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Home Business Academy Review (2023): Should You Start An Affiliate Marketing Business?

Last Updated: April 3, 2023
By: Hope
By: Hope
Welcome to my Home Business Academy review. My goal is to answer common questions like: how much it costs, if it's a scam, & if you can actually make money with it. The end goal is to help you understand if it's a good fit for you personally, and if there are any better alternatives out there.
The Home Business Academy Review

Disclaimer:

This Home Business Academy review has been thoroughly researched with information and testimonials that are available online to anyone in the public. Any conclusions drawn by myself are opinions.

What I Liked

What I Didn't Like

Before we get into it... who am i?

Always good to put a name to a face, so firstly, my name is Hope!

Like you, I was stuck working 8-10 hour days building someone else’s dream.

I worked at one of those cool tech companies that has omelet stations for breakfast & craft beer on tap for after hours.

To a lot of people that’s a dream, but to me… something was missing.

All I really wanted, was to actually enjoy life – more vacations, less stress, buy myself nice things without worrying about the cost… but that was something my 9-5 couldn’t provide me.

That was until a few years ago when I discovered a way to make money online by actually helping real people. 

People in this case were local business owners across the US.

Me and My Puppy

The page above is an example of how I do it. That one-page site generates $1,500/mo and I haven’t even touched it since it was put up.

That’s an $18,000/year raise from just one page.

That’s why local lead generation is my #1 business recommendation for recurring, semi-passive income. If you want to learn about that business model, click here.

Important: I am not an affiliate

for Home Business Academy

Why Does That Matter?

A lot of course reviewers have no experience with any of the business models or programs they review, and so they’re just making stuff up.

They do that because they want you to click through their link to buy from the person that the review is about!

They have no clue what it’s actually like to run the type of business Home Business Academy is teaching you to do.
I have absolutely no relationship with Home Business Academy, so you can rest easy knowing that I’m going to give you my honest opinion
This review is written based on my own experiences with affiliate marketing.

All that being said, let’s jump into things.

Mike Hobbs and Paul Hutchings founded the Home Business Academy. This course teaches you how to start an online business.

They also provide funnel builder, premium coaching, and do-it-yourself email swipes.

Is it a scam, though?

It’s a good thing that the platform isn’t full of hype. Instead, they give step-by-step guides based on tried-and-true processes.

They also feature a funnel builder (tool) and community access.

The Home Business Academy is not a fraud; it’s a good way to establish an affiliate marketing business online.

However, $125 per month may be too much for newbies.

In this Home Business Academy review, I’ll dive into the pros and cons of the program.

In this Home Business Academy review, I will dive deep into the upsides and downsides of the program.

But before I can say Home Business Academy is good, I have to ask a very important question: is affiliate marketing even worth it?

Like other affiliate programs, we get pitched an ultimate dream…

Run an amazingly profitable business where you don’t have to worry about anything – no products, no inventory, no shipping, no customer service.

The only thing you need to worry about is putting this product in front of someone that wants to buy it, and the rest is money in the bank.

The best part?

“You can do it from anywhere in the world!”

Sounds pretty great… but is it?

It is 100% possible to make money with affiliate marketing – the real question is: is Home Business Academy the best affiliate marketing program out there?

Well, the most difficult (and therefore most valuable) skill in the internet business is driving traffic AKA getting people to visit a website.

Later on, I’ll talk about why it’s so difficult to drive quality traffic.

But for now, let’s just say it isn’t exactly an easy process (unless you have a proven traffic source for the exact product you’re trying to sell).

If you really break it down, is affiliate marketing much different than a 9-5 job? You work for someone else, sell their stuff, and they can fire you at any time.

You don’t really control anything, despite doing the most important part – driving traffic.

To be 100% clear, I’m not saying affiliate marketing won’t work. If you’ve followed my blog for long, you’ll know that I’ve made money myself as an affiliate marketer (selling women’s health products).

I have several friends that make over $20,000/mo as affiliate marketers.

What you don’t hear about is the $200,000 they had to invest UP-FRONT to start making that money.

But let’s suppose that you REALLY want to work that laptop-entrepreneur lifestyle.

What if there was a way you could build a legitimate recurring income stream?

Recurring income that doesn’t require:

  • Tens of thousands of dollars and months of time before seeing $1
  • Doing the heavy lifting, but only getting a small % of the sale
  • Living at the whim of another person that could take it all away if they feel like it

Something that could net you anywhere from a few thousand, to over $10,000 every single month, practically on auto-pilot.

A recurring income stream that you could build in a few hours per day, grow as big (or small) as you want, and doesn’t leave you at the mercy of another person?

If that sounds interesting, you might make a good Digital Landlord. 

It kind of takes the nice parts of affiliate marketing but transfers the control back to YOU.

All that being said, let’s continue to the Home Business Academy review.

The Home Business Academy Review – Overview

  • Product Type: Affiliate Marketing
  • Owner: Mike Hobbs and Paul Hutchings
  • Price: $125 per month + UPSELLS
  • Money-Back Guarantee: Only 3 Days
  • Recommended?: Yes, but it’s not the best!

What Is The Home Business Academy?

What Is The Home Business Academy

The Home Business Academy is a digital marketing community and coaching platform. In short, It’s a place to start affiliate marketing.

The Home Business Academy’s mission is “Freedom Through Principle-Centered Leadership.”

Online marketing is not that easy. And three marketing initiatives are required for success.

You must first receive coaching (training). Then you’ll need professional tools. Lastly, success demands support.

And there aren’t many places to get the things you need to launch an online business.

When I first looked at their website, I was taken aback by the lack of hype and other filler typically associated with scammers.

Just a 30-minute documentary with Paul Hutchings, one of the founders.

The HBA’s primary goal is to assist regular individuals in building a successful digital marketing firm by providing tools, training, and support.

I enjoy this site since it teaches practical ways to make money online.

Also included are all tools and access to a vast online community.

Any doubts about Home Business Academy being a scam vanished when I went in.

Like the greatest free affiliate marketing training available today, WA has thorough training, the best tools, a supportive community, and it’s less expensive!

But, as I’m just starting this Home Business Academy review, let’s see what more there is. Let’s start with the platforms’ brains!

Who Owns The Home Business Academy?

The Home Business Academy Owners

Mike Hobbs and Paul Hutchings founded the Home Business Academy.

They established this platform after years of hustling to aid others with their tools, training, and support.

Some would suggest that the Home Business Academy and Wealthy Affiliate are quite similar.

Their communities and tools are comparable. Only WA is 2x cheaper and better!

Overall, I was pleased to hear that Pail and Mike are genuine people who want to help others make money online.

Most frauds and get-rich-quick schemes conceal the owner’s identity.

For example, the Job Quitter Club sells a dream of fast money via affiliate marketing. So, stay away from ClickEarners.

So, let me show you how it works and what you get within this Home Business Academy review.

How Does The Home Business Academy Work?

I initially confused The Home Business Academy for a multi-level marketing or pyramid scheme. But, to my surprise, it isn’t.

The company offers resources and training to anyone interested in starting or growing a digital marketing business.

So, what is it?

The Home Business Academy operates on a simple model.

These tutorials teach you how to create sales funnels using their own tool, drive traffic to your website using blogging, SEO, Facebook, and YouTube, and monetize your website with affiliate marketing.

I love affiliate marketing and utilize it to make money online.

The concept is easy in theory but difficult in practice. The purpose is to link buyers and sellers of a product.

Every time a customer buys a product, an affiliate earns a commission.

Commissions range from 2% to 80%, depending on the affiliate scheme.

You can also use The Home Business Academy in another method.

Affiliates can advertise HBA items to potential online business owners

In this Home Business Academy review segment, I’ll reveal more about the platform’s offerings.

The Home Business Academy Product Line And Business Model

The Home Business Academy Product Line And Business Model

Now that you know the basics, let’s examine what products and services you may acquire if you join the Home Business Academy:

The HBA Funnel Builder

The HBA Funnel Builder allows you to design unlimited sales funnels and marketing pages for any product, service, or business.

It includes the following features:

  • Lead Capture Pages
  • Thank you Pages
  • Sales pages
  • Order/Checkout Pages
  • Digital products
  • Memberships sites

For network marketers who want to get their online marketing up and running quickly, this package includes a step-by-step digital education course designed to assist them in doing just that.

Continuing with my Home Business Academy review, I’ll discuss the price and other features.

The HBA Premium

To assist small business owners, the HBA Premium offers digital education memberships.

  • Generating traffic & leads online
  • Gathering customers
  • And converting sales

Every day and every month, Paul and Mike, together with other top community leaders, host coaching masterminds where you may get the most up-to-date training and personalized coaching you need.

Freedom Launchpad

Freedom Launch Pad

Freedom Launchpad isn’t an actual Home Business Academy feature or product.

Nick Bramble prepared this short course on affiliate marketing and funnels to promote Home Business Academy.

To put it another way, Nick has partnered with Mike and Paul to increase their customer base in exchange for a commission.

Nick created the 30 Minute Workday. It’s another crash course and eBook to get you to the HBA platform for genuine training.

The Ultimate Email And Traffic Swipe File

The Ultimate Email And Traffic Swipe File

This supplementary course teaches you how to spy on your competitors and steal their top-performing keywords and advertising.

You will also get 50+ professionally written email autoresponders.

The Financial Literacy Academy

Financial Literacy Academy

The Financial Literacy Academy is a digital education membership designed to help people build financial security.

Expert courses include:

  • Debt Relief
  • US Business Tax Planning
  • Planned Retirement Income
  • Online Bookkeeping with Quickbooks
  • How To Generate Long-Term Cash Flow From Rental Homes
  • Management Without Stress
  • Asset Defense 101
  • Maintenance Of Business Entities

Mark J Kohler, an attorney, and best-selling author, co-hosts this course with Mike and Paul.

The Home Business Academy Price

The Home Business Academy Price

The good news is that the 1st seven days of The Home Business Academy Premium training are only $1.

After the $1 seven-day trial, the monthly fee is $125. What you get is:

  • Learn how to produce simple, free infinite leads with Facebook.
  • This 15-video YouTube ranking course will teach you how to produce free high-quality leads for your business online.
  • A blog that generates leads and effectively follows up is a blog that generates more sales.
  • Weekly interactive marketing coaching webinar with top earners to answer all your questions.
  • 7 Lead Magnet Videos How to create a free offer that stands out from the crowd and attracts the top leads for your business.

There is also a refund policy. After the trial, you have three days to request a refund.

Extra Costs And Upsells

Extra Costs And Upsells

Home Business Academy‘s extra features will cost you more money, which is not my favorite thing.

You will have to pay the following amount to gain access to the whole product line:

  • $25 per month for Funnel Builder
  • Freedom Launchpad costs $37 per month.
  • One-time payment of $1000 to Financial Literacy Academy

Home Business Academy Refund Policy:

If you bought any of the above but changed your mind, you may get a refund…

However, you only have three days to do so, or you will be charged a refund fee!

The Home Business Academy Affiliate Program

The Home Business Academy Program

The Home Business Academy affiliate program is available to platform members. Here is a breakdown of the program’s compensation plan:

Exclusive affiliate privileges to promote their products and earn $100 for each referral

Commissions are paid weekly on Fridays.

In a 1-tier structure, there are no tiers below or above you.

You keep 80% ($100) of every sale you make. And it’s reoccurring so that you can earn $200-$500 every referral.

Those are only projections and should not be taken seriously.

Conclusion

Conclusion

It’s refreshing to find a business like The Home Business Academy is an educational market full of frauds and get-rich-quick schemes.

So, to summarize, the HBA is a membership site with community, training, and resources.

This platform allows you to build affiliate funnels, publish blogs, study SEO and lead generation, email marketing, and sell other people’s items.

Mike Hobbs and Paul Hutchings, two seven-figure earners who care about others’ achievements, founded the platform.

You may earn money marketing The Home Business Academy’s affiliate program and using its tools, training, and community.

Overall, it’s a good deal for both newcomers and seasoned marketers.

But $125 per month for such a service may be excessive.

Continue reading to learn about a better and cheaper option for The Home Business Academy.

Are There Alternatives To Home Business Academy?

Alternatives

Yes, there are plenty of Affiliate Marketing programs and resources to choose from if you want to pursue this business model.  Here are just a few:

Is The Home Business Academy A Scam?

Is It A Scam

So, time for the $1,000,000 question – is Home Business Academy a scam?

No, it’s not a “scam,” technically speaking. They aren’t going to collect your payment and then ride off into the sunset without delivering you a program.

You can make money with this program. My only gripe is that making money with affiliate marketing is NOT NEARLY as easy as Home Business Academy wants you to think it is.

As I’ve said earlier, the most important part of doing affiliate marketing right is driving traffic. That means being good at:

  • Writing ads that sell
  • Running ads on Google
  • Running ads on Facebook
  • Writing website blogs
  • Ranking websites
  • Converting users that land on your site
  • Email marketing

And a whole lot more.

If you’re going to spend time learning those skills, why not do it in a way that makes YOU all the money – instead of someone else?

There’s just a lot of work to be done here and no real guarantee of success (not to mention commissions can be small).

Don’t get me wrong – I’m ALL FOR doing the hard work now so that you can reap the benefits later.

But if you’re going to hit something super hard for 3-6 months, and your reward is barely enough money for a tank of gas… it’s just not worth it (in my opinion).

Again, I’m not saying it won’t work – I’ve personally made money with it, as have many of my friends.

I’m just saying it’s a situation where the stars need to kind of align for you perfectly.

And you shouldn’t be in the business of leaving your fate up to the stars…

But what if instead of all that, you could work those same 3-6 months, and generate a handful of checks that generated you $500-$2,000 EACH, every single month (almost on autopilot)?

And what if you learned it from someone who has already mastered the ability to drive traffic profitably?

Better yet, what if you could see your first payment in one week, not 3 months?

And what if you could double or triple that income within the next month or two?

That’s my experience with being a Digital Landlord.

All you really need is a laptop and some internet.

Some of my friends are Digital Landlords that run their 6-figure businesses from:

  • Camping trips at national parks
  • Beachfront in Hawaii
  • On the road in a camper van (with a pet pig!)

They focus on living an enjoyable life first, and focus on income second. All thanks to this program

They can take weeks or months off, and money keeps rolling in.

Living happily is the top priority.

If the thought of living perpetually at your dream vacation spot interests you, being a Digital Landlord might be for you!

What Is My Top Recommendation For Making Money Online In 2023?

Make Real Money Online With Digital Landlord

I’ve personally tried all of the major online business models:

  • I’ve sold women’s health supplements via Clickbank affiliate marketing
  • I’ve sold fidget spinners through Amazon FBA
  • I’ve dropshipped a toilet bowl putting green on Shopify

And I made money with all of them, so trust me when I say: there is no “perfect” business model.

That being said, my #1 recommendation for making real money online is, hands-down: being a Digital Landlord

Whether you’re a complete newbie or you’ve been around the block before but have never had that “big win” to propel you forward, becoming a Digital Landlord is for you.

Why?

1)Time commitment: If you have an hour or two per day, you can do this. Even if you want to drop everything and commit fully, that works too.

You don’t have to be constantly working to make money. The income you generate is recurring.

Imagine taking off for a month to places like Hawaii, Paris, National Parks, & other spots people only dream about – all while collecting dozens of little $500-$2,000 checks. It’s like a dream come true.

But it’s only possible to do it when you’ve separated your income from your time.

2)You Own & Control EVERYTHING: With affiliate marketing, you don’t really own a single thing – not even the customers you worked so hard to “acquire.”

Don’t believe me? Read the terms of service for any major affiliate program – they can fire you or change your compensation at the drop of a dime.

As a Digital Landlord, you own everything, so you have ultimate control.

3)It’s Effectively Copy-Paste: Here’s my favorite part: once you have your first Digital Rental Property up, you can literally copy-paste another version of it and find another willing “renter” in a few days. DOUBLING your income doesn’t get much easier than that…

If you wanted to double your income as an affiliate, you would need to sell twice as much inventory, or double your profit margins. And I can guarantee you (from my days selling women’s health products as an affiliate), that’s a lot harder than a few clicks & a phone call.

4)Great Margins: Margins on affiliate products can be pretty low unless you’re selling high-ticket products. When you sell high-ticket stuff, you typically have a lot of competition, so driving traffic is expensive.

Being a Digital Landlord, your profit margin is nearly 100%. Watch here to learn how.

Just a reminder: these Digital Rental Properties are worth (at a minimum) $500/mo in semi-passive income. And each time you create another one, your income increases, and the effort put into creating the next property decreases.

Best-case scenario, you have properties bringing in over $3,000+/mo on auto-pilot.

5)You’re Helping REAL People: My biggest gripe with affiliate marketing is that you’re selling products that will bring you the biggest commission, not the products that will help people the most.

It’s cool in the short term to make a quick buck, but in the long term, it eats away at your soul.

But when you’re a Digital Landlord, you’re helping solve REAL problems that people are ASKING for help with:

Small local businesses around the world need one thing: customers. Without them, their business would fall apart. If you can provide those customers, they’re going to be really happy – and they’re going to pay you for it.

You’re helping a struggling mother or father put food on the table for their families, put their kids through college, or simply live life a little bit more comfortably.

Having this type of impact on the world is what will help you sleep soundly at night.

So, the rest is up to you. You could keep looking at other affiliate programs like Home Business Academy, which might make you money 12 months from now.

You could keep researching and researching for the next few months (or few years), never making a concrete decision.

OR, you can look deep inside, think about those dreams, hopes, & desires, and make the decision to ACTUALLY make it happen, just like it has for thousands of other students before you.

Making a fortune while actually helping real people that need it.

If this sounds like you, click here to see how it all works.

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