Wealthy Affiliate is not the first course or system I have purchased or pursued in the past few years. Making money online and from anywhere has been and continues to be an intriguing concept.

At age 74, I am probably more than twice the age of the average demographic of WA. However, I also have an intimate familiarity with and comfort with technology. I have always been an early adaptor. My fascination with what is possible has not abated in any way. If anything, it has grown.

A running partner was an engineer who worked for IBM. She was on the team that designed the first personal computers. She could not talk about her work. It was highly confidential, even secret.

When I attended the introduction or unveiling of this new machine, I had no idea what I was seeing. I certainly had no idea of its power of the influence it would have on all of our lives.

My first PC came equipped with a small blank screen and a blinking cursor. For this machine to be useful, one required expensive software and basic programming skills. It was only capable of word processing, calculations, and some basic data management.

Then there was the internet

Internet? What internet? The internet was not invented until the 1980s. My first “internet connection” was an AOL dial-up. Email was one of the only uses at that time. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan starred in “You’ve Got Mail” in 1998. The movie was the first exposure to email, which has become such a major part of life.

Okay, that was 20 years ago. As a reference point, Facebook was not launched until 2004. The social media phenomenon it started did not gain overnight acceptance.

What does all this ancient history have to do with me making money online, the advance of technology and Wealthy Affiliate? From the early days of that strange sound generated by the internet dial-up connection I have known it could be used for commerce, i.e. “making money online.”

Make it happen

Knowing something and making it happen are two entirely different things. I have been seeking the bridge between the two. I have purchased more than one course or system that promised that anyone who followed the plan would become successful.

Some of these courses assumed a level of technical knowledge I did not have. Others assumed that the instructions to “purchase ads” was self-evident. Right?

One of the jobs I have done for a number of years is helping businesses attract and maintain more customers. In other words, I have sold advertising.

Every business needs to advertise. Without advertising, a business is likely to dry up and die. Why else would household names like Coke, Pepsi, Ford, and Chevrolet continue to spend large sums to get their message out? If you build it they will come, happens only in the movies.

What to sell online? How to package either a physical or digital product? How, when and where to advertise?

These basic questions were not answered in the programs I purchased. I would reach a point where the next step forward required information I did not have. Or, I would reach that point and be offered the “opportunity” to purchase more info from this same purveyor.

The clues are there in the initial purchase. You read all the sales copy. You are convinced that this is what you have been looking for. Here are all the secrets, behind the scenes info, full information, and assistance to finally launch a profitable business.

You push the button to purchase and there is an immediate upsell. You can’t really set up your online business with the original course, you need XYZ. If you don’t add XYZ you are offered ABC. If you do start adding to the purchase, you have quickly doubled or tripled your initial cost.

You are offered bonuses with ridiculous “value” attached. Not only has not one person paid the “value” for the bonus, but your hard drive will be clogged up with this mostly useless info.

Hope springs eternal. There must be some legitimate training that is a complete program. With some hand-holding and some advice not designed to sell me something else I don’t want or need, I know I can make this work.

Here’s the whole package

And then I saw Wealthy Affiliate. There is solid information with access to training before you spend a dime. All the resources needed to start a website from a domain name to site hosting are there.

The initial investment in becoming Premium is minimal with no obligation beyond the first month. After a few months, there was a black Friday sale for a year. I jumped on it! The cost of hosting up to 25 sites would be more for a month than the annual amount for Premium.

Whatever reservations I might have still harbored were overcome by the community. Many courses or systems promising online riches with little or no work tout their “private facebook group” where you can get help from others doing the program. You know the ones. There are photos of the Lamborghinis and testimonials with photos of mansions. Even presuming this hype is all true, how much assistance do you think you are going to get?

Wealthy Affiliate community is actually a community. There are very successful marketers who have chosen to stay and participate for years. Questions are all answered. The answers are all helpful and respectful. No matter how simple the question may be, the community answers completely and without any hint of disdain for the greenest newbie. This is a safe place.

I haven’t even mentioned the resources such as live weekly free training, on-demand courses and access to previous pieces of training. And the 24/7 support is amazing.

Several times I have needed technical site support. The response was almost immediate and the problem was corrected. They did not even mention that the problem was caused by operator error.

I see a path forward to make my dreams of working from anywhere (I LOVE to travel) and supporting myself in the style to which I wish to become accustomed. Do you see what I see?