My Negative Experiences With Wealthy Affiliate So Far

bygothdad

66 followers

Updated 6 years ago

I used to think of the years I spent enduring hardship as "lost" or "wasted." I would obsess over every cent and second that could have been "spent better."

Over time, I shifted my perspective to think of these negative experiences as gains—not just losses. I gained wisdom from every bump in the road. I gained knowledge from mistakes. I came to think of the things I lost—money, time, health, or relationships—as payments rendered for a good lesson. And the great thing about a lesson is that no one can take it from you. Most things in life are ephemeral, but knowledge endures.

With that view, I'd like to make a post about the negative experiences I've had at Wealthy Affiliate so far—and how I am converting these experiences into lessons that empower me.

THE TRAINING STRUCTURE DID NOT WORK FOR ME

The training at Wealthy Affiliate punctuates each lesson with a call to action, and asks the reader to proceed with these actions before moving onto the next lesson. Many of the people who welcomed me to the site emphasized the importance of sticking to this formula, so I obliged and followed the steps.

This turned out to be a mistake. Why? Because I needed the information in later lessons to make a fully informed decision about actions prompted in earlier lessons.

For example: I was asked to pick a niche and pay for a domain name. I did this before I understood keywords. Only in later lessons did I learn how to generate keyword-relevant content and utilize keyword research tools. Once I researched keywords within my chosen niche, I realized that I wouldn't be able to write about the topics within the niche that actually excited and entertained me.

I also came in with pre-conceived notions about how affiliate marketing worked. I thought I could join a program before I had any content and write only reviews! In later lessons, these preconceived notions were dispelled—but not before I had spent money on the wrong domain name. Outside of writing product reviews, I really didn't have much to say about my chosen niche!

HOW I TURNED THIS INTO A LESSON

Everyone has a different learning style. Some people are action-oriented and learn best by doing. Some people are research-oriented and learn best by reading before they act.

Picture the act of throwing a baseball. An action-oriented person will learn to throw by getting out there, throwing the ball 100 times, and making adjustments as they go along. A reasearch-oriented person needs to look at a diagram first. What should their posture look like? What are the steps? Without this "prep" phase, a research-oriented person will feel lost and overwhelmed when you put the ball in their hand. And if you try to make an action-oriented person read before they do, they'll give up!

My learning style has always been research-oriented. I identified this in my early teens and leveraged this self-awareness for success. It manifested: I graduated college Magna Cum Laude with an Honors College diploma.

The $15.99 I spent on the "wrong" domain name was just the price I paid for a simple lesson: I know myself best, and I don't have to do things someone else's way.

This realization lead me to my real niche.

If there's one thing I know, it's independent learning. Throughout my formal education, I advocated for myself and negotiated ways to deviate from the curriculum. Not to cut myself a break, but to truly challenge myself and maximize my individual learning style.

Right now, there are countless people on the internet who want to learn something new—be it a language, a skill, or a new hobby—but don't want the constraints of a structured, formal learning environment. I have been through the process of self-education many times—from the research phase, to time management, to action—and I feel confident about advising others on that journey.

This time, when I reserached keywords, I found plenty of potential article topics—and I'm far more excited about this niche than my original one! I also have plenty of relevant content to offer besides simple product reviews.

I am also going through the Wealthy Affiliate training my way: reading everything first, so that I have a full sense of context when I'm ready to implement concrete steps.

No apologies!

THE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IS... EERIE?

One of the major selling points of Wealthy Affiliate is the community of helpful people who are there to answer your questions 24 hours a day. My "sponsor" described an atmosphere of warmth and support that factored heavily into my decision to "go Premium" on Wealthy Affiliate.

During my first couple of days on W.A., this highly social aspect of the site really drew me in. But then it started getting a little... weird.

When I bought the Premium membership, it seemed like a hundred different members descended on me at once to congratulate me. And 90% of them used the same box of words. They told me I'd made a "wise decision"... over and over again. Every message was replete with cheer about how "achievable" my dreams were. There was almost no variation in phrasing. It was a little Stepfords Wives-y. Was I being initiated into a cult? At one point, I asked a question and received a copy-paste response that was woefully unrelated to my query.

A little further into the training, I realized that community engagement was incentivized, and that there was even an entire training track dedicated to making people excited about Wealthy Affiliate. No doubt that training was where a lot of the canned phrasing came from. I also figured out that there are specific calls to action throughout the site: Welcome three new people. Comment on three new people's sites. And so on.

No wonder so many of the comments felt like someone doing math homework!

HOW I TURNED THIS INTO A LESSON

This integrated lack of authenticity was obviously a major turn-off. But it also highlighted something else: the people who were really trying.

Though in the vast minority, a few people clearly did read my biography and responded with unique and relevant feedback. They took the time to really socialize. And they stood out for it.

This showed me how I can really stand out as well. And it presented me with a choice: I can either model what I want to receive, or I can put in minimum effort and get minimum return.

Forced cheer and generic, copy-and-paste encouragement is not who I am. The fact that I am writing this post should highlight that I am someone who is not afraid to confront the negative. I also believe that negativity can be productive if we respond to it wisely.

Therefore, I choose to respond to this by making a committment to only post authentic, dedicated responses. I firmly believe that people tend to echo what they receive from the world, which means that every time I post authentic content, I amplify that authenticity by motivating others to do the same. That's an empowering thought.

THE QUALITY OF THE CONTENT IS LACKING

For a site that preaches the mantra, "Content is King," Wealthy Affiliate's training articles have a shocking quality problem. I am currently on training module number four, and have found almost every article so far replete with spelling and grammar errors, outdated information, and redundancy.

Many of the spelling and grammar errors are the product of letting the spell-check robot do all the editing work. (Eg. "Today I'd like to discussion how to...") Outdated information is evident throughout, such as screenshots of W.A.'s previous user interface or the assertion that Twitter only allows 140 characters (it's been 280 for close to a year). At one point, the author even left the name of a plug-in as a placeholder (""), clearly intending to fill it in later and forgetting.

The way the training videos work with the written content is also frustrating. A good training video will either provide something that is not covered in the text portion of the lesson, or else only cover what is repeated in text. That way, people will know whether the videos are an essential, separate portion of the lesson, or merely a visual form of what's written in the article.

Wealthy Affiliate's videos walk the frustrating middle ground of being neither. 90% of what's covered in the video might be what's already in the text portion, while 10% is something absolutely essential that isn't mentioned elsewhere.

For example, the lesson on inserting Affiliate Links has a complete walk-through in the text portion, which almost renders the video optional. But if you watch the entire video, Kyle drops an essential piece of information toward the end: that pasting affiliate links on every page of your website will hurt your rankings. I had to watch the video to learn this, which means I'm essentially going over the link lesson twice.

This kind of redunancy is an inefficient use of time for a learner.

HOW I TURNED THIS INTO A LESSON

My niche is independent study. Learning how to get what you need out of mixed-quality content online is essential for people who want to be in charge of their own education.

Because at the end of the day, the actual knowledge I'm gaining from the Wealthy Affiliate training is truly invaluable. In just over a week, I've gone from feeling that affiliate marketing is some abstract, distant concept, to feeling that it's something I have a basic handle on and can realistically achieve. (There's that word!)

For all the criticism I just laid down, the underlying knowledge that Wealthy Affiliate delivers is solid, and it's related in an accessible way. If it were trash, there wouldn't be any point in criticism. Take it from a former art student: if people really spend their time and energy tearing into your art, it means your art is working!

I can take my experience and convert it into content for my website. How do you parse through an imperfect delivery to get to the knowledge you need?

PRIVACY FAIL

My final negative experience with Wealthy Affiliate so far was a pretty startling privacy violation.

When I signed up for Wealthy Affiliate, I was asked to choose a username. I was also asked for my real name and email address.

When a website asks you to generate a username—particularly a website with a social media element—there is an established understanding that this username will be your public-facing ID. I have never in my life encountered a sign-up in which I was asked both for a username and my real name, and had both published.

But Wealthy Affiliate does. It publishes your first name.

I was completely unprepared for this and panicked when I suddenly saw a slew of comments addressing me by my real name. I looked my profile up and down but could only see my username. Nowhere did I see where my real name might have been published.

It turns out that when another user hovers over your photo, they can see your real first name. I was never given a warning this would happen, and I had no reason to expect that it would happen, since I had been asked to pick a username/handle.

Of the issues I've had with Wealthy Affiliate so far, this is the only one that strikes me as really serious.

HOW I TURNED THIS INTO A LESSON

The only lesson to be gained here was to rid myself of the assumption that websites that ask for usernames won't also publish your real name. Just because that's always been true in my past experiences, doesn't mean it's true. In a world where our privacy is increasingly under attack, it's beneficial to all of us to stay abreast of new norms and armor ourselves as best we can. This was partly my fault for not being more net savvy.

THE OVERALL EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN POSITIVE

Now that I've gone into detail about every negative experience I've had on Wealthy Affiliate so far, let me end by pointing something out:

We often complain about what's wrong, but we rarely stop to acknowledge what's right.

The majority of my experience with W.A. so far has been positive. I am truly learning something new. I wake up excited to research content for my website. And literally every single time I've had a question or required support, I have gotten a solid and thoughtful answer, even if I had to weed through some less helpful responses. The website has a truly ridiculous amount of empowering resources, and the price is not exploitative.

Based on my experience so far, it feels entirely worthwhile to stick around. I plan to devote a lot of time and energy to pursuing success through this platform. For me, really digging into the negative aspects of something is an essential part of making that kind of judgment call.

Your friendly neighborhood stoic,
G.D.