My Two Month Mark with Wealthy Affiliate

byLynV

221 followers

7 years ago

Aloha! In going through the Certification process with Wealthy Affiliate, I have made it to C2L10 (Course 2, Lesson 10), which is about Boosting Your WA Ranks! Quite honestly, boosting my rank hasn't been a focus for me, but Kyle mentioned "incentives" in his video. While I don't know that I would be knowledgeable enough to be in the top 12, I can recognize that those who are have become very familiar names to all of us in the WA community.

When I started with Wealthy Affiliate, I was drawn to it from a blog post I read about working from home, which is my goal. That blog post convinced me that this is a plan that could work. (I'm still convinced!) I clicked the link to take a look at Wealthy Affiliate, and appreciated the way WA is structured, so it was a painless view. I did a little due diligence, because we have all run into those scams online, but everything I saw showed me that Wealthy Affiliate is the real deal. Then when I saw the training, and the community involvement, I decided that this was the place I'd been looking for, and I thankfully went premium. There are people here who are actively working through the training, and achieving their goals. I plan to be one of those people.

I had a vague idea that blogging could pay, but I had no idea how to go about it. I have friends on Facebook who write articles on their blogs on a regular basis, but I never dredged up the courage to ask them if they made money with their blogs. With the training offered at Wealthy Affiliate, I now had the means to do what I had been wanting to do for quite a long time. I was as happy as a mama duck with her 7 chicks trailing behind her in a sunny, spring-time pond. Finally, I have found the answer I was looking for, and not only that, training and a community to help me do it! This is AWESOME!

My initial goal is to make enough to begin funding premium yearly. I know this plan will work, and that the steps to learn how to make it work are here. In order to do that, I am going through the training steps, and doing the things required to get there. Thankfully, my original sponsor keeps checking in with me and offers tips and encouragement, and his involvement provides a nice shot in the arm for me to continue. Your sponsor likely does the same, particularly if you clicked on a link from a blog post you read.

My next goal, once I have WA funded annually, is to see enough income generated to replace and surpass my previous income from working in the corporate environment. I owe my previous boss two lunches from losing bets with him (that should teach me not to bet!), so I look forward to taking him to lunch with income I was able to generate from my own home business! And, oh, the conversation we can have, then! I think this will be achievable within a year or two.

One of the challenges I face with going through the Wealthy Affiliate program has to do with a change on the inside. I have never desired nor wanted to be at the forefront of anything, preferring to work behind the scenes, and remain anonymous. That's not a mindset for success, here. There is no "ghosting through" the program. In order to be ranked, you will have to generate, and maintain a presence. I spent quite a few formative years flying under the radar, and hiding the best I could from any notice. It's time for me to say goodbye to that mindset, and embrace being known. In the short two months that I've been here, that has to be one of the largest challenges that I've faced, and it requires commitment for me to see it through. The upside to this scenario is being able to choose my niche, so I will be known among others with similar interests. The down side to this is losing the comfort of anonymity. I'll adjust. Even with all I can do, I will still be only a very small ripple in a very large pond. I can live with that.

Smaller challenges have included deciding on a niche (selecting one among many) to go through the process with. I decided on crochet, since it's a hobby/love of mine, and it would seem to be the most forgiving of any mistakes I make, going forward. If any of you crochet, you know that mistakes are easily rectified by "frogging," or ripping out previous work so it can be redone. (It's called "frogging" because you "rip it" by pulling the yarn out. Rip it - Frog.) I have other niches that I also want to pursue, but I think crochet is a good place to start. Deciding which niche took a few days for me, while I deliberated.

Another challenge was my Google+ page. I have one that is personal, but I wanted to keep my business page separate, and tie it in with my website. But I didn't like the idea of sharing my Google+ site when it was basically empty. So for that training, I flipped two of the objectives, and populated my brand new Google+ page with at least one post before I shared it.

One more challenge, is obtaining appropriate photos for my niche. Everyone can take pictures, but now I am looking at available pictures more critically, to see those I find visually appealing, and studying what I can do to improve mine. Because even with all the photo sites available, this particular niche is slim on pertinent photos that are available to use.

It has also dawned on me that my site will require updates as I learn, to incorporate the lessons, and bring it up to par. It is still very much a baby site, and will benefit from future lessons as I continue.

So, that's where I am at two months with Wealthy Affiliate! The journey has well begun, and I am excited to see what's around the corner on this path!