Two months and eleven days in

byAllynBeekman

2.2K followers

Updated 9 years ago

I wrote a post at the one-month mark, so it's time for me to think out loud again and share my two-month review. This one is a bit harder to write because I have learned so much it's impossible to remember it all.

When I joined WA I did not have any previous experience or knowledge with affiliate marketing. I had helped modify existing websites for work purposes in the past but had never developed my own. So, it's been a good challenge and a wonderful learning experience.

Training and Community

All I can say about this is that WA has been way more than I expected. Kyle's training is superb! His one-step-at-a-time method, combined with tasks to get us involved in the community, is so easy to follow. Granted, he doesn't cover everything, but there is no possible way for him to do that. He expects us to learn, to ask questions, to dig in the archives, and to grow. I feel I've met that expectation, though I'm not the swiftest horse in the stable.

Meanwhile, this community has far surpassed anything I had dreamed of. You are all so helpful. Thank you. Also, you are constantly reminding me that this is about giving to others, providing information they need, not about making money.

What I've Accomplished/Learned

Some key accomplishments to date:

• Site is up and running (http://coolbaseballmemorabilia.com/).
• Created static home page, which I wanted.
• Figured out how to put categories on posts and have the categories roll under my three main content pages.
• Finally began to grasp plug-ins; particularly Pretty Links (haven't had to use it much yet) and Super Socializer!
• Set up Google and Bing webmaster tools; submitted sitemaps.
• Gotten a lot better at finding low-hanging-fruit keywords (still working on this one).
• Refreshed some of my knowledge of HTML.
• Was able to give specific help to several others who were new to WA.
• Joined several affiliate programs.

Of course, all the learning doesn't come without struggles and frustrations. There were a couple key ones for me this past month:

• Writing content for posts continues to be a struggle. I wasn't an expert in my niche when I chose it, so every post takes a lot of research. I know I will get better at this.
• Understanding my theme and how to make it look like what I envisioned in my mind. As I would review and give comments on other's posts, I saw the way other's had formatted their sites. Now my site is how I want it.
• Questioned whether my niche could be successful. I imagine this happens to a lot of people. Then one of the wonderful WA members wrote me out of the blue and volunteered to look over my site and give comments. That person gave me positive and constructive comments, helping me gain energy to move ahead again.

So What's Next?

Develop more content. Get enough content on my site so Google recognizes my content as being quality. This means doing more research about what people are asking for, finding great keywords, and writing more posts.

Once I have doubled my number of posts, I'll move on with affiliate links.

Understand how all of this fits with social networking. I honestly haven't been all that active on social networks to this point. I have a Facebook account that I look at semi-regularly, but that's about it and I have an active LinkedIn account. Now I'm signed up for Twitter and Pinterest.

Summary

I feel I have a nice-looking site that I am proud of. I'm gaining knowledge every day about my website and my niche, one that I'm still excited about. My rankings are gradually getting better - still no page one rankings but I do have a rank of 14 with one keyword and 23 with another, so I'm getting there.

All in all, I'm very happy to be where I am!