Houston we have a problem
So I found out yesterday that even as a Premium member there is still basically a 3 month trial period. During this time I can only post one blog post a day, and I can't post any training at all. There may be more limitations than that, but I haven't found them yet. Feel free to leave a comment below if there are some more I should be aware.
The blog thing is merely annoying. Fine, one post a day it is. My problem with the training is that I'm seriously ready to just mind dump on to this site. If you read my profile, you know I have years of knowledge stored up, that I really haven't found a good place to dump until now. I have a ton of resources that people can use to start building their business. Open source software for video production, web design, etc. Creative commons resources for design work. Unique tricks I've developed for marketing and creating content. I've seen some of this stuff on here already, but it's really just scratching the surface. And it's all yours... in three months. :) But we'll come back to that.
I've also bumped up against the No Spam rule. I didn't violate it, but that was my first cold splash of water in the face. If you happen to be new here, you really should go read it. It has to do with a lot more than just what you would typically consider Spam. Even if you're not new here other members have mentioned it's worth refreshing themselves from time to time.
I posted a pretty long comment on that post, and another couple of long ones on this other post about Spam.
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/onmyownterms/blog/i-see-your-sneaky-tricks
So the thing is I hate rules as a matter of principal. Yeah, yeah I get it. We need rules. No really, like not just in a general “it would be anarchy in the streets” way, but specifically this community covering the topic it does needs extremely strong rules to prevent Spam.
That doesn't make me any less constitutionally against rules. It's just my nature. I will always find a way to turn a rule on it's head and either get around it or use it to my advantage. You may think this is a bad thing. In fact, I can see you reaching for the block/ban/report/whatever button right now. But it's really not.
First, being really good at getting around rules also makes you really good at making rules better, because you naturally find the wiggle room that other people will find to slip through so it can be shored up. Kind of like a White Hat hacker finding security breaches in a website to help prevent other people from using them, or the fact that your bones need pressure/stress to make them stronger. I don't know if the comments I made to the posts above will contribute at all to making the rules better (not really up to me), but the issues I raised did seem to help a couple of people take a second look at them and get a better understanding of them. I'll call that a win.
Secondly, my reaction to rules comes from a broader reaction to a challenge. If you tell me something can't be done or no one has figured out a way yet, I will naturally try to figure it out. I solve problems. Sometimes, my problem just happens to be somebody else's rule. :)
So what's my solution to THESE rules. Well that answer comes in two parts. The first, is that I realized that just because I can't post stuff, doesn't mean I can't create it. It just has to sit on my computer until time lock is up. In fact, I'm writing this post two days before I'll be able to post it to the site. (Became 3 days because I had to do https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/numerous/blog/holy-cow-how-did-that-happen) As for the training...
That brings me to my second part of the solution. I'm reminded here of a scene from Private Parts the movie about Howard Stern. In the beginning of his career, Howard Stern came up against a radio manager that INSISTED he pause for commercial break every fifteen minutes. No buts. No exceptions. So in response, Howard Stern proceeded to tell an incredibly personal story about his wife having a miscarriage and just as he was getting to the most important part of the story... He went to commercial break. :)
Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to tip your waitresses, leave a comment, follow me, or whatever the case may be. And come back tomorrow for my solution to the training delay. ;)
Recent Comments
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I look at rules as guidelines not stop posts so like you I will work within them but find other creative ways to use them. Thanks for your post, Cory. Regards, Michael
Thanks for your reply Michael. That's a great way to put it. "Guidelines and not stop posts". I like it. :)
Just a small thing, but people would probably relate better if you had a pic on your profile. The 'your image here' can be a little off-putting to some :)
That's fair, and to each their own, but I would imagine that any picture could be potentially off-putting even if it is only subconsciously. I'm sure you've read about the science behind the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell that shows we all basically decide how we feel about things in that first blink of an eye without even thinking about it.
The interesting thing though is that in the few days it's been up there I've actually had quite a few comments on it. And almost every one of those comments lead to interesting conversations like this one. So I would say that people definitely do have a reaction to it and it's value as a conversation starter may actually outweigh the possible negative reactions people might have.
OKCupid actually did a study on this very thing. They found that people with images that were rated at the extremes (i.e. getting lots of 1s and 10s) were more likely to receive communications from other members than people that were rated higher on average but with a consistent score (i.e. lots of 6s and 7s). So maybe having a picture that elicits a reaction, even if it's sometimes negative, is actually better for meeting people than having one that doesn't ruffle any feathers. :)
You can spend your next 3 months building out your website and learning about affiliate marketing through the lessons that are already here. And if you want to you can start creating the training you want to share and save it on your own computer.
But here's the rub; you can't flood WA with training after your 3 months is up. There's a limit to how often you can post training. I tried to post 2 videos in one day and discovered that there's now a limit.
And the training doesn't pay all that well. How much you can earn depends on how well it's received by the community. How many "likes" and comments you get determines the payment.
That limit is good to know on the training. I'll have to queue up that stuff too, like I am the posts. But I didn't even know about the payment thing when I originally wrote this, and even now the limit is like $5 or something a day right. I didn't and still don't plan on doing it for the money. I like to share ideas/knowledge. Normally when I talk to people about this type of stuff their eyes roll back in their heads. I'm really just looking forward to see what cool ways people can come up with to use what I know.
As for the websites, affiliate marketing, and training. I didn't actually come here for the affiliate training portion of it. I already build sites on the regular, and I have a new product that I'm developing that is really my focus. I came here for the community of people that are interested in what I am, making money online. Yesterday I talked to two guys in live chat about local marketing and kindle marketing. That was awesome.
That doesn't mean I'm ignoring the training, because you never know where you might pick up something new. I plan on building a site on Site Rubix for the fun of it just to see what it's like, but any site I was building for a business I'd put on a server I have command line and FTP access to and can install all the programs I might need. Also spoiler alert, my post tomorrow is actually about going through the training on the site here and trying to organize the stuff I like into lists of stuff that I like for my own reference and to share with other people. So you kind of read my mind and beat me to the punch. :) Thanks for the great comment.
Well it's not like $5 a day Cory, more like $5 per tutorial full stop. To even make $5 you need to get lots of likes and comments. Then it goes into the next level. If the training goes into Level 3 then you get $10, Level 4 $15. It goes up $5 for each level but each level takes longer and longer to get through.
Here's a list you might like Training by Marion Black Sorted
Oh the "a day" was figuring tutorial a day, but I get you. Info about the levels is interesting. Trying to figure out the mechanics of this site is fascinating. Thanks for that. And I'm absolutely going through that list of training.
I need all the help I can get. You have 20 years under your belt. If you want to take a look at my website you can me. :)
Actually you made me think of a good point. I am really not good general or opinion based questions. I generally give lousy answers. After being a little over eager on here a couple times and answering those type of questions, I realized that the best way I can actually help people is stick to my wheel house.
Any specific question, like "How do I make my site do X, Y, or Z?", is well within my wheel house. Any time you post a question like that, throw a link to the question on my profile page and I'd be happy to take a look at it. Plus if you post it first than anyone available can help out if I'm not on at the time.
I also do ok at brainstorming ideas, just because I have plenty of reference to draw from. But in the case of brainstorming, it's less a matter of me having an answer and more a matter me having lots of answers and you just kind of got to pick what you want to try and test them out to see what gets results in your particular case.
OK, now that the long reply is out of the way :) I did go take a look at your site on your profile. It looks like you have a good amount of content and you write some nice long posts. You also have a nice little exit pop up for a mailing list. So you have a good start going. Let me know what you'd specifically like to work on and I'd be happy to work on it with you.
Thanks a lot for looking at my site. I am just getting into affiliate programs and not understanding very well. I like your idea of brain storming because it gives me a choice. I don't want to be a carbon copy of someone else. Thank you for being willing to help me. I will think this over and pm you when I get some specific questions.
Sounds good. Look forward to it. But remember, posting the question to the community first and then asking me to take a look will get you a wider range of views. Especially for brainstorming. More heads, more ideas. :)
Hi Cory, I understand you are very knowledgeable and that you feel a bit limited.
You are probably determent to go for it, but a lot of premium members are leaving this great education before the 3 months are over. To prevent a load of training and blogs, new members are allowed to share 1 blog, and no training the first 3 months.
But hey! You can help others by answering their questions and you can put your focus on your own website and how to set it up properly.
Yeah, as I said in the post, this was originally written like three days ago. Since then I've had several conversations about the rules and have definitely come to appreciate why they exist more. Part of the reason I posted this as is though is to sort of track my progression as it happens, rather than skipping the parts that would be missed because my learning curve is advancing faster than posting limits.
And like I said in the post, I have been finding ways to work within the limits and it seems to be working out.
Well you could just email me everything you know but I would probably just get confused.
Well we will pull thru..... and it is a downer for an educated experienced person. If you need a listening ear here's my email and we can go from there, I really do need help.
Well just because I can't post training doesn't mean I can't help. What seems to be working so far is to post your questions in response to whatever training seems appropriate. Then just swing by profile and post a link to it. If I'll swing by and if I can help all the better, and if not then it's open to the community so that has different experience than me can chime in.
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Being very new to the community myself, your level of engagement is most impressive! I can relate to your "Holy Cow" post, as I too was floored to see my rank increase so quickly.
It's great to see specific questions being asked and answered. Deconstructing allows greater understanding of all the interconnected moving parts.
As for the posting limits, here's a thought.
You're putting in effort we all benefit from, so it's unfortunate that you are feeling unduly regulated when you clearly have the right intentions.
Maybe these posts and comments will spark a reconsideration of how the posting limits operate; perhaps the Quality of time spent on WA should outway the Quantity, with limits lifted/adjusted accordingly?
I understand why it's 3 months. New hires at most large organizations spend 90 days in probation before being fully onboarded; however, if you instead base posting limits on progress or rank, then suddenly 90 days seems arbitrary.
So this is going to sound funny, but I've actually come to appreciate the limits. It forces me to pace myself in the blogging arena, and each day I get to pick from the backlog sitting on my desktop what I want to put up and talk about that day.
More importantly, I've seen how it protects the community. The longer I'm here the more I see the ongoing battle with spammers. Anything that can be done to win that battle is a victory in my book.
While that means I can't put up any training for the first 90, that was probably a good thing as well. As I say in my next post, it forced me to spend more time looking at the training that was already here. I still think there's a lot I can add, but at least I have a better understanding of the foundation I can build on.
While I agree that having a mechanism in place where the limits were based on participation not an arbitrary time limit, I also understand that from the programming side it makes more sense to go with the simple that arguably works for the masses rather than build a perfect system for the fringe cases.
Thanks for your great comment and I'm glad you've enjoyed what i've put up so far. I'll try to keep it up. :)