5 Things I Don’t Like About Wealthy Affiliate (WA, Sorry for My Complaints)

Things I do not Like About Wealthy Affiliate


Wealthy Affiliate Has a “B+” in BBB Rating

If you have been searching online for ways to start affiliate marketing, the chances are you might have come across this program called Wealthy Affiliate. 

Despite Wealthy Affiliate has a “B+” in BBB rating (which is consider quite good), in recent years, there have been increased in complaints about Wealthy Affiliate.

This includes a 3 years law suit filed against them by a large company named MOBE.

Wealthy Affiliate is in fact an affiliate marketing program or should I say an online business community that provides members with knowledge, tools and resources to start a small business online. 

Being a member of Wealthy Affiliate, I think this program is great. But like other program, there are also things that I don't like.

Before I continue, I would like to first declare that I am an affiliate of Wealthy Affiliate. But this does not mean I will only share good things about this program.

There are indeed things that I do not like about Wealthy Affiliate when I first started, and some lasted until today!

In this article, I am going to share with you 5 things that I seriously don't like about Wealthy Affiliate and the reasons why I still continue to stay with them, despite not agreeing completely with what they do.


Encourage Members to Start With Affiliate Bootcamp

As I mentioned earlier, Wealthy Affiliate teaches members on how to start a small online business by applying niche marketing strategy. 

It is about how you identify a specified topic, create content around that topic to build your authority, then promote relevant products to your niche market. 

For example, you can create a website targeting people who want to lose weight (niche market), next create articles or videos teaching them the best way to achieve weight loss (content), then promote “90 Days Weight Loss System” (product) to them so you earn a commission when they buy.

Members learn niche marketing by watching step-by-step training videos under “Online Entrepreneur Certification” inside Wealthy Affiliate. 

But the problem is, many members tend to face challenge in identifying the niche they want to start with – even after going through the full training. I guess it's just human nature to procrastinate.  

To provide alternative choice so members can start immediately, Wealthy Affiliate prepares another set of training called Affiliate Bootcamp.

Members who decided to join Affiliate Bootcamp will learn ways to recruit new people into Wealthy Affiliate by creating product reviews.

Inside this training, each product review will be concluded with phrases like ….

I recommend this program
or, I don't recommend this program

As we all know there are many scams around “make money online – MMO” niche and many times honest review can end up with phrases like … 

“XXX program is a scam”. 

This frustrates members of other programs and that's how Wealthy Affiliate is associated with the bad reputation of calling other program a scam .

I guess this is also the reason on why its BBB rating was downgraded from A- to B+ last year.

In fact, Wealthy Affiliate has no control over content produced inside members' website. All content are independent from Niche Marketing, Inc, the company that owns Wealthy Affiliate.

Despite there are some new members who produced low quality product reviews for the sake of promoting Wealthy Affiliate, but products concluded as scam were proven to be true. 

For example both MOBE and Digital Altitude program that many members reviewed as scam are indeed scams.

These companies, after operating for a few years were finally sued and shut down by FTC after defrauding millions of dollars from their members.

Despite I do not agree with Wealthy Affiliate's way of getting members to start with MMO niche which is one of the toughest niche to make money, but its Affiliate Bootcamp training has indeed produce many super affiliates over the years.

With this superb results, I just have to “agree to disagree” on this aspect of Wealthy Affiliate.


Rank System is Easily Manipulated

The one thing that I enjoy most being a member of Wealthy Affiliate is having the chance to connect with the vibrant community. 

For the past 3 years, I've make so many new friends who have helped me build my online business.

Other than getting top notch training and proven strategies, Wealthy Affiliate is like a huge social network of small business owners helping each other succeed.

To continuously energize the community, this program has put in place a rank system whereby each member is given a rank based on how “active” they are inside the community.

Members who constantly engage and help other members will receive some rewards from Wealthy Affiliate. 

Wealthy Affiliate ranking system

In order push up their ranking, members often give comment with short phrases such as “great job”, ” you are awesome” or comment that do not give real meaning nor any substance to the community. They did this simply for the sake of being “active”. 

There are just too many low quality comment from members who have nothing better to add. What they want is just to get some easy ranking points so they can ranked higher inside Wealthy Affiliate quicker.

I truly believe Wealthy Affiliate should improve their rank system to encourage more members provide constructive input rather than simply giving “cosmetic” comment.  


Doesn't Have The Best Refund Policy

Look, I've been in this industry for quite a few years and most well-known program such as CB Passive Income, WP Profit Builder and Sqribble have 30 days money back guarantee policy. 

But unfortunately, Wealthy Affiliate does not have the best refund policy. 

What they offer you is their free trial whereby you will be given 10 affiliate training lessons, 2 websites, 2 industry classes and some basic tools to start with.

The good part is you can enjoy these benefits for as long as you want provided you are still a free Starter member 

Once you joined premium and pay your first subscription, it will not be easy to get any refund from them despite able to cancel the subscription anytime. 

Wealthy Affiliate refund policy is something that I find can be improved.

Having said that, I rarely find people who I referred to Wealthy Affiliate actually ask for refund. Or maybe there's none at all. I just couldn't find.


Not for People in India, Philippines, Bangladesh and 7 Other Countries

Sadly to say, Wealthy Affiliate is not for everyone. People who live in certain countries are not able to join Wealthy Affiliate for free. 

To name some, these countries include India, Philippines and Bangladesh where I received the most requests to join. 

You can check out the other 7 countries that are not supported by Wealthy Affiliate here.

According to its founder Kyle, there are many reasons why people from these countries are banned from joining Wealthy Affiliate. Some reasons include high rates of fraud and gaming activities. 

I understand this is to protect the interest of existing members. But don't you think it is unfair and too bias to punish the entire nation just because a small number of people from these countries are notoriously famous to commit fraud?


No Overriding Commission Like MLM Reward System

Like most online marketing program, Wealthy Affiliate also has its own affiliate program.

Members are automatically become affiliates and can start recruit new people into this program immediately after joining as free Starter member.  
But unlike MLM reward system, Wealthy Affiliate does not have an overriding commission system in place. 

There are no downlines and uplines because members are only earning commissions from direct referrals. 

This means, you won't be compensated for new members joining under your referrals and the commission that you earned might not be as much as those earned by MLMers.


Why Am I Still A Happy Member of Wealthy Affiliate?

You might be asking if there are so many things that I don't like about Wealthy affiliate, then why am I still here? 

To tell you the truth, Wealthy Affiliate is the only program that is able to help me make money online.

Prior to joining WA, I've been scammed so many times buying program that delivers nothing but disappointments, one after another.

The things that I like about Wealthy Affiliate outweigh far more than things that I don't like.

For instance, learning never stops inside Wealthy Affiliate. 

Unlike when they first started with niche marketing, currently Wealthy Affiliate also offers training on email marketing, YouTube marketing, PPC, ecommerce, dropshipping, and many others.

On top of that, to keep up with the marketing trend, there's also weekly webinar provided inside member's dashboard. 

The one thing that continuously bind me closely with Wealthy Affiliate is the proven strategies taught inside this program. 

There are just too many successes achieved by members of this awesome program. Every year, you can see new super affiliates being born. 

Despite there are 5 things that I don't like about Wealthy Affiliate, overall I am still happy being a premium member.

No program is perfect. You just need to “agree to disagree” on some shortcomings so you can optimize the positive aspect and focus to grow your business, just like how I did.

I am sure by now you are well aware of the shortcomings of Wealthy Affiliate after reading the 5 things I don't like about Wealthy Affiliate.

If you can accept these shortcomings, then I suggest you to join as free starter member and give Wealthy Affiliate a try.


Let me know if there's anything you want to ask me about starting a small business online by leaving a comment below.

If you find this valuable, I also hope you can share on your Twitter and Facebook too.

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5 thoughts on “5 Things I Don’t Like About Wealthy Affiliate (WA, Sorry for My Complaints)”

  1. Hi Florence,

    There is no perfect program that can satisfy 100%of human yearnings but from millions of MMO websites out there promising non existent millions it is only Wealthy Affiliate that has lived up to expectation and I have been able to make a dime.

    Renmoney duped me as a result of terms and conditions which were not stated anywhere on their website until you want to withdraw, Wealhy Affiliate clearly states their terms and requirements so you know what you are getting yourself into.

    I would only implore WA to review their Money back guarantee .

    With all the resources at your disposal MMO is sure.

  2. Even tho WA may have some issues that need to be worked on I believe the benefits outweigh these issues any day!. Prior to joining the program I had searched long and hard for a legitimate site that can help me make money online. I am so happy I stumbled upon WA. You’re right WA is not allowed in some countries, I should know as I am from Nigeria. I had joined the program when I traveled to the US for the holidays. Thank you for explaining different ways people can join the program. Let’s keep making the community grow and make people’s dreams come true.

  3. Though not perfect, the pros do outweigh the cons. I must agree with some of the cons you mentioned especially the rank system and the no overriding commission reward system. Wealthy Affliate is still a good platform where one can learn how to build successful business using the awesome training offered and the supportive community. 

    I like this article as it informs readers of not only the good, but also the down side about Wealthy Affliate. This will allow them to make an informed decision.

    1. True. No program is perfect. We just need to agree to disagree so we are able to continue to which ever destination we want to go.

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