Hosting & coaching is of interest. Currently just have 2 websites online but in a mess as I lost interest/motivation for a while due to several reasons.
I am using WPX.net and One.com for my hosting needs. WPX is by far superior in every way. One is OK, but support is not always the best.
Just hosting I think 49 USD is a good figure. For a hosting & coaching package I am thinking somewhere between 49USD to 100USD would be in the ballpark.
I would definitely say that getting to know people like you is the best thing I got out of my membership
I'll happily second that 😊
Partha may come across as a bit brash to some (I found it very refreshing at WA in all honesty), but his heart is in the right place!
All the congratulation for just being indexed in Google
They're still doing that? Jeeeez .... like taking biscuits from a baby.
@rudy I'll let @partha and @diane share their thoughts as well (to clarify/fill in any gaps), but let me see if I can answer some of these questions:
Could we switch between levels? Say I need more help at first, then only need the monthly attention?
Yup, definitely! Right now, the three of us have only talked about monthly payment options, and not yearly options. But regardless, you would be able to switch around should you feel you did or didn't need as much help each month.
Or, say, new websites get weekly coaching for the first month, then monthly? (another level option, maybe)?
So coaching "will be around ONE WEBSITE or ONE SPECIFIC BUSINESS IDEA" (this is what Partha said in his first post). So when it comes to coaching, we'll be mainly working with you on the one site that you want to, well, mainly be working on.
Should you want help with more sites, then yes, you can have each site on different coaching plans. I'm pretty sure we can arrange that.
I really am interested in what you guys are offering in both hosting and coaching, and would switch in a heartbeat if what you offer is comparable.
Also, I would be interested in a one-time coaching service that I can pay for whenever I need guidance, so not necessarily a monthly or weekly checkup, but a paid consultation to nudge me in the right direction. I'm not sure, but I think you already have something like that for $27?
Okay, so I'm going to use both these questions/comments above as a segue into something I've been meaning to say here, but haven't (and I'm in no way picking on either you Rudy or Yusuf - you were just the people who reminded me I wanted to say this, haha):
What we're planning on offering is definitely comparable with what WA has, but is probably going to be more expensive, and is going to be different than what most of you guys are used to (since most of you guys came from WA).
We're planning on offering actual business coaching, so that you guys will succeed with whatever your business ventures are.
When was the last time that you had one of the owners of WA actually sit down with you on a video call and talk to you about your specific site? Or checked in regularly and asked specific questions about your site and how you you were achieving the goals they helped lay out to your path to success (or even asked you if you knew what your path to success was, other than just 'posting more content' and being patient)?
We're planning on doing that within our coaching package.
I'm in no way trashing WA by any of the statements below, but I just want to point out a few differences between what they're offering and what we plan to offer:
WA is good in that they have the creation/automation of a website down to a tee. They can get someone into their membership and have them create a website, be able to do 'niche' research, and get a few blog posts on their site fairly quickly.
One thing that WA lacks is that they really don't have a good '1-on-1' coaching system in place - most of the time you're either left with questions when you reach out to someone who *might* know what they're talking about, or you ask the community and, well, who knows what you're going to get.
We're planning on doing things different in that 1) we're not focused on automation - each plan is going to be tailored to the individual site and not be a collective 'well just do XYZ and you're one the right path', and 2) part (or all) of the personalized coaching is really about helping you guys build a sustainable business.
WA is good in helping people start their site, but they aren't as good as helping people make their sites well-rounded (yes, they have training on getting on other social sites, and email marketing, etc, but it's pretty lacking compared to what they mainly focus on).
I really want to hone in on this word 'sustainable' and make it clear that our main focus is going to be helping you guys have businesses that have the adaptability to survive most online 'storms' - One of Partha's sites lost the majority of it's Google traffic, but he was able to bounce it back up to where it was by jumping onto social (because he had built it to be a sustainable business).
I personally am actually going through something like this right now, where the majority of my traffic (which was making me a lot in ad revenue and digital sales) for my main site has started to decrease drastically. BUT, I'm still able to pull a 'full-time' (enough for me to support my family anyways) income from it because I worked on building my email list last year since I knew this was going to happen at some point in the future, and now am able to email that list and make back those digital sales that I'm missing from the traffic (i.e. a well-rounded/sustainable business).
At the end of the day, this is what we want most for those who go through our coaching service - helping you create a business that will be able to take care of you, your families and/or any financial situations that come your way.
Now again about WA - something else WA is great at is helping people start an affiliate site - again, I'm not knocking on WA at all. But they aren't as great as helping people start a business with the individual in mind.
Let me explain.
I sort of wish that when I first jumped on the whole 'making money blogging' bandwagon back in late 2017 that I had known more about Medium - that is a place where you can just write about pretty much anything you wanted to, and make money for it (back in the day at least - and that's what I loved the most, just writing whatever I felt like, since I usually could write with more passion behind my words). There were a lot of people making decent money back in the early 2020s, or so I've read.
But I was taught back then was "stick to a specific niche, stick to only writing on your website", and so I didn't even know or take a hard look into Medium before this year (now, granted, one of the best ways to build a sustainable business is by making sure that you niche down and have the majority of your content on your website,)
But here's the point I want to make:
We want to help the individual with their individual business idea. We're not just here to help you with your affiliate site (If that's what you only want to work on then that's great, but we're open to helping with more than that).
So, if that means that you want to be working on Medium, or you want to try making money publishing books, or build your own products to sell, then we're willing (or at least I think we are, haha) to help you achieve that (Obviously within reason, and within the scope of what we know, both business-wise and from personal experience). Remember, so far the few products/courses that we have offered on this site (Parasite SEO and How To Make Money With Medium) teach you how to make money WITHOUT a website. Point being is that when it comes to coaching, we're not going to necessarily stick you in a rigid box (again, within a certain degree).
I guess what I'm really trying to say is that, when it comes to coaching, you should probably expect to have to pay a decent chunk of $$$ for good quality coaching.
I paid about $3K for a company to do a single audit on my sales funnels for just one of my sites last year (yes it was worth it, and yes, what I learned I plan to teach to those who take our coaching package). The year prior I paid another company $1K to help me kick-start an old FB ad (and that was just for one month of help!). I was actually looking into coaching for myself the other day, and the guy I was looking at charges something like $111 per week.
Let's be honest - most of us are here because WA just plain sucks. There is no way to sugar coat it. We all thought (myself included) we were getting a good deal - all the 'training', all these sites we could host on their platform, all the interactions we could have with the owners, etc.
Well, ladies and gents, most of us all know that WA's training sucks, their hosting sucks and well, you get the point.
But what WA has incorrectly taught most of us is that we should get XXX hosting slots for a very little amount of money per month, and XYZ amount of training or 'coaching' for $XX. And that those prices should be the 'norm'.
And, well, I guess I'm just here to burst that bubble.
Partha has actually provided some pricing options for coaching and hosting packages to Diane and I the other day, and, while I didn't tell them, I actually thought that the highest amount he quoted was actually a little low, to be honest.
Now look, I get it - we all of 'financial woes' within our lives and can't always 'afford' everything we want or need. My wife and I just had our second child a little over 2 months ago, and we just moved into our new place 6 weeks ago. If anyone has done either of those you know how expensive those can be - and with my one/main business taking a pretty deep decline, well, I've been breaking just above even most months for the past few months now.
Now, I've had to cancel a $379 (per month) service that I use for one business because of all this, and my wife and I have actually looked over what we've brought with us when we moved to decide if we can sell it to help pocket some more money/buy the things she wants for our house. I've had to look over all my business expenses and see which ones I could cut and/or which ones will need to be cut next if something else within my business takes a dive the wrong turn.
I really do understand the feeling of looking at your bank account and wondering if you're going to make it through the month with the money you have or if my car breaks down what cash reserve I'm going to have to pull from to pay for any fixes.
But, point of all the above is not about how we all have 'sob-sob' stories and we can relate to each other.
The point I want to make is that, even in the situation that I'm currently in, if I was in your shoes, and Partha came out saying that he was charging $100-$200 a month for coaching, I'd jump on it in a heartbeat, even with the financial situation I'm in.
Why would I do this?
Because, honestly, 1) deep down I think we all know that we can afford what we really want/need for our businesses to succeed, and 2) I know just how valuable Partha's advice is. Just look at his track record - the dude has written hundreds of thousands of words for free, just for the fun of it.
Do you really think that it's going to be any less phenomenal when your paying for it and when he's writing it around your specific site in mind?
I honestly don't know how much our coaching packages are going to cost, but it's more than likely going to cost more than what you're paying at WA, even a 'one-time' service/package to make sure you're on the right track.
But before that turns any of you off though, I want to leave you with this one thought.
Don't get turned off because you think that you 'can't afford it', but get turned off because you genuinely believe that this coaching is not going to be worth it for you or for your business.
What I mean by "worth it" is it's not going to lead you to whatever end result you want for your business.
For example, back in 2021-2022 I told myself that I wanted to have a bunch of different sites that were managed by myself and a team of VAs that supported my family - I achieved that in late 2022 by finding, paying, and taking the necessary steps/training/'coaching' to get there.
In 2023 I told my wife that I didn't think we should go to debt to purchase our first house, so we found, paid, and took the necessary steps (save as much as we could) and coaching (optimize our sites/sales funnels to be making as much money as we could) to get there.
And now here I am in 2024, have a loving wife, two beautiful kiddos, a paid for house, the ability to stay up till 1:31 AM (as of writing this), and currently am working out what my next 'goals' are going to be and what steps/training/coaching I'll need to find, pay for, and take to see those goals succeed (one of my wife's and my goals is in the next 2-3 or 5 years is have $1 mil saved up by then, but that's another story).
So ask yourself what is your end goal or where do you want to be in the next 1, 2, 5 years, and will this coaching package (or even something else your looking into) help you achieve that goal?
One of my goals for the next 2-3 years is to help others see the same results as I have seen - to achieve 'financial security' (as much as we're allowed), sustainable businesses, and to see lives be changed not just business-wise, but also as better parents, better spouses, and better people overall.
That's my goal - what's yours?
My total respect for you Andy! A great explanation and thank you so much for taking the time to write and share all this.
For mw personally this is exactly the business model I am looking for in 2024. The WA model was right for me in 2020. As a spiritual person I believe everything happens for a reason and exactly at the time it is meant to. The world and I have evolved since 2020 and I want to keep on evolving, learning and building a sustainable future for myself and my family.
As a therapist / coach myself there has ALWAYS been debates around pricing models. You will never please everyone. For me the value and ROI has to be the decider and so much of that has to come from within and your personal beliefs.
I am so grateful to be here and for all the support everyone shares.
Thanks again Andy, Partha and Diane for creating this space.