Affiliate Application Denied? Challenge Accepted!

For the last month, my focus has been getting my new website in shape. Since this isn't my first site, I was able to power through some of the early steps, and really focus on content creation. Now that I have a variety of articles available, and am starting to get traffic, I figure it's time to expand my affiliate programs beyond Amazon. (While they're a great affiliate program, they don't offer a great selection of certain products.)So last week, after much research, I decided on one particul

A Second - Smarter! - Start

A few months ago I shut down my website and left Wealthy Affiliate. Although I enjoyed affiliate marketing, running that particular website was quite literally killing me. That said, I knew the break from affiliate marketing wouldn't be permanent. I love everything about this career -- I just needed time to rethink my goals and approach.You see, I initially chose a project-based niche for my website. In Basic Training we are advised to consider what we know and enjoy in choosing a niche, and I

How Do I Revive My Dying Website?

It's been about six months now since I launched my website. Although I wish I could share tales of great success, the opposite is true. At four months in, I was finally starting to get some reliable traffic and earn some money. However, in the last two months, that has all disappeared. My traffic is literally a tenth of what it was two months ago, and my bounce rate is nearing 100%.Two things happened during the last two months that I believe contributed to this problem. First, my daughter's he

3 Successful Months with Wealthy Affiliate

Recently I reached my 3-month milestone as a Premium member of the Wealthy Affiliate community. I didn't even realize that it had passed until I finally read the 'congratulations' reminder from my Wealthy Affiliate mentor. I've been far too busy building my business to keep track of time!Given the occasion, I'm taking a close look at what I've accomplished in the last three months. Although the journey towards success through affiliate marketing will always vary between affiliates, I thought he

How I Finally Earned My Keep

This week I've been in high stress mode because my Wealthy Affiliate fees are due any day now. The benefits of my membership here are incalculable, and I don't want to ever give up this program. However, paying this bill each month usually leads to a row at home since I haven't earned commissions during the month to pay them. This morning, however, I finally turned a corner. I woke up to notices of two massive sales! And guess what?!? I've earned enough to pay for this month and next! Praise Go

Some Ups and Downs This week

The UpsAfter nearly three months of regular content creation and trying to engage my readers, it's finally starting to happen. I've been feeling a little down about the lack of this, and have felt like I've been sending every post into outer space. Know what I mean?This week I decided to change things up. Following the advice of a fellow blogger and Wealthy Affiliate member, I adjusted my approach to Social Media. Although I'd been active there already, apparently I wasn't going about it the ri

Website Traffic Growth - Slow as Molasses

For the last three months, I've done little but work on my website. Between learning how to use Wordpress and SEO, fixing plugin conflicts, and researching, writing, and revising content, there has been more than enough to keep me busy 12 hours a day every day. However, I seem to have finally reached a point where everything is in place and working, and now I'm just waiting for readers to show up.I've tried all kinds of strategies to bring in traffic, but nobody seems interested. My website has

10 Mistakes I've Made in Building a Website and Why They Weren't Mistakes

Everybody Makes MistakesAnytime you try something new, you're bound to make a few mistakes. Launching a website and learning how to market it effectively is no exception. The whole process sounds very simple and straightforward until you try to put it into practice. Then anything and everything that can go wrong does.When this happens, it's very easy to think, "The process doesn't work," or even worse,"I'm just not cut out for this." I'm here to tell you that I've been there, and I understand h

I Made My First Sale Today!

I made my very first sale today! Although it was a little sale -- my % is just $4.50 -- it feels like a million bucks!The last month has been such a grueling learning process for me. Despite my enthusiasm and go-get-it attitude, I burned out last week. I had to take a couple days off. However, I got right back to it on Monday as I promised my supporters I would. This sale is directly due to that, so thank you to those who urged me to rest but then get back to work!There are years of hard work a

Worn Out

Another long week of fixing problems on my site. It seems to be never ending right now. I'm also finding the lack of traffic to my site frustrating. I think maybe I just need a couple days off, after spending at least twelve hours a day on this the last few weeks. I'm just not sure how to do that -- lol! I feel like if I take time off everything will really fall apart. Must be part of the psychology of having a brand new business and not earning money yet.On the brighter side of things, Google