From Bricks to Clicks: From Ex Wealthy to Wealthy Affiliate
Never Doubt the Power of Wealthy Affiliate in 7 Months
- Menu Madness: A massive site navigation overhaul that paid off.
- Formatting Fails: From print-style layouts to mobile-friendly design.
- Plugin Pitfalls: Lessons learned from conflicting tools.
- AI Assistance: How technology helped refine my content.
- The WA Community: The support system that made all the difference.
- Key Takeaways: What I wish I knew from the start.
What if Everything You Built Over Your Lifetime Was Suddenly Gone?
I used to live a “Pop Star” lifestyle. Then in 2008, I lost over $65 million in the crash, including contingent liabilities, my mind, my wife, and my yacht. But not my young daughter, now approaching 20. After a lifetime of building businesses, and now after regaining my mental health—which has been a very long and slow process—I found myself needing and wanting to start over. Not with bricks and mortar this time, but online.
Wealthy Affiliate came into my life at a point when I needed a new path. And I have to say this—Wealthy Affiliate was the final part of my mental healing. It has pulled out the old me. Yes, a lot older, but my attitude to people when they say, “You will never do that” has always been the same—well, I will. I will make a living from the internet, one way or another, one brick at a time.
I still have a lot to learn and do. I am excited in my own way to be launching a YouTube channel. It’s behind schedule because I need to set up for this summer season in the UK—hence the new site. Has it been easy? Absolutely not. Did I doubt myself? Rarely, but occasionally. But seven months in, I’ve learned more than I ever expected—it’s also fun and enjoyable, and if you’re just starting out, I hope this can save you from making some of the mistakes I did.
Some of my recent brick and blockwork going up - Just like my journey on line, bricks to clicks.
The Early Struggles
When I first started, I leaned heavily on good old Google searches to answer my questions. I’d been using Google since its early days, so it was habit. But over time, I realized that trying to piece together random advice from forums and blogs wasn’t always reliable as they always had their angle. That’s when I started diving back into WA’s training videos and tutorials. It is one of the neat things about WA’s training—it doesn’t time out. You can watch them as many times as you want and slow them down or speed them up. Anyway, it wasn’t instant—some training videos I watched umpteen times—but gradually, things began to click.
Here are just a few of the early challenges I faced:
Menu Madness
I initially created custom menus in WordPress that didn’t flow well or align with my site’s categories. It’s best to name your categories in your posts and then build out your menus unless you designed a whole roadmap for your site at the start. I hadn’t—I wouldn’t have known where to begin. Fixing those menus on two sites was a mammoth task, involving over 70 posts and pages, but it has helped my site’s navigation.
Formatting Fails
Coming from an old-school background using tools like Express Publisher and WordPerfect, I formatted nearly all my posts poorly—images left and right, text centered. I was thinking PC and paper view instead of the clean left-justified layouts that work better online and are mobile-friendly. It took me two weeks to fix 70+ posts, but the results were worth it—another great learning event.
Plugin Confusion
Like many beginners, I made mistakes with plugins. I switched from AIOSEO to Yoast Premium on one site and installed Rank Math on the other. Each came with its own learning curve, but WA’s training and community feedback helped me navigate the pitfalls.
Plugin Madness
Being green, you don’t understand the marketing techniques of these plugin gurus. "It’s free, so it can’t be that bad, right?" It’s like getting free apps you always wanted in the old days. Well, it doesn’t work that way in this business. Too many plugins slow down your site, and they often conflict with each other. Everyone has a different viewpoint on which are essential. I have audited, exported, and tried to figure out which ones caused 404 errors and other issues. This is definitely a "tread carefully" zone—ask about this early.
WA’s Role in My Success
What has made the difference for me wasn’t just the training—it was the community. Whenever I hit a roadblock, there was someone ready to help. Kyle, Carson the founders, Jay, and Eric the live video training guys, they all help you no matter how silly the question might turn out to be. Whether it was answering my questions, providing suggestions on plugins, or even just encouraging me to keep going, the support here has been invaluable.
Some standout moments:
- The Training Videos: Re-watching menu tutorials while building my site across two computers made all the difference. The visual, step-by-step approach broke down complex tasks into manageable pieces.
- Feedback from Members: Getting insights from experienced members helped me identify and fix issues I didn’t even realize existed.
- Learning to Use AI: Around the same time, I started experimenting with AI tools as they were popping up like daisies, and everybody was talking about this one and that one. All double Dutch to me back then! I needed help with my writing and editing. And remember, I am working in two schools of English, and there are many differences. At first, I let AI do too much. Now I try to rely on my own words, which is a little difficult to do when English has always been my worst subject. But AI has been a great tool for refining my posts and brainstorming.
The Results So Far
Now, my site is shaping up into something I’m proud of. It’s not completely passive—I’m still putting in the work—but the potential for respectable earnings is there. And more importantly, I know the skills I’ve learned here will help me create more sites or scale this one further.
What I’ve achieved in 7 months may not seem like much to some, but for anyone just starting, I want you to know this: progress adds up quickly. One small improvement at a time can lead to something impressive before you even realize it.
Closing Thoughts
In life, you can sit back and accept defeat—or you can take control and rebuild your own success. I am rebuilding, not "just another brick in the wall"—I am building the new wall, one brick at a time. And the strength to build that wall, that home, that life came from Wealthy Affiliate.
From building structures to building digital success—one blueprint at a time.
So, I know which path I’m on. What about you?
Here’s to a continued journey of learning and success—for all of us!
Rob
Recent Comments
36
I'm with you, Rob, on making changes for the good! It takes time, but I didn't know what I didn't know until now, lol. I'm from an old-school background using Dreamweaver and Fireworks to design websites.
I'm learning so much more now from WA on correctly setting stuff up.
I have health issues, including dealing with breast cancer. It's supposedly okay now, but I have to take cancer-fighting drugs starting again next week. I took them for a month, but I had dental work that required I stop them. I didn't like the side-effects from them, but if I don't want to get cancer again, I'll need to take them.
So, having to incorporate this learning and doing my website and business with health issues is no fun.
Thankfully, I have this wonderful community at WA to assist me and keep me on track, albeit more slowly than I would like.
Bummer you lost your boat and a ton of money - wow!
Good luck with your business and personal life :)
Teri
Hi Terri,
I hope that you stay on the recovery route, my friend in DR is still suffering because of the same issues and medications after.
There was no real medicine for my breakdown just lots of words from my shrink.
Keep at it here
Rob
Rob,
That is one of the perks of being at WA. When you have to rework some posts because of learning new techniques, it is like a shot of new enthusiasm has been injected into you. You now know that your limits are what you make. Strive to continue to reach for that farthest horizon.
Jerry
Way to go, Robby!! So glad things are going in the right direction for you!!
This is the greatest place to be for so many reasons! And one of those reasons is the people that make up this community!
You got this and there are so many of us here to help where we can!
Cheers to our success!
Tim 🎼
Rob, thank you so much for sharing this; your vulnerability and authenticity shine through. I wish you well in your mental health journey it is a toad everyone should take looking after mental health
I am looking forward to reading about the point when it starts paying off in everyday sales.
Best of luck is not appropriate as their is no luck involved it is just you taking action but I do whish you all the best
Hi Catherine,
Thank you for your kind words, of all the things in my life the mental issue part has been the biggest challenge.
Rob
See more comments
Great post Rob! I am sure many other OG members of WA will agree, Wealthy Affiliate has the answers for building a successful online business in any niche.
The uniqueness of the WA platform is everything you’ve mentioned above and even more! Though the training is on affiliate marketing, it can be applied to other forms of marketing.
The training with some nuances on your part, will help you in creating a website in any area of digital marketing. It can be a drop shipping or a direct to consumer e-commerce site, it doesn’t have to be an affiliate website.
This is one of the many reasons why I love WA. If one has an imagination, they can use the training to suit any way of making money online. It’s a win-win being a Wa member.
May you and everyone else here at WA, continue to building their online businesses in any niche and style of marketing, brick by brick and striving for financial success.
Hi Robert,
I totally agree with you and way we can all take away something from the training here, if as the e-commerce world is evolving and how it has us all 2nd guessing its direction, still the training is here, it just has to be applied in a slightly different way.
You always have to learn to walk first, right?
Rob
As it is with every tall building, a business also needs a foundation, and education for the success of that business is that foundation.