UPDATE: A Fresh New Look at the Starter Membership

Hey everyone,

Today marks the release of the second iteration of the Starter membership simplification.

I want to spend a few moments discussing some of the updates that we are making, and the reasons behind them. We feel these updates are going to improve the way in which Starter members use Wealthy Affiliate, and to remove a great deal of the overwhelm that comes with joining such a vast offering.

Over the years we have continually improved, innovated and evolved the offering here at Wealthy Affiliate. Not a week goes by where we aren’t rolling updates to improve the experience here at Wealthy Affiliate and this surrounds the technology, the education, and subset of tools, the sophisticated website and hosting platform, and the community experience.

But with changes, and additions can come complexity. Also, with several different levels of membership it has become unclear from a visual perspective as to the differences. We are answering both of these issues with the new updates.

So let’s get into things...

Design Clarity & Improvements for Starter Members.

Although there is obviously a huge difference between Starter and Premium, it is not apparent to an end user, in particular after you upgrade.

It was confusing to someone that upgraded to premium, what actually changed. The experience felt the same, though they had access to an abundance of new levels of access, new training, new communication capabilities, etc. deal of “new” stuff…it was subtle in terms of the visual design.

Formerly, someone would upgrade from this to this:

I dare you to try and spot the difference…. (hint: there is almost no difference visually)

Now they will be upgrading from this to this:

Though there was a great deal of value on the “other side of the fence”, there was no “fence”. It was a big open field, and outside of a “quick action” $19 discount there wasn’t anything noticeable within the interface design that would really trigger someone to jump to the other side. It felt like a free-for-all.
We have updated and will continue to update the interface to include tangible visual differences, including full and clearly marked “locked out” areas within the Premium membership.

A More Focused Dashboard Experience.

Currently, the dashboard is exactly the same for someone that is Starter and someone that is Premium. This includes all the blog posts, questions, new training, Top 10, etc. This is now changed, and the Dashboard side menu is now locked, and the content displayed on the dashboard feed is going to be MUCH more limited.

There is a lot of great content that streams through the dashboard every day, but that content was adding another level of confusion, and overwhelm for someone that is coming in with the intent of starting a business.

Thus we have reduced what people see, and focused the dashboard on getting people to set up their accounts, and move through the first level of training. That is the ultimate goal, to get people taking action, asking for help, and moving through the training and seeing tangible progress.

Starters will also see a handful of important posts, but it will be a much more simplified menu.

The key focus is on their Getting Started Training and the Account Set-up Process. Also there is going to be a focus on offering immediate ways to get newcomers help, quick. The live chat will be available, along with the ability to ask questions within the comment areas of WA.

Training and Websites Menus Now Include Locks.

There are now clear and concise “locks” within the areas in the Training and Website areas that are Premium/Premium Plus+ only areas of the back office. This also puts focus on the actual areas that Starters have access to, and that they will be utilizing as they move through the training.

The training (Getting Started) and the key website platforms (SiteManager, SiteBuilder) are in focus now.

It’s now easy to know where to go if you’re a starter and what to work on. See below for the comparison of the two environments.

Locking Down Additional Platforms.

Although not included in today’s release, we are continuing to work on locking down particular platforms that are not used within the Starter membership.

This includes SiteContent (Publish), the Research platform, the Opportunity Platform, and several aspects of the Affiliate Program menu. This is to come in the upcoming weeks, these updates are going through the design stages.

Having access to all of those sections only adds overwhelm, they create confusion, and until someone is trained on these particular platforms they should not be using them. We will blog about these changes in the coming weeks and provide clarity on some additional items, like the “Research” tab within WA getting a facelift as well.

Sending folks to WA? How does this affect WA Affiliates?

More clarity, less confusion, less road bumps… this all equates to a platform where the guesswork is being removed and there is less opportunity to get things mixed up with your marketing. This is going to lead to more conversions, and we have already seen some really positive effects of our update to the training length.
It has led to more people than ever making it to Lesson 5, and it has also led to more people taking action and upgrading.

More Simplicity = More People Upgrading = More Affiliate Success.

The Starter membership is a “test drive” to see what we are all about, to experience the awesome community, to check out our training and to ultimately get up and running with a website, which is the foundation of all successful businesses.

Recently I blogged about reducing our 10 lesson starter course to 5 lessons to help smooth out many road bumps that folks were running into far too prematurely, and without adequate help and support available. Here is the post:
BLOG POST: Less is More - Starter Training Update

Tasks that had people doing keyword research, installing website plugins, and writing content were moved to course 2 of the core training so that folks had adequate help and support available to them with the ability to communicate and ask questions related to these tasks.
***If you are mentioning 10 lessons included in the starter membership, then an update to that in your marketing will be required.

Today we’ve continued down the path of adding clarity to the Starter membership by showing upgrade buttons and “locks” on items that we feel are distractions for those getting started.

The ultimate goal is to HELP people when they join Wealthy Affiliate, and in many cases folks are getting distracted by things that they should not be focusing on in the early days. We want to get EVERYONE to pick a niche, build a website, learn how the online business world works, ask some questions, set up their account, watch some Starter classes, and introduce themselves in live chat.
The new dashboard includes brand new “Account Setup” and “Get Started” cards. Setting up an account can be done on the dashboard now for new members without pop-ups, or having to go to their profile. It’s a simple 3 step process and it’s right in view when viewing the dashboard. The Getting Started card is also updated with a new welcome message and a clear button to get started in the training, along with a brand new video introduction from myself (coming tomorrow).

Here is a peek at what these new dashboard items look like:

Keeping it simple, leads to more accomplishment and more success. We have seen this in our business over the years, and are really working to fine tune the Starter membership to ease the overwhelm when arriving, and when working to build a business online.

We get the questions daily like “why should i upgrade” or “I’ll upgrade after I start earning” or “what is included with my upgrade”. The changes we have rolled out today help to answer this and paint a more clear picture of what Starter is VS Premium and Premium Plus+ while leading to more people doing more.

We have a lot of exciting things going on at any moment behind the scenes, and you are going to see further updates to the Starter experience in the coming weeks (including pricing side updates).
Stay tuned, and as always your feedback is welcome, appreciated, and is the very reason we continue to evolve (and have for the past 17 years).
We appreciate you!