Is Wealthy Affiliate A Scam?

Two Canadian entrepreneurs, Carson and Kyle, own WA. Their business name is "Niche Marketing Inc". They have been together in business since 2005.

As of 2021, Kyle and Carson Have grown WA to over 1.4 million members, making their program one of the most popular affiliate marketing courses in the world!

You've probably heard of it if you've been on the internet for any length of time. 

You're probably curious as to whether it's legal because it's so popular.

We are here at Steady Calls because we want to give you an honest and transparent assessment. 

Let's look at some of the people involved in this operation.

Kyle Loudon

Both Carson and Kyle are great men. It's clear that both have had success as affiliate marketers before.

Unfortunately, this success seems to have ended.

It was disappointing that Kyle showed three of his affiliate sites during the training.

Traffic was extremely low, and this is the leader in the most popular course on affiliate marketing. It seems a bit shady to our eyes.

It's not as though he is a con artist.

He may have just been so well-respected on his affiliate sites between 2005 and 2015 that he was able to just coast.

Add to that the fact that Wealthy affiliate, His popularity has grown exponentially over the years. He may have been just chilling on a yacht somewhere.

This would explain at the very least why the training hasn’t been updated since God knows what time.

Jay Neill

This guy is a favorite of many...

He is the live weekly/live chat trainer WA Premium.

Jay joined the ranks in 2007 and is now self-declared "The world's first WA influencer.".

Do you smell arrogance?

The title is still appropriate...

Especially considering he's probably making bank from smooth-talking the masses into joining Wealthy Affiliates.

We decided to dig a little deeper into this man:

While this website is performing better than the 3 Kyles in the training, the numbers don't seem high enough to justify the lavish lifestyle he lives.

You should realize that this site is a huge funnel site designed to get you to join Wealthy Affiliate.

You'll get bombarded with pop-ups if you stay on the site long enough. They want you to see his live site build, which claims it earns $300 per day!

These are lofty claims, but we continue to investigate.

These are some numbers according to Ahrefs...

It's quite low, huh?

This math doesn't add up.

Let's say that he gets 500 visits per month and that every visitor clicks his link. (This is not what happens in real life).

250 of those people decide to buy the most expensive helmet (65$) and assume that he is earning an 8% commission (which again, is impossible right now).

This is $1,300 per month, much less than the $9.300 he's advertising...

Our calculations were also generous

Now if you sign up for their email subscription...you'll eventually be sent a screenshot of this exact site and the payment he received.

It sounds transparent and sincere, right?

It's not really...

You will need to be aware of a few key components. We'll discuss them below.

We spent over 60 hours going through every nook and corner of the site. 

We cannot recommend this course to anyone. The odds of success alone with a wealthy affiliate are slim.

The training is no longer up-to-date so it doesn't really apply anymore.

You'd also think that they would be able to send you more recent screenshots than if you sent them something older than 5 years ago!

Except if it hasn't had success in 5 years ...

But we digress.

Here are some reasons why we don’t like it.

How much is the most popular affiliate marketing? What is the average course cost in the world?

Well, there are actually two options.

Starter Membership: Free Wealthy Affiliate Membership

Yes, it is completely free!

There are no strings attached!

The training you receive is not extensive, but it is up-to-date.

However, you will also have access to the group for seven days.

This training does not provide enough information to allow you to start in any capacity.

It is basically giving you enough to make you want to cave and buy premium.

WA Premium Membership

Wealthy Affiliate premium monthly fee is $19 and $49 respectively for the first and second months.

But!

It will cost you about $30 per month if you pay the entire year in advance.

It sounds great, but when you look at the information they offer, it is a poor deal. $30 per month is a very different song.

Is Wealthy Affiliate a Good Way to Make Money?

You won't make any money as a starter member (for free). Even if you do decide to jump in and start, there is no guarantee of making any money. Your odds of success don't change that much.

It is a sad truth that Wealthy Affiliate members were making good money until around 2016 when something went horribly wrong...

Since then, success stories are few and far between!

Here's a little breakdown of the Wealthy Affiliate site-building process:

They encourage you, as a starter member to create a site on the SiteRubix.

Here's where it gets confusing...

These sites are considered fully operational and ready for profit.

Are you up for the challenge?

Kyle Loudon has said that to really have a successful affiliate website, you're not going to do it on a SiteRubix domain. You have to do it on your own.

You can bet that it won't be mentioned in the training.

Maybe Kyle was wrong? People make mistakes all the time when they post things on the internet.

This is not true.

Many premium members voiced their opinion stating that SiteRubix and training are not complete. 

SiteRubix is a free membership that's only for hobby websites. You cannot add plugins. It is incomplete. It's ideal for those who are interested in making a travel report or collecting hobby photos.

Yikes...

However, the people spoke.

Do you think I am crazy? Isn't it obvious that premium membership will make me big bucks?

It is unlikely...

Yes, it sounds snarky. But if you are going to put in the hard work required to become an affiliate marketer (which isn't easy, trust me), you might as much as make some real money.

The program that helped skyrocket my online business to $50,000+ per month teaches some of the affiliate marketing skills but shows you how to monetize them in a much, MUCH more profitable way.

It was extremely effective 5 years ago, but it's not as effective today. It is important to note that there are not many screenshots of successful members.

What is the Average Income of Wealthy Affiliates?

Wealthy Affiliate earned approximately $10,000,000 in 2019, but numbers for 2020 are yet to be released.

That's $10,000,000, right?

Nope...

This is $10,000,000 that they made from members who paid monthly dues.

What Is The Wealthy Affiliate Refund policy?

You get a 30-day money-back guarantee

Not even close.

In fact, Wealthy Affiliate offers no refunds at all!

You can find all the information you need in their terms and conditions.

Do you want to get a yearly subscription??

Be patient, it may not be worth it. You won't get back your money.

If you decide to join, Steady Calls recommends just try the monthly plan out for a few weeks first.

What could be more threatening than a money-back guarantee?

How about an email that gently pokes fun at you for not being a yearly subscription...

Yes, you can refer people to the yearly plan if you are on the monthly plans. Kyle sends an email saying "If you own a Honda and are trying to sell it, it will be difficult."

Boxing rules forbid low blows...SHEESH!

Affiliate Program Wealthy Affiliate

You read that right.

Wealthy Affiliate offers an affiliate program It offers members many benefits.

This is one of the most popular and can be purchased for $121

Are Wealthy Affiliates Worth it?

Since its inception, WA has provided solid training in affiliate marketing.

However, the problem is that scammers from all walks of the globe have made it known in recent years.

It's not a scam, but some people have experienced huge success that has changed their lives.

WA and its teachings have become increasingly outdated and ineffective as time has gone on.

These are just a few of the things you should be aware of:

Is Wealthy Affiliate A Pyramid Scheme? Is it MLM?

Legally speaking...

Wealthy Affiliate CANNOT is considered a strict pyramid scheme Or Multi-Level Marketing scheme.

It does contain elements of both so it's easy for people to make this assumption.

Take a look at these...

The majority of reviews you will see on WA today will come from students selling to new students... not necessarily selling products online like the course promises.

Comparatively...there are plenty of other affiliate marketing programs out there where students are having success in being affiliates of products outside just the program itself.

Wealthy Affiliate: Unsubstantiated Claims

How can it get any worse than no refunds and having one of the founding members kick your feet when you're down.

What about claims that are simply outright false, not supported by evidence, or misleading.

Their claim is that members of WA have the highest success rates of any online platform!

Kyle, I am sorry. How do you measure it exactly?

They also promise you won't fail...

Unless you decide to quit.

They say they have "never seen a member Wealthy Affiliate Failure is not an option."

You can see the play on words that they made there.

It's quite clever to think that they can get away with this!

Dream Research Platform

They really get to use Jaaxy, their keyword search tool, in training.

It is not known outside of WA. It is not unless it is mentioned in a review such as this.

Digital marketing experts and affiliate marketers have never referred to Jaaxy as a tool that has helped them immensely.

You Can Own A Large Share Of All Traffic Online!

This statement is false, and no evidence has been presented to prove it.

There is plenty of evidence to support the contrary, however, they don't get much traffic, according to what we have seen.

Wealthy Affiliates: Deceptive and Misleading Claims

You Can Build A Profit Ready Website In Less Than 30 Seconds

This is also false.

Don't take our word for this...

Let's face facts: "Building a website for most people to most people is fully functional with pages of content."

That's not what you get in 30 seconds. It's absurd.

It's not easy.

Google Updates Lead to Traffic Growth

It's funny how members disagree with each other...

It is possible to easily scale a campaign to make over $1,000,000 per year

You are right, bro! You are my rock!

Unbeatable Website Hosting

Do you ever get irritated when someone talks about themselves too much?

This is the feeling you will get when they talk about web hosting.

We decided to search for results from some member sites. Here's what we discovered:

What about the "successful" members?

Yes...

We are sorry that we don't buy the "Industry leaders", "State-of-the-art" jargon...

The Structure is Lacking in Wealthy Affiliate

Did you ever hear your high school teachers say that you couldn't do a project in a day?

I don't think Kyle and Carson took that to heart...

You will soon realize that the program is confusing and repetitive once you enter it.

It's not obvious that this course was completed for a substantial amount of time.

To the average person looking for an affiliate training platform that creates a traffic-producing website in a step by step easy to follow the process...they will be sorely disappointed.

Both have contradictory training videos. One believes that google ads are good while the other thinks it is bad. One person says that social media is great, while the other claims it's bad.

Kyle also teaches you how two videos can be made.

This is why it's necessary.

How to write? That's an important topic.

It was lesson 46 of the online entrepreneur certification.

This wouldn't have been a big deal, but they asked you to write 20 articles before the video.

It is also difficult to start because they don't have smooth transitions.

Relax and Choose What You Like

These are the little breaks that are sprinkled throughout the training platform.

This might be something that some people appreciate, but others might view it as lazy internet marketing.

We have to be honest, a true affiliate marketer isn't a one-and-done.

What does Wealthy Affiliate actually Teach?

WA's Affiliate Bootcamp will teach you how to create a website that promotes Wealthy Affiliate.

Online entrepreneur certification includes training material that shows you how to build affiliate websites like dog training, pool cleaning, website hosting, and more. These niches are known as MMOs (make Money Online).

There are literally hundreds of training videos in the Affiliate Bootcamp and OEC.

They all have different qualities and are relevant to internet marketing today.

What does a Wealthy Affiliate Teach You?

You can find anything and everything relevant to 2021. Many of the essential SEO training required to rank these affiliate websites are missing from the core training.

Our team thoroughly reviewed 120 training videos and found several areas that were lacking.

You will also find some bad advice in core training.

They might tell you, "There is no such thing...now." However, this may be to calm your fears and encourage you to take action...

They wanted to make sure that this was clarified because there are definitely bad niches out there

Have you ever heard of underwater basket weaving

However, not every niche will be profitable. They should inform you that there are many other courses like this one that offers at least two different niches.

Kyle claims that there are literally thousands of keywords with low competition that you could be targeting and that your target is too broad!

We have to intervene again, we must intervene here. I'm sorry, but if your goal is to sell beach chairs in Alaska's north pole, you're going for trouble buddy!

We find it really frustrating to go through the program and see all the bad advice they give people.

Don't believe us? Check out their premium members forum!

He says that H1 and H2 headers are too big and he prefers H3 and H4 headers. They're used for SEO, according to SMH.

Perhaps, Kyle could update his training to make it more appealing...

Another bad piece of core training advice in WA concerns the listing price in an amazon review.

A premium member notified everyone about it back in 2019, so people could make the necessary changes.

It is so serious, however.

You could be banned, and your source of income may go straight to the trash!

One of the most scathing pieces of advice from the WA training was when Kyle suggested that you could pay $5 to post with lots of traffic and generate a lot of revenue.

We have to stop calling it BS, I'm sorry. Anyone who has ever tried to make money online for any length of time knows how much $5 gets you in content writing.

This is a deliberate misdirection to get all the great content writers to his own benefit.

Another question you can ask is: Would someone who has just learned how content writing works want to be paid $5?

Most likely not.

Why would you recommend cheap $5 writers? It won't help anyone...

Training for Wealthy Affiliates is Outdated

This one is probably dead, but we've won it.

It was so popular that several people asked for it to be removed and others even requested that it be updated.

Google+ is no longer available, but it can still be found in different areas of training.

What about statistics?

Kyle has one blog that requires a lot of faith, trust, and pixie dust.

Although it states that Bing is still receiving 33% of search traffic, the article is out of date. The point is that Yahoo and Bing never received that much traffic.

Also, social media training is very outdated. It has been around for close to a decade. A video posted to Facebook appears to be from 2012

Wealthy Affiliate Support

This support system WA has in place has both good and bad points.

You are likely to get an answer to your question. The bad news is that Kyle usually responds. It doesn't help that he leaves things open-ended.

One of our team members informed us, while we were writing this review of Kyle, that they received an email from a WA premium member. It stated that Kyle was not responsive to emails despite what the newsletter said.

They felt misled, it is obvious.

Wealthy Affiliate Network

Wealthy Affiliate is active and you can chat as with any other social network.

Your feed will likely be cluttered with affiliate marketing posts.

The group was a bit distracting for our team. We received a lot of generic responses from the newbies whenever we posted a question. They aren't very helpful.

It seems that the community has lost its sense of moderation recently. There are many blog posts that are not worth sharing and the odd dude who uses WhatsApp to ask for money.

Facebook has better community groups that can handle posts like this and provide more support.

Online training programs are quite common to have in a community.

Training programs that are part of a larger community are more beneficial than those that do not.

Rankings And WA Ambassadors

All those general comments that we just mentioned? We have just discovered why there are so many...

The ranking system you see here shows who has made the greatest contribution to the community.

It doesn't pay off in the end.

You won't find any financial incentives in these rankings if you look for them.

You'll also find a little rah-rah statement from premium members along the lines of these...

There might be some reason to "not think of me me "...".

The big idea is missing here.

It does not mean that someone is a highly active member of a group. However, it is not a guarantee they are knowledgeable about affiliate marketing.

We'd wager that the most successful affiliate marketer isn't even active because he's too busy developing his own training materials, pushing his affiliate content onto blogs, and running his business!

The sad thing about all of this is...

Wealthy Affiliate isn't for everyone. Those who have made little money are those that defend it most.

That's Stockholm Syndrome if you've ever heard it!

Success stories from wealthy affiliates

Pay attention to the time stamps and you'll see that Wealthy Affiliate success stories date back to 2016 or earlier. Few are from 2017 and beyond.

Because most of the Wealthy Affiliate’s training modules are outdated, this is why. Wealthy Affiliate is not keeping up with the times online.

It's also a shame that they are so popular is because they provide a niche service. There were not many online courses that offered the same amount of content as they did. They haven't kept up with the times.

Wealthy Affiliate 10 Years Ago is not the Wealthy Affiliate that we see today.

The Problem with 99% of Wealthy Affiliate Review Writers

The problem with 99 percent of Wealthy Affiliate reviews, is that they're written by WA affiliates and include their affiliate link ($21 apparently) throughout the article in hopes you'll click through and purchase.

Why is this a problem?

If people are financially motivated to write about a program, chances are that they will shill a bit.

There are many Wealthy Affiliate reviews that include all kinds of affiliate links.

Do you want to find out if Wealthy Affiliate is legit?

You can find a heading or sentence that states they are not affiliated with Wealthy Affiliate at the beginning of each paragraph. This is similar to what we have on ours.

Another problem is that these people don't know what to do next. Maybe their creativity has been subliminally blocked.

We're trying to show you that there are 70 videos dedicated solely to the promotion of your affiliate sites!

We aren't laughing either...just take a look at these success stories, and the screenshots of their payments history...

Most of their payments come from Wealthy Affiliate, as you'll see!

You can see why this pyramid scheme is popular. The public only sees people making money by referring others, not from building affiliate websites in other niches such as Jay's football snack helmet. Jay brags about it without showing any ongoing proof.

SCAMMER: NO WEALTHY AFFILIATE!

Legally according to the FTC, it isn't a scam.

It can appear as though it is one.

How, you might ask?

All the glowing, positive reviews from affiliate links for one...that's a red flag!

The program's material is often outdated, misleading, or simply wrong.

It is overhyped. You will save time if you don't listen to all the training, which can confuse you more.

It is not worth the cost of their Affiliate Bootcamp.

It is not worth the cost of their Online Entrepreneur Certification.

It is not worth it for their community.

It is not worth the effort to join their affiliate programs.

It is not worth the cost of their tools or hosting.

The business model they teach you is DEFINITELY not worth the effort.

Is that your answer?

It's possible to create a successful, profitable online business.

My #1 pick proves this! 

It is also a real example of success, unlike WA.

This was just a few days ago.

FAQ

We have reviewed Wealthy Affiliate and many people have questions about WA. So we decided to provide the best answers to each one:

Is Wealthy Affiliate a Beginner Program?

You can take the Wealthy Affiliate Marketing course at any level. You don't need to be a pro-level 3 or higher in affiliate marketing to join the Wealthy Affiliate Marketing Course.

The WA Training and Affiliate Bootcamp will show you how to set up websites, create good content and do some keyword research using their keyword research tool.

How do affiliate marketers make money?

Affiliate marketing is primarily about promoting products on other websites through reviews. It is a simple concept: write a review about a product, and leave your link. This will help people find your link and purchase the product.

You will usually earn a small percentage from the sale.

It is clear that many affiliate marketers make their living promoting Wealthy Affiliate or other programs if we look around.

To be one of these top-grossing sites, you must make your site appear authoritative. This requires that your site is well-built and able to attract traffic to it.

What Are The Highest Paying Affiliate Marketers Programs?