Beer With Kyle: We are Rethinking the Process of Building Success Online
Hey Everyone,
This week’s topic is all about a new approach we are taking to help people build successful online businesses...and I want your honest feedback. This might seem like a subtle shift, but it has a major impact on how quickly people get to monetization.
Before we dive in, let’s crack open this week’s brew.
This Week’s Beer: Black Raven Brewery – West Coast IPA
This one’s from Black Raven Brewery, a small spot out of Woodinville, Washington. It’s a West Coast IPA — crisp, hoppy, and probably one of the best I’ve had. I first tried it while vacationing in the States a few weeks back. We cannot get this one in Canada, so I made sure to stock up.
Anyway, let’s get into it.
📊 The Old Flow vs. The New Flow
For years, the approach to building a business at Wealthy Affiliate has looked like this:
- Foundation – Niche, brand, domain, and website
- Traffic – Create content with SEO in mind
- Monetization – Join affiliate programs once you get some traffic
But we’re flipping the script.
🔁 The New Flow:
- Foundation
- Monetization
- Traffic
Why? Because traffic is not a requirement for monetization anymore.
Why the Change?
Search engines are changing fast. If you’ve searched on Google recently, you have likely noticed AI answers showing up above the results. And the reality is… people are clicking less on actual websites.
This hurts SEO marketers, especially those relying only on Google search rankings.
But not everything is doom and gloom.
Some search queries (like product reviews) still generate clicks. People don’t just trust one AI answer when they’re making buying decisions. They click, compare, and research.
That’s where affiliate links and monetization come into play.
Our Goal = Get Monetized Faster!
We want people to be able to start earning as soon as possible.
We’re restructuring the training and platform tech to reflect this. Here’s what that means:
- You will build out your foundation as usual
- Then you will focus on creating 15–20 pages of solid content to get accepted into affiliate programs
- Once accepted, your site is monetized
- From there, the long-term focus becomes traffic: through SEO, YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and more
SEO will still happen naturally if you are adding helpful content. But instead of waiting months for traffic and then applying to affiliate programs, you will be monetized upfront.
What Does This Mean for You?
This flow change — foundation → monetization → traffic is going to be built into the training, the tech, and the user experience, including updates inside Hubs.
Monetization could mean:
- Affiliate programs (the big one)
- Google AdSense
- Your own products
- Services or consulting
Once you have those in place, you can begin earning and that’s what we want for you.
Your Thoughts?
This is a shift, but it’s a strategic one. I would love to hear what you think.
Jump into the comments below and let me know if you agree with this path, if you see any challenges, or if you have suggestions or simply like the new flow. :)
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Recent Comments
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Hi Kyle that makes sense. I am working on Section 2 of the training at the moment with creating content for my website. Do you actually have training on creating the home page etc. I cannot see that in the training but hopefully I will come across that as I continue with the training. Many thanks Sam
Hello Kyle,
You know better than me, that this debate has been going on long before AI. Should one monetize first or get traffic first.
People who support the Monetization first say that one should build the website ready so that whenever traffic and whatever traffic that finds the site, the site would be ready to make money.
The other side preaches, that first build traffic, and once you have substantial traffic that one can depend on, then start building for monetization.
I was within the first group until I enrolled with Amazon, then found myself kicked out because I didn't make a sale within three months. This is when I moved sides and became part of the second group.
I heard you in this video when you said, there are other ways of monetization other than affiliate programs such as adsense (which does not count for much), or (having own products). This shift is not subtle at all - in my point of view. This is a total strategic shift from affiliate products to other forms of business. I also know that you did not mean to cancel affiliate programs all together and it will part of the mix, but this is what it will be, part of a mix. To me this is a huge strategic shift.
In any case, I realize that I have too many assumptions in what I have written above, and that I need to wait until the new training is out to better understand it, but I thought I will share my current thoughts in case it would help.
Hi, Rami,
I see our website as the HQ of our business. It can still be a hub for affiliate marketing, but we need to understand that the normal way of driving traffic by SEO only is a thing of the past. We will now need to learn to drive traffic in many other ways. That traffic can still end up on our website and be exposed to our affiliate products; the difference is, it will come to the site via different means.
Good luck.
I totally agree.. My argument was regarding the shift from Traffic-monetization to monetization-traffic.
Yeah, there are certain considerations but the process of creating content has also evolve. It used to take a long time to get 20 posts together, and the intent of the content (SEO primarily) has shifted as well.
So it is important that people are able to get to the point of monetization, and this could mean sharing posts with their social following, or even friends to get their first sale. People are buying stuff online every day, and getting to that material success and getting approved for affiliate programs can happen with more efficiency as content creation has become more efficient.
As for Amazon, part of the problem in the past is that it relied on "3 sales" and that relied on purely SEO using the old model. So the goal is going to be focusing on getting traffic with more efficiency as well, and not having such emphasis on SEO.
So as the internet evolves, so do we, so do the processes, and we have no problems making adjustments to the flow to maximize success and getting people to their goals with more efficiency.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts here. ;)
Yes, Kyle, this great NEWS. So, how do I see the difference is that you can earn with a website or without, traffic is not a requirement for monetisation anymore. You can get "BRANDED" and get videos with a great following with social marketing, but also build traffic with a website.
Services or consulting by monetisation, I can't wait for the new training,
Kyle, what is your favourite beer?
Absolutely Timothy! My favourite beer is a local IPA, called "Fat Tug" by Driftwood. It has a distinct flavour and is one of the more popular beers here locally (and you can find a tap of it basically at every restaurant or pub now). :)
Hello, yeah to get the traffic it is changing all the time I just say oh well lucky I don't know much about yet even some of the words when I first started never heard of mindset, Affiliate marketing, DFY mistake marketing, it was getting used on me, big no, no I understand that WA find the best ever approach for us to get results, so I better hurry up and write some content and I got links ready to promote, at the moment I just go with the flow, I have been given some posting time for free on Facebook for getting the number 1 spot for posting OZZY Osbourne content and then Instagram has given me some training and a ticket to set up shop, so I need to really start working overtime, cheers Jon
It sounds great with your extended presence on Instagram and Facebook. Keep writing more quality content and promote your affiliate links and share them on those social platforms.
All the best and to your success.
Paul.
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Join FREE & Launch Your Business!
Exclusive Bonus - Offer Ends at Midnight Today
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
2,000 AI Credits Worth $10 USD
Build a Logo + Website That Attracts Customers
400 Credits
Discover Hot Niches with AI Market Research
100 Credits
Create SEO Content That Ranks & Converts
800 Credits
Find Affiliate Offers Up to $500/Sale
10 Credits
Access a Community of 2.9M+ Members
I’ve been wrapping my head around this too, and honestly, I really like the new approach. Having those writing tasks to work toward makes things feel more doable and gives me small wins to celebrate along the way. Step by step, it’s helping me stay focused—I’m not chasing every shiny new thing like I used to or stressing about whether I was adding things at the “right” time. I really appreciate how you’re revamping the training to answer the questions that pop up while still keeping us on track to build a solid foundation. It makes the whole process feel a lot less overwhelming. 🙌