Beer With Kyle: A Training Environment Where Everyone Can Contribute at WA?
Happy Friday Everyone!
Welcome to Beer with Kyle Fridays. Today, we are diving into the training side of Wealthy Affiliate. I want to open up a discussion about the current training environment and where we are headed. Your feedback is essential in helping us evolve and improve the platform.
This week, I'm enjoying a Kona Big Wave Liquid Aloha by Kona Brewing, out of Hawaii. It’s a lighter beer, perfect for summer. I'll be sipping it from my fancy WA glass from Las Vegas, where we host our super affiliate conference for those who make 150 sales in a calendar year.
Key Takeaways:
- Expert Classes: We have a wide range of expert classes available, with contributions from several excellent instructors. Jay’s Friday night classes are particularly popular and valuable.
- Core Training: Our core training is continuously updated to ensure you have a solid foundation for your website. This training is designed to get you up and running, after which you can advance your skills through specialized classes.
- Community Contributions: We used to allow contributions from community members, providing a financial incentive. We are considering reintroducing this feature and want your input.
- Feedback Request: Are you interested in contributing to the training environment? Would you prefer video or textual training, or both? As a consumer, would you like a wider range of training from more community members?
We used to have contributions from community members who could create training and earn revenue. We are considering bringing this back and want to gauge your interest. Would you be interested in contributing training? Would you prefer to offer video, textual, or both?
Additionally, as a consumer of information, would you be interested in seeing a wider range of training from more community members?
Please jump into the comments and let us know your thoughts on the overall training environment. Would you be interested in contributing? Do you want to see more training from a wider range of people on various topics?
I hope you have had a productive week and I look forward to hearing your feedback below!
Recent Comments
134
Hi Kyle,
A few things for me to comment on here-
I think you need control over the type of training provided and the quality otherwise a lot of the good work done at WA could be undone. The hard work in developing and growing the site, and the professionalism needs to be protected.
My suggestion is WA manages a team of training providers who have been vetted; meet the criteria and participate in regular WA training sessions - similar to how you would manage a sales team in a traditional business.
I enjoy Jay's training sessions and have learned a lot from them. My only disappointment is that I can't attend the live sessions due to being in different time zones. I do feel that I miss out on the live Q&A sessions.
Maybe part of developing the training would be to take into account that WA is a global business and does need to cater for a global audience.
The training library is a fantastic resource and I often find myself looking for information in there. However, as I'm on Premium membership and not on Premium Plus some of what I look for is not available to me which means I head over to YouTube to find the answers.
Could content in the library be made available to everyone after a certain time has lapsed, say 3 or 6 months? That way the library becomes a valuable resource and additional benefit for all paid memberships.
I agree with you in all respects here, I think that it is is consensus as well to keep the training "in house". But we also want to allow people to cultivate themselves as educators that are interested in doing this, so we want to set out a game plan for that (as we have many folks here with a lot of knowledge, that are wanting to share).
The key is accuracy and quality. Training is going to serve no value if it is copied from elsewhere, and it isn't based on experience. So someone that is new that is trying to achieve training status just for some financial kickback is not waht we are after here...that simply won't work well.
As for the live classes, we have tested different times for the Premium Plus+ and it worked well, but 5PM PST has always seemed to attract the largest audience (based on our core customer geographics). But it definitely does add fun to be able to attend.
People are leaning towards short attention spans these days, so shorter form videos are becoming much more captivating to folks. So that is something to consider as well, the number of people that are willing to sit through longer form video is diminishing over time unfortunately.
Appreciate the feedback about the older database being available to premium members as well, that could be a neat idea. Thanks again!
When I get to a level of proficiency and expertise, I would consider developing training. It would need to be something that is not a repeat of others. No reason to build the same house twice. I don't know how you determine what topics need to be created. Are surveys put out asking what members' needs and wants are? At this point, I think the most effective trainings may come from the established experts having assignments to create trainings that are expressed as needs from the community. The experts can do a bit more research, if needed, in order to build the training. If someone reaches a level of expertise with a certain method or strategy, maybe they could approach you, ask and be vetted to see if they are the right person to develop the training.
My 3.5 cents worth. :)
Yeah, totally agree with that "repeat' nature, but one thing we want to consider is keeping things current as ideas become outdated. That is something that we are constantly addressing, and we put the latest at the forefront as well.
Streamline particular topics is something as well, and people often times master one facet of marketing and are best suited to educate on that, so I really think we can run with that terrain of though as well.
We are likely going to have an application/approve process, but we also want to reward people that are our top educators here so there will be a component of kickback as well (outside of just authority here within the community).
Hi Kyle.
I like hearing from other contributors on training. I like the text training, too. I also think that the training must be correct, so it should be vetted first. Just the prospect of having your training vetted should make the person do a good job and ensure that their training materials are correct.
When I feel like I have learned enough from WA, I may want to add to training, too. At the beginning I would want it to be textual based since I'm not set up for video yet.
This video answered my question of where did the training go when I clicked on the link. Didn't it used to go to the classes stuff?
Thanks for your video!
Teri
I like your ideas here, and I think easing your way into contributing here is a good idea. We typically align the best with particular topics as well, so perhaps becoming an expert in a particular topic (and whatever metrics are required to define that) is the best approach here.
Lots of moving pieces and lots of great feedback from the community here, but I think this is really helping us shape the future of training at WA. :)
I'm thinking this way now :)
What do I know to contribute. Sigh, I feel like such a dilletante in my knowledge.
I know a little about a lot of things, lol.
Teri
Good morning Kyle,
I hope you're doing well, Kyle.
I believe the community training is a good idea, providing that it is genuine and accurate. Something that I like about the Wealthy Affiliate training is that it's very trustworthy, however, it's important to know that the community training would be the same.
I wasn't aware that you had stopped the community training until a few weeks ago, a member mentioned it somewhere along the line. I don't know why you made that decision, but maybe it was due to inaccurate training, possibly? I'm sure you had genuine reasons for the decision.
I would potentially be interested in contributing to the training environment, Kyle. I would probably prefer video training, although I would definitely look at all methods.
I guess a wider range of training from the community is not a bad idea, as long as it's OnPoint. In other words, it is totally related to Internet marketing, etc.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Roy
Yeah, I agree with you Roy. We would never compromise the trustworthy nature of the training just to create a "free for all". That is not what we are after here, and I appreciate the feedback.
The training was stopped because the training creator being used was antiquated (and is now sunset) and a lot of the training was redundant, useless, and an attempt to just earn revenue...without having underlying experience or expertise.
Good morning Kyle,
Thank you for your reply, Kyle, it's appreciated.
I put so much value on having genuine training that really works, it's so important!
I thought this would probably be the answer, Kyle. There are many enthusiastic members on the platform, including myself. But it's good to be careful about who creates the training and is it just for personal gain rather than genuine training.
Have a fantastic Wednesday.
Roy
See more comments
I agree with Newydd105 that there is a lot of training that I am interested in that is only available to PremiumPlus members. I like the idea of the library becoming available to both Premium levels after a certain time. I too search for the same type of training elsewhere because the PremiumPlus is just to costly for me at this time.
Nancy
That is an interesting concept, and something we may consider. Or something we have consider is allowing certain levels of members, to access a certain number of training categories and environments, with less provisions on that.
One thing is, we have only made the Premium level education better over the years and we have never taken anything away. We have only continued to add more value, and more current training as time has gone on. ;)
The premium level is excellent, but occasionally, there is training I want to see but can't because it is a plus training.
What about some type of earning that you could trade in for the Premium classes you want to view? Not release all the PremiumPlus classes but give incentives for those interested in certain Plus classes. That way, you're not releasing everything, and it is a perk for those who are genuinely interested in being successful through the platform.
Nancy