me on Instagram and YouTube! If you have any questions at all, leave them in the comments section below. I always respond, and I look forward to connecting with you!
Hi Eric, thank you for sharing this article. I am glad that you have clearly pointed out the difference between network marketing and affiliate marketing. This is one of the reasons why I was unsure about World Ventures. The customer side seemed ok, but still expensive to me. It is multilevel marketing, and not my cup of tea.
But i do love to travel.. so, i might check out your Scott`s cheap flights review.
All the best!
Thanks for the sincere comment, Hanna! I appreciate that. Thanks for chiming in!
Hi, Eric, WA is definitely 100% legit. Joining was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made and I’ve seen positive results since joining in October 2018. I have two niche sites. One is strictly affiliate marketing and another actually covers my own online products, as I am a creator. The WA platform, over the past few months, has helped me build and I couldn’t be happier with my results thus far.
Thank you for sharing your story 🙂 Best of luck to you and continue building!
This is a really great post! I generally loathe MLM companies. I think they prey on vulnerable people. I’m glad you put this information out there.
My question about World Venture is whether or not the trips are group trips or individual trips. Even though you don’t recommend using the program as a customer even, I think this info would be helpful to people in making a decision.
Thanks for the question 🙂 World Ventures Dream Trips are group trips taken with other World Ventures members. Thanks for the comment!
How long has world ventures travel been in existence? If it’s very expensive as painted in this article,why are people still doing it?
wealthy affiliate has comprehensive trainings but how do you earn while learning since it comes with a monthly subscription too? Though it’s a lot cheaper than world ventures but how can you make your monthly subscription as a newbie on wealthy affiliate with no working or functional website?
Great questions. World Ventures was founded in 2005. I think the main reason people jump in is because they truly believe they can’t afford travel affordably without a travel club. However, as mentioned in the article, Scott’s Cheap Flights has saved me thousands on airfare, while hotel rewards cards give me nights free all the time. No travel club dues necessary.
When it comes to the business side of World Ventures, many are lured by the potential riches of a network marketing compensation plan that unfortunately fails way more than it succeeds. With affiliate marketing you have a much more straightforward approach. And when you jump in with Wealthy Affiliate you’ll have your own website up and running by lesson 4. There’s no waiting game for that.
Thanks for the comment and questions!
This was an interesting comparison between two very different business models, with the goal of determining which offers more potential to realize the claimed outcome of what you will get with the World Ventures Travel Club as opposed to the money you can earn potentially following the training within Wealthy Affiliate.
It is notable that 80% of World Ventures members earned nothing during that period disclosed by their annual income statement. Nothing? That doesn’t sound like travel is in the works to me.
From my own experience, the MLM business model is unsustainable over time. The affiliate business model is.
Yeah, the 80% number jumped out at me too. Unfortunately this is the common bell curve with network marketing and MLM. Thanks so much for the comment!
Oh!!! How I loved reading this review. I came in contact with World Ventures last year and I immediately knew it wasn’t for me. I could quickly see all the consequences you listed but I have been on Wealthy Affiliates for 3days now and I can already feel that sense of support and encouragement coming from all the members. But, good Sir, I would love it if you can give me this advice as a newbie that you once were, which of the numerous trainings would you advice me to take in my first 1month that would give me the highest knowledge?
This is actually a question I get asked a lot. Out of all the WA training, which is the best to jump all-in on to get the biggest head start possible. The answer’s easy. Start with lesson 1. When you’re done their, go straight into lesson 2. After that, and most people never see this coming, it’s lesson 3. lol. WA’s training is straightforward and every single bit of it is there for a reason. The secret to success with WA is just following through, applying what you learn, and continuing forward. That’s it. Hard work mixed with the right training always gets results 🙂 Thanks so much for the comment!
Hi Eric, very good and informative comparison of Wealthy Affiliate and World Ventures. You described very well the network marketing and affiliate marketing. For me it is disturbing to push people into a business like MLMs. A friend mentioned World Ventures to me because of my love for travel, but Im just not sure. I like your post and your affiliate marketing explanation and alternative. You’ve got my gears moving! thanks for sharing with us!
Very happy to help. In my opinion, affiliate marketing trumps network marketing every time. Much more straightforward and no recruiting or downlines! Thanks for chiming in!
Hi Eric if I was not already a member I would have clicked the button to join WA!
You have reignited my drive to succeed! Thanks so much & happy flying to you!
Stella
Bush Lady
Thank you, Stella! I appreciate it!
Hi Eric,
Really liked your blog comparing both WA and World Ventures and may I say fantastic job with your income stream, great effort! I’m not the biggest fan of MLM and your comparison post was useful and came across as unbiased, especially with the income disclosure.
Thanks and much continued success to you!
Craig
Thanks, Craig! I feel like transparency is the best with these reviews. If people love MLMs, go for it, but these numbers don’t like and Wealthy Affiliate is clearly the one that delivered many times over for me. Just doing my best to share that. Thank you!
Great Post, lots of things to think about here. I have joined World Ventures a few months ago and my questions & concerns about the Dream Trip points accruing without being able to fully use them continue to go unanswered. My upline tells me if I refer something like 15 platinum members then the limits will be removed when booking Dream trips but this seems impossible. I agree that it’s an expense and I’m not really comfortable with passing that expense onto other people to get them to join.
These are the exact concerns I saw during my time with World Ventures. After a full year and finally being granted access to the Dream Trip points I had been accruing I found that I could only use a handful at a time, and with each month came more dues and more accrued points which I could never catch up to. If you’re looking for an alternative I highly recommend affiliate marketing over network marketing. it’s much more straightforward, and as you can see, the affiliate marketing training community I’m a part of really delivered for me. Thanks for the comment!
Hi Eric
A very comprehensive review. After joining World Ventures I thought the Get 4 Pay No More was going to be easy. I was unable to recruit even 1 person. I’m stubborn so I will stick with them only to take a Dream Trip that I haven’t been able to find time in my schedule to take. As you say, the costs are adding up. Like you, I looked into affiliate marketing as an alternative & also like you, WA popped up on my radar. Let me say that I’ve only been with WA for 3 weeks now and so far they live up to everything they offer. The training is first class and the community support is amazing. I did a lot of market research before I joined WA everything in your review is 100 percent correct.
Thanks for the good advice and it’s good to know I’m not alone.
Steve
Spectacular comment! Looks like we followed the same path. Well said, and I agree with everything you mentioned. And yeah, at least get 1 Dream Trip out of World Ventures, lol. Don’t beat yourself up about trying it. You tried it so now you know, right? You live you learn! Keep progressing with WA! Best business decision I ever made. Thanks again for the great comment!
Nice article here on wealthy affiliate and world ventures travel club.
I’ve been recruited and joined World Ventures but haven’t had any of the success my upline had. To be honest I’m not into recruiting. I found this article after watching a YouTube video of yours. Thank you for showing an alternative WITHOUT needing to recruit.
Thanks for the comment! After trying out both, I realized quickly that you don’t need to pay expensive travel club dues to travel the world. All you need is an online business that funds your travels and travels with you. That’s exactly what I found with Wealthy Affiliate 🙂 Thanks for the kind words!