List of Countries Those are Banned from Starter Membership (Update 1st June 2020)
Wealthy Affiliate is definitely the most legitimate platform to learn the evergreen methods of affiliate marketing and host a corresponding business, the world knows it very well.
People from any country can join here and build up their own online foundation. Indeed, people from all over the world are applying for WA membership every day, learning new things and earning revenue.
Starter Account: Some Countries aren't Eligible
You know, Wealthy Affiliate offers a free trial that is known as Starter Membership, where anyone can start rolling for free of cost without sharing any credit card information. In fact, most of the members here started their journey as a FREE starter member and later upgraded to premium, once they realized the legitimacy and capability of the platform.
But, unfortunately, the Starter membership is restricted for some specific countries.
List of those restricted countries has been frequently changed several times in last 1.5 years, that's why all members are probably not well aware about the actual list of restricted countries.
Why should you know about the block list?
Recently, I received several free membership requests from those countries, and I couldn't afford the same. The situation is definitely very embarrassing when you offer something but can't provide the same to everyone. Indeed, this scenario put a negative effect on your foundation, more clearly, it may be a scam impression on your website.
That's why, I felt this is essential for every member to have a clear idea about the list of restricted countries, especially for those who are dealing with an affiliate Bootcamp project, because anybody can face the same issue anytime that I already faced.
I personally think, on your website it is better to highlight the list of countries that are not allowed for free membership in WA.
The List of Restricted Countries
Now let's come to the point.
Certain countries are blocked from accessing the Starter account based on the intensity of fraud membership.
Up to 2018, the list was pretty long; people from 10 countries were restricted to access free starter account in WA.
The following blog mentions about the old list (was valid up to 2018):
Countries Banned From Wealthy Affiliate
In early '19 the owners (Kyle and Carson) decided to unblocked all 9 countries except Nigeria, experimentally. They experienced 7 among those 9 countries did well, but fraud memberships were still coming from 2 countries.
Then they decided to block those 2 countries again.
As per the recent conversation with the co-founder of WA (Kyle) I uncovered the actual list of countries that are blocked to access FREE membership at this moment.
Presently, when I am writing this blog (June 2020), 8 countries are on partial block list. Those are,
Bangladesh
Egypt
Ghana
Pakistan
Kenya
Morocco
Tanzania
Viet Nam
However, 3 countries are fully blocked. People from those countries even can not join as premium member due to very high risk. Those are,
Senegal
Turkey
Nigeria
The information is confirmed by Kyle himself right on today.
Remarks
So, you can include this information to your affiliate Bootcamp project. If anyone from these banned countries asks you to join as free starter member, you may let them know about the restriction. However, anyone from these restricted countries is allowed to join directly as a premium member; there is no restriction.
Hope this helps.
Recent Comments
33
Hi DrSDas,
There have been many changes happening in Wealthy Affiliate since I joined in 2022, we have recently been discussing the fact that a lot of members in Wealthy Affiliate have not had any referrals join them in 2024!
Your article above could actually shed some light on that issue, So, thanks for highlighting a potential answer to our query.
Have you had a reduction of referrals join you in your Wealthy Affiliate account?
Read the below post and responses to see what the Wealthy Affiliate community have been discussing. 352 Referrals In 2023 to 0 Referrals In 2024! Regards
Brian
See more comments
The following countries are unable to join Starter, but they can join as Premium right away. So they are not in essence blocked, just from the starter membership.
Bangladesh
Egypt
Ghana
Pakistan
Kenya
Morocco
Tanzania
Viet Nam
The following countries are unable to join Premium, even as a paid Premium member. This is due to high fraud rates from those countries and after assessment of years of data.
Senegal
Turkey
Nigeria
I hope this clarifies for you here.
Thanks, Kyle, for confirming this.
If there are any changes in this list in future, please leave the updated news here in the comment box.
I'll update the block list accordingly in the above blog, which will help everyone to stay updated.
Thanking you.
I have someone interested in joining Premium from Ghana, Do I just send them this link for the Premium Promo (see 1st screenshot)?
If not, what link do I send for them to enrol?
Thanks in advance
No need to send any special link as you highlighted in the attached image. You may simply ask him/her to proceed via the common the link/ button/ banner in your website and click of sign up option.
He/ she will not be able to join as free member but can sign up as premium from any link.
Ask him/her to select "join as premium" if the "Starter" option doesn't work.
Thank you, are you 100% sure of this?
1. Have you personally had someone from the partial block (restricted) list successfully create a premium account straight away? (e.g. Ghana)
2. Can you also confirm that given Nigeria is now on the "banned list" that people from there can still join if they keep using a VPN?
Thanks in advance
I didn't had someone from Ghana or Nigeria, but I had query from other banned countries.
VPN may work for Nigeria, but I'm really sure because during payment a problem may arise.
Wealthy Affiliate authority frequently changes the list of banned country, and they don't generally inform after banning a new country or withdraw ban
The list is based on the time when I posted the information.
Before I posted this information, I contacted Kyle for the actual list. Initially he provided a different list, and I requested to check the blog.
One day later he mentioned the detailed list as you can see his comment in the comment box.
If you need recent information about the banned countries please ask Kyle referring this post, because he already mentioned the list here in the comment box.
Hello, Kyle. I am currently enrolled in the Affiliate Marketing Bootcamp and I will include a note indicating that applicants from some countries may not be eligible for the free starter program.
I would also like to state which countries are fully blocked.
Do you let everyone know when this information changes? I want to update information on my websites as soon as possible.
Lynn
I would like to know that the list of above 8 countries PayPal does not allow to create an account in some of the countries, if they earn affiliate commission how they will get paid?
Kyle,i am from this "zoo" called Nigeria.Can i go on and upgrade to premium.Please advice appropriately.
I am a MBA (marketing)gradute.Just have passion for affiliate marketing felt this is the right platform.
Thanks
Obi
So we had someone today logging in from Iran. He basically was asking for money.
The weird thing is, he's been on the site as a free member since the beginning of October. I can't say whether he's posted before or not.
I also found this curious because I thought we had sanctions against them in the US, as does Canada:
https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/international_relations-relations_internationales/sanctions/current-actuelles.aspx?lang=eng
Then I found this post.