11 years of Wealthy Affiliates, 11 things I've learnt

1. Developing the ability to deal with adversity.

It doesn't matter what you do as an entrepreneur. You can have your affiliate website, you can sell your own products, you could have a writing business. At some point you will face some form of adversity. This can come in many forms. You may have to decide whether to put your family first or whether to spend some time developing your business. You may need a piece of software or a premium theme and you don't have the money to pay for it.

Overcoming these challenges is far more important than what you are actually doing. Developing grit is super important. I'm coming up to 11 years with wealthy affiliates and the one thing I realise is that everybody who applies themselves and don't give up do eventually succeed.

2. How to develop strategies to deal with adversity.

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My absolute favourite strategy without a doubt is being part of mastermind groups. The support network they give is invaluable. If you don't have the opportunity to do this then you do have other choices.

Reflect on your failures they are really important in terms of your growth. Write about them. Be honest about them to yourself and others. Don't shy away from failure EMBRACE IT.

Surround yourself with people who are positive and have a growth mindset.

3. Only Partner with People you trust and reflect your authenticity.

This is a tough one for newbies because it's difficult to understand when you are new to this world which companies have authentic values. Don't promote products you're not 100% on board with. People are much more likely to buy from you if you can show a case study using a product. That applies to either wealthy affiliates or any other product in your own niche.

4. Internet marketing is like climbing a mountain.

It's tough when you start. You need the training, you need the equipment, you need to know the how. When you've got all that then you've actually got to slog your way up that mountain. The reality is that the first 80% or 85% of the climb is hell. Suddenly you gain traction and before you know it you are on top of that mountain and from thereon you will have your first trickle of sales.

This should give you the will to carry on and increase your efforts and then things just get better all the way.

The reality is the majority of people who give up and fail here in wealthy affiliates and those who do so on the cusp of success.

5. Market Fit.

There is some form of conventional wisdom here in Wealthy Affiliates that you should follow your passion. Or you follow something you know about. In other words if you've been a plumber all your life you can start a local directory of plumbers or you promote plumbing products.

Or .............

you do something else entirely. You do the smart marketing, you follow the money. That doesn't mean you need to know more than the average Joe it means you need to share the learning process.

Don't be frightened about promoting Wealthy Affiliate's just because you don't know anything about Internet marketing! There are plenty of people like you, when you first started they need confidence to see works for other people sometimes.

The market can't be saturated, there is always room for you. There are 8 billion people on this planet and let's say 6 billion people are adults. How many people do you know who have enough money?

There are loads of historic examples both off-line and online of people starting businesses they know nothing about and succeeding. Nicky Lauda the Formula One racing driver started an airline successfully. Richard Branson started Virgin not knowing anything about airlines but he could see a gap in the market. He also hires the right people to drive his vision forward.

On the other hand Freddie Laker knew everything about airlines he saw a gap in the market, he created his company and he went spectacularly belly up.

Jeff Bezos and an extraordinary vision about e-commerce. Very few people shared it. If like me you been in the Internet marketing will for a long time you will remember everyone saying Amazon will never make a profit! Today that seems ridiculous.

Granted he had developed enormous resilience to adversity to overcome the challenges he had and he came within a hair's breadth of bankruptcy. The point is though he didn't go bankrupt and neither did Amazon.

"A pile of rocks, is just a pile of rocks, until someone looks upon it and sees the vision of a cathedral."

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

6. Respect Your Time.

Working from home can be tough if you have a family. It's very important to set the ground rules early on. Okay your house or apartment may not have a spare room you can use enough as an office. If you have to work on the kitchen table make sure your family know you are actually working. They can't just pop in and ask you to pick up the kids, drop off the dry-cleaning, walk the dog, go shopping or anything else. Unless of course it is a matter of life or death.

7. It all comes down to your mindset.

Being an entrepreneur is very often being in a lonely place. You will be in a situation where you will be separated from those that earn a wage. This may come sooner or later but for sure it will come. How you deal with people who knock what you want to do for your vision is entirely up to you.

It's worth bearing in mind that becoming an entrepreneur will mean you need to leave some people behind. Hopefully this will not be your immediate family. In many cases it will be friends.

They do not want you to change. Because if you change and grow it highlights their inability to live an inspired life. If you want to change the world you can. The likelihood of you changing the world and taking everyone with you is impossible.

8. Learn enough create your own vision

Many people come to wealthy affiliates and make an instant success. Many people fail spectacularly. The majority of people who succeed don't do so on their first attempt. Don't give up but learn enough to work out where your little part of the Internet world is (or even large part). You are limited only by the limits of your imagination.

Make sure others realise that you will not be deterred from your vision. If you've learnt and set out to do what you want to do then you will succeed if you simply don't give up and don't let others pull you down.

10. No One Understands Me.

No one will give a damn about your vision until you have something to show for it. Knuckle down learn what you need to do and ask questions. When you fail and you will fail then ask more questions.

11. Risk Everything

Except

Your family
Your health
Your Reputation
Your Spirit

If you have anything to add please comment below