If you’re looking for a Wealthy Affiliate Review from a true veteran in the affiliate marketing space, you’re in the right place. This review has a decade of experience (and related scar tissue) behind it. I have invested more than $60K in training courses over the past decade, and I’m a student of this game.
What Is Wealthy Affiliate?
Wealthy Affiliate is one of the leading training platforms online to educate and train people the process of building an online business. It has been active for more than 15 years, and it has some strong proven results. So is a Wealthy Affiliate Review really necessary? We’ve received a number emails inquiring about this platform and it’s ability to help the average Joe, so it’s time to dig in.
So how effective is Wealthy Affiliate really? Is it really what is advertised? Or is it only tailored to folks with a strong background already in the online world?
This review dives in to all the nitty gritty about Wealthy Affiliate: what’s good, what’s not so good, and what you can expect if you take the leap. And also who should not take the leap and why.
The Basics of Wealthy Affiliate
Company Name: Wealthy Affiliate
What It Is:
Wealthy Affiliate is an online platform with all levels of training to help people of all backgrounds learn affiliate marketing. The have 10 levels of training modules, weekly classes, an active community, live chat, and a badge program to illustrate your progress.
Website: www.wealthyaffiliate.com
Program Pricing:
Starter Plan: FREE
Premium Plan: $49/month
Premium Plus+ Plan: $99/month
Site Founders: Kyle & Carson
Community Members: 2+ MILLION members
Overall M&P Rating: 4.9/5
Trust Pilot Consumer Rating: 4.9/5
Training: 5/5
Community Support: 5/5
Research Tools: 4.8/5
Customer Support: 5/5
WordPress Hosting: 4.8/5
Website Building: 4.9/5
Website Building Tools: 4.9/5
Free Test Membership?: Yes (and no credit card required)
Company History
The overall history of Wealthy Affiliate is very hard to criticize. The company was started in 2005 by Kyle and Carson, and they are still the site owners today.
They have a very strong Trust Pilot rating, and thousands of positive reviews. They are certainly a solid company that boasts an impressive track record. I don’t think this is up for debate. The most relevant question, is who are they best positioned to help with an online business. We’ll get to that.
There is nothing shady about their operation. There is a free membership that has many great tools, and is free as long as you choose.
And the paid memberships are month-to-month. This is different from many courses that lock you in with high-dollar contracts. So this is undoubtedly a very strong feature of Wealthy Affiliate > on the two paid membership levels, only pay if you’re happy with the platform.
Main Features of the Platform
Here are the main features of the Wealthy Affiliate Platform:
Training
There are 10 levels of training in the platform, and these levels are sequential where each level builds on the last. It’s organized in a very user-friendly sequence that anyone can understand.
It starts off with the basics assuming you have zero experience in the online world, and barely know what a website even is! And it progressively advances to more advanced training, with each module providing more and more tools for success. It’s self-paced, so you go through the training at the rate you are comfortable with.
This is the FREE training module that is 100% free. It’s better than the paid stuff in most online courses!
Community
T
his is one of the top features of the platform. It’s an active and very supportive community. Everyone seems to be pulling for one other, and if you get stuck or have a problem, there are many people to lend a hand.
The community runs the full spectrum in experience level, from newbies with no experience, to veterans running very successful online businesses that are crushing it. And the veterans seem very keen to help and assist the newer members to achieve success.
It’s really a powerhouse group, and very friendly and supportive! Everyone wants everyone to succeed and thrive!
Weekly Classes
This is another powerful feature of Wealthy Affiliate. Maybe the very best feature of Wealthy Affiliate.
There are (4) classes each week on a variety of online tasks. These classes are separate from the base training modules, and these classes are really powerful.
They are taught by experts within the community, and provide tremendous value to all levels of experience.
Here’s an example…
I have a fitness site that I’ve had online since 2014. That’s a long time in the online world. It has a pretty good presence on social media, but I had never done anything with Pinterest. There were some weekly classes on Pinterest a few months ago – a 4-part series – so I thought I’d tune in.
Long story short, I now have a full Pinterest profile, and it’s leading to a lot of new traffic. It was a blind spot that I had, and now it’s fixed. This will be a huge boost for my site!
So the Wealthy Affiliate weekly classes are absolutely worth their weight in gold.
The key is to be selective on which ones you choose! Each Monday morning you’ll have a list of 4 class offerings for that week when you login to Wealthy Affiliate.
I have found that if I get excited and select three, for example, I then get busy and it results in me watching…none. But if I commit to just one per week, then I follow through and discipline myself to do one per week, consistently.
Below is a sampling of Expert Classes for the week of January 23, 2023. This is a good example of the great classes that happen weekly. They cover the spectrum in terms of content, as well as experience level for the users taking the classes (some classes are for seasoned experts, and some are for beginners).
Website Hosting and Tools
This is another powerhouse feature of Wealthy Affiliate. It’s a one-stop shop for everything you need to get your website online and thriving. Their hosting is secure and very fast.
Security
Their hosting platform is very secure, and that is important. I have never had a hack issue (or any security issue) on their platform. I have used more than 10 hosting services over the last decade, and some platforms are very dicey when it comes to security.
Wealthy Affiliate has proven itself to be very secure, and a fortress for website hosting.
I know Bluehost, for example, talks a big game. But I had four WordPress sites hacked on Bluehost over the course of two years (2017-2018). Even more shady, after the sites were hacked, they then tried to parlay me over to their partnering company (SiteLock) which was charging in excess of $500 per site to clean the now tainted sites. It was a very disappointing experience, and I will never use Bluehost again for hosting.
And one of the most disturbing parts of that story…when I was exasperated and very angry that SiteLock quoted a staggering $800.00 to clean a website, their customer service rep responded “Ok, how about $400.00?” Whoa…that’s a clear sign of a scam or at least a racket as far I’m concerned!
So I have experience with suspect hosting, and have been very impressed with Wealthy Affiliate and their hosting platform. They speak very highly of their hosting platform and all that it has to offer, and I’ve found nothing to question that. It has been very impressive in every way.
Hosting Speed
Their platform has very impressive loading speeds. This has become increasingly important in recent years as Google is placing more emphasis on user experience. It’s now measured by Google’s Core Web Vitals, and if your site is slow then ranking well is an uphill battle.
Wealthy Affiliate’s hosting platform is very fast, and the screenshot below is typical of what you can expect from their hosting service.
Website Building Tools
This might be the most impressive aspect of the entire program. It has a powerhouse array of tools to build and rank your website, for new folks as well as seasoned veterans. And they offer a very straightforward process to help beginners with the process:
- Purchasing the right domain
- Setting up website hosting to host your website
- Tools and training to build your first webpage
- Training on doing all-important keyword research to determine the specific content for your website. (Example: If your site is about canoeing, should your first write about “canoeing tips,” or “best canoes for rivers?” And yes, there is a difference that matters.)
- Building your social footprint, and the social platforms to choose.
- Promoting your new website.
- Ranking your website in your niche.
- Monetizing your website (aka, making money with your website).
The Wealthy Affiliate platform has a wealth of information, training, and tools for all of these important steps. And what I love about it? It’s a one-stop shop for all of these steps.
Keyword Research
The platform has a built-in keyword research tool, and it is called Jaaxy. It’s a robust tool that gives you the important data that you need for keyword research, including how easy it is (or difficult) to monetize a particular keyword.
This is a valuable tools, and most keyword subscription sites charge $99 and up just for keyword research. And at Wealthy Affiliate, it’s included in the $49/month Premium Membership. So that’s a very solid feature.
Success Stories
There are too many success stories to properly convey the possibilities with Wealthy Affiliate. There are many, many people making a full-time living online as a result of Wealthy Affiliate.
Try Wealthy Affiliate for Free
At Mobile & Passive, we believe Wealthy Affiliate is the best platform to learn affiliate marketing, and build a successful business. It has the best training, tools, support, and amazing success stories. Whether you’re brand new, or a seasoned pro, it works equally well for everyone. And you can test drive the program for absolutely free – not even a credit card down.
Cost to Enter the Program
This is one of the most important features that I like about Wealthy Affiliate. Many (maybe even most) courses and training platforms require a heavy upfront investment.
I have made this investment in other courses more than 10 times in the past decade, the most expensive course being Joel Kaplan’s Agency Lab course which was a whopping $12,000. Still a very bitter taste even several years later! It was a waste for me, but once you pay, there is no way out!
The great thing about Wealthy Affiliate, is that you can test drive the course for absolutely free. No other courses or training offer that, at least from my experience.
And you get access to a lot of great tools in the free set-up. I would strongly suggest that you upgrade to Premium as soon as you can if you’re serious about affiliate marketing, because the advance training is next level.
However, you can certainly get your feet wet for free and test the platform to see if it’s for you.
And even if you upgrade to the highest level, which is Premium Plus, it is still only a month to month subscription ($99/month). So if ever you are not satisfied for any reason, you’re not out thousands of dollars.
So I have always felt this is a really strong selling feature of Wealthy Affiliate. You only pay if you’re happy, and there is no better symbol of credibility than that.
Summing Up My Wealthy Affiliate Review
So that’s my complete Wealthy Affiliate review based on my years of experience. If you’re looking to start an affiliate marketing business, there is not a better option than Wealthy Affiliate. And for more info, you can check out my post on whether or not the program is legit.
And this comes from a seasoned veteran in the online space – I’ve invested more than $60,000 in training and dumb mistakes over the years, and WA is absolutely the best platform for people of every background and experience level.
Please contact me if you have any questions, or need any clarification.
This Post Has 4 Comments
I like your description of Wealthy Affiliate as a platform with all levels of training. From the free starter program to the premium plus, they are well structured to get you started from a beginner to becoming a pro. I have used the training and tools on the platform to improve my own online business. And if I can, anybody can!
Thanks Parameter for your feedback! Yes, it really is a great platform. Like anything else in life, you get out what you put in. But I do think that Wealthy Affiliate is a very strong platform, and can help anyone from new users to seasoned pros. Thanks for checking in with Mobile & Passive!
It was more than 2 years ago while looking for online opportunities that I landed on a review of Wealthy Affiliate. I wanted to know more about this online community so I read several more reviews. But while the program seemed to be legit and is full of success stories from members, I wasn’t sure if it was the right training platform for a newbie like me.
One more thing, the positive reviews, and comments were mostly from members so I figured they must be biased, lol. I went on to search for other programs but did not like any of them. Fast forward to today, I am still skeptical.
After reading your review, I am considering trying it out. A Wealthy Affiliate review by a ” true veteran in the affiliate marketing space” is not just something that I can shrug off. You laid out very compelling evidence that Wealthy Affiliate is worth giving a shot even for just one week. I have every right to be cautious but when the start-up membership is free, what do I have to lose, right?
If you don’t mind, may I ask how long it took for you to make your first $100? Was it after spending more than $100 or before? And what’s the best advice you can give to somebody who is just starting out in affiliate marketing?
Thanks Alice for you detailed comment! I think it’s the right platform for anyone, but especially if you’re new. You can test drive the platform for free, and then once you’re comfortable and like what you see, you can upgrade to a paid membership. One of the great things about Wealthy Affiliate is that it has been around a long time. So it’s really well optimized, and gets better every week. The owners are continually evolving the platform so it’s always getting better and better.
To answer your other ?….for me it was a very slow process. So my first $100 took a year. I know…that’s a long time! But the reason is because I was a “dabbler.” I only tinkered when I first started – maybe an hour a week. You can make things happen a lot faster, and the best way to do that is to go all in. Commit to 1 hour per day, each and every day. This consistency is the key to results. And know going in that there will be days you want to quit. The key is to keep pushing forward, as 95% of people give up. It’s a cold, hard stat that is proven again and again. So stay at it through thick and thin, and you’ll get there!