This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, visit the disclosure page.
In this June 2023 update of my popular Wealthy Affiliate review, I’ll show you why this is my #1 rated program for learning how to make money online using affiliate marketing.
Name: Wealthy Affiliate
Website: www.wealthyaffiliate.com
Owners: Kyle & Carson
Years Online: Since September 2005 (18 years)
Verdict: #1 Recommendation. With structured training and everything needed to build an online business included, this is all you need to become a successful affiliate marketer.
Wealthy Affiliate beats other online marketing training programs based on training, additional resources, community, support, success of members and my own personal experience with the program.
What Does Wealthy Affiliate Offer?
Wealthy Affiliate started in September 2005 as a membership website offering keyword lists to affiliate marketers who wanted to make money primarily with Google Adwords.
Back then it was just a small site with a few members who communicated on a forum message board. You had to pay $29 upfront to join and you had to go elsewhere to buy whatever resources you needed to run your online business ie. web hosting, domains etc.
Fast forward to 2023 and the website has gone through lots of changes and now includes everything you need to succeed online.
Over the years, they’ve evolved the training courses, added powerful web hosting, a website builder, you can purchase domain names, attend live video classes and get instant help when you need it.
This should be enough reason for anyone who is thinking about joining Wealthy Affiliate, but you probably still have some questions.
Questions like:
- Is Wealthy Affiliate a scam? Is it legit?
- Are people making money with Wealthy Affiliate?
- How fast can I make money with Wealthy Affiliate?
- Is Wealthy Affiliate a pyramid scheme?
- Is Wealthy Affiliate worth the money?
- How much does Wealthy Affiliate cost?
- How do I get paid by Wealthy Affiliate?
All these are great questions and I’ll answer each of them at some point in my review. Read on to see why I’ve ranked Wealthy Affiliate as the #1 rated program you should use to make money online.
The Wealthy Affiliate Training – Structured & Task-Driven
The training is the cornerstone of Wealthy Affiliate. If this fails then building beautiful websites under a minute and hosting it on quality web hosting wouldn’t matter.
So what’s the Wealthy Affiliate training like?
There are a few ways to learn at Wealthy Affiliate:
- Structured, tasked-driven, text-based courses
- Live video classes every Friday night with replays
- Training by community experts
- Affiliate Bootcamp
The structured training is comprised of 5 Certification courses starting with the free Level 1 training where you can learn the basics first.
The training is generally very easy to follow and is supported by video explanations of what to do and how to do it. You are then given tasks for each lesson that you should complete before moving on to the next lesson.
At the bottom of each lesson, you’re given a check list that break down the tasks you should complete before moving on.
For support with the training, there’s a discussion area at the bottom of each lesson where you can ask questions and receive answers.
Having the training laid out like this makes it easy for users to follow along and take immediate action which makes the training very effective. Users who complete Course 1 for example, can look back at their progress and see that they have accomplished the course’s objective – to launch their first niche website online.
In addition to these courses, there is a weekly live video class taught by expert marketer Jay (magistudios). Classes run for an hour every Friday on a specific topic and if you miss it, you can always check it out in the live classes repository where all the replays can be found.
Members on the Premium Plus tier get expert live video classes more often (over 200 per year) and therefor benefit more from the training.
These video classes are effective for persons who are visual learners as they can see exactly how something is done and get support from the host at the end.
Does the Wealthy Affiliate Training Work?
There are many success stories on Wealthy Affiliate that prove the training works.
I’ve used it myself to build niche sites and even an Amazon site that makes money. This very site you’re reading was made following the Affiliate Bootcamp – a training course for people who want to earn commissions by telling others about Wealthy Affiliate.
I’d recommend the training at Wealthy Affiliate because it’s:
- newbie friendly – easy to follow and apply
- well structured
- multi-formatted (live video and text-based)
- evergreen and always updated
- easy to get answers fast if you have a question
- effective and you can see significant progress on completion
Wealthy Affiliate Resources – Everything You Need In One Place
In order to build a successful internet business, you need things like web hosting, web pages, domain names, research tools and so on.
For the monthly Premium membership price of $49 (or $99 for Premium Plus), Wealthy Affiliate includes all these tools & resources at no additional cost. Other training sites give you the training but aren’t all inclusive – you have to purchase web hosting and other resources externally.
You have this option as a member but it’s nice to have everything included. Members only have to pay one price each month and this allows them to focus on their business.
Are the resources worth the price? How are they comparable to what’s already available externally?
Web Hosting
Wealthy Affiliate offers quality hosting that is comparable to some of the top WordPress hosting web hosts online.
Hosting is fully managed so you won’t see a cPanel backend (you won’t need to) but there is a dashboard that has everything to check on your websites.
Some features that I really love about Wealthy Affiliate’s hosting include:
- daily backups
- 24/7 monitoring for stuff like hacking and intrusion, malware, site performance etc.
- auto-login feature (you can login through the dashboard using a secure password with one click)
- quick support (answers tickets in under 10 minutes)
- Spam-proof (your sites don’t need to run spam plugins like Akismet)
I wasn’t always a fan of Wealthy Affiliate’s web hosting but they’ve improved it significantly and I now host most of my websites there. I do host some websites externally but Wealthy Affiliate’s hosting is way better than shared hosting with Bluehost or Hostgator (hosts I previously hosted with).
Site Rubix Website Builder
The Site Rubix builder is a WordPress based website creator built into Wealthy Affiliates hosting platform.
The builder allows you to build your website using a few steps in under a minute.
- Choose a domain
- Choose a name for your website
- Choose a theme (design)
Once you’ve done these three steps, you can hit the button to build your website and you’re ready to go in under a minute. This easy process is perfect for beginners who think that website building might be hard and is perfect for everyone so you can focus on content creation and not website design.
Site Rubix is more than just a website builder and includes hosting, support, email and two other features that can’t be found in any other website creator – Site Comments, Site Feedback & Site Content.
Site Comments lets you use a credit system to leverage the Wealthy Affiliate community for getting comments to your website. Comments play an important part in getting your websites to rank in search engines and website growth in terms of traffic and social proof so it’s an important feature that I’ve used to boost my search rankings.
Site Feedback is especially useful as a guidance tool for beginners where they could use the same credit system to ask the community for feedback about their websites.
Site Content is a writing platform you can use instead of writing inside WordPress. There are features that improve the writing process like saving article templates, keeping word count of all your content and writing stats. I’m not a huge fan of Site Content as I’d rather write my content in WordPress since there are better formatting and writing tools.
Site Domains
You can buy domains directly from your Wealthy Affiliate dashboard and have them instantly connected to your web hosting. No playing with DNS setup and you can move your free website to your domain with one click.
Domains have free privacy included which a lot of domain sellers charge for. Domain names though are the only thing that I pay for externally because of the price. I get my domain names for $8.99 per year while the price of a domain name (.com) at Wealthy Affiliate with the same benefits is $13.99 per year the last time I checked.
One good thing about getting domain names at Wealthy Affiliate is that you could essentially get them for free if you earn credits from referring people who set up their accounts or buy domain names. 28 credits (worth $14) will get you a .com domain for 1 year.
Jaaxy Keyword Tool
Jaaxy is a keyword research tool that was previously available externally but is now included in the members area of Wealthy Affiliate.
Keyword tools are important for checking search volume estimates on your target keywords. Jaaxy also checks competition, how easy it is to rank for a certain keyword and has a host of other useful features.
The Wealthy Affiliate Community Helps You Grow
One thing new members seem to agree on about Wealthy Affiliate is how friendly and supportive the people at Wealthy Affiliate are.
With tens of thousands of members, the Wealthy Affiliate community is extremely active and you can see this reflected by the activity feed on the Wealthy Affiliate homepage.
I’ve seen other internet marketing memberships where you can expect to wait hours before getting a question answered on their forum/discussion area but at Wealthy Affiliate, you can get feedback in minutes and in the case of the live chat, seconds.
There are people on Wealthy Affiliate from all time-zones so there is always activity on Wealthy Affiliate even when you’re sleeping.
Some of the awesome benefits to get from the Wealthy Affiliate community while learning affiliate marketing include:
- Support – for when you need a question answered
- Network – You can build a network similar to any social network where you have followers who receive notifications of any discussions that you might start, blogs you create etc, who you can actively interact with.
- Leverage – For features like Site Comments and Site Feedback, you can use the community to shape and grow your business.
On Wealthy Affiliate, you get your own profile and a blog so that you can share your thoughts within the community and have a place where people can always connect with you.
Members can choose to follow you so that you can build your network and you can follow others just the same. You can see my profile here, and if you scroll down to the comment area, you can see that I always respond to people, helping them whenever I can.
What Does Wealthy Affiliate Cost?
Wealthy Affiliate has three tiers – one free plan, Premium and Premium Plus.
You can join Wealthy Affiliate for free and receive limited training and resources as well as a 7-day free trial to the platform’s support. The plan is free forever but has very limited benefits if you want to learn how to succeed online with affiliate marketing.
The Premium plan is the most popular plan as this plan has been around the longest and most people find it sufficient for what they want to achieve.
On the Premium plan, you get full access to all the training courses, up to 52 live training classes per year and full access to the community and support. Premium resources are included such as web hosting and Lite version of Jaaxy for research.
The Premium Plus plan is a bundled plan which gives you access to all the training courses, more than 200 live training classes per year, full access to Jaaxy for research and advanced web hosting features.
Billing for each plan is either monthly or annually and there are occasional sales that will reduce the normal pricing. Here’s a summary of the pricing for each plan.
- Starter – Free sign-up ($0 forever)
- Premium – $49/month or $497/year
- Premium Plus – $99/month or $697/year
4 Reasons To Consider Joining Wealthy Affiliate
If you’re still thinking about it, here’s 4 reasons why it’s a no-brainer to join Wealthy Affiliate and start building your business.
(1) It’s a No-Scam Zone
If you’ve tried program after program and have gotten scammed once or twice before, then Wealthy Affiliate will be the last program you try.
This is because Wealthy Affiliate believes in truly helping it’s members and doesn’t promote get rich quick type of mindset. Furthermore, the creators do not post promotions for other programs nor is it allowed for other members to promote any type of program within the community.
This provides a nice, clean environment to learn free from distractions of scams and get rich quick programs.
Is Wealthy Affiliate itself a scam? Is it legit?
Notice that their are no videos with actors in mansions, or fast luxury cars or yachts on the home page? Wealthy Affiliate is legit and I can tell you that because I’ve been a member since January 2007.
There’s no need for it to be a scam because the program simply works.
(2) The Training Works – Success is Inevitable
As I’ve mentioned a couple of times before in this review – the training at Wealthy Affiliate works.
Obviously not everyone who joins Wealthy Affiliate makes money but it’s mainly because some people choose to deviate from the training and choose to do their own thing, or people don’t ask questions when they get stuck, or they don’t apply the training or they simply quit before the success happens.
The training works and I’ve posted some success stories that demonstrate the power of the Wealthy Affiliate training. You can be a success too – you just have to follow, stick to and apply the training consistently and wait for the pay-off.
Start Your Training Now and Become a Success
(3) Access to Me – I Can Help
I love helping people. It’s the reason why I find affiliate marketing so gratifying.
When you join Wealthy Affiliate through my link, we’re instantly connected and this means I can help you get started and you can ask me for help anytime while doing the courses.
I’m always active and I’ve been this way since 2007.
If you have doubts about whether you’ll be able to do this, think of me as your personal trainer who will be able to guide you to the point where you’re making money (as long as you’re willing to put in the work and apply the training).
Check out my profile and you’ll see that I always respond to questions and comments from other members who have ask for my help.
See My Profile Here – Join to Connect Instantly
(4) Free to Join – No Credit Card Required – Try Before You Buy
I review a lot of programs on this blog and unfortunately not a lot of them get a good review. They aren’t free to try either and when I pay for them, they’re usually a waste of money because they promise something they can’t deliver and I can see why people end up being disappointed.
Wealthy Affiliate is free to try and you don’t even need a credit card. The free Starter membership lets you try the entire system without having to commit financially. If you don’t like it, there’s nothing to cancel and you won’t need to ask for a refund.
Create Your Free Starter Account Today
Wealthy Affiliate is my #1 recommendation for affiliate marketing training. I’m a member there so I know all about this awesome all inclusive training site. Questions, comments, doubts? Let’s talk about them in the discussion area below.
Hi thanks for your review!
Is WA suitable for my MLM business?
You’re welcomed. The lessons you learn at Wealthy Affiliate applies to the promotion of any type of business whether it’s an online affiliate marketing business, a brick and mortar offline business, a service you might offer or in your case, an MLM business.
If you do MLM, I think you’ll be ahead of a lot of people when you really learn how to market your business.
Thanks for this review
I am a teenager trying to find a way to make money online and i’ve found afiliate marketing
Do you have any tips for a beginner like me?
Because I don’t know where to start or how to start
Well Paul, I would suggest that you take the beginner course at Wealthy Affiliate. It’s free and explains what you’d be doing when you become an affiliate marketer. It also has focused, step by step tasks that you can complete and check off as you go along. You learn by taking action which sets you up to make money while you learn.
As a beginner by biggest tip is to ask a lot of questions as you learn. You’d be surprised to know how much people think that they can figure things out on their own. All they end up doing is confusing themselves more which results in failure and eventually quitting.
In short: Take action and ask lots of questions as you go along.
Hello Jay, I am a free member at WA and I just have one question for which I desperately ned an answer and I do hope you can help me. Suppose I have a website with just 1 article and I do onsite and offsite SEO for that article. And assume that I have done proper keyword research and that I am reasonably good at writing good quality content. With this background, is it possible for this lone article to climb the ranking ladder and hit first SERP all by itself? Or does it need support from related articles in the same website with internal linking etc? One of my posts is in page 19 in google, which I am certainly not proud of. Your help is appreciated.
I don’t think that one article can just climb the SERPS all by itself on a site that has no trust with Google. It’s more than just onsite and offsite SEO. Other factors like social engagement, page speed, bounce rate, domain age and so one play a part in your rankings.
If you’re going to put all that effort into onsite and offsite SEO, you might as well just write supporting articles and make a niche site out of it. This is what is taught at Wealthy Affiliate and it works well for everyone.
If you have a post at page 19 on Google, you could certainly optimize it to get higher rankings.
Suggestions:
(1) Rewrite the SEO title – put the main keyword you’re trying to rank for closer to the beginning of the title. Make sure that the title is no longer than 65 characters.
(2) Use H3 tags for subheadings and put your main keywords throughout whereever it makes sense.
(3) Add rich media to your article ie. video, images (add more if you already have), charts, etc where applicable.
(4) Format your article for easier reading. Break up longer paragraphs, use bullet lists etc.
(5) Encourage feedback by asking for comments at the close of the article. Ask questions that engage users eg. Do you think these suggestions will help your article rank higher?
(6) Make the article a pillar article. Do about a dozen articles that all link to this one article as the solution. For example, my Wealthy Affiliate review here is a pillar article so that when I do reviews of other programs, I can link to it as an alternative to the program I’m reviewing.
(7) Look at the articles that are ranking at the top for your main article keyword and see what they are doing different. See how they approached the topic and look at how users are engaging with the topic via comments.
Offsite SEO shouldn’t be your focus at all when building your website but you should cover all your bases with onsite SEO which is simple enough to do.
Hi Jay,
Interesting reading your posts. I recently joined Amway, not sure how this will turn out – my coach says he’s going slow to do well. But I am interested in learning more about affiliate marketing. Any chance I could see what one of your websites looks like that you do this on??? Just curious. I’m going to think about my niche. Is there a place I can find a list of stores or partners I could sell products from? Still all new for me, but find it very interesting and looking to doing something different in the future. Look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for your insights.
hi I receive an email bout the steal my system this my first time trying it I will let you know how it when or how is going cuz right now our family need help I got two kids and the bills over flooding.
Sorry to hear about your situation. As long as you realize that Wealthy Affiliate has nothing to do with Steal My System and that it’s not an immediate fix for your problems.
Please tell me if it worked please
Hello Jay, I am interested in learning online business that I can work from home doing some basic work online while I learn. I have developed a health issue that requires my immedate attention. I am interested in signing up free and learning more about online marketting. Are all the classes and resourses free ? I have very limited money of my own and I am not working right now because of my health issue and relocating to new area. Can you please recommend any safe and honest online work I could do from home programs you know please. I don’t need a lot of money just enough to pay basic bills. Also I need to afford keeping my salary low to keep my health care coverage for now. Also The money paid by the programs is without taxs taken out ? I would be greatful for your thoughts on naything you can recommend. Thank you Martin
PS I know anything worth having takes effort and work. I just need a good starting place.
Martin, sorry to hear that you’re dealing with health issues. To answer your questions:
At least try the free course. You never know what can happen.
Thanks
Great recommendations I will consider it.
I hope so. Looking forward to connecting with you in the members area.
Hi Jay,
Great review. You have covered every aspect of wealthy affiliate.
Which part you like most about this site? Moreover, when you look at other similar platforms like Affilorama and Bring the Fresh, which things make WA much more superior than these sites.
Thanks.
Thanks khan,
The answer to that question is easy. The community and it’s benefits (things like support and having the feeling of not being alone in your journey) is probably the biggest advantage Wealthy Affiliate has over sites like Affilorama and BTF. When you’re at Wealthy Affiliate you feel close to the community and when you interact with other members, it feels like you’re in a room with a bunch of people who are invested in not only themselves but in your success as well.
The other sites also don’t have everything you need to succeed. WA has WordPress optimized web hosting, domains and a website builder, support and now SSL certificates. Some of the other sites have only some of these things (and you have to pay extra) but you have to go externally for the others. Although WA used to be like that, the growth and evolution of the site to gradually provide these tools shows that they’re focusing on member success. And they still haven’t raised their prices.
For these reasons is why I keep saying that Wealthy Affiliate is the #1 place online to learn how to build an online business.
Hey Jay,
Congratulations on a well presented site with brilliant content.
You have produced a blog site that goes way beyond the standard of the typical site in this field. You are an excellent writer. No wonder your site popped to the top for the keyword
“affiliate sales or mlm” which is what I Googled.
I have been online learning stuff for years but came across so many scams and false prophets that I had gone sour on the whole idea of the little person making money online.
I even joined WA and I agree the training is excellent but I was too timid to upgrade.
Over the years I have always seemed to be coming too late – after the pack have moved on to newer, bigger and better. Even this week I am looking again at setting up Amazon product sites and have got a place in a webinar to discover more, but maybe once again the little guy has been left behind. It is this pace of change that is the only thing constant about the internet and for an old man it can be daunting.
Procrastination leads to permanent failure so I know I should take the plunge and not try and foresee every possible downside. I should just jump in (with a life jacket) and learn to swim then keep swimming like hell. The image of shark infested pools comes to mind for some reason!
Maybe I have to accept that I need mentoring from someone who is more interested in their students than making a quick buck and see it as a wise investment and not an expense. Any suggestions?
What alarms me is that so many “experts” do not even use the products they sell; showing little faith in anything except jumping from program to program while spouting some mantra about multiple streams of income. Believe me if you study this stuff as deeply as I have recently, you will be shocked by the contradictory advice they peddle. Their video channels bear testament to how many things they have ‘tried’. Any wonder I am a skeptic.
Anyway your site neatly presents some useful tips. Well done!
Thanks for letting me vent.
Rob, I’m glad you love my site. I worked hard to present the best content I can to readers. I really want to help.
As I read your comments I’m nodding my head because I know exactly what’s holding you back. You start one method, you get excited but then along comes another one and it seems like that might work this time. You don’t want to be left behind. Then along comes another…
I’m willing to bet that if you tried just ONE method for at least 6 months without getting distracted by any other method, you’ll see things clearer and you’ll be able to make some money and be able to say it works. Just one method for at least 6 months, whether it’s building Amazon product sites or a niche affiliate blog or something.
If you had a tasked based plan like WA, guess what? The procrastination is going to go away because you’ll know exactly what to work on every day and every task completed will add something to your business building it up with each step. Do this for 6 months and there is no way you won’t make money. This is exactly what I did with this website. Even though I’m already successful, I still go back to the lessons when I feel demotivated.
I hope things work out for you. The solution to your problem is to stop jumping around from program to program and just settle on one method – work that for at least 6 months and see what it produces. WA has an excellent plan and you’ll get more out of it if you upgrade. As you say it’s a wise investment and not an expense.
There are other plans that can work too but I usually only recommend WA because that worked for me and I don’t really trust too many of the other guys. I’d hate to recommend something else to my readers for them to get ripped off or disappointed.
I want make money with meghan
Make Money with Meghan is an old scam that I’ve debunked on here. I don’t think you’d want to get involved with that. You will only be disappointed and besides there are better programs that you can try that will guide you in the right direction.
Hey Jay, this is all very interesting. I was wondering what websites did you create with WA and when and how much money did you start to make when you started?
I started with WA a long time ago – January 2007 to be exact. I can’t reveal my websites but the one you’re looking at right now is one that I created with WA about 4 years ago.
Thank you for a thoughtful review, Jay. I read this after checking out a review for 700 profit club. I also recently cancel membership to online success marketing, and they’ve already contacted me offering to reduce their $3000 fee to 1500, which also raises a red flag. I am convinced there are thousands of people making money Online with legitimate systems. I have no specific product or service to market. Wealthy affiliates is looking good, do you have any suggestions for someone without a product or service .
That’s what affiliate marketing is all about my friend. When you’re an affiliate marketer, you don’t need a product or service since you’ll be promoting other people’s products and services for an agreed commission which is a split amount of any sales you help to generate for the merchant. For example, you can partner with Amazon and promote any of the tens of thousands of products on their site. When you send someone to Amazon and they make a purchase, Amazon will pay you anything from 4% – 10% commission for that sale. So you see, you don’t need to have a product or service and this is what Wealthy Affiliate teaches you how to do.
Wow! This article has answered all my questions. I stumbled across Wealthy Affiliate sometime back but discarded it as I didn’t trust it to deliver on all the promises. I’m definitely trying it right away! If it doesn’t work, I’ll come after you though! Lol. Thanks Jay.
Lol Sandra. I’m sure you will be ok.
can i use my fathers paypal account to pay for WA since my card is not accepted in my paypal account
Yes. I believe you can do that as long as you have your father’s permission, he knows what it’s for and that he knows it’s a recurring payment.
Dear Jay, how much time does the WA programme cost per day or per week (about) to do the course, build a website and to start making money? We are going to travel overseas for 8 months and I won’t have internet every day + we have children so not as much time as anyone without them ;-). But I would like to try WA and hopefully work whenever I want, where I want and make money. Thank you!
Bianca, Wealthy Affiliate is free to get started with and I’d suggest that you take advantage of as much time as the free membership would allow then get premium. The first month of premium is $19 which works out to be around 65 cents per day. After that it’s $49 per month which includes all the training modules, ability to build more websites, secure and fast web hosting, support and networking. $49 works out to be around $1.60 per day for everything. You can even get it for less and not have to worry about billing for a whole year if you go with the annual plan which is $359 per year (just under $1 per day).
Again, I would suggest getting started with the free account first and see what works best for you.
Hi Jay,
Would I have to be a good, fast writer/really creative in order to keep coming up with content for my sites? I feel like that would be the most challenging part, just generating ideas.
How many sites do you recommend someone make?
Is the program a year long? When does the $50/month charge stop?
Thanks for your insight.
Hi there Marybeth,
Thanks for checking out the review and asking these very good questions. I’ll answer.
1. Coming up with content is indeed challenging but it is taught in the courses and other supplementary training at WA. In fact, I could teach you just one technique that you could easily do that will give you enough content ideas to keep you busy for all of 2018. And the technique has nothing to do with how creative you are. On writing skill? I think your comment is really well written (good gammar, no spelling errors, good punctuation etc) so you don’t really need to doubt yourself on how good of a writer you are/can be.
2. If you’re new to this, I would recommend focusing on only ONE site until you’re consistently making money. A lot of times people bounce around from idea to idea to idea and never really give any of these sites a fair chance. They fail and quit because of their unfocused approach to building out ONE project and seeing it through to success.
3. There is no fixed limit to how long you can use Wealthy Affiliate. Once you get a subscription, it’s totally up to you on how long you want to stay a member. You can cancel easily at any time by updating your settings. You can stay one month or you can stay a year and beyond. I’ve been with Wealthy Affiliate since 2007 and there are others who have been there just as long. There are several reasons why you would want to stay with Wealthy Affiliate even after you think you’ve learned everything you need to know.
hi jay ,
Thanks for the effort and goor work as you explained very much everything about WA
my question is :
you said it better to focus on only one website until, you see an income but that website has to be over WA review only otherwise how you can generate a commission without promoting other programs like Amazon,,,,,
thanks
Your first website doesn’t have to be about Wealthy Affiliate or make money online.
You can generate commissions with any affiliate program even if it’s not Amazon. It takes the same effort and you would be surprised to know that some programs will earn you more money in less time than if you promote Wealthy Affiliate or Amazon. And when you do get sales, they should come consistently after that as long as you focus your efforts on that website.
Hi Jay, I have been interested in Affilliate Marketing and making money on line for a long time. But nothing seemed to be realistic to me. I hate to say it but I am also computer challenged. I need easy step by step methods that you can be sure I will screw up regardless of the elementary level. Someone to hold my hand would be nice, too . My field is Life and health insurance( this I am good at!) and I want to know if it is possible to use WA to develop a way to niche into businesses on line. I noticed that you have done it with Real Estate. Is it successful? I am interested in your comments. They will help me with my decision-making.
Thanks,
Elliot
Elliot, I don’t know much about real estate and real estate practices but I did build a website for a real estate company in my country. That was not affiliate marketing but rather me capitalizing on the knowledge I got from learning affiliate marketing which involves building websites.
With your knowledge of the insurance field, I would say that you have a lot of opportunity to earn a lot of money online if you did get into affiliate marketing because insurance affiliate programs pay big bucks online to acquire customers. It’s a very competitive industry though but there are ways to break through the competition. Wealthy Affiliate teaches all these techniques in the first 10 lessons of the course on their website and they are free to access when you get a starter account.
Of course, you don’t have to choose insurance as your niche as you can make money with almost anything on the internet. Whatever you choose Wealthy Affiliate is the right place for you to receive step by step task-based training that when implemented, you will gradually build out an internet business that can last for years to come. I definitely would encourage you to take that step and if you’ve read the above review you would already know why I’m making this recommendation. If you still have any doubt, there isn’t anything to lose as you can sign up for free to check it out yourself.
Hello Jay,
Please I would like to know if it is necessary to have some experience in a particularly niche before going into Affiliate Marketing.
And also, I’ve registered for the free account on WA but it is saying that the free account isn’t available in my country. (I’m in Ghana)
It is absolutely NOT necessary to have experience in any particular niche and you can still make money. But I would say that you should still pick something that you think you would have fun researching and learning about to make it worthwhile. Another option you have if you don’t have experience with a niche is to outsource the content but that could become expensive. The point is that you don’t need to have experience because there are always ways to make money from ANY niche online.
Sorry about the country thing with Ghana. Wealthy Affiliate’s starter (free) account isn’t available in a small number of countries which includes Ghana, I think Nigeria, Pakistan, India and some others. The only way for persons from these countries to use Wealthy Affiliate is for them to join directly as premium members.
Jay, I am a 65 year old retired lady, who was forced into retirement by being unfairly fired from my job in 2008, ending a 36 year career as an xray tech. I was never able to be reemployed in my field. I suffered a severe mental health crisis in 2010 and was able to get on Social Security Disability in 2011, which is why I am not living under a bridge, but the income barely covers my expenses, and I have a lot of debt. I have been trying many different ways to make supplemental income (so far no one at all wants to hire me in a “real” job), and paid a lot of money I did not have for scam programs. The last one was a webhosting scam to be an Amazon affiliate, but the website could not take orders, even though the webhosting company repeatedly assured me everything was OK. I was lied to by an employee of the webhosting company and paid $1500 to an advertising company to place banner ads for a nonfunctioning website. The ad company paid a substantial “referral” fee to the webhosting company, and were not happy when Amazon cancelled my affiliate account no doubt due to the bad website, and will no longer do business with this webhosting company. The ad company is very sympathetic and will promote any website for three months, and I know the free version of Wealthy Affiliate gives access to two free websites, and one of WA’s other members felt the ad company was sketchy, but I believe them that they want to help me recoup some expenses. I have been running across WA for years and believe it provides a good, honest opportunity. I am not good with computers, and I want to believe I can learn in a well constructed educational program, but almost 10 years of failure has somewhat demoralized me. I never have learned rapidly, but I do have a good work ethic. I might need more than average support, and might have lots of very basic questions. Can I succeed in WA? Can I use this banner ad promotion to promote WA websites? I do not expect to become a millionaire, but even a few hundred dollars extra a month would be very helpful.
Marilyn, sorry to hear that you’ve had such a bad experience trying to earn online. It pains me to hear about people being taken advantage of like this.
Yes Wealthy Affiliate is a good honest educational platform that gives you the opportunity to start and build an internet business that can last for years to come. I think if you do follow the blueprint set out by Wealthy Affiliate and take advantage of the support system, you can and will succeed at WA like so many others.
I don’t think that you will need the banner add promotion thing as Wealthy Affiliate has a totally different system for promotion that ensures that your websites get a steady stream of visitors that are relevant to your websites topic. I think that your expectation in terms of earnings is very reasonable, realistic and achievable.
The starter membership is free to try so there is nothing to lose in signing up and checking it out. You can choose to just log out and never visit the site again if you think it’s not for you and the best thing is that as long as you use my link to join Wealthy Affiliate, we’ll be connected and I can automatically follow you and guide you if you have questions or need help.
Jay: Thanks for the prompt response. I was hoping to at least get some good from the $1500 investment, but if you do not think the banner ad would work at all with a WA website, I guess I will write it up as (hopefully) my last failure. I would think it might be useful in addition to whatever methods WA recommends. I will sign up via your link, and hope I could consider you a mentor. I have never been able to find anyone even remotely interested in my situation to give advice and direction, even though I had tried several times in the past asking people for help that I encountered on the internet via their websites (none responded to my requests). My one concern has always been that I have no knowledge base other than being an xray tech. Niche research seem so overwhelming to me, but I know I must overcome my self doubts and give it my best effort to really make this work.
If you’ve already made the investment then it could work along with the WA website. It’s still traffic but the problem is the type of traffic it is. Whether it’s going to be relevant or not to your website depends on the audience of the website where the banner ad is on.
I have no problem at all giving you guidance whenever you need it and helping you along the way as you build your business. It’s actually something that Wealthy Affiliate is built on – relationships and helping each other out. In a way it’s like having hundreds of partners helping you to build your business vs. just you alone struggling to understand everything. I think everyone can be a success with Wealthy Affiliate, it’s just that people don’t use the platform to it’s fullest potential so while some have success, some end up quitting.
Don’t worry about the niche thing. I didn’t have much knowledge of anything before I started but I’ve made money with a number of niches since including voip, weight loss, internet marketing and even skin care. Maybe there is something that you’re really interested in learning or you own a product that you love – anything can be turned into a niche that makes money (maybe even the xray thing).
You’ve just described Wealthy Affiliate as a complete scam! Congrats! Only the terminally stupid will see it as anything but a way to separate them from their money with no return!
Have you tried setting up a free starter account Ken? There are no terminally stupid people at Wealthy Affiliate so I don’t know how you came to that conclusion.
Hi Jay.
My name is Emelie and I’m a 20 year old mother of 1, who is almost desperately in need of a side income, because I’m definitely not making enough at my job that I currently work at. I kept getting scam texts on my phone saying things like “wanna make money from home? Click this link and receive $500”. And I secretly in the back of my mind wanted it to be true. But I did my research and found that they were scams or pyramid schemes. So I was looking up reviews on one of these scams one day, and I came across this page, reviewing a scam called “The Job Quitter.” As I was reading, you suggested that if one was really interested in working from home, and you recommended Wealthy Affiliate to get the training to do so. Although, I love the idea of working from home and staying home with my infant son, I feel I may not be as informed of this as I think I am. I just had a few questions, if you would please answer as soon as you have the time.
1. What exactly am I marketing?
I see that this website can train me in marketing and setting up a website to advertise, but what exactly am I advertising? If it’s for people who have things they wanna sell, like entrepreneurs who started their own business and are now taking their business online, this is probably not for me, as I have no business and have nothing to sell to the public.
2. How much on average do affiliate marketers make monthly? Yearly?
I know it’s probably sporadic or spontaneous when it comes to the amounts of money that you accumulate, but I was just curious as to how much an average marketer would make monthly or yearly. It helps with my research.
3. Do I get checks in the mail? If so, are the amounts on the checks per sale I make? Or are they lumped together at the end of some kind of deadline?
I’m very wary of giving out my bank info online (as most people would be), so I don’t feel comfortable with direct depositing, at least not until I know that I can trust that I will make money off of what I’m doing.
If you ca please answer these questions for me, I would really appreciate it. Thank you!
Hi Emelie,
Very good questions and concerns that I get anytime I introduce affiliate marketing to anyone. I’ll take the time to answer each one below.
Q1. What exactly am I marketing?
A1. Affiliate marketing is ideal for someone in your situation. You do not need to have a product or business for affiliate marketing. As the name suggests, you’ll be affiliating with other online businesses to help them promote their products and you’ll be taking a cut of whatever sales you send them.
For example, everyone knows about Amazon. Amazon has an affiliate program which anyone can join. Everything you see on Amazon for sale is yours to help promote. Every time you send someone to Amazon from your website and they buy something, Amazon credits you with an agreed percentage of that sale. There are other affiliate programs online for everything you can imagine and even entire networks dedicated to businesses that need affiliates.
So you do not need a product or business in order to do this. You probably don’t have any idea how to set this up and that is what the training at Wealthy Affiliate is going to show you.
Q2. How much on average do affiliate marketers make monthly? Yearly?
A2. The income is commission based and it all depends on how much effort you put in and a lot of other factors. Also it’s not an overnight thing. If you know absolutely nothing about affiliate marketing when starting out then you have to expect to wait a while to start earning as you set up everything and get knowledgeable about what you’re doing. Realistically, expect to make your first sale no earlier than 3 months after you start. Some people take longer and some earn much earlier.
How much you make depends again on a lot of factors – the effort you put in, how much traffic your site gets, your promotional methods and more. I don’t want to give you any specific amount because it varies a lot from nothing to hundreds of thousands per month. I don’t know what the average is but if you want to make say $1500 per month then that is doable and would require you to make $50 per day. There are affiliates that make $1 million per year, there are affiliates that make $100,000 per year and there are affiliates that make $10,000 per year. There are others that make much less.
My point is that there is no telling what anyone is capable of making. It varies and depends entirely on the affiliate and their efforts.
Q3. How are you paid?
A3. You can get checks in the mail. Some pay via PayPal and most give you the option of getting direct deposits to your bank account. If you’re dealing with an affiliate network then your bank info is safe as these are real corporate businesses that you can trust but it’s up to you and how you would like to get paid.
Most affiliate programs will pay out every month. They add up all your commissions over the previous month and pay you the total at the end of the period if you reach a certain threshold. For example, some require that you make at least $100 in commissions in the previous month to get paid and will rollover your balance until you reach the threshold. Some networks and affiliate programs pay you more frequently. Clickbank pays you every two weeks if you choose check payments and every week if you do direct deposit.
I hope I did a good job in answering your questions and if you need clarification or have other questions let me know here or through the contact page on the site.
Thanks Jay,great review
Hi Jay,
Thank you for the valuable insights.
I am particularly interested in wanting to understand the underpinnings of e-commerce/ online business.
I have researched so many sites and came across scams and instant millionaires. I do believe one can earn an honest living by applying yourself with all of the knowledge that’s available out there.
I came across a website call motionapp. Does WA have a similar platform?
I’m keen to start with WA.
Many thanks.
Vivian
I’ve never heard about motionapp so I’m not sure if WA has a similar platform.
I do know that if you want to understand online business while avoiding scams and instant millionaires then WA is definitely the place. There is a zero-tolerance policy for self promotion and spam so it’s a safe area if you want to avoid those types of messages.
While the focus is affiliate marketing, there is currently a live training series happening now on the topic of ecommerce.
I would love to connect with you over there when you do get started. Hope to see you on WA.
Hi from New Zealand Jay.
You are very comfortable talking about WA, and really, after all your years of involvement…you should be.
I have just ticked to be kept informed of updates and posts to your site and will observe for a little before I make a decision.
Cheers,
Lyall
Thank you Lyall. And yes, I really enjoy talking about WA because there’s a lot of value in that site that people take for granted. I appreciate you subscribing for updates. With WA though, you can go ahead and check it out because it’s free to signup. If you think it’s not for you then you won’t have to make any decisions.