Wealthy Affiliate Reviews – Are They All BS?

My Wealthy Affiliate University Review After 8 Months 3+ Years of Membership

(updated 12/1/2011) – By now, I imagine it is no secret that I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate University. I remember when I was doing my research as I was trying to decide if I would join or not. I came across all these reviews and Wealthy Affiliate testimonials, and I couldn’t help but wonder – are all these reviews BS? Are these testimonials all crafted just to get new members to join? And what IS Wealthy Affiliate anyway? (I used to think it was a big PPC course.) Now, after my 8 months 3+ YEARS being on the inside of WA, I feel I am perfectly qualified to give you a no-BS review of Wealthy Affiliate University (and show you my video of INSIDE Wealthy Affiliate). So let’s get started talking about Wealthy Affiliate Reviews, whether they are reliable, and my thoughts after 3+ years of membership.

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What IS Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate is:

– an internet marketing learning center
– a very active private forum
– free web hosting
– weekly LIVE webinars covering the hottest topics in internet marketing
– an online marketing tool box, and
– an internet marketing community that includes LIVE chat

Learning at Wealthy Affiliate

Ok, WHAT can Wealthy Affiliate teach about internet marketing?

Short answer – EVERYTHING

Seriously, name ANYTHING about the internet marketing industry and you will be able to learn about it inside WA. Free marketing to PPC, list building, website development and creation, niche research, keyword research, market selection and on and on and on.

Available lessons are given for three levels of experience – from junior to experienced. The 30-day success club is an AWESOME place for anyone new to internet marketing to begin (and it’s FREE with your membership).

Pro:

Whatever you need to learn throughout your internet marketing career will be found inside Wealthy Affiliate.

Con:

There is SO much inside WA that many ‘newbies’ are flat out overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it all. Feeling as if it is necessary to digest it all super fast has probably caused some new WA members to suffer from info overload.

Don’t short change yourself. Give yourself all the time you need to LEARN all you need.

Just like a pan of brownies, the info in Wealthy Affiliate is NOT designed to be digested all in one sitting. Learning the skills you need in your new career is a process and is best taken in bite-sized ‘chunks’. Learn something, implement it, move forward.

Tools Inside Wealthy Affiliate

What internet marketing tools are inside WA? Lordy, Lordy…. TONS! Keyword tools, Clickbank tools, market research tools, article writing tools, niche research reports, personal task tracking and goal tracking, link cloaking tools, website builders (WordPress Express), free website templates, free website hosting…..If you need it, it is inside WA. The only tool that is needed to be a success online that I did NOT find within WA is an auto-responder service.

There is also a job board inside Wealthy Affiliate. For those that ‘need money now’, I highly recommend all new members to get to that board and offer their services to other WA members. It’s a great way to pick up some fast cash or to get your WA membership paid for each month.

Pro:

Any tool you need (other than an auto-responder) will be found inside WA. There is no need to pay anything more for your online marketing tools because they are all-inclusive in the low monthly rate.

Con:

Taking the time to learn how to use each tool can appear to be a daunting task for new members. Again, take all this one step at a time.

And when push comes to shove, WA has LIVE chat so you can get your questions answered INSTANTLY. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the biggest difference between the rest…and WA.

The Wealthy Affiliate Forum

This is by FAR my absolute favorite part of Wealthy Affiliate – the forum. When you really become part of the internet marketing community, there are 3 things you will totally want to do.

1. Learn.

You will want to learn from those that are more experienced than you are. There are members inside WA that are VERY VERY successful – we’re talking millions made on the internet. Their advice and insight is priceless to me.

The owners of Wealthy Affiliate, Kyle and Carson, are two sharp and prosperous internet marketers. I have met them both personally more than once and I can tell you – they are good people who really care about the success of their members. They have also been a BIG help to me personally.

Recently, I was about to lose my mind trying to figure out a certain way to code something for one of my sites. I finally sent a private message to K&C for help.

Carson sent back to me a simple coding option that opened up endless new revenue streams for me. Priceless and SOOOO appreciated!

2. Share

No matter what stage you are at in your internet marketing career, you will find many others that are at that same place. Being able to share and brainstorm with these other marketers will feel great, it will help your bottom line, AND it will ease that “I’m all alone in this” feeling that plagues many of us who work alone at home for hours on end each day.

Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals that put the same value on their online business as you do is crucial to your success.

3. Give

Again, no matter WHAT you know about internet marketing, you have something to give to someone else. Each day that you are a member at Wealthy Affiliate, you will be able to answer more and more questions others have. When you stop for a second, you will realize just how much YOU are learning and growing in this industry. This can be HIGHLY motivational.

Also, I am a firm believer in giving BACK and paying forward. As Zig Ziglar has said, “You can get everything you want in life by helping others get everything THEY want” (Sorry if that is not an exact perfect quote)

Pro:

I have a hard time putting into words how valuable it is to be part of a private community that puts the same value on their business as you put on yours. To be blunt, it is very important to me at this stage in my career to surround myself with people who are willing to at LEAST shell the low-monthly fee on their business.

In the big picture, the membership per month is peanuts… it’s what, equal to the price of a cup of coffee a day or so? But why would you surround yourself and take advice from someone who isn’t willing to spend a little bit each day on their business (but they’re more than willing to tell YOU how to run YOUR business)?

You may also feel relieved to find that Wealthy Affiliate has a forum that is designed to learn, share and grow… NOT to promote. ANYONE can post in a free internet marketing forum….but only those that are serious, that put their money where their mouth is, can participate in Wealthy Affiliate. It’s private. It’s safe.

Con:

As with ANY forum or online social platform, it can be a time-sucker if you’re not careful with your time management. I highly recommend anyone new to Wealthy Affiliate to get in the forum and read, read, read. Make a point to set aside some time to do this. There are some GOLDEN posts in that big ol’ forum. People share some incredible stuff inside private communities – the kind of stuff people PAY for on the outside (heck, the kind of stuff people SELL within free marketing forums).

Spend some time in there and just read thru all the good stuff. Don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense at this exact moment… it will soon. Also, form some friendships inside WA – get some marketing buddies. You will be super glad you did.

BUT, do not spend all day in the forum chatting. (trust me, I know how tempting it is and how easy it is to have time slip by while you are totally enjoying yourself in there…lol)

Speaking of spending too much time in the Wealthy Affiliate forum…

It didn’t take me long at all to post my 1000th post inside the WA forum. Yes, one THOUSAND posts since July 31, 2008. That’s what, like 4-5 posts per DAY average for 8 MONTHS?!?! Yikes, I talk too much…lol (gee, like no one knew THAT already…haha!)

Anyway – to celebrate my 1000th post, I wanted to give something really cool and helpful to the Wealthy Affiliate community members.

With the help of Kyle, I think post 1000 was one of my best (and LONGEST) posts to date.

Inside this post, I talked a little more personally about me and how I got here. That’s not something I do all that much since I kinda like to keep the personal stuff, well, personal…lol. However, I also know that in order to really help others, I have to give a little more than I might be comfortable giving publicly.

Also, Kyle gave me 10 questions to answer in this post – and I answered them as completely and as honestly as I could.

Here are the questions I answered in this Wealthy Affiliate post:

1. If you were put on the street, had no money but access to an Internet, what would you do to start your business online?

2. What would be your strategy to grow this business? (boy oh boy, did I go into EXACT detail of how I would do this. I am pretty familiar with the concept of turning “nothing” into “something” with internet marketing…and it all came spilling out.

3. Are you a recession buster? Do you think there is money “left” to be made during a recession as an Internet marketer?

4. If so, what industries do you think will be positively impacted and negatively impacted?

5. How do you plan on growing your business in this environment?

6. Research is one of the biggest undertakings for most. Obviously we now have NicheQ at Wealthy Affiliate, but what is your favorite tool for doing research?

7. What is the exact strategy you use when researching a brand new industry?

8. Many people want instant success. What would you say to those people? (I LOVED this question!)

9. What is the #1 thing you have learned over the past year about making money online?

10. What is the #1 marketing strategy you are going to work on to increase your overall business profit potential in the coming year and why?

These questions were AWESOME. I didn’t realize I had so much in me until I started typing out the answers to these questions.

Know what else is super cool about these 10 questions?

The top affiliates within Wealthy Affiliate are invited to Las Vegas for a Super Affiliate Conference. Those that went are the top performers in the WA community and are most likely some of the top internet marketers in the WORLD.

These very special marketers, along with Kyle and Carson, each answered these same questions in the Vegas Confidential report that only WA members can get now.

Now Kyle and Carson are crazy successful on their own so I couldn’t wait to read their answers to these questions. But also, Ryan Moran (from TheAffiliateGod.com), Marcus Cox (our AWESOME Affiliate Manager inside WA), and Travis Sago (Mr Bum Marketing) each answered these same 10 questions….and their answers were WAY better than mine…lol!

Anyway, if you want to read this post of mine, it is in the General Success area of the Wealthy Affiliate Members forum. The post it titled “Post #1000 from PotPieGirl – 10 Questions – My Story”. I’d love your feedback on this! And if anyone says, “Jen, you REALLY shoulda charged for that!”, I’ll slap ya….lol!

It’s not always about money =)

In my little pea-brain, I feel that if just ONE person reads what I wrote and takes action – and finds success – then I have done something REALLY great.

If you’re NOT a member of the Wealthy Affiliate Community, I’m sorry, I can’t reprint that post here. That info is for members only and I don’t want it public.

In the time since that post, I now have well over TWO THOUSAND posts. See, this is me:

I love that forum – and the fact that it’s private allows me to say a bit more than I would say publicly.

Are There Any Bonuses For Joining Wealthy Affiliate?

Yes, I have some bonus opportunities for my readers here at PotPieGirl.com if you join Wealthy Affiliate from here.

For more info on these bonuses, please click the links to read more:

Get a Free copy of Beating Adwords (really good PPC education)

Get a free copy of Inside the List (a super guide to building a list and building a RELATIONSHIP with that list)

Get a Free copy of Who Loves Money (this is an AWESOME guide to free-to-use marketing techniques)

Or – get exclusive bonus training from ME through this link (see my picture on that page?)

Video Tour of Wealthy Affiliate

Now, there’s no other way to describe what Wealthy Affiliate is like better than to SHOW you what’s on the inside of this private community. So here is a real quick video review of inside my Wealthy Affiliate account I recently made:

Why I Joined Wealthy Affiliate

I made the decision to join Wealthy Affiliate July 2008 when we were on a family beach vacation. I remember sitting there at waters edge in my silly little blue beach chair and thinking about my online business. Now, I wasn’t new to all this then, but I realized two things there by the ocean that I needed help with:

a. If I wanted to go further online, I had to surround myself with people who are further ahead than I am.

b. After learning all this IM mumbo-jumbo on my own for so long, I was beginning to feel like the lone ranger. I needed community and I wanted to network with like-minded people.

Wealthy Affiliate was the immediate answer for me. I decided that as soon as I got back home and back to work that I would join. I also decided to track down Travis Sago (from Bum Marketing) for his affiliate link for me to join thru.

Why?

Because Travis was the one that brought Wealthy Affiliate to my attention quite some time ago. I totally mis-understood what WA was back then (I thought it was some fancy PPC forum or something), so I didn’t join when he first started talking about it. However, I knew that for ME, joining thru him was the right thing to do. He was the once that shared WA with me in the first place.

What’s funny is that it took like a week or so to get Travis’ Wealthy Affiliate referral link….lol! I will admit that then I was a bit aggravated waiting for a reply, but since joining Wealthy Affiliate, I totally “get” how busy he is and how hard it is just to get thru email each day (IF you can even GET thru it….which I have now learned in a never-ending battle! lol).

Being a one-man or one-woman show in the online marketing world can be HARD. That is yet another reason I encourage others to join Wealthy Affiliate. When you have questions, you need answers rather quickly. You could email another marketer, but reality is, their response may not come quickly enough for you. You also could post your question in a public forum, but that feels risky sometimes, doesn’t it?

When you are a member of the Wealthy Affiliate community, you get the benefit of LOTS of other marketers being available to answer your questions AND you get to ask it behind closed doors in a safe environment either through the forum or the live chat option (when you need your answer NOW).

So, there you have it, my “NO BS” review of Wealthy Affiliate. Yes, it took me 8 months to finally write it, but I refuse to encourage anyone to join a community that I am not a satisfied and active participant in. It took me these 8 months to KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that recommending Wealthy Affiliate University to others who want to be successful online is absolutely the right thing to do. Now, after 3+ years, I am MORE than sure about this recommendation.

If you are worried about the monthly cost of Wealthy Affiliate….

Remember this – if you truly find value within the WA community, all you have to do is simply refer TWO other people to join you. Not only will you have spread the word about a valuable community, but those two commissions will pay for YOUR monthly membership dues.

I hope you’ll join me at Wealthy Affiliate. I’ll be there for the long haul =)

Have more questions about Wealthy Affiliate? Read these Wealthy Affiliate FAQ’s

What To Do Next

Ok, you’ve read my review, you’ve watched the video. Fact is, I have only scratched the surface as to what Wealthy Affiliate can do for YOU.

Do ONE thing for me today… right now….

At LEAST give yourself the opportunity to learn as much as you can about Wealthy Affiliate. Please, Don’t just scan this review and let it go in one ear and out the other.

Right now, go to Wealthy Affiliate and let Kyle and Carson send you their free Internet Wealth Guide.

No need to opt in – just click and read.

Get it. Read it. Then, make your own educated decision.

If you’re like me, you will realize that Wealthy Affiliate is totally worth trying out for a month or two.

51,467 people can’t be wrong… they MUST be on to something. (by the way, 51,467 is the membership count inside Wealthy Affiliate as of 12/1/2011.)