Wealthy Affiliate - Pyramid to Riches

If you've clicked on this review you're one of the thousands considering becoming a Wealthy Affiliate affiliate.  It is also known by the none too presumptuous title of the Wealthy Affiliate University or simply, WA.

Let me start by saying you will find no link in this review. I am not selling WA nor am I selling one of its competitors.  I am merely here to tell you of my experiences within the gilded walls of WA.  Yes, I was a member and went through the bulk of the training they provide on Internet marketing.  I am no longer a Wealthy Affiliate affiliate and decided to write a review of their services for those of you that want a first hand account; no strings attached.

By now you've seen the ads that promise a large income from working in the comfort of your home.  As a marketing strategy, its genius.  But what does WA actually supply to their affiliates?  And do the skills they provide really make money for their members?

The Wealthy Affiliate  "university" centers around an 8 week course for beginners in which each new set of lessons is doled out; one per week.  The site may have a slick look to it, but  wears more like a cheap suit with poor navigation, confusing lesson formats and enough typos to make a member wonder why they didn't pop for a copy editor.

Kyle and Carson, the WA creators,  have built a wonderful money making machine, for themselves.  Under the guise of helping people make lots of money through Internet marketing, they are really just fueling their own empire by creating Wealthy Affiliate affiliates.

It starts with how the new members can promote WA.  And they have made it very easy for the newbies to do just that with ready made ads and websites that promote WA and its host of peripheral products.

WA provides a taste of what is needed to make a living with Internet marketing and a big push to go round up more newbies for the cult of Wealthy Affiliate affiliates.  Some might say that WA is starting to sound like a pyramid scheme, but its probably closer to multi level marketing.

The sad and rarely mentioned truth behind Internet marketing in general is that the failure rate is close to 95%.  This failure rate has more to do with the unrealistic hopes of the people signing up, all WA does is fan the fire.  Regardless of what you have read in ads promoting Internet marketing there is NOTHING EASY about it.

Making money online is hard work, often times requiring more hours per week than a full time job.  But that kind of information wouldn't read well in a pay per click ad.  The truth often times has little to do with good salesmanship.  Internet marketers are selling a dream.

So what of joining WA?  On the pro side, they do offer some helpful information and resources for their $30+/month membership fee.  On the con side, be prepared to be hit with a barrage of self serving promotions. They make them seem very enticing and an easy way to start off in Internet marketing.  WAs turnover rate must be high as witnessed by their constant push for new members to recruit new members.

And as for giving you "the secrets" to making money online, well don't expect anything more than general information about IM.  Do you honestly expect them to give up the secrets that REALLY make them money?  Of course not, that's how they make their living, why would they?

According to WA records, their active membership is hovering around 12,000 as of this writing.  I did an informal survey of 3000 of those so called members and found that nearly 46% of them had never posted to the WA forum once.  All of these members have been with WA for at least 6 months and some as long as two years.

For a website that prides itself on its "supportive" forum and encourages new members to use it, doesn't it seem a bit odd that so many Wealthy Affiliate affiliates would have never used it, not even one time?

Many pocketed groups of these non posting members also joined within several minutes of each other as attested to by WAs own system of recording members join up times.  I would be curious to hear Kyle and Carson explain this phenomenon.

What WA provides to its Wealthy Affiliate affiliates is a basic primer to IM, some resources that, regardless of their hype, can be found elsewhere on the internet, often for free and a forum with little tolerance of anyone questioning the status quo and the smell of hype everywhere.

Let's face it, Internet marketers are salesman above all and those who run sites like WA are super salesman.  Kyle and Carson discovered what PT Barnum knew long ago, there's a Wealthy Affiliate affiliate born every minute.  All these two boys figured out was how to leverage them on a regular and ongoing basis.  If anyone was wondering where the used car salesmen of old have gone, they are right here on the internet and doing FINE.

WA and its army of Wealthy Affiliate affiliates is just one of the many, many Internet marketing creations that promise to "show you the secrets" of making money online.  Its a promise that fails to mention that to become a truly successful Internet marketer takes years of hard work.  The expression, "don't believe the hype" comes to mind.

So should you spend the money becoming a Wealthy Affiliate affiliate?  Well if you've got around $100 (more if you plan to use PPC campaigns) and a few months then there are worse ways to go.  You can learn some of  the basics of Internet marketing being a WA member.  Just go through the 8 week program and don't get sucked into all the products/services they will try to sell you along the way.

At the same time you must realize that becoming a member opens you to the often unsavory world of IM where ROI (return on investment) is king, not the customer. This is not WAs fault, they're just milking the cow.  To really compete in this business, be it as a Wealthy Affiliate affiliate or not, it's best to check a healthy chuck of your ethics at the door.

A more important question is are you looking for something quick and easy by becoming a Wealthy Affiliate affiliate or something that requires dedication and hard work?  If you answered "quick and easy" don't waste your money joining WA, in fact don't waste your money on Internet marketing at all.

7 "Awesome" Ways to Dominate With Affiliate Marketing

When promoting other people's products or services, sometimes you may run out of ideas, and then wonder...

"Why are they getting more sales than me?"

Well, my friend... I'll tell you a little secret. Not everyone is 'in' on the correct affiliate marketing methods to use, as they are mostly kept secret by the so called "Gurus".

Not any more.

Here are 7 *KILLER* ways to dominate your affiliate market and work your way through the competition, ultimately producing massive commissions!

1) Offer discounts for the package to your customers.

Or, if it's a small commission payout, offer a percentage. If you cannot negotiate this with the manager of the product you're promoting, ask your customers to send you their payment proof so you can refund the discount value directly to their account.

2) Offer bonuses.

These bonuses should outweigh the cost of the affiliate product with pure value. Because, if you offer every product separately, it's seen as less value and will produce fewer sales anyway. Ideas include - video courses, unreleased e-books, free access to special events (including seminars and workshops), swipe files, etc.

3) Review websites.

We've all seen them at times of product launches. And they DO work. So why not make your own?

You shouldn't make it blatantly obvious that you're promoting it... In fact you should list a few bad points here and there too, but DEFINITELY outweigh them with good points. Go in-depth into the product, explaining EVERYTHING there is to know, even with hints at some of the content sections to excite the reader. Basically give them what other review sites or affiliates wouldn't.

The review should end on a positive conclusion, followed by your affiliate link (which would be cloaked by a forwarded URL, such as YourWebsite.com/affiliateproductname, or even a tinyURL link used with anchor text).

4) Pay-Per-Click.

THE ultimate form of affiliate advertising. Due to the short-term nature of hyped product launches, there is little time for proper SEO to come into effect. This is easily sorted with Pay-Per-Click services such as Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing.

If you've followed point 3 above about a review website, advertise it on PPC, as you can make it seem shocking by introducing a shocking headline such as... "PRODUCT NAME... A SCAM?!?!". And then obviously prove it isn't in your review website. Another popular headline is "Don't Buy PRODUCT NAME Until You've Read This!".

5) Article/Blog Submissions

Similar to a review website, submit USEFUL articles or post to your blog, i.e. articles which are packed with VALUE, about the niche in which the product is located. If useful information isn't provided, then the article submission websites will not accept your article due to the in-your-face spam.

At the end of this article, conclude by relating the post topic to the product in your resource box, with a link to either your affiliate link (if allowed), or your review website which would be used for further reading.

6) Forum posts.

This is probably the hardest method to use, as it requires skill and patience, as you tiptoe around the rules.

Search with Google for forum topics containing the product you're promoting (as no doubt there will be some from sceptical visitors), and post replies to all of them, referring to your review website or article if they would like more information on the product. However, please read the rules of the individual forum before following this advice, as some forums are very strict on it.

Also, another method could be to use Direct Marketing on the forums, i.e. send a private message to the users related to the forum post, explaining how you have inside information about the product.

7) Make a promotional video.

Now I know what you're thinking. "Oh my god, that sounds technical! I can't do that!". Don't worry, it isnt. All you need is screencasting software (such as Jing), and a microphone.

This video could either be showing a preview of inside the package (with prior permission from the launcher of the product, explaining what you'll use the video for), or even a talk from you giving immensely valuable tips/secrets related to the niche, and then offering a special discount or limited time offer at the end of the video.

Also, you could make a viral video. One thing i'll always remember is Michael Cheney's videos promoting a launch, as it contained HUMOUR. He made it seem as though it was against the law to be showing you a preview (which was advertised as an "illegal video", whereas what the reader didn't know was that permission was granted beforehand anyway), but this stuck in people's heads and people willingly passed it on to each other as a source of ENTERTAINMENT, instead of a video which they may find useful.

I hope this post has provided you with a greater insight into affiliate marketing.

See You Soon!

- James Francis.

With over 5 years of vast experience of teaching Internet Marketing, James Francis uses dozens of techniques for producing sales and satisfied customers across the globe, including (but not necessarily limited to): Internet Marketing, Video Marketing, Web 2.0, E-mail Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Article Marketing, Social Media, and many more.

Using these methods, he provides you with the most effective tutorials to help you create your full time income online.

To learn how you can start earning with Internet Marketing RIGHT NOW, watch the value-packed video on this page for free:

http://www.EasyIMProfits.com/secretvideo

To Your Successful Future,
- James Francis.
http://www.EasyIMProfits.com

Becoming an Affiliate Marketing Success

If you are new to the game of Internet income, or are a seasoned professional looking for more income, it may make sense to consider Affiliate Marketing. Affiliate Marketing is relatively easy to get started. That is part of the attractiveness. You won't need any products of your own as you will be selling products for others and receiving a commission. This allows you a pretty cost efficient entry into the business.

Affiliate programs are good for the merchants you will represent as it allows them to have a number of sales people that they have no responsibility for. They do have some responsibility to the Affiliate Marketers, but no direct responsibility for them as the Affiliate marketers are all Independent Contractors, therefore self employed. Affiliate programs allow the merchant to get product in front of a much larger audience than would be possible without an Affiliate program. Also, the merchant can better judge sales costs as the Affiliate will be paid a commission. The merchant does not have to bear the cost of such things as payroll, employee benefits, advertising, etc. This puts the merchant in a position to offer the Affiliate Marketers a generous commission structure.

If you plan to get involved in Affiliate Marketing I suggest you start small, and start carefully. Do some research and be confident that you will not only be comfortable selling the product or products you select, but that you will actually enjoy the process. This means you need to select products you are passionate about. So not only do you need to do some research, but you also need to do some soul searching. Generally, you will have some advanced knowledge about products and or services you are passionate about and that will help you in establishing yourself as an expert it the field you have chosen.

Once you have an idea of the products or services you want to sell you will need to search for merchants looking to sell them via Affiliate Marketers. You can also do a little research on the internet and see where the greatest commission opportunities are in your chosen field. Again, following my prior advice of starting small I would narrow it down to no more than three products at first. When you have been at it awhile and have made a few dollars, you can invest in a good website to promote all of your products and services and at that point you may want to add a few more items.

Affiliate Marketing is one of the fastest growing segments of online business, and it's fairly easy to see why. It's easy to get into, easy to operate, and can make you a lot of money. I can't think of anything with a much easier entry.

As you are considering Affiliate Marketing and doing your research you will, no doubt come across some, and maybe a lot, of Affiliate Business Opportunities and MLM programs that will be very enticing. I must caution you here that most of these are scams and if you have an interest in these, be very careful. There are some legitimate programs out there, but I would guess it's about one in ten. You may want to give one or two a try, and that is OK, just as long as you go into them with your eyes open and understand you may lose your original investment. So the guidance here is keep that investment SMALL. Enjoy the process.

Wayne C. Weeks ---
Wayne is a published author, writer, blogger and Internet Marketer who spent more than 30 years in the mortgage industry. Wayne is also a Christian, Businessman, Award Winning Winemaker, Lay Minister, Private Pilot, Husband and stuff like that...

Low Investment Affiliate Program: http://hotshorturl.com/wo48