This program took me from an underemployed college grad to earning a full-time income online…
Program: Wealthy Affiliate
Experience Level: Total Newbie (No degree or previous experience needed)
Owners: Kyle and Carson (founded 2005)
Website: wealthyaffiliate.com
Price: $0 to try it out (no credit card needed)
Create Your Free Account Here
The training and community at Wealthy Affiliate helped me go from an underemployed college graduate who knew absolutely nothing about making money online, to building my own business online and earning a full-time income. If you follow the training provided, you can achieve the same and even far beyond.
First of all, let me point out that this NOT a work at home “job”, another direct sale (MLM) pitch, nor is it a get rich quick scheme. This is an educational platform and community that teaches beginners how to build their own online business.
To me, the scariest part about signing up for an online program like this is putting down your credit card information and investing in something you don’t actually know that much about…
What if you end up not liking it? What if they don’t give you a refund?
But Wealthy Affiliate actually lets you join with a starter account for completely free, and you don’t even have to put down any payment information to begin like nearly all free trials with online companies require.
The amount of free material that the company puts out to new members is pretty fantastic, so I would never hesitate to recommend anyone sign up for the starter membership to test it out.
Try Wealthy Affiliate Here for $0
So who am I?
Me with the owners of Wealthy Affiliate – Kyle and Carson
My name is Wendy, and I’ve been making money online since 2013. When I graduated from college I couldn’t find a “real” job and even though I was working, I wasn’t making enough money. I also was beginning to have doubts about what I actually wanted to do with my life.
I knew if I could work from home I would be much happier, so I set out to learn how. I will admit that when I first joined Wealthy Affiliate I was skeptical. Aside from earning a few gift cards from survey websites, I had never actually made money online and I didn’t have a lot of faith in myself that it was something I could do. After all, I had zero experience or skills in online marketing.
But once I started, I never looked back. It was hard work for sure, as making money doesn’t come easy, and I struggled to get going. But with proper support and guidance, I was able to push through the beginning barrier and haven’t once regretted my decision.
Today I am earning a full-time income from affiliate marketing and I absolutely LOVE the freedom working from home gives me. I am able to create my own schedule, spend more time with my family and travel when I want to.
I would love to offer you the same guidance and support I had when I first got started out, so if you join Wealthy Affiliate here know that you will get my personal 1-on-1 help if you ever need it!
What Exactly is Wealthy Affiliate?
Wealthy Affiliate is a training program that can teach anyone how to start their own online business. The platform has changed significantly since I joined in 2012 and an insane amount since its launch in 2005 (it started as a simple keyword tool). The owners, Kyle and Carson, continually strive to make it the best available training on the market.
The training ranges anywhere from teaching beginners to start up their own niche marketing website to training existing business owners how to put themselves online and use local marketing strategies to grow their existing business.
The great thing about Wealthy Affiliate is that you’re encouraged to start a business from your passions, interests or hobbies, not choose from a list of pre-selected “profitable” niches like other marketing programs will have you do. Starting a business based on your interests makes it more exciting and more likely that you’ll succeed. In fact, I believe it to be the most beneficial training program available on the market today for those wanting to venture into online entrepreneurship.
What Makes Wealthy Affiliate Unique?
It’s so much MORE than just a product. Unlike other online training programs, it isn’t just some downloadable guide or series of video tutorials. It’s essentially like a university for online business entrepreneurs. It provides all aspects anyone seeking out income online will need – training, tools, community and support! You won’t find that within any other “product” available.
The thing about online marketing is the system changes fast, what worked last year may not work today. I’ve seen things change drastically in 5+ years I’ve been involved in marketing online! However, the owners, Kyle and Carson, are very knowledgeable and stay on top of the game. Their training and advice is never outdated!
It’s really difficult to find that sort of thing within the “make money” niche. It’s flooded with scams, crappy products or people charging way too much for training courses and coaching. As a beginner, it can be overwhelming and easy to fall for some get rich quick hype – when the reality is making money online is just like in the real world as it takes dedication and hard work.
Access the Community Here without a credit card!
Here’s the basic outline of what they teach:
Step 1: Choose an Interest
This is what is referred to as a niche, and it will be the focus of your business. A niche is a narrowed down segment of a market which targets a specific group of people. These people are looking for specific information, help or products and that is where you come in.
You can create a website within any niche you want. I know it can be overwhelming for some people (I had a really difficult time with this step when I started) but the most important thing is to start somewhere. This is great if you have a passion or hobby, because you most likely already know a lot about the topic and it will be very easy for you to get started.
I’ve come up with a brief list of niches to hopefully help stir up some ideas!
And by no means is this an all-inclusive list – there are basically limitless niches and you can start a website in any area that you want.
Step 2: Build a Website
This is the next step of the process and one which some people might be really scared of. But Wealthy Affiliate actually makes the whole building a website thing SUPER easy, even if you know nothing about creating websites.
They’ve integrated a website builder – Siterubix – into their platform and the entire process is streamlined very well. You can create a WordPress website within just a few minutes. All you have to do is fill out a few fields – website URL, name, and select a theme and then hit “build!”
If you create a starter membership, you can build 2 free websites within the platform to try it out.
I should also mention that with the premium membership ($49/month) you can host up to 25 domains that you own, plus another 25 of their free siterubix sites. It’s fully managed WordPress hosting, security is top-notch, they do daily backups and have excellent site support. The price of the membership is worth it for the web hosting alone, in my opinion.
Simply start from your passions or what you know, and if you can help people and gain an audience, you can be successful.
Step 3: Attract Visitors
Before you can make money, you’ll need people coming to your site. This is where you’ll learn how to attract interested visitors that actually care about what you have to say and would likely buy from you.
Search engine traffic (Google, Bing, Yahoo) can be the most engaged and buyer friendly if you know how to target them right. You’ll learn how to rank your website for different keywords that have lower competition so you can get on the first page of Google (and other search engines).
You likely search Google often for all sorts of information – including if you are looking to solve a problem or purchasing a product. Lots of people do research and read reviews before they buy stuff online.
Say you’re looking for a portable baby stroller and not sure which one to get. You might type something like “lightweight stroller” or “travel baby stroller” into the search bar.
If you created a website within the baby stroller niche (or a travel with baby niche, to use another example) you could rank on the 1st page for certain terms like this and interested people would find your website.
But your website isn’t just going to be targeting ONE keyword! As you create more content, you will rank for many search terms within the niche – 100’s or 1,000’s + – depending on how authoritative you are and how large you scale up your site.
The cumulative effect of ranking for lots of terms in Google can bring in a tremendous amount of traffic, and interested traffic at that!
Of course, there are other methods to get traffic (social media, PPC) but gaining a following through organic search is the least expensive and an extremely effective model for affiliate marketing.
Step 4: Earn $$$
Okay, so this is the part most people really want to know – how does all this actually make you money? Most products that claim to teach you how to make money will lead you in with something like “Earn up to $360 per day doing nothing!” or “Make $1,000’s overnight with this little-known trick!”
Well, that isn’t realistic and those products are highly deceptive.
If you want to build a sustainable business model, you can’t just start with earning money of nowhere. You need to have a foundation (your website) and an audience (visitors coming to the site). Building up to that point, unfortunately, takes some time, but remember you are building a business, not an overnight ATM.
Anyway, back to the money. The basic training teaches something called affiliate marketing. This is when you sell other people’s products or services for a commission.
Tons of companies have an affiliate program these days – including large corporations like Amazon, Target and Walmart, but thousands more as well.
Companies like having affiliates because they get people to help them advertise their products, and in turn make more sales. They reward the affiliate (you) with commissions each time you make a sale.
At the end of the day, you are helping these people find relevant products and services they are already looking for, would potentially be looking for, or helping them out with a problem and providing valuable advice. You are getting your audience to trust you and they can look to you for advice and recommendations.
Let me give you a peek inside the community…
Training Courses
What’s really nice about the training within Wealthy Affiliate is that it’s very straightforward and easy to follow along, even if you are a complete beginner. They have written lesson plans, along with video training and tasks to do within each section. This is nice because it encourages you to actually get involved and start taking action on your business as you’re learning, instead of just plowing through a bunch of training courses and forgetting all the information after!
Weekly Video Training
Another perk to the membership is that you have access to weekly live video classes led by one of Wealthy Affiliate’s longest standing member’s Jay (Magistudios within WA) – he is awesome and the video classes are actually fun. These can teach you all sorts of tips and tricks about how to improve and manage your business.
But you don’t actually have to watch them live, you can go back and watch them anytime you want. In fact, there is a library of HUNDREDS of weekly training videos. It’s an incredibly valuable resource.
Here are some samples of the type of training videos that Jay hosts:
This is a very brief sampling of just a few videos that have aired in the past couple of months. There are way more and you can see them once you’re on the inside of WA. These videos are live on Fridays each week, however they are available to watch whenever you want and there’s an entire library of hundreds of these live class recordings.
Websites, Domains, and Hosting
Wealthy Affiliate makes building websites and getting them hosted super easy for anyone.
They provide web hosting for up to 25 of your own domains, as well as 25 additional SiteRubix domains (their free ones).
If you’re a starter member, you can build up to 2 free SiteRubix sites.
They’ve made the entire website building process incredibly simple that you literally don’t have to have any prior knowledge of website building to do this – you just fill in a few fields and boom – your website is built!
You can actually purchase your domain names right within WA if you want to (although definitely NOT required) but it makes it easier for a lot of beginners. The price is also pretty good, and often times cheaper than external registrars especially considering they include free email and privacy protection in the price.
Buying a domain name is the only “upsell” within the system, and they average around $15 per year. The hosting for each domain is included in your $49/month membership price. You can build a domain on their free websites and pay nothing if you want to.
You can also transfer domains you already own to WA very easily.
If you’ve ever had experience with buying a domain, getting it hosted, getting WordPress uploaded via your CPanel – it can sometimes be a headache for beginners. I know I had a hard time with this when I first started, but Wealthy Affiliate seriously makes it so easy now by just clicking a few buttons. It’s crazy how they’ve streamlined this process!
Take a look at Wealthy Affiliate’s hosting compared to other hosting providers offering a similar service
Remember that the hosting is INCLUDED within your premium membership price!
Excellent Website Support
You can easily contact within the Site Support tab and open up a ticket.
They have very good website support within their hosting platform. Every time I’ve ever had an issue, I’ve contacted their site support and have gotten a response within 30 minutes. They’re very helpful and have always resolved any problems I have had. Heck, one time I actually broke my website theme and was FREAKING out… they had this fixed for me within about 20 minutes!
Built-in Keyword Tool
How much traffic does a keyword get and how competitive is it? This is super important information to know as an internet marketer.
They’ve actually now incorporated their external keyword tool – Jaaxy – right into the Wealthy Affiliate platform. You see, they used to have something called the “WA Keyword Tool” that wasn’t nearly as good, and you had to pay $19 per month to access Jaaxy if you wanted a better tool.
Now you can get Jaaxy for free with your premium membership, and if you’re a starter member you can access Jaaxy for 30 free searches.
Get Support Along the Way!
The community is very active and helpful, and there’s a lot of ways you can find support and help if you ever need it. Nobody is going to call you up and offer one-on-one coaching for thousands of dollars, you can get help right within the community (included in your premium membership).
Personal help from ME
This is my profile right within Wealthy Affiliate. I’ve been earning money online since 2013 so I might just know a thing or two. If you sign up from my link, I promise you can have my support along the way.
But it isn’t just me who can help, there’s an entire community of members and ways to find it!
Sign up here to get my support
Live Chat
24/7 live chat – this is a great tool to use if you have a quick question about something, or be directed where to go if you get lost. A lot of people use this feature to catch up, chat and BS – which can be fun, but also a distraction!
Classrooms
WA now has 13 interactive classrooms that you can go to for support. They’re actually active, and people will respond to your questions.
Private Messaging
You can also private message other members within the community, including myself. If you have a question you don’t feel comfortable asking publicly, you can always PM it to someone directly.
How much does Wealthy Affiliate really cost?
Starter Membership: $0 and no credit card required – sign up here for a free account.
You’ll get access to the beginner training, 2 free websites, plus you’ll be able to communicate within the platform for your first 7 days. It’s a great way to test out what it can offer you.
Premium Membership: $49/month, or $29/month if you go yearly
This gives you access to all the features provided within Wealthy Affiliate – including their web hosting, live training classes, all their training courses, live chat, classrooms, support and access to their Jaaxy keyword tool (and a lot more).
While the premium membership is highly recommended for those serious about earning money online, the starter membership can give you a taste of how it works to see if that is something you want to invest your money into.
At $49 per month for premium, it is an amazing deal considering the wealth of training and support available within the community.
It’s really hard to find a program in this industry that lets you try it for free (especially without needing credit card info) so there’s absolutely no risk in trying it out.
Let’s compare Wealthy Affiliate to college…
You would easily pay thousands of dollars for just ONE course, and how much for an entire degree? Some people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for degrees, and many times more and more these days are left with massive debt and undesirable jobs. Wealthy Affiliate lets you join on the premium level for less than $1 per day, and teaches you so much about starting up an online business.
I myself went to college, but I got more benefit out of 6 months of training there than any college class I took, ever. It’s simply a way better value for your money and 100% worth the investment.
There’s really no better time to join than right now…
The truth is, there is nothing else like Wealthy Affiliate out there. They started back in 2005 as just a basic keyword tool, but it has evolved into a thriving, interactive community over the past 13 years. In terms of internet programs, 13 years is an eternity. It gives you a pretty good idea that these guys know a thing or two about online business.
They even let you join for free just so you’ll have an “in” on what exactly goes down within the community before you put your money down. They provide you with 2 free websites, free starter training and tons of additional training resources and blogs. You’ll have the ability to ask any questions you wish plus you can get your hands on the 24/7 live chat access for your first 7 days (note: after the first 7 days, your membership isn’t deactivated, just limited).
Remember, if you join here I can help support you along the way. Having been involved in online marketing for several years I do know a thing or two! 🙂
Create Your Starter Account Here for $0
Here are some additional steps to take after you join…
Finish setting up your profile, including adding a profile image.
Start the beginning training course (the “Get Started Here” button)
Engage within the community – ask questions if you need and take advantage of the live chat!
I’ll be in touch shortly after you join to make sure you get started in the right direction. See you on the inside!
Hi Wendy,
Thank you so much for this review. I loved WA.
I have no experience in any affiliate business. But, I cannot afford to put any money towards this program, the free part sounds excellent, and all but that work for me?
Thank You.
Wendy: Have been seeking truth in this associates world. Like the comments I see from you. Could you give me an opinion of the Intellectual Online Streamlining offer? They are telling me 499.00 and a year’s worth of coaching – no other charges and all you have to do is listen to your coach and yes, you’ll make money through Amazon. Second year you pay 4.95 per month for domain name. I’m not tuned in enough to know what to even ask really, but sure would like an opinion of whether this IOS company is a scam. I can’t afford to lose the 5 hundred bucks. I have the time and desire but also have the fear I’ll be burnt. Thanks a lot. Pat.
I’ve never heard of this company so I can’t say for sure, I couldn’t even find anything about it in Google. I would be leary. Wealthy Affiliate teaches you how to create a website and affiliate with Amazon, I would recommend starting there as you can for much, much cheaper than $500.
I started trying this out about a month or so ago, but was going to join then I saw a comment from someone saying that they would have to pay for each web site that they set up ranging from $10 to $12 for each. Then I read someone was getting billed and wasn’t allowed to opt out. Sadly when I did try to sign up my Credit Union for my Visa denied because they are not located in the US. Got scared……
Hi Glenda
It’s true that you do have to pay for each domain you own, but this is just a yearly domain fee that is standard for ANYONE who wants to own a website, regardless of if they’re with Wealthy Affiliate or not. WA also offers FREE websites that come with a .siterubix.com extension if you don’t want to pay the yearly domain fee (this means you don’t actually own the domain yourself). One of the more expensive parts of owning a site is the hosting, which is what is included in your membership to Wealthy Affiliate.
Realistically, your membership fee + a yearly domain fee of around $10-$12 is what you can expect to pay and really all you need to start.
You might have issues with your credit card initially but once they verify the purchase or you OK it with the bank, it’s fine. This actually happened to me with Wealthy Affiliate, but it also happened when I bought some domains with Namecheap, which is a HUGE popular domain registrar and hosting company. Unfortunately the industry is a target for scams and fraud, so your bank is just trying to protect you and make sure you are the one that is actually purchasing the product/services. Them being located in Canada might also have played a part, I’m not sure. Either way, it’s not a reason to be scared!
What if I do not know anything about my niches and they want to buy the product or information. How does that work?
Hi Phillip,
Well, you can choose a niche in which you are already knowledgeable or one in which you would like to learn more about. Nobody starts out knowing everything, but everyone starts somewhere. You take the time to research and learn. 🙂
I tried creating a free account but does not allow me to do so, with a comment, free account is not allowed in my country. Your offer for free account setup is really misleading!
I apologize Eleuterio, the free account is not available in a select few countries. The vast majority of the traffic here comes from countries where a free account is an option so I didn’t put it within the review.
WA is awesome! I love your review. I have Thrive Themes installed as well and I like your website layout, may I ask what theme are you using? I’m having trouble adding a second menu at the top.
I’m using a theme called Rise. Having a second menu at the top depends on the theme, so if your theme doesn’t have the option for that built in, it might be difficult to do if you don’t know how to code. I would suggest changing the theme to one that already has the option.
I can’t get registered my email is already being used.
Have you created an account with WA before? Can you try creating a new email address?
Hi Wendy: I have a few questions (as an absolute newby) that I hope you might consider answering. (estimate/ballpark answers would be great)
1. How long do you think it would take to get a website up and running and earn my first commission?
2. How long to make a living ($5000/month) with internet marketing?
3. I work 50 hours per week. Can I do this in my spare time or is this a full time job?
4. How much will I need to spend on a monthly basis to keep my business going?
5. How much of a commission do I get to keep? Does WA keep part of my commission?
6. I keep seeing ads indicating WA is poor at helping to get traffic to the website and that another website has a better system. Please comment.
Hi Fred,
On average I’d say about 2-3 months before most people earn their first commission. Some earn much faster and others take longer, but it really depends on so many different factors there is no universal answer.
Making a living of $5,000 per month is doable but the time it takes to get there depends on so much that I can’t even give you an answer. I will say it’s possible to do this within the first year, but I can’t guarantee that you will.
You can definitely do it part time but just keep in mind like with most things, the more time you spend putting in the work the faster you can see results.
You don’t need to spend that much per month. Actually, if you sign up for the premium membership at WA an account there is really all you need to set up your business and get started. That is $49/month if you go monthly, but significantly cheaper with the yearly option. Another thing you’ll need is a domain, which is less than $15/year.
WA does not keep any of the commissions you earn – they are all yours.
I think I know what ads you may be referring to, and all I can say is they definitely are highly deceptive and manipulative. The studies shown were flawed in many ways and don’t tell the whole story. Wealthy Affiliate’s methods for traffic generation DO work if you put in the effort to make them work.
Thanks Wendyfor the explanation my question though is : how can generate negative income from a website where I only give advices or help people rob solve their problem without promoting any products.
Thank you so much
Well you would just not place any links or ads on your site, and you wouldn’t make any money!
Hi Wendy, I have no experience in any type of on line business, how fast can you get back to me in order to get your help and advice if I choose to do this , thanks
Hi Steve, you don’t need experience at all so don’t worry about that. I am around and can help you out if you need, have you already signed up?
How soon do I need to set up my personal profile
Are you referring to setting up your profile within Wealthy Affiliate? It’s helpful to set it up first thing, just because you’ll get better engagement within the community. This doesn’t need to even be your personal photo or a long bio – you can choose from one of the images WA offers you and just type out a brief one or two sentences for your profile description. Then, you can go back and personalize it more later on (if you want to).
Hi Wendy just wondering as i have my own website can i bring it to WA and start promoting it there
Thanks
Yes if you join as a premium member, you can move your site to be hosted with WA.
Hi Wendy,
I am a busy mom with 2 kids, own a business which gives me more less flexible schedule but not much financial freedom. I have been looking for something I make more money in my free time which I don’t have much but I can make time if needed. I also don’t want to have risky business since I have kids to raise. English is not my first language but I can try. It sounds good to be true, so could you please tell me honestly if this can be something for me? Thanks!
Do you mind my asking what is the business you currently own? The reason I ask is because WA can teach you how to market your existing business online for more exposure. You said it doesn’t give you much financial freedom, I’m just wondering if that is just the nature of the business or something that could grow to give you more freedom?
Either way, yes, I think that WA is a great platform for beginners to learn the basics of online marketing and given you said you could make free time for it, I think it is worth giving it a try. The only thing I will say is it does require time and commitment. You can join for free and get a better feel if it’s something that’d be a good fit for you or not.
Hi Wendy – It looks as if the message that I sent you yesterday was removed or deleted. I was asking if you could send the link or advise where we can find (within Wealthy Affiliate website) the Success Stories from ColtonJames and Leoemery that you have included in this article as they are no where to be found in their website.
Thanks in advance!
Hi Wendy,
Thanks for your post and thorough review! I tried to look for your Sucess Stories (i.e.: ColtonJames, leoemery, etc.) but couldn’t find any of the ones you included above within the ”Wealthy Affiliate Success Stories” section of this article. I looked at all their posts within their profiles at WA but they weren’t there.. could you let me know where these are?
Thanks!
Jose
Yes, here are the links:
Derek’s story
Leo’s story
Josh’s story
Colton must have deleted or set his post to private.
Personally,i think WA is the best training about SEO but when we talk about advanced paid traffic source,i don’t think it’s a great training.I don’t see Facebook Ads or Solo Ads inside WA.WIth SEO,normally we target the wrong audiences,not always really a good target.
WA does have specific training for paid ads when you get further into the bootcamp training, as well as some member added stuff. But yeah they do focus more on the SEO material. I have to disagree with you on how SEO targets the wrong audiences – I think it actually targets a very specific and interested audience if you focus on the right keywords.
Hi 🙂 I just want to ask. Is it required to pay $49 to be a premium member? Because starter account is not available in our country. And also I don’t have any credit cards and a paypal account. It means, I have to pay first before I can join? Thank you if you’ll response for this 🙂
Yes you do have to pay the money to be a premium member. Unfortunately the starter account isn’t available in a select few countries.
Hi Wendy…
Strong, clear, trustworthy material here as expected from you. I’m in WA now for only a few weeks, but I can attest to how real and low-risk it is. After experimenting with MOBE and AWOL, I have respect for those programs (even though many call them scams) and I learned from them. They operate very effective funnels, and they teach some solid facts about online marketing. Unfortunately, they only take you a short way on the learning curve, then they require thousands of dollars of investment to go further. AND it is not clear that they pave the way for selling what YOU want to sell. WA is refreshingly different, with no huge up-sell, and no limitations. I have multiple college degrees, so I appreciate your discussing that option. I agree with your comparison with a University degree, with two exceptions
1) WA offers much more practical, powerful learning with more potential for return than any degree I’ve heard of
2) WA brings a huge network of support for your learning and your business that just doesn’t happen at a university
Thanks for an excellent and balanced review of WA, and for being an exceptional coach for newbies (wish you were MY coach…)
Steve
Hi Wendy,
I am really convinced after going through your honest post that WE is going to bring me fortune soon if I join.However I just wanted to know that can I do this work on Android phone or ipad?Thanks for everything.
Yes you can!
Wendy – thanks for all this info! I consult to several companies (recruiting, talent acquisition and HR), and I also do job search coaching to individuals. I have 30+ years experience both as an external headhunter and internal (corporate) talent acquisition leader. Is my experience/service offering appropriate to (1) create and market an ebook and/or (2) to build an affiliate marketing business? My business has been successful through professional referrals & word-of-mouth, but I’d like to add a passive income source as my earnings are limited by how much hands-on service I can deliver personally.