Are You Leveraging Your Community?

Community is what sets Wealthy Affiliate apart from other websites.

Yes, there is a phenomenal amount of information here.

Yes, we get free tools, hosting, and resources here.

But the community is what is most valuable.

We are a sociable species.

In most cases, we cannot survive without aid or support from others. And we certainly cannot thrive.

Imagine, for example, if you had to find your own food every day, or gather the resources to build your home and erect it yourself. Would you have the skills or means to accomplish those things? Or would you likely be hungry and cold or wet much of the time? (Unless I developed a taste for twigs and enjoyed the natural skylight of a leafy canopy, I probably would be! ;-)

Communities of people come together and share those tasks. People of diverse talents share their skills, lightening the load for everyone. When one comes across a bountiful resource, he'll tend to share it with the others. And when the task simply requires extra hands, it's more easily done when everyone pitches in.

That's what we do at Wealthy Affiliate.

Kyle and Carson have nurtured an environment that encourages community support and engagement. They model it by being present to help members every day, by creating training aimed at helping us all to succeed, and by continuing to develop the tools and design we need in this platform as it continues to expand and evolve.

And many members have followed suit.

People who have great tech backgrounds offer assistance to new members who are having trouble setting up WordPress.

Those with a good eye for copy happily review websites upon request and offer constructive suggestions for improvement.

A newbie hanging out on the forum or in live chat may even be able to direct another new member to a resource within Wealthy Affiliate he just can't seem to locate.

The most successful members -- looking either at ranking within WA or at actual success from their own businesses -- are the ones who engage, ask questions, support other members, and provide added value to the community.

And I'll bet you'll find the same is true of their successful websites -- that they consistently offer quality content and added value to create credibility within their niche. This builds trust with their target audience and leads to the sales and success we are all seeking.

Do you engage with your community?

I want you to think about the "gurus" of our time. Those marketers (or successful entrepreneurs in any field) who make six-figure incomes, while we struggle to make our first dollar. The ones whose product launches seem to be overnight sensations, while we still haven't sold a single thing for months.

Do you think they do it alone?

No.

They are successful because of communities.

Communities of beta-testers who offer glowing testimonials to display on the website and build trust, in exchange for a free review copy of the product. Communities of joint-venture partners who agree to send a post out to their list in exchange for an affiliate commission. Communities of people who just love their product and rave about it on Facebook, Google+, coffeehouses, and family gatherings.

These gurus are successful because they engage with their communities, and they maximize the reach and potential of their communities.

We are all part of multiple communities -- at work, in our neighborhoods, in social clubs we belong to, or here at Wealthy Affiliate.

And we have more reach than we realize within each of them.

I heard a heartwarming story on the radio of a story last month that spoke of a seven-year old boy befriending his elderly neighbor. He helped reunite the man with a sister he hadn't seen in 65 years, through some fast detective work on Facebook. (You can Google "Betty Billadeau and Clifford Boyson" to watch the news video and read about it.)

In that case, it was one person leveraging his resources and influence in one community that helped create a successful outcome for a person in another community.

If a 7-year old boy can engage with his community (first his neighbor, then Facebook) and leverage the resources he has, shouldn't we be able to do the same?

Are you leveraging your community?

Do you have a job?

Then you are part of a community who is helping your boss get richer. It may be a lopsided, dysfunctional community where you work alot harder for alot less pay than he does, but by agreeing to do that work you've agreed to join in the community. And because of the time and talent you contribute to that community, someone is making alot of money.

Your boss is leveraging your contribution of skills and willingness to work in order to build wealth for himself.

Why not contribute something in a way that makes yourself alot of money?

Engage with other members here at Wealthy Affiliate and build relationships.

Blog about your experiences, about some insight you've gotten here, or about something interesting and fun to brighten the day of someone who's struggling. Share what you know through answering others' questions or creating training in an area of proficiency. Build your credibility by contributing something worthwhile to the community.

Ask for honest reviews of your articles or websites, or for comments on a blog you're trying to rank. Do the same for your fellow members.

By helping to support a strong community, and making yourself known as someone knowledgeable and reliable, you will plant seeds that grow into opportunities, joint business ventures, and support down the line when you need it most.

And you can translate these same contributions into success at your own website, by providing quality content, building relationships with your audience through comments/posts/newsletters/articles, and supporting them with any relevant issues they have.

Be a member of the community that others are excited to support.

It isn't always easy to engage, and it isn't always something you want to do at a particular time in your life.

I've been a member of Wealthy Affiliate since April 2009. Other than a couple-month period where things were too tight financially, I've been a Premium member for that entire time. I've been a "lurker" for most of that period, largely due to alot of personal things going on that made me withdraw alot and kept me from wanting to reach out or engage with anyone, even virtually.

But that doesn't work if you want to build a business.

You need to engage with your community, whether it is building a network of strong supporters here at WA who will cheer you on through the successes AND keep you going through the failures, or whether it is building a community on your websites to support your audience and keep them coming back.

BOTH of those things are necessary for success.

I've recommitted to doing those things for myself and my business, and I have seen notable gains in just the last month. I know from experience this works.

Engaging with your community lends you the ability to leverage your community's reach, which will lead to your long-term success.

I challenge everyone to engage with the community here at Wealthy Affiliate today.

Respond to a question you can help with. Post a blog on a topic useful to others. Post in the forum. Follow a new member, read their profile or blogs, and offer genuine support.

Then go to your own website and engage with your community there, even if you don't yet have traffic.

Write your next blog post. Respond to any comments on your site. Create valuable, compelling content to offer visitors. Write an article on a relevant topic someone is searching for, and link it back to your website, where you can better meet their needs.

At the core of it, is doing these things that have made Kyle and Carson so successful, and Wealthy Affiliate so popular. Building and nurturing our community is what will make us all successful.

Please feel free engage with me on this discussion in the comments below! ;-)