AWOL Academy has great marketing behind it, but I looked past that and really wanted to see if it’s a scam. Let this review explain that.
I was a member there for a short bit, but based on what I did see, I decided to leave AWOL. And I will show you:
- How much you can expect to invest in this program.
- If that investment is a safe one or not.
- If this program is the type of opportunity worth getting into. Personally, I am of the opinion that it is not…
- And because I don’t think it is (I will explain why), I will suggest a better option too (shortly).
Quick Report on AWOL Academy:
Name:
AWOL Academy by Kameron George and Kaela Kanae.
Price:
There are 5 different packages. They range from $99 all the way to $5,497. I’ll talk about each package below.
And if you wish to promote any of these packages, you will need to buy them. Plus there’s also a fee you pay every month to have the “right” to promote AWOL Academy, which I consider to be nonsense.
My experiences with AWOL Academy summarized:
I joined the “AWOL X” program which basically took me through a very long series of videos detailing the “opportunity” of going further with this program and I basically took it as one long sales process to get me to buy one or more of the 5 packages.
And I have spoken to and heard from certain people who were or are part of AWOL who have said the pricing can exceed $10,000. No thanks!
Overall Rating: 2 out of 10 stars.
While the program is technically legit, the problem with it is that it’s prices are extremely high for the kind of education you get in exchange, which quite frankly is not that difficult to find in other places and it is the central argument I keep making for ANY program that is like this.
It’s the “opportunity” of making big affiliate sales with this program that in my opinion is what seems most attractive to people, but that itself is SUPER risky, because it’s so high to pay to get into the opportunity.
Recommended? No.
My position: Overall, I will personally not be spending a penny on this place and the alternative program I recommend actually has former AWOL members who are happy that they switched over (info on that is further below).
My personal video review of AWOL Academy (inside look):
But if you didn’t watch the video and don’t know what Wealthy Affiliate is, no problem, just read this text review:
What is AWOL Academy? How much will it cost you to join?
Its an educational program on making money online. It is classified as a high ticket program due to it’s prices. There are 5 educational packages within this program and here they are (with their prices):
I’ll be going over each package in a moment, but I just want to highlight each, their prices and that the total if you buy every single package in this program, will cost you a “little” over $10,000.
While this is not the highest ticket program I’ve ever reviewed (MOBE was, as was Digital Altitude, but they were taken apart by the FTC), this figure is itself quite large.
So much so, that it deserves further investigation into figuring out if that much is worth it.
I’m sure no one reading this would ever spend a penny, let alone $10,000 on something they aren’t certain would be worth it.
Perhaps just 1 package is enough, perhaps several are, perhaps even all of them are worth it, or maybe, it’s just not worth buying it at all.
So what is the answer? Mine is nothing. There’s better options outside of AWOL.
That’s quite a thing to say, considering how popular this program is. Yet I stand fully by this position and to understand…
- Why I am saying this.
- Why I’m saying NO to their prices.
- NO to their affiliate program (which would pay me handsomely for promoting them)
- And NO to the entire program itself…
You need to understand who I am, my history with this stuff and my logic behind why there’s better ways to make money online, and SAVE yourself a lot of money in the process…
The 5 big things you need to know about me and this program:
But besides that…
1) The first thing I want to mention is that I am a very experienced marketer (my story) and I make a living working online, doing much of the same stuff AWOL is said to teach you (at least based on their sales pitches for their packages).
2) I have a great deal of experience with these types of programs from my decade long history in checking them out, buying many programs out there, reviewing them, testing them out and knowing what the right way of doing things is. And the best one is Wealthy Affiliate, it’s also the most cost effective.
3) I can pretty easily “pick apart” these programs in terms of what kind of things they’ll teach you. It’s NOT difficult and what I can tell you about AWOL and other types of programs that pitch themselves as providing a unique education on making money online is that…
4) There is no unique, magic formula to making money online (here’s my 2 step formula for that) that these programs have, that others haven’t already revealed, or that I already don’t know about. In many cases, all it takes to learn the many “secrets” to online success is to do a Google search.
There’s a plethora of content out there (such as my site), for free that talks about the very same things AWOL is talking about within their package description and further more, I’m going to talk about each one and what I absolutely believe you’ll learn and why the price tag on it is NOT fitting at all.
5) There’s been an unfortunate trend in the online marketing industry to head in the high ticket training programs you see today with programs like this. Before, there was a high ticket focus on MLMs but since they got a bad rep, many people switched over to selling educational packages for absurd prices.
Here’s just some examples of other high ticket niches out there besides AWOL Academy:
- MOBE (Over $70k in possible spending). And like I said, the FTC took it down.
- Digital Altitude (Over $60k in possible spending), and this program was also taken down by the FTC.
- Easy1Up (Several $1,000’s in costs).
- 16 Steps to 6 Figures ($1,000’s to spend).
- Six Figure Mentors. There’s actually 2 parts to this, but it’s well over $10,000 to get all of their training.
- Global Affiliate Zone. This is in my opinion one of the lowest rated high ticket programs I’ve ever reviewed.
- And many more and in my opinion, high ticket programs of this nature are too risky.
Many of these programs I just listed work in a similar way as AWOL Academy in that they try to get you in for a small price, gain your trust with some free content or hyped up promises, then throw out the big numbers (Up-sell packages).
Why would anyone buy this expensive stuff? Good question. I’ve got an answer:
One of the ways high ticket programs “convince” you to buy their training is that they also offer an affiliate program in addition to it. I’m pretty sure AWOL has this, otherwise, they’re missing out on a huge selling drive, but anyway…
These affiliate programs boast some of the highest paid commissions in the online marketing industry. You may see claims of how people are banking on $100’s and $1,000’s in commissions per sale. Well this is done thanks to the high ticket program’s affiliate program.
And it is honestly one of the most powerful triggers to get people to hit that buy button. The mindset is usually that if one buys this expensive stuff, then manages to make 1 or 2 sales, they’re in the clear and beyond that, making great money, so when you consider that you only need a few sales to make a huge profit, it becomes easier to throw down $1,000’s.
There’s an “insurance” type feeling involved.
But make no mistake: You CANNOT promote these expensive packages inside these types of programs without first buying them.
That is the ultimate catch, if you will, to get you to do it. It’s sort of like network marketing and MLM companies which also get you to buy their expensive products to then resell them who pitch how much you’ll make if you do, but that is often VERY difficult to do.
I can’t just join one of these programs for a $100 and sell their $5,000 package, without buying that package first. That’s just how this stuff works and it is one of the biggest reasons people buy them in the first place and the biggest reason high ticket program make so many sales.
Digging into each package of AWOL and showing why it’s likely not a big deal of info:
Well let me rephrase that…
I believe the education you get from AWOL Academy is rich and will work if you put it to use, but in terms of comparing it to other informational sites, free info and other programs out there which teach the same things, it’s not a big deal and as I said before, not really doing anything that isn’t already being done, at least in my personal opinion that I already said is based on many years of doing this.
It’s just that when you put such a huge price tag on it, it adds the feeling of value. But anyway…
Pro Academy: $99
Based on the sales pitch on it, I assume they’re going to cover email marketing, give you a domain and website, a way to create squeeze pages and show you how making an email list can lead to great profits.
And you know what? Indeed email marketing is a huge thing. It works. I currently do it, and I’ve done it numerous time over my years and made big bucks. But the thing is…
It is NOT difficult to make a lead capture page (another word for squeeze page) or track how many clicks it gets and how many sales come about from that.
Now what I didn’t see in this pitch was anything about marketing or getting traffic to that lead capture page. This worries me because traffic is the fuel which drives the money. Without it, none of these pages mean anything…
But anyway, I don’t see anything special here to say that it’s a “MUST BUY”. Nope.
Inbox Academy: $447
This just sounds like the next step to the Pro Academy. Once you get people signing up, it’s time to get them to buy, but that takes time, patience and you need to build up trust, emails that have nice, eye catching heading and offers that’ll make them happy.
While what they say on their sales pitch of this package is true, I can tell you from my personal experience that it’s not exactly a difficult thing to achieve. Here’s some examples (I’m not the type to practice mystery marketing stuff, I want people to know):
Suppose you create a squeeze page which offers health tips for people with back problems.
You collect the list and send them a daily email, talking about natural, free solutions to help them with this issue. The fact that it’s free and is a solution to their problem is already going to improve your open rates on it’s own.
Then you pitch them some sort of cream that helps their back aches go away on day 7 (when most marketers recommend pitching a promotion).
Guess what? This sales funnel is the pretty much the same one I’ve used, with different niche markets to make good money and I just showed you a free example of that. No need to put down $447. And here’s a free article on building email lists detailing this strategy.
Conversion Academy: $1,797
Now we’re getting into some big numbers. But in this package, you’ll be learning about getting more sales basically. There’s certain things, aka ingredients needed to make people BUY stuff. Years and years of doing this has shown me that the following formula is probably going to be your most successful one:
Promote products that solve problems for a NICHE audience.
That’s key.
And if you can share a personal story (which is actually mentioned on the sales page of this package), you can connect with the reader and have them trusting you. But seriously, those ingredients alone will seriously skyrocket anyone’s conversions. I suppose I saved you nearly $2,000 by just revealing that…
Traffic Academy. $2,997.
Oh there it is. I was wondering where in these packages they were going to tell you how to get that key ingredient to getting an online business going.
You know…traffic.
Before I get to the explanation of what I think you’ll learn here, I want to say that I’m starting to think that AWOL Academy is sort of keeping you it’s hook, leaving certain parts of an line business out of the equation and saving it for other packages.
I mean, it makes sense that they probably want you to buy more, so creating an incentive or missing pieces that are supplemented in other packages makes sense. I don’t mind that. What I do mind are the prices…
Anyway, when it comes to traffic, I know a lot…
I’ve made websites that generated 100,000’s of visitors EACH on NUMEROUS occasions (here’s one) and I can tell you that so far, the best places for that are:
-Search engines like Google. Write content for niche specific topics and you’re going to get a huge number of people coming in.
-PPC traffic. Another huge one. I pay PENNIES for my ads and get 100,000’s of clicks alone on that (plus the 100,000’s more through free, organic traffic).
-YouTube. Use it like Google, make niche specific videos.
These 3 things alone, mixed in with a sales funnel that helps solve a niche’s problem are going to make you a full time income people. There’s another $3,000 saved ($2,997 if we’re being specific…).
Masters Academy: $5,497
Man oh man. For $5,000+ there better be some good info here. Based on the sales pitch, they’re going to basically going to share advice from extremely successful businessmen to save money, invest it, and so on.
I can’t really go further here because this is actually the most vague package out of all 5, ironically, but I can’t say I’m impressed.
To get to the point where you’re making so much money that you need to invest it somewhere is not something I’d worry about until you are getting close to that and in my experience, by the time you get there, you will already have gained a plethora of knowledge about what to do with your money that may even make it unnecessary to get advice from the big dogs.
But in any case, what’s to stop you from looking up YouTube videos or popular investment blogs on this stuff? Nothing.
Final Rating: AWOL Academy.
Red Flag
2 out of 10 stars. Other than their potential affiliate program, I see no reason to buy into this program. There’s way more educational programs out there in my opinion that are truly worth investing in, and they won’t cost you anywhere near as much as AWOL Academy charges…
My final thoughts (And the better option?):
As I said in the beginning of this review, I recommend a program which I personally find to be better in every way than AWOL Academy, and I’m not the only one as many of it’s members have crossed over to it and love it too.
Now I will be providing screenshots of some of their own words, but I will also show you a comparison between both programs after:
If you wish to read the full blog post where former AWOL members describe their experiences and talk about Wealthy Affiliate, here is the link to that.
Anyway, I have a whole review on Wealthy Affiliate here, but to make it quick: It is also a comprehensive educational program like AWOL Academy on making money online. The biggest differences though are the following things:
AWOL Academy vs Wealthy Affiliate comparison:
And if I were to explain the differences between both places and as quickly as possible, there would be 2 quick things worth noting right away:
1) You can learn way more inside WA than in AWOL Academy (my personal opinion) for an absurd amount LESS. 100,000’s of training modules, including webinars, site building tools, chat, and more. It’s a seriously high quality package and it’s all inside WA.
2) WA does not divide up it’s training topics so much to keep you buying more expensive stuff. They do have a paid, monthly membership, but it is ALL access revealed, not another up-sell to up-sell to buy like in AWOL.
So that’s my review of this program and why I strongly disagree with buying AWOL and sticking to something like Wealthy Affiliate instead.
I will always be extremely critical of ANY high ticket program when it’s prices are for information you can find on sites like mine and programs like Wealthy Affiliate, for less and free.
Update: AWOL Academy is apparently out of business and the creator of it has made a new program called Fullstaq Marketer. See a review of it in that link there.
Hi Vitaliy, I found your post very informative and revealing regarding AWOL and the 5 other programs that you reviewed.
I also agree that AWOL is way too expensive for the training that is provided. When I checked out AWOL myself, the initial so called webinar was all about click funnels with crude drawings and stick figures. I didn’t get the feeling that if I spent the money that I would get what I was looking for in a training program, not to mention that nothing is included with AWOL, and that you have to pay for a lot of extras to get started.
I do agree that Wealthy Affiliate provides so much more to anyone wishing to start an online business. WA provides quality training and is free to start, giving you the best start possible as a newbie.
I want to thank you for your great post and information about different training programs. This post really helps a person decide which one is the best!
Thank you!
Hi Vitaliy! Reading your review about AWOL has helped me in two different ways:
1. It has warned me not to join AWOL. There are indeed better options as you have stated.
2. It has helped me to understand how these high ticket programs get sales. I hadn’t realized that to be able to promote a program like this, one has to purchase first.
So, some marketers see these programs as an “opportunity” to earn high commissions. They purchase it with that in mind and then rely on their experience as marketers to get others to pay for these expensive packages.
Yes this is how the high ticket business in this field works Henry and it’s what I warn about in this article. While many people do purchase these high ticket packages with that intent, there is usually a high failure rate in my experience, which means they can lose a lot.
This is ludicrous Vitaliy. How do people justify this pricing? When I looked into AWOL, I also agreed with you in that I wouldn’t spend any money on this. Even though it is legal, it is not worth it at all.
You mentioned Wealthy Affiliate and I agree with you 100%. This platform will give you absolutely everything you need to create and build success online.
All people need to do is learn and work hard to develop their business and for $49 per month. Are you kidding me?
This price is way too cheap for what people get. Hosting with SSL at other places is way above this fee and anybody reading this post needs to join for free and see exactly what is offered for this price.
You won’t need to look anywhere else ever again I can assure you of this.
Thank you Vitaliy
Thanks Vicki!
I came across this company when I first started looking to learn about making money online. I had an email for their free webinar and they got me with the first $97 pro up sell and after that they pitched to me into something like a $15,000 up sell!
After doing the $97 up sell course over a weekend, the next thing is if you don’t buy the up sell, they say you are an excuse maker you don’t want to be successful etc…
That’s when I came across Wealthy Affiliate and haven’t looked back. Did you go through the free webinar as well? Good job warning others there is a better way.
I didn’t look at their webinar, but I did buy the AWOL X program Conor and I did not enjoy that. While I did get a refund, I did also get emails from them after asking if I wanted to rejoin. But I am not happy to hear that they were trying to shame you the way you mentioned. That’s not right, but it’s good to hear you’re in WA.
Hello Vitaliy,
I just finished reading through your site. AWOL may not be a SCAM per se, but it is certainly on the edge!
I was or still am because I could not get a refund as an AWOL member. What hooked me there was the free webinar hosted by the founder.
His story was compelling and his success was incredible. I never stopped to think that he was rich because of him hooking all of us unsuspecting “newbies” looking for an inroad to begin an online marketing business.
I paid the $99 Pro fee and went through all the training videos. I think there were four or so. I learned a lot of online marketing “Concepts” but nothing that would help me get started with this journey. BUSTED!
The hook came at the end of the last module: Pay us $15,000 for the complete training package and you are assured of making money online quickly. Bam! I bailed.
Your review for this and all the other “programs” out there is very important and I hope all the interested readers take heed of your words. The website is terrific and I can see why you are so successful.
I am happy here at Wealthy Affiliate and intend to keep going trough all the training with the hope that in the end I will have established a brand, a market and a solution for folks who have a problem.
Great formula for success. Thanks for putting this info out there and congratulations on your success!
Dave thanks for sharing your own AWOL experience. I had heard from multiple people about this webinar and/or training videos, like the ones I also went through ending with some sort of high ticket pitch and some people I’ve spoken to said it was over $10,000.
Your story certainly shows this is the case and I am NOT surprised. And it is so insane to think that they pitch the idea of making money quickly by spending this amount. It’s obvious the people getting rich of this is the AWOL system, but considering the $15k investment, I would think it would be tough to find other people to also invest this much and make your commissions. I certainly think it’s possible and I’m sure the AWOL training would teach this.
But ultimately the issue I have is that this is not the way I like doing online business. Like you said towards the end of your comment: You are looking to build a business and help people solve problems. That is how it needs to be done.
Solving people’s problems in my opinion does not mean having them pay $10,000+ for an opportunity to promote a system like AWOL. I believe in other ways to go about this and I certainly will tell you that Wealthy Affiliate WILL be teaching you how to do that.
If you have any doubts about AWOL being a scheme (I’m also on the edge there), then I can assure you that Wealthy Affiliate is 100% legit.
This review helped me reconsider joining a group like AWOL. It was good of you to mention how it really works and that for the €100 you won’t get access to the high ticket affiliate program.
I hate it when after you bought some program, they let you know you actually need a higher priced one to get the information you wanted. Lucky I have not tried yet to get into AWOL.
Do you have any tips on how to know something is a scam before you join?
Like red flags, empty promises, things they say but can’t prove. I am interested to know how to see through sales offers in this affiliate world. It’s completely new to me. I will be grateful if you could let me in on this secret.
Thanks in advance,
Ananda
Hi Ananda, before I answer your question on figuring out scams, let me say that you can promote AWOL for the $49 (not 100 pounds) but you do need to pay monthly to be an affiliate and promote them.
As for what I generally look at on a sales page or program to see if it can be a scam or if there’s red flags, there’s a number of things:
1) Generally, a very hyped, page about making money, without getting into details of how it’s done is always something I worry about. So if I see a sales page constantly talking about opportunity but without getting into details and actionable steps, I’ll assume they are hyping me up to make a blind purchase. It happens a lot.
2) Another big red flag is after you buy a program, if you’re hit with big upsells before even seeing what you get, that’s also a problem because every up-sell in my opinion that you get before actually accessing what you paid for, diminishes the program.
3) Also, one common thing I see is programs which cost very little to join, also very often hit you with the big up-sells after. There ARE exceptions. Like Wealthy Affiliate will absolutely give you awesome free value and I have seen a few other programs do the same, even when I though they were scams, so this is not a 100% rule.
4) Another big problem is how when you buy something, you are sent to basically another sales page, which is supposed to be the training you were buying. When I purchased AWOL X, I expected to see some serious training, but what I got was hours of videos talking to me about opportunities and having me fill out questionnaires, and that is a red flag for me as well. I experienced this with another program called Global Affiliate Zone.
So again, if we take Wealthy Affiliate as the opposite example, when you join it for free, you get access to a lot of training and actual lessons where you make a website, create content, and you’re shown how to get your site on Google and help it grow. Yes they pitch a premium membership to you, but you actually get a lot of value initially to prove that it’s legit and it’s also your choice.
5) Another big problem is that once you buy a system, again, you are led to another sales page, and what you basically hear are testimonials and vague explanations of what you’ll be doing. For example, if I buy a program that’ll teach me to make money online, and it leads me into another sales page (after purchase) talking about opportunity and happy success stories, I will assume that it’s just prepping me to buy more stuff. And this will make me want to refund the program.
A lot of these things I learned after buying many different systems and noticing the common way most of them sell themselves and you will also develop a way of noticing these things too as your experience grows.
I will also say that if you have a great program like Wealthy Affiliate to reference against the other systems out there, you will almost always be able to see how WA is better.
Thank you for your honest opinion on AWOL Academy. It sounds funny that you have to pay the fee to promote a product. That is very similar to network marketing or MLM.
It’s crazy expensive and this platform reminds me of another one called Dan Lok (not sure if he is still around) and he is also a high ticket seller. I almost fell for his course because he was on TEDx. I am glad I did my research and joined Wealthy Affiliate instead.
Maybe these high tickets products are for people who are already a pro and have the money to join?
I don’t even know. In my opinion, I think we should start from baby steps, once your fundamental are solid then you can explore other avenues where you can invest your money. Thanks for the warning again and I’m glad you got out of AWOL.
Nuttanee hi, so you mentioned a lot of different topics and I’d like to break them down into their own points, because there is an answer to everything you mentioned and were confused about, so here goes:
1) You are right in that many network marketing companies also force people to pay for products to be promoters for them, but it’s a little bit different because with network marketing companies, usually you’ll pay for REAL products (even though they are usually knockoffs), but not with high ticket systems of this type because they only really sell digital training and opportunities.
2) MLM companies however are different story and those are almost identical to high ticket systems, because they too require that you often buy their higher packages as well, BUT their recruitment and compensation goes deeper.
With an MLM program, you can promote one person, and make money of the people they bring in. That is called a downline. With the type of high ticket system we’re talking about here, it doesn’t go that deep. You just make money from the first person you refer that pays for the system.
But MLM companies are often HORRIBLE at compensating people who are recruiters and it’s nearly impossible to recruit enough people to make a lot.
With high ticket programs, you need only refer 2 or more people and you can make good money back. But I still don’t like the model.
3) The person you mentioned (Dan Lok) is the creator of a high ticket system called High Ticket Closer and it’s a training course on promoting high ticket offers, products and so on. It’s a bit different than AWOL because it’s one program in one package, not several like in AWOL.
I did review Dan’s program but I don’t really like the price (again, I dislike recommending high ticket coaching and programs of this sort, even they are legit).
4) When you said these high ticket programs are likely for pros, you don’t know how right you were.
My experience has shown me that INDEED, the only people in these programs who really make the kind of money you see advertised by these programs are indeed truly experienced marketers.
They know how to attract the right traffic to this offer. They know how to structure their pitches to sell these programs and make people pay so much.
I consider myself very experienced, but I’ve never believed in selling these types of programs. I believe they need to offer WAY more than just training and “opportunity” to justify these insane costs…
5) You DID make the right choice with Wealthy Affiliate, especially with all these other options you mentioned. That program would and will be able to teach you what these other 2 programs would, for much more.
I’m really impressed by your depth of knowledge about this low quality program. It’s obvious people won’t invest in such packages, so they add an affiliate program to make it more enticing to affiliate marketers.
I will personally find it difficult to invest $10000 in a business model I’m skeptical about. My success pretty much depends on my ability to convince other people to partake in this program.
This definitely won’t be an option for me, especially as I’m just starting to find my feet in the online entrepreneurship world.
I actually wouldn’t say AWOL is a low quality program Louis but I would say it’s prices are too high and your point about adding an affiliate program to push more sales is a great one.
I have come across AWOL, and I could never figure out if it was legit, so I appreciate this review. I think you’re right about these high-ticket prices. The only incentive really would be to use them as an affiliate to make money from them. Since you can make a lot of money, I think that’s where people start to buy in.
I can’t imagine any other reason to go into such an expensive product. Unless they literally have all the internet marketing secrets. (Which, we both know…there aren’t any.)
I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate, and I’m extremely happy with what I get from them. I have learned an enormous amount about affiliate marketing and online marketing. I’m actually very surprised they don’t charge more, but I ain’t complaining! 😉
Yeah I have to say, WA’s low cost for everything they offer and continue to add to to, is very shocking. I’ve come across 100’s of programs in this industry and not one even comes close to the value WA has, for the price and perks.
I saw this program advertised some time ago and decided to take time for the webinar and several YouTube videos. This was probably was the last time I wasted that much time to find out it was so expensive.
See I have been in this stuff for over 10 years, losing money and still being baited about the best training possible. Since I had I understood without buying that the large affiliate commissions can be the only reason anyone buys it.
It takes some time for internet marketing dreamers to realize that they can get great information to succeed without paying a huge cost.
You did a great job in explaining that there must be some or enough value for some in AWOL, yet got criticized for the fact you did not spend $1,000’s to review the product. Ridiculous!
Great post! This is the reason last year I decided to follow a path I started over 10 years ago and went into WA. No looking back since, but very forward. Thanks.
No problem Bill!
Well one of the AWOL gang, Kaela, has a bachelors in Psychology (as he mentioned in the over blown video series.) I recognized this was going to be a sales pitch by the third video and waited impatiently for the sales pitch which finally came at the end of a looooooooooog drawn out and boring 2-3 hours.
Unfortunately I signed up for the $99 course. Believe me I will be gleaning every bit of marketing tips I can from this side of the very expensive program. I will, in the meantime, take a look at Wealthy Affiliate because I have an awful lot of questions developed over the AWOL sales pitch and introductory funnel lesson.
Hi Yanni, even though one of the owners has a degree in behavior, all of the major sales funnels I’ve seen done for high ticket programs like this one always do the same stuff: Give people a small thing, invite them to a webinar that’s supposed to reveal secrets, keep people hooked on the webinar by talking about money and their lifestyle (broke to rich backstory), and then eventually they hit you with the opportunity and cost.
You will find that Wealthy Affiliate does NOT engage in this nonsense and I would love to hear your comparison of both companies after you’ve explored WA’s free membership and how it compares to AWOL’s $99 program you’re on now.
How do you review something in detail that you’ve never actually gone through yourself? That’s like a movie critic reviewing a movie they’ve never seen.
You basically pulled info from their site and made assumptions with a lot of inaccuracies BTW. ALSO, there is another guy (Eddy with a Y and many others) that has the same review as you.
You WA affiliates basically review a company you really know nothing about and then use it to promote your own affiliate program. Kinda shady bro. The cost of AWOL definitely reflects the value of the training.
It is extremely detailed: Affiliate training, complete done-for-you funnels to use, affiliate marketing tools, email marketing training, ad copy training, Youtube training, live weekly webinars, multiple Facebook communities…and much much more.
You see…I joined WA just so I could do a review…I’m even paying the monthly so I can MAKE SURE MY REVIEW IS ACCURATE…because that’s how it should be done.
Hi Rick, I appreciate the message, but I have to completely disagree with pretty most of your points, respectfully of course. I’m definitely down to debate this, so let me retort some of the things you’ve said:
1) Comparing being a movie critic who judges movies without watching them to MMO product reviewers like myself is the wrong metaphor. And given that I’ve provided my own personal resume in online marketing to illustrate my credibility in judging AWOL is sort of like a doctor being fit to judge another doctor’s methods.
2) Regarding Eddy, he’s actually a close friend of mine and to be honest, we have had no communication regarding AWOL, but I do know about his site and the way he judges products. It’s very similar to the way I approach mine, which is why you saw similarities in our reviews, even though I had not read his regarding AWOL.
But the point about Eddy is that I know he promotes more than just WA and believe me, if he though AWOL was good enough to promote with NO good alternatives, he would. But I take it he doesn’t, because I know the guy and if he knows there’s cheaper and better alternatives (Like Wealthy Affiliate), he is going to promote that because it suites the consumer better and I am of that viewpoint as well.
3) You are classifying “us WA affiliates” as some sleazy promoters who have nothing better to do than rag on other companies to push WA. This is simply not true man. You may have seen some reviewers doing that, but not me and not Eddy. Don’t put us all into the same stereotype.
We do our best to give every product we review their fair analysis and I’ve even given AWOL Academy the benefit of the doubt in saying they probably have good training. I’ve even said I’m speculating on the training itself, but…
4) It’s not like my analysis and ideas behind what’s inside the expensive AWOL package is coming from nothing. I mean dude, I’ve reviewed somewhere between 100-200 products in this business, paid for about 50% of them and spent $1,000’s in doing so over the years, probably more. When you see the same sales pitches over and over and then what’s really behind them and how underwhelming it is, you start to develop a prediction for how future products in this industry will be…
Mix that in with the REAL experience I have with this business in many of it’s forms such as email marketing, SEO, my case studies (which you’re welcome to look at on the top right of the screen) and the numerous failures and success from it and I already know, very often, beforehand if a program is good.
I do this full time man, I’m not playing around throwing reviews out there with no credibility…I’ve said before in similar reviews I’ve done that I know the CORE things required in all these businesses to make them work so when I see AWOL pitching their packages and describing them the way they do, I can deduce what it is and I am often bias in doing so, trying to give the program extra leverage so they look better.
5) All these terms you used about AWOL Academy giving you sales funnels, tools, training, ect… are all buzzwords companies use over and over and over again to get people to think they are getting their value’s worth by paying them so much. I’ve read this sales pitch more times than I can count and I can tell you that contrary to your statement about the value being worth the price, the answer is that it is not. This is how they justify their costs…
And I say that again because of my experience in this business plus knowing that all those things you mentioned are all given to you inside WA. Well not necessarily sales funnels (you make them yourself but I’ll explain what I mean in a second), but the training on email marketing, SEO, affiliate type tutorials, webinars (we have 100’s in Wealthy Affiliate) it’s all in there and it’s provided in FAR more quantity (and this I know for sure as it’s 10,000’s+ tutorials).
And regarding sales funnels, it’s nice to think that if you’re given one, that the sales will come on their own, but there’s more to the equation than that man, you need good, targeted traffic to get the sales funnels to work and those things in general are hyped up because I can set up a simple funnel in under 10 minutes with an autoresponder and through a making a new sales page on my website, but it means nothing if I can’t get any good traffic there, so please, don’t let those buzzwords from any company make you think as though “it’s all prepared for you”. You have to make it.
6) And regarding WA, I’m glad you joined, but let’s be honest here, it’s free. Would you have joined if their cheapest access was costly like AWOL’s $97 package? I doubt it. And you didn’t mention anything about WA. Did you have a look through the site?
7) The free membership is great, but I am absolutely certain that if you went deeper into WA and invested into just 1 month of their cheap, ALL access premium membership, you’d have a very different viewpoint of AWOL and other places like it as well as my review of it because you’d see just how much value they are giving you for so little.
Unlike AWOL, Wealthy Affiliate does NOT divide up their training into different packages, each with their own marketing focus. I feel this stuff is just a way to get more money. In WA’s premium membership, traffic, affiliate training, websites, webinars and the plethora of other stuff, are ALL included for the $49/month price. That’s just a fact…
They are simply the best man. Good luck finding ANY program out there which has SO much for little offered. You just will not find it. I know the guys who made that site personally, they are always growing and evolving.
But if you honestly want to spend $10,000+ on the WHOLE package in AWOL just to get started, be my guest, but I’m sticking with and promoting WA instead.
Thank you for writing this article on AWOL. I had never heard of them before. I am new to internet marketing and I need to learn more. I acknowledge that. I am not really very keen to spend $10,000 though. I definitely need something cheaper to help my business grow. Unfortunately the #1 thing that I know about internet marketing is that it takes work – lots of work, every single day if you want to be successful. I was just wondering how long did it take you before you were experiencing a comfortable level of success?
Hi Glenys, I have to first disagree with one thing you said about it being “unfortunate” to have to work a lot to achieve success online. I find this to be a blessing because when you work to create your own business and love it, then you’ll WANT to work harder to make it grow.
I’ve seen periods in this business where success was achieved easily through cheap tactics and it led to the internet becoming more tarnished with garbage and spam content. Because success is hard to reach, it is actually a great thing because it eliminates the feeling that you will have too much competition to worry about. And as for my INITIAL success, it took a few weeks, but it wasn’t exactly a lot of income right away.
Hey Vitaliy,
Thanks for this thorough review of AWOL Academy. Are they are the same program called Project AWOL which I come across a year ago?
I also see a lot of high ticket programs using the same techniques of upselling you all kind of useless digital stuff and in order to recoup your investment, all you have to do is recruit and recruit.
Vitaliy, you’re right. The return /knowledge you get from Wealthy Affiliate is far more valuable and affordable in term of its quality training, advanced technology, and superior support.
Best regards
Hi Shui, Project AWOL from my understanding is part of the AWOL Academy program, but it deals with things related to charity and I don’t know enough about that. But I agree with you on the other points regarding upselling, the recruitment model and most of all, how much better Wealthy Affiliate is.
It definitely looks legit, also it looks like it has some good features, plus the training program might be different from others as an result we might learn new things, however as you said, the price is really high, it’s not an option for someone who wants to start this kind of business without having a lot of money for start, plus it doesn’t provide a free trial and that is a huge downer. I agree with you that Wealthy Affiliate is a much better choice.
Honestly, even if someone did have the kind of money needed to invest in this program, I would still tell that person that WA is a better choice because of it’s higher quality training which I am absolutely 100% sure of. There is no better platform or training than there is in WA.
Thanks for this article, and I wonder what AWOL stands for. Is that the name of the person owning the company? And another thing: I saw the different price points. To me, they are a bit over-priced. Those amounts? You can buy a brand new car here in the Philippines with that amount of money. I’d rather spend and drive a new car, than spend for an over-priced Internet marketing course!
By the way, do you have any idea why these gurus and their companies focus more on using email marketing to get traffic, leads, and sales? I noticed, with several companies, they operate almost in the same manner. Most are focused on using email marketing to build an online business rather than utilizing free methods like blogging and SEO. Do you have any idea why?
Hi Gomer, email marketing is still one of the best ways to turn leads into high paying customers. Furthermore, because the prices are so high, most people aren’t going to be ready to pay this much at first, so an email marketing newsletter which slowly raises their trust through hype and other tactics can turn those people who are uncertain of buying this expensive stuff to being fully ready to invest in it.
This whole thing doesn’t discount the fact that blogging and SEO are still awesome tools to use and you can always funnel people you use from those tactics to lead to your site, to then sign up to an email list too.
It is super expensive. I would expect immediate results from something that cost that much. I would also not expect to put in as much effort, which I know does not lead to success in the online world.
I’m embarrassed to admit, I’ve paid that much for training, and didn’t have results! I joined Wealthy Affiliate and was able to stick with affiliate marketing long enough to get results! Love the Wealthy Affiliate community and the affordable training!
Hi Melinda, you shouldn’t be embarrassed, it’s just a matter of probability that with all the bad programs out there on online marketing and/or ones which are good, but expensive will be the ones you encounter when you start looking for ways to make money online and as you said in your first sentence, you expect fast results after paying so much.
Well that’s really one of the ways that big ticket programs like that sell their system, because they tell you that if you buy it and sell it, the commission is huge, so the break even point is little and you’ll make it back really fast. So naturally, that affects people buying decisions in that it makes it easier to actually throw down so much money.
I can understand why people go awol from awol academy. $10,000 for their whole program, when people can pay a few hundred dollars a year at Wealthy Affiliate and get more out of it. What would be the sense of starting an affiliate marketing business if you had to pay all that money? It doesn’t make sense. Great review!
Hi Kevin, as I said, they make it make sense by telling you they’ll give you high commissions for spending that much, but you are right, people will save a lot of money and get great info in WA.
Hi, Vitaliy! An educational online business training program that has member price tags that could go as high as almost $5,500 at what this company calls their “Masters’ Academy”? No thanks!
Based on the wealth of experience that you have in building a highly profitable online business through a much more viable program compared to AWOL, the reader of this article who might be a total novice at making money online would truly need to pay attention to what you said. That is at even the lowest price tag offered in this program, the “Pro Academy” at $99, it still is not worth the money spent based on what is offered through the training.
I also looked at the “Master’s Academy” at the highest level AWOL has to offer. For the amount of money that AWOL charges, the individual would definitely not be getting a bang out of his/her many bucks. You stated that the info revealed at this level regarding training, tutorials, education, etc. was very vague. Shame on any individual who would foolishly fork over 5 and a half grand without knowing exactly what he/she would receive.
The word “AWOL” is perhaps a perfect name for this fraud program. A whole lot is missing regarding available training that should help a person be able to successfully build a profitable online business for him/herself.
Your #1 recommendation at Wealthy Affiliate is in another universe compared to the scam that essentially is AWOL Academy. The several former members of AWOL who as you mentioned in your article all having migrated over to WA obviously made the right decision for themselves.
Jeff
Good points Jeff. Indeed, spending any amount of money on a program whose description is vague is probably not the wisest move and indeed, the members who transferred over to WA from AWOL are quite happy.
I’m familiar with AWOL Academy. It’s crazy expensive. There is no reason in the world to spend that kind of money to learn how to build an internet business.
Any offer that asks for that much money upfront is not focused on helping people succeed online. The more money you spend upfront, the more money you have to make just to break even. The alternative program you recommend is far more reasonable.
Well when they pay big commissions, breaking even is technically easier to achieve, BUT in practicality, it is difficult. There has never been a system out there which makes people easy money, no matter how much they say it does.
I’ve seen claims from tons of programs saying their system will rake in money like it’s nothing while the people sit back and enjoy the commissions. This is simply NOT true which is why risking all of this money up front on something like AWOL is an investment I would never recommend to anyone.
Wow that was a very detailed and impressive review about AWOL you have there. I also liked how you were so honest and open as to why you don’t like them — and on top of all of that you backed up your reasons with some good facts.
I do find it quite crazy that programs are asking you to spend $1,000’s of dollars on their program — when in fact the real secret to success from what I’ve experienced is following a proven method then working hard until you achieve the results your looking for.
Well I’m pretty sure you’d still have to work hard if you joined AWOL (as you would with any other program), but you wouldn’t have to spend so much up front on Wealthy Affiliate and you’d still get an awesome experience in becoming a successful internet marketer.