My now: Eager, anxious with a huge to-do list and 1 failure
Hi all,
Hope this is the place to share what I'm up to as a newbie. I've hit the ground running with my website idea and have gotten great feedback from people I've informally surveyed. I've purchased the domain and have already started building the site and creating an editorial calendar with content ideas.
I'm writing this to document my journey and to hold myself accountable...
What's important to me:
- Being able to earn a living online from a site I've built myself. The idea of being in control of my earnings excites me. I'm tired of not having enough money to do the things I want.
- Having a professional look and feel to my site with a pro logo, site design and typo-free of course!
- Providing quality info that readers will enjoy.
What I'm eager to learn:
- More on keyword research and how to optimize my posts.
- Overall affiliate marketing strategies for my particular niche and site type.
- Content creation strategies.
- Promotion strategies.
What I'm anxious about:
- Actually getting the traffic. As a blogger already (nothing to do with aff marketing), I know how long it takes to get a readership and I'm hoping that by targeting keywords and applying what I learn here, I can get people ready to buy.
- Timing of everything and how all the pieces fit together to make my site a success
- To go Premium or not when money is already tight...
- Finding a mentor. I have a strong work ethic and enjoy researching and seeking out solutions on my own, but would love to find a few people who will guide me along the way here. And then I can pay it forward for someone else down the road. ;-)
Oh and that failure:
- In an effort to be proactive, I applied to a bunch of relevant affiliate programs and got declined by 4 of them and had my account suspended on another (emailed them for more info because I honestly don't know what the issue is). Oops! I wanted to get all my ducks in a row so I'm optimizing my site from the very beginning but I guess pre-launch is not the time to apply to affiliate programs? I guess I need to focus on writing content and having an actual site to show affiliate program managers before I apply.
Just talking out loud here. To be continued....
Wishing you all success and happiness!
Diane
Recent Comments
7
You are right about getting the cart before the horse a little on applying for the affiliate programs. I am on lesson 7 in course 2 and not really ready yet. It is about midway thru course 2 that you really get into the keyword research and how to get ranked. It is good stuff! You will want to go premium by the end of course 1. At this point I feel like I am just a blog post or 2 away from getting some rankings, then I am going to apply for some affiliates. What was really interesting was that I stumbled on a keyword that got me some hits (by that I mean comments and registrations) on my website. I am not sure of the keyword but I am pretty sure it had to do with money because that was my only post that mentioned it. People are really hungry for an opportunity. Some of course are bots and trolls, but that just goes with the territory.
I say that to say, you may find that keywords that are not necessarily related to your niche (mine is fit and 50), but if they work into the natural flow of your posts without sounding weird........
Best wishes,
Jerry
There are no failures in life only late bloomers and life long learners - I am a prime example
Wow! You seem very organised person to me, and I am sure that working as your own boss is not going to be problem for you, also because of the strong work ethic you have.
About finding mentor and going premium or not...?
Well I can just say that go premium and you won't be having just one mentor but as many as you wish. And with all the teaching there is at WA (premium) you won't be needing any mentor. Infact I see YOU as a mentor in the future (that's the feeling your character gave me...)
I hope you have got some answer about why your application was declined. I did get approved even when I didn't have any content on my site yet. I just explained what my intention was.
I wanted to be sure to have affiliate program before spending time creating content, because my content is highly relevant to the affiliate products ( that can be a bad thing too but seemed fastest and easiest way of starting online business.)
Anyway I enjoyed reading your post!
Take care :)
Thanks so much for your encouragement and the kind words, Marianetlife! I have actually worked from home for a few years now so I have discipline and experience in that area. I guess the money part has me the most worried but I know I can do this.
About getting declined, I guess I understand for some competitive brands but the one that I got my account suspended on has me baffled. I read the terms as best I could but they're in legalese and super long so no clue what I did. Guess I'll find out soon enough. Like you, I want my articles monetized from Day 1 so I don't miss out on any sales I could have had. Thanks again for your support!
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Ha, never mind, I see now that you already went premium! You probably already caught me on the training!