Wealthy Affiliate Is Opening A Door For You
The focus of Wealthy Affiliate training is "affiliate blogging" as I see it. It means starting a blog-style website, and promoting affiliate products within the content. That's as narrow of a definition as I can think of.
However, the skills you learn here have much broader uses, and they will open up many doors for you. There are many types of online businesses out there, including:
- ecommerce
- Amazon FBA
- local SEO
- consulting
- drop shipping
Probably more too, but those are just what I could think of off the top of my head.
Themain important skill you learn here, as I see it, is the ability to build a website. That's a huge hurdle for most people who want to start an online business. Most people wouldn't even be able to tell you the difference between a Shopify store and a WordPress blog.
Even if you are not an "expert" website builder right now, the foundations you have can still go a very long way. For example, you currently have access to excellent hosting and know how to log into your website to publish content.
That's big.
As you move through the training, you're going to learn more useful skills like:
- writing articles
- social media management
- wordpress troubleshooting
- web design
- email marketing
- marketing funnels
As you grow your business, you'll also be (at least in my experience) forced to learn how business works.
- types of business entities
- tax structures
- how to budget
- investing in the future of your business
- competition
- business strategy design & implementation
- joint ventures
- customer service
- engagement
Wealthy Affilaite doesn't teach those things per se, but this is the "open door" I'm talking about.
Wealthy Affiliate Is Like A Incubator For People Starting A Business With No Previous Experience
There are many Wealthy Affiliate members who no longer actually run their affiliate blogs. I've seen some people launch consulting business, or YouTube channels, or even selling their own products online.
Though they are not "affiliate bloggers", they are still online business owners. They still need to be able to run a website and manage their business "in the cloud". Maybe some skills they learned at Wealthy Affiliate, and maybe some skills they learned elsewhere as their interests shifted.
They started at Wealthy Affiliate though!
In my opinion, Wealthy Affiliate is a fun, enthusiastic, helpful community of online entrepreneurs which makes it a great startup incubator for folks like myself who want to start a business, but have no formal training.
I started out in 2010 with no marketing degree. No web design skills. No business training. I didn't even have a Facebook account or a smartphone. Now I run a six figure online business worth probably close to a million dollars. Pretty amazing results, right?
That's just part of the picture though.
Now, I feel empowered to move into other areas if I really wanted to. For example, I think cryptocurrenc art is a unique idea I feel like i coulde execute on if I wanted to. I saw this website the other day and think it could be really big in the future. Imagine buying art with a QR code on the back to store your wealth?
Cool, right?
Though I have no plans to go into this space right now (I'm also not affiliated with them or advertising either BTW), I just thought it was interesting to see the idea and consider that I could actually do it if I wanted to.
That confidence came from opening the door to online business thanks to Wealthy Affiliate!
Becoming A Licenced Broker Of High Ticket Products
After publishing this article in 2021, I had a referral tell me a very cool story about his journey. I won't reveal his niche or his site, but the general idea is very cool.
He got into a niche in which he had extensive experience and promoted a company on his website which had a "good reputation" and was high paying. Unfortunately, he started receiving reports from commenters that the company (which did have an affiliate program), wasn't actually fulfilling orders. Then, he tried to sign up and purchase the product, and confirmed that the company was just ignore orders, emails, etc.
Though investigating all this, and looking for alternatives, he ended up becoming a licensed broker of a specific product in his niche!
Now he uses his website to collect emails and receive phone calls, and he can direct people the correct products and services, while receiving commissions for each recommendation.
His journey is unique. Although he doesn't have an "affiliate blog" per se, like you learn in the training, he did use the WA training to achieve his goals of running an online business. He learned how to build a website, do effective SEO, build lead-generating contact forms (email marketing), and research companies to work with.
Of course, he added a lot of his spices to the soup, so it's not like he was following the training step by step to get where he is now, but the story is a perfect demonstration of how Wealthy Affiliate is opening doors for you. He had to figure out some stuff on his own, the beginning steps and the foundation to the business started here at Wealthy Affiliate.
Landing A Job As An Ecommerce Manager
Another member used his skills here to do a kind of double-jump to land a great job. First, he build an Ebay store on his own, but then he used the skills he learned here in Wealthy Affiliate to increase the traffic to his store. With that solid experiernce under his belt, he was able to land a job in the same field.
"The first 6 years I worked on an eBay shop using skills I learned here to improve traffic and sales. I sold that in 2017 for $7.5K after landing a new job as an e-commerce manager for my current employer. The skills I learned here were crucial in landing that job and continue to improve my skills."
I keep saying that the skills you learn here in Wealthy Affiliate are worth a lot. What's crazy is that in many cases you CANNOT LEARN THEM IN ANY TRADITIONAL EDUCATION SETTING. It's not like you can go to college for blogging and SEO, yet that's exactly what modern companies need.
With Wealthy Affiliate, you're basically frontrunning traditional business education and learning skills that are relevant right now!
Starting His Own Publishing Business And Membership Website With Online Courses
Though I push people to follow the beaten path and build an affiliate blog because I think it's the easiest thing to do, knowing how to build websites opens up a lot of possiblities. Not every website has to be an affiliate blog! You can sell your own ebooks, start a membership website, create a forum, or build websites for local businesses. Here's a great example from Mel:
"I came to WA with an already established publishing business, books & ebooks and I've sold products online before. Ecommerce sites & ebay.
As a result of being with WA I have been able to expand my publishing and I just started a membership site and am adding courses there.
I will continue to learn and level up as I go along. Looking at some possibilities now."
Renting Out Timeshares In Mexico
"I started with affiliate marketing, too. But I started making money when I built a website advertising travel opportunities and renting out my timeshare weeks (of which I have too many to use). It took a while to learn all the ins-and-outs and I couldn't have started off without going through all the rest of it. But now, if I saw another opportunity, I'm pretty sure I could put together another website quickly and avoid all the dumb newbie mistakes I made! All through WA.
I started out like everyone else, building a site, figuring out how to monetize it, adding quality content. I started out with BakingNaturally[dot]org, which got me comfortable with SEO and all the ins-and-outs of online business. I got accepted by Amazon, Rakuten, then by several vendors through Pepperjam. I expanded to Pinterest (really active for recipes, BTW) and Instagram. I still work on it regularly, but it hasn't yet been a real money-maker.
Because of my training and experience through BakingNaturally, I started thinking about other areas of my life where I could build a site that would be interesting AND make money. My partner and I travel quite a bit, spending months each year in Mexico. We also own quite a few weeks of timeshare, and we never use them all. So together, we formed an LLC, "Cowboy Concierge", where we offer travel tips and post listings for weeks we've booked in Mexico.
Since then, things have taken a huge upswing.... [full post: $5000 Sale Thanks To Wealthy Affiliate]"
If you weren't doing affiliate blogging and building niche websites, what type of online business would you start?
Recent Comments
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This is a great reminder that we need to think of the training as setting up as business not just a blog. The skills transfer massively to so many areas.
I have been surprised how many people can "leave money on the table" because they are only here to "write a blog" which is fine but our skills reach so much further than that.
And anyway actually a blog is more than a blog ...thanks for sharing, great to push these thoughts and expand our minds, Brilliant, Phil
Absolutely Philip. I definitely leave money on the table as of now, as I'm focused on "building a blog", but I definitely have plans for the future to do more consulting/advising, or even launching my own product.
Though I guess I do more than "just a blog" now... I guess you could same I'm more about building a "brand" now, which is an interesting shift.
You are correct though. A blog is more than a blog these days. It's a business!
Nathaniell I like where your head is. I have started a few business in my life time and the couple I started after the cyber era where I tried to take my hands on business to the internet, didn't work due to lack of website training. Oh i got basic websites built but didn't know what to do with them. You are absolutly right about WA opening doors, I am so much further ahead in 6 weeks than I ever was. I just found out yesterday that I was indexed on google. I am about to launch my first affiliate connection today. And bt the way Nathaniell my last business, that lasted over 20 years was a door business. Paul
That's so cool to hear that you feel like you are making great progress with Wealthy Affiliate training
Exactly right Nathaniell, through my training here and online learning I secured an e-commerce job with my current employer.
I was able to use my skills learned to show them how to improve socially and build an B2B e-commerce website.
A couple of years later and we are seeing fruit coming from the work and our sales are increasing year on year.
I don't think I would have been in this position if I didn't find WA to begin with.
:)
Nice! I didn't know that about you Mark! Actually, I know one or two other people in WA who were able to improve their position at work by leveraging the website building skills they learned here at Wealthy Affiliate.
A really good blog post, Nathaniell.
I agree with you.
We have the opportunity to do so much with our online business from our learning and training here at WA.
Thankfully, I have been able to diversify my income while growing as a blogger and affiliate marketer.
Thank you for getting me to WA and for all of your support.
Cassi
I've been following your blogs and it sounds like you are doing great with diversifying your income to different sources. very cool!
Nathaniell, one day I will meet you in person and, I will give you the BIGGEST hug ever!
It is because of your website - and you - that I "happened" into WA and that Sunday in October 2019 has changed my life!!
I can never repay you, Kyle, Carson, Jay and our WA Community for all the support and resources that we have here to succeed.
In my humble opinion, if anyone comes into WA and does not learn enough to achieve success somewhere in their life then, something is terribly wrong.
WA is my home now and I am looking forward to building my WA Brand, Cassi Of Troy, into a powerhouse, just like 'onemorecupofcoffee'.
Thank you SO very much.
Cassi
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Great Post Nathaniell!
In the research I do for my bootcamp/MMO blog I constantly come across great ideas amongst all the scams.
I'm considering drop shipping alongside my blogging work.
And in my other niche, kitesurfing I'm now looking at going into partnership with a local business to leverage what I've achieved so far in terms of traffic and my "expertise"🤣🤣 in SEO and website building.
And I'm only 18 months in from being a total newbie!