@RoyBretton 

@frank and @RoyBetton,

Hey Guys,

I left WA about a week ago. I moved my domain out and placed it at another registrar; now, it's being hosted at another web server.

I wrote a goodbye post last week, but within 15 minutes after posting, my content was removed by K. He censored my content by saying, "No one needs to see this." If I leave WA, "do so quietly". That did piss me off, it made me mad. They were trying to silence me. It worked. As soon as he removed my content, I deleted my account.

It's a good thing I kept everything I had written on WA Blog and have a backup copy. 

I did have some good years at WA. To be honest, after the Hub was created and the AI authors dealt with whiteout screens from ban list plugins and the HCU Sept 2023-August 2024 updates, everything went downhill.

I was promoting WA. Sales hit an all-time low for those who were promoting WA. Super Affiliates made their debut long before all the changes happened. While I struggled to convert them to paid customers, The super affiliates were still getting referrals.

There were too many changes; I had to constantly change my screenshots of the Hubs inside my website and post content every week. Too many changes were happening in the Starter account and Hubs, such as adding a new home page, moving things around, and trying new things in hopes of converting well. 

I was running paid ads, but they didn't convert well. K helped me with it, but then he turned around and tried to slam my face by censoring me. That was totally unacceptable to me. 

The training also went downhill. I miss the old training, which had longer content. The training is so short that many people are still asking questions and are confused by the variety of repetitive answers that lead nowhere.

I'm taking an extended break and will consider what I should do in January 2025. Perhaps I should create an e-course Masterclass of some sort. I know one thing I am good at is teaching. Teaching is my passion. I might go down that road, but right now, I'm just staying away from "affiliate marketing." 

Roy, it has to be your personal decision to leave. I am sad I left under "negative circumstances," but it was my best decision.  I don't want to waste any more money on my annual membership if the owners constantly censor content and always have to deal with white-out screens that never get resolved. They should be listening to improve the overall platform; changing the Hubs too much is even more confusing and a big mess. I wanted out of that. 

I refused to let someone like that control what I could and couldn't say regarding hosting issues. The last I heard, it's still freedom of speech. K did want to listen to the truth as I saw it, so be it. I've moved on now. 

I wish you all the best in your decision. Go with what you feel is right for you.

@RoyBretton -

Yeah, I remember looking for him online just recently, when I came across his PDF in one of my older folders...lol.

Yeah, Chris's membership was something I did not join, although I wish I had at that time...

I'm still waiting to hear from WA site support about the domain server situation I mentioned earlier, and if anyone who's familiar with the WPX domain transfer process (2 severs vs 3 servers), Please share your progress/process, so I can proceed.

WA was a help in the beginning, but they screwed the pooch when they cut the premium membership to build on the Premium Plus..JMHO.

What is most unfortunate is that the premium plus training is really a higher level (AKA 301 vs 101 education model) and is something people need once they are set up, rather than a regurgitation of the SOS...

Anyway, now that we have the Roy issue squared away...grin, I'm glad to see you here!

Rudy

Posted by: @rudy

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@RoyBretton -

Yeah, I remember looking for him online just recently, when I came across his PDF in one of my older folders...lol.

Yeah, Chris's membership was something I did not join, although I wish I had at that time...

I'm still waiting to hear from WA site support about the domain server situation I mentioned earlier, and if anyone who's familiar with the WPX domain transfer process (2 severs vs 3 servers), Please share your progress/process, so I can proceed.

WA was a help in the beginning, but they screwed the pooch when they cut the premium membership to build on the Premium Plus..JMHO.

What is most unfortunate is that the premium plus training is really a higher level (AKA 301 vs 101 education model) and is something people need once they are set up, rather than a regurgitation of the SOS...

Anyway, now that we have the Roy issue squared away...grin, I'm glad to see you here!

 

Rudy

I'm sorry, but the premium plus wasn't worth it at all for me, besides a few classes from Vitaly, and the lucky shot I got because he was talking about the modeltrain niche.

On the contrary, Eric Cantu's videos only got on my nerves, especially at the start he was only talking about pretty girls he met on holiday and didn't deep dive into anything, at all. Also, just one extra PP class per week, to pay so much more monthly, is totally not worth the money.
I get much more for free out of Youtube videos and marketeers online, for free. 
Oh, and one very good teacher on PP was BenjisDad and WA threw him out for some reason.

About site support, please keep insisting and message them every day, if needed several times a day. Tell them that they have done this for other people as well (as I showed you in my copy paste private messages when I switched hosting). It is no time to be patient anymore with them, I have learned that the hard way.
Lizzy

@ohnoo_not_her -

THanks, Lizzy, I will get on them again.

Benji'sDad got booted? How rude...

Eric didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, however, there was one concept that his explanation helped me...Other than that, boring...

Fortunately for me, my websites were not affected at all by the Google shenanigans because they were way under the radar...lol. ie no traffic..

However, now that I finally got on board with GCS, my softball website continues to pick up clicks, going from 7 to 19, to 23 to 40 clicks in a 28 day period...so I'm doing something right...grin.

Anyway, thanks for the reply, Lizzy.

Rudy

@ohnoo_not_her "Eric Cantu's videos only got on my nerves"  1000%!!!

@frank Good morning Frank,

Thank you for your reply, Frank, it’s appreciated.

I know that you have been very active on Wealthy Affiliate and a big part of the community. I guess it’s a little bit different for you, if you’re not trying to make a replacement income.

I actually think it’s good to have your own website, Frank, even if you still chat on forums, as you can probably direct people to your website from the forums or have a signature within your profile. But I do understand where you’re coming from.

Maybe if you want to simplify your guitar website, you could pay someone to keep your website updated. I don’t mean with content, but the plug-ins and everything else that goes with it.

I will probably stay with Wealthy Affiliate for another year and see what happens. For the amount I use the platform, it’s not huge amounts of money to pay, as despite what’s happening, it still has a lot of good points.

I like the idea of being able to find WordPress training, for example or being able to ask the question, etc, although, I appreciate that the answers are not always brilliant.

I believe Wealthy Affiliate went downhill when AI became available and then the hubs. Ever since then, the platform appears to have been all over the place. I know you are using AI in the right manner, Frank, but 95% of Wealthy Affiliate users are not!

One of the things that I have noticed in the last few weeks is that when I go to the top ten blog posts, the posts used almost change daily; now they are there for two or three days. I’m now finding myself commenting on very few posts, as there is so little to comment on.

Have a great day.

Roy

@brendamz Good morning Brenda,

Thank you for taking the time to comment, Brenda, it’s appreciated. I must admit I had no idea that you had left the platform, although it does seem like many regular writers on the platform have disappeared. I just said in my comment to Frank that the top 10 posts used to change daily, but now I see them lasting for 2 or 3 days.

It’s a shame they silenced you, Brenda. I can see both sides of the story, but they need to listen to what the users have to say! I wrote something that was slightly negative but genuine and real regarding using AI. The post didn’t make the top 10 normally, all my posts make the top 10! We need to be able to speak freely on the platform, within reason, but it does not seem like that is happening.

I’m glad you had a backup of your blog posts, this is always good practice, as we never know what’s going to happen.

I have never been a fan of AI, however, if I’m honest, the Wealthy Affiliate training helped me to see the benefits. However, I knew that AI would be abused and that many members would write rubbish content. Incidentally, 95% of Wealthy Affiliate reviews are blatantly obvious AI content, this is not a genuine review; it’s an AI review of Wealthy Affiliate!

I think many of us have had some good years at Wealthy Affiliate, so I really don’t want to run the platform down, but they do need to listen to the users or members.

It’s interesting what you’re saying about the hubs and the continuous changes, etc. In my last comment to Kyle, I said these continuous changes are getting too much or words that effect. I notice that when I go back to a hub, I often have to start again at the beginning with training. That’s okay for me, because I’m kind of passed that stage, although I know we never stop learning. But for the new members, it must be absolutely horrendous and extremely confusing.

It’s great to learn about Google ads, but I think, like so many things, it really is quite a deep subject and not particularly straightforward. I was amazed that no one went to Las Vegas through doing the PPC training, that’s not good!

I hear you regarding the training, I know that some people complained about some training with old, but at the same time, a lot of the training was still relevant. It appears to me that the training is being updated too often now, which just adds to confusion.

I do hope that you can find your niche somewhere, Brenda. The great thing is with the Internet is that it offers all sorts of opportunities. I still think one of the main things we need to do is to write fresh content and be consistent. AI cannot write unique content, but as humans we can, especially if we know our niche well.

Over the years, I believe Wealthy Affiliate has very much offered value for money. So I will probably stay for another year and see what happens. Although I have a dedicated server, it’s quite useful to be able to easily build a website on the Wealthy Affiliate platform and then when it grows, I move it to my dedicated server.

I would say that it’s impossible to host a large website at Wealthy Affiliate as it’s just too problematic and the support is not clever, despite what we are led to believe. I have messages with 130 different responses for very simple tasks!

I wish you every success in what you’re doing, Brenda and I look forward to connecting with you on this forum.

All the best.

Roy

@RoyBretton in response to what WA did to kill my interest, it was not all due to them. Of course there was parts of me as well trying to do too much at the same time, spreading myself thin.

But Andy has explained most of it, lack of transparency, poor training and services you got access to that was not aligned with the price tiers, hosting that got poorer and poorer with site support that didn’t have the knowledge or didn’t want to help you with even simple problems.

When they decided to restrict plugins we could use on our own websites, without any warning beforehand, I decided to leave. The worst thing was Kyle’s explanation that all serious hosting providers do the same thing, which is not true.

@RoyBretton I am glad you made the decision. I hope it works out. Thanks for sharing. I agree with everyone here stated about whats happening there at WA. I hope your year in 2025 will work out for you if you get fed up and have had it then you know it's time to go. Take care!

@RoyBretton

Hi Roy

Yeah, I'll probably keep my website, but I'll write on it the way I want, not for search engines or any other traffic-generating entity. Lol 😎

I am curious as to where you have your dedicated server and the approximate cost.

When I was a WA starter member, I think I would have been much happier with the "Hubs" design. I thought the learning environment was too drawn out for such simple methodology and the WordPress classic editor was a total joke, but I went with the flow.

As for AI, I don't use the WA AI writer. I have my own custom GPTS that produce much better content (IMO) and in my writing style. I love the beta ChatGPT 4o with Canvas.

I hardly ever use Google or any other traditional search engine platform except for professional (e.g., medicine, biomedical engineering, and medical informatics) work, typically on places like Google Scholar, Google Patents, etc. Instead, I use the OpenAI app on my phone and typically get more direct answers. I also believe the info is generally more accurate and useful than what Google is ranking on Reddit and Quora.

AI will change the world in ways that we can't even imagine over the next decade.

Rock On! 🤘
Frank 🎸

@roy Good morning Roy,

Thank you for your response, it’s appreciated.

I think we can all be guilty of trying to do too much at the same time. Eric made a short video on the subject a couple of weeks ago about people trying to do too much rather than focusing on one website at a time.

I must admit I have always found the hosting poor at Wealthy Affiliate, along with website support. They should really say that the hosting is really just to get you started and off the ground. When I was using the hosting several years ago, I was losing huge amounts of traffic as Wealthy Affiliate was limiting my usage. As soon as I changed my hosting to a dedicated server, everything changed for the better.

All the best.

Roy

@brendamz Good morning Brenda,

Let’s see what happens, I will try and keep you posted. I don’t want to make it a Wealthy Affiliate bashing thread, but I do want to be honest about the subject.

That’s very true, Brenda, 100% right; “if you get fed up with it, then you know it’s time to go”! Let’s see what happens.

Have a great day.

Roy

@frank Good morning Frank,

Do you know, Frank, I really think that’s the best thing you could do. Sometimes, I think when we just write from the heart and within reason, rather than trying to make everything search engine friendly, it actually works better!

The time that it takes to go through all the search engine stuff, we could have written another blog post, which would be more beneficial. I have seen websites where people just right genuine articles from the heart that rank well, just because they are genuine and unique. I think that you have more than enough knowledge to do exactly that, Frank. People would really benefit from your knowledge. I think you ought to start right now!

I think I pay around $80 monthly, Frank, for my dedicated server. I have a Webmaster in the US who is now a very good friend, who has helped me a lot over the years. He uses someone who covers all that type of thing. I believe he may have given me a special deal, due to our friendship, but please let me know if you need any more info.

I believe that different things on Wealthy Affiliate work for different people, Frank. I have never used the Wealthy Affiliate writer, I mean the writer that came out before the AI writer, it never worked for me. I know there are some people who love it, but for others, I know it does not work for them. I’m all for keeping things as simple as possible and not to overcomplicate.

I believe that you are one of the few people, Frank, who uses AI correctly. I know you have a lot of knowledge on the subject, which is great. It’s great that you are taking advantage of technology and using it in the correct way.

Thank you for your input and have a great day.

Roy

Posted by: @frank

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@RoyBretton

Hi Roy

Yeah, I'll probably keep my website, but I'll write on it the way I want, not for search engines or any other traffic-generating entity. Lol 😎

I am curious as to where you have your dedicated server and the approximate cost.

When I was a WA starter member, I think I would have been much happier with the "Hubs" design. I thought the learning environment was too drawn out for such simple methodology and the WordPress classic editor was a total joke, but I went with the flow.

As for AI, I don't use the WA AI writer. I have my own custom GPTS that produce much better content (IMO) and in my writing style. I love the beta ChatGPT 4o with Canvas.

 

==> I love that as well, the beta ChatGPT with Canvas, although it sometimes acts weird haha!

 

I hardly ever use Google or any other traditional search engine platform except for professional (e.g., medicine, biomedical engineering, and medical informatics) work, typically on places like Google Scholar, Google Patents, etc. Instead, I use the OpenAI app on my phone and typically get more direct answers. I also believe the info is generally more accurate and useful than what Google is ranking on Reddit and Quora.

 

==> YeS!! (although for my niche, I still look at what Reddit says as well,and tell chatGPT to implement that into the article (if correct, of course)

 

AI will change the world in ways that we can't even imagine over the next decade.

 

==> ChatGPT search has now linked to my website over 12 times since its introduction, I just noticed on GA4 lol! And even a recent- very amateur- Youtube video of mine was referred to by GPT

WA can't keep up at all at the moment! It is more about NOW, the coming months then the coming decade. They would need to give sooo much more classes and hire more people to teach about socials/chatGPT search ao, in a shorter time frame, because they'll be left behind, they are way too slow now! It doesn't make any sense to focus on those 'HUBS', any of that can be done by AI , even better!

Rock On! 🤘
Frank 🎸

rock on lol!

Lizzy