This world is full of people and companies who make promises that are too good to be true. Likewise, there are a lot of work from home scams out there. Anything that sounds remotely like a scam leaves people feeling wary. It’s a good thing that you’re wondering, “Is the Wealthy Affiliate Scam real or should I get Wealthy Affiliate?”
We’ll take a look at Why Wealthy Affiliate exists and what it stands for. Then, we’ll talk about the benefits and services it offers. Of course, we’ll give you feature and cost comparisons between Wealthy Affiliate and other companies.
Rather than waiting until the end of this post to answer the big question, “Is the Wealthy Affiliate Scam real or should I get Wealthy Affiliate?” I’m going to tell you up front. Wealthy Affiliate is a site that trains you how to be a successful affiliate marketer. It makes no promises about the level of your success, just as a college can’t guarantee that you’ll earn enough to pay off your student loans, go on vacations, or be able to support your family’s lifestyle.
Based on my experience, Wealthy Affiliate is the real deal and it works. It has a significantly lower price tag up front (as well as throughout) and you don’t have to wait until your training is over to start making money. There’s an active community that offers you support and the training is up to date with the internet industry standards giving you the best edge possible. It’s founders are actively involved daily to give you the best experience.
Why Wealthy Affiliate Was Created
To quote Kyle and Carson, the founders of Wealthy Affiliate:
Wealthy Affiliate was created as an initiative to help other people succeed online in the same way [we] had already experienced success. Since 2005, the platform at WA has continued to evolve and innovate at a pace that is faster than the industry.
Without you, we don’t exist. Without you, we have nothing to create. Without you, we have no way to do what we are passionate about. Helping others. Step inside the uniquely supportive community and experience WA for yourself. You will quickly come to learn that everything we build, every change we make, and every feature/system that we add is focused on YOU.
Kyle and Carson were succeeding before they created Wealthy Affiliate and their own affiliate websites continue to succeed. They didn’t need to make this affiliate training to succeed. They created Wealthy Affiliate because they wanted to serve people like you and me.
Why I Joined Wealthy Affiliate
In one of my other posts, I talked about how my husband’s paycheck used to cover the cost living with a little left over for savings. Then, his employer stopped giving raises to help Brent’s income keep up with inflation. Overtime became nonexistent. It didn’t take long and we were in over our heads in debt because we couldn’t pay for every day expenses. We didn’t go on vacations or go out to eat.
I started looking into going back to school (I already have a bachelor’s degree). The problem was that I would have to go to school for at least 2 more years before I could enter the work force and make enough money to be worthwhile. In my situation, 2 years plus the cost of school wasn’t going to cut it. I needed to start earning sooner and at a lower cost.
Back in March 2012, I joined Wealthy Affiliate, hoping that I could supplement my husband’s diminishing income. There, I learned how to build an online affiliate marketing business using websites and social media. This is how I have contributed to my family’s finances without securing a regular 20-40 hour per week job. It’s given me the freedom to remain a stay at home mom and continue homeschooling.
I have chosen to work on my sites and social media platforms very low key. At times, I have even neglected them for more than a year at a time. Still, I have been able to maintain an income between $300-600 monthly. Of course, I’m not making promises that you’ll make a dime or that you should neglect your sites as I have. I am saying that I’m not more successful because I haven’t been dedicated.
Instead, as a reviewer of the effectiveness of Wealthy Affiliate’s training, I’m pointing out that my experience shows that Wealthy Affiliate works.
Websites Cost Money
A lot of the state-of-the-art websites do cost money. If you are reading this because you’re in a financial pickle, I have some exciting news for you. Wealthy Affiliate gives every new member 2 free websites and a free training to get started.
You still need to build your websites, but everything you’ll need to get that started, including the site builder and training are available to you for free. You could build your website in 30 seconds, even if you know nothing about building a website.
Why Wealthy Affiliate?
Some of the benefits that come with my premium membership with Wealthy Affiliate:
- New training added daily
- Access to 13 classrooms on focused topics
- Supportive community: if I get stuck, I can ask for help, which is usually immediate. When I have a success story, they’re there to cheer me on.
- Training is updated as Google updates so I know I have the latest information and strategies available at my finger tips.
- Website hosting comes with both the free and the paid membership. Please note that free websites end with .siterubix. For paid memberships, you can choose your own domain.
- You can choose to to purchase your domain (the domain for this site is homeschoolingintheburbs.info) at Wealthy Affiliate or through another company.
Also, Wealthy Affiliate recognizes that most people are critical of training websites and want to try things for free. That’s why they created the free membership so you can take their program for a test drive. Included are the first levels of training and 2 free websites. I like charts that help break down the benefits of the options laid before me. Perhaps, you do, too.
How does Wealthy Affiliate Compare to Other Companies?
Most people choose to upgrade from the free membership to the premium. When you do, you can expect a great deal of savings because you can get the most important tools you need to make your website run efficiently under one roof, or so to speak. Your membership comes with free website hosting, deep discounts when you buy your domain, and of course the training.
Hosting
Let’s start by looking at Wealthy Affiliate’s hosting. In the chart below, you can see what you can come to expect with their hosting. See how much you save? Please note that the $49/month is the same $49 you pay when you upgrade your affiliate training from free to premium, this is not an additional cost.
Registering Domains
When I first started, Wealthy Affiliate didn’t offer domains for sale. I had to go elsewhere. I chose GoDaddy. While I was shopping for my domains, I learned that “.com” was more expensive than “.info.” I bought “.info.” While the customer service at Go Daddy is great, GoDaddy contacted me via email to upgrade my sites’ privacy, the right to change my site into https to add security for my readers, and if I wanted both the “.com” and”.info” for my website. I was up sold. I ended up choosing to protect my privacy and a “.info”. Fast forward to 2017: it was $23.16 for one site. If I got all the features, I could have spent around $100
Now, Wealthy Affiliate sells domains and it’s a lot cheaper than Go Daddy. When you’re ready to get your own domain, Wealthy Affiliate is the least expensive place to get it. As you can see, I can get all the features I wanted for about 40% less at Wealthy Affiliate.
Another benefit from Wealthy Affiliate is that I don’t have to worry about being up sold. This matters a lot to me because I remember buying a TV from a merchant out of New Jersey on Amazon. Right after I ordered the TV, the merchant called me to up sell me a warranty, sound system and other accessories. They offered a special price that lasted as long as the phone call. I couldn’t call my husband to discuss it. There was a lot of pressure. It was a horrible experience. I believe Amazon received a bunch of complaints because that merchant stopped operating through Amazon’s website soon after.
You’ll never have to worry about that with Wealthy Affiliate. It has been my experience that once I choose what I want, they pretty much leave me alone. If they start offering a new service, free or paid, of course they’re going to let me know so I can choose. It would be a disservice if they didn’t inform me. One example is that Wealthy Affiliate started offering SiteSpeed for free May 2017. I didn’t have to use the product, there was no pressure to use it. I chose to because it can improve the time it takes your website to load. Sites that load too slowly won’t get much traffic. Rather than explaining that feature, I’ll point you in the right direction.
Anyway, once you choose to buy a domain from Wealthy Affiliate, you’ll have everything you could possibly want for one very low price.
How to get Started
This is what I how I got started: I tested the monthly membership for a while to make sure it was really going to work and to see if I would stick with it. I decided the training was better than helpful when I started reaching my goals. A few months later, I upgraded to an annual membership.
It’s less than going back to school and I get to do it on my own schedule, so it’s less disruptive for my family and home school. The best perk of all for me is that I didn’t have to spend a bunch on an education that lasted a few years before I could start making money. I was able to start earning right away.
I’ll always recommend getting as much as you can for free, so I recommend getting the free membership and your 2 free websites. This will give you a chance to get the basics done without paying a cent and without providing any payment information.
Later on, when you decide Wealthy Affiliate is right for you, you can you choose to upgrade to a monthly membership: the monthly cost is $49/month for an annual cost of $588. Bonus, you can get your first month for $19. You’ll have the option to move your free websites to your own domain-just request it and Wealthy Affiliate’s SiteSupport will do it for you.
Or you can choose the annual membership for $359/year (a $229 annual savings over the monthly membership).
Reviews from others
Though I have been with Wealthy Affiliate for 5 years, you may want reviews from other people. Here are some from 2017:
As always, I’m here to answer your questions either through the comments or email. I wouldn’t recommend anything to you unless I wouldn’t use myself.
