Partha's "Journey" and Tips (In Response to Simone)
This initially started out as a response to Simone’s blog post:
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/newme202/blog/what-would-you-tell-others-about-your-journey
However, as many of you know, I am a man of few words (stop giggling at the back).
And once my response had got to X amount of words, I felt it was probably better to actually make my own blog post out of it.
Remember, everything I write is my opinion, and my opinion alone.
I never mean to cause offence or upset anyone.
In fact, I would be horrified and deeply hurt to think that I had upset or offended anyone.
With that being said, I am one hell of an opinionated sod and I am quite well-known for just saying what I think.
But, my intentions are always good.
Simone asked:
1. If you could teach a new member one thing about starting on this pathway, what would it be?
2. What is the one problem that you've solved for yourself?
3. What is the one word you would use to summarise your first 3 months at Wealthy Affiliate?
Here’s my responses.
Either enjoy, recoil in horror, or get deeply upset and offended.
Your Choice.
MY REPLY TO SIMONE
You asked for it Simone....
I may title this reply, "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" LOL.
1. If you could teach a new member one thing about starting on this pathway, what would it be?
Shiny Object Syndrome is real, and unfortunately the biggest "Shiny Object" for the vast majority of members is the Wealthy Affiliate platform itself.
I appreciate that many people are here for different things.
Some are here to socialise.
Some are here for hosting.
Some are here for the boost in confidence and happiness they get by interacting on the platform.
And there are even those of you who LOVE to help and get a real kick from learning how the platform ticks and then providing as much help to fellow members as possible (you bunch of little weirdos, but it's you guys and gals that I typically have a lot of affection for, aww, group hug).
HOWEVER
If you're brand new to WA or you haven't been here for at least a year or two - cast your mind back to the very first day you joined.
What was the reason you joined?
For 95% of people it was to make money online - you didn't know the who, what, when, why, or how, but your reason for joining was TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE.
NEVER LOSE SIGHT OF THAT.
Or have YOU ALREADY LOST SIGHT OF THAT?
- Being popular at Wealthy Affiliate will not make you money (well actually it might, but that depends on what type of joint venture you get involved in).
- Chasing rank, being an Ambassador (yes Ambassadorship, I've been there, seen it, done it, got the t-shirt, etc. so I can talk about it) will not make you money.
- Blogging more on the Wealthy Affiliate platform than your own website will not make you money (unless of course your WA blogs are all business-related).
- Getting likes and comments on WA will not make you money.
- Celebrating "little wins" will not make you money (sorry, don't hate on me for this, but there's a HUGE difference between indexing and ranking when compared to actually getting PROPER traffic and sales).
As I say, I appreciate that people are here for different things and I totally respect that.
However, once again, I urge you to cast your mind back to your very first day at Wealthy Affiliate.
Have you stuck with your plan?
OR
Have you lost sight of what you actually came here for?
2. What is the one problem that you've solved for yourself?
How to efficiently use my time.
Here's my advice.
Not just for creating a successful website, but any business, online or offline.
Find the ONE SINGLE TASK that will make the BIGGEST impact on your business.
And then spend 90% of your time actually DOING THAT TASK.
Don’t worry about anything else.
Spend 90% of time concentrating on that ONE TASK and success will come.
Mine was clearly writing articles.
So, I spend 90% of my time writing.
My social media game is sh*t.
My email marketing is absolute pants.
I couldn't design a website to save my life.
I have just about enough technical ability to update a plugin (and yet I've managed to cock that up a fair few times).
HOWEVER
I know how to research, I know the articles that will rank (and get a bundle of traffic)
AND EVEN THOUGH I'M A MAN OF FEW WORDS (Hahaha)
I SURE AS HELL CAN EXPRESS MYSELF WHEN I NEED TO.
So, I write.
And I spend 90% of my time writing.
I now know that I can pick a niche.
I can research it for a week or two, fairly often I buy a “For Dummies” book on the niche from Amazon (and then find a truckload of topics to write around).
I know I can write 300-400 articles a year myself (I will not include outsourcing) in pretty much any niche (although having a passing interest helps).
And I know that I can get a website to 30,000 - 50,000 visitors a month within 12-16 months (oh and btw the traffic compounds month-after-month-after-month from then onwards, as long as you give your website "some love").
Traffic is the lifeline of this business.
Without traffic you're dead in the water.
SO, find the ONE THING that will really kickstart your online business (and basically get you traffic).
For some of you this may be videos, it could be social media, it could be email marketing, it could be writing articles.
Find the thing that will push your business forward AND THEN SPEND 90% OF YOUR TIME DOING IT.
You can worry about all the other stuff later.
Plus, if you're getting 50K PLUS visitors a month, even if ALL your articles have no selling intent, you can stick premium ads on your site from either Ezoic or Mediavine (say NO to Google Adsense, it sucks) and probably earn $1,500 - $2,500 per month in JUST ad revenue.
Find YOUR THING and spend 90% of your time doing it.
3. What is the one word you would use to summarise your first 3 months at Wealthy Affiliate?
CHRYSTOPHER
(Hahahaha, we joined within 11 days of each other).
Thank You For Reading
Partha
Recent Comments
89
Hey Partha, awesome post.
Truthful and to the point. I have to say I agree 100% with you on this. I have to be honest here... my first day was to make money.
Yes, the platform did sway me away from that and we can get bogged down on the other things here.
Thanks for the reminder to get back on track and concentrate on my business.
I wish you well...
Bob
Hey Bob,
Thanks a lot, it's much appreciated.
That's just life Bob, in pretty much everything we do.
It's human nature to seek out the fun, the easy, and as many distractions as possible.
They always seem so much more interesting than knuckling down and working hard.
I've been guilty of it many, many times myself.
Partha
I am not giggling - I am laughing out loud. (Only at the "I am a man of few words" statement).
I really like this post; it provides knowledge and perspective.
I would like to say you have changed me, made me a better person, but as we all know, only I can do that. You have held up a mirror and forced me to look into it and stripped away the rose coloured glasses.
Thank you for that.
I agree with everything you have written, not surprising as you are a man of few words.
There is some great information in the comments section of this post.
Alex
I have no idea what you're talking about Alex.
Being the shy and retiring type, I never have much to say.
Hahahaha.
Thank you Alex, I always appreciate your kind words and your ongoing support.
You are absolutely spot on - it is only us as individual's who hold the key to our own success.
It's actually easy to get led astray, but once again that is a decision that WE CHOOSE to make.
Success or failure is down us (indivudually) and us alone.
Partha
When I saw the title "Partha's Journey......." I immediately thought that it would be a great time to crack open a bottle of red and settle into the novel that follows!!
But to my surprise it was a quick read my friend!
In all seriousness, I find it hard to disagree with anything you have said here.
Find something you love doing and can excel at, then spend 90% of your time doing this persistently and consistently always works in my book!
Have a fabulous day my friend!
Hahaha Nick,
I thought I'd give you all a rest and an easy(ish) read for once.
You've kinda nailed it in your reply too. Spot on.
Partha
I took this advice 6 months ago when I built my new website. I spend 90% of my time writing. 3% trying to write an email campaign where so far I have a sequence of 3 completed so far and 3 subscribers. The other 7% of the time I'm sharing posts on Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook. I look at my emails every day to see if there's anything I want to read about in here. Spend 5-10 minutes if that a day here and that's it.
I had a goal from the end of month 1 to write a post every day and so far I have managed that and now have 134 published posts on my site. 22 completed and sitting in drafts and in that time (6 months) I have written 249,586 words.
Oh Lisa, Lisa, Lisa,
I'll try to keep it short, because in all honesty I could create an entire blog post out of my reply to you, Hahahaha.
Firstly, of course a MASSIVE well done.
I can guarantee that you actually "feel" different inside and that the last 6 months (even though you've been here less) have been more enjoyable than your first 9 months here.
By that I mean, you probably have a huge sense of accomplishment now.
And that sense of accomplishment has a wonderful way of making you want to work even harder.
In fact, if you look back at your first day at WA I bet Lisa of June 2021 can offer a huge amount of advice and wisdom to Lisa of February 2020.
The other thing is you are getting extremely close to that point when a website really takes off.
Although, this will only ever happen if your KEYWORD RESEARCH IS GOOD and your targeting the things you're AUDIENCE WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT.
However, when you write and publish extremely frequently something amazing happens at around the 9-10 month mark.
I call it it the "banana effect" whereas others refer to it as "the hockey stick".
Basically, if your keyword research is on point and you're publishing a lot (I'm talking over 20 articles a month, preferably over 25-30 or even more, basically the more you do the faster things tend to happen) something amazing happens at that 9-10 month mark in terms of ORGANIC TRAFFIC.
It suddenly goes big, and if you continue with the publishing schedule, you should be getting a 50-100% increase in traffic every single month.
So, when you check you first year's traffic in the graph on Google Analytics, everything is low and even for the first 9 months or so and then you get this massive curve on the graph towards the end of the year.
The curve looks like a banana at the end or a hockey stick as a whole.
Basically, not much traffic, not much traffic, not much traffic, BOOM!!!
As an average (with that type of publishing schedule and GOOD keyword research) you can expect at a guess to hit 3,000-5,000 visitors a month from ORGANIC traffic at that point, and as I say, if you continue publishing WITH THE SAME SCHEDULE it almost doubles every month.
So, in effect, for you at around September (only 3 months away) perhaps October and then you could literally be doubling your traffic every month of you continue writing and publishing. Imagine where you'll be by the end of the year, or by March 2022, or this time next year.
It's actually harder to take a site from 0-10,000 visitors a month than it is from 10,000-50,000. Simply because many people never get enough traction in the search engines (they don't work for it hard enough or their keyword research sucks).
You've kinda nailed it Lisa with the attitude and work ethic.
Bloody well done YOU.
Partha
When I get to that juncture, I want a post . . . PPLLLEEEASE!!!!!
Oh . . . and an upgraded title, Prince Partha.
So very proud of Lisa.
Cassi
Of course...
Once you hit that point you will be bethequed the title of:
"The Queen of the Caribbean Sea, The Glass Window Bridge of Eleuther Island, and the Atlantic Ocean"
Hahaha
Thanks very much for the encouragement, my friend. As you know I'm as technically challenged as you so I stuck to what I was good at. :-)
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Another Awesome Post PoA!
You've shown me what I need to do.
Many Thanks :)
Zach