Today we will be releasing some updates to the way that member rank works at Wealthy Affiliate. We're excited about these changes and we think they are going to further make rank at WA more accurately show how active, engaged, and helpful folks are.

Pay it Forward

This is a phrase that Kyle and I adopted from square one at Wealthy Affiliate. Way back in 2005 when we started WA and saw the need for an interactive community to teach Online Business, we started to "Pay it Forward" and build this into the roots of what WA is.

Paying it forward simply means that you will get help, get your questions answered, and have others lend a hand whenever they can. In turn, you will then have some answers that you can help others with when they have questions. Helping one another is another way to look at it!

Our update today with regards to ranking and working towards ambassadorship takes into consideration how you pay it forward. Do you reply to people who have questions or are looking for feedback? Have you passed along any information that you learned from someone else? These are the kinds of things that are now taken into consideration within your WA Rank.

Helpful means being Well Rounded Too!

Being "well rounded" means you are paying it forward across the spectrum of communication platforms in WA. Helping someone out when they have questions, in live chat, on WA blogs, in classroom discussions etc. There are many ways to pay it forward and we consider this within the latest update.

90% of questions at Wealthy Affiliate get answered, and although that is incredible, it's still not good enough. Everyone deserves an answer and we are building the technology so that questions can be found and answered more quickly. As such, response time plays an important role in the latest update.

When it comes to training, we continue the trend of Paying it Forward and Rankings. If you have something that you want to share with others that works for you, that's great and you are more than welcome to publish. We will continue to closely monitor training to make sure all training added to WA is helpful, easy to follow, and free of any promotions or links to external sites. Together we can contribute, evolve, and continue to be the most helpful community in the online business world!

What will happen to your Rank?

Your rank may go up, it may go down, or it may stay exactly the same. Your points may show more in one category and less in another and this fluctuation will happen now and in the future. Some aspects of our algorithm give more weight to certain metrics, and less to others. With every update we make you can expect to see fluctuation in your points. So, don't worry yourself about your "points". If you pay it forward and are well rounded in regards to being helpful, your WA rank will reflect that.

Everything that Kyle and I do at Wealthy Affiliate is designed and built with utmost quality in mind and will always focus on this. We strive to be the most helpful community, have the easiest to use platform, and in turn help members become the most educated, trained, and successful online business owners in the world.

This update follows these goals and will help to move the entire community in a positive and forward thinking direction.

Carson