Many people want to know the difference between Wealthy Affiliate Websites and Empower Network Blogs…
And there are some very stark differences between the two. Some things that I think are going to surprise you within this review (but at the 
same time find exciting)…and even perhaps frustrate a few of you that have been subject to “overpaying” for an Empower Network blog.
I know that many people have been “convinced” into believing their EN blogs carry a lot of value, and I want to answer too much of the confusion and questions that I have been receiving within my Empower Network Review that I wrote.
Before I get started I want to clarify a few things…
First, I am the co-founder of Wealthy Affiliate (you can read about it here). I have an innate knowledge of the product and I can answer any question related to the service, so if you have any questions about what is offered within the community, let me know within the comments below. My motive for this review is to offer clarity. If that leads to you making a decision in one direction or another, that is great.
Secondly, I have received a lot of backlash from the Empower Network crowd for discrediting aspects of the EN system. My reasons are fair for that and I think this comparison is going to make this much more apparent. I am in no way interested in belittling folks, however I do think it is only fair for people to know what they are getting into before they make a decision. I also hope for some EN folks that it will add clarity to exactly what you are paying for and why (and in some cases why you shouldn’t be paying for it).
Lastly, this is not my first rodeo. I have been working online for 11 years now and I have seen the Internet evolve vastly over these years. The principles of ethical and successful online business have remain unchanged however, and I am going to be conveying this in many ways within my side-by-side comparisons.
I will be going into detail within this post and in many cases explain the marketing fundamentals why one may benefit you more than the other.
One thing that I want you to be aware of before I go into detail here is the fact that Wealthy Affiliate has a completely FREE, no obligation Starter Membership. I am going to reference both the Starter & Premium membership ($47 per month) in my comparison between the two services of Wealthy Affiliate and Empower Network.
The Empower Blog vs. Wealthy Affiliate FREE Websites
Empower Blog Price: $25 per month
Wealthy Affiliate Starter Websites: FREE
A website is the fundamental basis of any successful business online. If you have access to a quality website that gives you complete flexibility and allows you to scale, to promote within any niche, and give you full control over your content (and ownership), then you are going to be building a foundation for success. A website is where you can create content that helps people, that gets ranked in Google, that gets traffic, and where you can earn revenue through a variety of different techniques and strategies.
This is the premise of all success online and if you are looking to build a business, a niche website should be your starting point.
So how do the PAID Empower Network websites match up to the FREE Websites at Wealthy Affiliate?
Empower Network Blogs
Unless you were born under a rock, you would quickly realize that these blogs are quite counter-productive right way purely based on how the content is delivered. They are not optimized for SEO and they all contain a good amount of duplicate content, a huge SEO 101 blunder right there.
As a member of Empower Network you are given the EXACT same blog that everyone else gets, it is a templated website promoting Empower network.
Here is an example of what an Empower blog URL would look like:
http://www.empowernetwork.com/kylesPaidBlog/blog
On this site it is stated that I can promote whatever I like, but unfortunately the nature of the site is targeted towards the promotion of Empower Network. It is difficult to sell a dieting program on a “get rich super fast” site…it simply won’t happen. Therefore, these blogs are really only good for the promotion of EN itself, which is the intention of the blogs in the first place and exactly how the folks over at Empower Network want to keep it.
Here are some other fundamental flaws of the Empower Network blogs that you are paying $25 per month for.
(1) They are riddled with duplicate content. This is bad for SEO and you don’t stand a hope in heck of getting ranked with these websites. Here is an example of this below:
As you can see, you only really get the HOME part of your blog. The rest of the content is controlled by Empower Network so you have very limited flexibility as to how you use your website. You are also always going to have EN videos on your site which is not good for the promotion of anything else.
(2) You are on the same domain as your neighbour, which can be a good thing but more often than not it is a bad thing. The reason is that every piece of garbage content submitted via other sites can have an impact to your website because a directory is treated as part of the main domain, empowernetwork.com
(3) You can’t effectively promote any other niche or product outside of Empower Network. As mentioned earlier, your “blog” is riddled with content pertaining to EN and the promotion thereof. If you wanted to create a website within the “dieting” niche, you wouldn’t be able to because of this.
(4) You won’t get good rankings in Google, the main search engine. EmpowerNetwork.com has been ‘deranked” by Google for spam. This means that your blog that you are paying for (which is attached to this domain), is also not going to rank well in Google. This is a result of Google’s ongoing effort to remove spam from search engines via their Google Penguin updates. You can see under their own branded keyword “empower network”, EN.com is ranked at the bottom of the first page which is NOT a good sign.
(5) You can get better websites for FREE elsewhere (which I will be getting into). You are paying for a very limited site, with limited functionality and one that Google doesn’t even care for. This is ludicrous.
(6) You don’t own the content. Empower Network does, and if you want them to delete your content after you quit, you can expect to have to get a lawyer to intervene. If you ever quit, you cannot take your content with you…and you won’t be able to delete it. So be forewarned before you spend any time creating content on your “paid” blog.
So how do these $25 per month empower network websites stack up to Wealthy Affiliate’s FREE websites? I will get into the WA websites below.
Wealthy Affiliate FREE Starter Websites
First off, Wealthy Affiliate has a completely free membership called their Starter membership. This includes two full wordpress websites. These are fully functional websites on a state-of-the-art hosting platform that is monitored and maintained 24 hours per day. Just because they are free, does not mean they are not of the utmost quality so that is the first aspect that I want you to recognize.
In fact, the hosting for these websites and the quality of the websites is BETTER than any paid site out there. In fact, we put 1/5th of the website load on our servers that even the likes of paid web hosting companies like HostGator.com do.
The websites are easy to install, no technical experience required, no FTP, and they can be used within absolutely any niche that you like. Wealthy Affiliate has a 3 step website wizard that allows you to install a website within maximum efficiency. You have a choice from over 1,400 different style templates, so there is something for everyone. This very website you are on right now (WaysToAvoidScamsOnline.com) was created using the platform at Wealthy Affiliate and it took less than 30 seconds to initially set-up the website, with again no experience required.
Here is “video evidence” of the process where I walk you through the set-up process.
Here is an example site that I threw together for this example, just to show you what an example Wealthy Affiliate website looks like.
http://myfirstwebsite.siterubix.com/
As you can see, I have a blank slate to work with. That is actually a good thing. I named my website in this case “my first website” but as a free Starter member, you can create a website in absolutely any niche you like. Whatever your interest, you can create a niche website efficiently within WA…in fact, you can create two different websites. You can also promote anything you want on these websites, the options are endless (millions of different products online).
These websites are all installed with some additional functionality as well. This includes:
(1) SEO plugins – optimizes your website for Google
(2) Spam plugins – prevents people from spamming your website comments
(3) Social plugins – allows people to share your website via social networks
(4) Analytics – allows you to track all the visitor behavior of people visiting your website
The only drawback of these websites is that it is not on your own domain, but it is on it’s on subdomain, which to search engines makes it viewable as it’s own entity. That differs from Empower Network, in that those websites are all viewed as ONE which gives you limited capabilities to get ranked because you are tied to every single author on the website that is creating poorly optimized content.
“EN blogs put you in a situation where you are “guilty through association” whereas Wealthy Affiliate websites allow you to thrive as an independent entity and we make darn sure that your neighbour’s work cannot adversely impact yours.”
If you are a Premium member of WA (see the membership levels here) it is very easy to transition your website to your own domain (Premium offers unlimited websites, domains and hosting). This is not a real issue though, because these sites are loved by Google and they get very good rankings within the search engines…plus you OWN your content, you have full control over it and you are not going to be “locked out” as you will be within Empower Network blogs when you stopped paying.
So there are some clear and concise ADVANTAGES of Wealthy Affiliate websites (the free ones) over the paid Empower Network blogs…
WA Website Advantage #1: You OWN the content. You have full control of it for the lifetime of your website at Wealthy Affiliate. At Empower, you never own the content and you lose rights to access after you stop paying the $25 per month.
WA Website Advantage #2: You can build a successful business in any niche. You are not tied to promote Wealthy Affiliate, we have people within WA that promote just about anything you can imagine. Just the other day I was working with someone who was getting over 800 clicks per day to his golf website, and this is not unusual.
WA Website Advantage #3: They are optimized for search engines and will work well within any niche and are viewed by Google and other search engines as their very own domain. Unfortunately for the folks that use EmpowerNetwork.com blogs, they are basically buying limited access to a directory of the website and their content is adversely impacted by that of everyone else because it is grouped together. On top of this, each website has the exact same architecture and content base, which is viewed as duplicate by search engines and will only continue to cause issues going forward.
WA Website Advantage #4: 1,400 templates to choose from versus 1 at empower network. If you are like me, you want to make a website your own, and Wealthy Affiliate websites definitely allow you to do this. You also have access to over 10,000 feature “add ons” within WA websites.
WA Website Advantage #5: They are FREE and you get not one, but two of them. These are fully functional WordPress websites that can be used in any way you like, within any niche. Compare that to Empower, where you get one website, and it forces you by virtue to promote Empower network.
So there you have it, a walk through of a few options online when it comes to having your OWN blog. I hope you enjoyed this comparison and I hope you do make the right choice when it comes to building a website. It can make all the difference in the world between success and failure.
If you have any questions or you want me to elaborate on any of the aspects within this review, please leave a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you.
To your ongoing success,
Kyle
WaysToAvoidScamsOnline.com
Hi Kyle,
Found your comparison very good….Can you explain how a person can earn handsome money by through your system..Actually i was going to Purchase EN only due to his earning system but if you could something better then it would be really appreciable
You will earn money by creating a business, within the niche of your choice Seth. This could be absolutely anything.
The steps to building a business (the proper way and the LONG TERM way) are:
(1) Build a niche website
(2) Build a helpful, useful “content” experience
(3) This leads to rankings in Google (when you understand keywords)
(4) Rankings = Traffic. Once you have traffic, there are MANY (100’s) of ways you can earn revenue. Some of the more popular being affiliate programs and advertising.
Don’t worry though, you will learn all about this within Wealthy Affiliate with your Starter membership (free). It will walk you through everything you need to know and fill in all the gaps as to how to properly create and build out your niche website.
I just read ewealthyaffiliate.org–whish took me to a en sign up page–that is on the same google page as this, I am not a member of WA, but was looking for more information on WA and found this. I was with en After they went viral, they had servers crash 3 times, I was also ripped off by them to the tune of $125+, never did get it back, I emailed them and they wanted proof of receipt in my email because their server crashed–so I sent them a copy still no refund—their top promoters started promoting en in july before us internet user were ever exposed and they got some money out of it big time–they used the excuse “oh our servers crashed and we are unable to know who to refund —so just email us your receipts–what jerks. I paid 125 + 30 for the payment processing company and wrote blogs too and could not locate them on google and they want about 3000 or more for you to plunk down on their circle or whatever it is –who has that kind of money when we were told we would be earning by blogging–actually–it is pay to blog—since I was a newbie, I did not even know what blogging is and when I found out you can blog for free on blogger I was pretty hot… do not ever sign up with en–they claim to make 1000 a day or more and they are not helping newbies–it is for the big fish that want to rip off the little fish–so glad I came to my senses before they ripped me off more—I have also caught both daves telling lies too–they said they would have 1 lesson a week for the $125 membership ha no that was a lie and the times they were up and ready to go again they never made up for lost lessons–liers that is what they are.
Sorry to hear you were taken by this program and had such a difficult time dealing with getting a refund. This seems like it is becoming more and more of a common theme for those that join EN.
I can assure you that if you do decide to try out WA, you will not have an experience like this and you will be warmly surprised as to how helpful and caring the community is at WA.
Kyle, Thanks very much for this. I can tell you that I have been a member of both Empowers viral blogging funnels and then I tried your websites at WA. Yours are much better and I like that I can promote my own niche and choose from many different designs not to mention yours are better and free and empowers are expensive.
Glad you are enjoying WA and you are getting your own niche websites up and running. Congrats Alexandra!
Kyle, thanks for the clarification concerning En and WA! I was so close to joining EN but started to do a thorough investigation first. Your information has helped me tremendously. Thanks again!!
What you are paying $25 per month for there, you get something superior within WA and for free. I think that makes is a very easy decision…unless you like to waste money that is!
EN is nothing more than a BS scam. No way does anyone homeless make the money claimed. Those clowns should be thrown in jail for ripping off ppl! Hopefully soon, EN will be shut down. It’s long overdue!
If you do the trial for $1 first week and someone sign up during your trial and pay the $47 do you get a commission from that?
There is no trial at Wealthy Affiliate. There are two different memberships. Starter, which is completely free and comes with 2 full WordPress websites does not have a time limit and yes you can be part of the affiliate program (for free). Then the Premium membership is $19 for the first month and then $47 per month (or $359 thereafter). That unlocks full unlimited access to the community (training, tools, unlimited websites, support, live video classes, personal mentoring, community, live help, etc).
I went to the Denver event for EN July 19th. 6000 very pumped people. I would say 75% were “all in” owning the latest $3500 package ( I don’t have it). Being burned out on MLM, I really believed I could build EN. I came across your site searching for a way to get a higher ranking in google. I noticed in writing my EN blog that it was nowhere to be found on Google. I thought it was my inexperience, but I see there’s a lot more involved.
Vick S. had a HUGE list of B.I.M.mers he brought to EN. He must have built it fast after his prob;ems in 2009. (the newspaper article you posted about him was pretty interesting). I got scammed in Zeek. I never want to go through that again.
Unfortunately that is the reality of it. 99% of people are spending more on the scheme than they are making from it. That is because the way the scheme operates, the sponsors are the ones making all the money and the people with lists in the first place. The people on the “bottom feeder” level within Empower are needed to continue paying the people that invested earlier in the program (look up the definition of a ponzi, you will see the similarities).
And like you said, their focus on getting you to “blog every day” is useless because your blog you are paying for doesn’t rank and you don’t own the content. They have a new platform coming out which is the “dumbing down of wordpress”…which actually may be appropriate for the audience within the network as they don’t really have a clue what they are doing. They are posting just to post, which is unfortunate that they are continuing to buy into the scheme without giving it much thought as to what they are doing.
If you ever need a help moving in the right direction, I would be more than happy to help you out Judy. It sounds like you have had a tough run online and run into some of the bigger “schemes” going on. If you want to create a real business, there is one place that you can find me and get help from me (and it is completely free to get rolling).
Do you know anything about the Millionaire Marketing Machine system?
I am not familiar with that product, but based on the name it does sound like one of the many “hyped” up products in the industry. If you are interested in creating success online, I suggest that you consider checking out the top ranked products on my site here Michael.
1) EN branding can be removed; the site is fully customizable.
2) We use the blogging platform without performing off-page SEO and STILL rank first page and generate leads and sales.
3) Please don’t write a review about something without a)committing to learning from the products and using them and b) actually owning and using them. It’s called hypocritical brother.
4) Nice job selling your own product at someone else’s expense 😉
1) If the EN branding can be removed, why didn’t you remove it. Do you own the content with your EN sites? If not, why do you have to pay $25 per month for them. Can you provide me with some examples Jason of people “effectively” promoting products or building a brand within any niche other than those promoting EN? That would be helpful for my readers if you could provide some evidence for folks.
2) Can you give my some examples of rankings. Did you know that Google Penguins last update was an update to remove SPAM from their search rankings and guess what products was one of the biggest hit ones out there? (you would be right if you guessed empower network and their blogs). There is also a reason why Youtube and Facebook immediately flag videos and posts promoting EN as spam. Don’t you think this is a sign? Would love some clarification on this as well.
3) I actually know and teach people how to create real business online. One that is a fraction of the cost of the program that you are promoting to others and one that does not require people to promote the scheme to others. Instead, I have chosen the ethical route in business while you are trying to get people to join “under” you. Why? So you can make money off of people and teach them how to do the same disservice to others.
4) At who’s expense. Definitely not the customer. Perhaps the people that are in the business of ripping other folks off, but that is not who I am here to protect. I am here to help protect the average person that wants to create a business online and I want to offer them a solution to do this. That is definitely not EN.
I actually respect Kyle and Carson from Wealthy Affiliate. But I feel the need to clarify a few things.
Like Jason said above, you can completely remove any “advertising” related to the EN domain. It’s fully customizable. I’ve done well from EN and leveraging their platform completely to sell other affiliate programs (not EN). I choose not to disclose my niches as I’m making a good income from leveraging the EN domain and its platform to my advantage.
It would be great if you could “disclose” your website and show others that there are folks that are actually utilizing this blogging platform to promote something (and do so successfully) outside of Empower. That would be great if you could do this Julia.
Also, no offense to you at all but you can get much better blogs for free than those that you are pushing people to buy over at EN. Just saying.
Why are you insisting on content and marketing? EN members are only interested in making money via referrals. This is all there is to it. Why make it more complicated?
All it takes to make money online is to have an audience in front of you. How do you get this audience in front of you? Content and marketing. It is crazy to think that people forget about the entire part of business that matters, relevant traffic and attracting people to that. That is the fundamentals of what you need to know to create a real business online.
Also, when you are pitching a scheme and you are taking money directly out of one persons pocket and putting it into yours…and then teaching them to to do the same, then yes, you are making money but at what costs (ethics?).
Exactly the same thing happened to me and I gave my full effort to explain my friend about empower network.
Empower networks provides you a blog for $25 a month(Why $25 a month for sub domain), why we can’t use blogspot which will be very highly ranked then empower network.
I said my friend that why I should join empower network for a viral blogging and I also don’t really understand about viral blogging what does they mean by viral. I liked that empower network promotes blogging but they are promoting in wrong way.
Empower network blogs was in good ranking before but they are not any more now after Google update. Now people are joining just by seeing their compensation plan and nothing else.
Guys If you planning to join empower network just to do blogging then I suggest start with blogspot.
I have seen one of their video in Youtube where it says “how to make $3000 per day” you know what, they have thought nothing and just pushing to buy their inside product with all “rah rah” communications.
I don’t see any long term with empower network because their first product which they called blogging is gone from Google Search engine and facebook as well so they running only because of their compensation plan and people are joining for that only.
Learn how to build your own website, yes it will take some time to learn but once you learn it, you are not depended on some program or some website cause you control everything on your hand
Wealthy Affiliate is the best place to learn all this training and they provide right training from A to Z with 1 to 1 mentoring. If you want to learn how to do real blogging then Wealthy affiliate will teach in nice way how to do blogging
Thanks
Alam
Hi Kyle,
Do I have to know programming language like PHP or HTML for making the websites in WA? Like you do give two free websites and there is a SiteRubix too, but do we still need to know programming languages?
Thanks.
SiteRubix.com is the domain URL that the free websites are on. These are full WordPress websites that you will be installed with full functionality. You do not need to know any programming languages like PHP or HTML and there is no requirement for FTP at all. It literally takes a few minutes and 3 clicks to get your website up and running online.
Hello Kyle,
I was actually going through one of your lessons on making money on WA and say this site as an example and decided to check it out. I really wish I had come across WA some months ago, I might have actually been making some money already. EN is a waste of precious time. I was with them some months ago (got caught) but realised something was wrong even before the end of the first month and just dumped them..both Daves.
Kyle I intend to really give WA a good shot and I can see the success with hard work already. Great job
That is wonderful Jason and I look forward to seeing you grow your business online. You are off to a wonderful start and you know that you have an entire community of help behind you now that you have found WA. Hit me up via my profile if you ever need a hand with anything going forward.
Hi Kyle,
I am interested in WA. Can you tell me plz if there is SEO training available in starter package? And will I be able to rank any post and pull it on first pages on Google?
Thank you.
Absolutely there is definitely SEO training within the Starter membership. We help you out with all of this and give you CURRENT training on how to get ranked in Google and other search engines. Join the Starter membership to find out for yourself, it is free! And if you have any questions going forward, you will be able to contact me within WA.
Hi Kyle,
I am interested in WA.
Can you tell plz if WA starter provides training on SEO and how to make the website ranked on first pages on google? As I am totally newbie in online marketing and just know I need ..
Also how can I earn with promoting WA?
Thank you.
Absolutely, we offer a lot of training on SEO (in fact, our Getting Started training is geared towards getting rankings in Google naturally). We will also be teaching you about the process of making money online and how it works within the initial training Vika. Everything you need is at Wealthy Affiliate and I suggest you join via the free Starter membership and you will get instant access to the the training and community.
Why leave out the real issue in internet marketing. TRAFFIC, the source, training, cost and coaching. All of them determine how success one can become online markting.
Absolutely Michael, I 100% agree with this. If you don’t understand the process of getting traffic, of creating content, and you are not getting accurate information, then you are going to be dead in the water when trying to start an online business. That is also something that is different at WA is that people actually get an education and people can talk directly with the experts that created the actual education.
I like the fair assessment you presented with your counterpart without being overly biased. This is the second day I went to learn about EN and tremendous hype promising the gullible audience tons of money.
One thing neither you nor EN do not address is this: Websites built free or not do NOT mean a heck unless there is CONSISTENT SOURCE OF TRAFFIC to bring the dough. My second issue is you don’t address at least in this article any personal coaching for some of us who do not have such experience with the internet marketing in lie of the exaggerated hype the promoters make. Your honesty feedback is appreciated. Thanks again for taking time to inform the audience in such objective manner.
The only reason I didn’t cover these aspects of “online business” is because I was covering the importance of a quality website, which is the foundation of a business and I was showing people how they can get excellent website for no cost. Absolutely traffic and coaching is important and BOTH of these are a focal point within Wealthy Affiliate and both are included within our completely free Starter membership.
When you join WA Starter (free), you get instant access to:
(1) Two Free, Full WordPress Websites
(2) Getting Started Training (10 lessons, walks you through the process of choosing a niche, getting website set-up, creating content)
(3) Affiliate Bootcamp (10 lessons, target affiliate training)
(4) Over 500+ training modules (on every topic imagineable)
(5) 7 days of Premium, Expert Support
(6) Video and Text based training
For no cost with no obligations. So much emphasis with the programs out there is “making money” that the process of actually making this money gets lost. It requires a fundamental knowledge of website, content, traffic, and conversions and that is what we put a lot of effort into within our training and support at WA!
Thanks for this review Kyle. I was with EN about 7 months ago and was able to rank in Google fairly quickly but now folks are having issues with that. I love creating websites and was constantly frustrated with EN blog platform. They had almost total control of all the pages and the widgets. It was not my idea. Many people who sign up for EN do it for the hopes of making tons of cash quickly. I love to blog about my passions and create my OWN websites so it didn’t work for me. I am really happy to have found you. Thanks for all you teach and your honesty. Love it here!
Yeah, at one point the EN blogs absolutely did rank, I will give them credit for that. The same could be said about any article directory though (which are free). You used to be able to get rankings with EzineArticles, Squidoo and Hubpages in the exact same way, and these are all free services and do not tie you to the actual “product” itself, allowing you to promote any niche you like.
That is what I don’t agree with in respect to these sites at Empower Network, not only do they force you to promote their products (they have branding everywhere and promotions riddled throughout them), they serve no value within the search engines any longer which means that someone joining is basically paying for the ability to promote EN to others, their “paid” blogs are completely useless.
Hey!
Well, I’m jumping ship on EN an joining WA. I am going to be honest here, I have a “beginner internet marketing sense” I know. That can spell trouble for those of us who have little experience.
I sarted having my first issues with the “training videos” Hmmm. I am an intelliegent person, if I do say so myself, and point blank… Those aren’t training videos. It’s a sales pitch.
One of the founders himself said and I quote “I will not give you time of day if you are not inner circle. I won’t even respond to you.” Harsh. My idea of business has always been and always will be… You set an amount to invest and build from there while always putting money you earn back into your business. This isn’t the case with EN or BIM.
Speaking of BIM, or Big Idea Mastermind, have you heard anything Kyle?
I look forward to WA and thanks for the heads up.
Glenna, thanks for your personal insights and experiences. Anyone that “won’t even touch you” until you have invested a good chunk of money, is someone you don’t want to deal with this and I cannot believe they treated you in this way. I had no idea what BIM was until yesterday until one of the EN advocates brought it to my attention. It is run by a guy by the name of Vitaliy Strizheus (I think he goes by the name of Vick). You can read his history here:
http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/insurance-agent-sentenced-on-grand-theft/?id=89083
And there is a video here:
http://www.keloland.com/videoarchive/index.cfm?VideoFile=082409insurance
I have no idea whom he is, but this was brought to my attention from several people that have been involved in EN that were “shocked” that their biggest ambassador and top affiliate within the network, has a history with grand theft fraud.
Hey Kyle-
I have a couple questions about the starter membership at WA.
1. Can the siterubix domains be used as blogs so that I can keep posting on a different topic within a niche?
2. When the time comes to change over to my own domain, won’t I lose my readership because of the domain being changed…so therefore I’ll need to basically start over, both copy and pasting content from old to new AND marketing to a new audience or getting old readership back?
A blog is a series of posts on a website. All of the websites that are installed on siterubix domains are a website with a blog. People get confused about a “blog” but it is just a post within your actual website. It is recommended that you keep the theme of each website targeted to a specific niche and this is all stuff that you will learn within the training that is also included.
When you want to change your website over to your domain, this is actually quite easy to do and there are ways to accomplish this without losing your rankings. We have training on this within Wealthy Affiliate and it is much easier than copying and pasting all of your content. It is recommended however that once your website gains traction that you do move over to your own domain because then you are building out an asset you own and one that can be sold. Many people are selling websites within WA with much success…and again, you can learn all about this as well.
Hope this clarified some things for you Laura!
As an affiliate of Wealthy A. University it is always a privilege to be able to so easily point people in their direction.The reason being…the platform is of such high excellence, quality and honesty.W.A.U is what it says it is.
Thanks for your feedback, much appreciated. You deserve all of the credit for your hard work, most are not willing to work at their own success so you owe yourself a lot of credit. We are just the facilitators and provide the platform, but whatever you want to achieve is going to be based on your actions and I see based on your movement in the right direction, it is going to happen!
Hi Kyle. Another great post. It’s concerning that my old EN site is still out there, never to be deleted (I did delete my membership). Hopefully the old site won’t affect my new one…which I’m proud to say is at WA. I just took a peek at an EN site that had been ranking right below me on Google’s page one for Baby Boomers…he’s now on page two, and that changed almost overnight!
P.S. Love the “insider’s look” link into WA below. Thanks.
The two sites are unrelated and make sure you have no ties from one to the next and you will be completely fine Rick. It is wonderful to see that you are making such awesome progress with YOUR website, one that you have ownership of and that is becoming a more and more valuable asset with every page, post, and social share that you get.
It is more than evident that you are outranking your old EN blog and that is because you understand the process of creating content, the principles of SEO, and how to engage your audience. Powerful skills that will drive the future of any campaign that you do, including making the existing one a huge success.
Hey Kyle great comparison, it makes sense to build your own website through a bit of hard work to create something you truly own rather than use templates that are under threat by the network if they ever decide to fold.
Question, if I create a website at WA under premium membership but then decide to close my account can I take my site with me?
Yes Mark, you can absolutely take your websites with you if you want to host them elsewhere. You have full FTP control of your websites when they are on your own domain and you have the ability to do whatever you like with them, including move and transfer them to another host. Hope this clarifies.
And of course I agree with you. You never want to expose yourself to vulnerabilities that are out of your control. The more control you have (having your own website and control of the content), the better.
Wealthy affiliate is better, obviously. I wouldn’t pay to join any network marketing company, whether it is to promote their services or mine. A big part of the hype Empower Network used to popularise their service is that you can take advantage of the vast amount of Google authority that they’ve built by publishing content on their blog. Regarding that, I used to see Empower Network blogs show up in Google fairly regularly while searching for certain terms, but now I barely do.
So their asserted authority, which was quite credible months ago, is now debatable. Thanks Kyle, this will help many newbies avoid scams like this.
Absolutely Charles.
There are also still many “authoritative” locales like you are referring to and they have never been paid. You can still accomplish the same sort of results in terms of content rankings through websites like Squidoo, Hubpages and StreetArticles and you have the same level of control over the content on these sites that you do EN. You don’t own the content, but you can write about anything you want at sites like these and it make sense.
The problem also is that most people within EN don’t really know how marketing works nor the promotion of a website….or how they rank within the SERP’s. It is pretty easy to fool a fool, and that is exactly what is happening in a viral sort of way.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and what you have been noticing in the Google results lately, it is quite evident what is happening.
The EN blogs are not really about blogging. They have the popularity due to the pay plan. I am not a EN person so no bias here.
The blogging platform is really just a product for the business to be on the up and up.
Allen Daniesl
And that in itself is unfortunate Allen. They are popular because not of what they are (the blogs), they are only popular because there is incentive to promote them because of the payment program. So one person is forced to promote an empty box to the next person, just because that is the process that is taught. To me that doesn’t make sense and there is no logic behind this.
If you want a quality website, one that you can use in any way that you wish, would you not want your own website. And wouldn’t it make more sense to use a free website that is superior to the one you are paying $25 for. I think anyone with half an ounce of common sense will see this, however people tend to defend what they buy and I am sure there are going to be some folks that would defend polluted air if they had to pay for it.
Thanks for stopping by Allen, I appreciate your feedback and opinions.