There have recently (October/November 2022) been improvements to Wealthy Affiliate’s pricing and benefit structure for the various levels of membership.
In this post I explain the newly restructured Wealthy Affiliate Starter Membership Benefits; designed specifically to make things easier for those considering the Wealthy Affiliate’s online affiliate marketing program.
Table of Contents
The Aim of Wealthy Affiliate Starter Membership
The idea and reason for having a starter membership level is two fold:
- Dip your toe in the water before you commit any funds
Internet Affiliate Marketing can be daunting if it is new to you.
The founders of Wealthy Affiliate realized this very early on and in an effort to get people to “try before you buy” the free membership package was born.
Seeing exactly what Wealthy Affiliate has to offer allows you to make an informed decision on whether Affiliate Marketing is for you or not. - Allow you to make an informed decision as to whether Wealthy Affiliate is The Place For YOU to Learn All About Affiliate Marketing
Let’s not fool ourselves the end goal is to get you to join – but only if you feel comfortable with the platform and have the desire to lead a financially secure and independent lifestyle.
There is no pressure and free members are able to walk away at any time.
The WA starter membership level is an easy and practical method of getting members to confidently take the next step to starting their own online business.
There are no hard feelings if you decide Wealthy Affiliate is not for you.
Wealthy Affiliate’s stats show that one in 12 free starter members go on to become Premium, or Premium Plus members (and ultimately successful online marketers).
Eleven out of twelve therefore decide it is not for them and go back to doing what they’ve always done?
It may not be for everyone but it may be perfect for you – you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking a look.
What You Get As Free Starter Member
You get a ton of stuff as a free member at Wealthy Affiliate:
In your first seven days you have unlimited access to a many of the features usually only available to Premium or Premium Plus members.
This affords you the opportunity to get a taste of how interactive and supportive the more than 2 million members are.
After the initial 7 days certain features are restricted to full paying members – but by then you will have a good idea of what full membership entails.
At the end of the first 7 days you should
- One week’s limited community and one-on-one support 24/7, seven days a week from over 2,000,000 members – see next paragraph for details.
- One free siterubix.com website with hosting. SiteRubix is one of many tools available exclusively to Wealthy Affiliate members. Site.Rubix is often used as a testing site for new niche ideas, somewheere you can build a site to determine the likelihood of success for a particular niche before committing to a new, more permanent, .com site.
- Free Website builder – it literally takes seconds to get your site up and running.
- The first 5 lessons in Level 1 Core training in Online Entrepreneur Certification and Bootcamp lessons. 5 Lessons in each with supporting videos.
So how does this all fit together and what is the best way to get started?
Your First 7 Days as A Starter Member
Free Membership is obviously restricted but there is more than enough there to allow you to decide if you want to learn about Affiliate Marketing and that is, after all, the purpose of it.
Statistically speaking 3 days is the average amount of time it takes for free members to decide they want to give this a full go and convert full membership, or that it is not for them.
There is so much on offer that you probably will need several weeks to try it all out – but there is no rush. Take as long as you need.
If I was starting over I would start with the following – in order of importance (my opinion – others will have a different viewpoint).
- Look See Decide – free membership entitles you to 7 days of support and contact within the community.
You are free to watch from the sidelines or to actively participate.
See how members help each other in the chat box (located on your dashboard) and watch (fascinated I would think) the vast array of topics and incredible help that is given freely and promptly by everyone on the platform. - Introduce yourself by completing your profile with a photo of you (we like to know who we are talking to) and watch as the welcome messages and promise of ongoing support come in. We’re all there to help starter members make the decision that best suits them. None of us gain financially by supporting you so there are no “hidden agendas”.
- Wealthy Affiliate never sleeps!
With members from almost 200 countries around the world the chat box is live 24/7 – 7 days a week.
During this time you can read existing and past member’s blogs, a lot of which are based around successes, setbacks and personal journeys since joining WA. - Create a blog of your own.
- Take advantage of the ability to contact members through private messaging and ask questions – be aware that some folks are very busy and get hundreds of private messages. Don’t be offended if they don’t get back to you immediately. Or alternatively use the search bar located at the top of the home page to find an answer to your question. You can bet your bottom dollar that the question you are asking has been asked before.
Having Satisfied Yourself that The Community is Real and Friendly and HELPFUL beyond Words …
- Ease into the Training – you have a choice between the Online Entrepreneur Certification (OEC) or the Bootcamp training. The link to access either of these courses can be found at the top left of your dashboard, sandwiched between the “Home” and “Website” pages links.
7 days is not enough time to tackle both courses (unless you are superhuman) and I would suggest you start with the OEC course Level 1.
As the primary aim of Wealthy Affiliate is to teach you how to become a successful Internet Affiliate Marketer – you will learn many other ways to make money online.
l touch on some of these below.
Why the OEC course and not Bootcamp?
The Bootcamp course is to teach you how to promote Wealthy Affiliate using their website as your chosen niche.
I stayed away from this until I felt I was a successful affiliate marketer and confident enough to pass on advice in an industry I understood.
Whichever you decide on you will get the greatest benefit out of them by completing the 5 lessons on offer.
Each has a video or two, providing a visual of the lesson, and each ends with tasks for you to compete.
The tasks are there for a reason – complete them and don’t proceed to the next lesson until you have. There is nothing to be afraid of as you will not be marked or criticized in any way.
During the lessons – don’t jump ahead, as tempting as it is. It will all fall into place at the right time.
If you feel totally lost jump on to the search bar, ask the community or ask in the “Help” section – the link to the help section can be found at the top of your dashboard. There is always someone willing to help.
You can also send me a personal message at any time. My username is “Bald Eagle”. - Use Your Spare Time – OK so you are super-human and have spare time! I am very impressed.
Base these extra hours researching niche ideas you might have.
By the end of your 7 days you should be exhausted but exhilarated too.
You probably will also have chosen a niche, built your first website and be well on the way to establishing your online business.
Starter Membership Special Offer – Not an Upsell!
If you decide Affiliate Marketing is for you and you want to get started you can upgrade as follows:
- Premium $49.00 per month/497.00 per annum plus 1 FREE .com domain
- Premium Plus $99.00 per month/$697.00 per annum.
If you opt to upgrade within the first 7 days you will also receive:
One free .com domain when upgrading to Premium Membership – value +$15.00 for the Domain name and hosting is free.
Two free .com domains on upgrading to Premium Plus Membership – value +$30.00 plus free hosting
Second and subsequent years registration will need to be paid for at roughly $15.00 per domain name.
As a Premium member you get up to 10 websites hosted for free while Premium Plus members get up to 50 websites hosted for free. A benefit which, as far as I am aware, is not offered anywhere else online!
Now don’t go growling at me and saying this is an upsell after I promised no upsells.
It isn’t an upsell at all – we know that those who are serious about starting an online business are also probably weary of the thousands of SCAMS that take place online everyday.
We’ve all come across our fair share of SCAMS and you will not find any at Wealthy Affiliate – I promise you.
You have the option to cancel your membership at any time.
No pressure – simply a great offer to encourage you to join the best affiliate training program on the planet.
What Happens After The First 7 Days
After 7 days your access to the community is restricted. You will no longer be able to ask questions, contact members or participate on the live chat.
The offer of the free .com domain/s with upgrades are lost. You will of course still be able to upgrade your membership but anyone-site.rubix sites will have to be purchased either through Wealthy Affiliate or any other domain name supplier.
Access to the Level 1 training (lessons 1 – 5) will continue to be available to you.
You can continue to build out your free website.
And you can still view what is available and some of the interaction between full members – a kind of “look but don’t touch scenario”, and in so doing continue to learn the ins and outs of Wealthyy Affiliates extensive training resources.
What Else You Should Know About Your Starter Membership
- Your free website is hosted for 6 months – if you haven’t converted by then Affiliate Marketing may not be for you. That’s perfectly allright – it isn’t for everyone.
On the other hand if you are making money from your site why not upgrade? - As a starter member you can earn commission by promoting WA – a great way to fund your monthly or annual subscription.
- If you cancel any level of membership (including starter member) you cannot rejoin later as a starter member. You are welcome to rejoin but it will have to be as a full paying member.
“Stuff” You Can Learn at Wealthy Affiliate As a Full Member
Just being exposed to the WA community you have the opportunity to learn many ways of making money online.
These include but are not limited to
- Marketing your skills as a website builder to others
- Marketing your skills as an SEO specialist
- Providing hosting for other people’s websites
- Website design
- Flipping websites
- Getting paid for writing
- Getting paid for graphics
- And much more (for the moment my brain is frazzled but I will come back and update as I remember the various income generating options)
Last Word on the Starter Membership Benefits Available at Wealthy Affiliate
The starter member is a perfect vehicle for anyone thinking of becoming an Internet Affiliate Marketer but knows little or nothing about it.
Upgrading to either of the other membership options, Premium or Premium Plus, brings with it more features and added benefits on your journey to financial freedom and the lifestyle you choose, but …
“Every journey starts with the first step”
Are you ready to get started?
Keep on trucking!