The Buying Power of Wealthy Affiliaite
Wow, I was so impressed and also felt a sense of pride to be associated with Wealthy Affiliate, reading that as a membership we had reached that mind boggling figure of 2 million members.
There is something about that, we can all buy into.
It is in the realms of eye watering figures.
My brain works in mysterious ways so bear with;
That is 2 million people who have had the opportunity to create real change in their lives. For me that is the stand out. I truly believe in the ripple effect;
When you take in all the loved ones, family, friends and associates of those members that figure could easily reach 10 million people.
For the ripple effect times it by five.
The marketing side of my brain, thinks, that is some email list, even 0.01 percent would get anyone's Pay Pal balance zinging.
Gee whiz imagine tapping into that membership list and mining for emails, captive audience, create a campaign, dangle a carrot, money in the bank.
Hold your horses Harry!
Fortunately, WA has a set of guidelines; one of which precludes members from marketing to other members;
There are two favorable outcomes;
1, It creates a safe learning environment, one where members can learn and grow, without the hassle of being marketed to every second of the day.
2, It gets members thinking outside the WA world, so marketing to the wider internet is the name of the game.
Well that's done and dusted.
Now for the bargain hunting side of my brain;
Everyone loves a bargain or the best deal. Everything we buy, tends to start with an online search, looking for value.
When you think about it the WA membership is a very large buying group; the total spend over and above the membership fees would be huge, taking into consideration, extra resources, premium themes, plugins, software's, etc.
A window of opportunity.
In terms of physical products, a logistical nightmare we are a global community.
The digital world on the other hand has become the core of the universe. It is one the one.
In the beginning the marketing journey can be a bootstrap affair, and for us folks learning the ropes there are products, software's, services that just sit outside the current pay scale, that could bring real value, or that you can not justify at the moment.
Out of reach.
Too much coffee yesterday, the mind is thinking; at 3 am as you do. I know it isn't that simple, but the buying power of the Wealthy Affiliate membership is pretty unique and large.
If I was a software company, theme or plugin developer, and you good folks came knocking on my door, I would say " you good folks can have a Black Friday deal every day of the year ".
Just putting it out there;
Tell me I am dreaming, and that I seriously need to look at my caffeine in take.
Or,
Bro that is actually a good idea.
I know we have all that we need to create a successful business already included with our WA membership. A helping hand to expand the horizons and build some gap filling bridges could be really helpful. Think of it as a family group discount.
Your thoughts?
Recent Comments
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Great post Alex. I've been thinking in a similar fashion on this issue for some time too. How can we leverage the size of this Community?
I have seen a number of posts recently, asking members to support each others' social media links or post their websites on their profile pages. All good stuff.
IMHO, what would be really helpful to achieve some of what you talk about is if everyone declared their niche categories on their profile pages. The same categories that are used in SiteComments could be used and members tick the boxes that apply to them and these categories are stamped on your profile page. This would make it easy to determine how many members are operating in a certain niche category, say Fitness or Health, and WA could go to suppliers with these numbers and see what deals could be done. It would also make it easier for members to connect with other like-minded members.
Hi Randall, that idea has merit, I would say it may take a little to get something like that off the ground. It could be worth the effort.
Apologies for the late reply.
Alex
I didn't realize it was now 2 million!
Personally, hearing that, I wonder how many of those 2 million members went on to become paid members. If 10% of those upgraded that would be 200,000 people.
And out of those paid members how many of them created a meaningful income within a reasonable amount of time (say 9 months).
One thing I don't quite understand is why we rarely hear of people reporting success. Occasionally, I check out that section "Success is Happening at Wealthy Affiliate" and it is nearly always filled with two types of cases.
(1) Success stories from years ago (2015 through very early 2018) or (2) success stories from the same few well known people
And, another thing is the recent years most of the cases seem to be people reporting money earned from WA referral commissions.
I don't mean to say people aren't making meaningful money from using the training in their niches... I am just saying I do not understand how there can be so many people using WA (possibly 200k paid members) and not have at least dozens of recent success stories from different people reporting a meaningful income not relying on referring people to WA.
It makes me wonder (1) did something happen in recent years to change things and / or (2) are most of the people making meaningful money doing so only by referring WA members?
OR... for some unknown reason... there really are tens of thousands of people here all making $1,000+ per month from non-WA referral niche sites who simply never share their stories.
There are a lot of niches out there and not everyone focuses on referring people to Wealthy Affiliate. The truth of the matter is that many who join WA do not end up succeeding and it has nothing to do with WA, it's because a lot of people simply give up when they don't see the type of results they were hoping for by a certain time.
They feel that the fruits of their labor did not appear at all and that it's time to move on. With that being said, there are those who stick around and work hard and do actually see success. They may not post a lot of their successes because they are focusing hard on their business. I can think of one member in particular who used to post his monthly results and then suddenly stopped. Not because he no longer is succeeding, but because he's focusing on other things in regard to his business.
There are also those who are here because of the wonderful community and want to be helpful and inspirational to others. While they may work on a business here, it's not as a high of a priority as their status is here at WA.
Thanks. I understand all of that. Definitely, only a tiny % of people will enjoy it enough to stick with it for the long haul. Heck, I started out 4 months ago very aggressive but ultimately found it to be like "pulling teeth" so I put it all to the side while I spent time really figuring out what I want to do. So I get that stuff.
I also get yes many people probably greatly enjoy the community aspects of the membership. Still... I would think a good number of those people are working on their sites and hope to create a meaningful income.
Again... we are talking about 2 MILLION people.
I think it would be highly valuable to everyone here to actually hear from some of these other people who have and are experiencing success with the program since 2018 in niches outside of promoting WA.
Again, I am not saying there aren't any. I am simply saying it would be great to SEE the people posting about it and that it seems strange that we do not see this happening. I think that is a completely valid question to ask... WHY?
You read my mind. I would also like to see more success stories from non-WA referral niches.
We are starting to see recent success stories coming through - Littlemama (Grace) and TDomena (Tiffany) come to mind as the real frontrunners in releasing their annual results and sharing tip and tricks. I absolutely applaud them for doing this. It is crucial to any new business to have role models and mentors to look up to. Motivational blogs ain't going to put food on the table or pay the bills, but real-life experiences, training and guidance will.
It is up to us to encourage more members to share their successes.
You're just not going to find a good answer or one you'll like. Case in point, the person I joined Wealthy Affiliate under. I follow him on Facebook and he is quite successful, but he is no longer an active person on Wealthy Affiliate. I don't remember the last time he made a blog or post on here.
I do know he did quite well here at Wealthy Affiliate because he had made it to Las Vegas quite a few times I think with his most recent being 2 years ago.
He has moved on and wanted to try and take his business in other things and in different directions based on what he learned here at WA. I know he's got a fairly new ebook that he's been focusing on and I think has been selling quite well. I never asked why he no longer comes to WA, but I know he's happy with what he's doing now and the foundation he set was through WA.
I think a lot of people here also became successful and feel maybe they no longer need WA to stay successful, especially with what they've learned here and so they put this wonderful platform on the backburner.
I know Kyle has said there are 2 million members here at WA, but I think a big majority of them are not active members any longer for whatever reason. There are a number of members I can remember who were great people the first few years I was here, but I haven't heard a lick from them the last couple of years.
Don't get me wrong, I get what you're saying, why don't more people post of their successes here, especially in other niches as I would love to see that myself. I just don't think there's one single good answer for that, but I do like whatever ones we can get from some members so at least it's something rather than nothing.
Absolutely agree that members should concentrate on their business first and foremost. And appreciate that for some members sharing their successes is not a priority compared to running a successful business. That is as it should be. Therefore, where members do share business successes with the rest of the Community, we should applaud them for doing so.
IMHO, I think we need to remind ourselves that whilst WA operates as an open, community-style forum, it is still a business platform, not Facebook. Your ranking at WA does not contribute to your business and therefore it should be seen as an EFFECT of your business success, not a CAUSE of it.
Littlemama is amazing and I love the recent successes she has been sharing with everyone here. Here's to hoping more people will share some of their successes.
Oh I totally agree with that. People should definitely focus on their business more than anything here, but we can't control what they decide to do here. Yes, your ranking does not contribute to their business, but I see a lot of people here tend to focus more on that than their business and I'll admit at one point I did too. I soon realized though that it is not getting me any closer to my goals and so I put my main focus back on my business and refining how I focus on that business too. I realized I spread myself too thin by focusing on 2 websites so I decided to focus on one, especially since I lost complete interest in the niche I was originally promoting on the other.
Yes, I hear you on the spreading yourself too thin. It's something I am very aware of because in my professional experience, I have seen many a good business good under because the owner(s) go distraction with the latest baubles of office.
WA has a great training and support platform, with access to some awesome expertise and experience, but this obsession some members have with writing inspirational blog after inspirational blog to support rankings cannot be good for their business.
The fact that you have the wherewithal to take a step back and reassess the direction of your business and identify what needed to be done to rectify the problem, is actually a rarer skill in business than we have been led to believe. I think you will do very well going forward.
Thank you for that. Things going on in my life has also put me in greater focus and determination to make myself be successful here. If you read my latest blog post here, you'll have read that I'm an engaged in a financial war and in order for me to get me out of this war faster than with whom I've enlisted, I need to build a thriving business and WA is the place to build a huge financial army. I'm going to continue to move forward in the Affiliate Bootcamp and build up my website in the process. I'm already earning some money from doing this so that's the beauty of it.
My mind went in a different way when writing about this recently.
Other than a very nice annual turnover fast approaching, that big number, about one quarter, would be paid to affiliates, that's about $150 Million every year.
We are shareholders
Peter h
Love it; Peter, that is a conversation on a whole different level.
One of the things that motivates me is that we can become affiliates for WA, by default of being a member and we can do it from the get go, by sharing that our affiliate links.
No need to apply, priceless.
Really like the way you expressed that, we are all stake holders.
Wealthy Affiliate, going from strength to strength.
A journey we can all share in.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I hear what you are saying, Tim, definitely, just creating a conversation.
One of the things that creates real value a nurturing environment.
What we have here in WA is priceless.
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I am bolder than you and say what I always tried to get across. If all members would just put there websites under their profile pictures with a short description what they do and a search opportunity to look for products and finding them, we indeed could be our own "closed system", "black box" or Cosco for a better word.
There are folks here that have what I would buy, but I don't remember their name.
I am totally with you, Alex!
Yes, exactly Petra. We can be each other's customers. More information needs to be included in our profile pages to facilitate this, maybe for each website say:
WEBSITE (domain name)
DESCRIPTION (character limit)
CATEGORY (Home & Garden, Health, etc)
That is a good idea...Some here will not want to share their website for fear of someone competing with them, but for those that do not mind, I think this is cool!
Cheers!
Dave : )
Hi Petra, thank you for sharing your thoughts, another line of thinking.
It is an interesting aspect of WA, we only get to see the web assets that members list; if we follow that member.
If we do not follow that member, or for that matter un-follow that member.
We do not get to see any web properties that are listed.
A little known, aspect.
WA runs on some pretty hi tech proprietary software and system's.
Having the ability to share assets, can have benefits for members and can create some excellent, opportunities.
It can be, problematic, if members start marketing directly to the community?
They don't have to market to us at all if they just list their websites with description and search function. It would be an easy one way street from us to them.
Can you propose this to Kyle and Carsten, please?
I am still busy battling with Tech Support, it's now a week with my site problem not to be able to add pages!