Negative review of WA and slanderous facebook ads by competitors
A number of members have posted on a recent review against WA and slanderous facebook campaign - which I'm surprised has been allowed by facebook given who and what it bans all the time - I'm not even going to mention the name of this 'competitor' because it would be advertising them and giving them what they want, a piggy back to traffic. You can read the other members posts for that. But I did read their review and the comments on Disqus from other people under that review.
While the author brought up some interesting points, he also missed all the good points about WA:
- He missed the value of the members blogs here at WA: what we can learn from each other in terms of tips and tricks and resources for our websites, the free extra training and help, how we can get help immediately, how there are web developers and super affiliates in here who in seconds can respond to my questions no matter how basic or big they are. I have learned so much from other members that I've decided I'm going to list these 'extras' and blog them as successes from now on as I'm blown away with the real practical help from good people.
- There is also a wonderful community and it is a good place to nip in and learn from others and chat after a long day writing content and working on your website.
- It is without exception the easiest place to get online - not everyone wants to learn about C panels or code or take on a bunch of extra plugins to cope with a weaker easily hacked and slower hosting service or have to pay someone else every time they need to change something on their site.
- I have taken other courses and learned a lot from them but they only make me appreciate WA more and how easy things are and fast it is to get going and concentrate on content here at WA, which is what I want to be doing for my website.
- I'm taking courses elsewhere that give me the tools web developers have, it is NOT as fast or easy as what we have at WA!
- WA genuinely allows beginners to make commissions, many affiliate programs turn newbies away.
- While many programs offer free domain names and hosting for 3 months, at that point you'd need several hundred dollars to continue and you would be the one losing out on those 3 months work at that point if you couldn't afford to pay a year's hosting to some company for even their basic hosting services, whereas any work you do on a siterubix free site can sit in Starter membership and be upgraded to Premium later and at a time when you can afford it.
- He totally missed the point of the two free siterubix sites, he stated things that just weren't true about their ability to get traffic - we've had someone post his traffic on one of these sites! Although most people choose to have a domain, we still have a ton of uses for these free sites - why do you think we have 25 even as Premium members!
- The negative review omitted to mention what is being saved monthly on hosting at WA, because if WA offered no training or community or commission opportunities, the hosting alone is value enough.
- The negative reviewer doesn't seem to know about what comes with managed wordpress hosting here, and that costs hundreds per month anywhere else.
- And he seems to be issuing an aggressive challenge, not just a challenge, but an aggressive challenge. And it isn't at all full of the 'integrity' he boasts about.
We don't have to prove anything. We can all up our game, that is true of everyone everywhere at all times, but showing 'proof' to a guy like this would be a waste of time. There is no doubt that every system has its weaknesses, but no need to take the whole system down if those weaknesses are less than its strengths.
- We all complain about the rank system - but that is NOT why we post here.
- Kyle is in the process of updating all the training and he tends to cut the bs out of the latest fad trends and focus on stuff that is still relevant for getting results.
- I entered WA having read Nat's review on Brendon Burchard, I had taken the trial of BB's $2000 course and knew it was a catch to get me to spend more on his training, it literally was an overload of videos telling me I needed x and I had to go over there to get y and pay huge money for it and needed to join a really expensive mastermind of his to progress further. Nat didn't have to buy that course to see that, and write an accurate review on it.
- And that is two reasons I know WA is good - I've seen what all the others are doing, including the expensive Infusionsoft training, and WA are not behind or missing anything at all.
- So there is value in review style marketing, and it can save people thousands when done properly but no doubt people with less knowledge may not use this system so wisely, in the same way I complain about people answering questions with the wrong answer I would also challenge people to do their proper research before they write a review - but is that a WA problem? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
- And that is partly why this guy is so venomous now, some people it seems have torn apart his company in their WA reviews but may [I say MAY because I have not read them and maybe they were right!] not have been accurate. But even so, does that excuse a competitor from putting in print a distorted view of WA - ABSOLUTELY NOT! The irony of it!
MY COMMENT UNDER THE FALSE REVIEW OF WA ON THAT GUYS BLOG
"I'm finding several points here to be untrue, for example I've tried their two free websites and found a lot of value to them and have seen people get both rankings, traffic and income on them. But that isn't even their purpose - it looks like whoever wrote this review has succumbed to the very thing they criticize WA of doing!"
Action speaks louder than words, it is up to us to be successful within our niches and prove him wrong. [And another point he missed is that most people in here are not in Bootcamp, they have their own various niches]. However, I've seen people complain about not getting income after a year yet when I ask them have you done all the training, can you tick off this checklist of things for your site - turns out they haven't put in any real work. And that is NOT a WA problem, that is a person's mindset...
More than anyone I know the weaknesses in WA, I've managed to get locked out of the system twice [is that a record?] but I'm here and saying all this because I know it is a fantastic system with great opportunities for everyone, and it gives the same opportunities to everyone no matter how much or how little money you have starting off. It is a system that is in the process of growing and we are all part of that.
Yeah, long blog, but you should have seen the other guys! :D
ps UPDATE: I'm receiving negative replies to my comment on their blog. One by the owner himself DEMANDING that I prove stuff to him, demanding I send him a specific url - who does he think he is! I don't need to prove anything to him, none of us do. If anyone was watching Mary Queen of Scots, there was a scene where Queen Elizabeth was asked to raise her skirt to prove she was a woman, it's sort of like that :D They are trying to trap me in a lot of aggression and words, but I know they are wrong, I've seen this sort of bad arguing before...
MY RESPONSES TO THE OWNER EVOY
Who do you think you are that I need to prove anything to you? :D
Your waffle doesn't fool me, you are paranoid and aggressive and spewing negative energy and negative lies about your competitor. You are your best advertisement, and this comment page is a disgrace - as is your review.
AND TO ANOTHER GUY AT THEIR COMPANY
You claim to have taken 'the high road', there are just so many distortions and lies flying around here that it would neither be wise nor intelligent to engage you - you are your own advertisement, and while you claim some beginners to online marketing wrote a negative review about you - take a look - you are not beginners, and I stand my ground, you are not only guilty of doing all the things you accuse other people of doing but when you state you are an experienced company - then that actually makes you worse.
I know what you are saying is not true...and you are twisting my words in your response the same way you twist your entire review...the truth will win in the end.
ONE OF THEIR TESTIMONIALS
A former WA member with them stating she left WA because of all their upsells - what upsells?!
Recent Comments
82
Great post with good reasoning behind it. If you were standing on the corner giving away $100 bills someone would complain about them being to old or to new. One of my mentors told me a long time ago. If someone is not complaining about you than you are not doing anything.
LOL! Yes, I've seen some very aggressive people in the news recently who stole from others and got angry with the people they stole from!
Meh. The best way to deal with stuff like this is to ignore it. The more you comment on their blog, the more it helps them rank. Say your piece, and be done with it.
Best to focus on your own work and show your success by living it rather than telling people about it!
Yes, I didn't engage them further, my small comment got such an elaborate twisted aggressive response that I stated that, but I'm not even opening their replies now, and I would not encourage anyone to engage them - like someone already said - they are looking for a fight and will use anything and everything as ammunition.
They exposed their true character very quickly and people can see that. The response they asked me to make I actually put it on here, not with them.
And yes, focus on own work!
I agree! Often times time level of aggression from a response just serves to scare people away, even if you are "right".
Well, WA members are encouraged (even if only by suggestion) to write negative reviews of other opportunities to promote WA. Even I fell into the trap of doing that, even though I was not a complete newbie when I rejoined WA in 2015.
The truth is, many WA affiliates have written a lot of negative reviews of a lot of other opportunities in order to promtoe WA. Whether or not this is the fault of WA itself is a debate that could probably go on forever. But the unavoidable reality is that's what has happened.
I'm surprised it's taken this long for negative reviews like this to surface. But we could go round in round in circles accusing each other of hypocrisy.
There may also be a valid point about the free websites. Wasn't the guy who had success at WA with a free website actually premium member? Isn't that different to someone succeeding with just a free WA starter account?
I think review marketing is the norm eg amazon products.
Comparing to other courses in this niche is promoted from the belief this one is best, Kyle demonstrates that he personally researches and does thorough articles of original quality content
It would be logical to assume people would do their homework before writing, but clearly that doesn't necessarily pan out. I think 'due diligence' was expected and because of his knowledge of the sector certain results were expected
...in fact, low content slander with little facts shouldn't really rank well if multiple people were doing it...
His point about free websites misses the point of those websites, in fact he missed the point of the entire platform. And the reason people quote 'one guy' with the traffic on siterubix as an example is people actually want their own domain, and he was the only one who posted on his use of siterubix - personally I have lots of uses for them, even for Starters!
He is actually insulting every single person in here, and making a number of false and slanderous claims about the entire platform on every level, there's more going on with that aggressive attack, but he exposed himself as someone many people would not want to deal with!
The best thing is for WA and all its members to become even more successful.
Well, let's consider a few things:
1) Kyle says that when WA is compared to other opportunities it is clear that WA is the best.
2) Kyle's website is called "Ways to Avoid Scams Online". This plants the idea in people's minds that the products he will be reviewing are scams.
3) Beginners cannot afford to buy other products to personally test them out.
4) Many other reviews of these same products will be written by other WA affiliates and therefore be written in favour of WA. Either that or they will be written by affiliates of the other products and will therefore be false positive reviews. So it's actually very difficult to get a true view of a product without buying it, which most new members to WA can't afford to do.
5) Total beginners won't know any different because they have no experience of the industry.
6) They are informed that they can can earn money by referring to members to WA.
7) They find out that it can often be easy to rank for review keywords for other products, and easy to get people to sign up to WA if you say WA is better.
Does it really come as a surprise that many WA affiliates just end up saying that everything else is worse than WA without trying it? REALLY? I don't get why people think this is unexpected. To me it seems blatantly obvious that that's what many people are going to do. Not all, of course, but enough for it to be a problem.
If Kyle really doesn't want WA affiliates to do this, he should explicitly make it clear in the training. Nothing should be assumed.
I think your points 4 and 5 don't pan out and this is part of the problem:
4. People need to do their homework and there are ways to do that without buying a course, most courses have lots of freebies, lots of stuff on youtube, lots of trials, join their list, etc...and this ties in with intimately knowing your own platform so you can tell the differences immediately. Reviewers MUST do that.
5. If you were at college and read a review and wrote your essay on that level of weak research you'd fail!
...it sounds like you are saying people need to be educated in what is right and wrong - maybe that is true - when Kyle [and Google] asks for original good quality content maybe he has made an assumption that people will know what he is talking about
I am in here because of an accurate review done on a course that Nathaniell hadn't actually bought, but I had paid out the $2000 for the 30 day trial and knew everything Nat was saying was true, and Nat was the ONLY one giving the negative review of this guy.
However, what makes Nat's reviews different from most people's:
1. He knows his own platform's strengths and has done all the training, and all the extra training like Jay and other members...
2. He researched enough of the competitor to know what was bluff and where WA could help people more without going down the costly route.
Here's the deal, I know some very wealthy people who became even wealthier by taking Brendon Burchard's course - so why call it a scam or rate it lower than WA? Well there was a lot of what I'd call slimy marketing and deception and waffle and overload and always wanting me to pay him more, the upsells were astronomical, and anything priced $2000 didn't actually get you anything at all. And those who did follow through on his program all ended up being clones of him...but you need to join uber expensive mastermind classes and travel to different places and omg it is endless how many people and programs you have to hire, rent, buy...
So if you didn't have 5 figures or maybe 6 figures dollars to get in there, you would not have a crack of getting online. And that is where knowing your platform comes in...was I being scammed in that course - for sure, but if I were a millionaire who paid over what BB wanted, then BB in return would position me #1 'Expert' in the world, whether or not I was an expert in that field is irrelevant, his Experts Academy course is about positioning people. Maybe he delivers to the person who can afford it, so not a scam to them, but a scam on multi levels to me and many others - maybe 'scam' is relative.
You have a point on the name of his site, it's like there is a scale from what I see though, there are actually a huge number of scams out there, with some in the middle not scams - I had the impression he rated some people quite highly? As does Nat....
But you are right in that if there is an army of people out there writing rubbish reviews, then maybe something should be said. However that guy with his blog and his ads didn't really say that, he added to it.
4. That doesn't really make sense. How will getting their freebies and joining their list enable you to actually see what the product is like? Surely you would just get to see what their marketing is like? They could have the most wonderful email marketing and freebies but still be trying to sell an awful product or scam people in some way.
5. We're not talking about college. We're talking about people trying to rank in Google in order to promote WA. Two quite different things.
And yes, I think a lot of people do need to be told what's expected of them and what's acceptable. It's human nature for people to tend to try to get away with whatever they can get away with. That's why people used to throw loads of fake backlinks at their websites in order to rank #1 on Google. It's no use Google Google then saying, "Oh, we expected people to be wise enough not to create fake backlinks on order to cheat the system". Well, guess what? Loads of people did. If people can do something to get ahead, and not get into trouble for it, they will.
Same with promoting WA. If people can be lazy and just churn out loads of negative reviews of other products to promote WA to get money, they will. If the owners of WA then say, "Oh, we expected people to be sensible and not do that." Well, guess what, they did. Why? Because they could. Because there were no negative consequences for them.
Many people do need to have the rules spelled out for them, and then even sometimes have action taken if they break those rules. That's why we have the anti-spam rules here. Just think how bad things would be here if there were no spam rules.
Anyway, regarding product reviews, my approach was I tended to diliberately go in search of products that I thought looked scammy. I would write my review based on how the sales page came across to me. I would also do some research by seeing what other websites said about the product. Then I would usually mention in my review that I was just estimating what it was like based on the sales pages and the information I had researched elsewhere, so the reader knew I had not tried the product myself. I didn't lie and say I had tried the product when I hadn't.
But Kyle once saw one of these reviews and said it was a great review.
But over time I started to try to be more balanced. If I came across something that actually looked like it might be quite good, I would say something like "Looks good" or "Probably worth a try". And now I have evolved further so that I only want to write reviews of products I have actually bought. This makes me more choosy about what I review because I only want to buy something if I think it looks like it might be good.
Looking at a related issue, consider what Jeff Lenney does. He writes positive reviews about loads of MMO products as they get launched in order to get commissions from them. It's called "Launch Jacking". Look it up if you haven't heard of it before. Jeff's got a whole long post about it on his website. There are loads of people doing this. In fact, it's the sole reason JVZoo exists. It's one big money making club where they all write glowingly positive reviews of each others products before they launch, so that once they launch the search results are full of mostly postive reviews.
Try to find a negative review of any of the products launching on JVZoo. You will really struggle. Even "Overnight Cash Hack" (which is on WarriorPlus rather than JVZoo, but it's the same kind of thing), which I bought in February in order to review it, there were only positive reviews of it before I bought it. But it turned out to be a big pile of shit, one of the most amateur efforts I've ever seen.
So yes, people do whatever they can get away with. It would be nice if we lived in a world where everyone automatically behaved themselves, wouldn't it?
Let them rant and rave...I know what I like and where I love to be and where I have learned more than I ever thought I could AND that is right here at Wealthy Affiliate. This a much, much better community than Facebook. Thank you, Kyle and Carson and all the people behind the scenes. God Bless. shary
Yes, the owner is making vile statements all day long about WA, such a constant negative lying spew, he is so wound up - not someone I'd trust or want to be associated with. And of course all his fans are commenting building him up!
I read what sounds like the same ad the other day. This one was by the founder of a site, the first Setter of which was an S. He clearly was not looking for what is good about WA. His mind seemed to be made up before he looked at us. He stated that WA pretty much tells its members what to build their sites about, which even I as a newbie know to be untrue. So when I read that part I just skipped the rest, because I knew I was reading lies.
Thanks for the post.
Zuell
Yes, it was just being negative on his part, maybe he is hoping to get some attention that way...
I've even come across a site that gives a negative impression of WA with letters from people who supposedly were part of the community. These letters aren't even validated before they are posted. Piggy backing is a good term for it! When someone using something good in a bad light to further their own agenda instead of doing the hard work that is actually required! Thanks for the blog..I really enjoyed it!
Thanks...all the time I was thinking no one could possibly read to the end of this long blog :D
Thank you for taking the time to write out and post this, sharing it with all of us. I had no idea this was going on!
It's crazy! There always has to be one out there causing problems, but this is temporary just like anything else and WA will win in the end :D
Hey Moz,
Great post! Didn't get a chance to read it entirely Because I felt compelled to share before I lose it!
To search for a perfect anything will never be found. Life is about choices and making the best with what you have. Here at WA there is NO DOUBT a proven way made simple by Kyle & Carson. The rest is up to he whom seeks!
We can dine from a 5 star Michelin menu, but if the chef isn't even a 1 star Michelin the menu becomes invalid!
Purchase a Maybach benz just to find out it runs out of gas, needs a driver, and somehow manages to collect dust if it isn't wiped down often.
Some call those flaws I call it reality! You get out what you put in, and seek the best opportunity to gain advancement.
Wealthy Affiliate provides ALL the tools to gain that very thing called success!
The system sells itself there is no need convincing anyone to join. If you're serious about giving your all to find out what can be then WA is a guarantee! Period!
This is what I drive home to prospects. WA doesn't ask for anything before they GIVE you free premium service for a whole week. What program gives before they take, and in most cases take again and again and again before seeing any type of residual?
It doesn't stop there because you're discounted upon going premium if you act fast! So if you show seriousness WA will give to you AGAIN!
Now you're a month in which by then you just made an investment after all is said and done of about 35-50 bucks.
With a premium web presence and access to 24/7 knowledge to keep growing!
No brainer! Wealthy Affiliate wins all day long in my book!
Let's welcome competition if you ask me. WA is the hottest and will continue being so until someone tops the caring community Kyle and Carson has built!
Carry on WAvers!
Much love,
Shannon kamal
Very well said! I"m glad that you did not mention his name or link to his review as that would have only helped him with traffic.
Even though I have some websites at Hostgator, because I wanted to have CPanel access so I could theoretically gain better understanding of it. I can confidently say that beginners and people at my level do not need to know anything about CPanel access in order to build a money earning website.
The. WA hosting package is worth the cost of my membership all by itself.
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There will always be naysayers. Personally, I'm not sure I could even put a price tag on the amount I've learned since being a member for the last 5 years. I can tell you that what I learned here has helped me in 2 full-time jobs. One job I got as a web admin I owe all to WA. I was able to transfer all the skills I learned here into a full-time web admin contract job. Now the job only lasted a few months but the experience both here and there--PRICELESS! And that doesn't even include setting up my own business!
Nothing is perfect but I think WA go above and beyond. Alanna
Congrats! That's a really good example of what is possible!! Yes, those guys totally missed the point.
I actually still have the web admin gig! My hours have been cut back but I'm still working a few hours a week for them. It just goes to show you what is possible!