My Rant ABOUT SPAM (Plus Kyle's Official Response)

Disclaimer: I appreciate anyone who has told me they consider what I'm doing to be spam. I prefer you verbalize it than to keep it to yourself and label me internally, so I don't have any anger towards those who have been trying to maintain the standard here. I'm just confused.

I love Wealthy Affiliate from the bottom of my heart.

I understand the intentions behind the spam rule. Many people have the intention to sell and often times, if they're here, they spam in effort to direct people to competing products or services. There's also the people who link to stuff that's unhelpful, or not relevant. Then, you have another group of people who want to feel safe and don't want to have to filter thru promotions.

I get it. I like the safe environment created here too, and I don't want to sacrifice that.

This is My Scenario

On the other hand, you have people (like me) who desire to be transparent and to help everyone achieve success. We've put lots of effort in creating helpful content inside and outside of Wealthy Affiliate, and it's alot to ask for us to recreate everything we've created on the outside specifically for this audience simply because we can't link to it--it's like going around a lake when you can swim thru it. Why make it difficult if the intent is to be helpful and transparent?

I've tried to workaround the spam rule but it's more work that way. I don't like to have to be all "buttoned up" and exclude information when it can be helpful.

The Oxymoron that Keeps Happening with the Spam Rule

I've created many resources that could be seen as "self-promotion" if you wanted to. I've created more than one case study being very transparent about my results on my site and on Youtube and strategies in effort to help others. Based on my experiences there, most people want the transparency--that's my biggest compliment. They don't want someone who says, "my site is getting lots of traffic" and doesn't say how, or someone who says, "something is working for me", and doesn't say what.

I've also created several pieces of content that help navigate personal, mindset, and other relevant issues for those in the industry. If I have relevant content on the outside that could increase the help to others, why not link to it?

What makes matters even worse is if I don't link to it or demonstrate, then people will come and ask questions via inbox or in the comments because my content would be more fragmented and completely different if I leave out details that some would consider "spam".

Added to that, even with the details I've given people still want more, so I get inbox messages for more links, so it makes it seem like, why am I going the long way? On the same piece of content, some people will ask for more links and others will accuse me of spamming for putting any links at all.

We have hearing impaired people here, people who would feel more comfortable with closed captioning, and people who genuinely want to learn from someone whose willing to be transparent with them, and all of these people want the links. Why not put the links out there for everyone? If it can help, so be it, and if they want to ignore, so be it.

Again, these are not links to sales pages, and this is not an intention to earn a direct sale. This is solely for the purpose to help.

Many people who have been here much longer have said what I'm doing is fine and they appreciate it, so it's confusing!

Do you want me to be buttoned up like one of them?

Most scammers leave things out on the outside of here in effort to give the illusion something works by forging results. I don't want to be like that. If I see a recurring mindset issue, technical issue, or other problem, and I know I've overcome it myself, I know someone who has, or I've addressed the problem on my site (for free) or in one of my channels outside, then I add content here that can standalone, but could be improved with the link to another relevant piece I've written, why not? It's not a problem when I link to someone else's content. Only when I link to my own?

Believe me, I Understand the Good Side

I understand many positive contexts of the spam rule, but having to inbox links all the time because I can't put them where they'd be most convenient, or having to feel the need to re-create content that is equally or more helpful than what I've already created is when I really dislike the rule.

By the way, when Kyle says this line in Spam is a no, no, I took it to be equal with what I'm doing:

"If a link is posted out of an act to help someone, not sell something, that is OK."

What are your thoughts?

• Do you want creators to put all of their most helpful and transparent advice outside of here to avoid being called spammers?
• How can we enable transparency and genuine help while maintaining the safety of this environment here?

Leave your thoughts below...I'm open to agreement or disagreement, so don't be afraid to say what's on your mind as long as it's respectful.