The Eye Opening Truth About What It Takes For You To Be Successful And Supportive In WA

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I don't get paid to write on WA, and thus, I don't plan to write many articles on WA until I have achieved my own goals and feel ready to contribute more to this amazing community.

However, I know from experience that when I first joined WA and went through their training, there was a lot that I didn't understand and I would have greatly appreciated being mentioned when I first joined WA. I had so many questions.

That's why today I will be presenting clear details that I hope will help members of WA go into this business model with eyes wide open.

I will be discussing some common misconceptions and much-needed guidelines for people wanting to be a supportive member of WA. I will also be giving insight on WA's method to this madness we call "content creation".

Cause let's be honest, no one likes getting poorly written feedback or a lazy comment, and everyone who has ever started in WA wants to know why the heck they are writing articles. ;)

Disclaimer: This post is less applicable for those of you who are making a part-time/full time incomes with WA, but I will be providing points that I believe can help everyone improve.

With that, let's get right into this...

The 3 Top Mistakes

I am sorry to say that I believe too many people give up before they see results because of three reasons:

1. They don't work on their site/business long enough to see results. (E.g. They give up after a few months)

2. They don't spend enough time per week to see results even if they are showing up; they treat this like a hobby.

And 3. They don't make their website correctly.

1. They Give Up Too Soon

Lets be real here for a second. In almost every success story and in almost every testimonial I have read from WA, the average time it takes to start seeing Any serious results is 1 year. There are certainly exceptions to this, but the majority of people start seeing a few sales and regular traffic after a year.

Please note that this is an average, and is assuming you are only working about 1 hour a day, 7 days a week.

You can certainly see sales and traffic within a year, but don't set your expectations too high unless you are going to devote more time to this.

It is pretty standard to see a regular passive income that fully exceeds your WA expenses after 2 years, and after 3 years, you should have replaced your job. If this is not clear for newer members and experienced members, let this be a wake up call for you, this is Not a get-rich-quick scheme!

Also, if you have been working for over 5 years on this and you are not free of your job, you either have a lot of expenses/ debt that you need to cover, or you aren't treating this like a part-time job with the potential for unlimited returns.

Again, time estimates vary, but the average is 3 years to replace your job.

As my dad will tell me, "If you treat this like a hobby, it will pay you like a hobby."

2. They Have A Hobby

The second point is that people don't spend enough time per week or per month working on this. I like to use a common example to make my point, "If you didn't show up to your job, how long would it be before they fired you?"

Most people would say about 2 days before they fired you. (Assuming you didn't give them notice and get time off)

What's my point? Integrity is an integral part of the workplace, and it is essential in a business where you are managing yourself. I have the benefit of being accountable to someone, maybe that is what you need too? (I am in a life coaching program that I highly recommend, PM me if interested)

3. They Don't Know What A Website Should Look Like - How I Provide SiteFeadback

Another

problem is that people don't know what a successful website should look like. Let me explain.

What is the first issue that most people struggle with? Bad website wordpress template choice.

Look at any of the major search engine websites like Bing, Google, or yahoo. White background, clean menus and easy on the eyes navigation/content.

Click on the top ranked sites in a searcheable keyword on any search engine, they will almost always share the following characteristics:

1. Picture quantity (3 minimum)

2. Word count (1000 minimum)

3. Clean Site Layout

4. Professional or Clean Looking logo.

5. Professional Menus for navigation

6. If widgets are present, they compliment the website and don't appear spammy or irritate.

7. White background (Light gray max)

8. There are no conflicting colors. (Like blue and red for example)

9. Spelling errors are at a minimum.(No more than 3 usually)

10. Links Working on every page, and are often good-looking.

FYI: This is also my checklist when I provide SiteFeedback.

I then use a point system to give my final grade for websites:

10 point system

1/5 "Needs Work" (1-2)
2/5 "Ok" (3-4)
3/5 "Decent" (5-6)
4/5 "Good" (7-8)
5/5 "Great" (9-10)

So I will tally how many items they got out of the above 10, and that will be their grade. Notice there isn't a "Perfect" rating, that's because there is no such thing as a website that will never need work or improvement.

You will also notice that I never rate a website, "Poor" or "Bad". If you showed up and started working on a website, you have taken action that the majority of the world's populace was not willing to do. There are no bad websites, only opportunities to improve.

With this in mind, anyone and everyone can be sure that if they receive SiteFeadback from you, it is thorough and has worth you can take to the bank, if you know what I mean.

Why The Heck Am I Making So Many Articles/Posts?

I don't know about you, but I have studied internet marketing for years and I really didn't understand why I was making so many articles. This was a form of advertising that I wouldn't clearly understand until later in the Affiliate Bootcamp.

For those of you who haven't gone thorough or finished the Affiliate Bootcamp, please note that there is invaluable information and training on PPC and SEO that is applicable to any niche, or WA's own affiliate platform.

Let me give you some insight that I believe will give you some hope and understanding that is very lacking from WA's introduction to this whole business model.

Please note that there are many other ways you will generate traffic and then revenue, but let me list a few things to look forward to so that you go into this business with a clear understanding of how you will build your online business.

WA works off of the following business model:

  1. Build a website

    1. This is virtual real estate, it is you base of marketing and will be where you send traffic. Please note that simply having a website will not bring you traffic (visitors)

    2. Optimization of menus, widgets, colors, and general theme (logo, branding), is all something covered to make you more professional, it is NOT what will bring you traffic.

    3. Having your own purchased/registered domain makes you look more professional and is better for branding, but is not a make or break to your success. You can still be successful with a sub domain.

  2. Create content

    1. This will be your primary source of income. By having reviews and general topics, you will drive people's attention to the products or affiliate sources that you have.

      NOTE: Simply making content and publishing it is not the main way you will get ranked. Traffic comes with SEO, PPC and value content which takes time.

      Using the above SiteFeadback system by which I review websites is a great way to evaluate how your website/ content is doing.

  3. Advertise

    1. Using PPC and other methods for advertising will lead to greater traffic and will list your site on the first page of search engines. (This is a later topic and is something you should not be getting into until you have at least 50 posts made, at least from my understanding)

    2. Using Site Comments or the link Here (The Give and Take Comments Threads) are some of the primary ways to boost your SEO on your articles and get your articles indexed faster. Eventually, you can be indexed without even having comments due to your content and publishing frequency.

    3. Social Media. Google Plus, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. All of these are extemely important to publishing your work and getting more traffic.

  4. Outsource

    1. Building a successful website and then moving onto another requires someone else to make content and possibly manage your site optimization. (Menus, websites, categories, etc)

    2. This is expected after your first website is successful and is making regular passive income that covers expenses and puts money in your pocket. Every great business has a team.

Disclaimer: I am still working on my own website and haven't achieve financial freedom or regular passive income yet, I am presenting my understanding and what I have been taught in WA after extensive training.

My Schedule For WA, What I Do With My Website

I think I should make something clear, my schedule is not your schedule. How I work fits my desired growth and progress and may not fit yours. I want to be financially free within 2-3 years and my schedule may be too much for you.


As of right now, I work 2 hours a day Monday-Friday, and that's after working full time at my job (8 hours).

On Saturday/Sunday, I work a full 8-hour shift which I call my "Power Day". At the time of me writing this, I am on my power day and expect to work for another 5 hours or so. It is truly amazing what you can do when you dedicate the time.

That means I am working about 18 hours a week, and about 72 hours a month on this business. Want to know how I blow through training so fast? That's how.

At this rate, after a year I will have worked 864 hours on my business/site.

I made my first sale a couple months back, and have been regularly accumulating Adsense money that I will be paid when it reaches a threshold.

The "7-10, 3-5" Principle

My dad shared a principle with me that he learned from his life coach. (PM me if you would like to know the Life Coaching program that has changed my life and my dad's.)

The principle was, "7-10 hours a week, 3-5 years before financial freedom".

Basically, the average for people who work 7-10 hours a week, will be financially free in 3-5 years. This is a very reasonable estimate and is actually proven with WA as most people who work at least an hour a day per week get financially free in about 3 years.

I work 18 hours a week on this business. I'll let you do the math, but I have absolutely zero doubt that I will be financially free in 3 years or less with this many hours being worked weekly/monthly.

Again, this may not work for you though, and there is nothing wrong with working an hour a day on your business. Food for thought. :)

Final Thoughts

What is the final takeaway from this? Well, it's certainly not to give up or to stop taking action. It has often been quoted that 80%-90% of success is just showing up.

If you are consistently taking action and going through the training in WA, you are going to see results. Period.

I think the most important thing is that you go through the training as fast as possible.

Also, if you have to choose between finishing training and making a post, finish the training for that day! Thankfully, most of the training has you make new posts anyway, so you won't have to choose between the two activities very often. :)

However, there is always room for improvement, and much of what I have just shared with you I have learned and discovered after over 7 months of work in WA now. Think of this post as an accelerator that, if used properly, can shave off weeks of mistakes and doubt.

Feel free to share this post to anyone who has doubts and wants more information on how Wealthy Affiliate works and wants some tips on helping others in the community properly.

I apologize for how long this post has become, with over 2000 words, this went on a lot longer than I expected! XD

If you have any questions, please comment below or PM me and I will get back to you asap!

Cheers to your success and future financial freedom through WA!

Best regards,

Jacob Highley (MoneyMech)

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Recent Comments

284

Jacob,
Thanks for a great read. The information is important and an eye-opener. You lay it out here, we make or break ourselves. Just have to work and manage our time and energy efficiently. I like the point about the choice between finishing a training or content. Priorities have to be set.
Great blog, great advice!
Sanders

Absolutely right! Fortunately, this all becomes a lot easier as training is completed. Looking forward to hearing your success! :)

This was absolutely inspiring to me. I have been with WA since January and I don't post as often as I should. I remember asking myself is there the slightest chance that this may not work? But you have lifted up my spirit to continue working and push harder. so thank you

Glad to hear it! I have no doubt that the first year is the hardest for all of us. Keep pushing! :)

Thank you so much for this article! I have been working on my site for over six months now, and I am incredibly addicted! I am a stay at home Mom that works on the weekends. I would say that I work on my site for at least 50 hours a week. Recently, I have seen a few of my posts on page one! Thank you for the added motivation!

50 hours a week? That is incredible! Do you track your start, finish, breaks, lunches and amount of posts created per week?

Great article
This blog really helps me to put things into perspective.

I have looked at other sites in my niche and they are doing really really really well but they have been around for 10 years which is fine I am willing to do the work.

(It did not take them 10 years to see financial results but like you said it did take around 3 years. Now, some of them are worth 200,000 dollars or more!! I can't believe this!! I am going to need to get a website broker LOL.)

The one issue that plagues me and perhaps you could accompany that topic with another post/blog, is signing up for affiliate programs.

I am about halfway through the training with WA. I just finished the lesson regarding Affiliate programs,"how to find them, and how to signup for them" etc. from what I've heard from others is that you should not even think about looking for an Affiliate program until you have at least 1000 visitors to your site which makes sense.

What's the point of signing up for an Affiliate program when you don't even have traffic? Chances are no one would approve your site and partner up with you anyway unless they were willing to train. (But I am doing that already)

I have not even gotten to the last two tiers, Social engagement, and Content and I am assuming that those lessons will address the traffic issues that I mentioned above.

As you have probably guessed I am progressing through the lessons and received my Badges etc. But I am not as confident as I was in the beginning. "Did I use Jaxxy search tool right? Did I pick the wrong niche? etc. Do I continue on anyway?" This is my first website and I do expect to stumble and fall.
As I learn I am sure there that I will build other websites.

(I know nothing about google analytics something else that everybody keeps mentioning.)

But for the sake of learning, I am going to continue with the training at WA. Everybody says that the training is comprehensive just keep working, watching the videos and asking questions. You will get there

I have to believe the training does work and the concepts will start to make sense.

Anyway long comment but I think you touched on some great points.

Keep up the good work

I appreciate your question about joining affiliate programs too soon and before any appreciable traffic appears. I too am at this place and I am thinking that we must use the social media platforms to drive the traffic to the site.

Also, last week, I too knew nothing about the Google analytics, so I googled analytics and discovered I could login with my Google account. I then found a guide there that helped me get my site hooked up. Then I found out about and got Search Console and Fetch as Google going from there too.

Jeff

I have run into a similar issue with Amazon's affiliate network by having to open a new account after not accumulating enough sales.

You are correct in that the training does work and it does lead to you building a business that has unlimited potential, just don't give up and keep going!

Thanks for the comment!

Thank you for your great article. There are many points in here that I find of value for me. I have been working at this for about 7-8 weeks. I have never figured this to be something that I was making much before a year, but have hopes of something trickling in about 6 months in. Really like that you just lay it out there.

Awesome post. So much so, that I didn't really notice that it was 2000 words long. LOL
I especially like what you said, and I quote "Also, if you have to choose between finishing training and making a post, finish the training for that day! Thankfully, most of the training has you make new posts anyway, so you won't have to choose between the two activities very often. :)"
This is a very true statement and I have discovered this as well.

Glad you like the post! Again, I've just posted what I've observed to be successful. :)

One of the best blog post's I have read on here. I am definitely gonna start putting in more effort for my website and finally get through this training. I've been here for a month and a half and should have all 5 lessons done by now or almost.
Thanks for the awesome post.

Glad to know this was helpful for you!

By the way, how many hours are you working per day or per week in WA?

I've recently been on and off but the past week I have spent about an hour per day. But thats on WA itself and interacting with members. I have not spent much time perfecting my website through the training.

I'm gonna set an alarm on my phone that will tell me to work on here for 2 hours+ a day. I've just been lazy lately. :/

Keeping track of how many posts you are posting per week and month, and how many hours a month is essential to seeing results.

You are already seeing why I rarely post or interact on WA. I don't get paid for it ;D

I see exactly where you are going with this. It is important to interact with people here but building your website is the most important. (Unless you're getting paid. Which I assume are the ambassadors.)

Wow. What an eye opener. I must admit that I have been regularly confused and frustrated at what was in the training and what I was actually experiencing. I'd get answers to my questions on Live Chat, but in the back of my mind was always the nagging question,' Why wasn't this in the training?!'
It's important for all us newbies to get this inside info because we don't want to quit too early. But thank you SO much for a "heads up" on what the actual timeline is for making good money in this system.

Hey, I'm just presenting my perspective, and I am glad that this was helpful! I'm also comforted to know that I am not the only one who has had serious doubts after learning more about WA's business model. ;)

Most of my concern was the amount of time invested, I'm glad the timeline reference was helpful!

Hello Sue, it is hard to include everything you think a newbie or experienced member may need to know. It is through other members creating blogs or training that most things that are not included are posted. Jacob is right on a very great blog.

Great advice. I’m currently running a very similar schedule and it is working for me. I do however get sidetracked after some of the training. I’ll learn something new and then spend a couple of days on that specific topic.

I’m getting to the end of level 4, and that sidetracking is getting better. I can really see how it’ll be easier to build new niche sites with content the further along I get.
Good luck Jacob

Thanks, good luck to you too! Taking action will always bring results!

You have obviously come a long way since you joined WA less than a year ago, according to your profile.
I think this is all relevant and useful information.
And I agree that your schedule is not for everyone but to me, it is the minimum needed to be successful in affiliate marketing.
You were already experienced in much of this industry when you started. I want to make sure the newbies understand that with little or no knowledge of this process, they will need to spend more time and effort to get this done.
As far as the training goes, I think people need to take their time and absorb and really understand the material, or they will be asking questions in this forum that they should have already learned if they followed the training, step-by-step.
I guess my point is, everyone learns at a different pace.

Thanks for an interesting and informative post.

Continued success toyou Jacob.

Thanks, I appreciate that!

There can be no doubt that everyone is at a different level in this business, and that's why I wrote this.

I really want people to know what they are getting into when they enroll in WA.

- Jacob

I think your post had a lot of useful information and I thank you for that. However being a newbie I couldn't help being somewhat discouraged by a lot of what you said, then I saw that you're just short of a newbie here too with a full time job, so you can't give it your all. I happen to be on disability and whether or not that's a good thing or not, it means I have tons of time so I choose not to worry about when I'm going to be making money when I don't know how you could possibly know when anyone will start being successful having only being here a short time.

Like I said though I'm not attacking you, I think a lot of your points about building the websites are very helpful since you do have a lot of experience in that area just saying it can scare newbies away saying they won't be making money for 2-3 years.

Blessed Be

Hey, Chris, I completely understand where you are coming from and I appreciate your feadback!

When I was about 4 months in I started having serious doubts about WA after I learned that it might take a year just to start seeing some money come in. I decided I would give this a full year before I quit working in WA. I have not regretting this decision and I have started making money.

I would like to state for the record that the time estimate of getting financially free with this business averages about 3 years. That's not guessing, that is a fact.

You can make money within a year of WA easy, I was talking about getting free of your job.

Most people only work this about an hour a day and that's where this time estimate comes from.

If you have more time to put in than me, you can accelerate your results by working this with more time invested. I work 18 hours per week, and I work full time. I expect to be free in 3 years or less. And that is being convervative.

Regards,
Jacob H.

Thank you for clarifying that because I definitely wasn't going to quit but you shook me some. I don't expect to be rich in a matter of months, since I only get a lousy check....lol....and that's no joke. But any supplement would be a great help to me, and the thought of waiting 3 years for that was not pleasant. I didn't buy it either just because I have so much more time than most people.But the advice on building the websites is very appreciated.since I have next to no experience in that area. I hope I didn't offend you. I got worried.
Blessed be
Chris

I make a 4 digit income and confirm everything MoneyMech said in this post will get him to his goals in 2-3 years, no problem.

It's this kind of work ethic and drive that makes you successful in making any money online.

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