Wealthy Affiliate Review 2022 - My Honest Experience (And My Biggest Complaints)

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Dale

Hi, I'm Dale - the founder of Hate Work ❤ Love Money . After discovering a legitimate way to earn money online several years ago I said goodbye to my boss & I've never looked back. Ever since then I've been earning an income entirely from the internet & I set up this website to help others who are looking to do the same. Ready to get started? Learn more here.

What Is Wealthy Affiliate All About?

In short, Wealthy Affiliate is a place that helps people to earn money with something called affiliate marketing, which involves promoting products or services online in return for commissions.

They provide the training, tools, support & everything else needed to get started.

You see, most online companies, including the big names like Amazon & Best Buy, have things called “affiliate programs” through which you can sign up & promote their products in return for commissions.

Here’s an example of the Amazon one, which is called Amazon Associates:

As you can see from the screenshot above the program is titled “Profit from Amazon” and it states that affiliates can earn up to a whopping 12% in commissions by advertising for them.

You refer somebody to Amazon, they purchase something, you get paid.

It’s literally as simple as that.

However whilst the process itself is super simple, whether you succeed with it or not depends entirely upon whether or not you can actually get people to click through your affiliate links.

And that’s exactly what Wealthy Affiliate is designed to help with.

Wealthy Affiliate is there to help you to get clicks on your affiliate links, and most importantly sales.

So as a new member to Wealthy Affiliate you’ll learn all about affiliate marketing, how it all works, how you can get started with it & how you can actually build an income with it.

And like I mentioned above, on top of just providing the training, they also provide you with all of the tools you need as well.

This means that you don’t have to worry about signing up to Wealthy Affiliate & then discovering that you also need to purchase other things too, which is the case with many other programs.

Wealthy Affiliate gives you access to everything all under one roof.

But don’t let that lead into thinking that Wealthy Affiliate is some sort of magical push-button system that’ll see you generating affiliate commissions with ease.

Because it’s not.

In fact, the truth is that most people who join Wealthy Affiliate don’t actually end up any commissions at all.

Why?

Because it takes work. Real work.

And unfortunately, most people “give up” when they find that out.

You see, Wealthy Affiliate isn’t some sort of “gimmick” to “try”.

It’s a platform built to enable you to create a thriving online business – with business being the keyword.

And the harsh truth is, not everybody is cut out to own a business.

To launch & own a successful business you must be prepared to learn, work & repeat – initially even without seeing anything in return… And that can be pretty tough, especially for somebody that’s used to just being an employee.

So you might be thinking, well, what’s the point?

Well, the point is that if you do put in the work, then in time you’ll be able to reap the rewards.

You’ll be able to work when you want, from where you want, and most importantly you’ll be in full control of your income.

You’ll be a business owner, meaning you can earn as much or as little as you want.

Some affiliates earn as much as 5-figures per month…

Some, even earn as much as 6-figures per month.

Crazy, right?

What’s crazier though is that in the grand scheme of things, if you’re prepared to put in the work to make it happen then those figures aren’t actually unrealistic to achieve.

So whilst it may not be “easy”, it’s most certainly worthwhile.

Which brings me nicely on the next point…

Is Wealthy Affiliate a Scam?

When I came across Wealthy Affiliate I searched for this exact question. Is Wealthy Affiliate a scam? Does it really work? Will I be able to make money with it?

After all, there are lots of scams online – especially when it comes to learning how to make money online. It almost seems like nearly every other program is just another con.

Thankfully though, Wealthy Affiliate actually isn’t.

That’s right. Wealthy Affiliate is NOT a scam.

In fact, after signing up to Wealthy Affiliate as a free Starter member & checking it out first-hand for myself I can tell you that it is actually one of the most honest & reputable programs that I’ve ever come across.

I wondered, why hadn’t I come across this before?

And then I remembered, I had… But I’d actually ignored it because there are so many other programs out there promising bigger, better & bolder things.

You see, despite the fact that Wealthy Affiliate is legit, it doesn’t really stand out in amongst all of the noise because it doesn’t make any bold or over-hyped claims like all of the other programs do.

Wealthy Affiliate states that it’ll help you “transform your ideas into profits”… Other programs promise to help you make $1,000’s per day.

It’s therefore pretty easy to overlook Wealthy Affiliate & get distracted by something else.

The problem though is that the over-hyped programs with the bold promises aren’t really there to help you. They’re just there to trick you into handing over your cash so that their creators can get rich at your expense.

Wealthy Affiliate, on the other hand, is truly there to help you – and after actually creating a free Starter account & getting inside the platform that quickly becomes very easy to see.

And the fact that they let you try it for free alone pretty much says it all.

Other programs promise the world but then require you to hand over some cash upfront to get started, and then they just leave you feeling disappointed once you get inside.

Wealthy Affiliate does things differently.

You don’t need to put in any credit card details or make any payments because at Wealthy Affiliate free really means free. All you need is an email address to get inside.

No catches, no tricks and no risks.

Then once you’re inside you’re able to make a start on the training to see if you actually like it. You can also use the tools & chat with other members in the live chat as well.

It’s open, honest & transparent.

But you don’t have to just take my own word for that. Instead, you take a look at some of the testimonials from other members below (and feel free to click on them to verify that they’re actually real):

So it’s safe to say that Wealthy Affiliate is far from a scam.

How Does Wealthy Affiliate Work?

Wealthy Affiliate is primarily geared around teaching you how you can generate affiliate sales by creating small, simple webpages that get ranked in search engines.

So, as an example let’s say that you have an interest in cycling & therefore you decide to create a webpage outlining what you believe to be the best cycling backpacks for commuting.

Once you’ve created & published it, search engines like Google, Yahoo & Bing will automatically discover it & list it within their search results whenever somebody searches for something related to it.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

And this means that you’ll then get people starting to visit the page because whenever somebody searches for cycling backpacks, your page will be shown as an option for them to click.

Meaning you’ll then have the opportunity to make money by promoting products on the page as an affiliate.

They search for something, they visit your page, they buy something via your links, you get paid.

And if we take a closer look at the page shown in the example above we can easily see that’s exactly the same thing that the creator of that piece of content is doing too:

Next to each of the backpacks listed on that page is an affiliate link which takes the visitor to the product on Amazon, meaning if you were to purchase something via that link then the creator of that page would earn a commission.

It’s a pretty straight forward method but Wealthy Affiliate shows you step-by-step from beginning to end how you can actually do it, and how you can actually scale it up.

Because the more pages you create, the more money you can make.

Plus on top of that like I mentioned earlier in this review Wealthy Affiliate actually provides all of the tools that you need in order to create the pages & come up with ideas.

So here’s a brief overview of the process you’ll go through:

Learn about the process of making money online
Choose an interest/passion
Launch a website related to it
Learn about how to find content ideas
Create content targeting a keyword (like “cycling backpacks”)
Learn how to add affiliate links to the content
Learn how to scale things up & begin earning regular commissions

I’ll also point out that Wealthy Affiliate does then delve into more advanced methods of promotion, such as email marketing & paid traffic – but those methods are optional. You don’t have to go down those routes to see success.

Primarily, the training is geared towards marketing via search engines, which is personally my favourite form of marketing due to the fact that it’s free & yet relatively easy. Anybody can do it.

Wealthy Affiliate Success Stories

It doesn’t matter how good a program claims to be, it matters whether or not the people that are using it are actually managing to find success with it, right?

After all, any program could claim to provide results, but the proof is in the pudding.

The good news here is that when it comes to Wealthy Affiliate there are actually a LOT of success stories. To be honest, there’s too many for me to list them all (which isn’t really a bad thing).

So here’s a handful that I recently came across – again, feel free to click them to verify that they’re real:

And I guess the list wouldn’t be complete without my own Wealthy Affiliate success story – so I’ll tell you that just a year after joining I actually managed to receive the title of “Super Affiliate” & get invited out to an all-paid-for private conference in Las Vegas to meet the 2 owners.

Here’s a photo with me in the middle, Kyle (right) & Carson (left):

It was really cool, to say the least, and if you’d like to you can read all about my trip to Vegas (and what went down) right here.

The 2 owners are both very genuine, humble guys. They truly care about the success of every member & they are always thinking about how they can improve.

It was great to see & it made me very proud to recommend it.

My Complaints About Wealthy Affiliate

Most of the Wealthy Affiliate reviews that you’ll find online do nothing other than sing its praises… But it’s not all good. There are some things that really annoy me about it.

I decided to list them here.

1. “Rank Chasers”

Wealthy Affiliate has a system whereby members are ranked based on things like they’re level of activity, how helpful they are & how much content they produce within their platform…

Here’s a screenshot of what I mean:

At a glance, it might seem like a cool concept, but the problem with it is that a lot of people end up getting totally obsessed over their rankings, despite it having no effect on their business whatsoever.

In fact, many people end up focusing so much on their rankings that they actually forget to work on their business – and worse, some people even try to game the system by leaving comments purely to try to gain rank.

This means that annoyingly, you get a lot of useless comments on your questions such as “hope you get an answer”, or “I really wish I could help, but I can’t”.

Or even just the good old “great question”:

I mean I understand that it’s not the worst problem in the world, but it does get pretty annoying… And the worst part is that it doesn’t even actually work in helping to boost rank – the system is smarter than that. ?‍♂️

2. Poor Search Function

There’s a LOT of training at Wealthy Affiliate, and I truly mean a lot. Thousands upon thousands of different trainings created by all sorts of different people from all over the world.

That’s great.

What isn’t so great though is the search function for finding training material because often it brings up older outdated training first instead of the new stuff & it can be a little difficult to find what you’re looking for… Or something that’s actually up to date & still relevant.

This means that rather than using the trainings that have already been created to get help, people then end up (unknowingly) re-asking the same questions that have already previously been answered.

Again, not a huge problem – but a better search function would make life easier & probably result in people getting help a lot quicker without having to re-ask already answered questions.

3. Bad Answers

This is one of my biggest dislikes about Wealthy Affiliate… People giving answers to questions when they really don’t actually know the answer themselves and then getting it wrong.

I’ve seen a lot of questions that have had pretty bad answers… And once, when I corrected somebody (to help the person who asked the question) the guy got pretty aggressive.

I get it, people don’t like being wrong, but if you don’t know the answer – don’t answer the question.

Again though I think this falls back to my first complaint, which is that often people are just trying to provide answers even though they’re unsure just to try to gain rank. Not good.

A Sneak-Peek Into The Training

Want to check out the training before you actually take the plunge & create your free Starter account? No problem – I’ve got you covered.

Here are the direct links to the first 10 lessons of the Wealthy Affiliate training:

How Much Does Wealthy Affiliate Cost?

It’s 100% free to create a Starter account as I mentioned further up in this review and you don’t need to enter any credit card details. Just an email address will get you in.

The Starter membership will get you access to the first training course, the website builder, the research tools, the live chat & the community support.

Then, if you decide you like what you see you can opt to upgrade to a Premium membership which gives you access to literally everything inside of Wealthy Affiliate.

There are NO upsells after Premium, I can’t stress that enough.

So you’re probably thinking it’s going to cost a lot, right?

Well, surprisingly not.

Premium membership costs just $49 per month ($19 for the first month) or you can even bring that down to $30 per month if you pay for the year in full instead.

Then once you’re Premium you’ll literally have access to absolutely everything inside of the platform & the only additional expense will be a domain name for your website which costs around $15/year.

That’s it.

Plus if you join via my referral link & happen to go Premium I’ll even provide you with my own personal 1-on-1 coaching to help you get things moving as quickly as possible.

Where else could you get everything you need to launch a successful affiliate marketing business AND a personal coach for just $49 per month?

I’d be willing to be that you couldn’t…

But honestly, even though it’s insanely good value there’s still no rush on going Premium. Just create a free Starter account first to try it out & see if you actually like it.

Is Wealthy Affiliate Right For You?

Wealthy Affiliate is great, but the truth is it’s not for everybody… And the best way to find out is to question what you really want to achieve.

Are you just looking for something that’ll help you earn a few extra dollars each month that you don’t really have to commit much time to?

If so, then I won’t lie, Wealthy Affiliate probably isn’t for you.

And on the flip side, if you’re looking to earn good money but expect it to just fall into your lap without actually having to put in any real amount of work, then Wealthy Affiliate also won’t be for you either.

(there’s no such thing as money for nothing)…

However, if you’re looking to achieve the ability to work when you want, from where you want & be able to scale your income to whatever level you desire… Then Wealthy Affiliate might be for you.

That is, providing you’re willing to put in the work to make it happen – and providing you’re willing to put in that work even without seeing any sort of immediate return.

Because the truth is you won’t make money overnight with affiliate marketing.

In fact, you might not even make money in your first month.

So you must be prepared to work for a little while without immediate results & be able to focus on a long-term goal of what you want to achieve rather than a short-term one.

If you’re prepared to do that, then Wealthy Affiliate IS for you & you will likely see massive success with it because that’s the exact mentality you need to succeed in business.

There are no shortcuts in life… Not ones that’ll take you to anything worthwhile anyway.

The Bottom Line

Wealthy Affiliate is a fantastic platform that provides you with everything you need (in fact probably more than you could ever need) to see success from affiliate marketing.

The bottom line though is that whether or not you do actually see success with it depends on one thing…

You.

It all boils down to how you apply yourself.

You see, some people (probably most people) join Wealthy Affiliate, then realise that it takes work to earn money & so they just throw in the towel before they even get started simply because they can’t be bothered.

Those people are then the same people that claim “it doesn’t work”, or worse, that “it’s a scam”.

And do you know what? It’s not entirely their fault.

There are just SO many crappy programs online claiming to be able to provide people with easy overnight “push-button” riches, so people think that work isn’t necessary.

The problem though is that all of those systems are scams.

Wealthy Affiliate, however, is the real deal & so if you are actually willing to apply yourself to the program & take action on what you learn then you can undoubtedly see massive success with it.

And let’s face it – like I mentioned earlier in this review where else are you going to get everything that Wealthy Affiliate provides for just the small monthly fee of $49?

That’s just a little over $1 per day, which is absolutely incredible value.

Plus Here’s a Fast-Track Bonus For You

Wealthy Affiliate has an affiliate program. meaning if you sign up via my link & go Premium, I’ll get paid a commission at absolutely no additional cost to you whatsoever.

So, if you scratch my back by joining through my link, I’ll scratch yours by offering you my personal 1-on-1 mentorship to put you on the fastest track to success.

Sound good?

All you need to do is create your free Starter account here.

You can still check it all out without paying anything & there’ll be absolutely no pressure for you to go Premium… But if you do decide to go Premium, I’ll be ready to give you my full support.

I genuinely want to help you find success & I’ll be willing to share all my insider tips to help you get there.

So hopefully I’ll see you on the inside… And if you do join via my link then I’ll reach out to you with a message on your profile explaining the next steps, so be sure to look out for it.

Speak soon.

P.S. here’s a direct link to my own personal Wealthy Affiliate profile in case you have any questions. ?

Wealthy Affiliate Review 2022 – My Honest Experience (And My Biggest Complaints)