Beer With Kyle: New Homepage Iteration + Streamlined Flow
Hey Everyone,
I hope you’ve had a great week, and today we’ve got a lot to cover, from updates to our homepage to enhancements in the starter experience for new members at Wealthy Affiliate.
Key Takeaways:
1. This Week's Beer: Stanley Park Brewing - Parklandia Hazy IPA
As always, before we jump into the updates, it’s time for the beer of the week! Today, I’ve got the Parklandia Hazy IPA from Stanley Park Brewing. It’s a sweeter take on a traditional IPA, with a smooth, fruity taste that’s a perfect end to the week. I’ve even got it poured in my Wealthy Affiliate glass from Las Vegas (as per usual).
2. Homepage Updates: A Streamlined Experience
Our homepage has gone through another iteration based on feedback and data we’ve collected. Here are the main changes:
- Simplified Signup Process: Now, instead of immediately needing a business idea to create an account, users can sign up directly. This removes the hurdle of coming up with an idea upfront, making it easier to join and get started.
- Business Hub Positioning: While previously, users could start building their business hub directly on the homepage, we’ve moved that down. Now, users first join Wealthy Affiliate, then get directed to set up their hub in a more structured way. This flow lets people focus on signing up before diving into business ideas, and so far, it’s converting better.
Note for Affiliates: If you’re driving traffic directly to our “start your business idea” module, you can still link to it with your affiliate link.
https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com/?idea=none&a_aid=YOURID
You an also leverage the "custom backdrops". Here is the list of the current ones:
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=business (Business)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=fitness (Fitness)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=yoga (Yoga)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=hiking (Hiking)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=photography (Photography)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=football (Football)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=crafts (Crafts)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=soccer (Soccer)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=travel (Travel)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=music (Music)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=makeup (Makeup)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=gaming (Gaming)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=dating (Dating)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=cars (Cars)
- https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?image=cooking (Cooking)
This ensures that you have the flexibility to guide your audience, whether they’re entering their own ideas or choosing a preset option like “woodworking” or “fitness.”
4. Redesigned New Member Flow
When new users enter Wealthy Affiliate, they’ll now encounter an updated back office layout that emphasizes structure:
- Personalized Onboarding: After sign-up, new members see a personalized welcome message and a simplified three-step process. This includes creating an account, setting up a business hub, and starting their business journey.
- New Hub Dashboard Flow: We’ve redesigned the hub’s entry point, so members arrive at the Hub Dashboard—where they can see their hub, create additional hubs, or check on training. This creates a consistent flow that’s the same whether a member has one hub or ten, and helps keep navigation straightforward.
- Accessing Community First: Instead of jumping straight into the hub, users are directed to the community dashboard first, allowing them to engage with the community. This way, newcomers experience the full scope of support, including live chat, community posts, and popular discussions.
Your Feedback is Key!
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on these updates:
- What do you think of the new homepage design and the simplified signup process?
- Are there any backdrop images or niche suggestions you’d like us to add?
- How do you feel about the new flow of taking users to the community dashboard before the hub?
Your input helps us refine the Wealthy Affiliate experience, so drop your feedback in the comments. We are definitely listening and making changes based on your feedback.
Recent Comments
88
All these changes make perfect sense!
Would it be possible to change the back ground image when one of the business ideas is clicked on, while trying to choose a niche? Just a crazy thought. 😜 Or maybe it wouldn't be worth it at that point in the process?
Regardless, excellent improvements and all backed by data. 💻
Thanks, Kyle!
Tim 🎼
Yeah, it often times is not that instant, but a very creative idea. If we had all the images cached (and through time many searches will take place, this could actually work well).
One thing we were finding though is that people were not wanting to use the search, they wanted to sign-up and this is probably for several reasons (not ready to choose, didn't want to complete the steps, etc).
One thing we want to consider is the ability to allow you control of backdrops and the ability to create new ones. So that is likely something that is going to come at some point in the near future. ;)
These changes make sense and I like that!
Personnaly I would like the possibility to play with the opacity of the backdrop image. Some images make the text difficult to read and I think changing the opacity would help.
Maybe add the opacity as a query string parameter like the image?
Yeah, you make a very good point. We are going to adjust the opacity overall, because as you mention some of the backdrops are not all that legible and can definitely be improved upon.
You will see updates on that this week, and I think you will like what we have done. That is something we noticed right away.
As always, great feedback Jonathan!
No problem. Feedback like that is great, we find stuff very quickly as well but we also update platforms based on community feedback and suggestions. So appreciate you and your feedback. :)
Great stuff Kyle. It's Sunday morning here in Melbourne, I've got my coffee in hand, little pug snoring at my feet, waiting for the rest of the family to get out of bed. That's when I love to catch up on your posts!
This is all looking so good. I think it's far better to not have to come up with a business idea first. I know that when I joined, I had absolutely no idea about any of that, and really just wanted to see what the platform was all about and see if it was for me. It wasn't until I started doing some training that I started thinking about where I could go with it.
Hope you have a great week ahead!
Cheers
Melissa
Sounds like a lovely morning in Melbourne Melissa!
Being introduced to the community is a much better option, as many people prior werent' getting to see the value of the community here.
We are going to also be improving the Business Idea tool within WA, to help provide people with more initial ideas. We have found that most people select an idea that is available (initially anyways)...and we will certainly have training available inline to this process. ;)
As always thanks for your feedback Melissa!
Good morning Kyle,
Thank you for your latest update, it's appreciated.
I must admit the brand-new home page looks nice and clean and straightforward, which I like. Once again, I know that you have been working hard to make the process as easy as possible.
I really do like the idea of being able to search for a business idea; I'm sure that's very helpful for people who do not know which niche to go into.
You have created some nice backdrops, Kyle, but even without the backdrop, the page looks nice and clean and straightforward.
I like the new module page, which once again looks clean and straightforward. The timer has to be a good idea! It helps members to take action.
I like the idea of having the community below the hubs. I didn't see the value of the community properly until after I joined the platform. So it's great that people can potentially reap the benefits of community experience in helping others, etc.
Once again, I can see that you are putting huge amounts of efforts into making the starter experience as smooth as possible, Kyle.
Have a great weekend.
Roy
Thanks for your feedback here Roy, we are constantly evolving.
One thing that is our immediate focus is further helping people choose their business idea, there is still a little too much "overwhelm" people are feeling when they get there, so we want to make sure that we work to further simplify that.
I hope you have had a nice weekend! :)
It's always a pleasure, Kyle.
I was creating a video the other day about writing a blog post and sharing the Wealthy Affiliate platform. I must admit I had to look a few times to check things out, as there is quite a bit going on the platform. It's difficult when you have a website that has so much functionality. I guess there is a lot of trial and error and testing, etc.
The weekend was good, thank you, Kyle.
Have a fantastic day.
Roy
Hi Kyle
I already wrote an article about readers exploring their business idea first. Therefore I want to continue with driving traffic directly to “start your business idea” module.
So I added my link to my article and when I go to my website and click on my link, instead of bringing up a blank for someone to type in their idea it's putting in my link.
See image below:
Sure, you can still do that.
https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com/?idea=none&a_aid=YOURID
This will take you directly to the search. Sorry, I provided the URL incorrectly there.
Replace "none" with a search keyword (if you want a specific search loaded up), and replace, and replace "YOURID" with your affiliate ID.
Yeah, there was a typo in the initial URL I provided, so it didn't actually work. My bad. Use the one I have provided above (and I also updated the one within the post here to work as well).
I think I suggested this on another one of your vlogs Kyle;
I would like to see a unification of how results appear between Business ideas search and the inch finder.
I would benefit more if I see the results and the information in the niche finder as seen in the business idea finder.
I hope that I am making sense..
The second point is regarding the affiliate links.. Is there somewhere permanent that those links are available at, or do I need to keep coming back here to this vlog for the affiliate links that are listed here?
Yeah, that is an update we are making. We are going to be replacing the Niche Finder with the Business Idea search. The brand side of the Niche Finder will be re-integrated in other ways, as we improve the domain side search here. So that will be coming back, in a more useful and functional way.
But we totally agree, that does lead to confusion.
As for the affiliate links, the Affiliate Area is going to get updated to reflect the new linking styles. That entire platform is going to get a full refresh and become much more functional.
Thanks as always for your feedback Rami, it is in line with what we are thinking here. ;)
Hi Kyle
I like the developments for new starters and have a couple of questions/comments.
1. In your video, you talk about being able to see the route that people are choosing to take on their way in. Is there a way that I can see the route that people take on their way in?
2. How can I tell if a new starter is active or not? Some clearly follow members but I don't know what effort they're putting into training or business building unless they ask questions. Have I missed something?
Thoughts appreciated..
;-)
Richard
That is something that we want to provide in an update "My Referral" area where we can provide you more detail of what/where/how your visitors are using WA, and potentially also make recommendations on actions that you could take as an affiliate based on that.
I am referring to sophisticated data that we have based on behavior of people, based on changes that we have made.
But as we move forward, we want to certainly provide really cool insights to affiliates within their my referral area on a granular (affiliate basis) so you can understand and act in certain ways, also get a feedback loop based on your activities and what is working. Expect this.
Looks great now...
i made affiliate links in the past for the pages that dissapeared like community, hosting platform, ...
It would be a good idea to bring them back since they offer (seo wise) a different and more focused entry to the platform (like tools, ... sales talk per topic indeed)
Just my two cents
Great job so far
🏆🦾
Hey Fleeky, how are you doing? Humorous you say, Catalyst you say... Three of my businesses work in synergy as a trilogy, and they catalyze one another. No lol-ing in this message. What kind of humor do you love to follow and practice? Mine are deadpan and sarcastic.
Thanks for asking Hein... past months have been in slow motion... Recovering needs time.
And WA has always been a ray of sunshine in my life with an awesome community of likeminded people, and a genius team here that allows it. So, nothing to complain.
Take care you! And tell me how you catalyze 🤪
It is always best to link people directly to the homepage. We still have the websites page if you want to link to that, but we consolidated that with the hosting page:
https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com/websites?a_aid=YOURID
There was too much overwhelm with our old website, so we condensed and in some cases, combined pages.
Thanks for your feedback here Fleeky!
Hi, Kyle.
This all looks and sounds great, Kyle.
A thought came to me while watching this Vlog. What if for new members when they first get to the create your business step, instead of providing several options for them to look at? You asked them to list X number of things they like to do. Then have them rate those items to find what they like best, or the top 3 they like best. Then they can research through your provided tools to see the viability of each item. I realize this can be bulky, and that I might not be saying just right (sorry). This way you might be able to zero in better what the business they will love will be and build it.
Happy FRISatSu!
JD
That is definitely an interesting concept here JD, simply asking people things that they love to do and then providing them a list of potential business ideas. The only problem with that is that people often times find it tough to think of things they like to do, believe it or not and find it much easier with a list.
I really do think there is some merit to your approach here though. :)
Thanks, Kyle.
Yeah. I also see the problem you mentioned previously of too many options: " But I love so many things!" I said it was bulky.
Ok. How about an option? If the new member can't think of a business idea right off the bat (one of the problems I had) and none of the ones on the provided list feels right to them, then have the option for AI-assisted (maybe AI?) questions to find out what they love and might be a Great Fit?
Happy FriSATSu!
JD
Yes, I like that! There is lots that we can do, and we are going to continue working to solve the "Business Idea" side of things with tech like you mentioned. Appreciate it. :)
See more comments
Hi Kyle:
Thank you for another informative "Beer with Kyle!"
Simplifying the signup process within the new homepage design makes it more streamlined. Also, sharing the listing of the backdrop images is especially beneficial as I was uncertain how to incorporate those.
Finally, starter members will appreciate the new flow taking them to the community dashboard so they can get a feel for the Wealthy Affiliate experience outside of the hub.
I appreciate the updates!
Veron
Yeah, it is really amazing to see how small changes can make a significant difference. People make decisions and then if they are met with any form of friction through a process, they tend to drop out at a high rate.
It is our goal to excited people, to help them understand what WA is, offer value, and remove any friction points. If we can do this, more people than ever will be making their way into the community. :)