3 Year Anniversary at WA (June 2013)
My 3 Year Anniversary at Wealthy Affiliate
One more year has passed, so keeping with my tradition, here's my annual updates.
Well, I finally quit my job and started internet marketing full time. I have officially moved back to the USA and bought my first home. I'm really doing this thing.
The good news is that despite all the craziness of moving, everything else seems to have normalized, including my online business.
Last year there were plenty of ups and downs, one month with me convinced I was actually rich, and the next month seeing my income cut by 60%. This year has very much stabilized, seeing even revenue and profits across the board for 12 months straight. It's comforting to know that I've found something I can stick with, but still tough feeling like I've hit a wall.
I've also cooled down on 'starting' websites. I bought over 60 domains in my first 2 years, actually starting blogs on 40 of them. This year I started two. Big difference, huh? That's also provided me with lots of time to fix some broken things and focus on the business aspect of building these sites, and less on the 'more content = more money' type of thinking.
Actually, I did not most of the goals I set in June 2012. I got busy with other projects and actually forgot that I set those particular goals. It's funny though, I've set similar goals for this coming year so I guess I'll get a second chance. Mostly, I really want to get started with paid traffic and see if I can get more targeted traffic to my sites.
I've certainly been a lot more active in WA this year, successfully posting one training and one blog post every week since Jan 2013, and I plan to continue this at least until Dec 2013. I think as a result of this activity and some changes to the WA platform I'm now getting a lot more traffic to my WA blog, so I want to re-post from last year, a progression of my time at WA.
There are many beginners at WA, but I too was once a beginner. You can see from my very first post in the forum that my very first 'success' was simply making a website. And while I'm trying to inspire newbies, here's an article I read today about a guy who was busy starting a brick and mortar business (http://money.cnn.com/gallery/smallbusiness/2013/06/12/entrepreneur-sacrifice/index.html) Notice the point about his first year costing $120,000.... what was the price for 1 year at WA again... $359?
My Goals For This Year:
- 1) Figure out Adwords and make some money with it
- 2) Increase monthly income by 30%
- 3) Continue consistently with YouTube, Podcasts, and tutorials
- 4) 1000 visitors per day to my WA promotion site
- 5) Double traffic to 2 old websites
- 6) Remember my goals and check them often!
Enjoy my WA timeline below and I'll see you guys around!
Post by nathaniell on Sun Aug 15, 2010
Small Successes
I know people usually post about about money in here, but I felt pretty good today when my .info finally got indexed in google....I'm hoping to post about moolah soon.
Post by nathaniell on Thu Aug 26, 2010
Re: Small Successes
I never really though it would happen. Well, I hoped and kind of threw myself into this thing not IM knowing what to expect. This is my first sale post. Just came in yesterday. It just makes me think 100k a year is possible. $4.50 is just a start, but.....
Post by nathaniell on Sun Mar 20, 2011
First $100 day
Yes, I'm joining the club. My first hundred dollar day. I remember when i first joined the site, i felt lost because I didn't have a set plan. I kept wondering if what I was doing would be worth the time... Goals? $1000 dollar day by next year
Posted: June 05, 2011
One Year anniversary
Yes, I've been in WA for one year now.... I remember when I first got to WA I though the worst that could happen would be that I would just learn something and count the losses as class fees. Ha...
1 year's expenses - about $600
1 year's income - about $4000
It's not the millions I imagined and I can't quit my job, but it's getting there. I give myself another three years before I can buy and Island and retire. :)
Posted June 13, 2012
Two Year Anniversary (Jun 2012)
I'm big on goal setting and reviewing, so I like to come back once a year and make a post about my progress. This year, since things have become a bit more social, and I'm seeing more newbies around, I wanted to post about my humble beginnings here @ WA. From the posts below, you can see that I went from being excited about just getting my site INDEXED in Google, to this year where I had a couple of $500 dollar days and even had a month that I made 11K. Of course, Google took a big penguin sized dump on my sites, but I'm still doing alright. Though I'm mega pissed about losing so many sales this month, I guess it's better now that later - it just goes to show you that depending on Google Rankings for revenue is not a good business plan.
This year I need to focus on goals that are harder to measure. While in the past, I would always make goals based on how much money I'd like to make, these are what I need to work on for the coming year.
1. Focus more on my 'brand'
2. Improve my email marketing campaigns
3. Find other ways to get traffic outside Google
Recent Comments
38
GO Nathaniel your the sh%&$T and a lot of fun to watch....;O)
Best wishes for the next year "we will be watching"
Nathaniel, you are an inspiration - totally marvelous. Just one point you missed - you have made a difference in thousands of people's lives along with your community here - we know achievement is possible. Thank you. Congratulations on your 3rd year.
The timeline was good information for me. It encourages me that I can get through this as well. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for the informative post. And, I have just had my first click through to WA. I can see now that I have something to look forward to. Your goals inspire me.
Hi Nathaniell, love your post! I always like to read about other people's success stories, because it makes it all seem more achievable, when you see people around you achieving their dreams through IM. I hope to follow your footsteps and be a successful laptopreneur soon. Can't wait to sip my cocktail next to a beach in Bahamas :)
This was a great post. I kind of felt like you in the beginning, and think that it'll go nowhere, but for the cost, it's worth trying. Unfortunately, I kind of got stuck on that thought, and am vegging, unlike you, going forward, even when times were bad. I definitely use you as a motivator, so this is the best one yet, that these things could actually be possible in my lifetime.
Good luck, and keep on keeping on with it all. Hopefully, I can get started again soon, and do the same, minus living in China. Italy sounds pretty good though, not that going there would help me with any of this, not to mention dragging two dogs and 8 cats with me. I've been obsessed with going there since I saw the movie Under the Tuscan Sun, the life I want to live, but for now it'll just have to stay on my bucket list for someday.
Well, more fires here, last year it was the Waldo Canyon fires, now yesterday, Black Forest caught on fire and is still burning. My eyes have been killing me since yesterday, and I went through a half bottle of eye drops, so time to go to bed, and hopefully thngs will look better tomorrow, at least the wind has died down, that should help. Anyway, just my little update on life here in Colorado Springs.
Good luck with everything, and thanks for such a great post, these really do help me, even if I'm not moving much yet, it'll come. My whole goal is to get this one website up and running, with all the things I have running around in my head, we'll see. Geez, I should just write my own posts, my replies always seem just as long, am I at 400 words yet? At least I've learned to break it into paragraphs, before this would have been one huge paragraph, so my time here hasn't been wasted. Anyway, that's it, before my eyes fall out of my head.
All I can say Nathaniell, is that this is the kind of stuff that encourages me. Just the facts... no hype! I can not thank ya' enough... so good to have you around, partner!!!
I'm glad you find it inspiring. Keep with it, and you'll be posting 3 year anniversary posts in no time!
Congratulations on completing your 3rd year and still sticking with the program, putting in the effort and following through on your commitments to yourself.
I hope to follow in your footsteps :) Still trying to figure out this whole thing...
Thanks for the vote of confidence :)
No worries, no failing going on here... just may take a while for me to pull it all together.
See more comments
You said it all right here in your timeline post from March 20, 2011:
" I remember when i first joined the site [WAU], i felt lost because I didn't have a set plan. I kept wondering if what I was doing would be worth the time..."
That is exactly how I feel!
Love your story and your timeline. The timeline helps a lot! Oh, and posting the $$ facts.
Best to you,
Victoria