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
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 ;-)
I hope you are doing well and I am looking forwards to have you in my network for many years to come😊.
Jude