AWOL Academy: Is it Worth the High Price Tag?

Since 2015, there has been a premium Internet marketing training program called AWOL Academy. This program was created by and is offered through Keala Kanae and Kameron George.

According to Keala and Kameron, AWOL Academy is “The World’s Most Comprehensive Internet Marketing Education & Mentorship Platform.”

AWOL actually stands for “Another Way of Life” and offers a series of separately priced trainings on areas such as email marketing, copywriting, traffic generation, paid advertising, etc. The higher priced academy trainings offer webinars and even 1:1 mentorship (via online forums and Facebook groups).

The most affordable training offered by AWOL Academy runs $99, while AWOL Elite costs almost $10K. The full breakdown of AWOL Academy products goes as follows:

• Pro Academy (aka: AWOL 101 Coaching): $99
• Inbox Academy: $447
• Conversion Academy: $1,797
• Traffic Academy: $2,997
• Masters Academy: $5,497
• AWOL Elite: $17,997

Total enrollment costs will run you just under $29,000.

Yikes.

May 2018 Update: Prices of the courses above (with the exception of the Elite program) have doubled over the course of a year. It used to cost around $5,000 to purchase everything. In 2018, it costs over $10,000.

AWOL Academy courses aren’t cheap, that’s for sure.

However, it all depends on what you get for your investment.

The real question here is, is AWOL Academy worth its hefty product price tag(s)? To find out, we take a closer look at its offering and promises.

What is AWOL Academy?

In a nutshell, AWOL’s Keala and Kameron say that their courses and mentorship will help someone who is starting out, or already engaged in Internet marketing, to make money online.

Pro Academy

The Pro Academy course, which costs $99, provides a good introduction to the world of Internet marketing. In this package, you receive 4 training modules comprised of 25 videos. You also have one coaching call.

This course is intended for newbies and introduces the concept of the sale funnels as a customer acquisition tactic. You are shown, step-by-step, how to implement your own sales funnel. To this end, several other products are needed:

• LeadPages- for building landing pages ($25-$48/month)
• GetResponse- an emaul autoresponder ($15+/month)
• ClickMagic- a customer tracking system, which is useful for ad tactics like retargeting ($12-$17/month)

So, if you truly implement what the Pro Academy course teaches, you will be shelling out much more than $99.

Inbox Academy

The next course up, so to speak, is Inbox Academy. This course offers a set of “secret” strategies for not only creating your own email list, but getting that list to open, click on, and accept the offers you email out. Those secret strategies are supposedly what top email marketers use.

Conversion Academy

This nearly thousand dollar course offers “coveted conversion secrets” for getting customers to do what you want them to do- which is to buy your product or service. So, Conversion Academy focuses heavily on the art and science of good copywriting and content generation, including content such as images, presentations, and videos. It goes over what kind of copy you would present to a potential customer at the start, middle, and conclusion of his buying journey.

Other concepts introduced here include evergreen sales. In order to generate steady sales revenue not just today but in the future, an Internet marketer needs to offer products that are always in need. These products are often called consumables and should be a part of every marketer’s arsenal.

Traffic Academy

This course, which also runs almost a grand, focuses on generating targeted traffic via social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube. Five training modules cover traffic generation using these three platforms, and offer formulas on estimating whether or not your ad spend is achieving a high enough conversion rate.

The ads that are the the focus of this course are cost-per-action or CPA ads, where money is spent every time a potential customer completes a desired action. That action can include viewing a video, filling out a form, or even just buying your product/service.

Given that this course is focusing on traffic generation, it also goes over how to derive traffic from lesser used search engines such as Bing and Yahoo.

Masters Academy

This course, which is almost $5,500, is for Internet marketers who are already making money online and wish to increase their online earnings and/or leverage their efforts. So, Masters Academy focuses less on the step-by-step processes of setting up a website or creating an email list and more on the big picture of marketing. Concepts such as evergreen products, outsourcing, project management, automation, etc., are delved into in meticulous detail.

There are three sections in this course:

• Section 1: Mindset Hacks
• Section 2: Wealth Strategies
• Section 3: Solopreneur to CEO

One way that this course has you look at long term wealth strategies is by getting top online marketers involved, and offering their advice and techniques.

AWOL Elite

For those marketers who want to go all in and take weekly webinars offered by Keala and Kameron, AWOL Elite is the program to buy. In this program, you not only get weekly 2-hour-long webinars, you get personalized mentorship through Keala and Kameron’s private Facebook group and forum.

In addition to this, you also get all the other products shown above.

Shelling out nearly 10 grand for mentorship and courses is no small investment. However, if you are already making a steady income via online marketing, this could be a worthwhile next step for you.

AWOL Academy’s affiliate program

There’s one more AWOL program that you can join, and that’s the affiliate program. As an affiliate, you’ll earn 30% commissions on any AWOL products you sell. You’ll also make 3% commissions on any products your direct referrals sell to others. Seeing tiered commissions in an affiliate program is a rare phenomenon and reminiscent of MLMs.

To become (and remain) an affiliate, you will need to pay $39.95/month. You will also be required to purchase Traffic Academy. So, this is not something to just delve into unless you are fairly sure you can convince others to purchase AWOL products.

Is AWOL Academy worth the money?

The key question you’re probably asking yourself here is whether or not AWOL Academy is worth its hefty price tag. In this case, the answer isn’t a simple yes or no. However, there are different pros and cons to consider when looking into this program:

Pros

In-depth training– The amount of training material and videos within AWOL Academy courses is significant and detailed. The lessons are well-planned and go beyond what you would simply find online.

Keala Kanae knows his stuff– You don’t build a high-level course of this caliber without know what you’re talking about. Keala is often praised for the high-quality of this teaching ability.

Direct access to program creators– At the higher level trainings offered by AWOL Academy, members can get one-on-one time with Keala and Kameron and have unique questions/issues answered. The member FB group and forum provide a means for online marketers to collaborate and bounce ideas off one another. AWOL Academy is definitely not a program where you will be left to fend for yourself.

Cons

High ad spend– Much of AWOL Academy focuses on generating traffic and conversions through paid ads such as solo ads. As such, you will be spending a lot of money on advertising. So, if you don’t set up your campaigns correctly, you could easily go through hundreds or even thousands of dollars in the space of a few days. To its credit, AWOL Academy does note that its traffic and other programs are not for those students who are cash-strapped.

Pushy upsells– Once you find enough cash to purchase a program such as Pro Academy, you’ll be offered more selling secrets in Inbox Academy. Once you purchase Inbox Academy, you’ll be told that you should really purchase Traffic Academy. And so on. So, you’ll find yourself reaching for your wallet again and again.

AWOL promotion– AWOL Academy will certainly provide you with ‘done-for-you’ squeeze, landing, and thank you pages, but these pages are, to a great extent, geared towards promoting AWOL Academy itself. Sure, you could strip them down and tweak them to promote your own affiliate or other products. But that takes away from them being done for you.

Affiliate marketing isn’t cheap– AWOL Academy requires its affiliates to shell out almost $40/month in order to profit from AWOL product sales. This is rather unusual in the arena of affiliate marketing- most affiliate programs are free to promote. Additionally, you must purchase the nearly thousand dollar Traffic Academy.

AWOL Academy Review- is it a good buy or goodbye?

AWOL Academy is no scam, but it ain’t cheap either.

Whether or not AWOL is something you purchase will depend on you financial standing and Internet marketing goals. It may be that this system will have everything you need to become a successful online marketer. Or, it may cost you more than you are comfortable spending.

What are your thoughts on AWOL Academy? Please leave your response in the comments below.