Did I Waste Time and Money with Wealthy Affiliate?
Hmmm. I just finished the Online Certification at Wealthy Affiliate. Time to take stock. Did I just waste my time and money with Wealthy Affiliate training?
I'm the Judge Here
As a business and construction professional in my other life, I am used to assessing...both the pros and cons. I assess materials, procedures, workmanship, design, life cycles. I have to monitor liabilities, faults, problems, and "snags" because if it's not done, someone could get hurt. Almost 30 years of doing this now has embedded it in my blood.
So how does Wealthy affiliate stack up?
The X Factor
This isn't the first online training program I've done. I'm a perpetual learner...so I've done professional ones, educational ones, fun ones!
So how does Wealthy affiliate stack up or will it get the X?
These are my "assessment-of-anything" questions applied to Wealthy Affiliate.
1. Is Wealthy Affiliate well-designed and organized so it is clear to people (course/ system/product design)?
2. Is Wealthy Affiliate program well managed (structure)?
3. What is the life cycle of Wealthy Affiliate (durability)?
4. Is Wealthy Affiliate "fit for purpose (delivery)?"
5. Do I get my money's worth (value)?
6. Do I receive help and service on demand (support)?
7. What do others think of this program (ratings)?
My X Factor Judging
- I judged Wealthy Affiliate with marks out of 10. Everyone understands that!
( psst... I don't do 10 because I don't know anyone or anything that is perfect...except God.) - I have allowed a couple of reasons for my grade because I don't want this blog to go on forever!
- Also I have allowed for an emoji ** it is really great!
Wealthy Affiliate - Well-designed Course and Product**
1. Well segmented into bite sized portions made up of 10 levels, each with 10 "chapters" I will call them. Each level teaches an area of online business so that it's easy to find information and redo it.
All levels are also in the classroom portal for review where there is about 10 times as much information and training so that it can be accessed in multiple ways if you wish to do so! And of course you can do webinars weekly and be guided!
If you are focused, you can complete premium upgraded course in a couple of months and only pay $19. Wait...is that the price of a movie and popcorn?
If you are serious about online business earnings the full premium course is worth every penny!
2. Easy to follow with actions to take so that you learn by doing. (Always the best way!)
Everything is on the same platform with autosaving ????- no need to click away to find extra logins, libraries. You have NO idea how great this is. It is EASY to progress and the work is quite intense, so the platform needs to be easy to use!
(I have done a post grad course at a good university which needs to take a leaf from the Wealthy Affiliate book!)
I value this course design immensely because I could stop suddenly and resume without having to go through hoops to find where I left off. People will take this for granted but the ease of access shows excellent design.
3. Designed to appeal to all learning languages
Each chapter is delivered in text and video and each level has things to do throughout to build your own site. There are many ways to learn...some like to read, some to watch, some can only learn by practicing. All are covered here. I am reader so I didn't use all the videos.
It also has an activity bar to motivate you through all the work...and there is real work to do! It's not a "press button get rich "fake scheme!
Wealthy Affiliate - Well Managed?
How do I know it is well managed?
I think I am too lazy to go into all the details of how I can tell it is well managed so here is a snippet explaining it from Quora.
(Feel free to read the whole article!)
... Signs a company is well managed are when it:
- Outperform companies with a similar starting point
- Meets its own guidance
- Has engaged employees
- Emphasizes long term shareholder value over other factors
- It's open and transparent (Check out this blog about being sued! How honest is that!)
Is Wealthy Affiliate Durable
Wealthy Affiliate has a forum / community are truly incentivized with rewards and systems to encourage one another. It is an excellent system to help one another and that alone will make Wealthy Affiliate last for years to come as the members will breathe new life into the organization daily.
1. Here is one very happy member who won an all expenses paid trip!
2. Here is another who was able to earn a full time income from home!
Wealthy Affiliate is 15 years old and hopefully will continue to grow its 200,000+ + strong membership. And I want to be like these members who show us the way. I do like the idea of a flexible work day and being able to earn enough to help others.
3. Interestingly other platforms and organizations have tried to discredit Wealthy Affiliate as a scam and failed. The last fight was even in court...which Wealthy Affiliate won - as mentioned earlier!
My 7 rating is solely because it is only 15 years old. It has some more time to clock in before it reaches my nine rating.
Does Wealthy Affiliate Deliver?
In my opinion, Wealthy Affiliate delivers a well - designed program and at the end of it you do know about online business and how to do one for yourself.
That's what they promise, that is what you get! Click here for the FULL list of what you get.
It also provides support from its community and multiple trainers and a host of other training options which you can find here.
The first training level is free, as most of you know, and on upgrading to premium (where you get the full course, website and research tools and instant site support**, the first month...
62% off!
(That means you can see if the value is right for you BEFORE you outlay.)
I joined after leaving another training platform because I was being hit with upsells nonstop. I also found the other programs training confusing and boring. Here, Wealthy Affiliate allows you space TO CHOOSE your package.
Does it really make money? YES
Can you make money - good money? I will answer with a question. Are you ready to work?
If so you will make money. It delivers that opportunity too.
Is it Value for Money?
I believe it is value for money. The training course alone has priceless value because it gives you an ability to earn in so many areas at any hour of the day for a lifetime.
For the annual fee for Premium membership, I did a comparison with Wix website platform which I love. Wix has a short time promotion on for its Premium and is less expensive than Wealthy Affiliate Premium at present. Please refer to both websites for up to date rates.
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Recent Comments
17
nice post, but I judge Wa in all categories as a 9.5 (leaving room for more amazing stuff).
1. WA is excellent training that never ends
2. 24/7 support from a very skilled support team and also from friendly members
3. Bang for the buck (worth more than we pay actually because of the 25 free paid domains and 25 free subdomains we can use for paid client work).
4. Community - it is awesome and there are so many giving, knowledgeable even expert members ready to help newbies.
5. Hosting is great with domain registration, SSL, Site Speed, virus protection and more
6. Creating content is awesome with the WA Site Content Tool, the Jaaxy tool, the thousands of free images, grammar and duplicate content checker
WA is the best thing around for learning and creating and hosting blogsites that can make money.
I do think the offer is great at Wealthy affiliate. I think the honesty and training and site support are very good and hard to find these days!
I also understand the community's desire to defend a great program. But for now, my experience will have room to be upgraded!
I don't want to do 9.5 til I hit the super affiliate level :) and prove the system! And I am working hard to get there...at which point I can tell others my upgraded rating!
Virus protection is a very good point and I did not remember that!
Elizabeth,
Some here jump to conclusions - I do hope you keep a copy of
Boomer's blog for future reference should anyone try to say this
inside WA again ::))
Susan
Thats a great idea Susan...I will!!
I notice that my headings are not autosaving...if i republish...it won't repeat copies on this platformwillit? Surely it will just update?
No, honey you are fine sometimes the system has hic-ups but
they usually always work their way out - then when look again
everything is as it should be - or you could be like me work
so much on WA you see a computer screen in you sleep!
Elizabeth,
Very good post - and although I agree with you no one or
anything is perfect in this world - Only God - for this type
of platform for the cheap (oops do not let Carson or Kyle
know I said that) rate you are not going to find anything to
compare!
Best wishes thanks for sharing,
Susan
You know.... I agree... but sheesh...can't sound too gushy or no one will believe its real!...lol
it is a great post.
BUT remember that we are not allowed to post any affiliate links on blog post here inside WA and your WA banner has an affiliate link. So please remove that or you risk the post will be taken down.
Also, really no need to put your affiliate link. If people find it through Google you will automatically get a referral if any people should decide after reading it as you wrote it.
But one of the biggest no, no here is to put an affiliate link within your post here. On your own website you can, however, of course, use all the affiliate links you want to.
Thanks MikaeM for the heads up... so you mean take out the banners altogether here...no problem... somehow I missed that info...
Mikael,
Having WA banners in her post hurts nothing every one inside WA is already a member that is the only thing you are permitted to put in a blog post on your site here!!!!
Please see Boomers blog concerning this: Putting WA Affiliate Links in WA Blogs Have NO Benefits Thank you,
Susan
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Good grief, Liz. That is a 1,200-word great start of a Wealthy Affiliate review post! You should have saved that one for your site.
Very fine writing, so maybe content creation won't be a challenge for you. And I definitely agree with this opinion:
"If you are serious about online business earnings the full premium course is worth every penny!"
To me, the decision to go premium was a "no-brainer". And as far as I'm concerned, the Wealthy Affiliate Community is worth the membership fee all by itself!
Thanks for sharing. I wish you and everyone else here great success.