Premium membership at Wealthy Affiliate: 4 reasons to just do it!

There are not many posts here at Wealthy Affiliate which are quite so sales oriented as this one might seem at first glance. And yet I am going to talk about 4 reasons why you should take out a Premium Membership at Wealthy Affiliate if you possibly can.

To that aim, this post is aimed primarily at 3 sets of people here:

1) Starter members who are still on the starter program

2) Premium members who might be considering quitting

3) Anyone who is currently promoting Wealthy Affiliate per se because it deals with a mindset shift which you need to acknowledge.

Which one are you currently?

Now I could talk about all the differences in the features and benefits that you get between starter membership and premium membership, and there are many, many reviews online which will go down that route, and I will later.

But first, I am going to talk about some important other reasons as to why I think it is a good idea, which you may, or may not have considered during your time here.

Firstly, let me congratulate all the starter members on joining WA in the first place. It takes a certain amount of trust to join up, even though it is free, sometimes there is a psychological barrier that stops people from taking the action they know will help them. The 'fear of failure' kicks in, or the 'fear of being scammed' definitely kicks in when you are asked for your details on the internet. But you persevered, you signed up, and you are now in the privileged position to see exactly what this community is like for yourself.

I know you will not be disappointed and I congratulate you on your decision.

So why go (or stay) premium?

Many people will agonize over this decision and the 'scarcity' policy of the limited time to claim the month 1 discount, may add to the pressure that starter members feel. I am not here to add to that pressure, but to ease it, and this is why.

Reason no. 1:

You need to think like a business owner, not an employee

Many people find Wealthy Affiliate when they are looking for a way to increase their income. Unfortunately for many, that usually means that at the time, they think they do not have enough income in the first place.

Many people are searching for 'online jobs' or ways to make money quickly, but their circumstances are such that they cannot take on an extra job. This might be because of family commitments, studying, retirement or the fact that they already have another job which takes up most of their working week.

The 'problem' (if that is the right word) with this mindset is that the need to earn money is stronger than the desire to create an online business, so a few things happen:

1. You desperately try to do everything you can to monetize your site as quickly as possible, perhaps skipping a few lessons on the way, in the hope that this will bring in the money quickly
2. You want to swap your time spent working, with a wage - just like in the 'outside' world. You feel that if you spend 10 hours building a site you should see some monetary reward for that time spent, and are disappointed if that doesn't appear each day, let alone each month!
3. You spend more time than is appropriate watching statistics, checking analytics all the time, desperately hoping for a breakthrough in the early stages that is not likely to come;
   
4. You begin to get despondent because you are not meeting your 'get more money now' needs and then start to think that WA doesn't work, and finally
5. You QUIT!

This is the mindset of a desperate person who needs money, rather than that of an online entrepreneur. And let me tell you, I know because I was that person!

When you are in this mindset, you are still thinking like an employee. Most of your thoughts are about the LACK of money, rather than how to CREATE IT.

Robert Kiyosaki in his book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" explored the difference in mindset between an employee and an entrepreneur with his 'cashflow quadrant.

Here, the employee is still trading his or her time for money, expecting to be paid for the hours they work. Their income is limited to the hours they put in, but there is the expectation here that time spent will be rewarded.

Now look at the employer mindset instead. Here there is a different outlook where the person is more concerned with building assets than swapping their time for money. In fact, a goal of this mindset is to get to a point where the time you spend on your business does not affect your income greatly.

In fact, if we look at the difference in the WEALTH of the different mindsets, we can see that 5% of the people, have 95% of the wealth - and they are not the employees!

And I believe that the employer/investor mindset is what we need to cultivate here at WA.

You cannot think of this as a job. You MUST think of it as a LONG-TERM BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY. I believe that if you are thinking like this, then you will do everything in your power to learn how to create a site that makes money, and premium membership then becomes a must.

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Reason no. 2:

You need to think investment rather than income in the short term

On the back of reason number 1, and related to it, is reason number 2. For this to work, you need to think longer-term. You need to set aside the money, ideally I think for one year's membership and see it as an INVESTMENT rather than a LIABILITY!

The cost of starter membership is zero yes, and you can earn money as a starter member - many people do - but I believe that it will take you longer than if you were a premium member.

The real issue is that if you are NOT considering your time and money spent here as an investment, you are still in the mindset of and employee discussed above.

How different would it be, if you approached this as a one-year investment project and set a schedule and budget accordingly?

If I was going to do a college course, I would not expect to learn everything in the first month and to get my degree in month 2. I would manage my expectations more realistically and expect to study for 3 years and get my degree at the end.

If I was starting a traditional high-street business such as a cafe or retail shop, I would not expect to sell all my stock in the first month. I would budget and schedule to sell the stock over a period of time and give myself a realistic time frame for making a profit. I would expect to pay for things or INVEST upfront in the stock, shop, staff etc. and work out that this investment would pay for itself in the long run, and some!

If I told you that you were signing up to at least one year at WA and you should look to turn a profit in that time, would your expectations and mindset shift?

Probably. So let's look at the costs concerned with a WA yearly membership.

• First month discounted membership: $8
  
• Subsequent months 2 -12: $49 per month
  
• Let's say you buy 2 or your own domains to support your investment too: Approx $32
  

Total outlay for business in year one: $579

Where else can you start a business for that little money? In my area of the UK, it costs £49 per week fjust to rent a small market stall and that is without buying any stock!!1

If you took up the annual membership at $349, total annual costs would be less than $400. Black Friday deals are even better!

Most people starting a traditional business will spend that on printing headed paper and compliment slips!!

The motivating question you need to ask yourself is this:

Can I make an income greater than $579 in my first year at Wealthy Affiliate?

The answer is definitely yes if you follow the training, implement the actions recommended and stick with it.

But most people are stuck thinking, 'where can I get the $49 to pay for the membership from?'

I understand that this is a legitimate question for many people - I was that person too - but honestly, that kind of thinking held me back.

When I committed to finding the investment money each month rather than expecting to earn it here, everything changed. I took out an annual membership, my focus shifted into working on my site knowing that my hard work would pay off eventually and I committed for a year.

And yes, to answer the question: I have already made nearly half of that annual investment sum back in only 7 months. But here's the important point - I did not earn anything until month 5. If I had quit in month 3, I would have earned nothing at all.

Here's what I did to find the money - I took on an extra teaching job - just one hour a week but it did the trick. So I found the money outside of WA and decided this was going to be my long term business - I was not hoping this would pay me in the first few months and I was no longer worried if the money didn't come in.

The great motivational speaker, Tony Robbins, would say that the DECISION is the most important thing, followed by TAKING ACTION to make it happen, and I believe he's right.

If you can DECIDE you are going to find and invest the money, then you will find a way to do it. And here are some good ideas on how to find the money if you decide to:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/100-ways-to-make-mo...

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Reason no. 3:

Your rewards are in the future, but they are there

Again, related to reason 2, is reason 3. You need to think about this business as a long-term process. People do get rich. People do become millionaires and people do get the freedom to live the laptop lifestyle that many of us are searching for.

So thinking long-term is a good thing here. It generally takes around 6 months before the search engines begin to look at your sites seriously and before your posts start really ranking. You can see some great information and inspiration from a few colleague's blogs below:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/how-long-does-it-ta...

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/how-long-does-it-ta...

And here's some proof that it works too:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/onebluemoon/blog/7-years-of-...

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Reason no. 4:

You get much more for your money!

The main point of this post is to tackle the difference in the mindset of premium vs. starter members, business owners and employees, rather than to discuss the additional features and benefits that you get with the premium service.

However, if you accept the mindset shift that I have discussed above, then looking down the list of additional features that you will get with premium membership is like see the icing on the cake.

So here are the benefits: nicely presented in a table:

Now, having seen them, can you see that they are the tools that will help you get from where you are to where you want to be?

And isn't that the reason you joined in the first place? Because you have a desire for something better in your life?

So go on, take the plunge. Invest in yourself and your business - settle down to the mindset and long-term goals of a BUSINESS OWNER, rather than the insecurity and panic of a job seeker.

You cannot expect to substantially increase your income in a few short weeks, or fix your financial dilemmas in that time either - but you DEFINITELY CAN start to build a sustainable online business which may take time to establish, but which will have much more autonomy and potential in the long run.

One final word on this. If you upgrade to premium, you CANNOT then downgrade to starter membership again. But why would you want to when you have seen all the benefits that premium membership offers? However, you CAN cancel and restart premium if you really need to and pick up where you left off. See: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/leoemery/blog/can-you-cancel...

So here it is - my call to action:

Affiliate disclaimer: Some people will benefit if you go premium, yes. They will earn a small commission. And they are hopefully the people who have been helping you in your journey so far, and the ones who will continue to help you as you build your business in the future.

And when you get your own referrals, I'm sure you will continue the wonderful Wealthy Affiliate 'pay it forward' tradition, and earn some rewards for yourself.

I wish you all the best with your online businesses.

Thanks for reading and I'd love to hear your comments so please leave them below.

All the best

Gail