First off, I am Kyle Loudoun. Co-founder of Wealthy Affiliate, a platform that Carson Lim and I created over 18 years ago and that has turned into a true lifelong passion project. We are a company that focuses on YOU, and how to best help people build thriving businesses within the online world!

To do this, we combine technology, education, and community to offer you the most forward-thinking platform to build an online business within. If you ever feel stuck along the way, scroll down to the comments area of any of the training resources and ask a question. You WILL get help.

Tasks for this Lesson:

• Familiarize yourself with the Business Hubs Platform
• Leave a comment below. Share a bit about yourself and your goals within the online world (and of course any questions that you may have)

Now let’s talk business…and the first steps.

Being “overwhelmed” might accurately describe how you're feeling right now, but there is no need to feel this way because by the end of this lesson, you are going to have a solid grasp of the unlimited potential that awaits you here within Wealthy Affiliate using the Hubs platform, the training, and having access to all the levels of support and community.

Our goal is to help you tackle the online world with confidence, and to give you the capability to create a business of any level of success online, and the ability to do this within ANY niche, (passion or interest).

My role is to guide you through this process with a well-calibrated compass, a treasure map, and practical survival lessons.

So, are you excited yet? Let’s get rolling…

Mapping the Potential of Online Businesses

The Internet is a big place, with a lot of opportunities. It can be overwhelming when you are starting out and looking for direction, so I want to explain a few things here to you.

You're accessing a global market. Billions of internet users with high-speed access now. 5.5 billion to be precise. These Internet users span every country in the world, and are making regular purchases online.

The question isn't, 'Is there potential?' but rather 'How massive is this potential?'.

Global “e-commerce” is set to reach 6.4 TRILLION in 2024, and 6.9 TRILLION in 2025. These are big freakin’ numbers.


So our goal as you move into the Wealthy Affiliate world is to help you get a piece of this pie, and to give you a skill set, the tools, and the mentorship that you can utilize to grow to ANY level of success online.

Whether you want to earn an extra $1,000 per month, or you want to scale your business to $100,000 per month, both are possible. Both are built on the same foundation, and built using the same principles, and both can be achieved here within WA.

Imagine, for a minute, instead of your community or city, the world is now your marketplace. To succeed online, you simply are going to need to connect with a very small percentage of this global audience…and that is the path we are going to set you out on as we move through the core training here at WA.

A website is the foundation of your business, and that is going to be our initial focus and building it out in a way that leads to success and you establishing a brand online. The next focus after that, is building an audience. Before you can sell anything at all or to earn money online, you need to have people to sell to. Then we monetize our websites, and there are many ways to do this.

And this all starts with HUBS, which is going to be the “control center” of your business.

Unpacking Wealthy Affiliate’s Hubs Platform.

Enter Wealthy Affiliate’s Hubs platform, your comprehensive environment where you are going to manage your website, research, and content game plan all from one location. Think of it as your virtual headquarters, designed to streamline your entrepreneurial journey.

Upon logging in you will be able to access your Hubs platform from the main dashboard.

You will see an Activity tab as well, which is where you can get your stream of high value expert blogs, success stories, affiliate stats, our top 10 posts of the day, video blogs/training, and access help for the 10,000’s of experts here within WA. Full access to that platform is included in your Premium and Premium Plus+ membership.

Key Features to Understand:

• Website Management Area. This is where you are going to be able to manage your website, login into your website (Premium & Premium Plus+ members) and to initial your content creation. All websites here are hosted on our high speed, high ranking, and ultra secure Managed Wordpress Hosting framework
  
• Core Training. This is where you will be accessing your key training, which initially is 20 lessons in length. As you complete these lessons, additional and more advanced training will become available to our Premium/Premium Plus+ members within this scroll. We are going to truly advance you from any level of marketer, to an expert through this core training +.
  
• Your Milestones. These are not just writing milestones, but milestones in your business. As you start to build out your website and content, you are going to open your doors to the ability to earn money through affiliate programs, through advertising networks, and establishing authority and traffic in your respective niche.
  
• Website Structure & Organization. This section is going to help you discover a broader blueprint for your business, and categories that you can touch on within your niche. The research is done for you, and this will give you over 200 high opportunity content ideas that you can use to build out your business.
  
• Task Manager. Manage your writing task through the “To Do” list. This is going to help you streamline your entire business, and give you a focused road map to success within your respective niche. You can add ideas to this list at any point, and it will be pre-loaded with some initial key pages that you want to add to your website.
  

• Niche Research. This is where it gets really fun, you are going to be able to get “ideas galore” related to your niche. This is going to provide you with 100’s of low competition, and highly targeted ideas across your niche that you can use to build out your business.

Embrace this platform. Jump into its features. It’s designed to turn your initial “niche” idea, and create a road-map to a long term and very successful venture online.

Setting the Stage: Course Goals and Roadmap

Let's talk about planning. Think of setting up an online business as a journey. Like any worthy journey, it requires an initial roadmap. Let’s understand what you'll be tackling over the next 8 weeks, and how that will set the tone for the year ahead and the success of your business.

Week 1-2: Laying the Foundations – From understanding online business models to niche selection.

The first two weeks are all about constructing a solid foundation. A house built on sand won't withstand the storm, and a business without a strong base will falter. You'll be exploring different online business models and getting the foundation of your website and brand set-up. This includes getting your own .com domain!

Week 3-4: Building Your Online Presence – Crafting a website that reflects your brand's voice.

Just as a building takes form with the development of its outer structure, your online presence begins to materialize in weeks 3 and 4. Brush your creative hats because you'll be crafting your website that's true to your brand's voice. We are also going to be getting your website indexed into search engines, and ready to scale and get traffic.

Week 5-6: Content Creation & Marketing – Driving traffic and fostering engagement.

Next up, weeks 5 and 6. You've built your “house” (ie, the website), now it's time to invite people over. Enter the world of content creation and marketing—where you attract people from all the key search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo) and start to reach out your tentacles.

You will start to get rankings and traffic, and move into a positioning of a “scalable online business”. Also, your website is going to be ready for affiliate programs, and full integration of the promotional elements. This is an exciting time in your business, you'll learn how to drive traffic, foster engagement, stir interest, and incite action.

Week 7-8: Monetization & Scaling – Converting visitors into customers and taking your business to new heights.

Onto weeks 7 and 8. Monetization and scaling. You've got the buzz, you've got the audience, now it's time to transform visitors into customers. During these weeks we will introduce you to conversion tactics and strategies to amplify your operations—to take your business to new heights..

At the end of just the first eight weeks, you will have more than just a functional business. You'll have a brand and a vision—an understanding of your destination and the map through Business Hubs to get there.

Up next, we are going to be getting into the "brand" side of your business, and how to establish that in the early stages.

Tasks for this Lesson:

• Familiarize yourself with the Business Hubs Platform
• Leave a comment below. Share a bit about yourself and your goals within the online world (and of course any questions that you may have)