Is Wealthy Affiliate a Scam ?

The Internet is full of so-called "unbiased" Reviews by Pro- Members of Wealthy Affiliate, who of course are hunting for free subscribers. They offer "Two Free Profit Ready Websites" on "A Platform Designed For Affiliate Marketers Of All Levels". And everywhere you see the Sign-Up Form, stating:

"Zero risk and zero obligation with our free Starter membership. You are minutes away from starting your own successful internet business. Try Wealthy Affiliate Free, No Risk, and No Credit Card Required"

All their advertising screams Scam! No obvious price tags and they don't offer any money-back guaranty! Their website and all their paying members are just after luring in subscribers with the hook "Free" Membership, Websites, Affiliate Marketing Training by experts, including the co-founders Kyle and Caron - even only as a trial - as if this was all for free. 

I came across Wealthy Affiliate when I was searching for a legit way to earn some money again on the internet, after being off for more than ten years. While inquiring about a program - I don't remember the name anymore (ADD, lol, but not funny) and it seems they are not so high in Google anymore - anyways, that was a scam. 

aside:

I didn't look around there much (though I think I subscribed free) but my "red lights" went on first thing I was offered a cheap course to be better qualified for the jobs they offered: Social Media Manager, desperately wanted by large well-paying Companies around the globe. - but no experience needed, apart form this 30-dollar-coaching they offered. Lol, I sure know that social media managers are high in demand, and companies pay them a lot, but even more, they pay to coach their own appropriate marketing people to get them fit for social media. 

So I went searching if (I think it was called "Legit Online Jobs") was a scam, and I found site that offered an in-depth review, which, as I expected disclosed the scam. No real people behind it - like the nice Japanese Lady from Germany (yes, they could my IP, and change the authors' origins adequately) who gave a testimonial; but also the SEO was no real person and impersonated by an actress. - Job offers, yes, but few, old, and probably expired. 

So... When I left this review page, I was caught by an exit pop-up for Wealthy Affiliate and joined. Right with the first log-in the upgrade prompts "attacked" me, with what seemed a limited offer for fast action takers and additional bonuses from my sponsor and Kyle. 

Well, I am an action taker, but on my own time. Especially now, with too much "Real Life" on my neck, I cannot take action fast - rash rather, in this case. But I did my research as I always do: 

Is Wealthy Affiliate Legit?

Yes, it is legit. However questionable their marketing methods are, 

Wealthy Affiliate is a Perfectly Legit Company. They Sell a Paid Membership, and you get good value for your money if you choose to upgrade. It is NO Scam.

Wealthy Affiliate was founded in 2005 and has been live and lively as a community of affiliate marketers since. "16 Years of Helping People. 16 Years of Progress."  (But, Wake up Kyle! It is 2021, and so much has changed, especially this year. How about updating the basic (free) Training a bit besides your official website?!)

The co-founders are Kyle and Caron. How can you trust guys without surnames? - Google them, and you will find, they are real persons 😀 Kyle Loudon and Caron Lim. You can also meet them "in person" on YouTube and such and in their training lessons. 

So, my first step of inquiry successful: Wealthy Affiliate is no scam. They are not after your money for nothing, but sell high-quality coaching, not only for newbies, also for seasoned webmasters and niche marketers. (with some small insufficiencies) A lively community, including the founders, especially Kyle, is ready to answer any questions about high-converting websites to build, including techie stuff. Members get a (free) website, and (the most important thing for me,) you get feedback on your website. 

The sad thing, which made me so furious and raised my suspicion again: When I came back after a while, well prepared for my belated start in the new community (I had read it was a "freemium" membership model like one finds everywhere (think of LinkedIn - "9 people visited your profile - upgrade to know who it was") - I felt I was literally kicked out of the community!

And that ruthless exaggerated referral hunting? That promise of a profit-ready website free?
What does that tell me?

No, Wealthy Affiliate is No Pyramid Scheme -- Not a dumb MMO or Get-Rich-Quick Scheme -- No MLM either. 

It is a perfectly legit Affiliate Marketing Company. I still don't approve of the aggressive, scammy advertising methods, because that creates anything but trust. But it is up to the affiliate themselves how they promote. And selling a membership, planned for long term for a good provision means residual income, which is surely worth the effort. 

All the hype and and referral hunt has nothing to do with downline building. Means, the company pays well, of course even better to paying members, but, it is just the nature of the company, that the referral will be a member of the training platform. 

The new member / customer pays their monthly fees to the company. And the company pays commissions to the referrer. The new member does not pay anything to their referrer, unlike in Network Marketing, neither the company Wealthy Affiliate, nor the referrer gets anything from the (new) community members' earnigs.

This may be a bit confusing because of this membership thing, but it is not be confused with MLM in any way. Serious Affiliate Marketing. No Catch, No BS. - Just some overhyped marketing by mebers who want to make money a bit faster, even though in the courses claerly state: It takes time, at least one and a half years, until any mentionable Affiliate Money is made. 

(Did I mention somewhere already:

Affiliate Marketing is real decent work from home. - No get rich quick method.  Includes more and longer hard work than a job.  And you normally can be lucky to earn some cents.  But it NEVER  may cost anything to start.  Provided, of course, you have fun publishing online, and would run a website in any case. Websites are seldom free, Internet access neither. Those costs can't be counted, but they are normal household costs today. - unless you indeed earn decent money. Then don't forget to deduct them from taxable income :) )

Wealthy Affiliate - What is in it for free? 

Yes, you could join

today free, and start

working at once.

But stay in touch

with me here for

tips on how to get on

as free members!

The first thing to check whenever I join a free program. What can I get out of it without paying? Can I promote it with consideration and a good consciece?  ( 😉 Yes, I can  ==>

What I expected: 

• A lively (for a change) and supporting Community,
• Readers for my blog, 
• Training to bring me up to date with affiliate marketing. 
• A genuine professional free website, as promised (forget about "profit-ready", lol) Support and Feedback on my Website. 
• Enough to look around and set myself up, without stress and pressure, while I evaluate

What I got:

See my other post please!

https://neilas-biz-tips.blogspot.com/2021/06/wealthy-affiliate-2021-review-from.html

A high-class program that offers such a lot of possibilities and support in anything business as Wealthy Affiliate can impossibly be free. And nobody should really expect this. After joining, the optional price tag is permanently in front of your nose. You have seven days to decide if you want to buy with a large reduction for the first month. This way of 'luring prospects in' is sure quite a bit sneaky. But this is the way online marketing works. Almost everywhere around the globe. (I doubt it is legit here in Germany to offer any service without a price tag on it before you get into any contact with the vendor in such a way.) 

Still, Wealthy Affiliate is No scam. 

They do not take your money for nothing, they just offer a free sample with upsell, as usual in internet marketing.

 

But they don't expect you to waste your time for nothing creating benefits for them. And, indeed what they offer for free has some value too.

My first tip: *Join Wealthy Affiliate*

 
When you are well prepared from the first minute to join a new community. (Means: have a picture ready, and a bit of text for your profile. Also, you need a cover for your blog ready, 550x200px, and the answer to the first question you will officially be asked: your money goals.)

Why am I telling you this? I'd appreciate you to join from my link 😉 and keep in touch with me on this blog for more things I will find out going on. 
A good first impression is one of the subjects on the back of my head - seeing so many lousy profiles on FB and elsewhere. 

On Wealthy Affiliate, you have only seven days! for establishing yourself a tiny bit in the community. When you have to deal with all those sudden surprises, like having to add this cover when clicking the Share button the first time, you will probably have to go without. So, use your seven free days better than I did! Read, comment, maybe start your training, maybe even rush through it and grab some of the better stuff...

Before I forget: The Price-Tag: 1st month around 19$ - And this offer is probably permanent. (I think, the 7-day fast action taker offer is a bit less. But it is only for one month, so what.) 
Regular Membership is 49$. If they have rebates on a yearly subscription and cancellation regularities I could not check yet. I have not seen a money-back guarantee. 

Wealthy Affiliate offers a good affiliate program, as one could expect from a program of such name. The commissions are lower than those of the full members, as I expected, but 33% is reasonable, and not to forget, the commissions are residual.

This should answer the first question everyone always asks and seldom is answered: 

Can I make money with it? 

Yes, you can! It is affiliate marketing. You promote and earn residual commissions. 

I have not yet checked if they have independent vendors integrated with their promotions, but then, I can't possibly switch my focus on one resource, while I must concentrate on so many important aspects around my own Website. 

Affiliates get profound training, (which I have not finished yet, and during which I might even be allowed to ask questions - more later, so stay tuned for obstacle warnings and don't get disheartened when you meet them.)

Affiliates get their own website and learn how to build it (one of my reasons to join and I'm going to look into my promised free website very soon.)

(another Sideline: 

I'm just about to get started again with my own website. Still unsure if I make my homepage in the traditional way: A page saying "welcome" some static content pages, legal pages of course, and one or two blogs. The modern way seems to be one basic blog, including the whole site. 

Basics in any case are: 

1. Solid WordPress hosting. Depending on your own skills with or without maintenance from your web host.
2. A high-speed template. Neither readers nor Google-crawlers like to wait long for pages to load. 
3. An easy-to-customize template. It is Your blog, You are supposed to brand Yourself with your blog, so your blog should mirror You.
4. Obligatory wishes: an own TLD for each subject one blogs about, private or for business. But to my experience, one needs indeed more than just one blog on the home domain. I can impossibly squeeze all about wellness, all about online marketing, and all my personal stuff in two languages into one blog. why?
5. Every URL of any Page must be as short as possible. So it would be unwise to have all those additional Categories. ) 

And some members' sites I saw, were just like what I want. Well, I'll miss out on the chargeable deeper training and techie help, but am convinced I can learn a lot still. At least, I'll need to look inside on my own further. I hope they are wise enough to give a similar quality website - of course without their own domain - to the affiliates! And I hope, it gets indexed and ranked by Google! Community blogs of free members are not, but then they do not exist anyway. 

Let's recap: 

Pros:

Definitely no Scam. 

You get fair value for your money. 

When I compare what I saw from inside, 49$ / Month is a low fee for:

Step by Step In-Depth Coaching, also Live with Personal Dialog 

You Get to Build Profitable Business Websites, Hosting and Full Support included, and all needed web tools, plugins, SEO tools, and Keyword Search at hand, (which the 'normal' webmaster would have to pay for too. I didn't see the advertised "two free". Still, as mentioned above, the site I visited IS looking great. They must be converting, otherwise, why should "the World's Top Affiliate Marketers", as they call themselves, not have moved to a better place without additional membership fees?

24/7 Support In an Expert Community. Right, I saw no trash. And many informative articles.

A Blog that is Indexed and Ranked by Google (Yeah, Big Deal! - But don't underestimate that this way, the blog is an automatic traffic machine and customer magnet. Every now and then, a pop-up appears to make the outside visitor sign up. Free converting traffic, without the hustle of list building and email marketing!) I didn't check the 'built-in' PageRank yet. Well, SEO or not, 

I as a lonesome blogger was thrilled the day I joined the program and especially the community!
I was greeted and felt welcome. Finally, I thought, I found a place where people would actually read and comment on my posts when I blogged there! 

The lively Community - even if only for a feeling there is someone to talk to - is a clear pro- for those who pay.

Cons:

There is really Nothing for free (Especially at their comparatively low price, that should be no con, but they constantly use the hook 'free' for their marketing. like in " Two FR... Profit Ready Websites" (I didn't see those, but checked the hosting plan, which is included when they advertise these websites as "free". And the way they mention them, lets them even look like they were ready-made. )They say: "Try Wealthy Affiliate Free, no Risk, no Credit Card required" all true. But

The Trial Lasts Only Seven Days - what can be proven within seven Days??  I am pretty bite-prone. Who does not like to join 'free'? And who does not know, that 'free' members get less out of anything than pros? Less traffic back for the click, fewer readers for my ads, and more clicking for me. Fewer commissions for referring someone who upgrades. Seven Days Trial is just ridiculous! Of course, I did not take it seriously, and let the Seven Days with constant Upgrade Prompt slip. I still believed in the freemium membership. According to my principle: When it works for me free, I might consider upgrading for better results, less work, and in the consequence more money. 

The Advertised "free" Part of the Membership Does Not Exist 

I was indeed stunned when I came back to start "my" blog. - and every action was forbidden. I could not even read the messages in my inbox! Every Click Produced that Pop Up "To do this, You Need To Become a Premium Member." - Take the Bribe or get the ### out of here - 

Thanks, but I Have Friends in a nice Community - not for profit, but the fun is also important. And I still don't want to dump the time I spent with you in the Waste Bin.

I understand, as an Affiliate, I am no part of the community. But I want to make Commissions, and I want my promised free website. And They'd better deliver the promised quality.

Their Advertising methods are so questionable they must be mentioned twice. I wonder why? Is MMO more fashionable than Business Acadamy? Do they not believe enough in their own coaching skills? Who knows. All the attractive features that are called 'free' no, they are not. They are included in the paid Membership. 

Biggest Contra: Besides the practically non-existent Trial Period, 

There is No Money-Back Guarantee!

All in all, I can still Recommend Wealthy Affiliate for Marketers of Any Experience Level. 

After I have warned you about the hype and spared you some disheartening frustration, I Recommend Joining the Affiliate Program, specially For Newbies. Of course, I hope you join from my link, because I give you honest and unbiased information about Wealthy Affiliate, including the Negative Experiences (try to find other negative reviews), and I will continue - hopefully with better news. I even recommend upgrading, when you like what you see. Don't make the mistake to seriously upgrade and commit yourself just because you want to save 30$! When you cannot make the monthly 50, it's not worth spending that money, and when you do make enough, - why care so much about the saving? It's not 30% off lifetime. 

If you seriously think of joining, you need to work the first 7 days 24/7 to make the best of it and find out any negatives you might detect. Don't register your domain right away, think well about your branding. Remember: You are an Affiliate. You need to strife to be kind of an expert in your niche(s).

You need to brand yourself, not the product you want to promote, If it sounds good, brand your Keyword together with Your Name (or Screen Name, when this better known) 

To your Success, ~Neila~