2 years at Wealthy Affiliate today - Pheeewwww-weeee what a ride!

byChezstar

418 followers

5 months ago

Hi One and all,

Today is two years since I joined WA. It's been an incredible two years - both personally and developing my website(s).

Starting from literally from scratch, with no knowledge whatsoever about affiliate marketing and limited website design knowledge.

First point - I really don't get tech (haha, what the hell am I doing here then? lol).

But that's all okay, I know I am good at many many things - I can strip a car engine down and rebuild it, I can create and build shelving units from scratch, I can build post/parcel boxes with no pre-design. I can put together anything from Ikea, lol. I can prepare a set of accounting records to Financial statements stage for audit, I craft and create delicious food, make Dubai style Chocolate Bars, oh and ice cream, I'm quite good at making ice cream too!, haha, I am very versatile, however, tech is NOT my thing.

This process has been (for me), like learning a new language. Many days, and nights I have watched the training, read guidance and thought WTH does that mean? lol. But, I've watched it again and again and again, until I've got it, or think I have.

I have driven myself hard to learn, understand, make errors, learn from them, re-apply what I've learned both from the training and my errors and continued to apply all and work hard.

It's been insanely challenging, rewarding, frustrating and exciting, all rolled up into one!

Two Years Today

I have two websites, one of which I have 270 posts, 3 pages, the second is 35 posts, 2 pages. So in total 310 pages/posts between the two.

I was accepted to Google AdSense 8 months after I started work on my website. The income is minimal, but it gives my website a look of being legitimate (well, I think so), but you have to keep an eye on Google AdSense. They override your settings and you find their Ads taking over. But still, its an additional source of income, albeit minimal.

Pinterest has been a huge success for me and I have some very promising stats;

Currently seeing just under 18k of outbound clicks to my website over 90 days (although not all of these are making their way to my website - this is WIP).

PageSpeed Insights

After A LOT of hard graft, F12 inspecting pages (gosh who knew I'd be doing stuff like that), I now have some promising stats on Google PageSpeed Insights. I have an issue with Core Web Vitals, but I am working on this area.

Yes, there are other areas I can work on, my SEO is only 85, but all other readings, performance, best practices etc are looking good in the plus 90's and I am super happy with my current stats, particularly on mobile;

Ranking

• I have 14 out of my top 50 articles in top 5 position, I know there are more.
• I have several articles on Google positioned as featured snippets. I shared one previously, here's another;

What's great about this one is its an appliance review, so my article is listed above the actual manufacturer of this ice cream waffle cone maker and the big guns - Good Housekeeping, Good Food, etc. It's quite exciting.

There are many more articles that I have found that Google has positioned as a 'featured snippet.

Featured snippets are Google saying - you are providing exactly the right answers, your SEO is on point and we are going to direct people to you. It's so validating.

I am also just shy of 1.5k clicks in the last 28 days, with my stats increasing rapidly over the past few months;

For All The New Members (or those still on the fence)

Go back two years, I had not a clue, now I have a website that is hitting all the right notes.

During the past two years there have been many moments of doubt; Am I doing this right? Does anyone even want to read my articles? Is this even 'useful content'? per Googles useful content updates. Argh, SEO...WTH 😫

The figures and growth I am now seeing, Google using featured snippets, my stats and growth on Google Analytics is confirming that Yes - This is useful content, Yes I am doing things right, Yes my content is being read. And people are coming back too as my GA stats show.

The last 3 months have been especially exciting, as I've seen my stats climb rapidly.

Depending on where you’re searching from, try Googling: ‘Spring Ice Cream Flavours’, ‘Autumn Ice Cream Recipes’, or even ‘10 Common Problems with Ice Cream’ — chances are, you’ll see my website sitting comfortably on the first page, perhaps even as a featured snippet.

In the UK, I’m often top or featured — a surreal but exciting validation! It still blows my mind to see my brand ranking alongside the big names.

Wealthy Affiliate Provides the Right tools for the Job

We all know that having the right tools for a project can make all the difference — there’s no point trying to scoop solid ice cream with a pair of pliers! Haha, you’re not going to get very far. You need the right tools for the job.

That’s exactly what Wealthy Affiliate provides — from structured training and step-by-step guidance to daily shared knowledge and an incredibly supportive community. It makes progress possible, even when the path feels completely new.

Of course, you’ve got to show up, learn, apply what you’re learning, and be prepared to put in the work. But when you’ve got the right tools and the right support, your success is no longer just possible — it becomes inevitable.

I read that only 5% of new websites succeed — I’m going to be in that 5%, and WA makes that possible.

Goals for the coming year;

As much as I’ve achieved, there are so many more things I want to work on — the ideas never stop flowing!

My main focuses for the rest of 2025;

• Monthly newsletters and developing a subscriber list is my next focus (aside from continuously keeping my content current), so that I can develop a new traffic source - My First Monthly Scoop Newsletter was published for June and July/August are in draft stage.
• Build a new Subscriber list and offer exclusive PDF Recipe Cards which I have developed with the help of Ella, aka Chatgpt.
• I would like to switch from blog roll as my front page to an actual front page (I've tried to work it out, but thus far, that process eludes me - I will get there). That said, I'm not too worried, as I have read that other members here at WA stick to blog roll front page too.
• Now I have Pinterest ticking over sweetly, with excellent traffic to my website, I would like to turn my attention to say Instagram and develop a following and traffic source there too.
• I am aiming to reach 350 articles on my Ice Cream Website by the end of 2025 - which would look like 13.3 articles per month, which I believe I can do (Of course life continues to throw it's curveballs each and every day, so unfortunately I cannot dedicate full-time to this, as much as I would like to).

It's been a challenging two years, at times there's been total overwhelm, lots of discombobulation (yes, that's my favourite word, lol), lots of pulling out my hair, lots of stats watching, lots of just cracking on irrespective of the stats, just focusing on delivering quality content, lots of re-writing content, because it wasn't good enough and a serious amount of determination.

The Snowball Effect

My analogy of this process would be like the snowball effect.

The last two years, I've been pushing a snowball along, it's grown in size over the two years and its been an incredibly hard, and 100% uphill struggle, but I've dug deep and kept going, despite all the challenges - the disappointments with Google updates, the low numbers in the early days, the lack of validation - I've just kept on pushing forward.

And now I feel something is happening, my snowball has grown quite large, it's got a bit of momentum, its moving faster. I'm not having to push quite as hard, and the speed is increasing. It's not quite steaming down the hill at top speed, not quite yet, but it's moving more swiftly and - in the right direction.

I feel quite excited for what the next 6 months will bring.

Thank you for taking time to read and I hope I have given some encouragement to you/anyone who just needed it in this moment.

Keep striving hard, ask questions if you're not sure, oh and Keep Cool and Fuse the flavours! 🍦🍦🍦

All the very best,

Cherie 😊