7 Things I Wish I Knew When I First Started Working Online

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So much has changed since I first started working online and looking back I can't believe what I have managed to learn and achieve in just 6 short years.

I was very naive when I launched my online baby store. I had someone design me a website and I was so excited... here's what I wish I knew then.

1. A Website Does Not Equal Traffic

Yes it may sound crazy but I thought when I had an online baby store if someone typed "online baby store" into a search engine I would be found. I thought it was as simple as that. Of course I found out the hard way.

2. They Just Build A Website

When they build you a website that is all they do. They don't train you how to use the darn thing. Congrats here's your online store, good luck figuring that one out!

3. I Don't Actually NEED Any Products

I thought to make money online I needed my own products and my own store. I spent a fortune buying in stock, having things made and then of course storing it, packaging it, shipping it... oh what a schlep.

I never knew that I didn't need a single product or any of this hassle!

4. You CAN Do It All Yourself!

Make my own websites from scratch? Are you kidding me? I would never have thought I would be able to make my own money making websites from scratch without any help from anyone.

I paid someone a good amount to build me a website in the beginning and then 2 years later I paid someone else a fortune to revamp it because I was told that is why I am struggling to get traffic!

Now I just set up my 5th website a week ago and it has already earned a small income with just one blog post. I have 5 subscribers to it too. All on my own!

Ok wait, not all on my own.... Kyle, Carson, Jay and the rest of the community showed me the way so that I could achieve this on my own.

5. Social Media Sucks

Yes social media has its uses and it is nice for some free traffic... but if I knew then what I know now I would not have wasted so much time on Facebook! I would have spent my time and effort writing content for my own website and yes sending it out to social networks... but not sitting on social media engaging with people to build up my social media profiles!

6. Start Building Your List

Building a list is vital - imagine if I had started building my list from the beginning? Oh my word I would be swimming in subscribers by now!

7. Listen To Your Gut And DO It

I should have trusted myself more and gone out of my comfort zone from the beginning. I listened to too many so called professionals when it felt wrong to me. I trusted other people more than myself.

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Recent Comments

24

This is GREAT advice! I agree. I wish I had known that social media is largely a waste of time when you are starting out. I felt it was. I felt I was wasting time on it but so many people insisted that was the thing to do. I did it grudgingly but I still felt annoyed and that I was wasting precious time.

Now I know my feeling was spot on. I get almost instant results when I add content. I get almost no results when I spend time on social media. Even if I do get a little traffic from it, that traffic is miniscule compared to the amount I could get if I had spent that same time on creating content, getting comments, starting another site etc.

The return on investment from social media is very low for me. I know it works for some...but not for me.

Thanks for these great tips!
Jessica

HI LynneHuy,

Oh, don't be sad, you are doing great. If you would have known then who is posting this 7 nice ideas though. Everything comes from experience anyway.

At the moment i am struggling with ranking, which i am not understanding and i feel i like blow up and ask for help. There is no one ready to help me step by step. I did not understand Kayle training. Don't get me wrong, He is the excellent trainer, just that was not clear to me.

My site is ready just waiting for the ranking, so i can earn money by helping people. Thanks

I could talk forever about ranking :)

Firstly you need to understand that ranking is a process that takes time. You joined WA in December so I am going to make the assumption that you built your website around the time you joined so your website would then be about 3 months old?
The older a website has the better it will rank, the more content a website has the better it will rank too.

However your content needs to be SEO friendly. The first thing you need to look at is on-page SEO which is all the things that you do on your own website to help it rank.

You need to do keyword research, know where to put these keywords in your article and also know what else to do when you create a new post that will help it to rank.

Once you have mastered on-page SEO you can start looking at off-page SEO which is all the things you do outside of your website that will help your website to rank such as social media marketing.

Ranking is not such a simple process and each thing that Kyle teaches you here in the step by step training will ultimately lead to increasing your rank and your traffic.

Each new thing you learn and implement on your website will make it stronger and over time you will find your website ranking and your traffic increasing.

Here are some training tutorials I have published with regards to ranking that you may find helpful: Also check out Jay's training - oh my word he is brilliant and he has done so much training on how to rank your website - username Magistudios.

Great post Lynne, thanks for sharing your experience! Mahesh

This is an awesome post! I'll definitely be able to use it to better my business. Thank you.

Thank you for this.

Lynn,

I'm happy you finally got in figured out. There really is so much to know other than setting up a website. If you don't have visitors to you site, you could have the fanciest site around, but no visitors. I know by following the training here at Wealthy Affiliate step by step has helped me. Also, the incredible community that always comes to my rescue when I have a question.

Lisa

Lynne, this is what I love so much about the community here at Wealthy Affiliate. When people like you (who have been there) write about your online experiences, it helps newbies to get on track even better and faster than they would have otherwise.

I can't tell you how reassuring it is to have access to this kind of information. Thanks for sharing.

Continued success,

Joshua

Thank you, from a pretty new guy!

Very true Lynne. If only I knew then what I know now. I wouldn't have wasted thousands of dollars on programs. The first program I joined cost me several thousands in NZ dollars. It was six month's mentoring course from a Canadian company. I spent 3 months doing keyword research, would you believe? I had amazing excel spreadsheets, the best ever. I was not introduced to WordPress and I was trying to build a website with 'Kompozer'. It was abominable. That was in 2007. Since then I've spent hundreds. I shudder when I think of it!

You got it in a nutshell. Building your list is the lifeblood of any internet business

Nice one

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