Want to get an HONEST Wealthy Affiliate review? Then keep reading…

Wealthy Affiliate University is a site that supposedly teaches people how to become successful online and make money through affiliate marketing. There are lots of sites that promise to show you how to make money and some even make it seem like just joining the site will make you money instantly. There are survey sites, training sites, data entry sites, and all kinds of stuff with a lot of hype that promises to make you rich fast.

But when I visited the Wealthy Affiliate site for the first time I was surprise how different their site was. It was still a site that promised to teach you how to make money, but it didn’t seem to have as much “hype” and made everything seem a bit more realistic. Instead of pictures of fake checks worth $10,000 they took a more practical approach and simply highlighted all the features available on the site. And one thing in particular caught my eye:

“Before you continue reading we need to agree on something. Building a successful business on the Internet is not a get rich overnight scheme. If it were that easy to make money online, everyone would be doing it making millions of dollars a year from the comfort of their homes. If you are not willing to put in the time to be trained and educated, there is no point in even considering Internet marketing as a career or hobby.”

I liked how at Wealthy Affiliate they didn’t make any claims about how easy making money online is. This is an important thing to consider. I’ve been doing affiliate marketing for a couple years now and it does take time and effort to succeed. You need training and you actually have to work if you want to make money. If you are looking for some “get rich quick” scheme then keep dreaming…but if you are willing to put in some real effort, this is a legitimate way to earn a living eventually.

I admit when I first heard about Wealthy Affiliate I was a little skeptic. I had been ripped off by a few scams before (survey sites and a secret shopping thing) and didn’t want to pay more money for something I wasn’t sure about. But I did a lot of research and found that there were people in a lot of internet forums that recommended it, so I decided to join. After being a member for about two years now, I can honestly recommend it to people.

But Here Is The Truth…

I have been a member at Wealthy Affiliate for around 2 full years now, and I don’t hesitate to recommend it to people. But I have to be upfront…it is not perfect. It is a great training site that teaches you how to make money with affiliate marketing, but it does have its flaws. I wanted to write a Wealthy Affiliate review that is completely honest and points out every aspect of the site (good and bad) and let people decide for themselves if they want to join. I realize doing this might not get as many people to join, but it is fair and lets people know exactly what they are getting ahead of time.

But What Exactly Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is basically advertising products and getting paid commissions. In short, it is when you sign up for a company as an affiliate, then you put your personalized affiliate links online and when somebody buys something through your links, the company pays you a commission, or a percentage of the sale price.

Let’s make up a practical example to illustrate everything. Amazon.com is a popular online store that almost everyone has heard of, and they also have an affiliate program. Pretend that you recently bought a camera from Amazon and you really like it. A few days later you find out that your friend wants to buy a new camera. You really like your camera, so you email your friend and send him a link to that camera on Amazon, and he clicks the link and decides to buy it.

If you sent your friend your affiliate link, then you would get paid a commission for helping Amazon to make a sale that they might not have made otherwise. In this example, everything works out well since you helped Amazon make a sale, you helped your friend get a good camera, and you get some money too.

That is basically how affiliate marketing works, but you do things a little differently online. Let’s say you make a webpage that is about the camera you bought and you include your affiliate link to Amazon. Then some random person who wants to buy a camera goes to Google and does a search for cameras. After searching for cameras they happen to stumble across your site and decide the camera looks good so they click your link to Amazon and buy it, meaning you will get paid a commission.

Why Affiliate Marketing Works

There are thousands of companies and affiliate networks out there that will pay you commissions for referrals. The company has the products, so you don’t need any products of your own. All you have to do is refer people to the store website, and if they buy something you will get paid.

The company doesn’t pay you unless you refer someone who buys something, meaning you don’t make money until you help them make money first. You are basically free advertising for them, so they want you to be successful and will be glad to pay you after you have made them money. Affiliate marketing works out nicely for both the affiliate and the vendor.

It is always free to sign up as an affiliate for different websites and companies. And there are free ways to advertise products online, and you don’t even have to buy cameras (like the example) or actually use products before promoting them. But in order to be a successful, you do need proper training to understand how to market well and be a good affiliate, which is where Wealthy Affiliate comes in.

Introduction to Wealthy Affiliate

Wealthy Affiliate University is an online training site that teaches people how to start making money online through affiliate marketing. The site is geared toward people who are new to the concept of internet marketing, and it shows you exactly how to get started. There is a lot of training, video tutorials, interactive tools, and a great community that is willing to help you learn everything.

This is all marketing online which means you don’t have to worry about selling things door to door or calling people. You don’t need any marketing experience, you don’t need technical computer skills, and you don’t need to spend any extra money (other than the training at Wealthy Affiliate).

But I do have to be honest and say that this is not for everyone. It takes effort and determination and you have to be able to dedicate at least a few hours a week to work. It takes time to learn the ropes, and hard work pays off. Again, this is not a get rich quick scheme, but a realistic way to make money if you put in the effort. There are some people who struggle to make any money, while there are also people who make a full-time income from affiliate marketing.

What All Do You Get At Wealthy Affiliate

Action Plan- When you first join, there is an “action plan” that goes through every aspect of affiliate marketing. There is step by step training and a few videos to walk you through the process, which is very nice if you are a beginner.

NicheQ Reports- If you have trouble picking a market (products to promote, like cameras in my earlier example), then there are detailed reports on a few different topics to help you get started (pet supplies, video games, etc).

Marketing Tools- There is a keyword tool to help you find keywords that will help you make money, the Clickbank Research tool is good for finding products to promote that will pay you high commissions, and the MyLinker tool helps you to protect your affiliate links.

Website Builders and Web Hosting- There is free web hosting so you can have your own websites, and there is plenty of training if you don’t know how to make a website. There are also two tools to help you make your first websites, Site Rubix and Wordpress Express.

Wealthy Affiliate Forum- The most popular part of Wealthy Affiliate is the forum. If you have questions about anything, there are other members in the forum who will try to help you, and there is a range of experience levels (beginners and also experienced marketers who are now considered famous in the internet marketing world).

Personal Support-If the forum is not helpful enough, you can get personal support by sending a message to Carson or Kyle (the owners of WA) or Marcus (second in command at WA). You can even send a message to friendly members of WA and they can help you (I would love to help you anytime I can).

Much more- There are many other tools and features such as WA Jobs, WA Gold, free website templates, ShareZone, Rapid Writer, and more. These are all either to help you make money or build relationships with other WA members.

The Truth…The Good and the Bad

The Pros of Wealthy Affiliate

1. Training and Tutorials

There are many tutorials at Wealthy Affiliate to help you learn all about affiliate marketing. There is training on paid marketing techniques and also free ways to make money (often called bum marketing). Other WA members also upload their own tutorials and videos to help train you on every aspect of making money online. There is more training at WA than any other site I have joined.

2. Support

There are lots of sites where you just get a short guide and are left on your own to figure things about. But Wealthy Affiliate is nice in that you can get help and support. The forum is great and many people are willing to answer your questions, and you can even send messages to the owners of WA if you need extra help.

3. Certain Tools

There are some tools that really come in handy. The keyword tool is easy to use for beginners and they recently upgraded it (and it is much better than the older version). The Clickbank Research tool makes it is to find products to promote for any market. And the newest tool, Wordpress Express coupled with the free website hosting, makes it very easy to make your first website quickly, even if you don’t know anything about making websites.

4. WA Community

Many people consider this private community as the “WA family.” Members can be very friendly and help each other. In the WA Jobs section, I have met people that I work with regularly now to make more money, and I have also made friends with some people in the forum who I chat with on a regular basis now.

5. Updates

I have joined many sites that only have a little bit of content that is already outdated. But at Wealthy Affiliate there are always new tutorials to read, they add new tools every now and then, and resources are updated. At the end of 2009, they remodeled the whole site and called the new and improved version Wealthy Affiliate Platinum.

The Cons of Wealthy Affiliate

1. Too Much Information

There is a lot of content at Wealthy Affiliate, and if you are new to internet marketing it can seem a little difficult trying to absorb all the information. Some people call this “information overload” since you are suddenly exposed to all kinds of new training. There are lots of good tutorials, but everything is not always organized as well as it could be (although they recently remodeled the website to make things a little easier). Information overload is the main complaint that beginners have, but it all makes sense once you get used to the site and start going through the training.

2. Little Video Training

Some people learn better by watching instead of reading, and video training would be helpful. You would think that these days it would be easy to create more video tutorials to explain. There are some videos at Wealthy Affiliate, but the majority of the training is written, although there are pictures to help explain things too. I think that adding more videos would help the people who are new to the site. (To help with this problem, I can give you an added video course to explain things better…keep reading for more details).

3. Certain Tools

There are some tools that are nice, but there are others that aren’t helpful at all. Site Rubix is a tool to help you build a website, but it can be a pain in the butt to use. Wordpress Express is a different tool for building websites, and it does work well if you are a beginner. But if you have experience making websites, then you will realize that this is a fairly basic tool that doesn’t save much time. Also, the free web hosting isn’t as reliable as other webhosts (but it is free, so it has pros and cons).

4. Price

It costs $97 to join Wealthy Affiliate, and to some people that seems like a lot of money. It used to cost $39 per month to be a member, but eventually they raised it to $97. The members at WA will tell you that it is definitely worth the price, especially the more experienced marketers who have paid more for programs that weren’t nearly as good. But if you are new to internet marketing, this might seem like a high price, and is a complaint that some people bring up. You have to decide if this is right for you or not.

Tips for getting the most out of Wealthy Affiliate

• Go through all the training. When you first join, make sure to start the Action Plan and go through all the tutorials. Try to stay focused on the main tutorials and not get sidetracked by the newer, more advanced lessons made by other WA members.
• Participate in the forum and ask questions. The tutorials are good, but you might have questions at some point. Instead of “winging it” or hoping for the best, ask questions and get answers. You are paying for personal support, so you might as well use it.
• Take action! Again, it takes effort to make money. Just going through the training won’t make you money…you have to use your newly acquired knowledge and take action. Make sure to get something done every day (keyword research, writing an article, making a blog, etc). Don’t just read the tutorials, listen to them and use your skills to get some work done.
• Don’t lose focus. It takes time and effort to succeed and persistence pays off. Some people join the site and quit after one or two weeks of making no money. Follow the training, ask questions, keep working, and eventually you will see results.

Conclusion

If you know me at all, you know I’ve been a member of Wealthy Affiliate University for two years now and I highly recommend it. But I want to be completely honest with people and let them know exactly what they are getting.

I personally think that Wealthy Affiliate is best suited for people who are fairly new to affiliate marketing. If you are already an experienced marketer then it may be helpful, but it is best for people who are just learning about how to make money online. When I first joined, I had no clue what affiliate marketing was, and they taught me everything I needed to know. Anybody can join, but I believe it is best for people who were in my situation and want to make money but need some proper training.

After reading this Wealthy Affiliate review, you can see that although I love WA it does have its pros and cons. It has great tutorials, many tools and resources, and an excellent support forum. But it can seem a little confusing at first and some of the tools are outdated and there aren’t many videos. It is a great site to get solid training on affiliate marketing, but it has some flaws.

But now you know exactly what you are getting, and it is your decision if you join or not. It does cost $97 so I’m not going to say that this is for everyone. You know your financial needs and if you can afford this, but do think of it as paying for an education. You also know how much time and effort you can put into this. If you expect to make a lot of money doing nothing, then this definitely isn’t for you.

The bottom line is that Wealthy Affiliate is a great site, although it is not perfect. I have joined many training sites through the years, and this is the only one I really recommend. But I have to be honest and tell you that it does have some flaws, and that more importantly it takes hard work to succeed. The decision is yours, but this is a good way to start making money if you are really serious and aren’t just looking for a get rich quick scam. Whether you join or not, good luck!

Click Here To Join Me at Wealthy Affiliate and Learn How To Make Money