New to WA? 7+ months in. Here's what I've learned + BIG TIP LIST

bybrekmilo

233 followers

Updated 6 years ago

In 7 months, this is where I'm at...

This is just my personal journey. I'm sharing as a personal progress update and as maybe insight for new WA'ers that feel overwhelmed or anyone who is generally curious to see how one WA is doing this. This is coming from a person that didn't apply himself at first and then became much more active 5 months in.

In a nutshell here's what happened:

• Designed and redesigned my site with different themes (eventually developed better page speed 65 mobile & 100 for desktop, important for traffic)
  
• posted just shy of 50 posts that were sporadically timed (no set schedule until recently)
  
• I made just 2 total sales (and I am very proud of them!)
  
• I got kicked out of Amazon Affiliates and reapplied (in the process of replacing my old affiliate links with new affiliate links manually and yes, you can use a plugin to help with that but I'm personally not)
  
• I have about 300 visitors a month,
  
• recently employed a 3-4 posts a week schedule. (on week 2)
  

You can access Site Health dashboard and see your own states by:
Clicking on Websites on the left --> Site Manager --> View Details Below

I certainly wasn't utilizing this Site Health tool and many other resources like the search bar for terms, reading other more experienced members' blogs, technical support, and Jaxxy research options when I first started.

I wish I had used these tools especially Site Health because it's a good way to keep an eye and motivate yourself to work on certain criteria of your site.

The natural inclination is to get those percentage numbers up. This makes you tend to various aspects of your site that will put you in the most optimal position for rankings in Google.

It's kind of cool to see and it motivates you to see those numbers go up. Also, it's nice to be able to gauge how well you are doing instead of just posting and hoping things go well. That's certainly how I felt when I first joined.

Here's why my results are the way they are:

I started out lukewarm, just posting here and there. Partly being overwhelmed, partly being busy with day jobs, partly inactive due to not having a set schedule. Maybe 2 or 3 posts a month for a while.

Then, I got a lot of free time at the end of September and started posting loads of content for a few weeks. Sometimes even 2-3 times in a day. I got too hot and got burnt out just like someone more experienced than I had predicted I might become. Then went back to a few times a month. Consistency is key and you will consistently hear that across the WA-sphere.

Even if you know it and say it you can get off track and that's why...

I drafted a schedule of posting 4 times a week at least. Where I would figure out my carefully selected keywords ahead of time BEFORE I wrote so I could focus on just writing most days instead of wasting time on what to write about and getting a good keyword.

I was very self-conscious about every little thing I wrote when I first started writing. Didn't engage in the community that much. Didn't read what the community wrote very much. Didn't check out other sites. I was very slow at my training. I wasn't writing very often. Once I learned about stats in Google and affiliate dashboards, I would check these all the time like social media notifications. PARALYSIS by ANALYSIS as Kyle puts it.

Here's what changed for me/my humble advice to others:

• Don't over think what you write. Find the criteria for keywords beforehand. Allot time to read up on keyword before writing and allot time to write that post. That's it. You are not going to be judged by one post alone. You will have a lot of content on various topics spread out over time. You WILL get better, more fluid, and faster at posting content over time and VERY QUICKLY. Mix it up and follow through. TRUST ME. You will be surprised. Just do it. You got this. Each and every time. You can do it.
  
• Set a writing schedule and plan keywords in advance. This step is very important and probably one the biggest factors to success other than following the WA training tactics. Had I done this from the first month until now I would have SO much more content and more sales by now. Content is king and consistency is the power of that king. Please do this now. Figure out something that can realistically work for you and stick to it. The more consistent the better.
• Follow and read more experienced WA member's blogs. This is another big one. I've learned so many little inside things that lessened my learning curve by doing this. I find the rankings on here to be helpful because you get a sense of whose the most active, engaging, successful, and helpful by this. There're reasons why for that. Start paying attention and taking heed to what applies to you. You will reap the benefits.
• Get through the training as you write posts. I wish I would have done this too. I'm still not completely done with training and it has been very random when I completed modules. I've missed important points. Yeah I'm doing it at my own pace but the gaps in training have made it harder for me to learn certain sticking points.
• Post about your journey! It doesn't matter if you're not raking in sales. I'm not at all. People love to see your journey. It's inspiring and helpful to read. I've read up on a lot of successful people's progress to see how they get where they are... it's so encouraging and it's surreal. Yes, these are real people. Just like you and I. I'm certainly posting more and this post is a reminder to myself to post once a week. It's in my schedule. By the way posting in WA helps your rankings, your network, your probability of selling and earning commissions from memberships even if you're not actively promoting them, and it's inspiring for yourself and others. Just my few posts are nice to look back on and see my progress.
• Follow this check list for every post you write, get comments and reply to comments within 24-hour window: 2018 Blog Post Checklist - Wealthy Affiliate. You will have it memorized after doing a few posts like this. Handling comments will keep you busy but with a schedule you can: plan your keywords, write posts, get comments, and wake up the next day to respond to them. Then write the next post off your planned keyword list and repeat.
• Only check your stats once or twice a week! Google Ananlytics & Affiliate dashboard. I'm serious about that... it will drive you mad and deter from planning and writing content. That's number one. I actually plan to only look at it on weekend days after I've psoted a few posts.

I hope that helps and thank you for sharing. Leave your tips for me and the community by leaving a comment below! I'd love to hear from you. Please share :)

---Francesco