21 Wealthy Affiliate Frequently Asked Questions
(If you're looking for FAQ on Affiliate Marketing in general, click here.)
This Wealthy Affiliate Frequently Asked Questions page aims to help interested people to make their best possible decision of whether they should join this community.
For those who are not sure what Wealthy Affiliate is, let's get started by understanding this community...
What is Wealthy Affiliate?
Wealthy Affiliate is both a platform AND a community that is designed to help people make money online mainly through affiliate marketing.
Some things you can benefit from Wealthy Affiliate include:
- Very systematic and step-by-step training to start your own online business
- Anyone can build your own websites without any coding on your part
- Top-notch Website Hosting
- Thousands of community members helping one another
- You can connect with both experts and also people who are just starting out like you
- Get access to the Co-founders directly
- FREE to get started!
20 Wealthy Affiliate Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions on the Wealthy Affiliate Platform
What were some backgrounds about Wealthy Affiliate?
Wealthy Affiliate was found back in September 10, 2005 by Kyle Loudoun and Carson Lim. Both of them are from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Wealthy Affiliate Logo
Kyle and his family
Carson and his family
Wealthy Affiliate started out as a Keyword List Membership site, offering high searched keywords for internet marketers to run their campaigns.
Kyle and Carson already had success online prior to creating WA. They wanted to help others to do the same following their model.
So over the years, Wealthy Affiliate has transformed from merely a keyword list into an online marketing training portal with a myriad of training materials and a huge community.
This is just a brief overview. To see the detailed history of Wealthy Affiliate, click here.
What's the ONE THING that I personally LIKE & DISLIKE the most about Wealthy Affiliate?
The ONE THING that I like the most about Wealthy Affiliate:
I really like the ability for everyone in this community to be able to interact with the Co-Founders of Wealthy Affiliate.
In the community, Kyle & Carson, the Co-Founders join in discussions and helping out people almost everyday. They are very active in interacting with the community, especially Kyle. (Carson usually focus on the back end, technical side of the platform.)
If you are a Premium member, you can also Private Message them for help and they do respond to you!
This is something no other platforms can offer. I can confidently say that almost all the founders of other platforms are hard to reach. You can only communicate with their "consultants" or support personnel.
However,
Given this advantage, you shouldn't have unrealistic expectations like Kyle and Carson should respond to you within how many minutes or how many hours. There are so many members in this community. What they have been doing for the past 10 years have been really outstanding and helpful.
Some people are angry because they didn't get help in time simply because they take this advantage for granted.
If you see this advantage in the right mindset and expectation, you'll realize it's really amazing!
Rest assured they are more than happy to help you personally and they will respond to you. Sometimes it takes within 24 hours but sometimes it takes longer. Remember that they are humans and they are really busy. If you couldn't get their response, you can kindly remind them.
Check out the following post for more information on the top benefits of Wealthy Affiliate:
The ONE THING that I dislike the most about Wealthy Affiliate:
Wealthy Affiliate didn't really teach people how to build a conversion focused website.
It's training on content creation and site set up are awesome. But it didn't really touch on how to design website to make it convert better.
The reason I came to realize this is because I have been learning how to build conversion focused websites from Thrive Themes. After watching quite a number of their tutorial videos and posts, I then look back at the websites many Wealthy Affiliate members built.
I realized that there are many websites which have a lot of potential but their designs and plannings just pull them down. I think they can increase their conversion rate and earnings just by tweaking some of the things on their websites.
I hope Wealthy Affiliate can have at least some basic training on this topic so that people know a little bit more about "conversion focused websites".
Having said that, the current training and value offer by Wealthy Affiliate has far outweigh the price of the community.
Wealthy Affiliate is FREE to join and it's Premium membership costs only $49 dollars per month.
Check out the following post for more information on the criticism against Wealthy Affiliate:
How do I get started?
1. Sign up for a Free Starter Account with Wealthy Affiliate.
2. Set up your profile (add profile picture, description)
3. Set your goals here.
4. Get started with the Online Entrepreneur Certification Course where you'll be guided on how to build your own online business from scratch.
Pricing?
Starter Member: $0
Premium Member: $49/month OR $359/year
To find out the difference between the 2 membership, check out the Membership FAQ below.
How will I get paid?
Depends on the platform you use to make money.
There are a variety of ways you can make money with your website.
Here are 6 ways you can make money with your blog.
For example, if you are an affiliate with Amazon and you are promoting Amazon products, you'll follow Amazon's policy. They will either use direct deposit, cheque or Amazon gift voucher.
Different platform has different rules and policy.
The 3 main ways you get paid are via:
- Direct deposit
- Cheque
- PayPal
Is WA a pyramid scheme?
No.
A pyramid scheme is a business model that teaches people how to make money by RECRUITING people into the scheme WITHOUT PROVIDING ANY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES.
The Affiliate Bootcamp in Wealthy Affiliate indeed is a course that teaches people how to set up websites to promote WA membership.
BUT...
Affiliate Bootcamp is just one of the courses. It's not everything.
In fact, the Online Entrepreneur Certification Course teaches people how to properly set up a website of their own and sell products and services of their own choice, be it from Amazon or any other companies/platforms.
There are also real products and services offered by WA to help people build their own successful online business. Some tools and services include website hosting, keyword research, website builder, etc...
So, it's a real educational platform to teach people "How to make money ONLINE as a whole" and NOT just "How to make money by recruiting people to Wealthy Affiliate".
Online Entrepreneur Course or Affiliate Bootcamp Course?
Online Entrepreneur Certification Course for beginners.
Online Entrepreneur Certification Course and Affiliate Bootcamp Course are the 2 main courses in Wealthy Affiliate.
OEC focuses on helping people to build a website based on any niche that people choose and monetize it. (The course will definitely guide you on how to pick a suitable niche.)
Whilst, Bootcamp course is helping people to build a website based on the "make money online" niche. This course teaches you how to promote Wealthy Affiliate membership with their affiliate program.
For Beginners...
I would really recommend you to start learning from the OEC and stick with it until you complete it.
You should build a niche website of your hobby first because there are a lot of things you'll need to learn.
It doesn't make sense for you to be involved in the "make money online" niche and teach people how to make money online when you are just getting started.
One more thing is that the "make money online" niche is super competitive. You'll take a very long time before you can see results, if any.
Whilst, you can choose a not-so-competitive niche with OEC. It's much easier for you to see results and make money from it at the start.
After you've completed OEC and you think you are ready, you can then start with the Bootcamp course.
What's my WA rank about?
A metric to show how active and engaging you are within WA community.
The more active you are, the higher your rank will be. In the community, you can create posts, ask questions, participate in discussions, etc. All these will improve your rank.
However,
There is a misconceptions about the rank in WA.
It doesn't represent the level of expertise & knowledge of the person. Some people can get a high rank because they are very active but they may still be a beginner.
It's simply just a metric to show how ACTIVE a person is in the community. Your rank will change depends on your activity.
This video shows the benefits of ranking system in WA.
Warning!
Don't create content and post things that are low quality and value just to boost your rank!
You should focus on adding value to the community at all times!
Does it really work?
Yes, but you need to take ACTIONS!
Wealthy Affiliate has been in this industry for over 10 years and it has been one of the industry-leading company in this field for a long time.
There are many members who have already achieved huge success and monetary gains over the years. Many of them are able to be financially free and live a freedom digital lifestyle who travels frequently.
Check out this 13 Wealthy Affiliate Success Stories!
HOWEVER...
If you want to achieve what others can achieve, you need to put in the necessary time and effort to build your own business.
To be honest with you, you most likely won't make any money within the first 2 to 3 months because this is NOT something you can "get rich quick". It takes time to LEARN and APPLY.
This is a place for EDUCATION in making money online and as you know ALL education takes time!
In addition, this is not a job so you won't get paid for posting links or completing tasks. What you will do is to follow the training, build your own website, learn from others, improve your website, and make money from that website.
Too many people quit too early because they are having high expectations which upset them when they didn't see results fast enough.
How long will it take to make money with Wealthy Affiliate?
It depends.
My Favorite Answer for People Asking This Kind of Questions:
It generally takes beginners on average 3 to 6 months before they see their first commission, provided that they are consistently working on their business.
After you've got a good foundation, your income can have a huge potential of increasing exponentially usually after a year.
You may be disappointed at the first few months' results but after you've set up the foundation, that's when your income will sky-rocket!
It's possible for you to set a goal of quitting your job and make a full-time living online in a year's time. However, it does take a lot of learning and hard work.
How long you take really depends on how much time and effort you can put in. With perseverance, the more you put in, the faster the result.
Is WA available in every country?
No.
Free Starter Membership is NOT available in the following countries due to security reasons:
- Bangladesh
- Egypt
- India
- Kenya
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Vietnam
According to Kyle, the co-founder of Wealthy Affiliate, there tend to be more fraud and spams in these countries. To protect WA community, the above countries are excluded from the Free Starter Membership.
However, people from these countries can join as Premium Members directly if they are serious about learning from this platform.
After all, the reason for not allowing Free Starter Member is to avoid fraud and spam. If they are willing to pay and join as Premium, it shows they are serious about this business so there's no point stopping them from joining this community.
What is Jaaxy? Is it necessary?
Jaaxy is an advanced keyword research tool.
It is NOT necessary BUT recommended for people who are very serious about this business.
Jaaxy is a separate Premium keyword research tool that Kyle and Carson created.
Why You DON'T need Jaaxy?
It is not necessary because if you are a Premium Member of Wealthy Affiliate, you already have access to the built-in keyword research tool inside WA. It doesn't require any extra cost and you have unlimited searches as a Premium member. This is enough for you to do proper keyword research and get your content to rank in search engines.
Even if you're not a Premium Member, you can use free keyword tool like Google Keyword Planner. The problem with the free Google Keyword Planner is that its results are not so clear and detailed. It only gives you rough statistics.
Why You May Need Jaaxy?
Jaaxy is an "advanced" keyword research tool because its results are detailed and there are many more tools that come along with it.
For example, there are Ranking research for your site, SERP analysis (Search Engine Results Page Analysis), Affiliate Program research, etc.
If you have are very serious about this business and you want to accelerate your success, Jaaxy is something you can consider investing in.
What's the point of followers?
You will get notifications from all the people you follow for their new post, training and questions.
Following someone is a sign that you are interested in them and want to get notifications for their new activity and content.
Since this is both a platform and a community, having followers and following others is just a form to network with like-minded people.
You'll be making new friends in this community who share similar interests and you can help one another.
Note: Following people and having people to follow you does not contribute to your rank anymore.
Does Wealthy Affiliate have its own affiliate program?
Yes.
Wealthy Affiliate's affiliate program is its membership.
As long as you are a member of Wealthy Affiliate, regardless you are Free Starter member or Premium member, you can promote WA membership.
The following screenshot shows the commission structure:
(Click on the image to enlarge)
Basically, if you're a Premium member, you earn $23.50 per month for each person you refer to WA and upgrade to Premium. If they upgrade to yearly payment, you earn $175 per year for each referral.
A referral refers to a person who has signed up through your affiliate link (most probably Free Starter member).
For every Free Starter referral, you'll get a $1 credit from WA. When they upgrade to Premium, you'll get the commissions as stated above.
If you are a Free Starter member and you are able to refer people into WA, you'll also get credited. But your commission earned will be much lesser than if you are a Premium member.
By the way, the Affiliate Bootcamp course inside Wealthy Affiliate is meant to teach you how to build website and refer people to WA.
What are some of the criticisms against Wealthy Affiliate?
Check out this post for all the criticisms against Wealthy Affiliate.
Since there are so many positive reviews and recommendations for Wealthy Affiliate, it's really hard to find any criticism against it. As a member myself, I know it very well. Wealthy Affiliate is known for its quality platform, community, training and tools. I've also done a lot of research trying to find as much criticism and complaints as I can.
But!
There's only one major criticism against Wealthy Affiliate and that is...
There are many people review all other platforms/programs as scam simply because they want to promote Wealthy Affiliate!
I can personally tell you that this is true. But this generally happens to beginners.
Making product reviews is one of the best ways to make money as an affiliate marketer. However, many beginners are too eager to make money fast so they regard all other programs as scams just to promote Wealthy Affiliate.
This may allow them to earn a bit here and there but this strategy will definitely not allow them to go far. They haven't understand the real way to earn a huge long-term income - that is being really open and honest!
The more experienced marketers know how to play the game so they will usually make honest and balanced reviews, unlike many beginners.
This is the only major criticism. Some other people may say WA is a scam simply because they did not make money from it. But this usually happens due to the person's wrong mentality or expectations.
So, Wealthy Affiliate is a really good platform for anyone to learn how to make money online. You can do as much research as you want and you'll find that there's really very few negative reviews for Wealthy Affiliate.
Frequently Asked Questions on Membership Issues
Difference between Starter & Premium Membership?
- No credit card required.
- Just need an Email, username and password.
- Get access to most of the features for free
- NO Trial Period. You can stay as Free member for as long as you want
- $49/month OR $359/year
- $19 for the 1st month if you upgrade to Premium within 7 days after you signed up. (61% discount)
- Unlimited access to ALL resources and tools
- NO further upsell
Starter V.S. Premium Comparison
Is Premium membership for me?
There are 3 reasons why you shouldn't go Premium:
- You're expecting to make money quick
- You really can't afford it for long
- You are already running a successful online business
(For more explanation on the 3 reasons, check out this post.)
Wealthy Affiliate is more for beginners who want to learn how to make money online.
If you are already an experienced marketer or online business owner, keep doing what's working for you. You do not need to become Premium member in Wealthy Affiliate.
Having said that, it doesn't mean you can't benefit from WA if you are already successful. You can still get a ton of values. The contents in WA are always growing and updating.
The one thing that everyone can benefit from WA regardless of your expertise is their hosting service and website builder.
Their hosting is one of the best compared to the common ones in the market. They offer high quality FREE SSL Certificate for all Premium members. There are also many more features coming up.
So, WA hosting can be one of your consideration regardless of your expertise level in online business.
Can I make money with Free Starter Membership?
Yes You Can! But it'll be a lot harder.
With Free Starter Membership, you are provided with 2 free websites, a keyword research tool and some training.
With all these, there's no one stopping you from making money since you have a website and you can monetize it!
Here's an example of making money as a Free Member.
However...
There are limitations to Free Starter Member. For example, they are only eligible for free subdomain website, they are limited to only 30 keyword searches and they can only access course 1 of the training.
If you are not familiar with online marketing, Free Starter Member may or may not make you money. Even if it does, it's just a very small amount.
After all, the Free Starter membership's purpose is just for people to see whether this platform is for them. Without complete access to all the courses and resources, it's very hard for beginners to figure out themselves.
Wealthy Affiliate's Premium membership gives you unlimited access to ALL the essential tools and resources you need to build a successful online business.
So, if you are serious about your business and want to get paid seriously, I would recommend you to upgrade to Premium after you've test it out with Free Starter membership.
Can I downgrade my membership from Premium to Starter?
No.
Once you've upgrade to Premium member, you'll always be a Premium member unless you create a new account.
If you want to take a break or you don't wish to continue your membership, what you can do is to cancel your account.
See the tabs below for more information on membership cancellation.
How to cancel my membership?
For Free Starter Members:
You DON'T need to do anything if you do not want to continue since no credit card information are taken from you. You can simply don't login to WA anymore.
For the Email notifications, you can unsubscribe all the notifications in the WA account settings.
For Premium Members:
Cancel your billing information at the subscription settings under account settings.
If you are using automatic payments on PayPal to pay for your membership fee, log in to PayPal and make sure your automatic payment for your membership has been cancelled.
You'll have access to Premium features until your next billing cycle after you've cancelled your billing information.
What will happen if I decide to cancel my membership?
Important Information for Membership Cancellation!
- Your account data will still be saved by Wealthy Affiliate and you can always come back to the community by resubscribing to pick up from where you left off.
- You have 30 days to transfer your hosting of the domains you own to other hosting service.
- For Free SiteRubix site, you also have 30 days to transfer the content of the site to other places.
- If you fail to do so in 30 days, your website will be disabled. But Wealthy Affiliate won't delete everything away. If you decide to come back and re-activate your website, it is still possible (but not guaranteed) by contacting Carson for this.
Conclusion
Wealthy Affiliate is the platform which taught me everything from scratch as a beginner to the point where I'm able to make regular passive income online. I attribute all my success to this powerful platform and I'm really grateful for this opportunity.
I hope this has given you all the necessary information to clear your doubts and make the best possible decision for you.
Feel free to leave a comment below should you have any questions!
