Build a Community, and Build a Long-term Business.
Hey Everyone,
Today, I want to talk about the importance of building a community right from the outset of your business, and how this approach can lead to creating a long-term, sustainable business.
Key Takeaways:
- Community as the Foundation: At Wealthy Affiliate, we’ve built our entire platform around the community. We've grown and evolved over the last 18 (almost 19) years based on feedback—what people love and what they don't. This feedback loop is essential for continuous improvement.
- Treat Your Audience Like Family: When building your business, view your audience as a community of users, almost like a family. These are the people you’re helping, and the relationships you build with them will be crucial for your long-term success.
- Value Feedback and Relationships: Over time, as you nurture these relationships, you’ll gain trust and valuable feedback that can help you improve your business. This is a critical aspect of creating a lasting brand.
- Engagement is Key: If you’re not building a community, ask yourself why. Are you not engaging enough with your audience? Are you too distant from them? Some businesses make the mistake of distancing themselves from their own audience, which can be detrimental.
- Build Around Your Brand: Consider every part of your business as an opportunity to build a community around your brand and offerings. Over time, this approach will help you establish a strong brand and a sustainable business.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Wealthy Affiliate community and how you plan to build your own community in your niche. What’s your approach? If you have any questions about building a community, feel free to ask—I’m here to help!
Recent Comments
68
Great message, Kyle! I really do love our WA community :)
I've been thinking about the survival community idea, but I'm not yet at the expert level. Let me get through this next surgery and recovery (supposed to take like 6 mons!). I just hope I can use my PC fairly soon after the surgery.
I'd like to have a year when I don't have surgeries, but at my age, you never know, lol.
Teri
Hi Kyle:
Thank you for sharing these useful tips on the importance of building a community and a long-term business. All five takeaways are essential to making this sustainable.
I will be drawing on these as I continue to work on my business endeavors through my websites, Wealthy Affiliate is a fine example of what it means to build a community by applying the key takeaways!
Veron
Hi Kyle,
I couldn't agree more the old saying "It takes a Village" or community has always been true and will always be. We can do so much more together than we ever could alone. I have only been in this community for a few days, but I have to say I have felt nothing but welcomed and supported.
Thank you,
Donna
Absolutely Donna, and that has always been our approach. We can definitely do way more together than being independent, there is knowledge share which leads to a lot of shortcutting.
Also, it allows us to get a great deal of feedback and insight from the fam here at WA to further improve and evolve the platform...it's how we get better and how all businesses can evolve and improve.
It is wonderful to have you here and it is great to hear that you are feeling the love and the community feel here, that is what we are all about!
Thank you Kyle, its so amazing that the two of you, were able to build such a strong community where everyone feels at home, and can help each other whole heartedly, what a family? I will stay connected to my audience, through different platforms e.g. emails, social media like youtube, facebook, instagram etc.
I am so glad you feel that way, that is the ultimate goal of the platform and community here. We truly are family, and it is awesome to have such aweome folks like yourself as part of the Wealthy Affiliate community!
Good morning Kyle,
It's great that you have been going for almost 19 years, Kyle; good for you and Carson, for making it happen!
These are very good, straightforward principles that you are talking about, which definitely makes me think. I can't believe how many times I see you helping people in the community and responding to comments, etc! It looks like the principles you are talking about definitely work!
But at the same time, it's easy for people like me to neglect these straightforward principles.
Thank you for your thought-provoking video post, Kyle.
Have a great day.
Roy
Haha, I try to be everywhere at once but that is not always possible, but I do make an effort to get back to every single comment that is directed to me every month...which is thousands.
I enjoy it though, I enjoy helping people, and I learn a great deal by communicating with others (including yourself).
Glad you enjoyed this post Roy, and it has been awesome to get to know you since all the way back in 2014! :)
I can believe that, Kyle! I see you in live chat, I see you replying to comments in blog posts and I see you writing blog posts! And that's before you have carried out any of your own business! I wonder how many words you write a year or even a week!
That's brilliant, Kyle, it's good to help others. It's amazing how much we can learn from other people. Although I try and restrict myself with time on Wealthy Affiliate (I mean that in a constructive way), I also feel that I am learning things when I reply and comment on blog posts, etc.
Thank you, Kyle! I find it absolutely amazing how we can communicate with people many miles away; this is one of the many things that makes the Internet so wonderful. It would be hard to imagine life without the Internet now!
Wishing you all the best.
Roy
Hey Kyle! I cannot disagree with any of this! If I didn't build a community of affiliate customers for my PPE niche, I wouldn't have financially survived the end of 2023. I had to stop growing it when I became really sick for a couple of months. However, the community of customers I had developed prior to becoming so sick, carried me through my financial ordeal and maintained sales without my input. Community is important! Good seeing you again Kyle. I see WA has made a lot of changes since the last time I was here. All the best to you and Carson.
Man, I am so happy to hear you are doing better. I had no idea, and the reality is that your internet business is there for you when you are not, it will have ebbs and flows as you navigate change, but if you stick with it you are always going to be in position to learn new things and scale.
Lots and lots has changed since last time you have been here, we are evolving as fast as the world...AI is a big part of our human processing now, and we are finding ways we can leverage it within the online business world where it makes sense. Things that used to take weeks, can now be done in minutes often times...which is crazy.
Great to have you back and hope to see more of you Rob!
another great motivational Monday! Well, Tuesday for me, but it is still really motivating.
I never want to be the smartest person in the room nor do I want to become "too big for my britches!"
I appreciate the effort you put into your business and into us, your clients, to help us reach our goals!
Karin 😎
Really glad you enjoyed it...and I know how busy life can get sometimes. So getting to it on a Tuesday is as good as a Monday. Thanks for sharing your personal insights (and approach). Never get an ego in business, you are never too good for other people, and if you act too "big", you lose sight of the reasons you got where you are.
We are excited for the future of WA, as we continue to evolve, innovate and improve within the platform and "community" here. It is really awesome to have folks like yourself as part of it!
Hi Kyle,
Thanks for sharing that. I will keep that on the forefront of my business model.
Keep up the good work! You are helping change lives…
~Robert~
Sounds good. Just remember that any human interaction can have a positive (or negative) impact on your brand. So always put your best foot forward when communicating...because if someone has a positive experience with your brand, they might become a long term asset to your community and your business. ;)
Hi Kyle,
The main reason of not starting a business, or becoming an affiliate is that I don’t have a winning product to sell. I was trying few times in the past to get into this field and got discouraged, I did not know what to do, what products to choose, what to write, how to present the product, and more.
Each product by itself didn’t cost much, but the total cost is pricey if there is no return on investment.
I also have to admit that I’m not comfortable with my writing, and that was another reason I did not get into this business.
Well all of these things are solved for you here, now that you are within WA.
(1) What to promote? We align you with many products/services and their respective affiliate programs, regardless of the niche direction you choose. You can also promote WA if you like, and we have one of the most lucrative affiliate programs on the planet and pay up to $1,200 per sale. So there are going to be lots of options for you.
(2) You don't have to be a great writer, I can tell that you are a great communicator. If you can help people, you can create a business in absolutely any niche. So think of it in that light. Also, we have our AI Designer, Author, and Bulk Writer platforms to really help you streamline your process of creating content.
Great to have you here within WA and thanks for sharing your thoughts here Daniel! :)
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I like this video. However, I'm not really sure how exactly to go about building a community other than the obvious social media avenues and maybe a forum on my site. I'll have to look into how to actually put a forum together. Has anyone had any experience doing that?
A group on FB is the easiest to start and a very useful tool
Thanks Robby. I'll probably do that. Apparently there are plugins for making forums easily on WordPress, but not worth doing unless you get over 1000 engaged people going to your site.
I'd concentrate on my website, as I previously had a bustling Facebook group, and screening every member took a lot of effort since they had to be individually accepted. I also ran a few forums, which take time to gain traction, and at first, it feels like you're talking to yourself. Then there's the management side, which takes considerable time. Posting content on my website would be more favorable, at least from my point of view.
Abie
Every action you take in your business is part of the community building process. It doesn't mean someone joining your membership necessarily, it could be someone coming to your website and leaving a comment, someone getting value from your content and remembering your brand, someone joining your email list, someone following you on a social media platform.
All of these things cumulatively add up to your community in your business. I hope this clarifies things for you here David! :)
So it's a mindset for how you view your readers. Seeing them as part of your community rather than as passive readers? And this attitude will guide how you interact with them?