Scams are a part of life whether online or offline. Let's face it where ever there are humans, there will be scams! And online, there are hundreds of thousands of them. So it's quite obvious that the sheer number makes it difficult to identify and avoid them. But now and then you come across an online business or program that seems to be okay. Then after some vetting, try it out.

That was my case with Wealthy Affiliate. The fact that they have been around for over 10 years in the affiliate training business is a remarkable achievement.

So after performing due diligence on Wealthy Affiliate, I let it passed for a few days before deciding to open a free account. The fact that I didn't have to enter a credit card details in the application process made it easy to go ahead with it.

Once I signed up nearly 3 months ago, I went through the free training modules straight away. But with other work commitments and 3 teenage children, I stopped the training then picked it up a month later.

With the free sub and access to the programs and community, I was able to chat and message members. After 7 days, access to the community ceased. But access to the first 10 lessons was still fine. So I kept on the training until they were completed.

After that stage, I was unable to go further with the training modules because I wasn't a Premium member. At the time the first month of premium was $19, then $47 for each subsequent month.

By this stage, I was hungry for the other lessons. So I signed up as a Premium member 3 weeks ago. So far it has been a great learning curve, in terms of what is current in the sphere of contents authoring, keywords, social engagement and search engines ranking.

I've learnt a fair bit from WA and not only that, WA provides me with a structure to work with. If you find it awkward to start your online business or get some momentum going, look at the structures you use to build your business; your websites, hosting, niche and keyword researches, tools, support, engagement and networking. These are essential if you're starting afresh.

But recently I found some not positive articles on WA, claiming it a some kind of a sk@m. So the rest of this article elaborates on the positives sides of my WA experience.

To start with, let's tackle this head.

What is a sc@m?

According to the South Australian Government's Consumer and Business Services website, "A [sk@m] is a dishonest attempt to trap you into parting with your money".

Compare that with what Wealthy Affiliate is.

Let's see what Wealthy Affiliate is.

What is Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate is an online community of people who aspire to learn the art of affiliate marketing, and to help each others out at the same time. Why do they do this?

As a member of the WA community, I find that people here aspire to supplement income, to create more income, to provide a service, to help people, to grow, to make more money, to network, to have a plan B and so forth.

What does Wealthy Affiliate do?

Below are some of the major points about what Wealthy Affiliate do:

Helps people of any level of online experience to build a business online

• Supports membership community in many many ways including
• One on one contact with the creators of WA, Kyle and Carson
• Up to date videos and tutorials
• Constant 24/7 support from the WA community
• Step by step instructions on how to start an online business
• Two free websites after sign up
• Access to the entire WA training program and certification at Premium level
• Free membership sign up with no catches whatsoever
• Live video training on regular basis
• Lively and interactive community helping one another
• Wordpress hosting and 24/7 support
• Networking opportunity with over 200, 000 WA members

Those are some of the features and pluses I have experienced in the short two and half months I've been with WA. If you want to look deeper into WA, take the tour.

Following on from the above list, I don't see any matching scenario that puts WA in the sk@m category.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to attitude. And it's no different whether it's Wealthy Affiliate, Hawai'i or Google. There's always a percentage of people who will find the negative in anything. That's fine, let's move with the positives.