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:

1. Welcome to WA Message
2. Choosing a Direction (own niche or promote WA)
3. Choosing a Niche - AI Driven
4. Choosing a Brand - AI Driven
5. 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. :)