Do you want a small lemonade stand or do you want...
With Wealthy Affiliate, you can have both, but one is going to be a fair bit more profitable than the other. I’m talking about the Starter and Premium membership levels.
It can be hard to visualize the differences online. A lot of people assume that just because it’s online it should be: easy, free, and make a ton of money. Let’s take the business offline and compare two concrete business ideas and remove the digital aspect of it all.
First, we have the Starter membership, or the lemonade stand you set up on your front yard. You build the stand with a few materials around your house, you hand draw your sign, you make your lemonade with what you find in your pantry and you tell your friends and family to come by to check out your work and have a drink.
It’s simple, and it’s free.
Yes, you’re going to make “your first dollar” setting up a free lemonade stand, but ultimately, you’re going to have to spend some money and upgrade your shop substantially.
This is how I view the Starter membership here at Wealthy Affiliate. It’s GREAT for getting your feet wet here. You get the opportunity to setup your lemonade stand and make your first dollar online, but at some point, you’re going to need to upgrade to really open your opportunities online.
If the Starter membership is a lemonade stand on your front yard, the Premium membership is your own retail juice shop in the middle of a bustling city. The thing is, setting up shop in the middle of a city isn't free. You have overhead costs (rent, utilities, permits), staff costs (salaries, benefits, health insurance), business costs (a business plan, a lawyer) and advertising costs (tv commercials, ads in the newspaper, etc.)
If you were going to open up an actual juice shop, you’re going to spend tens of THOUSANDS of dollars just to get started. You’ll be putting in long, stressful hours over months or even years before you break even and can begin to pay off the massive bank debts you likely accrued just trying to open the store.
You to spend more money with a “premium” shop, but you have a better opportunity to make a lot more money.
Let’s insert the Internet back into this equation now.
With the Wealthy Affiliate and a Premium membership, you now have the same opportunity to make the same as that retail shop owner (and in many cases, much MUCH more) without having to risk such large sums of money. I’m not going to say it’s easier to reach that level, because it is still WORK, but the work can be much less stressful.
A Premium Membership at Wealthy Affiliate gets you that street-level storefront (unlimited web hosting), the business plans (the certification courses and weekly webinars), the staff (one-on-one support, a dedicated hosting support team), and so much more.
At some point, you’re going to have to invest a little into your business before you can start to see some bigger returns.
I’ve already upgraded my account and invite you to come do the same! Now’s the perfect opportunity to build that global juice empire!
Click here and become a Premium member today :)
Steve
Recent Comments
485
I really wish I could upgrade to premium as soon as possible but being a student that I am, I can't really afford it now. I really want to progress with WA and my online business. I guess I'll just have to wait until my ducks are in a row.. I really really want to make this work
Dear Steve! I understand the comparison and I have already understood how much opportunity I have in being a member of the Prize. And that here in Brazil, things are not so easy for those who want to work online internationally. And this is what I want to do once I can get into Wealthy Affiliate Premium, I want to help Brazilians and others from other countries overcome government bureaucracies to become "World Citizens." Hugs:)
Hi all,
I am glad to see that I am not the only one with budget constraints.
If I had the funds I would have gone Premium long ago, but unfortunately I do not so I am preparing myself once again to be cut off in nearly everything.
When I make money on-line I will definitely go Premium!
Good article Steve. I can see that Wealthy Affiliate is really for me, however the recurring fee of $49 every month is a bit steep for me at this point. I know from mathematics the sum amount of WA Premium per annual is still costs much lesser than opening a brick-and-mortar shop, but it still a huge chunk of money.
Alas, keep up producing a good article!
i really wanna give it a try but the thing is that my budget doesnt allow me to do that. I will for sure when I can afford it. This is not an excuse of mine, its just my actual financial situation at the moment. I hope I can learn a lot valuable lessons from others with my standard membership so that I could start up my online business soon and then get back and upgrading to premium membership. thank you all
I'll admit to being quite scared to upgrade, then not be able to do anything with WA if my personal financial situation doesn't even out soon.
I had been planning on upgrading for this first month with the special offer, then dropping back if my and my families' heath issues persist. Now I think I have to hold off on upgrading entirely until I know I can have the money together for the first few months at least (currently living on a mostly broken shoestring).
So, yes, I completely see what you mean, and I wish I could do it. But, I will keep pushing forward and hopefully will be able to upgrade within the year.
I understand all the points and premium is certainly worth it. If you're sure you can afford it GO for it. But if you can't I think its better to remain a starter member until you do (that's my position now). You can earn your first few dollars in the meantime until you get on your feet and afford premium (that's my hope).
I chose to go premium the first day and yearly premium on my one month renewal. Unfortunately I did not sign up through an affiliate link so I have no mentor :( I fully agree with what you wrote above and encourage anyone reading this now to take a leap of faith and click the link above! Go premium!
Wonderful stuff! I want premium so bad because with the free startup I will always feel like I am eating a plain pizza when I can go premium and get the extra cheese and all my favourite toppings. Working on my prepaid card! Premium soon will be opened to me. I am really learning a lot so far!
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At my present state of indoctrination to the business and the fact that I have not yet started a formal product line nor do I have any work behind me on the web site, it appears that my first training project may very well be a small lemonade stand to help me with the ropes. If I'm properly indoctrinated, I can start on the big lemonade stand soon.