Today you will read 25 Wealthy Affiliate complaints. I am a real member of Wealthy Affiliate for the last four years and have promoted their program with many good results.
I don’t ignore that there are Wealthy Affiliate complaints from some members and competitors. Usually, the competitors focus on the negatives to promote their offers, which is ok. However, the previous members tend to mention things that didn’t work for them.
So, I collected 25 complaints about Wealthy Affiliate that I have read online more than once. Some of them are valid, while others are misleading. Here is the truth:
Wealthy Affiliate Complaints:
1. There Is No Such Thing As A Free Membership But A Free Trial
Wealthy Affiliate has a free membership, but it looks like a free trial. It sounds weird, so I will explain:
When you join the website, you can have a special offer for seven days and access to the community. According to Wealthy Affiliate, the community is available only to the premium members. Free members have access only to the free content.
If you don’t update in seven days, you lose your special offer and your community benefits. So, the first seven days are like a free trial that gives you access to the community and stops after this period.
You still get access to the free content and your two websites. The problem is that you lose access to your websites after six months. This period looks like a free trial for those who use their websites.
The permanent free membership applies to the available content. You will get access to the free training and blog posts for life. This complaint is not valid because Wealthy Affiliate actually offers free membership. In my opinion, the free content has more value than many paid low-quality courses on the internet.
If you check the free membership by yourself, create an account here.
2. No Refund Policy
Many online marketplaces include a refund period for every sale. They allow the members to get their money back if they don’t like the product.
When it comes to the online programs and courses, we see many low-quality products offering a refund policy and then not giving the money back. They can make it hard or don’t give specific instructions. This is quite common for Clickbank and JVZoo products. Of course, some legit programs offer refunds and keep their word.
There is no refund policy on Wealthy Affiliate. When you sign up for the program, you agree to pay a monthly no refundable membership. It is included in terms of services. The good news is that you can join for free and take your time before updating. Of course, you can cancel your membership anytime you want.
3. The Two Free Websites Use A Subdomain
This is true, but they are WordPress websites. A subdomain is a website without a premium domain. For example, makemoneybay.com is a premium domain name. It costs almost $15 per year.
Subdomains do not cost anything, and you can find them on many free platforms like Blogger. A Wealthy Affiliate website looks like this example: yourwebsite.siterubix.com.
Two free websites are great to apply the training and set up your first site. Once you upgrade and get your premium domain name for less than $15, you will transfer it to your new domain name.
Wealthy Affiliate does not want to mislead anyone but tries to explain to beginners that they can access two websites to get started. SiteRubix websites can get traffic, but it will be difficult. Of course, beginners have not many chances to get results in six months. But it has happened before in some cases.
In my opinion, working on a website with a subdomain makes sense only for practice. If you are serious about making money, you need to buy your own domain name as soon as possible. While free sites can get traffic, a premium domain name will get better rankings.
4. It Does Not Include A Free Domain Name
I have heard a few people complaining about not having a free domain name. If you are a beginner, you may think that you should get one domain name with your membership. However, this Wealthy Affiliate complaint does not make sense because no one can buy domain names for you.
When you buy a domain name, you need to choose the URL and put your details on it. It is 100% yours, and no one can get it away from you. I don’t know any website or registrar that gives free domain names.
Bluehost has a relevant promotion, but a free domain name is only for people that buy website hosting for one year. You get a discount on their service and not a free domain name, even if they advertise it like that.
5. Wealthy Affiliate Sends Many Emails
Some members don’t want to receive emails. They may feel that the emails they get are promotional, which is not the case. When you join Wealthy Affiliate, you become a member of the community. You will receive messages, get likes, and notifications. They are not promotional emails but community emails like the ones you get on forums and social media.
You can easily go to your settings and change your email preferences. If you don’t want any emails from the community, you will not receive them. But you will need to login into the platform to get your notifications. I have activated most of these emails but check them once or twice a day.
6. There Is No Phone Number
The owners of Wealthy Affiliate have decided not to share a phone number. So, some competitors mention this decision for reasons that I don’t know.
Both Kyle and Carson share videos and content in the members’ area. You can watch their videos, read their training, and contact them. They also share their social media profiles and invite the members to follow them.
I personally follow Kyle on Instagram, where he shares personal photos and stories. There are photos and videos with his family that proves they are real persons. If you really want to contact the owners, you can easily do that on social media.
7. Wealthy Affiliate Costs Too Much
I disagree with this Wealthy Affiliate complaint. If you think about the number of services you get from Wealthy Affiliate, you will realize that the price is not high. You get website hosting for then websites, keyword tool, access to the community, and quality support. You can also use the platform to earn more money than your monthly fee.
The monthly membership costs $49 per month, which is less than $1.7 per day. It costs less than a coffee per day in the USA. If you are really committed to your online business, you can get yearly offers that include big discounts. For example, I have bought the Black Friday offer that costs $299 per year. The total cost is $0.82 per day or $24.6 per month.
There are training programs in the same category without website hosting and keyword tool that cost $500-$1000 to join them. Keyword tools with exact metrics and SEO analysis like Jaaxy cost $100+ and website hosting for a new website costs over $100 per year.
If you put them all together, you can see that Wealthy Affiliate pricing is not expensive for the offered value. Those who can’t afford it can do a few things.
First, you can make comments on the SiteComment platform. You can earn $0.50 per comment. You need only four comments per day to earn more than your monthly membership. Then, you can create your own training inside the platform. You will get credits based on the views of your training that you can exchange into money. The only requirement is to be a premium member for three months or more.
8. Many Members Promote Wealthy Affiliate
It is a complaint that you can hear from people who build websites to promote Wealthy Affiliate. They realize sooner or later that they have a lot of competition.
While it is true that many people promote the program because of the great affiliate program, it does not limit your chances for success. If you follow the training, you can learn how to make money in any niche.
All the niches have low competition opportunities. Your job as an affiliate is to find them and promote the right products. If you don’t like the competition, you can go into another niche. The main training is not about promoting Wealthy Affiliate but choosing a niche that you like.
9. The Ranking System
Wealthy Affiliate has a ranking system. When you create posts and reply to comments, you get points. Based on these points, you have a rank on the platform. While some people like this system, others complain about it.
When I joined the platform, the ranking system helped me understand who the most active members are on the platform. They are not the members who make the most money but those who help more people. Later, improving my rankings was like a game for me. I replied to comments, welcomed beginners, and climbed to the top 200 of the platform. But I had to focus on my projects, so I just reply to my referrals these days.
The ranking system is only for fun. You don’t earn money when you get higher on the rankings. However, the top 25 members on the rankings get an invitation for the yearly super affiliate conference in Las Vegas. Another way to get your entry to the conference is to make 300 sales. I think it’s easier to climb on the top 25 than getting 300 sales. You can consider it as an option.
10. The Community Looks Like A Social Network
The community has many types of posts. Not all of them are business-related, but the members can post personal topics. These posts tend are not common from my experience, so they don’t turn the platform into a social network.
The members’ area looks like a forum. There is the main training, webinars, posts from members, questions, training from members, and comments below every piece of comment. It is a community with high engagement, and the ranking system helps this process.
However, you will not see personal images and videos from people’s dogs like Facebook and Instagram. Even if it happens from a beginner, most people will not show interest in these posts. Wealthy Affiliate owners do not block any posts but let the members decide what they like to read.
11. The Domain Name Registrar Offer Basic TLDs
Wealthy Affiliate includes a domain registrar where you can buy your domain names. Of course, it allows you to use domain names from other registrars. However, you can use only basic TLDs. It means you can buy only .com, .net, and .org extensions.
Wealthy Affiliate teaches a specific business model. You build niche sites and want to get ranked on the search engines. A part of the process is to build trust with your target audience. In this business model, I would suggest only .com extensions. The other two extensions are fine when you find a great one or two-word domain name.
However, I don’t suggest any other extensions because you would lose traffic. If someone remembers your site’s name and wants to visit it directly, they will type the name and .com. They will not type .info or anything similar. If you were interested in building short landing pages or following another method, other extensions could make sense.
12. You Can’t Go Back To The Free Membership After Upgrading
Wealthy Affiliate does not allow you to downgrade from premium. It is a program that focuses on the paid version and gives a lot of value to the members. One of the programs is that you lose your websites and domain names once you stop your premium account.
It is your responsibility to transfer any domain names and websites before stopping your premium membership. When you don’t pay the monthly fee, you have 30 days to decide whether you will quit or not. These 30 days are more than enough to transfer anything you have on another platform.
If you want to access the free content after stopping your premium membership, you can create a new free account. Wealthy Affiliate does not limit you on joining again. For most people, it shouldn’t be a problem. It may need some work to transfer your websites, but it is the same process on every hosting service. The support of Wealthy Affiliate can help you with that process if you ask for it.
13. The Keyword Tool Is Not Popular
Jaaxy is the keyword tool of Wealthy Affiliate. While many members say good things about the tool, it is not popular. Most internet marketers do not use it or have not heard about it. There are two good reasons why most marketers do not suggest Jaaxy.
First, it is the keyword tool of Wealthy Affiliate, as mentioned above. Those who are not members have no access to Jaaxy. Also, it works best for the business model of Wealthy Affiliate.
Second, many top names promote tools that give them the best commissions, even if they don’t use them. The first levels of Jaaxy are free for the members of Wealthy Affiliate. If they promote Jaaxy, the chances are that they will not earn money.
Many Wealthy Affiliate members have built profitable sites with Jaaxy. I use it daily to get ideas and check the metrics. After four years of performing keyword research, I pick up terms relevant to my niches, even without traffic.
You never know when the trends will change. So, Jaaxy is more than enough to build your website. You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars per month on keyword tools.
14. Wealthy Affiliate Does Not Have Success Stories
This complaint is far away from the truth. I have seen many people over the years that turn into full-time affiliate marketers with the same training. In my Wealthy Affiliate review, I mention some success stories as examples.
You don’t have to be an expert to see that the training works. You read this site because you found it on search engines. If you follow the training of Wealthy Affiliate, other people will visit your website. Here is a personal success story.
In most online programs, people don’t make a dollar. They show you expensive cares, tropical places, houses, etc. But they don’t have a real person that has applied the process. Wealthy Affiliate is the opposite. Many people have earned money and keep working on their sites.
15. Not Enough Ideas On How To Choose A Niche
The free training includes a niche lesson. You can learn most things you need to know about this topic. Your niche will be the topic of your site. It is an easy concept.
However, this lesson does not include ideas. If Wealthy Affiliate suggested niche ideas, all the members would stick to these niches and compete with each other. The whole concept of finding your niche is to avoid the tons of competition you can find in overcrowded niches.
I personally have created a list of 3000+ niche ideas. Other members have created similar courses inside the platform. So, there are more niche ideas than other programs on the internet. My suggestion is to use these lists to start your research and not as a way to avoid the work.
16. Wealthy Affiliate Suggests The MMO (Make Money Online) Niche
When you are on the lessons about choosing a niche, there is a mention of the affiliate program and the relevant training. Of course, it does not mean that it’s a promotion.
Even if you get into the MMO niche, the training suggests you find low competition opportunities. Many beginners get excited with the recurring commissions of Wealthy Affiliate. The affiliate program is one of the best on the internet.
Others get excited with the scenario of becoming a super affiliate and go to Las Vegas. In every case, the suggestion for all the beginners is to find a niche the like.
When you choose a niche, you create content and participate with other people in that niche. There is no point in working on something you don’t like. If you like the MMO niche, you should go for it. If you have another interest or hobby that excites you, the answer would be to follow your passion as well.
17. Wealthy Affiliate Has No Competitors
Every website has competition on the internet. This Wealthy Affiliate complaint does not make much sense. Usually, it comes from people that would like to create their own programs.
Over the years, many people and companies have got into the affiliate marketing niche. There are some good competitions out there but many bad programs as well.
A traditional competitor is Affilorama. It offers packages to beginners for many years. There are some good programs that cost thousands of dollars, while some competitors have appeared in the last few years. Here you can check some Wealthy Affiliate alternatives.
18. All The Reviews Are From Their Affiliates
People would say that it makes all the reviews of Wealthy Affiliate be from affiliates. It is not 100% accurate because you can find some reviews from non-members. This complaint was major the previous years when Wealthy Affiliate members dominated the reviews in the MMO niche. You can still see them on the first page of Google for relevant keywords.
Of course, I don’t rank it as a Wealthy Affiliate complaint. I understand that it could be frustrated to see everywhere reviews that suggest the same site. However, it shows the superiority of Wealthy Affiliate compared to other competitors.
You can’t blame me for doing a good job. I know how to get ranked on the first page of Google. If you want to learn how to do the same thing and make money, join Wealthy Affiliate. If you want to complain about these guys who are on the first page of Google, join a competitor.
Today many competitors copy the strategy of Wealthy Affiliate. It is a little late for them but gets some good rankings. The fact that Wealthy Affiliate 4-5 years earlier is a sign of being ahead of time.
19. You Can’t Build A Website In 30 Seconds
Yes, you can! I have created a short post about the website builder of Wealthy Affiliate. Some website builders can do the same thing. Of course, we talk about the process of creating your WordPress site. It does not include content.
Once you pick up a domain name and choose a theme, it takes less than 30 seconds to have your website ready. It is your task to work with this site. Some competitors say that this claim is an exaggeration, so I challenge them to test it.
Most competitors don’t include any support, website builder, or hosting service at all. You can get all the above with services like Bluehost but do not include training for affiliate marketers.
20. Not Enough Email Marketing Training
Wealthy Affiliate has chosen not to include email marketing in the first levels of training. The main training includes keyword research, website building, getting traffic, and making money.
Some affiliates put another step on this process. They turn the traffic into subscribers before promoting their products. However, you don’t need email marketing to make money with your website.
Important monetizing methods like Google AdSense and Amazon Affiliates do not work with emails. Of course, building an email list is positive, like growing a following on social media.
The most valuable type of traffic on a website is organic traffic. If you check a marketplace for websites, buyers value the steady traffic from search engines more than any other alternative. But there is email marketing training, even if it does not go deep on this topic. There are 13 extra classrooms that include tons of content from the owners and experienced members.
21. They Don’t Allow Some Plugins
Wealthy Affiliate has banned some plugins. I am not sure how they decide to ban them, but some people complain about them in the past. One of these plugins was JetPack.
The simplest explanation is that Wealthy Affiliate avoids too heave plugins. They can make your website slow that wouldn’t allow getting good rankings on the search engines.
The specific plugin is about the security of your site. For example, it prevents spam, malware, gets backups, etc. Wealthy Affiliate takes care of the security of your website anyway. If you have any problem and send to support, they will solve it as soon as possible. In simple errors, your site will be ready in a few minutes.
Website speed and security are two priorities on the Wealthy Affiliate websites. I guess that they would ban any plugin that could mess with these parts of a site. However, these bans are rare.
22. It Does Not Include cPanel
Hosting services include a cPanel where you can access the back end of your website. Wealthy Affiliate includes SiteBuilder that does the same job. You can add your domain names to build websites.
A beginner does not know anything about cPanels, while experienced marketers do not care about that. But it is an option that you can’t find on Wealthy Affiliate, so some people would like to see it.
It will not affect your website building process or the success of your site. cPanel is quite common on services with many members like Bluehost. In my opinion, it complicates the process and does not help anyone.
23. You May Get The Wrong Answer
It can happen to get the wrong answer on the community. Wealthy Affiliate encourages you to ask questions. It has a simple button at the top of the page where you can type and publish your problem in a few clicks. Another option is to ask a question below the lessons.
The question goes below different classrooms or lessons. It is viewable to every person that will open the specific page. The feed of the platform also appears questions.
So, it’s possible to get an answer from members not so experienced. They may think they know or want to get better rankings, so they leave an answer below your questions. Usually, you will get multiple answers, so you will be fine. If you don’t get a good answer, you need to ask again or rephrase the question.
Everyone is encouraged to participate in the community. I think it is a good thing because you don’t have to be an expert to help other people. You already know many things. I get it that some people want only answers from the bests, but I prefer a real community.
24. There are No Mentors
Mentors are quite common in network marketing companies. People that come from these companies complain about that. Affiliate marketing does not have mentors. However, Wealthy Affiliate has a system that creates a closer connection with the person that referred you and the owners.
You may expect that your referred will help you, but they don’t have. Many people work hard for a while and then disappear working on other projects or enjoying their earnings. Some members like me prefer to keep helping their referrals when they ask for it.
Some referred will not help their referrals, even if they bring commissions to them. Wealthy Affiliate has a “help” tab on the main menu. When you click on it, you can see your premium coaches that are the owners and your referrer. If your referred don’t reply, you can send it to the owners.
Below you can see the top helpers of the day. They are people who help many members in the last 24 hours. If you send them a message, the chances are that you will get a reply. You must always remember to be kind. You have more chances to get help if people like you.
25. The Platform Can Be Overwhelming For Beginners
If you join Wealthy Affiliate, you will get tons of available content. There are posts from members, a live chat, comments on each post, questions, training from members, etc. You may don’t know where to start and how to take your first steps.
When beginners start reading all this content, they get confused. It is too much information that they can’t understand yet. For example, if you read a post about SEO without creating your website yet, it will not help you. I can see why some people feel overwhelmed with the platform.
Your first goal is to stay focused on the training and the process. The official training is the Online Entrepreneur Certifications. It guides you step by step, even if you are a complete beginner. If you take one lesson a day and complete your tasks, you will send your online business foundation in the first week.
Your success depends on applying the training and taking action. You don’t have to mess with other posts and courses in the beginning.
Conclusion
These were 25 common Wealthy Affiliate complaints. Some of them are not valid at all, while others do not make sense. Wealthy Affiliate helps people to build profitable websites. The training and the platform are around this concept. Anything that makes the process harder than needed is removed.
I highly suggest Wealthy Affiliate for affiliate marketers, beginners who want to make money online, and bloggers. You can join Wealthy Affiliate here.