Before I begin, let me explain what Wealthy Affiliate is. Wealthy Affiliate is basically an online internet marketing university that is run by two millionaire entrepreneurs aged in their 20’s called Kyle and Carson. Together they teach the real ways that they, and other successful internet marketers use, to make money online. It’s more or less one massive community of internet marketers who share working strategies to make money. People in the community often form groups, work on projects together, and help out one another by giving advice and answering questions. At the end of the day everyone there has one common goal: to become rich from the internet. The community is very, very friendly and helpful. Everyone there is switched on.

I don’t hide the fact that I recommend Wealthy Affiliate to anyone that asks me how they should go about learning internet marketing, or making a full time living online. The reason I don’t hide this fact is because I absolutely stand by what I say, and believe in it entirely. Indeed Wealthy Affiliate is what taught me the crucial foundations that I now have in internet marketing, and taught me the necessary information that led to my first $1000 cheque. I will always recommend it to anyone that asks me how to make money on the internet.

I’ve decided to write a review for those of you who are still not too sure whether or not Wealthy Affiliate is right for you, or for those of you that are perhaps just a little apprehensive about yet another course that claims to teach you online money making tactics. In this review I hope to dispell your fears, and give you a fair and honest opinion of what I think about Wealthy Affiliate.

It all begun when I wanted to quit my day job at the beginning of 2008. I was absolutely fed up with my line of work due to its stress, always having to answer to a boss, and the fact that I just didn’t believe I was getting paid enough for the work that I put in. I’m sure many of you can relate to this.

Looking into the future, I saw myself in the same job for the next 10 years, and with rising interest rates and mortgages, I couldn’t see myself ever owning my own home. One day I decided that I just wouldn’t settle for being poor, and that I would do everything that I could to quit my job, run my own business, and make enough money to live and enjoy a lifestyle that I wanted.

I heard about a lot of people making money on the internet, but I was aware of all the scams, cons and charlatans that were out there and so was a little sceptical about the whole ‘make money online’ thing. In fact, I didn’t even trust any of the online courses that claimed to make you thousands of dollars within a week, because I quite simply didn’t believe what they offered was real, and on reflection I can see I was right. Making a small fortune overnight from nothing just isn’t possible, and you’re only setting yourself up to being scammed if you believe it is.

So unsure as to what to do, a friend of mine that I met online recommended that I check out Wealthy Affiliate. Only because I trusted him did I decide to give it some serious thought. I read a few reviews about the product, and all of them seemed to be positive. In fact, I couldn’t find a single negative review about Wealthy Affiliate anywhere! I thought this was a little odd, as the membership only cost $30 a month, yet seemed to offer so much. Something just wasn’t adding up. After thinking about it for a few hours I thought what the heck, if the course turns out to be a scam then I can always cancel my membership and will have only lost $30, and at the same time will learn a valuable lesson, so I thought I’d give it a go as I had nothing to lose.

When I logged in for the first time, let me just say that I was overwhelmed. Not in a bad sense, but overwhelmed in a good sense. I never knew so much genuine information on making money could exist. There was a plethora of guides and tutorials and other bits of information that taught real, practical strategies for making money on the internet, with absolutely no hype whatsoever! I suddenly realised that this small $30 investment I made was indeed not for any scam, and for the next 24 hours, without getting any sleep, I spent all my time just navigating through the site of the Wealthy Affiliate university.

Here’s a screenshot I took of what it looks like to log in (click on the screenshot to see an enlargement in a new window) -

As you can see, there’s a lot of stuff there, and the menus on the left expand into other smaller menus with more information. You can understand why I was overwhelmed initially. The best thing is, is that you have access to absolutely everything for that $30/month fee. There are no additional charges, ever. The sites owners are genuinely interested in seeing you succeed, something at first I found difficult to believe, but that I now know is true. Heck, they even share their trade secrets.

Anyhow, back to the review.

Wealthy Affiliate has what’s called the 8 week action plan. This is designed for absolute newbies to internet marketing who don’t even know what the term ‘Internet Marketing’ means (which was me when I started). The 8 week action plan basically consists of easy to understand explanations of how real internet marketers go about their business on the internet, and reveals the strategies they use to make money online.

Now the thing I liked most about the 8 week action plan, is it gave me a place to start. Without it I would have been lost in a jungle of limitless information. The plan starts in the first week by slowly easing you into the whole internet marketing environment. For the first week you’re simply introduced to what internet marketing is, are taught how to navigate through the site, and you are told to introduce yourself on the community forums (which are so incredibly helpful). That’s week one, nice and simple for anyone. Now by the eighth week you should know enough about internet marketing to be able to see your first paycheque or two.

I made my first $100 by week 3 (week 2 teaches you some basic strategies, and week 3 slightly more advanced things). By week 8 I had made $1000, but obviously this varies from person to person. Some people won’t make anything, and other people will make a lot more, it really depends how well you understand and apply the concepts you’re taught.

The best thing though is that you don’t need any previous web programming, designing or marketing knowledge at all. The whole course is designed for the complete novice.

Once you finish the 8 week action plan there are a large number of tutorials divided into Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced sections that you can study. Of course you don’t have to finish the 8 week action plan to study them, you can jump into them whenever you think you’re ready.

It is always recommended that you actually apply the concepts you’re taught by creating your own website and testing them, as this is the best way to learn what works and what doesn’t. Some people will be great at writing sales letters, whilst other people will find other areas to monetize in instead. Oh and I forgot to mention, Wealthy Affliate provides their own free web hosting service, so all you need is a domain name and the hosting is free. They also have a free website design program known as ‘Site Rubix’. This basically allows anyone to create a website with the use of a few simple clicks, with absolutely no programming knowledge being necessary.

They pretty much provide you with all the resources you need to start making money, there’s nothing else to buy.

A common question that people ask when they start out is ‘how do I find a product to market’. Rest assured that the university clearly explains how to find products that you can market as an affiliate, receiving commissions as high as 75%. You can even market their own products if you want to, but it’s certainly not necessary.

Now I must say that the thing I find to be of most value at the Wealthy Affiliate university is, without a doubt, the community. The community is what really brings the site together, and the forums alone contain over 100,000 posts of absolutely invaluable information that you just won’t find elsewhere. Everyone there is always helpful and supportive of one another, and if you have any questions (and I can assure you, you will have many), other members are only too happy to answer them.

I really could spend a whole day just going over all the features that Wealthy Affiliate offers, there’s really that many. They have a Spaces section that’s sort of like a MySpace replica but only available to members of the site. It’s a great way to build friendships and network with other internet marketers on a more personal level, something that no other online money making site offers.

They also have a jobs section, where you can advertise yourself and have other people bid on services that you provide (such as writing content, or providing graphics design). Or if you prefer you can hire the services of another member (as you become more experienced and start making money, you’ll be needing this option).

I’ll also just briefly touch on a great in-house currency system that Wealthy Affiliate has, known as ‘WA Gold’. Each month, every member receives 10 gold coins (each gold coin is equivalent to 10 cents, 10 gold coins is equal to 1USD).

Any time someone makes a great forum post that is useful to members, people may donate them some of their free gold (you receive the gold free, you don’t have to buy any, but you only receive 10 gold a month). If you answer someone’s question in the forum, then as a ‘thank you’ gesture, that person will likely donate you some gold coins! You can cash these gold coins out at any time.

Now this in itself might just seem like a fun little addition, however it can actually become quite lucrative. If you make a very informative post in the forum that gets stickied, people are going to be seeing it for weeks on end, and will be giving you lots of gold donations. Your gold can quickly jump into the 100’s without requiring any effort on your part. You can also cash out your gold at any time you wish, at the exchange rate of 10 gold coins = 1 United States Dollar.

Another great part of Wealthy Affiliate is the section known as the ‘Share Zone’. The Share Zone is an area where members write helpful tutorials that other members can read and learn from. Each tutorial can be voted upon, and the good tutorials get ranked higher. The people who write the top tutorials can also receive a constant influx of gold donations, so this gives them an incentive to write good quality content on a consistent basis, which all members can enjoy.

I wish to make a quick note that the gold system is just a little addition, it’s not how you’ll be making your serious money. You’ll be making your money by learning real internet marketing strategies, learning how to get websites ranked within Google, learning how to use advertising to attract consumers to purchase products, and most importantly, learning how to keep track of all your stats.  Wealthy Affiliate teaches you all of this, and in detail, with examples.

I could really take up the rest of your day just explaining in detail everything that Wealthy Affiliate offers, but I won’t, as I don’t want to waste your time. But to sum up, they offer tools for researching your competitors, search engines, advertising sites, they offer you free website templates, sales copy, keyword lists, ebooks, a link cloaking device, stats tracking, ability to create and manage campaigns, ugh, you know what? I really can’t list it all, and you probably wouldn’t understand half the tools I’m talking about anyway until you learn about them. But let me say that Wealthy Affiliate contains an absolute TONNE of resources and information, and the more advanced you become as you progress, the more tools you’ll be making use of. Basically, the site contains more than you’ll ever need to know to make money online.

They even have a success stories section on the site where people can post information about their initial success and sales. Each day there are many new posts added to this section, which just goes to show how well the system works. Take a look at the screenshot I took below (click to enlarge) -

As you can see the success stories section of the forum is full of enthusiastic people, who were once just like you, most of whom only started barely a month ago, that already realise Wealthy Affiliate actually works.

Now I’m not going to lie to you. Effort will be required on your part in order to see success. You will need to do what the course teaches you. There won’t be any free paycheques. But if you apply the concepts you’re taught, take the whole thing seriously, and stick to a plan and don’t slacken off from it, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll make money. In fact, making your first sale is so much easier than you may think.

As for my story, well I recently quit my full time job after only eight months, and now do Internet Marketing full time. I know this sounds hard to believe, but I really did apply myself wholeheartedly, and even took time off work to apply what I was taught. Now I’m not going to say that this will happen to you as well, because it probably won’t (at least, not within just a year, but it may). But what I will say is that the course will pretty much give you back what you put into it. If you absolutely dedicate yourself to it, then you should see some success.

The most important thing to realise is the need to be realistic. Kyle and Carson tell you from the beginning that you won’t be making tens of thousands of dollars in your first week, as that just isn’t possible. But if you apply yourself, you should see results. As I said, I made my first $100 after only 3 weeks, after about 10 hours of effort all up (not bad for an absolute newbie). I know $100 might not sound like much, but that $100 became easier and easier to obtain as time went on.

I’m still an active member of Wealthy Affiliate, perhaps now more than ever, as the more advanced I get the more I realise that Wealthy Affiliate has to offer. That’s the beautiful thing about it, Kyle and Carson have designed the site to accommodate the absolute novice, right through to the full time internet marketing professional. The site is designed for newbie and pro alike, and quite simply, I could not be without it.

If I had to sum up Wealthy Affiliate in one paragraph, then I’d best describe it as a method of learning how to make money online that takes on elements from the traditional method of online teaching and combines those elements with the newer web 2.0 interactive community aspects of Facebook and Myspace. These two things combined pretty much define Wealthy Affiliate - a site that is highly interactive with other people, but that also serves as a massive wealth of information.

One thing is for sure, Wealthy Affiliate serves one purpose, and one purpose only: it teaches you the real way to make money online through techniques and strategies that actually work, that the professionals use, that millionaires such as Karl and Carson themselves use. And best of all, as I have witnessed, it actually works.

That concludes my review of the Wealthy Affiliate university. I really haven’t got anything bad to say about the service, because there really is nothing bad to say. It’s like a gem hidden within the internet that I wish more people knew about.

If you are interested in joining, then I strongly suggest you check out their website. For the small investment of only $30, the worst that could happen is that you miss out on two take-away meals for one month. The best that could happen I’ll leave to your imagination (think money, money money). Good luck : - )