Leaving Wealthy Affiliate
April 29th will be my last day on Wealthy Affiliate.
After some careful consideration and review of the materials available to members, I have concluded the following:
1) The tools, such as keyword research, niche q, rapid writer, and the hosting, are not worth the monthly membership. Similar tools are available for free elsewhere.
2) The mentoring that was promised by Kyle and Carson, as well as my sponsor, Jay, is nowhere to be found. I even got something of a teaser message, stating I would receive a private message with some guidance. That never happened, even when I followed up with Jay.
UPDATE: Jay has contacted me since I made this post, and has been extremely kind and forthcoming with advice and information.
3) The 12 week action plan, to the point at which I have arrived (week 5) is inconsequential in its informational presentation. I found the material to be elementary. I've taken action - I just haven't seen anything here that I haven't seen for free elsewhere.
4) The web site is orchestrated in somewhat of a Ponzi scheme, with everyone perpetually touting the virtues of Wealthy Affiliate. Teaching other people how to make money online is surely a righteous endeavor, but it seems that many of the so called gurus seem to do mostly that, and not much in the way of promoting services of actual, tangible value. I have ethical qualms with that.
5) Websites such as scam.com and IMReportCard.com don't particularly favor Wealthy Affiliate. Some have offered empirical anecdotal evidence as to precisely why Wealthy Affiliate is of little value outside of one (or a few) month's worth of membership (the forum is often touted as the saving grace of the community).
6) I have not been active in the forum, however, I often see only one or two replies to a thread. This pales in comparison to many free forums.
7) I bought a product, marketed by Valeri Tkatchenko, which I found to be a solid product. However, he mentioned in his sales page that he could be contacted for support. Not only did I contact him with some very solid recommendations to improve his product, but asked some serious questions. These messages were sent multiple times, to multiple addresses, and were ignored.
8) Nihilism seems to be the run-of-the-mill around here, but the "front" to market products seems to be one of philanthropy. While I can certainly appreciate this approach from a business (profit) perspective, it is an undeniably ugly way to conduct business. Further, it is my contention that such methods will eventually result in the undoing of whatever business chooses to engage in such practices. For historical evidence, you may refer to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Goldman Sachs, General Motors, Enron, and a host of others.
9) I have often seen people say that there is just *too much* information on Wealthy Affiliate, and that's where people get lost. People get lost because the organizational structure is poor and not useful in the first place -- not because the information is of so much value that our pea-sized brains cannot process the great wealth of knowledge contained in this community. This denigration of the intellectual capacity of the members of Wealthy Affiliate is counterproductive to the aims of the community.
10) It is obvious that about 10% of those who join Wealthy Affiliate are willing to employ grey-hat or black-hat marketing techniques to get a leg up on the competition, where about 80% are not willing to take that mental leap -- and thus, don't get anything from methods that teach to this end, and the final 10% simply don't know which way is up or down.
I am in the 80%. I am not willing to snipe reviews from other products, to use other people's content and pawn it off as my own, to steal graphics without giving due credit, or any of the other stuff that is very clearly used by some of those who are on the "top" in Wealthy Affiliate.
I am not willing to compromise my ethical standards of conduct with regard to my interaction with other people, to get a leg up. There are numerous ethical marketing practices that I have become acquainted with as of late. While the road may be a bit longer to achieve success, I will be able to sleep at night.
I know that any money I make is made for providing a real value to my customers, without misrepresenting any part of my product in the sales letter, using false testimonials, or whatever else.
Here are a few of the resources I have found to be of extremely high value:
A Successful Web Business Explained....Step-by-Step! FREE VIDEO COURSE! (Chris Farrell)
Internet Marketing Report Card
In closing, I'd like to thank everyone here for their cordial welcomes. Many of you are wonderful people. The business practices employed by Wealthy Affiliate are questionable to say the least. I have no doubt the processes defined on this site will "work" - they just aren't methods that I myself feel comfortable with.
All the best,
John
john.beard@gmail.com
Recent Comments
34
Criticism is something important and I know many people here are willing to learn from their mistakes and look forward to hear constructive critics from other members.
Still, I'm a bit suprised with your post but you're not the first to leave. We all have our own expectations and experience WA in a different way but I guess what takes "credibility" off your speech if I may say is when you talk about Jay. You have no idea how this guy helps people here and is being extremely honest and helpful. I've noticed he replied to your post saying he actually sent you the email (which I was sure of) so I'm thinking.... If that email did go through and if you received it on time, would you really have said all these things? I'm not judging. at all. I'm just saying that it's up to everyone here to determine who we want to listen to, the way we want to use the tools available here,...
This community is a web of different individual paths, of course you'll come across people trying to sell their own stuff, maybe stuff with low value of course, but it's up to everyone to make choices and make the most out of this place which has been and still is a turn in my life and where I can ALWAYS get help from and motivation too and ethical marketing advices, that's for sure.
I wish you all the best John and hope you'll find what you look for and eventually succeed! :) Louise.
@Pete: Thank you for your reply. I got lost a little bit during your reply. I certainly have not been focusing on the negatives. Quite the contrary. One of the interesting things about this community is the personal vitriol that flows from (some) people when even the slightest bit of criticism is levied. It speaks volumes about character.
Hey- I want to start by saying that I spend more time in my days answering emails from students of "EOS" which is a course that a fellow member and I created to help beginners make a profit practicing honest ethical marketing. "See a need, fill a need" we breath this at EOS, and I live this in every aspect of my life... I will say that I have seen unethical behavior in the forums here, and else where as well.. But places like "Worrier Forum", and other outside forums support this behavior and preach it... Believing in other people is a powerful thing and something I practice every day... Be, Do, Have is something that needs to happen to achieve success.. I find it funny that a person that seems to know so many big word, and has such a wide verity of opinions doesn't seem to know this.. I read your post two times because, well.. to be honest I wasn't sure what to make of it the first time because you have such a great ability to talk so much, but say so little... Dress it up how you like, but complaining is complaining, and truth be told you have no right because you said so yourself.. "I have not been active in the forums"... Here is the bottom line... I have never spoken with a person that succeeded while focusing on the negatives... If you wanted to, you could take the knowledge from this place and use it how you like.. The fact that you "can't" means little about the ability this place has to teach ETHICAL marketing.. I will say this as well, you have a talent for spinning words and that could make you special, the ability to talk is a valuable thing, and you can talk... But you do need to learn respect, and looking at the good things in programs, and people alike wouldn't hurt either... Best of luck to you friend, I am sure you will find what you are looking for(:
@Jay: Of course - if you'd like to send the email again, I'd be open to that. I just checked the conversation in my gmail account again, and the reply certainly didn't come through.
@jatdebeaune: You are one of the members that I have seen offering quality advice all over the place. Thank you for that - my beef is not with you. In many places, I have seen people using fake product reviews to market their products, as well as swiping the content from other peoples' sales letters. It seems to me this is part of the culture.
Hello John - re: #2
I emailed you as promised to the email that was given to me when you initially contacted me. I am happy to send again if you want.
@Wootton: None of the things I linked cost money. They're not affiliate links, nor are they my products. A rudimentary review would have yielded this as the truth to you.
My freedom of speech gives me the right to express my opinion from where I'm sitting. So I can, and I will, speak against something that has proven to be of little use to me.
You looked at my page where he *said* he was going to PM me. I think I made that clear in my original post. Re-read it, and it should become clear what I was saying. As far as me being heard, that doesn't concern me much. I did, after all, make this post public.
Well from where I am sitting, you are just trying to make profit on WA time. Call me crazy but I love WA and I am no long term member, you havent been here long enough to say anything. So if you are so succesfull why would you take this course and put up your links(other then praying on WA members to convert to your cause.) I think if you are so disgusted why would you want to show that you have even been here? So go do your own thing, but don't think for a second that you can just bad mouth something that has helped me make a living. Oh and you said that no one tried to help you, I looked at your page where he PM you. Cover your tracks before you talk about people who have personally helped me, that's just bad slander. I think you should go stand in the light of your own Hypocrisy before you talk bad about any of the members here, they just mite hear you.
John, Your post makes me sad. I've experienced just the opposite here, immediate response to my questions, and high standards and ethics. Where's the black hat? I wish you well.
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@Louise: I must admit, not receiving the guidance I was promised was a bit disheartening. Even still, I think most of the above still rings true. I don't think Jay is a bad dude - far from it, he seems like a real nice guy, with lots of value to offer. Just would've liked to have seen that delivered is all. Thank you for your comments, Louise. I will take them under consideration :)