A REAL Wealthy Affiliate Review (Packed Full of Amazing Success Stories)

So you’ve heard about Wealthy Affiliate… And you’ve likely been told that it’s some sort of magical platform that’ll teach you how to make tons of money online by creating content & connecting people with products, right?

And now you’ve probably found yourself wondering, is Wealthy Affiliate really legit? Or is it just some kind of scam that’ll turn out to be a big waste of money?

Well, I’ve got good news for you – you’ve landed in exactly the right place because in this Wealthy Affiliate review I’m going to uncover everything you need to know.

That includes how much it actually costs, whether or not you’ll really see success, whether or not it’s worth the money & even the Wealthy Affiliate complaints. Oh, yeah, and some Wealthy Affiliate success stories too.

So keep reading for everything you need to know.

And P.S. I am a real member of Wealthy Affiliate (have been for several years) so you can rest assured that you’re getting the TRUTH about the platform, not just some BS written with the intent to trick you into signing up for something else.

What Is Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate is a free-to-join platform that provides everything you need to begin making money online using a method known as affiliate marketing.

And just in case you don’t know what affiliate marketing is, it basically involves promoting products or services online in return for commissions.

So, as an example, you could sign up to become an affiliate of Amazon (which is free to do) & then that gives you the opportunity to promote products from the Amazon website to others via a special link that you get to share.

If people happen to click via your link & buy something, you get paid.

And the commissions that you get paid can vary, but typically they range from around 5% all the way up to around 80% (or more), depending on the specific product or service that you’re promoting.

So as you can likely see, it’s a pretty simple way to make money & if you manage to promote your links effectively, it can prove to be very lucrative too.

In fact, there are several affiliate marketers that earn $100,000’s per year.

But as I just mentioned, your success relies on how effectively you’re able to promote things online… And that’s where Wealthy Affiliate steps in.

Wealthy Affiliate provides step-by-step training that teaches you an effective and proven strategy for generating affiliate commissions online. More importantly, it teaches a strategy that can actually become passive at some point down the line.

And alongside that, Wealthy Affiliate also provides you with access to all of the tools, resources & support that you need to be able to actually put what they teach into action.

Meaning that in short, Wealthy Affiliate is a platform that provides everything you need to learn about affiliate marketing & see success with it, all under one roof. This includes web hosting, domain names, research tools & more.

The Wealthy Affiliate Training

The Wealthy Affiliate core training primarily focuses on teaching a method known as “online content creation” which, in my opinion, is one of the best & most newbie-friendly methods of making money with affiliate marketing.

And the reason I say that is because;

The strategy is pretty straight forward & easy to understand
It involves minimal cost (no need to spend on advertising)
You can scale your income up as large as you like
After a while your income can become completely passive

But I know what you’re probably thinking…

What the heck is “online content creation”?

Well, put simply, the method of online content creation involves figuring out what kinds of things people are searching for online & then creating content (such as articles or videos) related to those things.

The aim is that then when people search for those things, they’ll discover your content in the search listings, click on it & then that gives you the opportunity to promote something to them as an affiliate & earn yourself a commission.

As An Example…

Let’s say you’re looking for a toothbrush for your dog, you might head to Google & search for something like “what is the best toothbrush for a dog?”.

And if you did, you’d be presented with a result like this:

And if I load the result up, you’ll see that it’s a simple article, that looks like this:

So what’s happened here is that somebody has created a simple article that outlines the best dog toothbrushes & Google has discovered it, meaning that it now shows it to everybody who searches for things related to dog toothbrushes.

And this opens up an amazing opportunity for the person who created the article because now that people are coming through from the search engines (like Google) & reading it, he/she can promote products to them as an affiliate.

And that’s exactly what he/she is doing, take a look:

As you can see, the creator of the article has added Amazon affiliate links under each of the toothbrushes, meaning that if somebody clicks via that link & purchases the toothbrush, the author of that article will earn a commission.

And this can be happening 24/7, even whilst the author is fast asleep in bed.

But that’s just one example of online content creation. There are many different ways you can create content online, such as through video & social media, etc.

And Wealthy Affiliate teaches all of these methods.

Plus, you can also get to learn about:

Email marketing
Keyword research
WordPress
Local marketing
Pay per click marketing
…and more

Wealthy Affiliate has literally thousands upon thousands of lessons on pretty much every affiliate/online marketing topic you could think of & new ones are getting added every single day… So it’s safe to say there’s plenty of training.

And alongside the core training & member-created training, there are also several live classes that run each week too… So you can hop into these live classes & chat with others, including the instructor as the class runs live.

But in terms of overwhelm, thankfully the core training is provided in a “step-by-step” format so you know exactly what to do next, even though there may be tons of other training that you can explore between lessons.

Wealthy Affiliate Hosting

As a member of Wealthy Affiliate, alongside the training, you also get full access to their managed WordPress hosting which, surprisingly, is actually pretty epic.

And note that I mentioned “managed” WordPress hosting, not just WordPress hosting… Because yes, you do actually get fully managed WordPress hosting.

This means that if you need any assistance with your website, there’ll be a technically-trained support member available 24/7 to make any changes.

But alongside that you also get;

Ability to host 10+ websites
30GB website space
500k/visitors month bandwith
Daily website backups
Free SSL certificates
Unlimited email accounts
BotNet security
SiteSpeed page caching
Built-in WordPress spam blocking
Instant DNS setup

Basically, you get everything you need to run & scale a huge WordPress site… And against the next comparable host, Wealthy Affiliate comes in over 2x cheaper.

Now, there is something I will point out here & that is the fact that if you’re looking to some sort of insanely bespoke WordPress & custom code your site at a server level then the Wealthy Affiliate hosting may not be for you.

The reason I say that is because there are some restrictions as to what you can do on the server via FTP to protect the security of other users hosted there.

But, if you’re just looking to run an average WordPress site (like 99% of WordPress users) then the Wealthy Affiliate hosting is epic for that.

And FYI, this website you’re reading right now is hosted there.

So you can probably see for yourself, it’s pretty darn fast. In fact, the average page load time across all sites on their servers is reported at a mere 1.3 seconds.

Wealthy Affiliate Pricing

Wealthy Affiliate has two levels of membership, Premium & Premium Plus+.

Premium costs $49/mo & gets you access to everything that you need to get your business rolling. This includes the training, tools, hosting & support.

Premium Plus+ costs $99/mo & gets you access to everything included in Premium, PLUS access to additional expert training, the ability to host more websites, increased traffic allowance, priority help & additional research tools.

They also have a “Starter” membership which is free to join but I won’t really delve into that too much since it’s just really there to enable you to get a taster of what the other memberships contain.

It’s not really a standalone membership as such… More of a free trial, if you like.

And IMO, the Wealthy Affiliate Premium membership is more than worth it. You get exceedingly good value for your money. For newbies, it’s absolutely perfect.

Then there’s the Premium Plus+ membership – this also provides fantastic value for money but this package is more geared towards power users or those who have a larger disposable income & want access to more expert training.

In short though, at $99/mo for the top-level membership, you really can’t go wrong. Most other hosts charge more than that for their web hosting alone.

Does Wealthy Affiliate Work?

Absolutely. The Wealthy Affiliate training works & it is the exact method that I have personally been using to generate an income online for over 10+ years.

And the best thing about it is that you can literally see it is proven. It’s not like other methods that programs teach that contain an element of risk.

Through Wealthy Affiliate you’re taught to create content, that content then gets discovered by search engines who list it within their results, people find it & click it, you promote things, the visitors buy them & you get paid commissions.

And all it takes to see that the method is “proven” is to run a search for something in a search engine yourself. You’ll see tons of people using the exact method themselves, including myself right here on this very blog.

Put simply, Wealthy Affiliate works.

And what’s more is that the training inside of Wealthy Affiliate is actually updated every single day, so you can be sure to stay up to date & ahead of the game.

But in general, the core method is set to stand the test of time. People will always search for things online & they’ll always look to others for recommendations.

So whilst the tools may adapt or change, the method itself will always work.

The Affiliate Program

Wealthy Affiliate also has its own affiliate program, meaning that you can actually recommend the Wealthy Affiliate platform to others & earn money by doing so.

Not surprisingly then, the Wealthy Affiliate affiliate program is really popular.

After all, the easiest way to earn money as an affiliate is by recommending something that provides great value & truly helps people… And Wealthy Affiliate does exactly that.

But how much do you earn per referral? What’s the compensation plan?

Well, as an affiliate of Wealthy Affiliate you will earn a whopping 50% commission from all of your referrals, meaning if they subscribe to Premium for $49/mo, you’ll get $23.50/mo… And that’ll recur for as long as they stay a member.

Similarly, if they opt to sign up to Premium Plus at $99/mo, you’ll get $49.50/mo & again, that commission will keep coming in for as long as they stay subscribed.

So from each referral, you could quite easily stand to earn well over $100+.

But there’s more… Wealthy Affiliate also pays out for free referrals via a CPA (cost per action) model too. So this means that if you refer somebody then you could still stand to earn money even if they don’t necessarily upgrade.

Providing they fill out their name & bio you’ll get $1 in credits… And these can be cashed out as soon as you maintain a Starter to Premium upgrade rate of 5%.

You can find out more about that on their affiliate program page, right here.

Wealthy Affiliate's Affiliate Program Compensation Plan

But even at a glance, you can probably see right away that their affiliate program is pretty darn lucrative – and the recurring income model works really nicely.

In fact, some Wealthy Affiliate top earners make well over $100,000 per year.

Wealthy Affiliate Complaints

All the way throughout this review so far I feel like I’ve been singing Wealthy Affiliate‘s praises but I’ll be honest, it’s not 100% perfect & I (along with some other members) do actually have some complaints about Wealthy Affiliate.

So to give a more balanced Wealthy Affiliate review, I’ll share them below.

Bad Advice

Wealthy Affiliate has an internal leaderboard that ranks members based on things such as how active they are within the community & how often they help other members.

Wealthy Affiliate Leaderboard Screenshot

Unfortunately, in an attempt to game the system & get better rankings, many members offer advice to people even when they may not be very experienced which can often lead to people getting bad advice.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of GOOD advice inside of Wealthy Affiliate, but as a newbie, it can be difficult to tell who is giving the good advice & who is giving the bad. It gets easier with time, but can be frustrating at the start.

The Platform Can Be Distracting

Wealthy Affiliate is a platform designed to teach you how to build a business, but it also has a social aspect built-in so that members can easily connect through things like blog posts & live chat.

The problem with this is that for many members (including myself sometimes) it can get pretty distracting. It can be easy to get sucked into the social side of things & end up spending all day chatting, rather than actually doing any work.

Difficult To Find Up-To-Date Training

Many of the Wealthy Affiliate complaints online state that the training is outdated but this is actually incorrect. There are up-to-date training lessons on every topic, it’s just that sometimes it can be difficult to find them.

The good news is that this only applies to additional training, not the core training (as the core training is step-by-step)… But it can be a little annoying when you’re looking for a quick video on something & keep coming across older outdated material instead of the newer videos which should be listed first.

Can’t Make Money With The Starter Membership

One of the biggest complaints about Wealthy Affiliate is that you can’t make money with the Starter membership. It seems that lots of people want to begin earning with the Starter membership & then use that to pay for Premium.

I’ve included it here because, well, it’s a complaint (and a popular one)… But personally, I don’t feel it’s a very valid one. Wealthy Affiliate makes it pretty clear that the Starter membership is just designed for you to get a taster of the platform & they don’t state (or hint) that you can make money with it.

Wealthy Affiliate Success Stories

Do Wealthy Affiliate members actually make any money?

You bet they do!

Not only am I personally living proof that Wealthy Affiliate members make money online (having now won various awards through many different affiliate programs) but there are new members posting every day sharing their successes.

And to help you find those success stories, here are some direct links:

And having personally generated an all-time total of over $1 million in affiliate commissions, I think it’s fair to count myself as one of the success stories too.

So it’s safe to say that the Wealthy Affiliate training works & that if you apply it you can undoubtedly see success. In fact, YOU could be the next success story.

The Founders (Kyle & Carson)

The 2 guys behind Wealthy Affiliate (Kyle Loudoun & Carson Lim) don’t shy away or hide behind a curtain. Instead, they actually actively engage in the community every day & personally reach out to welcome all of the new members that join.

Plus, as a Premium member, you can even get direct access to them for help.

And that’s because they built the company around the core value of actually helping people. They are 2 guys that genuinely want every member to succeed.

Now, I know, that sounds a bit “cliche”, but it’s true… And I can say that because I’ve actually met them & in person, it’s easy to see their honesty & integrity.

You see, I’ll admit – when I first joined Wealthy Affiliate I had my concerns on whether Kyle & Carson were actually “real” people. I mean come on, where else do the CEO’s of such a large company respond to your messages directly?

I thought they must have been automated bots with fake images or something.

But after qualifying for the Wealthy Affiliate Super Affiliate Conference in Las Vegas & meeting them in person, it turns out they are indeed actually real.

And not just that, but after talking to them in person, it was easy to see just how passionate they are about the business & helping others to succeed.

In fact, Kyle’s Instagram bio actually reads;

If you can help one person, you can change a life. If you can help many people, you can change the world.

And that basically sums up how they approach their company. Their focus is on constantly bettering it so that more people enjoy it & more people see success.

Plus, the best part is that the two guys are actually seasoned affiliate marketing veterans themselves. That’s exactly how they got their start… And what they teach in their training is essentially exactly what they did to see success.

Is Wealthy Affiliate a Scam?

Absolutely not.

In fact, it actually pains me a little bit to put the word “scam” in the same sentence as Wealthy Affiliate… But since there are apparently a lot of people going to Google and asking “is Wealthy Affiliate a scam?“, I figured I’d answer it.

And in a way, I kinda get it. Wealthy Affiliate teaches you how to make money online & there are many people that still don’t believe it’s possible to make money online so to them, I guess it sounds like a pretty bold claim.

But it is possible, and not only does Wealthy Affiliate teach you exactly how to do it, but it is also very open, honest & transparent about everything that you get.

Plus, on top of that, Wealthy Affiliate also gives you the option to sign up as a Starter member so that you can even check everything out first-hand completely free of charge.

So it’s safe to say that Wealthy Affiliate is certainly not a scam.

And if you do actually want to try it free of charge to see for yourself that it’s not a scam then you can create a completely free Starter account via this link here.

I’m confident you’ll be pretty blown away by what’s inside.

Frequently Asked Questions

Since publishing this Wealthy Affiliate review, I’ve begun getting asked a lot of additional questions so I figured I’d add them all here (along with the answers) in this FAQ section to help others who might be wondering similar things.

Is Wealthy Affiliate a Pyramid Scheme?

For some reason, because Wealthy Affiliate has an affiliate program, many people seem to think that this means it’s a pyramid scheme. Unlike a pyramid scheme (which pays out on multiple levels), Wealthy Affiliate only pays out commissions on 1 level (just like any other standard affiliate program, such as Amazon’s). This means that, quite clearly, Wealthy Affiliate is not a pyramid scheme.

How Do You Cancel Wealthy Affiliate Membership?

Many people are worried that they will be locked into some sort of contract if they sign up for the membership but that’s not true – you can cancel anytime. To cancel you just need to head to your account settings & hit “cancel subscription”.

How Do You Delete Your Wealthy Affiliate Account?

Simple, just head to your account settings & hit “delete my account”.

Who Are The Wealthy Affiliate Top Earners?

Well, Kyle & Carson (the founders) obviously… But alongside those, there are several other high earners inside of Wealthy Affiliate. Some of them keep themselves (and their income quiet) but others blog about it publicly. To find the Wealthy Affiliate top earners, simply run a search for income reports inside the platform.

Is Wealthy Affiliate Legit?

Absolutely. Wealthy Affiliate teaches affiliate marketing & as an affiliate you’re simply advertising products or services online & getting paid commissions in return. The platform is perfectly legit & so is the business model.

What Are The Payment Methods?

You can subscribe to Wealthy Affiliate‘s Premium or Premium Plus+ memberships using PayPal or a credit card. In some cases, a debit card, such as a Mastercard debit card can also be used (but not in all countries).

Can You Make Money With a Starter Account?

The Starter account is just designed to let you test drive the platform prior to upgrading to either the Premium or Premium Plus+ membership. You should not expect to make money with the Starter membership.

Is Wealthy Affiliate Outdated?

No, the core training is regularly updated & additional training is added to the platform every single day. The Wealthy Affiliate training is 100% up to date.

What Is Wealthy Affiliate’s Phone Number?

Wealthy Affiliate doesn’t provide phone support, all support is either done via the internal messaging system or through the “contact us” page located here.

Can You Get a Refund From Wealthy Affiliate?

After signing up for a membership you are immediately granted full access to all of the training material, tools & resources. It is therefore not possible to gain a refund as the option for refunds would enable people to abuse the system.

Is Wealthy Affiliate Worth The Money?

In my opinion, yes. The next comparable hosting provider charges over 2x the cost of Wealthy Affiliate’s Premium membership & they charge that purely for hosting alone. Wealthy Affiliate also offers training & additional tools/resources.

Ready To Try It For Yourself?

You don’t need to just take my word for it, you can create a completely free Starter membership & check Wealthy Affiliate out first-hand for yourself.

There are no risks, no commitments & no payments.

Just try it out for free, take a look around & see if you like it. If you don’t (which I’m sure you will), then just sign back out again… Easy peasy.

And if you do, go Premium (or Premium Plus+) and build an awesome business.

You can create your free Starter account right here.

P.S. feel free to leave any additional questions below.