Is AWOL Academy Legit? (Big Hidden Secrets Revealed)

“$10,000 Guarantee over any 90 day period,” says AWOL Academy! Interested? Of course, you’re interested, I was too. BUT before you take your wallet out, they have some big hidden secrets that are revealed here. Is it still legit or what?

You might be wondering what AWOL really means here. It’s an acronym for ‘Another Way of Living’. I know we all look for a better way to live life but does this mean we have to spend a lot of money to do it? That’s what you’re about to find out.

AWOL Academy’s statement on their bold guarantee of $10,000 ‘over any 90 day period’ is true. How you get that is another matter and is covered in this review. You’re not going to get it for anything.

There are 3 questions to keep in mind:

1. How much do you have to spend to earn that $10k?
2. Are their products any good?
3. Can you earn a long-time passive income?

First, I just want to let you know I am not associated with AWOL Academy.

I also want to commend you on doing your research here. It’s the only way to keep yourself from being scammed and find legitimate ways to make money online.

Let’s begin…

What Is AWOL Academy?

First, I have this video for you to watch on AWOL Success Stories.

AWOL Academy was founded in 2015 by 2 well-known and experienced internet marketers, Kameron George and Keala Kanae with their office located in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

AWOL Academy is an online internet marketing training platform that teaches people how to make money online. They also have a mentoring program made up of the owners and their worldwide online industry experts.

I must warn you, their training is extremely expensive! Sometime in 2018, AWOL Academy came up with substantial price increases which you can see in my Training Products section.

Other information:

1. AWOL Academy used to be Project A.W.O.L created by Kameron George which at the time was an affiliate of Empower Network.
2. July 2013, Empower Network, a scam and now a defunct MLM company and Project A.W.O.L have a falling out.   

How To Join AWOL Academy

After you click their ‘GET STARTED’ button you’re taken to their first product AWOL 101 Coaching for $99 USD.

You might be thinking ‘WOW’… What makes AWOL 101 worth $99?

AWOL 101 has 4 modules:

Module 1: Meet your coach and learn how you’ll be coached.

Module 2: You answer a bunch of questions on their “Deep Dive” questionnaire. It wants to know your goals like how much money you want to make and so on.

Just so you know the information you enter is what your coach uses to convince you to buy more products. It also helps them understand your financial situation and personal goals.

Module 3: Set up your business plans.

Module 4: A one-on-one live time live with your coach for about 30 – 45 minutes.

That’s it? That’s all you’re getting for $99?

You’re paying $99 to give them information on your financial status and in return, spend some time with your coach.

The good part is, they’re giving you their PRO Academy course for FREE which sells for $99. 

This is what I’ll be talking about next. 

Inside AWOL – Training Products

According to the owners, they say they have the ‘most comprehensive internet marketing education and mentorship platform.’  

Each of their courses is priced separately (upsells) from the areas of basic internet marketing fundamentals, email marketing, traffic generation to getting conversions.

The training is done very well by videos with easy to follow step-by-step instructions and is task-oriented.

So far so good, but the sad part is this is the beginning of your upsells.

CAUTION: Be aware that every course upsell/upgrade depends on the next educational course.

1.PRO Academy ($99 – 5 Modules) (FREE – Refer to AWOL 101) 

As I mentioned, this is your FREE BONUS when you pay your $99 for your AWOL 101 at the time you sign up.

PRO Academy is for beginners who are new to internet marketing. There are 5-course modules here.

Inside this Academy, they teach how to purchase your domain and set up your hosting, email marketing, sales funnels, and lead pages.

You’ll also get a 1-hour training session on how to bring traffic (visitors) and where to find the ones that have the most potential to buy your offers.

However, AWOL is not telling you about the extra costs you’re going to be faced with. Because of their method of teaching, you’re definitely going to end up paying a lot more. That’s why they teach you how to design your marketing budget.

You’ll need to purchase the following tools:

• GetReponse (Email Autoresponder) (First month is FREE, $15-$49/month)

• LeadPages (LandingPage Builder)  (First month is FREE, $25-$48/month) 

• ClickMagick (Sales Funnel Tracker)  (14-Day FREE Trial, $12 – $17/month)

After you pay these extras you still don’t know what to do with them so now it’s time to take your wallet out again because all you’re taught in the PRO Academy is how to purchase these tools and set them up.

2. Internet Income Explained ($49 – 4 Modules)

Internet Income teaches the basic fundamentals of how the sales process works online and how digital marketing works. Included is the teaching of the mindmap of their business and marketing structure.

This training is supposed to help you fast-track your business faster.

3. Inbox Academy  ($447 – 4 Modules) 

Now all you’ve learned so far is the basics of internet marketing and there’s nothing yet that really teaches what to do with the additional expenses you paid in the PRO Academy.

Enter Inbox Academy.

NOTE: During my research, I realized AWOL Academy increased the prices on their courses substantially sometime in 2018, maybe earlier in 2019.

I discovered this Inbox Academy used to be $297 and the price increased to $447. That’s an increase of $150 more.

Anyway, here you’ll learn their ‘secret strategies’ from successful email marketers to help make your email offers more effective. The idea is to get more leads with the least amount of effort.

You’ll learn how to increase rates on delivery, click thru, funnels, and other strategies. You set up your email autoresponder here. Say you get leads coming to your offers. you need to convert your leads into paying customers. Well, guess what, you’re not going to learn that here. Yes, it’s time to take your wallet out…

4. Conversion Academy ($1,797 – 6 Modules) 

The price on the Conversion Academy used to be $997 and now it’s $1,797 a whopping increase of $800, what???

With Conversion Academy, AWOL teaches how to turn your leads (traffic) from your sales funnels and email marketing campaigns into paying customers.

You’ll learn how to use their ‘hypnotic’ language, become a great story-teller, be persuasive and show how to create the burning desire in your leads to buy. Of course, this is what they use to lure you into buying too.

They’ll focus on your leads’ problems. You’ll learn some psychology on them. There is yet another problem, they don’t teach you how to get your traffic, that’s in the next upsell. 

5. Traffic Academy ($2,997 – $5 Modules)

You need to learn how to get traffic. No traffic = $0

The Traffic Academy course used to be $997. OMG, an increase of $2000??

Without traffic to your website, you’re not even earning a single penny so you’re definitely going to want to pay for this course or walk away and lose your investment.

In this Traffic Academy, AWOL teaches you their secrets to how to generate huge volumes of quality traffic that will convert into your paying customers.

You’ll learn how to do ads on Facebook and Instagram.

NOTE: The problem with paid ads is it can be very costly like thousands of dollars and from what I can see, AWOL is not teaching you how to get FREE traffic.

So far, this is what you’ve learned:

• You now have traffic
• You built your sales funnel
• You built your email autoresponder
• And you are now converting your traffic into paying customers

But you’re not finished yet. AWOL will talk you into purchasing the next upsell. 

6. Masters Academy ($5,497 – 3 Modules)

Yep, another increase… the Masters Academy used to be $3,497, so this is an increase of $2,000.

In the Master Academy, this is where you can dig deep into the minds of the world’s most successful business people regarding the management of your money. AWOL expects that by the time you reach this Academy, you’re doing extremely well and making lucrative money that it’s time to do some planning.

Topics like investing, tax planning and other topics on growing your online business are discussed by the masterminds.

7. AWOL Elite Lite ($11,997 Annually) 

This course used to be $9,997, an increase of $2,000.

AWOL will tell you the course is so valuable that even if you took a loan to pay this, it’s WELL WORTH IT!

You’re probably pulling your hair out by now. AWOL knows this is how you’re going to feel so what do they do?

They will tell you that if you don’t make $10,000 in 3 months after joining this Elite system, they will help you reach that as promised. 

The Elite Lite offers weekly online webinars where you can present your own content like landing pages, ads and get advice on them from Kameron and Keala. You’ll get mentoring and of course, more training from AWOL’s experts.

If you can get live help like this, it’s invaluable, but don’t you think the price is a bit much? The thing is, people are really making money and lots of it. AWOL does have good training and it’s a matter of deciding how serious you are about it.

WAIT! We’re not done yet…

8. AWOL Elite ($17,997 Annually) 

This is a recently added product.

Apparently, if you pay $17,997 a year (yep, you heard me), AWOL Academy is going to give you all the products they listed here in addition to an amazing bonus. 

You may as well skip paying for the AWOL Elite Lite. It doesn’t make sense when you can get that product here.

You also get tickets to a couple of their events like the Elite Summit and their Awaken Event where you can listen to influential and successful industry experts.

The Awaken Event seems to always take place in Las Vegas, Nevada USA. You have to pay for your own flight and they have a discounted accommodation rate.

AWOL Academy Support ($59.95 Annually)

OMG, I JUST ABOUT FORGOT THIS…

It seems you have to pay to get support in their private Facebook group. Honestly, I don’t know of any other training platforms that charge on this.

Anyway… if you need help and want to ask questions or just want to stay in touch, your fee for AWOL Community is $59.95 annually.

AWOL’s $10,000 Promise

The big promise is their guarantee that you will make $10,000 in your first 90 days after joining with them.

As one would expect, AWOL has certain strict conditions. You must at the Elite level to qualify for this. 

This level is all about the AWOL’s coaching team to help your campaigns generate income. You must  complete what they call their “5 pillars” of success every day such as:

1. Listen to their video topics every day (approximately 20-30 mins.)
2. Read every day on relevant topics (approximately 20 – 39 mins.)
3. Generate traffic every day
4. Email your list on a daily basis
5. Be involved in their community forum daily by asking and answering questions

All this means you need to be serious and be committed to taking action. You’re expected to work hard.

This is fair enough right? They know their training works and they really want to see you succeed.

Who is AWOL Academy Best For?

If you’re cash strapped this platform is definitely not for you. In fact, to AWOL’s credit in one of their videos, they do let you know that too.

Do you remember I talked about their ‘Deep Dive’ Questionnaire earlier during AWOL 101?

Well, your responses help your coach to get to know you better. It also helps them determine if you will be successful or not.

They’ll want some idea if you can afford to pay for their expensive training upsells.

If you have the following (listed below) then you have a really good chance to doing extremely well with AWOL’s educational platform:

• Must be willing to work hard
• Must have the time to do the training
• Never give up
• Want to be your own boss
• Want to earn lucrative income
• Must be able to afford to pay for all their training products

AWOL Academy’s Affiliate Program

AWOL has an affiliate program if you care to join. As an affiliate marketer, you’ll earn 30% commissions on your sale on any of their educational products. The only exception is the PRO Academy, you make 60% commission of the sale.

They also have a 2-Tiered Program, meaning anyone you recruit to join the AWOL membership, you’ll earn 5% commission on any of the products they sell to others. This is a rather unusual business venture because you don’t normally see an affiliate program offering this.

The 2-Tiered Program follows the MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) pattern and can be thought of like a pyramid scheme and so  I strongly urge you to read what the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) says.

I’m not saying AWOL is a pyramid scheme rather the 2-Tiered Program is similar to that pattern

To join their affiliate program, it will cost you $39.95 a month with a requirement of purchasing their Traffic Academy course. 

What do you think? Can you convince people to purchase the expensive AWOL products?

What I Like About AWOL Academy

1) BBB Rating B

Although not an “A” rating, a B rating is still pretty decent. 

BBB has a total of 24 complaints out of 70 reviews submitted and from what I can see AWOL has been responding to remedy their members’ situations. There is no perfect company and there will always be unhappy customers. 

The complaints are mostly on members not getting their money back and getting lots of pressure from coaches talking them into purchasing more products.

Having said that…

2) 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee

In your first 14 days from the day you sign up, if you’re not satisfied, AWOL does say they will refund your money back. In fact, they’re so confident you’ll benefit from their training they won’t even ask questions.

From what I can see in BBB,  members are getting their money back having given notice to AWOL within their 14 day period.  Some members lost a lot of money and didn’t get their money back because it was past the 14 days.

3) In-Depth Training Platform

The owners, Kameron and Keala have put a lot of time and invested a lot of money into this platform. Their training is very in-depth in a step-by-step format for their type of business model.

Their system works! Beginners and experienced internet marketers can learn.

Here’s a glimpse of what it looks like in their back office.

4) Excellent Coaching

Anytime you can get live coaching from Kameron and Keala is priceless because they’ve been coaching for years and there is no doubt in my mind you will walk away with valuable information.

5) Affiliate Program – Commissions

AWOL’s commissions are lucrative.

PRO Academy 60%

Facebook Support, InBox Academy, Conversion Academy, Traffic Academy, Masters Academy, AWOL EliteLite, AWOL Elite are 30% commissions.

They also have a 2-Tiered Affiliate Program (I still don’t like this) of which you earn 5% commission on your recruits’ product sales. 

What I Don’t Like About AWOL Academy

This is an interesting video worth listening to. “Keala Kanae Master Class Review | There’s A Catch”

1) Definitely Over-Priced Upsells

I don’t like high-priced upsells and that’s exactly what you’re getting with AWOL Academy.

Honestly, I’ve never seen any online internet marketing training platform as high priced as AWOL Academy and I’ve done a lot of researches on products and written reviews on them.  In-depth training is very important but it doesn’t have to be price-gouging.

The total is over $40,000… really?????? It’s the owners here, who are raking in the big bucks.

There are lots of highly successful online marketers offering tons of FREE affiliate and internet marketing training on how to make long-term lucrative passive income. They’re happy to share their experiences and knowledge to help you.

2) No FREE Trial

AWOL says they have the most “comprehensive internet marketing education platform” in the world AND they have their 14-Day Money Back Guarantee… well, in my opinion, if they believe in their platform, they should be offering you a FREE TRIAL

After all, if you’re going to purchase their high-cost products… don’t you think you should be getting a free trial so you can take a look inside?

3) Pay Fee to Be Affiliate Member

To be an AWOL Academy affiliate member you have to pay them $39.95 a month which I don’t understand.

This is unusual because most top well-known and successful affiliate marketing platforms have a FREE affiliate program.

NOT ONLY THAT, you need to purchase their Traffic Academy of $2,997 to be an affiliate of AWOL. This is NOT THE NORMAL WAY AFFILIATE PROGRAMS WORK. Seriously, why should you have to pay to promote someone else’s products?

4) Hidden Extra Costs

AWOL’s training focuses primarily on paid traffic generation.

This means you’re paying a couple of hundred dollars and more on advertising to get your traffic to your site.

As I mentioned earlier, email autoresponder, a landing page builder, domain for your website, tracking system and more will add up to a lot of money monthly. You could be looking at costs over $400 a month.

If you’re new to the internet business, you could potentially lose thousands of dollars on fake clicks until you really get to understand how it all works.

5) It’s All About Promoting AWOL

Unbeknownst to many who have joined AWOL…

AWOL Academy has ‘ready-made’ pages like landing pages, squeeze pages and thank you pages but what I can see, they’re really geared to promote AWOL Academy themselves.

Oh sure, you can change them to make to your own site and your affiliate products other than AWOL’s but that takes away from their services.

6) Recruit Others – Looks Like a Pyramid Scheme

The training appears to be focusing more on teaching you how to recruit other people to become members.

In fact, the coaches encourage you to do this. They also push you into purchasing their expensive products. Both of these seem to be some of the features of a pyramid scheme. 

There are some members complaining about being pushed into promoting the opportunity to join.  Apparently, these members are not going thru the educational training and that’s not good. They’re only doing it for the commissions.

All they do is recruit people to become affiliates and so there are no “real products”.

Is AWOL Academy A Scam Or Is It Legit?

AWOL Academy is not a scam because you’re not leaving with anything. You are learning. They are a legitimate company.

What I don’t like is their products are ridiculously expensive, don’t you think so? There is absolutely no reason why you should have to invest that kind of money not in this digital world we live in now. Seriously, there’s a ton of educational information that’s FREE…

They have the resources, experience, and knowledge to provide good training but I don’t agree to them promoting their membership and the way they do their upsells.

And then you have those extra costs they don’t tell you about until you need it.

A Better Solution – How We Make Money

By now I’m sure you know I’m a member of Wealthy Affiliate. They’re also my #1 Recommendation that teaches affiliate marketing and how to make money online the RIGHT WAY. It’s a community of over 1.4 friendly people from all over the world.

Members learn to create their own website(s) quickly and efficiently (a matter of 5 minutes or less).

Wealthy Affiliate teaches how to promote your own niche products and generate FREE TRAFFIC.

Want some success stories?

Meet RD40 … CLICK HERE to read his success story.

Meet Eric … CLICK HERE to read his success story.

Affiliate Marketing, when done the proper way, is my #1 Recommendation.

Here are some of the benefits:

• FREE to join
• NO recruiting
• Promote any product you want
• Low-cost start-up
• No inventory
• Earn while you learn
• Can have your own online business anywhere in the world as long as you have access to the internet and a computer

It’s FREE to start and No Credit Card is asked!

I’ll see you on the inside, welcome you and be your mentor! ?

Thanks for reading my review of AWOL Academy. I hope I was able to give you helpful information.

If you have any questions or comments, it would be awesome to hear from you. Are you a member or ex-member of AWOL Academy? What are your experiences with them?

Monica