Wealthy Affiliate Review 2021: Does It Fulfill Its Promise or Not Really?

I bet there are a ton of questions in your mind right now:

Is Wealthy Affiliate a scam?
Are there any Wealthy Affiliate complaints or negative reviews about the company?
Is this affiliate marketing course your best option to finally make money online?
Is it worth it?

If you’ve asked yourself any of the above, then my Wealthy Affiliate review is definitely for you!

I promise I will leave no stone unturned and I’ll reveal every bit of detail until you get enough of me.

I should know better, I searched for the exact same things.
I read tons of reviews trying and looking for people saying bad things about it and unhappy customers.

AFFILIATE DISCLOSER: Do acknowledge that all of the links presented here pointing to the Wealthy Affiliate website are affiliate links. This means I earn a commission — at no additional cost to you — if (and only if) you decide to make purchase after following one of these links.

Understand that: I have used and I experimented the services, products, services and tools described here; I don’t recommend any of them based on the small amount I earn if you decide to buy them; I only recommend what I think can truly be useful and helful to you.

Wealthy Affiliate Scam… ?!

Do you want to know what I found out?
Just answer me…

What you would think if you found a “make money online” training whose owners:

• Did NOT promise you a “get rich quick” solution
• Did NOT tell you could make millions in just a few days or hours with just two or three mouse clicks
• Did NOT ask you for hundreds of dollars right now before the countdown timer reaches zero and your lucky opportunity is gone forever
• Did NOT flaunt you their expensive sports cars and dream beach mansions and talk so much and so fast you get so confused you stop thinking straight
• Did NOT brag about how much money they make every day without doing anything and while they sleep

Would you go away and visit another training program?

What you would think if you found an online business academy that:

• Does NOT ask you for your credit card
• Offers you a FREE membership with access to valuable content with no strings attached — again, these freebies are available with no required credit card information from you
• Gives you two FREE WordPress websites completely functional and ready to start your online business
• Has an incredibly HELPING COMMUNITY that genuinely cares about your success and is always available to help you
• Its founders and owners ARE members of that warming community and are always available to give you a hand — sometimes, you don’t even have to go and ask for it yourself, they contact you before you know it
• Has had almost no complaints (only 3 and for lame reasons) in over 10 years

Would you think it was impossible to be legit?

Well… stay right there.

This is, I firmly believe, the most detailed and comprehensive Wealthy Affiliate review out there.

To make this easier to read, I divided this analysis into major sections:

1. A more personal analysis based on my experience –- where you get a feel of what Wealthy Affiliate is, what’s inside, how it works and how a member feels like after joining and being a part of it
2. A practical and direct review -– where you get all the data you need to think things through and make a decision right away

(You can jump directly to whichever suits you best just by clicking the links above but I would recommend that you read the entire review.)

Wealthy Affiliate Review

This is my personal analysis on Wealthy Affiliate…

Wisest Of Advices: Always Be Suspicious When The Offer Is Too Shiny

If you are like me, then you are always suspicious of easy promises, fast money schemes, and golden out of this world opportunities.

You’re not a fool who believes in fairy tales and you always do your research and try to read as many reviews as you can before you finally decide to buy something online and deliver your money to strangers.

With the amount of scams we see online (and offline) everyday, a person has to be 100% sure of what he/she is doing.

Wisest of advices: always be suspicious when the offer seems too good to be true. Click To Tweet

I bet you that no one is more skeptic out there than me. Even to spend the smallest amount of money (be it $30, $5 and even $1!! – I kid you NOT!), I always check, double check, re-check and think for a while just to know, for certain, I am not going to lose my hard earned money.

That’s why my mother calls me Uncle Scrooge McDuck.

The Oldest Dream That I Kept Failing And Failing In Making Come True

Since I first got online, back in 1999, — I’m getting old… – I have always had this dream. To make a living off of the Internet.

I studied, launched sites and worked very hard over the past so many years to make my dream come true. But my income wouldn’t reach the amount I needed nor would it stay at a stable level every month.

Even though I graduated in Marketing, became a web developer and a blogger with lots of experience online… I had to admit it. I was failing and I needed help.

I searched for successful bloggers to learn how they were making money online and read their stories. I subscribed to their newsletters and joined Internet Marketing forums and private Facebook groups about the subject.

Whenever I had a doubt, I posed my questions, but the answers I got weren’t enough to find my way. I hadn’t a clear sight of the road I should follow nor of the steps I needed to take to get there. («I completed X, what am I supposed to do next, Y or Z? What’s Y, by the way?!?!» — I often asked myself before I got completely stuck.)

Lady Luck Comes To The Rescue Of Long Lost Louie

One day, though, I got lucky. A lady suggested me to get some training to better educate myself.

In spite of my 10+ years of experience (my oldest Portuguese-written blog turned 10 years-old in 2015), as I said, it was time for me to be humble.

So I took her advice and this was when I got to know a place called Wealthy Affiliate.

I hadn’t yet signed up for free I was already learning the main topics of the blueprint to online success just by reading “how Wealthy Affiliate works” (i.e.: how the affiliate business model works) on their home page. Because it was free (it still is) to join I did not take much time to decide.

I just entered my name and email address, picked up a username and I was in (you get it, NO credit card needed). This was ONLY the beginning of my journey.

What I Discovered From The Inside Of The Wealthy Affiliate University Was… Unbelievable

When I got in, I saw something like a social network meets a forum meets a chat room meets an academy meets site builder and Internet marketing set of tools.

There were people talking via instant messages, others were asking for help on a forum, older members were offering their support, there was a big green “Getting Started” button (with ten free task-based lessons) and another one saying “Affiliate Bootcamp” (with another free ten lessons to follow).

So I went directly to training and my first task was to complete my profile (the social network part of it, remember?). It was just a matter of choosing a profile pic (you can even choose one from the WA gallery) and writing a little something about me.

As soon as I did it, do you know who came to my profile and offered me help? Both of the owners, Kyle and Carson! I mean, it’s hard to believe it, right? And this was not a machine sending out automated messages.

I replied to them, and they answered me wishing the best success that I could reach. If I decided to become a paying member (Premium membership) it was fine with them, if I decided to keep being a free lifetime member, fine too!

This Was Exactly What I Was Looking For

Wealthy Affiliate has a task-based training approach that takes anyone who joins (for free) through the essential building blocks of the world of online income.

This method sort of takes you accountable. The most important thing you have to do is to take action! It is like doing your homework (I mean… when it’s fun) and your teacher giving you a good grade every time you show it to him/her. You feel you want to complete the lessons because you know you’ll get one step closer to making your dreams come true.

Wealthy Affiliate has a task-based online business training approach. Click To Tweet

There’s even a rank score on your screen, showing you how good you are. The more lessons and tasks you complete and the more people you help the higher you climb on WA’s rankings.

Wealthy Affiliate Community (Or Should I Say Family?) Is Their Biggest Asset

But don’t go thinking there is a competitive atmosphere inside because of this. Quite the contrary. Everyone is super cool, nice and kind; all of them offer you their help and wish you the best of luck and success!

No wonder the community is their best asset! Being surrounded with like-minded people is possibly the greatest thing anyone looking to accomplish his/hers online goals could ever get.

If I Were You I Wouldn’t Take My Word For It, I Would Go Inside And Try It For Myself

If I read this very review saying all of this wonderful stuff about Wealthy Affiliate I wouldn’t take my word for it. I would go to Wealthy Affiliate and check it for myself.

The best part? It’s 100% completely free to join. Yeap, the Starter membership option only costs you… ZERO dollars. That’s nada, rien, zip, no dough, nothing, emptiness, void. It’s like creating a free email account, really. You just have to fill out a form and you’re in.

You can even take your time inside to ask other members if Wealthy Affiliate is the real deal! They will gladly answer.

I know it because… I asked them myself!

What Happens When You Finish Your Free Lessons

As a Starter (free) member, I wanted to make the most of it!
(Hey, if it’s free, you have to take advantage of it! — have I told you my mom calls me Uncle Scrooge McDuck?)

Fortunately, I had a bit of time on my hands and I wanted to complete the lessons and test the system myself to see if it was as good as it looked. As I said, I needed training and this could be it.

After completing the first 10 lessons of the “Getting Started” course — which took me about 7 days, since I had other projects to take care of — I saw that I was being offered a 59% discount on the first month if I decided to buy the Premium membership, before a countdown timer reached zero. (In fact, since I got in, I was given 7 days — not minutes, or hours -– to decide; this was nothing like those “act right now or you’ll never see this again” pressure marketing strategy).

But… Did I Really Need To Become A Paying Member At Wealthy Affiliate?

Couldn’t I find the same information for free on the Internet?
Well, I knew a few things:

• I had been looking for the so called blueprint of online success as a blogger and Internet marketer for several months now (close to a year, actually, when I think about it) and there it was, right there, in front of me. The creators of WA were successful bloggers with proven track records and Wealthy Affiliate was “only” a 10 year old company
• I really needed a good training as I had clearly failed all my endeavors in online businesses in the past several years (man, now that I think about it… geez, Louise :()
• Sure, I could let the countdown timer reach zero before I made my decision and, when I felt comfortable about it, I would later pay the full price of $47. Even this amount is not that high. Think about how much you spend every day on your newspapers and magazines — when there are free online news sites — and how much that totals by the end of each month

I also knew that all of my doubts were nothing but excuses stopping me from finally going forward and committing myself to making my dreams come true.

The first month with the 59% discount would only cost me a mere 19 bucks. The worst thing that could happen would be losing less than 20 dollars and some time, but at least I had tried it.

If Free Was Good, Wait Until You See What Premium Had To Offer

So I decided to buy my way in and I became a Premium member. This would still give me more time to see if this was really what it seemed and make me try even harder to complete the courses.

If the available stuff for free members is awesome… the paid membership gets even better.

More courses and lessons available, even better support with direct private messages (you may contact the owners directly for help… and they actually reply!!!), video and webinar training with one-hour sessions of questions and answers after the webinar is complete and much, much more.

(Click here to see the comparison table.)

And now… let’s get practical! 🙂

What Is Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate (WA) — www.wealthyaffiliate.com — is an online business university (academy/training) launched in 2005 with more than 100,000 active members sharing experiences and helping each other succeed.

It specializes in the affiliate marketing model of passive income.

Who Owns And Founded Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate’s owners and co-founders, Kyle and Carson, are active and participating members amongst the WA community. Wealthy Affiliate is their biggest business and their greatest passion.

They spend most of their days trying to help their students and doing their best to improve and build upon what Wealthy Affiliate has to offer.

Kyle and Carson were already successful bloggers and Internet entrepreneurs before launching WA. They also own and co-founded other two other side projects: Jaaxy and Street Articles.

Jaaxy is the most powerful online keyword research tool out there, which relates to the affiliate online business model that Wealthy Affiliate teaches. Street Articles is an article directory that used to be a tool for WA members too. They could write posts there about the same topic their sites were about to create backlinks to them and boost their rankings. After Google changed its algorithm, backlinks started to be seen differently at Google’s eyes so this tool stopped being so important as before.

What Is Wealthy Affiliate All About?

It is a training university that features a course by course, task-based lesson approach to teaching its students how to master several skillsets in order to succeed and make money in the online world.

From the very initial “how to build and set up a website”, through the “understanding how to make money online”, “choosing a niche” and “finding the right keywords” to “making use of the best SEO techniques”, Wealthy Affiliate has everything a entrepreneur needs. (And these are only topics from a single course!)

What Are Wealthy Affiliate Pros?

Whether you are a newbie to the online business world or an experienced blogger, I think WA can help you.
Wealthy Affiliate’s pros are:

• NO credit card needed to join for free
• NO software/app download and installation required — everything is online just like Facebook or Gmail and you can access it from every available device: desktop/laptop, tablet and smartphone
• Learn at your own pace approach
• NO pressure to act now or you will lose everything for ever
• The task-based lesson courses are awesome and they make you really want to get through them quickly to get closer to success
• Its courses about everything related to starting a website or blog and a making money from it: from the very basics to the more advanced techniques
• Making you learn from the best in the industry and develop a business mindset that turns you into a successful entrepreneur
• Its advanced support system with instant chat, comment system, forums, classrooms and direct messages
• Being surrounded with like-minded individuals, expert bloggers and successful Internet entrepreneurs, including WA’s owners and co-founders Kyle and Carson, who can help you and share their experiences along the way
• Even if you get to the top, you’ll still want to be around, because you will be always in contact with the changes in the industry and will get the best indications on how to overcome eventual difficulties and pitfalls that may arise and/or you’ll get to know new and exciting business opportunities

What Are Wealthy Affiliate Cons?

Not every product is perfect. Perfection is an ideal, something to shoot for, a goal to try and reach. Being that so, Wealthy Affiliate as some points in which it could improve:

• For newcomers the amount of fresh information may seem too overwhelming (this point is either positive and negative at the same time); it takes some time to “calm down”, focus on an area and start (but even that is easily solved by the big “Getting Started” button)
• The communication between members is so great, one might get lost in the conversations and lose focus on studying (again, negative and positive, simultaneously)
• I think WA’s design could be improved. The amount of possibilities, buttons and options can be distractive sometimes. But this is very much my personal opinion, I prefer a cleaner layout with lots of white spaces

I guess WA has so many great things to offer that it becomes crumbled and people might get confused at times. But it is really up to you. Do you want to succeed and focus on your goals, or do you prefer to chat around and lose yourself in conversations, reading every comment when you need to go and study?

Wealthy Affiliate cons are mostly caused by those who choose the second option, not really its actual imperfections. Whenever I remember this, its cons simply vanish.

Who Is Wealthy Affiliate For?

Wealthy Affiliate university and community is for everyone who wants to learn, develop, maintain and be up-to-update on a large set of skills required to achieve success in the online world of the affiliate marketing business model.

From beginners — with almost no knowledge of blogs, i.e.: readers and commenters — to intermediate users and more advanced experienced bloggers and site owners.

I can be even more specific!
The Wealthy Affiliate University is for:

• Stay-at-Home moms wanting to earn their own money
• People who were laid off from work
• Anyone looking to make an extra income on the side
• Bloggers who would like start making money from their blogs
• Local business owners wanting to have a stronger online presence
• Local business owners that need to get a better understanding of SEO and site building
• Guys and girls interessed in learning more about Internet marketing
• People trying to learn everything about affiliate marketing and its best strategies
• Retired folks wanting to have more money on their pockets
• Working individuals who need more income to pay their bills
• People wanting to quit their 9-5 jobs to have the freedom they’ve always dreamed
• Anyone looking for WordPress quality, fast and reliable web hosting solutions
• Web enthusiasts wanting to build their first websites
• And much more!

I’ve seen all kinds of members at WA. People who were just starting out and didn’t even know what domains were, to more intermediate guys/girls with some experience and their own blogs and expert users who were already earning a full-time income with their online businesses.

Some of them learned everything taking this training and others were already making a living off of the Internet when they joined WA!

But, if you ask me, Wealthy Affiliate is more geared to:

• People who are just starting out and don’t know a thing about building websites, WordPress and affiliate marketing, or…
• Already experienced bloggers and site owners who are looking to learn how to monetize their websites from niche marketing.

What Kind Of Support Is Available At Wealthy Affiliate?

WA has a great quality and incredibly fast support system including:

• Live chat — it usually takes no longer than a couple of minutes before someone answers your help request
• Questions and answers
• Classroom comment system
• 24/7/365 WordPress hosting support
• Direct private message. If you are a Premium member you’re able to contact the owners Kyle and Carson directly
• I’ll help you myself, in anything you need concerning WA and your goals – if you sign through any of the links available on this page, I’ll get notified and I’ll offer you my help 🙂

What Kind Of Training And Tools Is Available At Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate has several training modules that include but are not limited to:

• “Getting Started” divided in 10 courses of 10 task-based lessons — only the first course is available freely with the Starter membership — this module teaches you how to start a niche website and make money from it
• “Affiliate Bootcamp” divided in 10 courses of 10 task-based lessons — again, only the first is available to a Starter member — this module teaches WA students how to start a website in the “make money from the Internet” niche and earn an income with it
• Lots of classrooms on different topics that will help get to the top
• Weekly one-hour long live webinars (for paying members) about new and interesting tips, strategies, ideas with an one-hour long session of questions and answers afterwards related to the webinar’s theme

WA offers a complete set of tools which include but aren’t limited to:

• 2 FREE WordPress websites hosted on the SiteRubix platform
• FREE WordPress themes and plugins to use on your WordPress installations
• FREE Keyword Research Tool to find your best long-tail keywords
• FREE Rapid Writer that allows you to start writing your articles right away and save drafts to publish later on your blog
• Unlimited WordPress websites (for paying members) hosted at SiteRubix’s state-of-art hosting super-fast WordPress optimized cloud servers with a larger set of themes and plugins and the option to use your own domains

What Are The Main Differences Between Starter And Premium Membership Accounts?

How Much Does The Wealthy Affiliate Training Cost?

Wealthy Affiliate has two price points:

1. Starter membership costs you $0 – free to join and learn, free to stay forever
2. Premium membership costs you $19 the first month (if you take advantage of the 59% discount during the first 7 days after joining) and $47 the following months. You may cancel at any time, if you wish to do so. If you decide to pay on a yearly basis, the Premium membership will cost you $359. That would save you $205 than if you paid $47 per month during a year ($47 x 12 months = $564; $564 – $359 = $209 in savings, seems like a good deal!).

My Opinion, Personal Recommendation And Final Verdict

After all that I have shown you, I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to say a word on what I think about the Wealthy Affiliate University. 🙂
I bet it’s pretty clear by now that we are looking at a WINNER here.

Wealthy Affiliate is not only legit but definitely a GREAT CHOICE for anyone looking for orientation on how to start, grow, master and maintain an online business/extra source of income.

Even for those who have already succeeded it still is a good option, because of its community and being able to create connections, share experiences, learn new stuff and discover new opportunities.

I have years and years of experience on the Internet, I’ve build as many sites as I can remember and I don’t risk spending my money on anything that looks the tiniest bit of suspicious. That’s a “luxury” that anyone with responsibilities can’t afford to have.

If I ever had any doubts before becoming a Premium member at Wealthy Affiliate, I would simply think:

1. There are so many satisfied customers here, they can’t be all wrong
2. WA has had so few complaints in ten years of existence — only three, from members who stopped paying and later complained they had lost access to paying members only features… like, are you kidding me?
3. To get educated and learn something elsewhere (think about the offline world) you also have to pay; besides, WA’s monthly fee is very cheap for what it offers (think about the training, the tools, the hosting, the sites, the help, the support, the community, the connections, the knowledge)
4. The first month is only $19; that would be all I’d lose if Wealthy Affiliate was a scam
5. I can pay via PayPal — if I don’t like it, I simply cancel the monthly recurring payments — and I’m gone

So yeah, I joined Wealthy Affiliate. I want(ed) to learn more and more. I like their task-based approach that holds me accountable. I love the “take action now” model which makes me really do something for myself and finally get closer to achieving my goals and living my dream.

I honestly can say that Wealthy Affiliate is wonderful and I totally recommend it to you. I wouldn’t dare of saying jump right into it if I sincerely didn’t think so.

Stop searching and looking for your legit Internet Marketing academy.
You have just found it! GO FOR IT! Sign up here and try it… for FREE and then tell me what you think!

Special Bonus

As a special bonus when you get your FREE Starter account… AND ONLY IF (again, FREE is free) you decide to become a paying Premium member in the first 7 days, I’ll offer you a 59% discount on your first monthly fee. That’s only a $19 fee for your first Premium membership month!

I’ll be there to welcome and help you personally and I’ll explain everything you need to get started and claim your bonuses. In fact, the 59% discount on your first monthly Premium membership fee is just ONE of the bonuses I have waiting for you. Come inside and find out what else awaits you (you’ll love it!).

Your Thoughts

If you have any questions or concerns or you’d like to tell me about your WA experience, please leave me a comment here. (I’m making some changes to this website — that’s why the comments section is on an external website.) Or, simply, shoot me an email. I’ll more than happy to help and assist you.

I had lots of fun writing this review, I hope you liked it. Thanks for reading it. 🙂

Keep it up,
Louie