First thoughts, fears, and hopes.

byAdaRich

107 followers

10 years ago

I started this thing on Sunday. Day one was exciting. I was thinking, "This is going to be my bread and butter." Yet, I still had a bit of healthy skepticism. I looked to see what was online about Wealthy Affiliate. All of the reviews were positive, and I went pretty deep into the search results. Not to say that a team of marketers couldn't flood the search results with positive reviews. Still, what was factual about the reviews would still be very favorable even in the context of a negative review.

"So, what do you think?" I asked myself.

What I liked about WA was that it was accessible. You really could start now, learning and building a website. I also liked the fact that it was set up like a social network, and a discussion board, and a learning site. Having everything together in a concentrated place instead of having a community on Facebook where I will almost certainly get distracted. I had a good feeling so I signed up, but by day two, I didn't feel the same.

In my research, I found an article on coupon sites and how they work against the business they are promoting, by luring visitors away from the business website to search through their coupons instead of marketing to new customers who don't know about the product and directing them to the main site that is selling the product. It robs both the business and reputable affiliate marketers of profits.

I also read comments about how fruitless affiliate marketing is these days and that there is no real way to make money in it. Some people commented saying that it was completely possible, but you have to work hard and maybe have multiple sites each bringing in a few hundred a month.

All of that plus a little post holiday depression lost me two days of my trial period, which I spent crying, eating, sleeping, screwing around on the internet, and laying around feeling hopeless.

As I write this, I feel some reservation. As an internet marketer and a virtual assistant, can I afford to be so transparent about the fact that there are days when I just crash, physically and emotionally? I'm writing this because, it's day three and I haven't given up yet and in a couple of years from now, when I'm writing glowing reviews about Wealthy Affiliate and making my "happy" earnings or even my "ecstatic" earnings (or maybe when I've given up and gone on to something else), I want to mark these first moments with an honest and open account.