Introducing the NEW Starter Membership Experience.
With the release of Hubs yesterday, we are also re-imagining the Starter membership here at WA. There is a big shift in the entrance, flow, and how WA works with the new hubs platform, so I want to explain some updates to the Starter membership.
So let's discuss these changes, and how a new member is going to be immersed into the community...
First NEW Step: Building a Business
The first pivotal step of this journey involves building a website or Hub. Yes, that means getting hands-on immediately! This new approach aligns with our primary aim of encouraging learning through "doing".
Upon joining Wealthy Affiliate, the new starter member is now put through our "Hubs Wizard" which is going to walk a newcomer through the process of getting their initial foundation set-up, and initiate their brand.
This Wizard includes a few steps:
- Welcome to WA Message
- Choosing a Direction (own niche or promote WA)
- Choosing a Niche - AI Driven
- Choosing a Brand - AI Driven
- Choosing a Domain Name and Building Website
This process is largely driven by AI, which helps newcomers work through this process with efficiency. Upon building a website, they are taken into the back office of Wealthy Affiliate, where they get the Hub and the immediate and integrated access to newly updated training.
EVERYONE that enters into WA now has a niche, a website, and a Hub. This is the foundation of every successful business, and ensures people are prepared for a long term business the minute they step foot into WA.
The Hub that a Starter member has access to will be limited. It won't have full access to all the Niche data that a Premium or Premium Plus member has, so there will be plenty of reason to upgrade on that basis alone.
Every Hub has access to Jaaxy, and ties directly into the SiteContent and AI Article Designer. So, Starter members now has access to THREE new platforms that they did not have access to previously...on a limited basis.
Key Changes (Added to Starter):
- 1 Business Hub (Limited Version)
- Access to Jaaxy Starter - 30 Free Searches
- SiteContent AI Word Credits - 300 Total
Now let's have a look at some of the community side changes and levels of access.
The Back Office - Some Changes to Accessing the Community
The changes to the Starter Membership, while structured to maintain the helpful nature of the platform, now introduce a degree of exclusivity. A sense of community is a cornerstone of our model at WA, and we are making aspects of it more exclusive.
Previously, Starter members had access to the Live Chat feature. Moving forward, this feature is reserved exclusively for Premium and Premium Plus+ members. While some might perceive this as a setback, it reflects our focus on incubating high-quality dialogues for those who have prioritized WA as their chosen platform for learning, growing, and thriving in the digital world.
Here is what a Starter member sees when they click on "Activity" from the main menu.
This exclusivity extends to the Activity dashboard, which is now going to be solely available within the Premium memberships. The Activity dashboard, serving as the social and high-value hub of our community, holds more weight than just user activity and shared wisdom. It's where members share their questions, their findings, successes, and network to become more skilled, and successful marketers online.
We were also finding that the Activity within WA was serving as a distraction to newcomers, taking away from their focus of building a business. In the early stages of joining a new platform (and one that offers as much as WA does), focus is very important.
The Starter membership will continue to allow for communication directly to Carson and myself through our profiles, as wells as their referrals. We send a message to every single referral offering our support. They will also still be able to get access to help or questions they have, through the Core training modules within the comment areas.
Key Changes (Removed from Starter):
- Access to Live Chat
- Access to the Activity Dashboard
Still Available:
- Access to Their Profile
- Access to Communicate Directly to their Referrers and Kyle/Carson through their profiles.
- Ability to ask questions directly within the training.
Training Updates to Starter
The training within the Starter membership has been expanded to 8 lessons. With our Hub Wizard, Starter members are now arriving into WA with MORE than ever. Actually, more than they accomplished within the first 5 lessons of the legacy training prior to this release. We are keeping this first "series" of classes available to Starter members for both the Core Niche Training, as well as the Affiliate Bootcamp.
This early training will cover steps that require in some cases, "Premium" level features like a domain name or access to the back office of their website. A Starter member will be able to follow through the 8 lessons, learn from the lessons, learn about building a business online, and get a very good taste of what they can expect when they do decide to upgrade.
Starters will be able to communicate directly within the training lessons, ask for help, and also introduce themselves within the community.
Remember, the intent of a Starter membership is not to build a business, it is to offer people a free look at what we offer, to get their feet wet within the platforms at WA, and then decide whether WA is the right fit for them.
Key Changes (Added to Starter):
- Access to the initial core training, 8 lessons
- Ability to Publish Content to Website through SiteContent
Key Changes (Removed from Starter):
- No access to Back Office of Website (upgrade for access)
All in all, the Starter Membership isn't just about access to training; it's about getting a real taste of the tools and platforms that are available to Premium and Premium Plus+ members. We are giving access to all of those tools, while removing some of the community elements that we feel should be exclusive to those that are Premium Level members.
The goal is to excite Starter members with the unique tools and platforms we offer, with a hint of what more they can uncover by deciding to upgrade. The best part? Starting your journey on our platform quite literally constitutes no financial risk as we are proud to be the only platform in the industry offering a free Starter membership. We plan to keep it that way.
And as we enrich WA with more access to new platforms and tools, the Starter membership will continue to evolve. It currently offers more than every single paid membership out there and it we want it to be the best introduction to building a business online in the world.
We're very optimistic the new Starter membership will continue to prove attractive and boost our conversion rates even higher.
We have a lot of confidence in our service quality, industry leadership, and cost efficiency. It's why we want to give everyone a taste – knowing that once you've started, you will find value in upgrading to our higher level memberships.
As always, we would love your feedback here. :)
Recent Comments
74
Hi Kyle!
This is an exceptional update to the Starter Membership. Give them a glimpse of what the platform has to offer but not too much to make them stay at the Starter Membership.
Instead to give them enough to make them want more so that they will have to upgrade in order to have access to more.
Thanks for sharing! Wishing you the very best!
Kind regards,
Nichola
That is the goal, to give Starter members a great experience here, show them around, let them try to tools and platforms...and then when they are ready to "Go Live' and advance their business, they can upgrade their membership. :)
This is all so empowering. It's a game-changer
The business I want is...to promote WA as an online business and affiliate marketing Niche. I see more potential in helping thousands of people transform their lives through the values and resources WA offers.
I'm Premium-Plus. How do I fit in? Where do I go to know how the system works for Premium-Plus members?
I started WA two years ago. I started a website: "Affiliatemoneypro"
but I never put in any content. I had to go to New York because my grandma was suffering from Alzheimer's and I had to help her. I convinced her to come to my home in Florida by the end of November 2023. She was very happy to be here with me.
It was a very difficult situation. Now she is with God.
I kept paying the WA membership fees because I saw the value and the resources that WA has to help thousands of people around the world.
When I came back I saw that WA now has "Hubs". I used the same
"Affiliatemoneypro" to build a "Hub". But I don't know if it's a hub or a website that I have to connect to a hub.
Can someone check that out for me? How do I continue from here?
When I clicked on the dashboard some red letters came out warning me not to continue. What was that about?
Thanks for your help!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all the members of the Wealthy Affiliate family and their families.
Ivan Sanchez
"We were also finding that the Activity within WA was serving as a distraction to newcomers, taking away from their focus of building a business."
I agree. This is a BIG one. I think it has always been a huge distraction from the core training.
It also served to allow newcomers to come in and spam the Activity board.
It just happened a couple of weeks ago. Someone (a stranger) joined through my link (uggh) and immediately upon entry posted something very inappropriate and other members reported it...including myself.
It's much less likely that someone would pay to join Premium or Premium+ and come in and start spamming or posting inappropriate content.
The hit-and-run posters are probably always free starter members, who never had any intention on utilizing WA properly.
Hello Kyle
Thank you for this great blog post and video. I like what you have done with the WA starter membership. The only that worries me is what if a starter member doesn't know how to get help?
They can't access live chat or the WA community anymore so they may not realize they can get help through the comments on the lesson and on your profile as well as Carson's profile. Is that explained to them somewhere?
But other than that the starter membership looks great and I really like all the changes you made to it. My only suggestion is as I said to make sure the starter members know they can get help.
I enjoyed this blog post and video and it will be useful for to help starter members as well as for updating my WA review. Thank you for all the great work you have done with making WA even more amazing. Thank you again for this great blog post and video. All the best to your success.
Regards
Timothy
A starter member can get help from directly (I reach out to them upon joining), and directly through the training. They can also use the questions platform, and the blog post platform.
One thing we may consider is reintroducing chat, but we are currently running some tests still.
Hello Kyle
Thank you for your reply and that's great to hear. I think reintroducing live chat would be a good idea but other than that I really like what you have done with the starter membership.
I know the new training will be a big help for the starter members to. Thank you again for your reply. All the best to your success.
Regards
Timothy
See more comments
This is really awesome! I want to be able to, as you put it, create my own Message Campaigns to layer on top of the messages you and Carson will be doing when new Referrals come on board. I can't figure out how to do it. Is there a training video on this subject?