A Very Humbling $12,803.26 Month - August Progress Report
I was really debating on if I should share my report for the month of August. Mainly because my goal is to provide you all with something of real value rather than the money I’ve made with my online business.
Not to say that you all don’t like seeing money success of other members. But I guess I thought what’s the point if it isn’t helping others learn how to also reach their money goals.
So eventually I decided to give the update because although the month of August was a successful one, it was very humbling at the same time. Let me explain...
My Very Humbling August Experience
My start to the month was going very well. Much better than the month of July which wasn’t too shabby. Check out my July Progress Report. I was able to make almost 13K for the month of August
Through the first 14 days, I was on pace to make at least 24K. Then August 15th came, and my main merchant went offline.
For those that aren’t familiar with the term It’s when a merchant is no longer providing funds to an affiliate network to pay affiliates. In this case, Sharesale is the affiliate network that the merchant uses for their affiliate program.
So when they go offline, affiliate links no longer work on your site, therefore you get no credit for any sales that are made.
So I got in contact with the Director and he said that they were planning on moving from Sharesale to another platform called Impact Radius. So until that move was completed, I would be making ZERO sales.
The director said I would be compensated for any sales made through my site, so that was somewhat good to hear. But until you see the money, it's hard to really feel comfortable.
Not only that, but I was very concerned about my site being negatively affected for SEO since I had dead links on it.
So after a couple of more emails to the director asking for an update on the switch, eventually he introduced me to the new affiliate partners and platform was up and running on the 25th. Basically I was making no money from them for 10 whole days.
Now everything is up and running, and the article is still atop the searches.
Traffic has dropped significantly due to less people searching for the service, but I’m still making anywhere from $150 to $300 a day instead of the $500 to $700 I was making before the switch. Still a nice piece of change so can’t complain too much.
Also I’m guessing I’ll be compensated anywhere from 7 to 8K for the missed conversions. Still have to speak with the director about it and come to an agreement on the amount. He said it should be settled by the end of next week. So we’ll see how that goes.
But I did learn something from this experience.
Never Rely On Just One Source Of Income
Not like that was my goal to begin with, but I will admit that I did slack off a bit. So this experience has brought my focus back to where it needs to be, which is putting in that work.
It’s important to find ways to create multiple streams of income, because you never know when one will disappear.
Which is why I’m back on my grind working on my site that promotes WA and thinking of other projects to get into.
Because I know how good Kyle and Carson are about making payments to their affiliates. I’ve never heard of any complaints about payments being missed.
Of course you never know what the future holds for WA, but that’s with anything in life. But I trust what’s going on within this wonderful company.
Final Thoughts
This is what makes building a business so fun. There are always new experiences you go through good or bad.
And the best part is learning from these experiences that give you the motivation to build your business even better.
So for anyone that is a bit frustrated with their current progress, don’t get down, but look at it as a fun challenge.
It’s when going through the tough times you learn so much about yourself on how to become a better person overall.
Well I hope you guys enjoyed this update and hope you were able to learn a few things. Not sure if I will give an update for September since I plan on putting in that work for my second site, but we’ll see.
So I wanna hear from you all. How important is it to you to create multiple streams of income? Please share below.
Recent Comments
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Thank you for the great motivation! I'm very new at WA, building a website, making a living online ect all that. I just started 2 months ago and have a long way to go.. I have so much to learn before i know i can earn.. I am finally able to put in an extra few hours a day to get this really going for me. After hearing so many success and failure stories , I believe it is best to keep a few different income streams to be successful. I havn't gotten there yet but am willing to learn! Thank you again for this great inspirational artcle! I sure needed after having such a rough start. Have a blessed day!
I'm glad you found this helpful Dawn! yes building those streams of income is important. I would recommend focusing on a couple in the beginning, then branch out to others once more experienced is gained.
I was waiting for your post, Ralph :) Thanks for sharing your experience!!! I always try to focus on multiple streams of income: for now WA and Amazon are the main ones, hopefully soon will be able to use Adsense or something like that too.
Sorry for making you wait to long Zarina...lol. Yea I'm loving this journey of building a business. It's soooo much better than having to sit in a cubicle learning nothing. I wish you much success with your business.
Tell me about it!!! I always new office is a bad fit for me lol, non-compatible personality-wise, if you will haha.
I totally agree with you, in that we do need to be working with several affiliate programs. I have been with Share a Sale for a few weeks now, but I never knew that I wouldn't get paid commissions if they were offline. That is so not fair:(
You still definitely had a great month, though! Congratulations:)
Blessings:)
Suzi
Thanks Suzi! Yea if the merchant doesn't fund their account, sharesale will put them offline and you wont get any credit for sales since the links are dead. But the director has been great with communication during this whole process. So hoping all goes well come the end of next week in compensating me for missed conversions.
Thank you:). Does the director you are referring to work for Shareasale, or is he/she the director of the affiliate program?
I’m glad to hear that you got that figured out.
I can only speak for myself, but you are one of the many people that is very inspiring to us newer members. I can say even more inspiring than some because your actually in a niche and not promoting MMO.
Thanks Huy! I happy to hear that this post inspires you so much. Yea I felt it only made sense to start off with a niche site before promoting WA since I've never made money online. But now that I've found success with it, I feel very confident in promoting this great program. I wish you the best!
That what I was thinking as well. Niche site first to prove the system works, and MMO website after.
Thanks for this update, glad you decided to go ahead with it - useful on soooooo many levels :)
Yes, I've heard peeps talk about being dependent on one program and suffer because of it but it is so tempting when you get a big earner...
it's wonderful to see you do so well, I'm not sure I'd have been so cheerful at what that guy did for 10 days, sounds like a bit of respect needed there for his affiliates who are doing the work of driving traffic and sales to him - did you tell him about the dead links issue, make him aware you guys have a biz to run too...
...all the bootcampers of course will be showing you off lol, but certainly great boost for everyone and I am looking forward to the next update!! :)
You're welcome Mary!
Yea the Director of the program has been very good with communication. He always responds quickly to my emails and definitely respects me as one of his high affiliate earners.
Him and his team was a bit overwhelmed with the transition switching platforms. So all in all things are working out. But i'll be even happier once I get compensated for the invalid links which I made him aware of.
As far as bootcampers showing me off, i'm totally cool with that...lol. I owe it to everyone in this awesome community.
All the best to you and your business Mary!
Congratulations! I agree that multiple streams of income is key. Rather than learning that from affiliate income, I learned that from freelancing. It's good the affiliate wasn't down for long, and they'll settle with you on a repayment amount. Thanks for sharing your story!
Ralph,
Thanks for sharing your story. It's never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket as this illustrates. It sounds like a challenging situation but you made it work out. Congrats!
Erica
You're welcome Erika! Yea, I have plans to do many things when it comes to business. But I know I slacked off a bit when it came to working on those things.
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This is great news Ralph! I'm so happy for you. I'm learning a lot about myself at this moment in time. ;-)
At the moment my focus is on my MMO niche and ads. Once I have succeeded in this, I will branch out into other streams - I need to be successful in one area before I can tackle another.
Wishing you continued success in your online business.!
I totally agree Jackie! I should have mentioned in my post, but it is definitely important to focus on building that one stream of income, then branch off into others once you have a better understanding of how to do it. This is especially true for newbies.