My 2 Years at Wealthy Affiliate - It's Easier to Quit! But 6 Tips If You Don't

Hello fellow WA members! Hope everyone is doing super today :) October 2019 marks my 2 year anniversary with Wealthy Affiliate (WA), so I thought I’d write about my experience so far.

For those who have read my profile, you know that I am not new to the online marketing concept. I do not need convincing of the potential of an online business. I already see this first hand every day.

I found Wealthy Affiliate because I was looking for ways to make money online for myself, not for other people. My journey may seem "easier" because I come from a graphic design background, been connected to the marketing industry for 20 years and started building WordPress websites in 2008.

1. It's Much Easier to Quit

Well, it's been 2 years since I've been at this whole make money online for myself journey. I can tell you from my experience, my journey has been just as hard as everyone else’s learning how to be successful with affiliate marketing.

I've learned that it is much easier just to quit. To give up! To just walk away and claim you can't do it. Or this just won't work for you.

S-o-o-o-o-o m-u-c-h e-a-s-i-e-r !

(Said with very strong emphasis and emotion....)

However, I highly recommend you don't quit.

You will miss out on everything and every dollar you can gain for sticking with your affiliate marketing business, even if it takes you years to get a return.

2. You Will Only Make Money if You Don't Quit

This is how affiliate marketing has worked out for me. It's taken me exactly 2 years to generate $400 affiliate commissions in the Make Money Online (MMO) niche. I only made this money because I didn't quit!

So do I consider this as a success? Absolutely! Now that I've finally broken the "seal", I'm focused on making $1000 per month in affiliate commissions, as my next milestone, within my 3rd year at WA.

So if you are in your first year here at Wealthy Affiliate, you are probably asking yourself, "Geez, will it take me 2 years to make $400?".

The answer is: it doesn't have to take you 2 years but the actual timing depends totally on you.

It's taken me 2 years because I've made newbie mistakes, like many others do when first starting out. (Mistakes are very common, and part of the process!)

So the best use of this update here is to provide you with a few tips so you understand what to do and what not to do.

Learn From My Mistakes (And Reduce Your Time To Your First Commissions)

I can tell you from my personal experience, what you focus on and where you spend your time absolutely impacts your results!

If you want results sooner, then focus your actions sooner.

3. Blog Content IS Enough to Make Affiliate Commissions

There's a lot of various information and "tips" from different "authories" in our industry.

In my 2 years of researching and learning about affiliate marketing, I've heard (from mostly sources outside of WA) that websites are dead. And that SEO is old school marketing because it takes too long. And that you should usually do some other type of marketing besides just SEO.

Usually these statements are to encourage you to buy their digital products and training courses for various topics such as: email marketing, landing pages, Facebook Ads, etc.

Here's my actual results:

The money I've made so far is actually from my blog content. (Even though I've tried other "stuff".) My biggest sale (largest affiliate commission) came from 1 Review post that ranks on page 1.

4. Focus on Posting 3 Times a Week (Minimum)

If you've noticed, Kyle recommends posting content to your website at least 3 times a week. Other successful affiliate marketers here will recommend you post 5 times a week. This is strategic advice. They are not just telling you to post 3 - 5 times a week just to provide you with some sort of instructions. These are strategic tips that work to bring in organic, free website traffic to make affiliate commissions.

Either way, the focus is to consistently post a number of content articles every week, so your content starts adding up. That's the key to websites, blogs and SEO. It's a numbers game. Your website will see more traffic with the more content you publish.

Here's an example:

• 5 site vistors a month to 1 post = 5 visits to your website a month
• 5 site vistors to each of 10 posts = 50 visits to your website a month
• 5 site visitors to each of 50 posts each a monthn= 250 visits to your website a month
• 10 site visitors to each of 50 posts = 500 visits to your website a month

You see, if you will atleast follow Kyle's recommendation of 3 posts a week, that's 12 posts a month. You would reach 60 posts in 5 months. And with 250 to 500 site visits a month, that's enough to get a few affiliate commissions. I’ve made a few sales with this traffic amount.

You definitely need to pay attention to the keywords you use, write content for what people are looking for and give them information that they can't find on any other blog. But all of this in the training :) You just need to follow it, study it, and learn from your own results.

My actual results:

What's interesting about my results is that I have NOT focused on posting 3 times a week. I have less content than I should have after 2 years. (I could have 250+ posts on my website right now if I had stuck to Kyle's recommendation.)

My website stats are:

• 14 Pages
• 33 Posts
• 72 Approved Comments
  
• Near 300 visits a month

I do tend to write longer form content which helps my less content go further than shorter posts. I average 2000 words per post. Some are near 5000, including the 1 Review Post that is doing well.

5. The Other "Stuff" Makes You Slower

Just think what $$$$ I'd have if I had 250+ posts on my website?! (I'm totally kicking myself for not focusing here...)

Distractions, lack of focus, not focusing on one thing is otherwise known as "shiny object syndrome". The reason I am not making more money is because of my own actions. My lack of focus on one thing. My results are completely my own fault!

Instead of just focusing on 3 posts a week and completing the Online Entreprener Certification training and the Bootcamp training here, I've launched an email campaign, created related landing pages and Google Ads campaign to drive traffic.

Because all of this is complicated to start at first (there is a lot of content that needs to be created for all of these components and lot of "connections" you need to make in the beginning), I've posted 1 blog post in the last 2 months. Because I've been spending my time on these "new shiny objects" that are supposed to be the right thing to do.

Well, they are the right thing to do, but not all at once. And all these cost extra money. I would have been better off just focusing on publishing content!

6. WA Premium + Domain Name is All You Need To Succeed

Like I said earlier, my money is coming from my ranked content, not my latest campaign.

Starting out, I highly recommend just sticking with WA premium, 1 domain name and completing all the training. And attend the weekly webinars for topics that related to where you are in your affiliate marketing journey. But don't get distracted by those.

The hardest thing to do is to focus on mastering WA, by sticking with WA, completing every training and action that is asked of you. But it's absolutely the best value for your money spent!

Focus on blogging and completing the training here for 1 year atleast. Don’t worry about the other stuff until your site is making 4 figures a month. Then add in ad sense ads. Then social media. Then look at other learning other stuff one at a time so you can master it, which leads to making the most money from it.

You absolutely have everything you need to succeed here, and here alone. That's my biggest realization after 2 years.

Learn from me, leverage these tips and get your commissions faster than I did.

Hope this is helpful. If it is, let me know in the comments. I'd love to hear your advice too. I learn from y'all everyday :)

Kim Wolfe