How Do I Verify If A Website Is Legitimate?

Loes Knetsch ©

How do you know is a website is legitimate? That’s a good question. And very hard to answer. Because most website owners do their ultimate best to provide you a good online income. They think out a great concept, and they really believe their concept is working. And often it works awesome for many. So, they are advertising like a madman online to spread their program.

How to earn some money?

Since 2014, I am active on the internet, searching for programs to help me earn some money. There is a lot of money going around on the internet. And it just would be so nice to get a little piece of that enormous pie. Back then, I was a complete computer illiterate and really didn’t know where to start.

Clicking ads, BORING!

My first idea was, I am going to set up a start page, with advertisements to click ads programs. Euro Clicks, Quasa previous called MoneyMiljonair, ClixSense, NeoBux, Paidverts, GPTPlanet, and many more. I thought when I want to make money, do it right! And to tell you the truth, I made a couple of dollars. $10 to $20 a month by clicking all day advertisements. It drove me crazy!

I got scammed

I got scammed by one of these websites too, I don’t recall the name, but I clicked like crazy, the threshold on the website was $300 and I saw my account growing. From $210 to $220 – $280… almost there! You could choose between a complete PC, also nice, and $300 payout in cash. While I was clicking the last ads to get to the threshold, I was doubting what I would choose. At $290 I logged into the program and I got the fright of my life. It said:”YOUR ACCOUNT IS SUSPENDED”. Really, my heart froze. SUSPENDED? Did I click thousands of ads for nothing? I don’t get a PC or $300? It had cost me not a dime, but I felt so scammed!

Email marketing

Then I joined TrafficWave, from Brian Rooney and Stephen Hambright. Must be a great program to make money online, I even had email contact with my referrer. But, me, as a total computer illiterate, couldn’t get my head wrapped around the concept. I just didn’t understand what was expected of me. What I should do. At the end of this story, it had cost me $19,95 and I was an experience richer. I still feel sorry for them, that they had to deal with a nitwit like me:(

I need an education

I did realize one thing, I needed more knowledge of the online world to be able to earn some money online. That’s why I started my search for educational programs. At first, I searched the whole database in the Netherlands. Because learning in your native language is always better than learning in a foreign language. I searched for affordable courses at the LOI, the NVA, the NTI. And I found them all way overcharged, even when they offered a 50% discount. They charge €300 to €1000 for a little segment of the market. Maybe interesting to see the comparison of this, click here to read more…

Looking abroad for an education

Not long after that, I thought, perhaps I should look for English lessons. Although my English was not very well, I can cope. And I have Google translate. So I started my search on the Global market. Learned from my experiences, I checked every offer I found in the Google search bar. What is ….., and is…..a scam? I read pros and cons. And ~~striped through~~ program after program. What I did notice was that Wealthy Affiliate was promoted on various websites. I didn’t trust it though, the name alone, did make me suspicious. But their offer was good. Free membership, 7-day free premium trial. No credit card needed. So, I opened an account.

I still know what I thought: You don’t get one dime out of me before I make a dime through your program! I had no idea where I stepped into. I had to translate the word “affiliate” into Dutch to understand the word. I found out it meant “partner”. Oke, I thought, that’s not a bad thing.

I joined Wealthy Affiliate

At that time I joined Wealthy Affiliate, I enjoyed my summer vacation (in Backyards), that was very convenient, I had all day to find out all about their program. And boy, was I wrong! I surfed and clicked and surfed and found such a wealth of knowledge, I run from one course to the other, soaking up the knowledge like a sponge. And I did pay for this educational business platform before I earned something. In my opinion, it was worth my money.

In the meanwhile, they pay me:) Every month I get a nice message, your next paycheck is… and I love it!

To get back to the main topic

How do I Verify If A Website Is Legitimate?

There are a couple of programs I found online where you can screen websites and email addresses.

Here are some great website scan tools:

I very much hope that you never will become a victim of a scammer. Here are a few other steps you can take:

Find out who owns the website, Google his/her name, you may Google my name: Loes Knetsch and compare your finds with someone like Dan Brocks or David Mavah. Go crazy, Google your own name!
Check the company on BBB, Better Business Bureau (only for Mexico, US, and CA)
Google: Is this ….. program a scam? And read the reviews.

Whatever you do, DON’T PAY anything before you really know what you get for your money! Do not fall for promises of a complete stranger.

Stranger

I am a complete stranger to you too. Who the heck is Loes Knetsch? For that, to get to know me a bit better, I wrote an about me page. The link is in the footer, but I make it easy for you, here it is: About Loes, enthusiastic website developer

Why Wealthy Affiliate?

What exactly is Wealthy Affiliate (WA)? One of their slogans is: Take Any Passion. Turn it Into a Livelihood.

Education Features & Benefits

Let’s go over this chart, I will explain to you what this all means and what WA has to offer you.

Live help

When you have opened a free account, (everybody starts with a free account, you can choose to upgrade later) you have instant access to the live chat. You can talk with members, and if you are lucky you’ll find both owners, Kyle and Carson available to talk to you in the live chat. They are there almost daily to help people with their questions. The live chat is for free-members-only accessible during the first 7 days of the premium trial account. After that, it’s closed for free members.

Private Messaging

Private Messaging (PM) is a premium feature. You can contact any member in private when you have questions.

Websites and Website Builder

Wealthy Affiliate makes use of WordPress Website templates. As a free member, and you can stay on as a free member as long as you wish, you get 2 free websites and free hosting. Free = Free. It really doesn’t cost you a dime.

As a premium member, you can develop up to 50 websites. 25 can be hosted on an owned domain name and 25 on the Siterubix subdomain name.

The website builder is one of a kind. In just 4 steps you have a fully functional website online.

Try The Website Builder Now

Website Security Package

This feature monitors the database, malware and virus, filesystem, hacking and intrusion, and keep an eye on your site performance.

Website Backup

Once in the 2 – 3 days, the websites are backed up by an automatic system. Of course, you will have your own responsibility too, but it’s a reassuring thought that it also happens on WA.

Beginner Training Course

The beginner training course includes 50 lessons. The first 10 lessons are also accessible to free members. The other 40 are premium only.

You can take a look at the first lesson here

Personal Affiliate Blog

Even in WA, there is a little confusion about the personal affiliate blog. So I have searched for the answer. My daughter has a free account, and I had her consent to check the accessibility for the free membership. The personal Affiliate Blog is only free to use during the first 7 days of the premium trial. After that, it’s a premium only feature. And a very good one. The blog space is Google indexed, and many blogs of WA are seen on page #1 of Google.

Affiliate Bootcamp Training

Like as with the beginner training course, the first 10 lessons of the BootCamp training are free for every member. The BootCamp contains 70 lessons and is developed for people who don’t have a niche website. They get a training to promote Wealthy Affiliate.

Live Video Classes

Every Friday, there are live video classes, given by Jay Neil, one of the best coaches on WA. It’s premium only.

Video Walkthroughs

There are hundreds of replays of the live video classes on WA. Every live class is recorded and to view anytime you like. There are also a couple of walkthroughs, the first walkthrough is shown on lessons 1, you can access it with the link above.

Keyword Research Tool

This is a story in itself. Recently, two top programs have been merged. Wealthy Affiliate and Jaaxy. Jaaxy is known as one of the best keyword research tools on the internet. And as a premium WA member, you get unlimited searches at Jaaxy. As a free member, you can try it out for 30 searches.

Jaaxy is an independent program online and can be a great asset to put your business on the Google map. An account of this amazing keyword research tool you can open here. Again, this keyword research tool is fully integrated into the WA platform for free.

Try Jaaxy now

Training Classrooms

There are thirteen of them, with thousands of training.

Website Development & Programming
Authoring & Writing Content
Getting Started
WA Affiliate Program
Social Engagement & Marketing
The Wealthy Affiliate Platform
Everything WordPress
Keyword, Niche and Market Research
Video Marketing
Search Engine Optimization
Email Marketing
Pay Per Click Marketing
Local Marketing

The first two classes are free for everyone, the classes 3-13 are premium only.

Affiliate Program

Lovely, I like to talk about that. WA has an awesome affiliate program. And I do love to see each month: “Your next paycheck is…”. For every recurring month, a premium referral pays, I get $23,50

I just love this monthly additional income:)) And you can have this too!

Earn While You Learn

Even after almost 4 years being a member of WA, I am still learning, and earning:))

1 0n 1 Coaching and Private Access To Owners

This is truly unique. At which company you can get in touch with the CEO for asking questions? That is not many. At WA you can! You can talk to Kyle and Carson in live chat, and you can contact them with a private message as well.

24/7/365 Website Support

I can say just two things about our website support:

Very very technically skilled
Fast as the lightning

Website Feedback Platform

When you start out a website, you like people to view it and give you feedback. You can use the feedback platform to get tips about your layout, use of colors, grammar, menus, etcetera.

Website Comment Platform

We all know that Google likes active websites. Websites with movement. The whole community is helping each other to create that movement and they are placing comments on your website.

Website Analyses

My website health could be better, I know that I have too many plugins activated. But I just love these tiny little programs.

Not yet on the comparison chart, Wealthy Affiliate is constantly improving the UX

Site Content Writer

You can create your website content right at WA, there are templates you can use. Your written words are counted. And you can use thousands of free images.

Domain Name Registration

Wealthy Affiliate offers a complete package. Domain name registration, websites, hosting, security, education, live help

SitePlus+

Site Speed

Also an awesome feature, site speed. It’s very important that your website loads quickly. You will recognize from your own experience surfing the internet, that when a site takes over 10 seconds to load, you are out of there.

SSL Security Certificate

Every owned domain name is provided with a free SSL security certificate. A little green padlock in the browser bar. This is included in the premium package.

Site Protect System

It doesn’t matter where you host your website, you need to take care of your own security. And you need to buy Akismet or Spambee. Not at WA. WA has an overall security program active which protects all websites hosted at WA.

You must admit, this is a total no-brainer, can I welcome you to the Wealthy Affiliate Premises?