The Climb to 9 months at WA - the Summit is in Sight!

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Updated 4 years ago

Okay, this is my first blog here so bear with me!

It's been a great 9 months at WA so far, even though I haven't earned anything yet. But that's okay, it's a lesson in itself that you have to be realistic about the time you put in and the results that come out.

The way I make money at the moment is running my own airport transfer business, and during the Summer months it's 24/7 so time has been limited. But now it's the quiet season I can concentrate on making great things happen. Maybe next Summer I'll be able to work 12/5 instead. That'll be a great result.

For anyone newer than me that's reading this don't be put off by my so far lack of monetary reward. You might get there a lot quicker, it's all down to the time you can/are willing to put in.

But it's also down to making some good choices early on (in no particular order):

First - Go premium. Apart from anything else it psychologically invests your mind into the whole process of creating a business. But the wealth of support that you get for less than the price of a Starbucks a day is incredible.

Second - Spend some time researching your niche. At this point I'd recommend you have a look at TDomena's blogs and in particular this one and it's second part

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/how-to-sell-high-ticket-affiliate-products-part-one-for-monthly-and-annual-members/comment/24947360

This lady has worked harder than anyone I know and is sharing the lessons she's learnt so that we can use our time and energy to maximum effect. The key lesson for me is "do the math".

If your niche is promoting products that sell for $10 and you get 5% commission i.e 50 cents, then that goal of making $10,000 a month is gonna take some doing! So you need to either change your goal or change your niche. It probably takes the same time to write a post that promotes that $10 product as one that costs $1000 or $5000. And as Tiffany points out in the video above, SEO can take 6 months before a post is getting traffic and longer before it makes sales, so the work you put in now will hopefully start to pay you in 6 months time or more. Is it worth writing that post for 50 cents per sale in 6 months time? Just saying!

That doesn't mean don't write the post. Far from it. It means spend as much time researching the market for that post as you do writing it.

Third - Be prepared to reset your goals and timelines. Yes, we all put someting like $5k or $10k per month as our financial goal, but this isn't a pyramid scam, it's a long term business, that once it's running, will go for years. So how can we expect it to pay off if we can only give it an hour a week? I hoped to be making enough money by now to not have to carry on running my other business. But the bills still have to be paid and that takes time. So I've re-visited my financial goals. It's still the same long term, but short term, it's to be making £1000 per month in 6 months time. That will allow me to spend more time on my on-line business and my long term aim of it being full-time. If I get there quicker, fantastic! When I achieve that I'll set another short/medium term goal. All aiming to get to my long term goal of $10k per month and beyond.

Small successes are easier to achieve and are a great stepping stone to the big successes.

But you have to "do the math". Yes I'll be pleased as punch when I make my first sale, but any business needs a plan and if all my sales are for $5 commission, then I need to make more sales or bigger ones. Fortunately (and this was luck rather than great planning initially) my first niche is kitesurfing, which I'm passionate about, and the equipment is reasonably high ticket. However, the market research I've been doing since I started it has revealed that there's a lot of competition on-line for the kit and not many affilliate programs apart from eBay and Amazon. So I'm concentrating my next few posts on kitesurfing vacations. Far less competition and some great affiliate programs. The commission per sale will be similar to selling a piece of kit, but I should be able to generate higher volumes of sales.

And once my first website is making money and I feel as though I've learnt well from it, I'll be looking for a niche that is high ticket AND high commission. BUT - and this is another major lesson I've learnt - one that I totally believe will help people achieve what they hope to from buying into it.

Fourth - Find and follow people on WA who you can relate to in terms of the lessons you need to learn and take the time to read their posts. There are 2 in particular who I always make time to read - Debs66 and TDomena. There are loads more of course, but I always come away feeling as though I've learnt great things when I read these two lady's blogs.

And keep checking out the lessons from people like Jay on SEO. It'll save you valuable time if you do the work as you write your posts rather than having to re-visit them in months time.

Fifth - Interact and help other members. Offer sincere site comments and feedback. It's a 2 way street!

I could take this to 10 but I think I've said enough for my first blog - and that post isn't going to write itself!