How to Avoid Affiliate Marketing Scams

Affiliate marketing success does not come by simply putting up a website and calling yourself an affiliate marketer!

Affiliate marketing success is devoting yourself to learning all there is to know about affiliate marketing and what it take to become successful.

Now having said that, there are programs, if you Google “Affiliate Programs” you will find that many will claim to be the best, Affiliate Programs for Bloggers, Affiliate Programs for Beginners, Top Affiliate Programs and the list goes on.

What is also interesting is the number of sites that will talk about Wealthy Affiliate…. the good the bad and the ugly and then try to turn you away and join their program.

So how do you choose the best affiliate program if your new or looking at affiliate marketing as a way to earn money?

Take it from me “It’s Not Easy.”  So many to choose from…so many who offer a successful marketing program…so many who claim to be the best!

Then there those who will take your money with big promises.   Promises easy money, get rich quickly, earn while you sleep programs and many more.

Sad But True…they only want your money!

Affiliate marketing is a legitimate industry. Don’t let anyone tell you the whole industry is a scam because of a few who will take your money on a promise to buy into their offer!

There are some affiliate marketing scams that I’ve seen people fall prey to. This often happens to newbies and leaves them with a bad taste in their mouths.  There is also the beginner or newbies that are asking for trouble.  The person who is not willing to work for success but would rather get rich with little or no work.

Many buy into the “get rich” program only to find that they receive an ebook or less than adequate training.  They fail and then blame the industry for their lack of success.

Again, affiliate marketing is a legitimate industry and you can make good money when you do it properly.

Affiliate Marketing Scam Examples

Like any other online industry, there are plenty of scams in the world of affiliate marketing. Scammers are always trying to find new ways to make money off innocent affiliates.

Here is 3 examples of some of the most common affiliate marketing scams I’ve seen:

1. Fake Affiliate Marketing Training

Most new affiliates would like some training to get started in the industry. There are hundreds of people trying to sell a course, an e-book, a webinar and various other kinds of information. Do your research before you pick your training program.

Many of these training programs are often nothing more than a rip-off. You don’t actually learn anything useful and you’re out whatever money you spent, as well.  At the most, you might get an e-book that is full of fluff and no real, actionable lessons.   Again, do your research and do your training with a well known name.

2. Get-Rich-Quick Offers

Get-Rich-Offers are all over the Internet. They promise that you will make thousands of dollars overnight, or that you can just work a couple of hours a day and have $5,000 in your bank account at the end of the week.

Don’t fall for it.  Again, the value of doing your research so you don’t fall for the “Get-Rich-Quick Scams.

If anyone tries to sell you a “secret system that works,” don’t believe them. Legitimate affiliate marketing takes time to learn and while you will make money, it doesn’t happen overnight. You need a strategy and you need to implement it well before you make any income.

A Little Scare Of Affiliate Marketing?

After reading all the the issues with affiliate marketing, you may feel a little scared of affiliate marketing and I don’t blame you.

The best advice is to do your due diligence.  Do not jump at every opportunity.  Research…Research…Research!

If you do your research you will soon come upon Wealthy Affiliate.  Your first question should be,  “Is Wealthy Affiliate Legit or a Scam?”

Disclosure: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. This means at no cost to you, I may receive an affiliate commission if you purchase something through one of these links.

Wealthy Affiliate At A Glance —— I give it a 4.5 Rating

Wealthy Affiliate (WA) is, in my opinion and experience, one of the best platforms to learn about online marketing and about making an income online. Especially if you are a beginner or have never managed to earn money online.

WA offers great step-by-step training, the best tools available and compared to many other courses that teach you Internet marketing or how to make money online, WA gives really good value for your money.

One of the best features of WA, they offer a free starter membership, so you can check it all out without a credit card.  Don’t like want you see with the free membership, “Just Go-A-Way.”  It cost you nothing to take a look.

That’s how I started and now I’m a VIP.

Click To Visit Wealthy Affiliate

What is Wealthy Affiliate?

In short, “Wealthy Affiliate (WA) is an online learning platform, where you can learn skills in Internet marketing to promote, grow or build a business and income online.”

WA started in 2005.  The founders, Kyle and Carson, are themselves successful Internet marketers.  They started Wealthy Affiliate to help others succeed online.  So it has been around for a while and gained a reputation of prominence in affiliate marketing.

Note:  Because Wealthy Affiliate is the premier affiliate program, you will see scammers try to compare their program to Wealthy Affiliate.  Again, don’t fall for it.

Both Kyle and Carson are still very active in the training and support.  They will personally help out members that need assistance.

Success comes with members.  The WA platform has more than 1 million members.

Is Wealthy Affiliate the right program for you?  I don’t know.  Everyone is different.  I will be honest with you and tell you that it is not for everyone.  But for those who become members, they are a lot more successful in affiliate marketing than most who try to go it alone or with some other affiliate marketing course.

The techniques they offer include:

• article marketing
• pay per click marketing
• how to get great back links
• how to find the perfect market niche through research
• how to find the keywords that will drive hordes of traffic to a website
• mastering the Internet
• SEO
• and so many tips that there is no way to fail unless it because of you

Now I am sure that you have heard all this before. However, the WA program has been found to be genuine, honest, straight forward, top training and a WIN attitude. They inform visitors right up front, that affiliate marketing is not an easy task and that success depends only on the individuals dedication to success.

It may take months to a year to begin earning through any affiliate program. But what they do guarantee is that they will be there to guide and mentor any affiliate that cares to join in an effort to better his or her future career as an affiliate marketer.

Their promises and honesty seem to be covering up for possible failure, but the techniques they teach their members are proof that the Wealthy Affiliate knows what they are talking about.

What are the training opportunities available with Wealthy Affiliate:

– Online Entrepreneur Certification

The Online Entrepreneur Certification is the place to start on Wealthy Affiliate. It is a thorough course that takes you step-by-step through the whole process of building a website, creating content for it, getting traffic from Google, and how you can then monetize this traffic.

– Affiliate Bootcamp

The affiliate bootcamp is another training program that is similar to the certification course, as it takes you step-by-step through building a website and online business. This program is however aimed towards people that want to promote Wealthy Affiliate and create a website around online marketing and in the make-money-online niche.

– My Training Activity

Hours and hours of videos and tutorials on subjects such as: How To Create An Ebook, Create Custom Sign-up Pages, Promoting Your YouTube Videos and the list continues to grow.

– Training HQ

Again, hours of videos and tutorials on How to Create a 6 Figure Website, Keyword Research, How To Target Your Customers, Create a Website In Under 30 Seconds and so much more.

– Weekly live classes

Every Friday there is a live webinar for around 1 hour (usually 1.5 hours, as the trainer Jay takes time to answer questions as well).  Jay is also a very successful Internet marketer and will explain or teach inside tips from his personal experience. These webinars are a great way to keep up-to-date on the newest trends within online marketing.

– 100’s of hours of video replay

A great thing about the live classes is that they are recorded and uploaded within a day.  So if your like me have a hard time attending the classes live, it does not mean that you have to miss the classes, watch the reply.

– Keyword research tool

One thing that is extremely important when it comes to getting traffic to your website is to find the words and phrases people are actually searching for. You need a tool to get good data about this. Wealthy Affiliate has an amazing research tool for this called Jaaxy that is a part of your membership – I have tried many keyword research tools, and this is definitely one of the best.

– SiteContent platform

Content is the backbone of any website. SiteContent is a platform within Wealthy Affiliate that makes it easier and more efficient to create content.

You will have access to templates, you can create your own templates, there is a thorough spelling and grammar checker, it checks for duplicate content which is important to avoid, it makes it easy to find free images you can include in your content and more.

– Site support

Wealthy Affiliate has a 24-hour support service that can help with any technical issue.

There is even more to Wealthy Affiliate but I think you get the idea.

Wealthy Affiliate also offer many tools such as a website builder or many turn-key websites you could pick and chose from. In the end, when you are done with the training session you will find that you are able to sell anything online and have enough knowledge to make a success of any affiliate marketing program you wish to be a part of.

Wealthy Affiliate Price and Costs

So far I have explained a lot about what Wealthy Affiliate offers, and what my experiences are with some of the tools and training. But let’s now get to something very important for most people – “What does it costs to join Wealthy Affiliate?”

There are two kinds of Wealthy Affiliate memberships:

• Starter membership
• Premium membership

What is really great is that the starter membership is completely free and NO credit card is needed to sign up.

The starter membership will give you access to the first 10 lessons of the Certification Course, the first 10 lessons of the Affiliate Bootcamp, 2 free websites, and for the first 7 days, you have access to live help and 1-on-1 coaching as well.

You can stay a free member forever and even keep your two free websites for 6 months as well.  It is quite unique for any learning platform to give you completely free access to test what it has to offer.

The premium membership is $49 per month, which is very cheap and VERY good value for money compared to all the training and all the tools you get.

However, if you decide to go premium within your first 7 days, you will get your first month for only $19 – that is a great way to get plenty of time to test all the training, tools, community support, etc. and to build a great foundation for yourself as well.

Also, if you want to upgrade to the premium membership at some point, it is good to know that you can also buy a yearly membership for only $359 for a full year – that is less than $1 a day for unlimited access to training, support, 1-on-1 mentor, tools, community support and more.

Finally

You will benefit from Wealthy Affiliate:

• if you want to learn about internet marketing in general
• if you want to learn how to make money online
• if you are willing to learn and take action on what you learn
• if you are willing to make an effort and commit time

You should not join:

• if you expect to become rich overnight
• if you expect to become rich with no effort
• if you are not willing to work hard and learn

Sign up for Wealthy Affiliate for free

You simply can’t go wrong.  WA is free, training is excellent, support is first class, weekly Webinars are success producing training and so much more.

It’s now your decision…If you wish to learn more about Wealthy Affiliates click on the BANNER.  Before joining any affiliate program be sure to check Wealthy Affiliate first.