Wealthy Affiliate is one of the most highly reviewed affiliate marketing training platforms you’ll find online. This Wealthy Affiliate Scam Review will focus on answering the question: “What is the Wealthy Affiliate scam?” Or do real results prove that Wealthy Affiliate is legit and worth it?
Affiliate marketing is all about connecting people with what they’re already searching for online. It means building a niche website that attracts massive targeted traffic and turning that traffic into revenue. So, does Wealthy Affiliate deliver on that promise?
This Wealthy Affiliate Scam Review is going to cover the following:
- 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?
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 with no prior experience..
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. There is no payment information required.
This stands out to me. Further, with most “freemium” trials you enter payment information. This isn’t the case at Wealthy Affiliate. It’s free to start and you can stay free as long as you like.
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 course lessons at Wealthy Affiliate are all about choosing a profitable niche and then learning how to drive massive traffic to it that converts. Through the tools they provide, Wealthy Affiliate promises to guide you from start to finish in building your own successful online business through its 4 core steps:
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.
These lessons, each with video tutorials and tasks to complete before continuing to the next lesson, are much more thorough than I thought they would be for a free account.
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.
I was quite impressed with this.
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, you’ll have it live in less than a minute. 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.
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 the 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 to follow as I got deeper into the training.
Instead, the upsell to premium actually gives you access to ALL 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.
I checked every corner of this platform looking for upsells and the only additional costs I could find 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?
This is the real kicker. This premium upsell is all of $19. Click here to see everything you get.
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. Not with Wealthy Affiliate.
Wealthy Affiliate’s upsell is $19 for your first month of premium. After that your monthly premiums would be $49/month, with a bi-yearly and yearly membership upgrade option that can cut your dues in half.
What Do You Get With Wealthy Affiliate’s Premium Training?
You get expansive training in affiliate marketing, step by step guidance in website building, spectacular hosting packages, community support, live training from experts, endless classrooms, forums, member training, and much more.
It’s very thorough and I found it to be 100% eye opening. It is set up for both the absolute newbie & experienced marketer to thrive. It’s the most affordable all inclusive deal I’ve come across.
Wealthy Affiliate Scam Review 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. Email marketing, social media marketing, traffic building, conversions, landing pages, squeeze pages, email autoresponders, Pay Per Click Campaigns, and much, much more are covered.
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, check in just to see how you’re doing, etc.
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.
I’d say that $19 first month investment turned out very well.
My Recommendation
After my experience, this is a no brainer. Create your free starter account and test drive this training for yourself. If you like it, upgrade to premium for less than $1/day.
Check out a couple of the video tutorials and see if it’s all your speed. Then, take full advantage of the $19 first month. Take that full month to learn as much as you can and see how far our progress.
If you fall in love with the community and training, either stay with the monthly membership or upgrade to the bi-yearly or yearly membership and save. Create your free starter account through the link below and you’ll get me as your personal support coach. I hope to see you on the inside!
Feedback, Follow, and Subscribe!
Has this Wealthy Affiliate scam review helped you decide on giving WA a shot? Is there anything you have questions on that I didn’t cover? Feel free to ask away in the comments section below.
I always reply and I’d love to hear your story. What brought you here? Have you tried out other platforms with no success? Have you been taken for a ride in the past by “affiliate marketing gurus” who are actually looking to slowly empty your bank account? Let me know and I’ll be happy to offer my help in every way I can.
If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe to my Work From Your Laptop YouTube channel! And if you love travel adventures, follow me on Instagram @batmantravels!
MissusB says
June 18, 2019 at 9:49 pmCount 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!
Eric Cantu says
June 19, 2019 at 10:59 amVery 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!
Joshi says
June 18, 2019 at 9:41 pmHey 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
Eric Cantu says
June 19, 2019 at 10:54 amOf all the affiliate marketing training courses I’ve found, Wealthy Affiliate tops the list. Thanks for your comment!
Mariana says
June 18, 2019 at 9:31 pmHi 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
Eric Cantu says
June 18, 2019 at 9:40 pmThanks for the great comment and testimonial, Mariana!
Jody says
September 24, 2018 at 11:27 amWealthy 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!
Eric Cantu says
October 6, 2018 at 2:12 amThank 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!
Joji says
September 21, 2018 at 8:21 pmHi Eric, what if I want to sell t-shirt? Can wealthy affiliate teach me how to drive traffic for my t-shirt business?
Eric Cantu says
October 1, 2018 at 11:12 amAbsolutely! 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!
Jenny Hennig says
September 14, 2018 at 1:02 pmHi 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.
Eric Cantu says
September 14, 2018 at 1:57 pmWelcome aboard! I look very forward to helping you in every way I can 🙂
Jessica Lauren Vine says
September 11, 2018 at 2:43 pmI 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!
Eric Cantu says
September 12, 2018 at 12:47 amThank 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!
Tina says
September 8, 2018 at 8:57 pmI 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.
Eric Cantu says
September 10, 2018 at 6:45 pmWhen 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!
Bibian says
September 5, 2018 at 6:21 pmThis 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.
Eric Cantu says
September 5, 2018 at 11:58 pmAbsolutely! 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 🙂
Evan Cruz says
September 2, 2018 at 5:24 pmHello Eric, did you know about affiliate marketing prior to the training with Wealthy Affiliate?
Eric Cantu says
September 3, 2018 at 2:36 amNo, 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!
Janet Travis says
September 2, 2018 at 11:01 amHi 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
Eric Cantu says
September 2, 2018 at 4:00 pmAbsolutely, 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!
Ivan says
September 2, 2018 at 9:05 amHi,
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.
Eric Cantu says
September 2, 2018 at 3:58 pmThanks 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 🙂
Heather says
September 2, 2018 at 4:38 amDear 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?
Eric Cantu says
September 2, 2018 at 5:08 amWe’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!