5 Ugly Truths about Wealthy Affiliate - My Personal Opinions on How WA Can be Better
I've recently written a post on my site compiling 5 things that I don't really like about Wealthy Affiliate and my suggestions on how they can be improved.
Here's the link:
https://smartaffiliatesuccess.com/wealthy-affiliat...
I don't mean to promote my post here but I just want to share with members here as well as Kyle and Carson. I'm sure they are working on these in the backend like they always do.
Just want to post this here and know your thoughts and opinions about these issues.
So, let's discuss in the comments below (either on my site or here in WA) about these issues and the possible solutions.
Look forward to hear your opinions:)
Recent Comments
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No, one training is going to suit everyone all the time, pick what you want or fast forward through it. We need to have lots of basic training for our referrals otherwise they will be overwhelmed & leave. I never use live chat because of the speed, but there are many other ways to get answers.
Yea definitely. I agree with you. What I think is better is to categorize the live classes into different difficulty level.
For live chat, it's not the only way to get answers but I'm just trying to give suggestions to make it better. What I'm more concerned about is that there is little incentive for more experienced member to help in the live chat.
We have the Classrooms right now for organization, but I think as we evolve and move forward I think you are going to see some changes in this respect.
There is A LOT of awesome content here at WA, a lot of content on topics not covered within the OEC/Bootcamp training, that really doesn't get proper organization or the daylight it should get.
Those are absolutely going to be focuses of ours, but we want to be careful in terms of the design, how people find stuff, and the overall organization.
Checked out your post and the only issue I totally agree with you on is the 'problems' with the chat.
That does not mean you are wrong about everything else; I am just a little more patient than many others, I guess.
I find your argument interesting, but not really a criticism of Wealthy Affiliate (WA), only one aspect of WA, the level of training. I do not know of any course that is all inclusive. Most courses provide a general overview of what is required or what is possible. After that it is up to you to research and find other possibilities or more advanced training. In my opinion each of us receive information in different forms. The chat area is just another tool for providing and achieving that. I personally do n
It use it because in my view it can be time consuming, but to others this is the way they choose. Others like me prefer the question area at the top.
Thanks for leaving your thoughts:)
I just think that conversion can be the area for WA's training to be further improved.
Excellent info. I think people, especially beginners, fall in love with how awesome WA is (especailly with the other options out there) and tend to gush.
I think it is also important to see that no system is perfect, and everything can always be improved upon.
You raise excellent points! Seeing the chat revamped would be nice on the ole' wishlist
Kyle and Carson always have a lot of projects going on in the backend and I'm sure they are working on these. Hopefully, Kyle will see this and tell us they are already working on it :)
Doing this is almost like a full-time job, but you have your own hours. You can do this anytime you want and anywhere you want. It up to you to be successful. Today I just turned 47. At 47, I'm going to try to focus on this business.
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Just a few insights here Jerry from my perspective and what I know is "coming" to WA. :)
Conversion Focused Websites.
This is something that is covered from the very beginning set-up of your website. Conversions is not just "testing" and "refining", it is the way you architect your website, your content, your understanding of "helping before promoting", the customer purchase lifecycle, etc.
We do have live classes geared towards testing campaigns, but we are also going to get much more sophisticated in terms of how we teach testing and some of the tools we provide that help you analyze results.
At the end of the day and something that I want ALL folks to be very careful about, is the idea of "cookie cutter" testing working across all niches. The human element and understanding of your niche and their hot buttons will always be the most critical component to LARGE conversion improvements.
More classes slated in this respect (I will likely be involved in some of them as well), more training coming as we continue to evolve, and more features within the platform that will help you maximize your website success when you do start getting traffic.
WA members trash other programs.
I think this is largely a "fake news" scenario, people are claiming fake news or fake reviews, without refuting the fake reviews. We don't control any content that ANYONE creates, but we can definitely continue to push the idea, regardless of the niche, that you need to be thorough, honest, accurate, informative and engaging within all of your reviews.
That is what we teach and will continue to teach, be careful about amplifying the term "fake reviews" or we will run into a scenario like "fake news" which is going on, whereas often times much of this fake news is 100% accurate and people are stating otherwise simply because they don't like the facts.
Live Video Classes Too Basic Sometimes.
There are basic ones, advanced ones. We need a healthy mix of our live classes and that is because we have people here at WA at all levels of knowledge.
We have some exciting stuff coming on the Live Class side of things and through time, you are going to have a much wider and much healthier selection between advanced and beginner.
If you look at past live classes, there are 100's of hours of training in there, much of which is advanced, covers case studies, etc. Notes taken though, we will put some emphasis on really advanced stuff moving forward. Thanks! :)
Live Chat Hard to Use
I agree at times it flows quickly and there is no segmentation within Live Chat in terms of "type".
We do have this technology already built as we have an independent live chat that runs during the Live Class, we just don't want to create a community of "cliques" which can happen if we allow people to create their own private groups.
We also have to be careful about chat not being as helpful and interactive, so we cannot have too many chats at any given time and during our slack versus high energy hours, we would need a health mix.
We will have solutions going forward, but we just need to be careful by not "improving" our chat platform to the point where it alienates folks and less people end up getting help as a result.
Confusion Between SiteComments and SiteFeedback.
Absolutely agree. We have consider a name change for SiteComments, but we feel that is not the solution. e are going to implement a few things for this, and already have.
If someone gets a disapproved comment, we email them to let them know and we provide them with some training on SiteComments. We send them the video, which is visible, etc.
We are also going to almost certainly require training of some sort to be completed before using SiteComments moving forward. I think that some of the language within the "submission" side of the platform can be changed as well.
Definitely a focus of ours and we are already implementing things in this respect to help improve the understanding. Generally speaking it is very good, and getting better with the latest changes. But we definitely have more to come!
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As always, thanks for your feedback. We appreciate it and I can tell you that there is one way we get better, feedback and constructive criticism. At any given time we have a TON of stuff, updates, innovations, etc. going on behind the scene and right now is no different.
Lots to look forward to in the year ahead and lots of platforms/change slated through the 2018 year already.
Kyle, thanks a lot for your time here going through this and giving such a detailed reply!
Conversion focused websites
I'm not just talking about testing and refining things on website for conversion optimization. What I'm saying is that there are quite a lot of knowledge regarding website design, where to put what and things like that for higher conversion and more professional websites. There are already lessons out there that can be learnt instead of just testing and testing.
I really like how Thrive Themes teaches about building a more professional and conversion focused website. I just think that some of the important things about website design for conversion optimization can be included in the training in WA because I came across a lot of potential websites that are just poorly designed.
For example, how to place opt in forms. Many people have too many opt in forms all around their websites in different places including pop ups everything. In addition, there are multiple CTA all over the place. At a glance without testing, I can know that website won't convert well. This is just a simple example. There are many more aspects of this kind of thing that I think is very important and WA is lacking of. After all, there are many things to learn about website conversion optimization, not just about testing.
Anyway, I definitely have confidence in WA and I know the training will keep on improving and these will come one day!
WA members trash other programs
This is the problem of WA being a program that is too good and some people tend to be too biased and one-sided. Definitely should enhance the emphasis on how to write an honest and balanced review. The training should cover more on mindset instead of just saying need to have both pros and cons, etc.
Live Class too basic
I'm not saying all are too basic but like others have said, there are things in the training which Jay need to explain for the beginners but others will feel time-consuming.
A better option for many more experienced members is just to wait for the replay, skip any part that is too basic and watch the video at faster speed.
I just feel that the training can be classified into at least two or more categories in terms of difficulty.
Live Chat hard to use
I understand where you are coming from. Maybe Live Chat is the function that is for some people but not others. There are many members feel Live Chat being too time-consuming and not productive. It's definitely more suitable for beginners to get questions answered fast but there is little incentive for more experienced to help others in the Live Chat.
Confusion between SiteComment and SiteFeedback
Definite need more training on this before pointing new members to these platforms. Good to know the things you are working on in the backend.
Once again, thanks for your time and reply. Really proud and grateful to be a part of this community:)
Hi Kyle, regarding the SiteComments I have created a training last year. You might find it useful to use it for the training classes.
A Guide on How to use the site comments platform on WA It might help to clarify a few things for new (and old) members.
All the best from Anke
Thanks Anke:)
Thank you, Kyle.
Wayne
Great, thanks for sharing the guide Anke. I will have a look.
The thing is that we have training and a thorough walk-through, I think much of the changes that are actually going to be required to move this platform closer to perfection are surrounding the actual interface itself and leaving explicit clues/warnings within that.
Additionally, putting people through some sort of course/test where they need to validate what they know what they are doing.
That sounds awesome Kyle! Thanks for your reply!.