Wealthy Affiliate is among the most well known and well established affiliate marketer training programs online right now. My guess is, the reason you’re on this very page is because you are researching Wealthy Affiliate. You’re thinking about signing up, and you want to find out if it’s legit, or if Wealthy Affiliate is just another “make money online” scam.
I can’t blame you. For starters, scams in the make money online space are so brutally common. They are everywhere.
As you continue to research, your suspicions that Wealthy Affiliate is a scam likely only grow. Something just doesn’t seem right.
You are wise to think that.
Is Wealthy Affiliate A Scam? The Honest Answer
Unfortunately, answering this question isn’t as easy as a simple “yes” or “no.” If I must give you a simple yes or no answer, then I would say that no, Wealthy Affiliate is not a scam in the traditional sense. Wealthy Affiliate is totally legal and they do provide a quality product. I talk more about how Wealthy Affiliate works in my full review of Wealthy Affiliate here.
But I get it. Something just doesn’t seem right about Wealthy Affiliate, and you can’t put your finger on exactly what it is, right?
This article is going to take that mystery away. I will explain exactly why Wealthy Affiliate seems like a scam. I promise you, it’s not your imagination. Something IS in fact “off” about Wealthy Affiliate.
The Reason Wealthy Affiliate Appears To Be A Scam
Let me take you through a typical scenario. Maybe this is how you found this page on my site, and maybe not, but generally this is how things work.
The Discovery Phase – You have been wanting to make money online for quite some time. Understandable. I earn my living online and absolutely love the lifestyle it has provided me with. As you’ve researched, you’ve come across many “training programs” and “systems” and “guru’s” all promising to teach you how to make money online. Most of them seem like outright scams, and honestly, most of them are. But something about Wealthy Affiliate seemed different. Perhaps it’s legit? You decide to look into it further.
The Research Phase – You head over to Google and start searching for things like “Wealthy Affiliate review” and “is wealthy affiliate a scam” or similar search phrases. What you find is initially encouraging. It appears there are hundreds of reviews about Wealthy Affiliate, and every single one of them are overwhelmingly positive. You also notice that any site which initially claims Wealthy Affiliate is a scam, eventually just turns into a giant sales pitch for Wealthy Affiliate.
This is when you start to realize something isn’t quite right. Why are there so many positive reviews of Wealthy Affiliate? Why are there so many results saying that Wealthy Affiliate is a scam, and yet, when you read the articles it’s just people saying how wonderful Wealthy Affiliate is?
Congratulations, you’ve discovered the Wealthy Affiliate scam.
How The Wealthy Affiliate Scam Works
As I said earlier, Wealthy Affiliate is not really a scam in the traditional sense. When you sign up for Wealthy Affiliate, you actually are getting a quality product from a company that has been around since 2005.
Here is where things get a little “scammy” at Wealthy Affiliate. Anyone who ends up joining Wealthy Affiliate, even with a free starter account, automatically becomes an affiliate for Wealthy Affiliate.
What that means is, the day someone joins Wealthy Affiliate, they have a financial incentive to get YOU or anyone else searching for Wealthy Affiliate to sign up. If you click on their affiliate link to Wealthy Affiliate and end up upgrading to a premium account (which costs money), they earn a commission off of you.
In addition, Wealthy Affiliate teaches people how to rank sites highly in Google for specific search terms related to Wealthy Affiliate. That means, just about all of the reviews of Wealthy Affiliate that you’re reading are essentially PAID ENDORSEMENTS.
The search results you’re finding when you search for “Wealthy Affiliate Scam” or anything similar are not unbiased reports about Wealthy Affiliate. The people writing those reviews and scam reports have a financial incentive to convince you that Wealthy Affiliate is NOT a scam, and that it’s the greatest thing ever. They want your money.
So, here’s the bottom line: Wealthy Affiliate does in fact offer a quality product. However, the marketing methods used COULD be considered scammy, depending on your point of view.
Feel Betrayed Yet? I, Too, Am An Affiliate Marketer For Wealthy Affiliate!
That’s right, I’m also an affiliate marketer for Wealthy Affiliate! I created this website to be a “no B.S.” resource for people to research affiliate marketing, so I’m not going to B.S. you on this page, either. Any link you see on this page to Wealthy Affiliate includes my affiliate code. If you sign up, I may be financially compensated.
So doesn’t that mean I’m biased? Yes! It absolutely does!
So shouldn’t people be skeptical of this entire article? YES!!! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you! That’s how this Wealthy Affiliate scam works! I’m just the only one being 100% honest about it. Do I want to make money off of you, too? Of course!
Hold on! Don’t click the back button in anger and disgust. Let me tell you why this whole Wealthy Affiliate scam is actually the reason you SHOULD sign up for Wealthy Affiliate. Just hear me out. I’ve been honest with you so far, haven’t I?
Why The Wealthy Affiliate Scam Is Proof You Should Sign Up
The Wealthy Affiliate scam I just described is actually the single best piece of evidence that I can show you that Wealthy Affiliate really works and delivers on what they say they will.
There are many ways to make money online. What Wealthy Affiliate teaches you is how to create websites that rank highly in search engines (just like how you probably found this article). If you go back and check the search results for search phrases related to Wealthy Affiliate, you’ll notice that the people dominating the search results are people who actually use Wealthy Affiliate. So, what Wealthy Affiliate teaches people, they are implimenting, and it is working! So much so, that Wealthy Affiliate looks to be a scam!
IMPORTAINT NOTE: You Do NOT Need to Promote Wealthy Affiliate To Be Successful With Wealthy Affiliate!
At this point, you’re probably wondering if Wealthy Affiliate just teaches people how to promote Wealthy Affiliate. This is NOT the case!! That business model is usually seen with Multi-Level marketing scams, and very few people succeed with multi-level marketing.
Wealthy Affiliate will teach you how to promote just about any product or service. For example, my site DogFoodInsider.com promotes dog food which Amazon.com gives me a commission on. My site RealEstateLicenseTraining.com promotes real estate training courses. This site that you’re on right now earns revenue by promoting both Wealthy Affiliate as well as Bluehost. My site Drive-Safely.net earns revenue from multiple places such as driver training programs, driving record checks, radar detector reviews, etc. I have other sites like Sharksider.com that are simply information based sites and earn revenue through display advertising through services like Google Adsense or Media.net.
My point here is, Wealthy Affiliate isn’t just a service that teaches you how to sell Wealthy Affiliate. It may appear to be the case on the surface, but actually, Wealthy Affiliate shows you how to sell just about anything!
How The Wealthy Affiliate Product & Training Works
Sign Up For A Free Account – To begin with, just sign up for a FREE account at Wealthy Affiliate. No credit card info is required. If you feel really uncomfortable, just use a fake name and fake email address just so you can gain access. That’s not really necessary, but it’s an idea for those of you that still feel uncomfortable.
Learn About The Affiliate Marketing Business Model – Your free account at Wealthy Affiliate gives you access to hundreds of training videos, guides, and the community of marketers that you can chat with, message, etc. The training will start off by giving you a good overview on how the affiliate marketing business model works.
Learn How To Perform Industry Research – Once you understand the affiliate marketing business model, you’ll move onto the next step which is learning how to discover a good niche industry. You’ll do this by going through their niche research training modules and using the proprietary research tools available at Wealthy Affiliate. These research tools enable you to find what people are searching for within’ your niche idea, along with the competition and demand for websites in the niche you are considering.
Register Your Domain Name – Once you’ve discovered your niche, Wealthy Affiliate will walk you through the entire process of setting up a great domain name. A domain name is simply the URL of your website. So, the domain on this site is AffiliateMarketerTraining.com. Since Wealthy Affiliate is a domain registrar, you can register your domain name right within’ their platform.
Set Up Your Website With One Click – Next, Wealthy Affiliate enables you to create your website, using your new domain name, with just a single click. Choose from thousands of customizable templates. All of the technical stuff like web hosting, operating servers in the background, backing up your site, providing site security so you don’t get hacked, and every other essential feature you need is included.
Learn How To Produce Great Content That SELLS – Once you have your website all set up, Wealthy Affiliate will show you how to produce amazing content that isn’t just helpful for people that find your site, but also earns you a stable income!
Live Ongoing Training Sessions – In addition to the initial training that you’ll receive, Wealthy Affiliate is always adding fresh new training videos. Once you start an affiliate marketing business, the learning and growing never really stops. Want to learn how to drive traffic to your site from social media? There’s training for that. Want to advertise your site but don’t know where to start? There’s training for that. Want to make your site look a little better? There’s training for that. If you don’t catch the training sessions live, you can always watch the recorded training that is constantly being added.
Help And Be Helped – Perhaps the best aspect of Wealthy Affiliate is the community. Thousands of marketers, all in different stages of their careers, ready to help or be helped. This is one of the biggest reasons people tend to stay at Wealthy Affiliate for a long time.
Use My Affiliate Link For Added Benefits!
Earlier in this article, I was honest that I’m a member and affiliate marketer for Wealthy Affiliate. If you use any link to Wealthy Affiliate on this page, like this one, I will be notified that you signed up using my link. At that point, I will personally contact you, offering any help, assistance, and coaching that I can to help you succeed. This is true even if you only sign up for the free account!
I’ve been an affiliate marketer since 2009 and went full-time in 2011. In that time, I’ve built dozens of affiliate marketing sites in all sorts of different industries working with nearly 20 different affiliate partners who all send me checks every month (or every week depending on who they are). You can read my full affiliate marketing success story here.
Helping people succeed with affiliate marketing is truly a passion of mine, so use my affiliate link and get additional coaching at no extra charge. It’s my thanks to you.
Who Should And Should NOT Sign Up For Wealthy Affiliate
You’ll notice that Wealthy Affiliate never uses terms like “get rich quick” or “make money fast” or anything like that. The reason they don’t use those terms is because Wealthy Affiliate teaches you how to build a real, legitimate BUSINESS. Just like any business, it takes time and effort to grow. Wealthy Affiliate is NOT a get-rich-quick strategy, so if that’s what you’re looking for, do not join up.
So, how long could you expect it to take before you start making money online? If you want the honest answer, you can read my honest article on how long it REALLY takes to make money online. You might not like the answer, but as always, I’m about giving you the truth on this site. No B.S. Building a legitimate business just takes time. If you know a way around that, I’d love to hear about it!
So, if you’re willing to put in the time and effort required to build an actual business online by selling other companies products and services, I highly recommend you sign up for the free membership at Wealthy Affiliate. You have 7 days to decide whether Wealthy Affiliate is for you or not.
Final Thoughts On The Wealthy Affiliate Scam
Is the Wealthy Affiliate scam a bit deceitful? You know what? Yeah, it probalby is. Heck, even this aritlce I wrote could be considered to be a bit deceitful.
Honestly, marketing, in general, is always pushing those boundaries. Kyle and Carson, the guys that own Wealthy Affiliate, have done something really incredible. They’ve built up this product since 2005 and have gotten bigger and bigger. In that time, they’ve recruited so many affiliate marketers to promote their product for them, that it’s nearly impossible to find a negative review about Wealthy Affiliate. While this might seems scammy to some, others might see this as a brilliant marketing strategy. I happen to be one of the guys that thinks it was brilliant.
The guys that run Wealthy Affiliate have proven that they know how to run a long-term, sustainable business where hundreds of people promote them on their own time. So while yes, the Wealthy Affiliate scam can make you feel a little deceived at first, they obviously know what they are doing. Even more obvious is they know how to teach what they know. Isn’t that a service you’d like to learn from? It is for me.
