If you are still unsure on what the key differences are between the Starter membership and Premium memberships available at Wealthy Affiliate, I am here to help. I have been with Wealthy Affiliate since 2016 and could see no better partner in my Affiliate Marketing business.
Their training has a proven track record, and has helped many people take their first steps in to Affiliate Marketing and beyond to building up a profitable online business where you can leave the day job behind.
I personally have benefitted from the training and can see anyone with the inclination to spend some time and effort learning from them to have the same success.
So, I want to share some of the most common questions I get about the different memberships and also include some tips along the way of how you could benefit from the platform too.
Wealthy Affiliates Starter Membership
Let’s go through some of the most common questions with the Starter Membership.
Is the Starter Membership a Free Trial?
No, the Starter membership is not a free trial. It is a free membership for life if you choose not to upgrade to the Premium Membership.
It will not cost you anything for as long as you want.
The confusion around the trial is that you get to trial the premium features for 7 days. Take them for a test drive to help you understand them.
Who is the Starter Membership for?
The Starter Membership is for anyone who wants to get started in affiliate marketing and building their own business. But is also helps you decide whether affiliate marketing is the right decision for you.
What’s included in the Starter Membership?
- First 10 lessons in their online entrepreneur certification course for any niche
- First 10 lessons in their Affiliate Bootcamp course for promoting Wealthy Affiliate
- Access to 2 out of the 10 classrooms available
- Build 1* Free Websites (Web Hosting Included)
- SiteBuilder
- Keyword Research Tool (30 free searches)
- SiteContent with templates to use
- Live Chat for instant support – limited use
[*Updated March 2020 – Starter Members will now receive access to one free website]
Can I Make Money with the Starter Membership?
You can make money with your free website, if you already know what you are doing with Affiliate Marketing.
But if you are new to Affiliate Marketing, then I would have to say that it will be difficult. Considering what I have learned from Wealthy Affiliate and my experience in the field, you need the right support to succeed.
There is just so much to learn, it isn’t as simple as just building a blog on a website and off you go.
There are many aspects of affiliate marketing that you need to understand to build a business which gives you the freedom to earn from home.
How Do I Close my Account if I Don’t Want to Upgrade to Premium?
You haven’t invested any money, just log out and go on your way.
Can I Get Coaching as a Starter Membership?
It does depend on who you sign up with. I personally help each and every member that accepts my invitation, regardless of whether they go premium or not.
I know how difficult it is in the first few months when you are just starting out and not too sure of what you are doing. If I can be of any help, I am there helping regularly in live chat or answering questions, my username is Jcross93 at Wealthy Affiliate.
What’s the Purpose of the Starter Membership if I can’t Make Money with it?
The Starter Membership was never meant for someone with no knowledge of Affiliate Marketing to make money. If you are a beginner, how could you know enough to make money from your websites.
The purpose of it was to give you a way of experiencing the platform without having to hand over any money or commitment. I have seen many platforms say you can try it but you have to pay up front, and claim a refund if you are not happy. That isn’t as easy said as done.
But with Wealthy Affiliate, you get to test out the premium features for 7 days, like Live Chat, Live Weekly Webinars, see that we are real people out there to help beginners start their affiliate marketing business without handing over any credit card details.
You can test it, launch your own free website and experience it for real.
I think that shows how much the owners behind WA care about making sure you know what you are paying for.
But there is no pressure to upgrade, and if you choose to stay a starter member, you keep your websites.
Is It Really Free for Everyone?
There are some instances where you will not be able to access the free Starter Membership…
There are 10 countries, where the Starter Membership is not available. There are more cases of fraud and scams happening in these countries and WA wants to protect its members, so they are no eligible for the free starter membership.
- Bangladesh
- Egypt
- Ghana
- India
- Kenya
- Morocco
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Vietnam
However, this doesn’t stop people who are serious about Affiliate Marketing in these countries, joining through the Premium Membership – which is $49/month or $359/yr.
If you are in one of these countries, please sign up here.
You Will Not Succeed Without the Premium Membership
Some might say that I am making a bold statement with that, but it is true. Many people miss a few key elements when starting an Affiliate Marketing business but following the complete training program with Wealthy Affiliate and following every step and task they set will ensure you succeed. Those key elements are people do not commit to their business properly and they lack the support to get their business up and running and keep going until it succeeds.
Following their training allowed Gemma to give up her day job and work on her own online business and is allowing me to earn money every month from Affiliate Marketing, from home.
How Much Does the Premium Membership Cost?
It costs just $49/month or $359/yr.
If you are eligible to sign up for a free starter account first, I can then offer you a discount on your first premium month – saving you 61% of the cost.
This is unfortunately not available for those who are not eligible.
Who is the Premium Membership For?
If you are serious about building an online business and are seriously about learning every aspect that will allow you to succeed, then the Premium Membership is for you.
It is for those who are going to persevere until it is earning you your financial targets, but also reach your non-financial targets. Mine was spending more time with my family.
Who Is Eligible for the Premium Membership?
At present only Nigeria is currently unavailable to join. But anyone else is eligible to join.
What is Included in the Premium Membership?
- All 50 lessons in the Online Certification Course for any Niche
- All 70 lessons in the Affiliate Bootcamp Course for Promoting Wealthy Affiliate
- All 12 classrooms are accessible
- 10** free websites and 10** full domain websites = 20 websites
- Fast & Secure Web Hosting for your websites
- SiteBuilder
- Keyword Research Tool – Unlimited Searches
- Live Chat for Instant Support – Unlimited Use
- Private Messaging for 1-2-1 Coaching
- Weekly Live Webinars
- SiteComments – Get Comments and Engagement for your websites and earn credit too
- SiteFeedback – Get Feedback on your websites to push your business forward
- SiteSpeed – Website speed can affect your rankings, this helps keep it fast
- SiteProtect – Awesome Spam Protection
- Free SSL Certificates for all websites
- Access to thousands of tutorials created by other members
- Your Own Blog on Wealthy Affiliate
- Make Money through Wealthy Affiliate by creating training (after 3 months)
- Help from the community at all times, I have really benefitted from this
- Access to the Owners, Kyle & Carson – they are regularly online, and you can chat to them about your business.
[** The Premium Membership has been updated and now offers 10 Full Domain website]
When Do I Upgrade to Premium?
You can upgrade at any point. The earlier you do it, the sooner you can start your journey to earning money online.
When Do I Upgrade to an Annual Subscription?
You can upgrade to an annual subscription at any point. If you have just paid a monthly fee, it will be factored in when you buy your annual subscription. So, you will not overpay!
Does WA Have Any Sales on Their Premium Membership?
They tend to offer a discount on their annual subscription as part of the black Friday weekend. The Annual subscription will drop to $299.
There is no guarantee, this will be available every year, but it has been the case for the last couple of years and I benefitted from it and now my annual membership is the same every year.
What If I Need to Take a Break from the Premium Membership?
No problem. Just remember to note down your username and password, so you can log back in when you are ready.
Once you have noted that down, go into Account Settings and cancel your Wealthy Affiliate subscription. When you are ready to come back, just resubscribe.
If you do not want to re-subscribe, then you will need to move any websites you have hosted at WA to another hosting provider.
Are There Any Refunds?
No, all of the information available is digital and you gain access to all of it as soon as you subscribe.
How Long Does It Take to Make Money with the Premium Membership?
That is a hard question to answer, everyone will go through the training at a different pace, everyone will put in different amounts of time and effort. So it is really hard to give you a definitive timeline for earnings.
There are too many variables to factor in, but what I can share is my experience. If you are consistent in the training, follow all of the steps and do everything properly and correctly. IF you can commit to spending an hour a day either learning or doing something with your business – you could start earning money from it within 3-6 months.
I started earning money after 6 months, but I could have been more committed and earned that earlier.
If you can get your website noticed by the search engines, as the training shows you how to do this, then you will start to see that month 3 is key and from that point on your earning potential will grow.
When you will make money will depend on you – your niche, your time and effort, consistency and persistence.
Side-by-Side Comparison of the Starter & Premium Membership
Here is a summary of both memberships side by side, for you to review
Success Stories Are Constant with the Wealthy Affiliate Premium Membership
The first thing I will say about success stories, is that success doesn’t always mean financial. In my experience, the more I focused on my non-financial goals the easier it was to work towards my financial goals.
Success could be launching your first website, getting ranked on page one of google or even earning your first dollar.
Celebrating every success will definitely help you stay motivated before that first dollar comes in, once you have earned your first dollar – you just keep working on scaling that to a full-time income.
See some success stories from Premium Wealthy Affiliate Members below.
Get Personal Coaching from Me
If you sign up to Wealthy Affiliate through the links below, you will also get coaching from me for free.
I understand the need for help when you are just starting out with Affiliate Marketing and want to offer help at every step of the way for anyone who accepts my invitation.
After you sign up, I will send you a welcome message with all of the information on it and you will also be connected with me on the platform. You will be able to find me, look for me on there – my username is JCross93.
I am currently in the top 200 of Wealthy Affiliate and that is down to how many people I help on there. Do not ever be afraid to ask a question, someone else might be thinking the same thing and we are all there to help you or anybody succeed.
So if you really want to start your own affiliate marketing business and earning money online, then you will not find a better platform than Wealthy Affiliate.
CHECK OUT THE BEST AFFILIATE MARKETING TRAINING OUT THERE!!
If you still have any questions around either the starter membership or the premium membership, or Wealthy Affiliate itself – then please leave them in the comments below and I promise I will respond to you ASAP with an answer.
This is a fantastic comparison of Wealthy Affiliate’s Started Membership versus Premium Membership. I love that we have the Starter Membership and that someone can keep that membership for as long as they like. Most places just offer a trial, and then you have to upgrade if you want to keep going. I love the option of staying at the Starter level, but…
If someone pokes around Wealthy Affiliate and really wants to give this business a solid try, then I agree with you that going Premium is almost a necessity. You are going to learn SO MUCH with the Premium information. Not just with the training, but with other member’s information, training and experiences.
I learn something new pretty much on a daily basis, and that’s important to keep up with things in this fast-paced business.
Hey Christina,
thanks for sharing your experience – the premium membership is designed to aid anyone turn their idea into a fully fledged business that is earning money – but it helps when people are first starting out is trying something out without having to commit.
I don’t like those products that expect you to pay, and offer a refund if you don’t like it. It shows they are nervous about their product.
Kyle and Carson are are proud of their product and rightly so, as they have built a fantastic product that will help anyone and they are convinced that people will benefit from it and offer it free to get started.
thanks again
John
Hi this is a superb expansion on what exactly Wealthy affiliate is and does. You have gone into such excellent detail on both free and premium memberships. In my opinion once someone sees what they get for free they will see why it is a great investment to go premium. I know I did. Thanks, Kenny
Hey Kenny,
thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments. The free starter membership is aimed at those getting started and getting their heads around Affiliate Marketing without committing to it. Affiliate Marketing isn’t for everyone, so you can use the platform to help you make that decision.
But you are right, anyone serious about Affiliate Marketing needs to go Premium (when they are ready).
thanks again
John
Excellent post. I am a new Wealthy Affiliate member and i have chosen to upgrade after 6 days. After joining as starter member.
I built my website and started my boot camp training but i wanted to know the difference between starter and premium membership that’s why i decided to upgrade.
After upgrading i was so happy because i started experiencing the benefits of being premium like sending private messages to members of WA including Kyle and Carson.
Not only that but I started earning some dollars from Site comment and that is another benefit to upgrade.
There are many benefits from being premium and i can recommend my friends to upgrade.
Thank you for some new information i get from your post regarding WA .
Hey Julienne,
thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments.
There are many benefits to the premium membership and I have been benefitting from the platform for the last couple of years. There is training on every aspect of an online business and why I have recommended them since I started.
But the beauty of the starter membership is that people can experience it themselves before committing. Think of it as a new car for a second, you take it for a test drive and make sure it is for you before you decide to invest – the starter membership is a test drive of the premium membership without any cost.
thanks again
John
I’ve actually read up on a few reviews now on this Wealthy Affiliate Stater membership, because I wanted to know how ‘stripped down’ it was overall. I’ve even read a few testimonials that claimed that they made money from the Starter membership alone, and never upgraded!
They simply learned the ropes with the free membership and went off alone, their own way.
Do you feel this is possible – do you feel the Starter education offers that much education?
Hi Chris,
thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments.
There are people who have starting earning on the Starter Membership, but I think they are in the minority and have used the free websites to launch – the first ten lessons would give someone who already has the knowledge of an online business or website design the knowledge how to incorporate affiliate marketing.
that is the only way I can see it working for them. if they had no knowledge of affiliate marketing or SEO, then I find it hard to believe they did it without prior knowledge.
But never say never, some might get lucky
thanks
John
Very comprehensive and well thought post. You’ve answered almost all the things I used to ask myself before upgrading to premium membership with this great platform. I wandered around finding ways to make money online until I stumbled on wealthy affiliate which I personally call “university”. I’ve never regretted signing up with them and so I would recommend it to anyone who want to try it not to just end at free starter membership but upgrade to premium. Their trainings are amazing because they will tell you the truth.
Hey,
thanks for checking out my post leaving some comments. I appreciate you sharing your experience, it is often called Wealthy Affiliate University and in my experience you will learn more life skills here too.
Honesty is a key element of any online business, as people cannot visit your shop to see if you are real or genuine, and Wealthy Affiliate honest, genuine and there to help in so many ways.
thanks again
John
Hi John
This is a very comprehensive comparison between the Starter and Premium memberships of Wealthy Affiliate, and reading through it, it is absolutely clear what is the pros and cons of both. I also appreciate your honesty about the fact that it will be difficult to make money with the Starter Pack if you know nothing about affiliate marketing. It is best to get all the help and training offered in the Premium membership package.
It is a very thorough comparison and you make it very clear which direction to follow.
Thank you.
Hey Nicholaas,
thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments. Part of choosing any product is making sure it is right for you – that is why I wanted to share as much detail as I can.
Affiliate Marketing isn’t for everyone, and making sure a product is right for you takes research. But many products expect you to pay upfront, WA is totally different and wants people to make up their own minds.
That is the premise of the starter membership.
John
This must be the most extensive comparison I’ve encountered. Thank you for providing a table of contents, so I can easly jump to certain things.
What impresses me is that there’s so much included in the premium membership, so I personally think it’s a no-brainer to grab that Black Friday deal, which is what I am waiting for at the moment.
Hey Laura,
thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments. Appreciate your thoughts on it too.
That Black Friday deal is just around the corner, being able to build a business for less than a dollar a day is awesome.
Thanks again
John