Other "shiny objects" needed to be successful with WA

1.6K followers

Updated 6 years ago

Dear WA-Family

I've read a post of our valued member TonyHamilton this morning. So after I started commenting and sharing my thoughts on "shiny objects" and it turned into a long answer, I realized it would probably be more courteous to transfer my thoughts to my blog (whooo-hooo it gives me the opportunity to fulfill one of my tasks of blogging too), rather than to post my lenthy answer in Tony's blog.

If you have missed Tony's post, here is the link: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/tonyhamilton/blog/shiny-obje...

"Shiny objects"... What are they? Are they good? Are they bad? Should I unsubscribe from all other email lists? Let's see...

I have never heard that somebody refers to WA as a "Shiny Object". As far as my understanding goes, it is a term that is mostly used to describe offerings on the internet that doesn't add to the core of our knowledge on how to make money.

Are shiny objects bad?

The problem for many becomes when we are sold "shiny objects", but we don't have the knowledge or know-how to put those shiny objects to good use.

Take this as an example. Buying a car, it is the object that takes us from point A to point B. But

any good car salesman will always sell us many "shiny objects" - luxury floormats, a special steeringwheel cover that stays cool even on the warmest day, an upgraded rear view mirror, nice mag wheels, long-life wiper blades, special car polish, extra-ordinary non-streaking window wash, and of course a chamois to go with it, etc. All very nice and handy items, don't you agree? Our car salesman is doing us a favor by recommending these awesome products, right?

None of those "shiny objects" are bad. The problem arise when we are ONLY sold the "shiny objects", but we don't have, and don't understand, that we need the car to use them on, or HOW to use them on our car. The luxury floor mats is not fulfilling its purpose and neither am I getting its intended value, if I just pile them in the trunk.

The "shiny objects" adds absolutely nothing, to the functionality of the car, only to my ego and the beauty or perceived value of the car (and even that is often debateable). The car is still taking me from point A to point B, regardless whether I've bought the mag wheels. the luxury floor mats and the chamois! :-) The purpose of the car is to make it possible for me to visit all the fun places where I want to go - it's purpose is not to carry the above-mentioned objects around town.

Comparing WA to the car and shiny objects

This can be compared to WA, which is the training that will take one from a newbie with no understanding of online marketing, to a knowledgeable internet marketer making money online. But if I don't have that knowledge yet, it doesn't help I buy the fancy plugins or the fancy theme builders or ... whatever the next "shiny object" it is that is being touted in our inboxes as "THE" thing to have. I simply won't have the knowledge of how to put that item to good use, in order to get its intended value.

And besides, without the extra outlay and without the "shiny objects", WA is like the "standard" car - fully capable of delivering on its promise to take us where we want to go and to help us accomplish our goals - IF we focus and do the work.

BUT, we often times get so distracted by all these "shiny objects", that we waste days and weeks, meanwhile our "car" is parked in the garage, while we chase on foot after the "luxury

floor mats" and the "chamois"! And then we talk to the neighbor and he happens to just casually mentions the "long-lasting wiper blades" which is a MUST HAVE and we go wide-eyed "Oh my goodness, I didn't know that!" - and off we go on foot again in search of those as well... And meanwhile our perfectly capable and beautiful standard car, is patiently waiting for us in the garage.

And no, I believe the person who offers the "shiny object", may have sincere intentions ... it is just that many of us are not at a point in our learning where we are capable of making an informed decision yet - and neither are most newbies who joins WA.
(There are always the exceptions to the rule - I don't talk about them.)

But once we are here at WA for a while, we realize that many of the "shiny objects" are just that - glittering like gold, but it is not real gold. That is when we start to 'get it' that even though all that "eye candy": all the flashing colors and moving objects and pop-up boxes and music playing in the background, flashing screens, blinking banners and whatever else it is that tickles our fancy, may look great, but it is not necessarily what is going to make us money. Instead, it is our quality content, engaging with our visitors and delivering a great user experience, THAT is the real gold. Adding the eye candy is not that important.

But many people fall for all the "shiny objects", all the "must have's", the "can't run a business without this", the "no way of being successful without this"-objects... so they end up with the equivalent of piles of luxury floor mats, steeringwheel covers and hard drives full of long-life wiper blades ... but they don't even own a car!

Is the Law imposing its "limited thinking" on us? | Earnings Disclaimer

And I think the reason why the law requires that we state that all success stories mentioned

must be accompanied by a "this is not typical" disclaimer, is because in earlier years on the internet, there were MANY false promises, getting peoples' hopes up and I personally knows people who lost lots of money, naively falling for that.

So it is not a matter of discouraging someone or imposing our "limited thinking" on them, when we tell them that it is probably going to take them 6 months to a year before they can expect to make money, but it is rather to shake them out of their irrational fairy tale day dreams of expecting to earn $10'000 by the end of next month, while twiddling their thumbs.

Yes, we see time and again people who joins WA and who makes money from their first day or week - no problem, many people do just that. But if one takes the percentage who joins and when each one starts making money, not everybody falls into the category of making it online immediately (for MANY various reasons). And to show them only the immediate success stories or to create the expectation that they will also be earning money "next week" - well, that would be deceptive, I think.

Many people turns to the internet out of desperation - having SERIOUS financial troubles. If we create the impression that they are going to make money "shortly" after they have paid their WA membership, and they don't... well, I wouldn't want to see kids go to bed hungry or peoples' financial troubles increased, because they don't make the money that they have prematurely bargained on. In that case it is better for them to know that there are "slower learners" (of which they may or may not be one) and that it can take up to a year and in some cases even longer. If they THEN make the decision to join and thereby increase their financial hardships - at least I know that it was through none of my doing.

But of course, once I've driven my standard car and it comfortably takes me from point A to all the fun places I wanted to visit, nothing stops me from adding as many "shiny objects" as I wish and can afford. ;-)

But even then we need to know that some "shiny objects" are purely "nice-to-have's" (like the chamois and the steeringwheel cover) which won't add much (if any) value to my car, and others may add some value (like the mag wheels). But it is only after being here at WA for a while and after we got a grip on what "having an online business" entails, that we learn to distinguish between which things are only "nice-to-have's" and which does add some value.

Should we unsubscribe from all other lists?

Well, my opinion is to do so until we are at least earning a steady income through what we learned here at WA. When we are new, our focus are easily lost and then we waste a lot of time, just like when our standard car is parked in the garage, but we chase on foot after the luxury floormats and the chamois. If we accept that WA is the "standard car", that already has ALL that we need to take us on luxury holidays, we won't waste time and money chasing after "shiny objects" that won't bring us any closer to our goal. We don't need a Ferrari to be able to enjoy a luxury holiday, do we? Many will even have to choose between the Ferrari and the luxury holiday, not so? Well, here's the kicker...

WA is a standard car ...
a standard Ferrari, that is!
Yes, I'm sorry, you can't buy any "extra's" for Wealthy Affiliate.
Yes, it already includes the free hosting, yes it already includes all the easy to follow training you can wish for, yes it already includes the images and the feedback and the goal setting and the mentors and the keyword research tools and the community..... whatever it is you were going to chase after. Well... almost. :-) So now it is up to us to take our Ferrari out of the garage and go have some fun with it!

What are your thoughts about it? What would YOU advise a newbie to do?

Sharlee (Chocolate IceCream)