Work from Anywhere with Wealthy Affiliate

I retired in 2013, after 20 years as a CFO for a medium-sized school district. Up at 5 a.m. every day to make sure the buses are running, food service is ok, custodians are stocked, maintenance has their work orders, and all of finance is running . . . I left it all behind to travel and do what I want.

But I also wanted to make a little cash on the side . . . and that was tricky. I considered many options, taking contracts to do what I’d been doing (no thanks). Part time job? No, messes up the travel. I started looking into online sales and felt potential there, but the problem was, I had no idea how to start!

One evening, I was browsing around the internet and came across a post on some money-making scheme. I remember you had to buy some product from China, then sell it through your website. The investment was about $2000, as I recall. And it seemed so reasonable, I almost fell for it.

But, being a naturally skeptical person, I kept digging. I forget the actual keyword I searched for (rats!), but I came across Wealthy Affiliate. And as I read, I became more excited, thinking, "Oh yeah, THIS is what I'm looking for!"

So I signed up for the free course. As is my wont, I dove into it quickly, running through all the courses within a few days, and at the end, I had my first website, Baking Naturally. It was thrilling to see it out there on the web! I got it indexed in Google, and started adding content. I started out with reviews of various gluten-free cake mixes (as Jaaxy showed me that was trending at the time). I bought tons of mixes at the store and spent days preparing, baking and reviewing these products. I applied for Amazon, got rejected, applied for Pepperjam, got accepted, and started monetizing my site. I added Adwords too.

The clicks started coming, and I kept adding. More recipes and more refinements. I found myself moving away from the gluten-free angle and toward more all-natural recipes. My niche is "no mixes, nothing artificial." And that's where I've really blossomed.

I add about 10 recipes in a good season - and that's not a lot. But I research heavily in Jaaxy to find out what people are looking for, and then I prepare the recpes myself. I videotape elements. I cross-post from friendly sites. And I've built a following. When you do that, people find you.

Now, I can travel, and update my site from wherever I am! I'm in Georgia right now, visiting a friend, and I can adjust my ad placements to include the latest offerings from my affiliates. Most of the time, that's all I need to do! The rest of the day is free to explore and enjoy. Next month, I'm spending six weeks in Berlin, leading a tour group and running my site from there. I pick up interesting recipes from the German restaurants in town. They are thrilled when I ask them to share!

Armed with all this experience, a few years ago, I started a second site, Cowboy Concierge, which is my real money-maker. I have one post on Google Page One, First Position, that earns me $300 every time someone responds to it. In 2019, my site made about $16,000 - and with the small amount of time I'm putting into it, that's perfect.

You can make more, I know. If you need more, you can work a LOT harder than I do and make much more. But this was my goal and I'm happy with it. I mean - I travel several months out of a year, doing very little on my site, and I still make $16,000! How much could you make working full-time on it? I'll tell you - a lot more!

Wealthy Affiliate is the real deal. I still watch all the training (thank you, Magistudios!) I read all the posts from you guys - giving me insight into new developments and trends. And while I'm jetting off to some new locale, it all percolates. When I get to my destination, out comes the laptop, and with afew clicks, I've updated my sites and maximized them for performance.

I Iwork from home. And my home can be anywhere with internet access. Mexico? No problem. Germany? Oh hell, blazing fast! Georgia? Yup. I reached my goal - and you can too.