My First Thanksgiving & Wealthy Affiliate

I will never forget my first Thanksgiving in America. This is not a Holiday in England where I used to live. When I first came to America, via Canada, I was living alone and it was going to be just like another day off work to me. I was ignorant about why this day was so important to be a National Holiday.

My Work Project

The best thing for me was our company closed for Thursday and Friday resulting in a long weekend off work. It was 1975. I was sent by my company in Canada, to their sister division in LA to work on an International Project. We were developing a high performance LED cockpit display for the F-16 military aircraft.

This was going to be a 3-year project. I happened to be single. For lodgings, I rented an apartment in a singles complex that had three swimming pools, tennis courts, club house and amazing grounds. Yes, it was legal then to have complexes like that. And guess what, my company paid for all of this including a car allowance, over and above my salary.

My Work Car

My car allowance was sufficient to lease the sporty looking Fiat X/19 shown below. This car definitely turned heads at the time. It wasn’t particularly powerful, but it hugged the road that made driving on curved roads FUN! Life was good. I was going to drive off to explore places unknown to me being new to LA.

Thanksgiving Lunch & Dinner!

However, the secretary at work had other plans for me. She invited me to her families home for Thanksgiving lunch. This was my first Thanksgiving so how could I refuse!

Some friends I made also invited me to Thanksgiving dinner. I couldn’t refuse. Fortunately there was no conflict.

Of course, I had no clue how huge Thanksgiving meals were. I enjoyed both. But at the end of the day I felt so stuffed. How could I forget my first Thanksgiving!

California Highway One

Thursday was over. But I had Friday, Saturday and Sunday to look forward to. On Friday morning after breakfast, I took the hard top of the car off, buckled up and headed off on a sunny Autumn day to the spectacular, curvy, California Highway One.

Oh the drive was wind blowing in my hair exhilarating! My first exposure to California life was nothing short of extraordinary. I am happy to say that in 40 plus years this Highway has hardly changed.

I made a lot of friends. You may guess that living in California I had many overseas visitors.

1975 was a great year. Attending baseball games at Dodgers Stadium and LA Kings hockey games at the Fabulous Forum were fantastic new experiences for me that friends kindly took me to.

Other Special Firsts

The most exciting experience at Dodgers Stadium wasn’t a Dodgers Gane. It was the iconic concert by Elton John that has been immortalized by the movie Rocketman. I drove to Vegas, San Francisco, the Grand Canyon and relived being a kid at Disneyland.

You probably agree with this sentiment that there’s nothing more special than a first experience at something new. Having visited 25 countries and lived in four, I’ve lost count of the number of first experiences in my life.

My Most Recent First Experience

One first experience I will never forget is my introduction to Affiliate Marketing through Wealthy Affiliate. Although I haven’t made much money YET, I’m having the time of my life. Not least is this amazing community where I’ve had the pleasure of meeting so many wonderful people. There are so many you know who you are.

When new members arrive here and are overwhelmed by the Wealthy Affiliate welcome they receive, that defines the unique culture that is us. Thanks to Kyle and Carson for their vision, character. And integrity.

I have to pinch myself to remind me that this is real. In some ways this reminds me of Toastmasters. Members arrive a bit unsure of themselves wondering if they can become better speakers in Toastmasters and better Affiliate Marketers here. After going through the program, members blossom by exhibiting small successes that when combined become significant.

It’s such a pleasure to observe the successes of other members. Success breeds success. To me success doesn’t always have to mean earning money. It can be learning a new skill, solving a problem, writing captivating blogs, helping others. All of these successes will eventually lead to generating an ever-increasing stream of income.

Showing appreciation to other members for their achievements and successes is so heartwarming. I see this happening a lot here. And I love it. This inspires me to try even harder.

My Recent Activities

I am happy to say I’m writing more posts for my website. On Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s, I add posts to my new Facebook business page, with links to my website blogs. It was the Black Friday campaign that drove me to have a second attempt in creating a new Facebook business page, even though my previous one was unpublished by the powers that be.

By paying to have my Black Friday post boosted, I’ve got over 3000 people reached and 14 site clicks. My spending limit is $20. I thought it was worth it for Black Friday. I’m good till December 2nd so I expect these numbers to increase.

No referrals yet, but this experience is invaluable. It’s part of my training anyway. Although I’ve made some forays into Pinterest and Twitter, I’m going to follow the advice of my sponsor and stick with one Social Media platform until I’ve mastered making it successful.

My Affiliate Business Strategy

I’ve decided I’ve written enough articles educating visitors on the benefits of joining Wealthy Affiliate. I’m branching out into doing reviews promoting places like Clickbank, CJ Affiliates, AWIN and other similar entities to grow one's Affiliate Marketing business. I’m taking this one step further. By becoming an Affiliate of these companies and picking one product I believe in to promote and generate revenue.

Through Clickbank I became an affiliate of an online Forex company. I actually do trade the Forex Market and used this blog to give a lesson in Risk Management. I might write a blog here about that as this lesson could be helpful to members here.

Rationale

I know the importance of keeping one's niche narrow. One of the objectives in promoting Wealthy Affiliate is to demonstrate the process of entering Affiliate Marketing as an affiliate of other companies. The most effective way to show visitors how to do that is to actually go through the process. And then show that the best way to create a successful website is through the training at Wealthy Affiliate.

Isn’t that a good rationale to become an affiliate of these companies and promote products I believe in? Like I did with Clickbank and Forex?

My One Year Anniversary Coming Fast

It will be at the end of December. My original goal was to have several sales by then. I feel that by spending less time here and more on my business there is a good chance this will happen.

Life is all about balance. And it’s different for each of us. I’m happy I found out what is right for me. It’s all systems go!

Black Friday, Christmas, New Year three Holidays to promote our businesses. What a great time of the year this is.

A Lot To Be Thankful For

I have a lot to be thankful for not only at Thanksgiving time but all the time. I am especially thankful for being here at Wealthy Affiliate!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our US members!

Edwin Bernard