DON'T BE FOOLED by the Black Friday Sale.
I started out here like you, excited and little skeptical. But mostly excited.
I had buckets of enthusiasm and motivation. Enough to plow through all the doubt and uncertainty. At least for a while.
But the resistance builds up and the excitement fades. If you've been here a while, you know what I mean.
If you're new to Wealthy Affiliate, this is an incredible opportunity and journey you've stumbled upon. It's allowed me to work from home full-time for the last couple years (and hopefully for many more to come).
But I'm not one to oversell it.
In fact, I partially abandoned WA in my first year; spending thousands on tools, courses and schemes because it was taking too long. I was desperate to escape my situation and didn't want to wait.
I tried a dozen different make-money-online systems and strategies, and I ran out of money (and then some) buying traffic. I didn't have the patience to wait for Google.
To say I was flat-broke at the end of my first year online is an understatement. I went all in and came up short. It was hard lesson to learn.
But it wasn't just the money.
I also went all in on HOPE. I allowed myself to dream, and the disappointment that followed hurt far worse.
I was tired... so tired. Broke. Discouraged. Everything I tried seemed to fail.
Well... almost everything.
The one place I did get some traction was here, at Wealthy Affiliate. Not a lot (as I said, I'm not one to oversell it), just a little…
And I know it was my own fault. I wasted a lot of time and money on other things.
You do NOT have to spin your wheels like I did, and you can definitely make progress a lot faster.
In fact, I had some early success here making money in my third month... but that was BEFORE I decided to chase rabbits, and as someone wise once said, the person who chases two rabbits catches neither.
I was chasing a fluffle, and catching none...
So I Quit...
With my "shiny object" binge behind me, I was devastated financially.
It was really bad, and I’m afraid of sharing details here in case a friend or family member ever reads it.
To make a long story short, there was no money for online tools, courses, schemes, or traffic. Buying groceries was bad enough, but that's a different story.
What I did have though, was a yearly membership here.
Fortunately, before ending up that situation, I re-purchased my yearly membership (in November 2017, during Black Friday).
Yes, it's that time again.
BUT...
... don't be fooled by it.
Yes, the discount is great. I get it. Every penny mattered to me too.
But saving money is NOT the real benefit of the Black Friday sale (in retrospect, the money I saved seems insignificant compared to the income I earn now).
The REAL benefit, the REAL advantage of a yearly membership (whatever the cost), is not having to worry about it every month.
It allowed me to QUIT (well, sort of...).
Let me explain...
As I mentioned, I was broke and absolutely exhausted by this point.
I tried what seemed like everything online and I was tired. Mostly, I was just sick of the disappointment of giving everything I had and not making money.
So I QUIT trying to make money.
I just stopped putting that pressure on myself. I can't tell you how great it was to not carry that burden anymore.
That, for me, was the real benefit of the Black Friday sale.
Not having to come up with, or justify monthly payments because I wasn't making any money yet.
And when I say I quit trying to make money, I really mean I quit trying to make money.
I did NOT put a single affiliate link in my content. And, I did not waste time creating landing pages, lead magnets or opt-in forms when I had no traffic to opt-in anyway.
If, at some point in the future my content was getting traffic (and it did), I'd worry about affiliate links then...
All I did for the better part of a year was publish content, and everything I needed to do it was already paid for.
So what happened?
Not much at first. If you’ve been here a while you know Google doesn’t fall in love at first sight.
When she finally notices you though, if you've been publishing content consistently, things can get crazy.
I went from a couple dozen page views per day, to hundreds. And then it became thousands.
At one point last year I was getting over 200,000 page views per month.
Now, becoming a yearly premium member is not the only way to succeed. It may not even be an option for you right now.
I was in a fortunate situation, and luckily bought my membership just weeks before my life went haywire (I literally lost my job at the end of November that year).
I also don't recommend creating a year's worth of content without affiliate links. I'll never know, but I probably left money sitting on the table.
The point of this post though, is just to say that the money you'll save on a Black Friday membership is less consequential than the time and pressure-free environment it gives you to learn at a comfortable pace and build the life you want.
At least, that's what it did for me.
You can get your Black Friday Membership HERE if you choose...
What a refreshing change and as my main niche is not MMO I have kept my head down and got on with my niche site over the Black Friday bombardment.
In fact over this weekend I hit my first big goal in terms of posts. No fireworks, I just did it.
I love your term about chasing rabbits, so true, and as my Dad used to say when all the cars were over taking us on long journeys "stay in your own lane" . Thanks so much for sharing, Phil
Reply
And as far as a dose realism, if this business is good at anything, it's giving us a dose of realism, lol. That might be the toughest part, but also the most important.
No one thinks twice about spending tens of thousands of dollars on four (or more) years of school for the chance of a good paying job. Or spending just as much money starting a "traditional" business and working at it for years before it becomes profitable. If it ever becomes profitable.
That's just reality and I think most people are okay with it. So a good dose of reality when it comes to building an online business I think is okay too. It's okay that it takes time, and that it's not always easy.
The end result is a great life comparatively, so we should have to work hard at it.
Thanks for taking the time to read and for your feedback, it's much appreciated. And I hope you keep hitting your blog post goals :-)
Jay
I do everything that was taught in the training. I do not dabble in other things, except for my writing (I write books and I cannot give that up), and of course, I have to work at my job. I do what I learned in the Online Entrepreneur Course, I apply what I learn in Jay's webinars (I don't always attend though), my traffic increases slowly but it has been a year and a half and it hasn't happened for me yet. I know that it can take time and I have told myself that often. I don't want to stop, and I don't think I will, but recently I have posponed or canceled many of my daily plans and goals, and that is not like me. I want to take the yearly membership this time, because you are right; it takes away the worry of paying every month.
But sometimes I sit at my desk and I think about writing a blog post and then I start improving a Powerpoint for my online classes and I reason that that is at least paying me right now, so I should do the extra work for them. I think I'll go for the yearly membership and hopefully I'll get out of this rut. Sorry for this long comment. Your blog provided me the opportunity to rant, lol, sorry ;-)
How is your keyword research?
It's important to follow the training and publish content, but it's critical to make sure it's the right content. I don't really have a percentage I give to time doing keyword research, but I'd guess it's probably 30 - 40 percent.
The reason I mention keyword research is because you say you sometimes think of writing a post and then work on something else. I know that feeling well, lol. And it usually happens because we don't have a list of qualified topics to write about.
Not sure where I read it or heard it, but your goal should always be to have a plan before turning on your computer. You never want to turn it on, put your fingers on the keyboard, and think, "now what?"
I say that being guilty of it myself, lol. I definitely feel your pain.
The two ways I try to prevent it though is I use a free program called "Notion" to schedule my day, and I keep a database of pre-qualified keywords so I can start writing before I talk myself out of it or get distracted with activities that might be valuable, but don't really contribute to getting more traffic.
This has been a big challenge for me lately actually.
But traffic has to be your priority if you want to make money. And there's only one way to increase your traffic, and that's to publish keyword rich content, and/or promote your existing content (and how you do that depends on your niche/content).
Of course, if you have things you're doing that are already paying you, those things have to be a priority as well.
When I started making money online but not enough to fully support my family and I, instead of working full-time, I started driving for Uber. That gave me more flexibility to work on my business between riders and as my online income grew I could reduce the number of hours I was driving.
The temptation though, was to turn off the Uber app and keep writing, or whatever it was I was doing online. But Uber was guaranteed money, even if it wasn't much, I had to make it a priority.
Keep at it. I hope you overcome the doubts and overwhelm soon. And thanks for sharing your thoughts and feelings :-)
If you ever have any questions feel free to reach out. I'd be happy to help.
Thanks for your advice!
Everyone of us is limited with the amount of time we have, and that struggle never really goes away. Or at least, it hasn't for me. If it isn't WA's training now, it's something else I'm trying to learn and fit into my day. There are so many aspects of this business I'd like to get better at. I also end my days frustrated I couldn't get more done.
My best advice is to have patience, as hard as it is... I know.
Here's a quick story I always reminded myself of that helped me settle into my second year of doing this.
My wife and I opened a new auto parts distribution branch for a company we worked for in the early 2000's. It was relative small branch at the time, just her and I, and a couple drivers and warehouse staff.
She went on maternity leave for a year and I was the only one answering phones. There were 4 lines and from the moment we opened to the door, to the minute we closed, those 4 lines did not stop.
The minute I'd clear one line and move to the next, the one I just cleared would immediately light up.
It was one of the most stressful times in my life. Customers were complaining because they were always being put on hold. Rushing through each call to get to the next line as quickly as possible lead to careless mistakes, and customers were being sent the wrong parts, which caused more frustration and stress for everyone.
It just hit me one day though, that I was doing all I could do. That's it.
We eventually hired someone to help, but for the months I was alone in that office, I could only do what I could do. The customers could complain and get frustrated. I could keep getting stressed out and rushing through each call, but none of that helped. It just made it worse, and it wasn't sustainable.
I could only answer one line at a time, that's it. I couldn't rush through each call either. I had to listen to what each customer needed and handle each all right the first time.
Once I accepted I could only do what I could do and nothing more, my stress went away.
So in my second year online I did the same thing. I just accepted I could only do so much. I could only do keyword research and publish posts so fast. That's it.
I focused only on traffic and eliminated everything else. I didn't try to force results that I had no control over anyway. And strangely enough, that's when I started seeing results. Not right away, but it was the work I put in then that eventually produced results.
I know, it's easier in theory than in practice but if you can, having patience really helps :-)
You've been here since 2016 as well, and as you say, can relate. I always worry about discouraging others by sharing the challenges, but I think it's better to be aware. And challenges are okay. That's what make the journey what it is :-)
Thanks again Phillip! I appreciate it.
Jay
I hope you are doing well and I am looking forwards to have you in my network for many years to come😊.
Jude
Hope all is well. How have you been?
