DO NOT Ask For Money BEFORE You Have An Audience
What do you mean by this?
Not so much here within WA... Thankfully because of the transparent and valuable training/community. There are step-by-step training modules here for a reason.
There are too many folks in this industry that are focused on landing page optimization, monetizing in the short term, short term funnels, yada yada yada...
If you have fallen for the "shiny objects" in the affiliate marketing industry (Like how I have in previous years... For real, I've spent $2,000+ on BS courses in the past...) then you understand completely what I'm getting at.
DO NOT ask your audience for money when you don't even have an audience yet.
I don't mean literally asking your audience for money...
What I mean is - your valuable content will inevitably lead to affiliate link clicks, conversions, and sales.
You have to NATURALLY create recommendations and PROVIDE VALUE to your audience - only then will they feel CONFIDENT with their purchases - through your RECOMMENDATIONS and KNOWLEDGE.
Look.
I've been involved here since 2014 and LOTS of changes have happened in this industry. (SEO, brand building, social media marketing, the whole nine yards)
Too often I see folks that are focused on short-term results rather than building an actual brand in this industry... Building a REAL business.
Stop faking yourself out.
Your website IS the product. You are creating a product - a resource for people that are trying to solve specific problems.
So, what is it that you are providing for people?
How are you providing value and helping people through specific topics that aren't talked about in a professional and relatable manner?
THAT is how success is created here.
By "here", I mean the affiliate marketing industry as a whole.
Login to your website dashboard and create valuable content.
That's all there is to it.
To be honest, with the SEO changes that have happened throughout the years, we're in a golden age of getting ranked with our unique and valuable content.
You will inevitably build an audience if you love the topic and you are knowledgeable in the topic that you've chosen to write about.
You will naturally attract an audience, you will naturally build "backlinks", you will naturally build your brand.
Don't get sucked up in the idea of "quick money".
We are all building a brand with our website(s).
We are all building a BRAND.
Don't be asking for money and conversions for your business when you haven't even begun to build your valuable content.
Valuable content = a manifestation of a valuable audience.
One more time for the peeps in the back...
VALUABLE CONTENT = A MANIFESTATION OF A VALUABLE AUDIENCE.
Create your amazing content because you are the only one that is able to create the type of content that you are producing.
Your content is UNIQUE and VALUABLE.
Valuable content will inevitably lead to a valuable audience, a valuable conversion rate, and a valuable amount of commissions.
Okay, but how do I create valuable content?
All of the training is here.
Do your keyword research, find golden opportunities for your content (long-tail keywords, low competition, a decent amount of monthly searches) and then create said content.
Then do it again, and again, and again...
And again, and again,
and again, and again,
and again, and again... You'll master your craft if you really want to master it.
Forget about making money quickly.
Forget about building your brand quickly.
Choose a niche that you genuinely would love to be a part of and provide the best value that you can to that niche.
I'd love to hear feedback from y'all and engage with y'all.
Cheers. 🍻
✌
Recent Comments
38
Hi Colton,
Your post is spot-on. You make excellent points on building the foundations of a website, and more importantly, to help and provide value to others.
I’ve been through shiny objects and some of the bs stuff that doesn’t work well. So I can relate to what you went through.
I’m past the shiny objects and I know the training here at WA is awesome. Following through the lessons and taking action (rinse and repeat) will pay off down the road.
Great post and reminders- thanks for sharing :)
Best,
Eric
Hey Colton, this is a very well written and thorough post that covers a lot of the values that we teach here at WA. You're totally correct in saying that your website IS the product! The quality of content that you publish is integral to the success of the site, so it's important to keep that in mind when getting started. Few people are experts when they being, and over time content will get better and better with each publication. You can easily go back and update old content too - it's a good idea to do so!
Also, keep in mind that engagement on the site via Comments gives you an opportunity to add value to the content. Search Engines look at comments and consider them when ranking. Every comment you get is one that you should reply to. Thorough replies can often give you ways that you can explain your ideas further, expand on concepts, and improve the content. A post on your website may begin as 1500 words, but in all reality it could be 15,000 words with comments. That is how many pillar pieces of content can remain at the top of the SERPS for highly competitive keywords in your niche.
Great post Colton!
Carson
Yes, site comments really help in our ranking.
I have one article which has about 20 comments on it and it ranks well on 1st page of Google.
We have the SIte-Comments platform for us to utilize. Make use of it. It is a wonderful tool.
Just for clarification, Colton, are you saying don't put affiliate links in your articles until you have traffic? I'm a little unclear by what you mean by "don't ask your audience for money."
But I get that writing again and again and again is what you need to do, especially in the first year.
I've been advised by several people to stay with my niche even though I chose it based on interest, not expertise or passion.
I often think about starting a second website so I can do something I am passionate about. But instead, I continue working on the first one because it's only 6 months old.
Any other advice for the one who is diligently writing content but only out of interest, not passion?
Thanks,
Lynn
I'm saying to not build content for the sole purpose of generating money. Build content that genuinely helps, even content that doesn't have the only purpose of driving clicks and sales.
Yes, those types of guides or posts are important - but at the end of the day... We need to help folk before we start optimizing our pages strictly for high conversion rates and sales.
As for the site you mentioned, if you're seeing some growth and want to know what happens with that first site then the only way you're going to be able to know is if you build it out. Personally, I love helping folks within the niches that I've chosen.
Are there more profitable niches? Sure.
Are those niches anything that I'm generally interested in helping people out? Not really.
You've gotta make sure you're having some fun while building out your content. If not, it'll make you burn out and you won't build anything out of it. Gotta love the process and see where it takes you!
You did a good job with your genuine advice which I can relate to based on my experience. I am peeling the onion peel by peel and I am still not at the kernel where I will know exactly where to find my audience, how to engage them, and how to build trust in a way that the audience wants only me to buy the valuable stuff from. Many times I thought I had got it and another layer showed up and I could go deeper. The beauty is that I know there will be an end where I will know it all. Even how to implement all the valuable knowledge I learned. I am now at the point that I understand the unique difference is that my personality is the sauce that makes the difference because that is everybody's unique asset. My writing must become authentic. Train, train, and train until you drop.
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A lot of what you emphasized here is what I have felt intuitively - thank you for articulating it! Very strong and true message, and one that I will never forget. Building a brand should be FUN - if we enjoy what we do first, and provide value in the process, instead of merely looking at the money, the money will naturally and inevitably follow!