Can You Really Make Money on Wealthy Affiliate? YES. Here’s Proof.

So let’s see… maybe you’re where I was a couple of years ago. Maybe you’re surfing the net looking for ways to make money online. And you’ve stumbled upon a few Wealthy Affiliate reviews like I did.

You think it sounds like a good idea, but you’re just not sure yet because no-one seems to be answering the burning question…

Can You Really Make Money on Wealthy Affiliate?

So I’m going to answer this question for you right upfront.

The answer is YES.

YES, You Can Make Money on Wealthy Affiliate

How can I be so sure?

Because I’ve made money on Wealthy Affiliate.  As have many other Members.

You can have a look at my first two income reports if you need proof.

Income Report 1

Income Report 2

Now don’t laugh. I know $500 or $600 a month isn’t fortunes.

And I know it wasn’t the fastest business growth I’ve ever experienced as an Entrepreneur.  I hit my highest month as a Digital Entrepreneur when I made over $1000 in January 2021.

But bear with me here.

YES! You really Can Make Money on Wealthy Affiliate. I have Proof. Read on. #WealthyAffiliate #AffiliateMarketing #AffiliateReview Wealthy Affiliate is Not a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

So if you’re looking to make a fast buck, I wouldn’t recommend you go the Wealthy Affiliate route.

Having said that, I’ve only found a few ethical ways to make fast bucks online but they weren’t dependable ways. They weren’t sustainable, long-term, pay-the-bills-monthly kind of ways.

They were 5 Bucks here, 20 Bucks there… I made 50 Bucks once doing Website Testing for Userlytics (as described in my first Income Report). And that was easy money. I thought I was in the money!  I was so excited!

Only to find it was a once-off.  I’ve never made another 50 Bucks with them again.  I’ve only done one other Test for them and it was months later and they only paid me $25 this time.  This is still great considering how little time it took me, but like I said, not sustainable. I can’t live on $25 or even $50 a year.

And then there are a lot of Online Scams offering Quick, Easy Money but when I’ve looked into those I’m never prepared to do what they require me to do because well, it just seems sleazy.  You know, those companies that tell you to go make purchases and then cancel them a few days later.  I just can’t do that kind of thing.  It doesn’t seem ethical to me.

Affiliate Disclaimer: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

So How Do You Make Money on Wealthy Affiliate?

The simple answer is you make money on Wealthy Affiliate by learning how to create your own website(s) and then monetizing them.

To answer that question properly, I’ll ask and answer another one first.

What is Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate is an Online University that teaches you how to build your own website or websites and monetize them.  Wealthy Affiliate is set up by these two guys, Kyle and Carson:

Wealthy Affiliate Founders Kyle and Carson

Their Step-by-Step Success Formula looks like this:

Wealthy Affiliate Formula

And you’ll learn how to do this in their very first Online Certification Training, which, by the way, is available Free to Starter Members.

You can Sign Up Free Here

Let’s Talk About Timing

I found Step 1, Choosing an Interest the easiest part. I already knew what I wanted to blog about.  If you have an existing business or passion you’d like to write about, this should be quick and easy for you too.

Step 2, Building a Website, was relatively quick and easy for me too. Kyle shows exactly how to do this in the first Online Certification Course. you set up the framework of your website in his training and even create your first couple of pages: Your About Me Page and Privacy Policy Page and write your first post.

Step 3, Attracting Visitors, is the Step that usually takes the longest time (unless of course, you’re already someone famous, with a huge social following clamouring to hear your every word), it’s going to take some time to write enough rich content to build a loyal following, i.e. Traffic to your site.

Kyle teaches you how to access organic traffic, which simply means visitors finding your site when they are searching for something on Google, Bing or Yahoo (or any of the Search Engines).  This is where Keyword Research comes inMore about that later.

Step 4, Earning Revenue.

Kyle compares the Two Main Ways to Make Money with Your Website, namely:

  1. Advertising
  2. Affiliate Marketing

And teaches you how to set these up.

Although Affiliate Marketing is the main way Kyle recommends earning revenue from a website, there are also tons of other ways to earn money that you will learn along the way (and I’ll touch on some of these later).

What Exactly Do You Learn about Monetizing a Site?

Oh so, so much.

In Kyle’s Online Certification Training and Affiliate Bootcamp, you’ll learn:

  • How to find and join Affiliate Programs
  • How to find Affiliate Networks
  • How to add Affiliate Links to Your Pages and Posts
  • How to gain instant access to MILLIONS of products to sell
  • How to leverage Product Reviews
  • How to Get Paid for Ads on Your Site
  • How to Set up your first PPC Campaign
  • How to Scale Successful PPC Campaigns

And more… so much more.  Wealthy Affiliate doesn’t just teach you how to make money, it also offers you ways to make money.  Here are 3 more ways you can make money on Wealthy Affiliate.

Further Ways to Make Money on Wealthy Affiliate

Wealthy Affiliate also offers a few others way to earn as well, namely:

  1. They have their own Affiliate Program where you can excellent commission either monthly or annually.
  2. They also own Jaaxy and Jaaxy also has an Affiliate Program where you can earn excellent commission.
  3. Through their Open Education Project, you can earn money by creating popular tutorials.

1. Wealthy Affiliate’s Affiliate Program

On top of teaching how to succeed with well-known Affiliate Programs such as Amazon, Clickbank etc, Wealthy Affiliate also has its very own lucrative Affiliate Program.

Know nothing about Affiliate Marketing? Don’t worry, Wealthy Affiliate has got you covered. Kyle teaches you how to make money step-by-step in Affiliate Bootcamp.

Even Starter Members (Members who sign up free) are able to take the first Phase of Affiliate Bootcamp and are entitled to the following commission.

  • Starter Members earn $ 4 for the first month when one of their Referrals goes Premium ($ 19)
  • Starter Members earn $ 11.75 every month thereafter for their Premium Referrals ($ 49)
  • Starter Members earn $ 117.50 a year when one of their Referrals opts to go Yearly ($ 495)
  • Starter Members earn $ 23.25 a month for monthly Premium Plus referrals ($ 99)
  • Starter Members earn $ 232.50 a year for yearly Premium Plus referrals ($ 995)

Premium Members earn double what Starter Members earn:

  • Premium Members earn $ 1 for every new referral who joins and completes their profile
  • Premium Members earn $ 8 for the first month when one of their Referrals goes Premium ($ 19)
  • Premium Members earn $ 23.50 every month thereafter for their Premium Referrals ($ 49)
  • Premium Members earn $ 235 per year when one of their Referrals opts to go Yearly ($ 495)
  • Premium Members earn $ 46.50 a month for monthly Premium Plus referrals ($ 99)
  • Premium Members earn $ 465 a year for yearly Premium Plus referrals ($ 995)

I created the little spreadsheet below to illustrate these figures:

So essentially, if you are very risk-averse or have no money to put down at all, you could:

  • Join as a Free Starter Member
  • Complete the First Online Certification Course
  • Complete the first Phase of Affiliate Bootcamp
  • Build a Free Website (you get a free Siterubix website on Starter Membership)
  • And EARN the Commission to pay for your first month or two at Wealthy Affiliate

This works especially well if you market offline as well as online (i.e. if you have friends who are keen to build their own websites too and jump in with you).

Think how excited you’ll be when your first website is up… and remember Enthusiasm sells.  If you show your website to someone you know has been considering setting up their own website, they may just buy in.

2. Jaaxy

Jaaxy is a brilliant Keyword, Niche Research and SiteRank Tool.  Read more about Jaaxy here.

I use Jaaxy for every single post I publish, whether it’s a guest post, contributed post or my own.

Jaaxy is a tool many bloggers use even if they are not members of Wealthy Affiliate and therefore it has a stand-alone website as well.

The awesome thing is, there is a Free Version of Jaaxy for Wealthy Affiliate Premium Members, Jaaxy Lite, which is perfect when you’re just starting out.  There are two elite versions of Jaaxy. Jaaxy Pro and Jaaxy Enterprise.

More good news is that Jaaxy these are available at Half-Price for Premium Members and Jaaxy Enterprise is free to Premium Plus Members of Weathy Affiliate.

3. The Open Education Project

Once you’ve been a Member of WA for 3 months you can start sharing your own knowledge by adding your own Tutorials or Video Training.

You can earn ongoing income this way.  Wealthy Affiliate pays you based on how many people have read or watched your entire training, liked it, commented on it and how responsive to are you to comments and questions.

Bottom line:  The more popular your Training is, the more is you earn.

This is how Wealthy Affiliate has landed up with an incredible bank of Training, other than the official courses. I even have a few Tutorials of my own (been a bit slack, I know).

My most popular tutorial by far is this one: How to Earn Money from Blogs (before you have significant traffic)

Are there other ways to make money with a website?

Sure. There are plenty of ways.  Once you have built an Authority website, you have a valuable asset.

Here 10 more ways you can make money with your website:

  1. Sponsored Posts
  2. Paid Guest Posting 
  3. Paid Membership to Your Site
  4. Sell Advertising Space
  5. Pay Per Click Advertising
  6. Sell your own eBooks
  7. Sell your own Courses
  8. E-Commerce (sell your own products online) – See my RedBubble Store
  9. Flip Websites (or sell your site once it has some Authority)
  10. Create a Paid Business Directory Page

And you can learn how to do all this in Wealthy Affiliate.  Remember, other than the core training, there are also thousands of tutorials added by Wealthy Affiliate Members, many of whom are experts in their field.

You also are learning valuable skills you can market

You might find, for example, that you actually love the first bit you learn at Wealthy Affiliate – creating the framework of a website and that’s a skill you can market.  I made a few bucks this way when a friend of mine wanted a very simple website created for her Playschool.

Here are a few skills you might learn while you’re building your own site, that others will pay you to do for them.  You can sell these skills on freelance websites like Fiverr or Upwork or to your friends.

Marketable Skills

  1. Content Writing
  2. Website Development
  3. SEO Services
  4. Keyword Research
  5. Digital Marketing
  6. Social Media Management
  7. Online Training (eg. Udemy)
  8. Designing Images for Social Media
  9. Email Marketing
  10. Copywriting
  11. Editing
  12. Proofreading

Wealthy Affiliate Success Stories

There are many members of Wealthy Affiliate who are earning money doing all kinds of things online.

I’ll highlight 5 Wealthy Affiliate Success Stories:

1. Steve of I’ve Tried That

I discovered Wealthy Affiliate when I read a review post about Steve of I’ve Tried That and so I’m actually one of his referrals. Here are a couple of his popular posts on WA:

Earnings Report: Here’s How I Made $8,871.03 from Blogging in May 2019

2. Nathaniell Brenes of One More Cup of Coffee

Here are some of my favourite posts by Nathaniell of One More Cup of Coffee.

Your First Website Doesn’t Have to be a Home Run

How $0.01 Turns Into $2178.10

3. Lynne Huysamen – Kaboutjie

Lynne Huysamen of Kaboutjie is making Thousands of Dollars a month with Sponsored Posts and Paid Guest Posting opportunities. She has also received a free washing machine and microwave to review for sponsored post opportunities.

Perks of Blogging – Free Stuff

4. Janelle B.M. aka Cashed Up Nomad

Janelle of the Cashed Up Nomad just used all the knowledge she gained at Wealthy Affiliate to sell a really big ticket item online, a Catamaran.  Don’t miss her awesome post:

I Sold a Very Big Ticket Item On My Website – hundreds of thousands of buckeroonies! 

I took a screenshot of the Pricing page as Janelle said she will be taking this website down soon, now that the Catamaran it has been sold.

As you can see below, it was priced at $212,000 AUD Negotiable (am not sure of the price the buyer settled on).

Janelle Sold a Big Ticket Item Online using knowledge gained at Wealthy Affiliate

 

 

 

 

5. Chris Myles aka Benji’s Dad

Chris Myles is a popular YouTuber who started out at Wealthy Affiliate. You can find him at Benji’s Dad.

I’m doing his Premium Plus classes on building a lucrative YouTube channel and they are awesome.

Chris also has a successful blog and is a Super Affiliate at WA,  here’s his most recent Vegas experience.

Las Vegas 2020 WA Super Affiliate Conference: A REAL Eye-Opener

More Success Stories

Here’s another great post showing Proof Of Income by Wealthy Affiliate Members. Don’t miss the Featured Comment.

Comment Here if You’ve Made $500 – Don’t miss the Featured Comment and the Comments by Loes and Marion Black about how much they earn from their Tutorials via The Open Education Project.

Wealthy Affiliate Overview

  • Name: Wealthy Affiliate
  • Owners: Kyle and Carson
  • Website: wealthyaffiliate.com
  • Price: Starter Member – Free,
  • Premium Member – $49 per month or $359 per year

Wealthy Affiliate Rankings

  1. Training: 10 out of 10
  2. Support: 10 out 10
  3. Website Builder:  10 out of 10
  4. Research Tools: 9 out of 10
  5. Site Comments Tool: 10 out 10
  6. Site Feedback Tool: 9 out of 10
  7. Site Content Editor: 10 out of 10
  8. Managed WordPress Hosting9 out of 10
  9. Site Support: 10 out of 10
  10. Success Stories: 10 out of 10

My Overall Ranking of Wealthy Affiliate:  98/100

Over to You

I’d love your comments below. Have you made money with Wealthy Affiliate?  

Or are you ready to give it your best shot?

Join Today

How I Grew My Blog Income by 600% in 6 Months

Make Money with an Online Blog

Are you ready to make money with your online blog?

In this post, I’ll share my second Blogging Income Report and explain exactly how increased my blog earning by over 600% in the last 6 months.

Affiliate Disclaimer: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

You may recall in my first Blogging Income Report I also shared Income Reports of 7 Top Mom Bloggers. This time I’ll only be sharing one Income Report other than mine. Because it’s one I’ve been as eager to read as I am to read my own numbers.

It’s the Annual Wrap Up posted by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner of  makingsenseofcents.com

In 2016, Michelle earned just shy of a Million Dollars and so I have been reading her monthly income reports all year with great interest.  I knew she would earn in excess of $1 Million this year… and, of course, she did.

Here’s Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s Annual Wrap Up for 2017:

I Made $1,536,732 In 2017 – My December Online Income Report and Annual Wrap Up 

Michelle’s Income Timeline has been particularly inspiring:

  • In 2011, Michelle started blogging as a side hustle
  • In August 2011, she launched Making Sense of Cents
  • In February 2012 (6 months later), she made her first $100
  • In 2013, Year 3, her business income totalled $116,519.
  • In 2014, Year 4, it totalled $163,929.
  • In 2015, Year 5, she made $320,888.
  • In 2016, Year 6, she I made $979,321.
  • In 2017, Year 7, she earned $1,536,732
  • In 2018, Year 8, her goal is to earn $2,000,000

About half Michelle’s income comes from Affiliate Marketing and about another 35% comes from selling her own course,  Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, which is why I’m super keen to do her course.

I set a goal to purchase Michelle’s course once I have completed Affiliate Bootcamp at Wealthy Affiliate.

I have noticed that massive incomes are being made online by Affiliate Marketers and I am a firm believer that, in time, Affiliate Marketing will become one of my main sources of income too.

My main source of income this year has been people paying to guest post on my site – and I highly recommend this to any blogger who has taken the time to build their site to a Domain Authority of at least 10. (If you don’t know your sites Domain Authority, go to moz.com and download their free toolbar).

It can take a bit longer to start seeing Affiliate sales, but once they start coming in, you’re set.

The way I see it, there are 3 Distinct Benefits of Affiliate Marketing over Paid Guest Posts and they are all to do with time versus money.  

  • You don’t get paid by the hour, you get paid when visitors buy what you are promoting in your post
  • You can do the work once (write one blog post or create one video) and be paid over and over
  • You can make money in your sleep (your website never sleeps)

Now, I know that having advertisements on your site has the same benefits, but I’ve noticed income from Advertising is generally lower (unless you have huge traffic you’re earning practically nothing from Advertising) and I decided I just don’t like having Ads on my site.

Too distracting. Too busy. Too annoying.

I figure If Top Bloggers like Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, Sarah Titus and Melyssa Griffin can earn 6 or 7 Figures with zero Advertising Income, so can I.

2018 – My Year to Crack Affiliate Marketing?

All signs this month seem to be pointing towards me going flat-out with Affiliate Marketing this year.

Sign 1:  Affiliate Marketing Secrets

Affiliate Marketing Secrets

First-off, I got featured in a book by Adam Houge on Top Affiliate Marketers, called Affiliate Marketing Secrets.

The ebook launched on 15 January (my interview is on pg. 105) and guess who’s featured on Page 25?

Yup!  You guessed it – Michelle Schroeder-Gardner.

Soooo excited to be featured alongside so many Affiliate Marketing Superstars. I also blogged about this one Inspiring Mompreneurs on the Day of the Launch.

By the way, the ebook is still available FREE of charge.  This offer is time sensitive.

Get Affiliate Marketing Secrets Free here. 

Sign 2 – The Work at Home Summit

I’m subscribed to Michelle’s email newsletter and on 20th January, she sent me details of the Work at Home Summit.

This is a Free Online Event that runs from Monday, January 29th to Saturday, February 3rd 2018.

And Michelle Schroeder-Gardner is one of the Speakers at the event.

So I jumped at the chance to become an Affiliate of this event as I can’t become an Affiliate of Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing until I’ve bought and done the course myself. Can’t wait!

This way I get to learn from and work alongside not only my Blogging Hero, Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, but also other Top Bloggers I follow, like Selena Soo, Rosemary Groner of the BusyBudgeter.com, Julie Stoian of CreateYourLaptopLife.com and Emma Bates of KidsCashandChaos.com.

How do you earn Affiliate Commission from a Free Event?

During the Event, we will all have the opportunity to join The Work-At-Home School and this is where Affiliate sales can be generated.

Affiliates can earn 40% Commission on each Sale. The Work-at-Home School offers packages to suit all pockets.

Work at Home Summit

Get Your Free Ticket to the Work-at-Home Summit here.

Or

Join the Work-at-Home School Affiliate Program Here.

Sign 3 – Super Affiliate Challenge

The second sign was when Kyle, co-Founder of Wealthy Affiliate launched his Super Affiliate Challenge.

The Challenge is a rigorous pilot program to build an elite group of Wealthy Affiliate members, hand-picked by Kyle to become Authority Affiliate Marketers by the end of the year.

To be chosen you had to apply first.

I applied (along with 800+ other members) and on 24th January I found out I was accepted (as did about 100 other members).

Become a Super Affiliate. Join Wealthy Affiliate Today.

Our first task is to complete Affiliate Bootcamp Phase 1.

Hey… why don’t you join me? 

Did you know that at Wealthy Affiliate, the first Phase of Bootcamp is completely free?  Along with 2 free websites, access to over a million stunning free images as well as free access to Jaaxy, the most brilliant Keyword and site ranking tool on the market.

Click here to Join Wealthy Affiliate free

And, Finally onto…

How I Grew My Blog Income by 600% in 6 Months

Let’s break it down a bit further.  If you recall, my first Blogging Income Report was based on the first 6 months of 2017.

Do Bloggers Earn Income Blogging

  • In the first 6 months of 2017, I earned $ 214.16
  • In the second half of 2017, I earned $ 1,313.32 (Just over 6 times the amount)

Here’s a Month by Month Account so you can see my Income Timeline clearly:

Lauren Kinghorn Blog Income by Month 1

Lauren Kinghorn Blog Income By Month 2

GRAND TOTAL YEAR 2  = $1,527.48

Are your ready to make money with your online blog? Read more at laurenkinghorn.com #makemoneywithanonlineblog #affiliatemarketing #bloggerincomereports #workathomesummit #affiliatemarketingsecrets Affiliate Disclaimer: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.As you can see, my Top Earning Month for the Year was November, when I earned $ 625.

Business was booming, I finally felt my blogs were taking off! And I was EXCITED!!

I was certain I’d hit the $1,000 mark in December… but alas, business slowed in December.

So I set my sights on having my first $1000 month in January but this month has also been a bit on the slow-side.

I’m at $ 587 so far for the month with just a few days to go.  Eek!

Still… $600+ a month is nothing to sneeze at, considering where I was just a few short months ago.

Which was basically nowhere –  not able to cover my own expenses or assist with my family’s expenses.

What this Means To Me

  • Since December I have been able to cover my own debit orders.
  • Which means I don’t have to ask my husband to deposit some of his salary into my account each month.
  • I was also able to cover my Wealthy Affiliate Expenses for the upcoming year.
  • I was able to buy a nice Christmas present for my hubby.
  • I was able to treat my Mom to a delicious Spa Day in January (I went along too, my hubby’s Christmas present to me).
  • I was able to cover the annual bonus for the lady who cleans our house once a week.
  • I have been able to pay for some of my own coffee dates and playdates for my son.
  • I was able to pay for my son’s Holiday Club in the December/January holidays.
  • I was able to pay for my son’s Pre Primary School T-Shirts.

So… where did the money come from?

The short answer, almost all the money came from Paid Guest Posts or Contributed Posts.

Remember, I started offering this as a Gig on Fiverr in January?

Well, once I had a good few Guest Posts up on my sites, I started getting emails from people asking to Guest Post.

And so I decided to add a Shop to my site where I offer this as a Service.

This was still ad-hoc income, until mid-November, when I was referred to a company who sends Contributed Posts to Bloggers and they started sending me an average of 1 post a day.

A post a day keeps the bill collectors away.  🙂

The Benefit of Allowing Paid Guest Posts:

  • It’s a quick way of adding new quality content to my site
  • Most of the content is written specifically for my site by professional content writers
  • Most content I’ve received is high quality, well-written with very few grammatical or spelling errors
  • Images are usually supplied by the client
  • Some clients even add internal links into their content
  • Many clients don’t require social media sharing (they are simply paying for their backlink within the text)

How I use Paid Guest Posts to Build My Site:

  • I choose one Keyword per post and use that as the Permalink and somewhere in the first paragraph
  • I write an opening and closing paragraph – to maintain my voice throughout my site
  • I reformat each post to improve readability (shorter paragraphs, bullet points etc.)
  • I correct spelling and grammar where needed
  • I format images in keeping with other images on my site
  • I add another internal link if I remember a post that ties in well to the new content

Detailed Breakdown of Blog Income

For those interested in Stats, here are a few more for you.

Here’s the breakdown of blog earnings from July to December  2017.

Again, I’ll go in order of Highest to Lowest Income:

Lauren Kinghorn Blog Income 2017I firmly believe that in the coming year Affiliate Commission will overtake Paid Post Income for me.

And I also plan to focus on creating my own Products and Training Courses this year.

They say that when you start a new business:

  • You lose money in the first year – Check
  • You break even in your second year – Check
  • You make money in your third year – Woohoo! Bring it on!

I am very happy with the results of my second year of blogging. I broke even and I made a few bucks.

I hope this post has given you a good idea of how you can make money from your online blog.

If you have any questions or if you have your own blogging story to share, please leave me a comment below.

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How I Grew My Blog Income by 600% in 6 Months | Make Money with an Online Blog Pin

The Black Friday Sale

Black Friday Sale - Wealthy Affiliate Annual Membership only $299 - laurenkinghorn.com

The Black Friday Sale

This is the one Black Friday Sale I look forward to every year.

You see, when I started out as a blogger I knew Wealthy Affiliate was the right place for me to learn everything I needed to learn. Yet I couldn’t afford to pay Wealthy Affiliate’s annual fees.

Actually, at first, I couldn’t afford to pay any fees at all so I joined up on their FREE Starter Membership and started doing their FREE Training and building my FREE websites.

In a couple of months, I upgraded to Premium Membership.

7 months later, when Black Friday 2016 rolled around, I was still not earning enough to pay the Annual Membership.  (See how long it took me to start making money).

I begged my husband to believe in me and sponsor me for ONE YEAR. THANKFULLY, he did!!

This year I am pleased as punch to announce that I have earned enough from my blogs to pay my Black Friday Membership myself.

This month alone, I’ve earned $377 from blogging… and counting… 

So do I think Wealthy Affiliate is a good buy? You betcha!  (Read my full Wealthy Affiliate Review HERE)

The Black Friday Sale