With so many people not wanting to get scammed these days when trying to find a way to make money online, it’s no wonder that I often get asked this question. If like me you have bought into a number of get rich quick schemes or affiliate marketing software that never worked I am sure you too are looking for something that actually works. The trouble is, with so many guys being affiliates for Wealthy affiliate it is hard to know what to trust. I’m hoping here to give you my opinion of Wealthy affiliate after being a member with them for over 1 year…So..Wealthy Affiliate, is it a scam or not?

How I found out about Wealthy Affiliate

It was after being scammed by a couple of get rich schemes that I happened upon wealthy affiliate and by this time I had pretty much written out all affiliate schemes and marketing schemes as all being a big old scam….I just hate the sales pages they have…”get this offer right now before the price goes up” or “make thousands of dollars a day with this guaranteed system”. they are all the same and the thing is they are just never as good as they make out.

So one day I came across Wealthy affiliate and to be honest I just thought it was another one of those scams..so i decided to research it properly this time. The problem was that i couldn’t find any info that said it was a scam or that it was no good…I still didn’t trust it but I thought I would give it a go seeing as it was free to join anyway to start with and they made it pretty clear that you could upgrade or stay free.

Is Wealthy affiliate different from the other get rich scams?

Once inside the programme it  seemed to be full of people who actually believed in the programme and didnt seem to have too many bad mouthing the product. Me being skeptical i wondered whether or not those who were skeptical had been removed from the programme or were just keeping quiet. It seemed the only thing that i was going to have to do was go ahead and take the training that was provided in the programme. The big difference i found with Wealthy Affiliate was the community feel it had. After taking a few training modules and having questions i thought it was great how you could ask the community and they would respond so positivley and help you out. Not only that but you can actually ask questions of the creators of the programme Kyle and Carson and they actually do get back to you. Things were starting to look good for wealthy Affiliate but i still wondered “is it a scam or Not?

I upgraded to the full wealthy Affiliate package…

After spending 5 days going through the training i soon found that I needed more information and training and took the decision to go to the premium membership..I still thought that this whole Wealthy affiliate thing was probably a scam but the only way to found out was to bite the bullet and sign up for the full product..by this time I had already invested a lot of time and energy into it and had created a website using the training..bought a domain and so needed to progress.

They tell you that you can make money.. but it will take time!

In fairness to Wealthy Affiliate they do tell you that it will take time and effort to make money online and that you do have to invest in some hard work. I didn’t mind that as long as what I was getting didn’t seem to be trying to scam me out of my hard-earned money. To their credit I was never sent those emails you often get saying to buy this product..or upgrade to the next inner circle membership etc etc..what i did find however was that No-one seemed to be mentioning anything about earnings through Wealthy Affiliate….This i found a little worrying..was anyone actually making any money or did they just not feel the need to tell anyone. From what i have seen in the world of making money online, most affiliate marketers love to boast about how much they made this week or How i made $10,000 in a day, but here it seemed like a community of either quiet earners or people making nothing.

I found a Wealthy affiliate member who made Money…Eureka

Now im not going to lie..it took me a while but i did find a guy who was indeed making money online and was not afraid to tell people what his earnings were..this guy had also given up his day job and was now working full time as an internet marketer all through the help and training at Wealthy affiliate. It took me a while to believe that this guy was for real and not just a plant or stooge but after he posted about making money i soon found a few more who seemed to be doing the same…this spurred me on and so i decided to stick at this thing called Wealthy Affiliate and i soon found i was getting into it.

What they don’t tell you about Wealthy Affiliate

If like me you are researching Wealthy affiliate and trying to get a non biased view of the product then you really need to know a few things about the programme from someone who has been with them for a while.

What they don’t tell you is just how much you have to write and create in order to make any money..It does seem a little too easy in the beginning stages as you take the training and it is easy to think that after perhaps 2 weeks you will be making a small income. The reality is though that it takes at least 3 months of work before you see any money but it can and does work.

They also don’t tell you that you can actually make money in another way..and that is by creating websites for local businesses in your area using their hosting and training. I personally have been making more money by doing this than by affiliate marketing so it is worth pursuing that avenue as well i think.

Another thing that you will need that they do not really mention at the beginning stages is an SEO platform to help you with keyword research..this they recommend is a programme called Jaxxy. (they co-own it) It is not an absolute essential and there is a keyword research tool within Wealthy Affiliate but i have to say that i do find it useful..it will however cost you money each month.

A look inside Wealthy affiliate

Please take a look at my video of what it is like inside the Wealthy Affiliate programme

So is Wealthy affiliate really a scam or not?

In my opinion and from being there for over a year now it is not really a scam..the traning you will find in there is very very good but please do not think that you will be making money easily and quickly using their techniques. The owners Kyle and Carson like to say that you should think of online marketing as a real business and put time and effort into building it up over time. This is true and with time and effort you will be successful with the programme but you honestly do have to put in a lot of effort..If you are committed and have the time to really work on it then this programme could be for you. It is not a get rich quick scheme nor is it a scam. I like to think of it a bit like Lynda.com which is a learning platfrom that you can subscribe to..you can read my review of it here. In their own words Wealthy Affiliate is like a university for affiliate marketing. If you take it like this and want to learn how to affiliate market the right way then it is a really good place to start.

If you are interested in joining Wealthy affiliate for free then just click the link below to see for yourself or if you have any questions please just leave me a comment. I hope you found that useful and good luck in your search for ways to build a business online.

Join Wealthy Affiliate for FREE here