Recently (June 2010) the guys over at Wealthy Affiliate decided to raise the price of membership.  When the site first opened in 2005 it was $29 a month to be a member.  But it has changed a lot since then and eventually it changed to $39 per month since there were so many resources.  $39 is a lot cheaper than many similar programs out there, and I had no problem recommending WA at $39.

But now it costs $97 each month to be a member at Wealthy Affiliate…and I definitely have mixed feelings about this.

Yes, WA has grown a lot over the years and I understand wanting to increase the price again.  If they had changed it to $49 I would have been behind, but I think $97 is too much of a sudden increase.

They said that making this change would mean catering to a new crowd…the more experienced online marketers who are already making money and have more to spend on WA.  But I believe WA is catered toward beginners-meaning people who are just starting out online and have no experience and are usually on a very tight budget.  Why increase the price and possibly exclude the people that need WA the most?

I know that when I first joined the site I had no clue what affiliate marketing was, and I was in bad shape financially.  $39 a month seemed like a lot of money, but I decided to try it (and it was a good choice!).  But if had cost $97 a month then, there is no way I would have been able to join.

They tried to justify the price increase by saying that they will be adding lots of cool new features to the site.  But the newest feature (Wordpress Express) was nothing special to me.  It is a feature geared toward beginners…the people who might not be able to join WA now.  There are also existing features that need a bit of work.  For example, the Rapid Writer tool is a bit dated now, and other tools could used a remodel too.

So…I understand wanting to increase the price, but I think $97 is a bit too much of a jump and hopefully they will lower it again sometime.  I am an honest member and admit that WA is not perfect-it has new features that aren’t very special, some old tools are outdated, and the owners don’t personally interact with members as much as they used to.

However, I am still happy with Wealthy Affiliate and plan on staying.  There is still a great community at WA and people will try to help you, there is plenty of great training if you are new to online marketing, and some of the tools and resources actually are pretty good.

Despite their reasoning for the new price, I still think WA is best for beginners.  If you are making a full time income online, then WA may not be for you.  But if you are new to the idea of affiliate marketing, the training and forum at WA are sure to help you just as it helped me get started.  But with this new price, it is something to think about seriously.

WA is a great training site still, but I’m afraid fewer people will learn that once they are scared off by the new price.  I hope this helps someone with this important decision.  In the meantime, I am going to try to put together a special bonus package that makes the $97 price seem worth it.

The newest feature over at Wealthy Affiliate University is a tool called Wordpress Express.  After opening the feature there were mixed thoughts by WA members though.  Is this a cool new addition, or is it just a gimmick to draw people in?

For better or worse…here is my blunt opinion with lots of details.

I love Wealthy Affiliate and am not planning on leaving.  However, I am not a fanboy that blindly approves of everything that happens there.  After reading the details about this new WP Express feature, I wasn’t that thrilled.

First of all, I was annoyed at the marketing of this new feature.  The owners of WA, Carson and Kyle, seem like pretty good guys and support honest marketing…so I’m not sure what’s up with this new thing.  The sales page makes WP Express seem like the latest and greatest thing to ever happen in the marketing world.

First of all you get to make websites fast and easy and cheap…not like the expensive Dreamweaver at $700 and the $50 per month hosting and the $200 WP themes.  Um, yeah right.  I have never spent that much making any site.  But with WP Express you get to make unlimited sites, make them fast and cheap, you get lots of themes to choose from, and it comes with several plugins.  You can really make a website in less than 60 seconds!!!

To a beginner this all sounds great.  And I admit, if you really are a beginner and haven’t made a website this probably is a good way to get your first website started.

But any existing Wordpress users can see the unnecessary hype.  First of all, WP is very easy to install in the first place.  With Fantastico (a free feature on most webhosts, which by the way should not cost more than 10 bucks a month) you can install WP and make a website in less than 5 minutes.  Maybe not 60 seconds…but it is still easy.  And there are countless websites out there that offer free templates or WP themes.  These plugins are also free.

Bottom Line: If you are a beginner, then the new Wordpress Express feature might be a good thing to check out.  You really can set up a blog on your own domain very quickly without any technical trouble.  But…there is no need to create hype about making WP blogs quickly, since it was already very easy to do and there are loads of free themes available.

WP Express is a decent feature for beginners, but it is really nothing new.  Perhaps new to WA, but most people have been using Wordpress without problem for years.  With or without WP Express, it is easy to set up a blog on your domain.  So this may be helpful to some beginners, but I don’t think it is an awesome new feature that is something to create a lot of hype for and market on the main WA sales page.

I hope this helps someone.  I think it would be wise to join WA, but for the right reasons.  If this feature is a main selling point to you, then don’t be fooled.  But WA still has a great community and some nice training.  The choice is always yours though.  Just my 2 cents from a loyal but honest WA member.

They say you are supposed to write about what you know about, so I guess sharing my own story would be a good place to start as a review.  Ok, here goes.  I actually started Internet Marketing as a side “hobby” while I was in college.  I was taking a pretty tough curriculum, so I didn’t have much spare time.  Money was pretty low since I needed to pay for gas, textbooks, tuition, and other things.  Also, other than dates with my girlfriend, I didn’t spend much money just for fun.  I needed some extra money, but didn’t have time for a job.

Eventually I decided to look online for some jobs.  There are countless sites that say you can earn a decent income in your spare time, and I decided to try some of these out.  My first experience was with a “secret shopping” service.  I actually found the site on a popular job searching engine, so I thought it was legitimate.  I found I had to pay $30 to join and they would start giving me job offers to go shopping places.  I could keep what I bought for free, and they would pay me to go places.  I decided to give it a try.  Oops!  After paying the money to join, they sent me one or two offers, but they were not anything like what they advertised.  I ended up not getting ANY real opportunities, and actually LOST money with that site.  What a scam!

Next I decided to try online surveys.  There are many free survey sites available, so I decided to try those since I didn’t want to get scammed again.  I actually joined about a dozen different survey sites so I could really crank out some money.  The problem was that I didn’t qualify for most of the surveys, and the ones I did take didn’t pay that well.  Most surveys average about $1 or less.  After about 2 months of taking surveys I earned about $50 combined with these sites.  They were legitimate, but I decided that the amount of time I spent doing surveys was just not worth the amount of money I was getting for them.  Also, signing up for these sites will get your email accounts working pretty hard.  I started getting HUNDREDS of spam emails everyday.  Surveys just weren’t for me.

After deciding that wasn’t for me, I spent time researching different things.  Eventually I accidentally stumbled across a site called Wealthy Affiliate, and didn’t know what to think.  The site looked really professional, so I liked that.  I decided to do some research.  I went to forums and asked questions and was shocked to find that there are absolutely NO bad reviews of it.  Even YouTube only had positive videos about it.  I decided to join the next day.  I’m glad I did.  I was wary at first, since it costs $40 to join.  I didn’t want to get scammed again.  But after joiningWA, I saw that it was not a scam, and was actually a really great site, especially for beginners like me.

I found that it was not a “get rich overnight” scheme, and actually did require hard work.  I decided to try to manage some time for doing affiliate marketing.  It was really confusing at first, but after time it all gets easier.  The first couple weeks I didn’t make any money, but a little after a month I had already made about $200.  That was more than enough to cover the costs of joining.  Long story short (well, ok, I know this hasn’t really been short), I decided that I loved the site, and I plan on staying for a very long time.  If you decide to join, feel free to contact me in the WA forum.  I will also try my best to help you succeed and offer help whenever I can.

Click Here To Join Me At Wealthy Affiliate!

Wealthy Affiliate Success Forum

The following picture is a screenshot of the General Success section of the WA forum.  It is a great place for inspiration, because everyday people post their success stories there.  There are countless newbies that post the typical “Yay, my first sale!”  But there are also professionals that keep updating their own stories.  Travis Sago, Thadroe, Kent Verge, and many other members are making over $1,000 every day!  I still haven’t had that level of success, but I’m working hard so I think I’m on the right track.

Also, there is one recent topic from the forum that I wanted to share.  There is a member named Brennen N. that recently posted his story, and I love it so much that I feel obligated to share.  Anyway, he joined WA without any experience and at the end of the first month he was already making $100 a day consistently!  After about two and a half months he was making $300 a day consistently.  I LOVE that story!  If you join WA, I would definitely go read his topic, as it is great inspiration.  I personally only want to make a little extra money for fun and to pay for school, and don’t desire to be what most would consider “rich,” but I can’t say I wouldn’t mind getting his amount of money!

Join Wealthy Affiliate Now And Get On Track For Writing Your Own Success Story!