Many people are asking this question online and for good reason. I hope that this post will provide some honest answers and help you decide for yourself. I did my best to shed some light on everything I know regarding Wealthy Affiliate. But first, a high-level overview.
Wealthy Affiliate Review
Summary
Product Name:Â Wealthy Affiliate
Owners:Â Kyle Loudon & Carson Lim
Product Type:Â Online Marketing All-Inclusive Platform
Price: Free Starter Membership, Premium Membership ($49/month or $497/year), Premium Plus+ Membership ($99/month OR $697/year), Premium Plus+ with Dedicated Server Membership ($399/month OR $3990/year)
Best For:Â People looking for a one-stop-shop for their online businesses
Overall, Wealthy Affiliate offers a comprehensive and well-rounded training program that can help you build and grow your online business. Its excellent support and affordable pricing make it a great value for money. However, some course material could be more up-to-date and the community can sometimes be a distraction. That being said, no other platform comes close to Wealthy Affiliate when it comes to being an all-inclusive online marketing platform.
Wealthy Affiliate Rating Breakdown
Content Quality: 4/5
- Wealthy Affiliate offers a comprehensive and in-depth training program that covers various aspects of building an online business, including SEO, PPC, and social media marketing. The training material is well-organized and easy to follow, making it accessible for beginners and experienced marketers alike.
Support: 5/5
- Wealthy Affiliate offers excellent support to its members, including a community forum, live chat, and direct messaging with the owners. The community is very active and helpful, and the owners are very responsive to any questions or concerns.
Price: 5/5
- Wealthy Affiliate offers a very affordable membership plan with a free starter membership and a premium membership with a very reasonable price. It offers great value for money, as it provides access to a wide range of tools and resources that can help you build and grow your online business.
Up-to-date: 4/5
- While Wealthy Affiliate has a lot of training material and resources, some of the content is not always up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies. It can be helpful to check the dates of the training materials and resources to ensure they are recent. That being said, there is a wealth of training material provided in the form of live classes as well as training from successful members that complements that.
Tools provided: 5/5
- Wealthy Affiliate provides a wide range of tools and resources that can help you build and grow your online business, including website building and hosting, keyword research, and a content creation platform. However, some additional features can always be added, such as a mobile application that allows users to access the training material and resources on the go, integration with other popular tools and platforms such as Google Analytics, and automation tools such as email marketing automation and social media scheduling. However, there is no other platform I know of that provides more tools than Wealthy Affiliate at the moment, and it’s not an easy task to provide everything an online business may need in one place, hence the 5/5.
- Wealthy Affiliate Rating Breakdown
- What is Wealthy Affiliate? – And why should you care?
- Who is Wealthy Affiliate for – Should I be an internet marketer?
- My connection to Wealthy Affiliate – How has it helped me
- What does Wealthy Affiliate provide?
- Let’s take a look at the Training
- Internet Marketing Tools
- A community of successful internet marketers
- My Criticisms
- Is Wealthy Affiliate Trustworthy?
- Don’t join before you read this!
- The Verdict + LifestyleFreedomBusiness Reader Bonus
- Wealthy Affiliate Review Summary
What is Wealthy Affiliate? – And why should you care?
Wealthy Affiliate is an online marketing training platform and a community of entrepreneurs. It provides training and resources to help individuals build and grow their own online businesses. This includes training on topics such as search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social media marketing, website creation and hosting, and keyword research.
It also provides a range of tools and resources, such as website builders and hosting, keyword research tools, and a content creation platform. The platform also includes a community of members who can offer support and share their experiences. Wealthy Affiliate is a comprehensive and versatile platform that provides education and resources for those who want to start or grow their online business.
But why did I decide to write a review about it?
Here’s the deal…
In Lifestyle Freedom Business my passion is to share my own experiences and things I know, regarding the vast world of internet marketing and lifestyle entrepreneurship. In this post, I’m breaking down my top recommendation for someone who is starting out and wants a platform that is entirely bullshit free. Even if you are not starting out, but just frustrated with your internet marketing success thus far (or lack thereof), be sure to keep on reading!
Who is Wealthy Affiliate for – Should I be an internet marketer?
Wealthy Affiliate is not limited to internet marketers. Not at all! Here are just some types of people who can benefit from the platform.
- anyone who wants to promote their work online
- bloggers
- entrepreneurs
- people who want or need to work from home
- anyone who craves location independence
- people who want or need an extra source of income
- people who want to build passive income
- people who want to fund their lifestyle and travel the world
- people with disabilities
- people who have problems to get a regular job (for example people that have gotten out of jail)
- moms and dads
- retired people
- anyone who wants to build an audience
- artists
- students
- college dropouts
- literally anyone!
If you have access to a decent internet connection (even if for some hours of the day) and a decent PC or laptop, you can benefit from Wealthy Affiliate.
My connection to Wealthy Affiliate – How has it helped me
Before we go on to talk about what Wealthy Affiliate provides, let me give you some context about my personal connection to it.
I have no relation to the owners whatsoever. I’m just a person who is part of the community and has benefited tremendously from it. I still operate my websites in Wealthy Affiliate and use it for most of my internet marketing needs.
Wealthy Affiliate is the platform that has personally helped me actually start doing something online. I always dreamed of being able to run a business from my laptop and never got down to it. I always wanted to find a way to break free from the economic and location shackles of the conventional life path.
But that wasn’t easy…
My own lack of action and the huge amount of misinformation out there never let me do something more than daydream. But that was until I ran into Wealthy Affiliate. The only platform that helped me take real action.
Why?
Mainly because of the honest, step-by-step training provided, the tools that make everything so easy to do and the wonderful community that was there to help and motivate me every step of the way. I’ve been a member there for quite some time and don’t intend to leave anytime soon.
Because of Wealthy Affiliate, I have been able to achieve success online and live life without limits. I’m out there building my own websites, I’m not just talking nonsense.
What does Wealthy Affiliate provide?
To begin with, let’s get a bird’s eye view on everything that is offered over at the Wealthy Affiliate platform.
- Step-by-step, look-over-your-shoulder, simplified training
- Weekly Live Classes (and 100’s of hours of replays)
- Training from all the successful members
- A community of more than 2.6 million (and growing) members, many of whom are seasoned internet marketers
- Live Help from the community
- Direct 1 on 1 mentoring access to the owners themselves (they really are completely accessible) and all the other members
- A plug-and-play WordPress Sitebuilder, SiteRubix
- State of the Art Secure and Fast Hosting
- Completely FREE to Get Started! (with no catches, and 1 Free website you can work with immediately!)
- 24/7(really 24/7!) Support for your websites from a qualified team of experts
- An Affiliate Program you can profit from
- A Website Engagement Platform (SiteComments)
- The SiteContent Writing Platform
- A Keyword Research Tool
- And much, much more!
The platform is only growing and the Wealthy Affiliate team is really innovating each and every day, so much more to come as well.
But enough with the generalities. I want to actually SHOW you how Wealthy Affiliate is like inside (using my own account) and you can judge for yourself!
Let’s take a look at the Training
The training is comprised of three basic parts. The Core Training, the Live Training Classes, and the Community Training.
The Core Training
The Core Training is comprised of two basic paths that someone can go down. The main, and the one recommended for anyone starting out is the Online Entrepreneur Certification(OEC) training.
Kyle (one of the owners) teaches you in step by step format how to build your own income producing website from scratch. It is comprised of phases and lessons in video and text format as well.
If you are familiar with other internet marketing courses, you must know that many leave a lot to be imagined.
Not Kyle.
He holds nothing back and shows you the exact way he builds his own successful websites. He actually builds a website from scratch in front of your eyes as a case study. All of the websites he has built during training have grown to be successful and are still successful right now. He actually builds websites in front of your eyes. Moreover, I love the way he teaches by simplifying things and getting right to the gist of what you should be focused on.
Under every piece of training, you’ll find all the to-dos you must complete. You can check them off and since the whole training is completely interactive, you always know where you have left off. To add to the mix, under every piece of training there is a whole discussion taking place, where you can ask whatever you like. Kyle and all the other members (including me) are fully active and will provide answers to your questions in record time.
But that’s not all…
The other path of Core Training is the Affiliate Bootcamp, where you learn how to benefit from Wealthy Affiliate’s own affiliate program. With more phases and lessons than OEC and Kyle building a whole new website in front of your eyes once again. Better suited for someone a bit more advanced, it’s the perfect course to continue learning after you have finished the Online Entrepreneur Certification.
Weekly Live Training Classes
Jay is the person who provides these classes every week. Targeting different topics each time, Jay can help you take your websites and internet marketing knowledge to expert level. He is a seasoned internet marketer and sometimes his training is even better than Kyle’s.
The training here is also step by step, but since the classes are live there is an element of discussion and a lot of laughing when the time permits it.
Let me say that you don’t have to watch them live. The training is available as replays for as long as you are a member.
As a result, you understand that there is a huge collection of recorded live classes already inside your account when you join. Jay has also built hugely successful websites as case studies that still bring revenue, such as this odd one (believe me it makes him money, day in and day out!).
Community Training
If you are not yet overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the available training, the community training comes to make sure of it. All the members can provide training inside the platform for anyone to use. And if you’re thinking it wouldn’t be anything fancy, think again!
The community is full of successful internet marketers and the training provided by them is also top notch. Really helpful stuff on every topic you can think of. There are classrooms for every topic imaginable related to internet marketing. And I’m not exaggerating!
The takeaway point
Wealthy Affiliate has such a huge wealth of training, that the only risk you run is getting overwhelmed by it!
Internet Marketing Tools
One of the most helpful aspects of Wealthy Affiliate is the internet marketing and website toolbox you have at your disposal. It’s not an exaggeration to say that every technical aspect is made as easy as doing some clicks.
SiteHosting
State of the art website hosting is provided with:
- WordPress optimized servers
- The most secure hosting anywhere
- SiteSpeed feature for lightning fast websites
- Full redundancy
- Daily backups
- 24/7 website monitoring
- Email & forwards
- Site Health analyzing
- Website auto login
- SiteFeedback where other successful internet marketers will provide feedback for your website
Besides the free plan, which someone can perfectly use to start out, there are 3 more paid plans available depending on the needs of your business. Do not feel obliged to buy any of these from the get go. You will upgrade naturally down the road as the needs and profits of your business increase.
The more premium plans come with improved hosting and access to tools, as well as more training.
SiteBuilder
The plug and play website builder that helps you install WordPress and get your website up and running literally in minutes.
SiteDomains
Where you can buy and manage all your domains in just one place.
SiteComments
A tool where you can manage all your website comments and get further engagement to your websites.
SiteContent
A powerful writing platform with a sophisticated grammar, spelling and punctuation checker integrated, that lets you have all your writing centralized and then upload your posts directly to WordPress.
KeyWord Tool
The Wealthy Affiliate owners have gone crazy and have incorporated their premium Keyword Tool inside the Wealthy Affiliate membership, with no additional cost whatsoever. Jaaxy is one of the best keyword tools out there. It has been till recently a separate platform from Wealthy Affiliate.
Now, the owners decided to incorporate a lite version of Jaaxy inside the Wealthy Affiliate membership. However, don’t let lite fool you. It’s more than enough to satisfy all your needs for keyword research and then some. I was thrilled when I heard it. Wealthy Affiliate is innovating and providing immense value, and they stay true to that each and every day.
What’s more, the keyword research function can be done inside the Wealthy Affiliate platform, which means Wealthy Affiliate is becoming more and more an all-inclusive platform for any internet marketer and website owner, skyrocketing our productivity with the ability to manage all our website needs from one place.
To sum up
Everything you need to succeed online is included in your Premium Membership. No reason to lose your time with technical concepts or having to use different tools from different places. In Wealthy Affiliate, everything is really centralized and you can certainly run a fully functional online business from one place.
A community of successful internet marketers
What has amazed me about Wealthy Affiliate is how accessible the owners themselves and most of the successful members are. The live chat is active all day and everyone is eager to help you by answering questions and making suggestions, as well as to motivate you every step of the way. Kyle, Carson, and Jay are active themselves quite regularly.
Don’t imagine some type of dead forum. I can’t stress enough how lively the chat is all day (it’s like you’re on Facebook or something) and how helpful everyone is. The owners themselves answer to personal messages within a matter of 2 days or even hours sometimes. I will personally answer to everything I can help you with. Just drop me a message or post on my profile and I’ll get back to you soon enough ;).
Don’t underestimate the importance of a supportive community. When some rainy days come (and they surely will come) the help and motivation of people who have done it and of people with similar struggles with you, goes a LONG way.
My Criticisms
No platform is absolutely perfect. After all, things are constantly in flux and every platform online should evolve with rapid speeds to keep up with today’s online world.
Wealthy Affiliate is a platform that constantly strives to innovate and provide more to their members. In my opinion, they do a pretty darn good job with it. However, I do have some criticisms of the platform.
The Bootcamp Training
First of all, I don’t like most websites that come as a result of the bootcamp training.
Don’t get me wrong here…
The training itself is certainly top notch. What I don’t like is that people with zero experience online decide to build a website through affiliate bootcamp. In affiliate bootcamp, you build a website in the internet marketing niche. I would prefer someone with at least some experience and success online chose affiliate bootcamp.
It’s a bit ridiculous to me for people who know nothing to start talking like they are experts. That results in low-quality websites that seem like they have no real substance. That’s exactly why my recommendation is to start with the Online Entrepreneur Certification training and choose a niche that you are passionate about.
If you just choose a niche that someone else picked for you, without you having any real interest in it (not to mention knowledge about it) then the results aren’t gonna be of high quality. When you are more knowledgeable and have a passion for internet marketing, then, by all means, delve into the wonderful bootcamp training.
Notifications
I believe that the notifications’ function needs some improvement. There are times where I get the same notification again and again and others where I miss discussions or just forget about them.
Website Design
Another problem I want to address is that the main training doesn’t touch upon website design in depth. There is training available but in the more advanced live classes and other people’s training. That means that you can learn and become better, although you have to do it by exploring more yourself.
I must state that I believe Kyle has structured the main training this way so that you won’t get overwhelmed and focus on the right things starting out, which are traffic and quality content. That’s certainly fine, but I would appreciate some training modules for website design maybe at a later stage of the main courses. There are training modules already, for example about menus and your sidebar, but I would like to see some more. Some people do build ugly websites, which is something that must be addressed.
Email Marketing
Same as above, you can find training about email marketing on the platform, but it is not part of the core training modules. Again, it makes sense to not overwhelm people before they have a traffic-producing website, though I would appreciate a core module added on email marketing.
Some people stop evolving
That’s not a problem of Wealthy Affiliate per se. People who want to evolve can certainly do it. There are numerous resources available. However, many people think that the core training will make them rich. They finish it and they leave their websites to rust. Wealthy Affiliate has weekly live classes and other training as well to help with that. If I were them I would try to incorporate something more as well. For example, routines to follow after finishing the core training. Many people get lost or overwhelmed, so a blueprint for later on may be beneficial. Just my ideas here.
It’s free to start
The important thing to note here is that it’s really free to start. You can use your e-mail right now and join with a free account. Of course, some functionality is limited but you can really play around, get 2 free websites up and running, no strings attached. You can really try out the platform for free and see for yourself. The question is, why would they offer a free type of membership that provides so much?
The answer is simple. The owners are so confident that the product is the best in the industry, that they know most of you who are serious about succeeding online will be hooked by the quality of the services and the sincerity of everyone in there. They know that most of you will CHOOSE to become premium members once you get a glimpse of what is provided inside.
I personally even go as far as to encourage you to start for free. It’s better to experience things with your own eyes and then decide if you want to further invest in it.
Wealthy Affiliate Premium
The Premium membership is giving you full access to the all-inclusive platform we talked about and everything it provides. No hidden upsells here, never! In fact, because of all the available features, you won’t even need to worry about any others costs for your internet marketing endeavors other than your membership and maybe buying a domain (done inside Wealthy Affiliate and costing about 10$ a year!).
In fact, you won’t have the need to buy any other training and get ripped off your money. Inside Wealthy Affiliate, you can literally learn anything, as we have already shown. In fact, you should actually be careful of trying many different things at once and falling victim to the so-called shiny object syndrome.
Is Wealthy Affiliate Trustworthy?
Based on my own experience being a member for many years there, I can honestly say that I have never had any issues with the platform. They are transparent, helpful, and responsive.
However, you don’t have to take my word for it. There are numerous positive reviews of people all over the internet. Also, Wealthy Affiliate has a 4.9 trust score on Trustpilot, which is something that further attests to that.
Finally, you can easily create a free account, use the platform and get a feel from the community directly.
Don’t join before you read this!
Before I end this review I have some final points to make. Does Wealthy Affiliate actually work? That was the answer we started with. The answer is quite simple and may even bore you.
Wealthy Affiliate works IF you MAKE it work. You can’t expect to succeed online (or anywhere for that matter) simply by thinking about it. The answer to success is continuous and never-ending action.
Wealthy Affiliate is the top honest platform for no bullshit internet marketing training. What they teach WORKS! There is no magic bullet, no push button method to make you rich. You should be prepared to take this seriously and invest your time. You should be patient and persistent. You should learn and apply what you learn each and every day. You should be in it for the long haul. You should be dedicated. Don’t expect results in a day because you will be disappointed. I don’t want to draw any unrealistic expectations here, believe me.
That being said, Wealthy Affiliate is a legitimate platform that provides you with everything you need to succeed online and more. The world of the internet is full of opportunity and it’s only growing. The question is, will YOU make it work? Will YOU take what’s given to you and succeed with it? That’s a question only YOU can answer ;).
The Verdict + LifestyleFreedomBusiness Reader Bonus
I tried to be quite comprehensive in showing you how Wealthy Affiliate actually is inside and the experience I have had with it until now. In the question: Does Wealthy Affiliate actually work? I answer YES!
From here on out, what I urge you to do is quite simple. Don’t take my word for it. I’ve shown you enough to give you a full picture. Just move on and get a Starter Membership. It’s free and there are no strings attached. No credit card required here. Just your name and e-mail.
Go in there and send me a message. Say hi and ask whatever you want. Look around, play with what is available, start the Core Training (the first phase is available to Starter Members) and judge for yourself if Wealthy Affiliate is for real. If you don’t like it come back here and just yell at me or something for losing some of your time. If you do understand the quality of the service though, I’m sure you’ll never look back. I’ll see you on the inside! 😉
How to Claim the LifestyleFreedomBusiness Reader Bonus
When you join with your free membership I’ll be personally contacting you inside Wealthy Affiliate. Besides welcoming you to the platform and pointing you to the next best steps for you to take, I’ll also be offering you my personal LifestyleFreedomBusiness bonus.
Should you decide to become Premium within the first 7 days you’ll get a free .com domain plus my favourite Mindset Training resources.
Mindset Training is one of the most overlooked steps in every internet marketing training I’ve ever come across. And mindset is yet one of the most important factors of your success (or failure for that matter) in this industry. That’s what I try to address with my bonus, but enough spoiling the fun. More on this on the inside! 😉
Wealthy Affiliate Review Summary
Product Name: Wealthy Affiliate
Sales Page: https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com
Owners: Kyle & Carson
Legitimacy: Totally Legit
Lifestyle Freedom Business Verdict: Our #1 choice for an all-around perfect internet marketing platform
Feel free to ask any question you may have in the comment section below and I will do my best to answer them. Also, I would love to hear your personal experiences (if you have any), with the Wealthy Affiliate platform.
Tony
Founder of LifestyleFreedomBusiness
I’d want to thank you for your informative and detailed post about Wealthy Affiliate. This is a really important post that everyone should read. I’ve been a member of WA for almost two years at this time. I had no prior experience or expertise of affiliate marketing when I first joined WA. But I was able to obtain all of that information through WA training. My current source of revenue is affiliate marketing. Continue posting in this manner.
Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to leave a comment. I’m glad that you found my post informative and that it helped you to learn more about Wealthy Affiliate. It’s great to hear that you’ve been a member for almost two years now and that you were able to gain the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in affiliate marketing through the training provided by WA. Your success is a testament to the effectiveness of WA’s training. I appreciate your encouragement and will continue to post useful and informative content for my readers. Thank you for being a part of my community.
Wealthy Affiliate does actually work. After being a member for over three years now, I went from making 0 to over $1500 in a month just by using Wealthy Affiliate and following their training. There are over a million users who started their business with WA and some are extremely successful as they put time and dedication into their business without giving up.
Thank you for sharing your experience with Wealthy Affiliate! It’s great to hear that it has worked for you and that you’ve been able to achieve success with the training provided. It’s encouraging to know that there are over a million users who have also started their businesses with WA and have seen success. Keep up the good work and dedication in your business!