First off, I am Kyle Loudoun. Co-founder of Wealthy Affiliate, a platform that Carson Lim and I created over 18 years ago and that has turned into a true lifelong passion project. We are a company that focuses on YOU, and how to best help people build thriving businesses within the online world!

To do this, we combine technology, education, and community to offer you the most forward-thinking platform to build an online business within. If you ever feel stuck along the way, scroll down to the comments area of any of the training resources and ask a question. I can assure you that you WILL get help.

Learning Outcomes for this Lesson:

• Familiarize yourself with the Affiliate Hubs Platform
• Leave a comment below. Share a bit about yourself and your goals within the online world (and of course any questions that you may have)

Now let’s talk business…and the first steps.

Being “overwhelmed” might accurately describe how you're feeling right now, but there is no need to feel this way because by the end of this lesson, you are going to have a solid grasp of the unlimited potential that awaits you here within Wealthy Affiliate using the "Hubs" platform, the training, and having access to all the levels of support and community.

Our goal is to help you tackle the online world with confidence, and to give you the capability to create a business of any level of success online, and the ability to do this within ANY niche, (passion or interest).

My role is to guide you through this process with a well-calibrated compass, a treasure map, and practical survival lessons. You being the one who takes this guidance, and reaches the pinnacle of the mountain top (that is, significant affiliate success).

Your success is our success, that has been our focus since day 1.

So let’s get rolling…

Unpacking Wealthy Affiliate’s Hubs Platform.

Enter Wealthy Affiliate’s Hubs platform, your comprehensive environment where you are going to manage your website, research, and content game plan all from one location. Think of it as your virtual headquarters, designed to streamline your entrepreneurial journey.

Upon logging in you will be able to access your Hubs platform from the main dashboard.

Within your Affiliate Hub you are going to be building out your business, and following through the training in a sequential manner....no experience required!

Here is a look at how the Hub environment looks upon arrival:

Now let's chat about the POWER of Hubs, and why this evolutionary environment has become a game changer for newcomers to affiliate marketing, as well as seasoned "super affiliates" alike.

Key Features of YOUR Affiliate Hub:

• Website Management Area. This is where you are going to be able to manage your website, login into your website (Premium & Premium Plus+ members) and to initial your content creation. All websites here are hosted on our high speed, high ranking, and ultra secure Managed Wordpress Hosting framework.
  
• Step-by-Step Core Training. This is where you will be accessing your task-oriented training, which initially is 4 tasks and lessons (Phase 1) in length, and that has an additional 30 additional classes that will help you advance your traffic capabilities , and ultimately start generating revenue with your business. After you complete each task, check it off and move to the next one.
  
• Revenue Opportunities. This is where you are going to discover relevant categories of products/services that you can promote on your website, and the associated affiliate programs. This will offer you insights into the 100+ opportunities in every niche, and align you with some of the most popular, and high ticket brands.
  
• Website Structure & Organization. This section is going to help you discover a broader blueprint for your business, and categories that you can touch on within your niche. The research is done for you, and this will give you over 100 high opportunity content ideas that you can use to build out your website and traffic.
  
• Task Manager. Manage your writing task through the “To Do” list. This is going to help you streamline your entire business, and give you a focused road map to success within your respective niche. You can add ideas to this list at any point, and it will be pre-loaded with some initial key pages that you want to add to your website.
  

• Niche Research. This is where it gets really fun, you are going to be able to get “ideas galore” related to your niche. This is going to provide you with 100’s of low competition, and highly targeted ideas across your niche that you can use to further build out your business, generate high value traffic, and earn money with your business. This is saving you HOURS on your research.

Embrace this platform. Jump into its features. It’s designed to turn your initial “niche” idea, and create a road-map to a long term and very successful venture online.

Setting the Stage for Success: Your Goals and a Roadmap

Let's talk about planning...

Think of setting up an online business as a journey. Like any worthy journey, it requires an initial roadmap. Let’s understand what you'll be accomplishing in just the next 8 weeks, and how that will set the tone for the year ahead and the success of your business.

Week 1-2: Laying the Foundations – From understanding online business models to niche selection.

The first two weeks are all about constructing a solid foundation. A house built on sand won't withstand the storm, and a business without a strong base will falter. You'll be getting your website and brand set-up, which includes getting your own .com domain! Your piece of the internet is starting to commence! Your website will also be INDEXED and ready to rank in search engines.

Week 3-4: Building Your Online Presence – Crafting a website that reflects your brand's voice.

Just as a building takes form with the development of its outer structure, your online presence begins to materialize in weeks 3 and 4. You'll be crafting your website that's true to your brand's voice, starting to build out content, and starting to see rankings and indexing into ALL search engines, along with some traffic! Revenue is also a possibility at this stage, as you are introducing affiliate programs.

Week 5-6: Content Creation & Marketing – Driving traffic, Integrating Affiliate Programs

You've built your “house” (ie, the website), now it's time to invite people over. Enter the world of content creation and social media marketing—where you attract people from all the key search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo) and also from the top social networks (Facebook, Instagram, X, and Pinterest). We are really going to start ramping up the content creation, and you can do this efficiently with the Content Designer & Author platforms here at WA.

You will start to see more and more rankings and traffic, and move into a positioning of a “scalable online business”. Also, your website is going to be fully integrated with affiliate program offers and you will be in a position to apply to ANY affiliate program (and earn revenue from it). This is an exciting time in your business, you'll learn how to drive traffic, foster engagement, stir interest, and incite action.

Week 7-8: Monetization & Scaling – Converting visitors into customers and taking your business to new heights.

You've got the buzz, you've got the audience, now it's time to really hone on on converting visitors into customers. During these weeks we will introduce you to conversion tactics and strategies to amplify your operations—to take your business to new heights.

At the end of just the first eight weeks, you will have more than just a functional business. You'll have a brand and a vision—an understanding of your destination and the "Road Map" through Affiliate Hubs to get there.

Up next, we are going to be getting into the "make money" process, and we will be breaking down just how simple this process is. This information is going to be key to your success, so check off your Training Intro and move to the next task.

Tasks for this Lesson:

• Familiarize yourself with the Business Hubs Platform
• Leave a comment below. Share a bit about yourself and your goals within the online world (and of course any questions that you may have)