Wealthy Affiliate Ripped Me Off! (Not Really)

When I was a kid, there used to be a show called Soapbox on one of the independent television stations here in St. Louis. More of a segment than an actual show, it gave anybody that paid the station fee two minutes to get on the air and talk about any issue they wanted to. So every morning, right before the Lone Ranger would come on, I listened to people complain about everything from the local government, some place of business, pollution, or whatever public figure they were mad at that day. The show was cancelled over 20 years ago.

However, it seems to have been resurrected here at Wealthy Affiliate.

More and more, I've been reading posts about how people feel that Wealthy Affiliate doesn't work because they haven't made a dime on their websites. Some have written that they believe Kyle & Carson only make their money by telling people that they can make money online. I even read a post from a newbie that he wasn't going to pay for the premium because he didn't make any money after the seven day FREE trial! He believes that taking advantage of the Black Friday Special was too big of a risk for a product that wasn't guaranteed to work. He even went so far as to issue a "challenge" to Kyle that if he makes $300 from what he learned in the first six days of the free course, then he would come back and use it to pay for the premium.

Riiight!

So let's clear up some of this madness and find out if Wealthy Affiliate is really ripping people off!

1. Making money online is not the same thing as affiliate marketing.

There are literally thousands of ways to make money online, with more ways being created every day. Affiliate marketing happens to be one way. If you are "trying" affiliate marketing because you believe it is a quick way to make money to help you solve whatever financial issues you are having, then you either need to get a job, re-work your money management strategies, or explore some of the other ways to make money online. These methods include, but are in no way limited to:

A. Selling items on Ebay or Etsy

B. Taking surveys

C. Freelancing on fiverr.com, elance.com, or guru.com

D. Getting an hourly wage work-at-home job with a company like Sykes Home Virtual Call Center

I do all of these right now today as well as additional freelance work such as repairing computers, designing websites, selling hosting plans on my Hostgator reseller account, and helping people set up their Wordpress sites, and I make over 2k a month, without a website. I do utilize social media and web 2.0 techniques to generate business and I have an email list to gain repeat business from previous customers. On top of all of this, I am a carpenter by trade. I started affiliate marketing five years ago and had about 10 sites, but I walked away for a couple of years to help the victims of hurricane Irene and Super Storm Sandy rebuild their lives and houses on the east coast. I am just now getting back to affiliate marketing because I love teaching and helping people. Affiliate marketing will help me to do that and live the life of my dreams as well.

2. Wealthy Affiliate is not a money making gizmo or gadget

Too many people seem to think that if they pay for WA Premium, take the time to set up their website, and write about 10 articles that money should be pouring into their bank accounts. For those that do, I have a simple question:

Who told you that?

Yes, at one time, the internet was full of sharks looking for innocent, starry-eyed guppies like us, making outlandish claims and in some cases, flat out lying, having us believe that buying their product was only thing that separated us from millions. I fell for this over and over again, because my heart was in the wrong place. I thought there was such a gadget or gizmo that allowed me to spend very little, then gain massive results. It wasn't until I got burned for the hundredth time that I began to see that this was a business, no different from a brick-and-mortar business and until I treated it as such, I wasn't going to see a dime.

Let's say you woke up one morning and decided to start a dry cleaning business. You have no idea how to run one. Of course that shouldn't stop you, but how would you go starting one? You would take business classes. You would start saving money or getting your credit in order so you can borrow money. You need to buy equipment and learn how to use that equipment. You would also need to take marketing classes as you want to increase your chances of your advertising dollars returning results.

How long do you think it will take you to reach these goals? How much money do you think your dry cleaners will be making in the meantime? Will you let that stop you?

Wealthy Affiliate is an educational course, the life's work of two very accomplished affiliate marketers. It is all of their wisdom and knowledge put together in a proven, easy to follow, step-by-step blueprint. All you have to do is follow the blueprint.

People are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for college educations. Did you know that no college or university offers a money-back guarantee? It's because it is only in what you do with that education that guarantees your success. Prisons are full of some of the smartest and most intelligent people you will ever meet, former politicians, business owners, hell, even millionaires. Do they have the right to go back and demand that Harvard or Yale give them their money back because of how they turned out?

3. Building an affiliate marketing business is a process.

You are building a business. That means that you probably won't make any money today from it. You probably won't make any money this year, and there is a good chance that you won't make any money next year either.

So yes there is a lot of risk involved. However there is a lot of reward involved. The question is do you have what it takes to see it through? You will invest far more into your business than you will get out of it. At the very least, to stand of chance at succeeding, you need to at least:

Be willing to write a lot.

Be willing to learn a lot.

Have a genuine desire to help others in need.

Be willing to make mistakes and learn from them.

Be willing to invest, test, experiment and implement.

I just spent $300 on Amazon buying books and audios on personal development. I have been an article writing machine the past two weeks, also tweaking my website to achieve on-page optimization. What I am saying is that I am laying my foundation so when I get ready to start marketing and engaging in my social media efforts, I don't have to worry about content. My site hasn't made a dime yet. But I know that it will because I am not trying to re-invent the wheel, I am simply following the steps that Kyle and Carson have laid out. There is no rush, no timetable. What I do know is that one day, all of this hard work and effort will pay off.

In other words, I don't have time to wonder if Wealthy Affiliate is ripping me off.