Wealthy Affiliate and Authority Hacker are two popular training courses on affiliate marketing for beginners and seasoned affiliate marketers.
These training programs have helped thousands of people build successful affiliate marketing businesses on the Internet.
Interestingly, they have different teaching methods, course content, and costs.
While both have a lot of positive reviews from their students, this review will prove otherwise to dive into the things many of them do not want to disclose.
Who am I?
I am an affiliate marketer with a couple of affiliate marketing sites and make a full-time income from affiliate marketing and other online businesses.
(a screenshot of one of my affiliate programs)
But little about me, let’s dig into two of the most popular affiliate marketing courses.
Overview of Wealthy Affiliate and Authority Hacker
As said earlier on, Wealthy Affiliate is a training program for any wannabe affiliate marketers.
It was founded by Kyle Loudoun and Carson Lim. They launched the platform in 2005 with the goal of providing comprehensive training and resources for aspiring affiliate marketers and online entrepreneurs.
But it is more than just a course, Wealthy Affiliate also has tools to help you build your affiliate site.
- Siterubix is a platform by WA to build websites. You can build your affiliate website with it.
- Jaaxy is their keyword research tool to help you find affiliate keywords as an affiliate marketer.
- Wealthy Affiliate also has a WordPress hosting service as part of their tools.
To crown it all, WA has a very strong community which has actually helped them grow into what they are now.
Authority Hacker, on the other hand, is also one of the most popular affiliate marketing courses in the industry at the moment.
Authority Hacker was founded by Gael Breton and Mark Webster. Together, Gael Breton and Mark Webster have built Authority Hacker as a platform to share their knowledge and experiences in affiliate marketing.
They aim to provide advanced training and resources to help aspiring affiliate marketers achieve success with their authority websites.
Gael Breton is an experienced digital marketer and has been involved in the affiliate marketing industry for over a decade. He has successfully built and sold several authority websites. Gael is known for his expertise in SEO, content marketing, and growth hacking strategies.
Mark Webster is a co-founder of Authority Hacker and brings his expertise in affiliate marketing and website building to the platform. He has a strong background in SEO and content creation and has been involved in the industry for many years.
The Authority Hacker team have a couple of courses on the subject of building a successful website and affiliate marketing business.
Their two main courses are:
- The Authority Site System
- Authority Hacker Pro
As opposed to Wealthy Affiliate, Authority Hacker’s aim is to equip you with knowledge. Hence, they do not offer any tool or website hosting. But they give recommendations for some companies they use.
With that said, let’s dive deeper into the comparison review.
Wealthy Affiliates vs Authority Hacker – Features and Course content
So far, I have given a decent opinion of both platforms. It is time to get dirtier and reveal some of those things I don’t like about the platform (cons).
Let’s start with Wealthy Affiliate.
What I dislike about Wealthy Affiliate (Cons)
Here are some ugly truths about Wealthy Affiliate that many might not be telling you.
1) Outdated and Beginner content
Wealthy Affiliate has been in existence for quite a long time and sadly some parts of the course are outdated.
Some students described Wealthy Affiliate as obsolete. But rather than call it obsolete, I would refer to it as basic knowledge.
While a noob will find it helpful to grasp the concept of affiliate marketing, it is trash for an intermediate.
Source: ebizfacts
2) Shady marketing (MLM)
One of the first things that I noticed about Wealthy Affiliate is their shady marketing technique.
Wealthy Affiliate operates as an MLM (multi-level marketing program), encouraging their students to promote them as an affiliate.
Many of the successful Wealthy Affiliate students only make money as affiliates of the Wealthy Affiliate platform.
The majority of them do not make much promoting other products. So it is more like they get paid to refer more people to the course, hence the shady marketing technique.
If you go through the websites of many of their students, you’ll see a trend in the way they all promote Wealthy Affiliate.
They always have an attractive header of how they make money from the internet. And the link will redirect you to their sales page about Wealthy Affiliates.
Most times their buttons take you directly to Wealthy Affiliate, where you sign up for the free version and upgrade later.
And as a marketer, I can testify that Wealthy Affiliate has its funnel nailed to convert cold traffic to customers.
Mind you, there is no issue with promoting a course you found helpful.
But it becomes shady if the only way most people make money after joining the program is to sell it to others.
To crown it all, 60% of the training is all about how to promote WA.
3) No Refunds
Yeah, you read it right, Wealthy Affiliate does not issue refunds even if you didn’t touch any of their content.
They stated it clearly in their terms of service which people hardly read. Hence, many people have been robbed of refunds when they show dissatisfaction.
While Wealthy Affiliate has a free plan, the free plan doesn’t give you enough information to know if the subscription will be worth it.
4) Subscription
Wealthy Affiliate is a subscription-based platform, hence you need to continue to pay to have access to the tools and programs.
Starting an affiliate website does cost you money annually. But I will advise you to use an independent hosting company other than Wealthy Affiliate.
You should also get your domain name from a different company other than Wealthy Affiliate.
This will make it easier for you to stop using the platform anytime.
What I like about Wealthy Affiliate (Pros)
While I do not rate this program well, it does have some goods in it.
Community
Wealthy Affiliate deserves their flower in the community aspect. WA has one of the biggest affiliate communities in the industry.
The community will give you access to season affiliate marketers who you can learn from.
Lessons are simple
Another thing I like about the program is that the course content is simplified for beginners.
If you are a newbie, you’ll find it easier to understand compared to other affiliate courses.
The course gives you the fundamental knowledge of affiliate marketing.
What I like about Authority Hacker (Pros)
Now, let’s talk about Authority Hacker. Here are some of the things I love about the program.
Basic and Intermediate Friendly
In contrast to Wealthy Affiliate, Authority Hacker’s courses are both beginner and intermediate-friendly.
If you are a newbie or yet to break your first $1k/month from affiliate marketing, you’ll find The Authority Site System course helpful.
And if you are looking to take your affiliate business to the next level, Authority Hacker has an advanced affiliate marketing course, Authority Hacker Pro, which is highly recommended.
Copy & Paste Templates
Authority Hacker provides you with templates that you can copy and paste to start and grow your affiliate marketing website.
Pre-Designed Roadmap
The team at Authority Hacker created a pre-designed roadmap to be your guide as you grow your website from zero to the first $1000 per month.
The roadmap includes milestones your affiliate website will get to and actions to carry out as you grow.
Case Studies
Seeing case studies of other students building a successful niche site is motivating. You’ll find these in the Authority Hacker private Facebook group.
The Authority Site System course also gives you a case study site to inspect and see takeaways to implement on your site.
Support system
Authority Hacker are known for their swift support system. They are ready to assist every step of the way from website creation to content uploading.
You also get support from other members of their Facebook community. Considering the amount of work involved in running a successful blog, it makes sense to have a community to run to any time.
What I dislike about Authority Hacker (Cons)
As much as I want to praise Authority Hacker, there are a few criticisms worth noting.
Expensive price
Authority Hacker has two courses, both of which are expensive. The Authority Site System course which is their beginner-intermediate course costs $997. And the Authority Hacker Pro, the advanced program, costs $2997 0r $297 for 12 consecutive months.
Compared to other affiliate marketing courses, Authority Hacker are one of the most expensive.
So it is understandable that this will be a deal-breaker for many.
Wealthy Affiliate vs Authority Hacker – Pricing
Wealthy Affiliate offers two membership options: a Premium membership priced at $49 per month and a Premium Plus priced at $99 per month.
The free membership provides access to basic training modules and limited features, while the Premium membership unlocks the complete suite of training materials, advanced tools, and additional perks.
Authority Hacker offers a premium training course called “The Authority Site System,” priced at $997. This one-time fee grants lifetime access to the course content, updates, and support.
While the initial investment may be higher, students receive extensive and in-depth training, making it a viable option for those committed to long-term success.
Which is better?
In conclusion, both Wealthy Affiliate and Authority Hacker offer valuable affiliate marketing courses with their own unique approaches and strengths.
Wealthy Affiliate provides a basic foundation in affiliate marketing, covering a wide range of topics and offering an active and supportive community.
On the other hand, Authority Hacker specializes in building authority websites and emphasizes advanced SEO strategies, making it a solid choice for those seeking in-depth knowledge.
When making a decision between the two courses, it’s essential to consider your individual goals, preferred learning style, and budget. If you are a beginner looking for a structured and step-by-step approach, Wealthy Affiliate might be the right fit for you.
Conversely, if you’re interested in advanced SEO techniques and building authority sites, Authority Hacker could be the better choice.
But I recommend Authority Hacker over Wealthy Affiliate. Because the former has depth while the latter has breadth.
Leave a Reply