Been here one year now!
So I've been doing this blogging and website thing for a little over a year now - time to reflect on where I'm at, what I've learned, and to revise where I'd like to be and focus on over the next year here.
First of all, I didn't make a dime off of affiliate marketing. And since my website is about face painting and other party ideas, the items I was reviewing and suggesting to my readers were not too expensive. So now looking back, even if I were to have made some commission from affiliate sales, it wouldn't have been very much. I also would have needed a ton of traffic, which takes time - like years, to get to the amount of traffic I would need to have in order to make a living from affiliate marketing.
But thankfully, that is not the only way to make money online. There are actually several ways, but the one I tried that has been working for me is selling my own products and services. This has required me to get out of the house as well, in order to perform the main service (face painting and glitter tattoos at kid's parties and events in the community), but my website has been a pivotal part of my success at attracting new business.
People are impressed by it and have told me so. In fact, several people have told me that my website is what made them hire me over my competition. It was also suggested to me a few months after creating it that I also put out a Groupon ad that links to my website - and that has also brought me a ton of work. So much so that I no longer need to pay for advertising. They see me on Groupon, link to my site where they see examples of my work, testimonials, and can see my busy calendar, and then they call me to book my services.
And by having my Groupon ad state that it is only good for parties during the week at a child's school or camp, which I've learned people don't pay attention to, most of my calls are from people looking to book during the weekend, and I can charge more than the ad promotion is for.
I have also been working behind the scenes on a couple of products with a start up company that pays me to research and develop the product, and once that is complete, to build a website for them. I was able to sell that service to them by showing them the website I created here.
And I've also been hired for a few jobs recently that involve me painting things besides people, which has me thinking of doing more actual artwork which could be sold.
So my point to you is this:
- If affiliate marketing isn't working for you, get more creative and try other ways of making money online with your website
- Make sure your niche is something you really love because it could end up taking on a life of its own
- Be flexible - as you learn more about your niche and creating websites, it may very well evolve into opportunities you hadn't even thought of
Also, here are some of the things I did that, looking back in hindsight, were not moving me closer to my goals and had become distractions
- Focusing on the numbers, like my page rank, my traffic, and my rank on here even. These are all superficial and misleading numbers. Would you rather be ranking high but aren't making money or making money with low traffic and low ranking? I'm also starting to see how social media shares are more important to focus on than ranking. People are more likely to become a customer if they are recommended by a friend than if they just find you in a search.
- Started focusing too much on making money, which had me widening my niche audience. Don't focus on grabbing more visitors, just on grabbing and keeping the ones that really matter. Be as specific as possible when it comes to defining your niche. And then create for them only. I finally narrowed my niche down to face painting in West Palm Beach and glitter tattoos in West Palm Beach.
So my focus over the next year is to:
- Work on making my website more user friendly
- Work on making my website as low maintenance as possible
- Work on getting more social media shares
- Focus entirely on my targeted niche only
I hope this helps! Start off with realistic, achievable goals that involve focusing on a very specific interest, remain open to the journey and you will find success one way or another here!
Recent Comments
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Congrats on the success of your website, affiliate marketing is one of the MANY ways you can build revenue from your site and it sounds like you have exercised a few of the other routes you can take with your face painting business.
You should be proud of your progress that you have made in your first year, I can only imagine what you will be capable of accomplishing in the year ahead. Thanks for sharing your story Donna!
Thank you Kyle! I really appreciate all the hard work and training you have put into making Wealthy Affiliate what it is and I am truly looking forward to learning more here this year.
Thank you for sharing your 1 year journey. I've been here a month and going through the training lessons. I have not yet done my first blog, but I'm glad for your info about broadening your horizons and being open to different ideas of using the website. Thanks!
You're very welcome Wanda. I'm happy to share because being able to work from home and to be able to schedule my work around my family and my life is soo much better than the other way around - the freedom is priceless! And had I only been narrowing in on affiliate sales, I probably wouldn't be working this hard at it anymore or enjoying the journey as much, so I thought it was really important to remind others to remain open to other options because it really is worth it. I wasn't looking to get rich, only to be able to have the freedom to be able to enjoy my kids while they are young and to be able to enjoy my life and my friends while making enough to pay my bills and to have some spending money too. And I've done that and just wanted to give others hope that it is definitely a doable goal.
Well done! I have been with WA for exactly 11 months today. I have learned so much. I am making regular amazon sales every month (have been since about month 8) however, the items I am promoting are all usually under $50. So my monthly earnings are only about $25 US. Not much, but I can see the potential if I could just get the traffic to my site. It is still really low even after almost a year.
But I know that I am always learning, so I am not giving up because I am not making a full time income at this point. My competition is extremely high in the niche I am in with many authority sites that have been around for 5-10 years.
That's really awesome! The fact that you are making that means you are definitely doing something right and I sincerely believe that you will continue to grow that if you just keep at it. I'd love to hear where you are at a year from now. What is your niche?
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Nice work and a good message. WA is a good starting point and you just never know where the knowledge will take you. Adapt and overcome obstacles as you go, where you end up nobody knows.