I upgraded To Yearly - Why?

Many people contemplating about upgrading to yearly. I agree $359 is a huge investment. I'm not a CRAZY wealthy affiliate fan nor do i actively promote WA. Before I upgraded to yearly, I've considered many other options and did my research on WA (As much as i could). So I'll give my opinions on why I've upgraded to yearly premium (Besides the fact that it is cheaper than monthly).

Prior To Upgrading

I definitely went on google to search "Is Wealthy Affiliate a scam?".
It took awhile to dig through loads of WA member websites before finding NON-WA member reviews. Whats worse?

You will have to double check if those reviews are written unbiased and not by rivals trying to steal business. Wealthy Affiliate does hint and teaches referral affiliates to do "Is ____ a scam?" reviews, however, there are bound to be Wealthy Affiliate black sheep that needlessly BASHES WA rival products/courses/communities. This made Wealthy Affiliate looked bad and begin to gain a bad reputation. Then comes the rivals who took FULL ADVANTAGE of this situation. They will write reviews of WA being a scam, consequently stating that its owners are preaching this unethical bashing, ending it off with PROMOTING their own products! Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is one reason why you will see many mixed opinions on WA.
I was getting tired of seeing Site 'Build It' constantly promoting themselves after bashing WA (Aren't they doing the same thing then?!) (Again, this is just my opinion from what i see)
Eventually, I managed to dig through to find reviews of people who quitted after 2~3 years and began to understand their point of views. Some believe that $359 is overpriced, as they felt like they would not use some of the features / they can start a business as easy just spending half the price of that.

I'm not sure about those reasons but I do know these below.

To make a successful business out of blogging, we need:

• At least 6 months to see any good STABLE results. I'm not basing this off WA blog posts only, many popular bloggers and newly succeeding bloggers outside of WA preach the same.
  
• Be consistent in churning out content.
• Content must be quality.

It DOES NOT matter if you enroll in Wealthy Affiliate or any other blogging/'affiliate marketing through website building' course, it all follows a general guideline. (Which is laid out in WA lessons btw) Once you got all those down, it just takes time.
However, to achieve those above points, it takes up A LOT OF TIME. Unless you are an expert writer, which many of us aren't, you will need multiple revisions and research to get out good content. (Bonus: Learn Content Curation if you have trouble churning out consistent good content)
This is why I chose to upgrade to yearly premium in Wealthy Affiliate despite all the drama in the reviews.

For approximately $30/month, I get

1. Domain hosting (No biggie about this)
   
2. Site-Support - Their response time and help is insane! They reply within 15 minutes and provide great solutions to help my website out whenever i have issues. This is so important as I can focus on my articles and never worry about my website issues. However, do note that once your website gains stable high traffic, you need to start learning how to resolve many technical issues, so as to not over-rely on WA. (In case anything ever happens to WA and you need to jump ship, which hopefully doesn't happen)
3. Readily accessible knowledge. Although many of WA members are new to making money online and the different business models, there are experienced members that have their own businesses outside of WA. They write very good answers and blog posts in WA that is a valuable addition to what i can search online.
4. Keyword Tool - I don't have to spend extra money to get myself a keyword tool. The one within WA is good enough. It is also integrated within the WA interface so it is very accessible and convenient.
5. Constant Motivating Environment - Feeling unmotivated? Don't kid yourself, the whole main page of Wealthy Affiliate is all about motivation and inspiration. Keeps you going everyday.
6. Site Content - What other blogging or business course gives you this? It looks better than the word-press editor (To me) and includes readily accessible CC0 images search. I absolutely loved the circle crop.

To me, these are the important factors that got me upgrading. There are other features too but I don't use them as much. If I am going to invest in something to build me a passive income, I will want to focus all my attention into the important points such as writing quality content, marketing my website, driving traffic to my website, building a brand, building my social media and building my YouTube Channel. I definitely do not want to waste my time having to deal with website problems and contacting different customer supports from different companies.

Many people who quit after a year of seeing no success, are not doing the following:

1. Constantly looking for ways to improve everything about your site/brand. As an entrepreneur, you have to assume there is always a better option to everything. Look back at your previous articles more frequently, check for mistakes and any way you can reduce the bounce rate of visitors.
   
2. Focus on providing value over getting sales. With more value comes more traffic. Then you can begin to strategically monetize your site.
3. Continue pressing forward while finding out what the problems are. The niche of their website may be too competitive, however, they have been producing good content! This may mean that their site takes longer to rank well compared to smaller niche sites! Maybe if they did not give up and continued for a few more months they would have succeeded.
   

These are just my thoughts and opinions, you have no obligation to follow them. I'm not a Wealthy Affiliate promoter but I can see benefits when they are right in front of me. Do your research before you upgrade to premium or yearly, then decide. Don't just listen to one or two people, look all over the internet and dig deeper until you understand what you really want.

Affiliate marketing is not get rich quick scheme and we all know it, yet we question ourselves why we are not earning any money yet. This is because deep down inside we all still want to reach success using the shortest route possible.
Believe in the system. Believe in your hard work. Working hard is not enough, you have to work smart.

All the best to everyone who know their direction. Taking action is more important than simply learning.

See you guys here in a years time with my success post.

*I'm really not promoting WA nor am I brainwashed by their very inviting and converting services, I weighed my options and believed this is the best option for me.