The
Wealthy Affiliate tries to bill itself as one of the most comprehensive online courses for those looking to
get started in internet marketing, particularly as an affiliate.
Does it deliver, or is it a waste of money?
Here we are going to take a closer look and by the time we are done you’ll have a much better idea.
The Brains Behind Wealthy Affiliate
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| A Wealthy Affiliate Review That Isn't What You'd Expect: eAskme |
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The course is the brainchild of an
affiliate marketing duo; Kyle and Carson.
Both have been in the
affiliate marketing business for a while (Kyle since 2002) and hit upon making a project that could make them some money.
They eventually launched Wealthy Affiliate in 2005. Obviously, I can't vouch for any success that the two have had outside of this online course.
Most people who create courses like this tend to keep their cards pretty close to their chests there. I can say that they have been fairly successful with this online course, though.
What is the Wealthy Affiliate?
The course is designed to provide a comprehensive set of tools for anybody that is
diving into affiliate marketing for the first time.
With this online course, you will have access to:
- Tons of information about getting started with affiliate marketing
- Regular Q&A and webinar sessions
- A site builder which can help you to launch your site (and some web hosting)
- Keyword research tools
- Free stock images
- Content writing tool
- Mastermind group
Basically, everything that you need to
get started with affiliate marketing. It is perfect if you have absolutely no idea what you are doing, and you simply want a 'single source' for everything.
It is going to cost you about 50 bucks a month after your trial if you wish to continue.
How Wealthy Affiliate Works
In my opinion,
Wealthy Affiliate has a major flaw. One that may turn people away from it. It is a flaw that makes it seem almost like a pyramid scheme.
The main goal of Wealthy Affiliate is to create a legion of affiliates for Wealthy Affiliate. You are constantly being told that the right way to make money is to be an affiliate for this course. This is a bit annoying.
When you have tons of people all following the same course, it creates a lot of competition.
If you only push the course, then you likely aren't going to make money. You do need to branch out into other niches and, in my opinion, it doesn't give you anywhere near enough information to be able to accomplish this.
If you can branch out into other niches (and you may need to source information from elsewhere), then Wealthy Affiliate will work for you.
Although, it is certainly not a 'get rich quick' method. That being said, there is no method for making money online which is 'get rich quick'.
The Cost
There is a 'free' membership to Wealthy Affiliate, which will provide you with the 'Getting Started' content.
This can be some useful advice if you have no idea what you are doing. If you want everything that WA offers, then you will need to sign up for Premium.
After your first month's discounted cost, this will cost $49 per month or $359 per year.
Pros of Wealthy Affiliate
There is a lot of content available in this course. There are a lot of tools too. While the latter will not be the best that money can buy, they are certainly functional.
Despite a few issues with the content (and the fact that the member's area can be a mess at times), it is going to be useful.
It tends to be well-structured, and you can follow through the course in a logical way and make money. Although, you will need to put the effort in.
Despite being around for over 15-years now, the site is still regularly updated. This is fantastic, because other courses of this size have simply disappeared overnight, snatching the money from the hands of people have subscribed.
I can't imagine Wealthy Affiliate will be disappearing any time soon. However, a lot of dated training is still there so I am not certain why this has not been updated yet.
Cons of Wealthy Affiliate
The cost of the online course is a little bit off-putting, especially since a lot of the online course revolves around user-generated content, and you can't always guarantee that this is of high-quality.
That being said, the tools that you get are worth the cost for some people. Not as good as the more expensive tools available elsewhere, but they are functional.
In addition to this, there are a few 'out of date' modules that are completely useless. You are literally paying for something that is not going to work for you at all. This annoys me. The least that the team behind WA could do is remove these modules from the course.
My main issue, however, is the one I mentioned previously. This is the fact that it encourages you to promote the product you are using.
I am never a fan of companies that do that. It creates a crowded marketplace and puts out a lot of false information.
It makes it exceedingly difficult to trust a glowing Wealthy Affiliate review when you know that the person who wrote it is just following orders.
You should check out an honest Wealthy Affiliate review from a non-affiliate to get an unbiased opinion.
Another common issues that a lot of people that have taken the course say is that they make you believe that if you just have good content and
not build any backlinks, in time you are going to rank.
This is just not true at all.
A website’s popularity is gauged by
how many other sites link to yours and your inner pages as well.
If this is non-existent then how is Google going to see your site as being important? It is a risk and you won’t rank at all.
Sure, you will probably rank for some terms, but you’ll be way back on page 3-5 or beyond. No one finds these pages and if they do, the chances of them clicking on your website and making a purchase is going to be very slim.
In order to
make money in this business you need to be ranking on the first page of Google. Only the sites that have good content plus a
healthy amount of quality backlinks are the only ones that will ever have a chance to rank.
There is also the issue of community. Now, normally belonging to a big community is a good thing, but many people are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people in the group.
It’s a huge distraction and a lot of folks say that they spend so much time reading posts and messages that it’s almost become a huge time waster.
Does that sound familiar?
If spending hours on Facebook wasn’t enough, then you have to deal with the WA community as well.
Out of Date Modules
It is worth noting that several of the modules are out of date.
For example; there is a rather sizeable section on
Google+ but, as we all know, Google+ was discontinued several years ago now.
The problem is that it is tough to see how many modules are outdated, simply because
Wealthy Affiliates marks them as 'recently updated', even if they haven't been.
The content which seems to be the most outdated is the classroom module. In particular, the 'Getting Started' module hasn't been updated for several years.
It doesn't really help to hit the ground running with affiliate marketing if the first module hasn't been updated in a while, right?
That being said, having 'out of date' modules isn’t that that much of an issue.
If you have a
premium membership to Wealthy Affiliate, then you will have access to user-submitted videos, which provide updates for the modules.
Granted, it can be tricky to find the right user-submitted video, but they are there.
Conclusion
Wealthy Affiliate offers a lot of information to dive into. Some of it is out of date, but it is still a treasure trove of information for those new to the world of internet marketing.
The tools that it gives you with a premium membership certainly help too.
I just wish that
Wealthy Affiliate wasn't so focused on getting you to be an affiliate for the course. It cheapens it a little bit.
Thankfully, the information can be tailored to whatever niche you want.
If you do decide to jump in, they do have an introductory price of just $19 for the first month.
During that month you will have access to all the content so you’ll be able to see what it is all about.
The good thing here is that you don’t have to pay up-front for a course, only to realize it’s not for you then to have to ask for a refund.
At most, if you don’t like it, WA will only cost you $19 which isn’t too bad. So, the risk is pretty low.
Even if you decide to stay for a couple months, if the $49 a month fee isn’t an issue for you, then you can continue.
You are not locked in though so you can cancel at any time.
If you still have any question, drop me a comment.
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