Some confusion and thoughts about WA
Hello guys, this is my third blog. I don't write many blogs because I don't think I have much to share, and I am busy building my website and don't have much time to blog. But I visit WA and read your blogs almost every day. The daily visits and reading left me with some confusion and thoughts. Today I decided to talk about them. I hope to hear your thoughts. If you can give me some suggestions, I would be very appreciated.
1. About the WA community
As I mentioned above, I read WA blogs almost every day. I found that most of the blogs are about "my website or post being indexed by Google, I built my first website, and I earned the first commission." Of course, these are all exciting milestones. You can submit a post to celebrate. And everyone has the freedom to post what they think. I don't have the right to ask you not to post anything, and I don't want to do that. Besides, I understand that a community must remain alive, and it is not a good thing that no one posts. I just think something is wrong, and especially some of those posts come from members of the top 100 or 200. I don't know what you think. I really think it's very surreal. This is my first confusion.
2. About WA success stories
Every WA success story gets a lot of attention and responses. Everyone likes to read success stories. They are proofs that WA can make you successful, and it can also give everyone encouragement and know that the business you are doing is worth keeping on. I also want to thank those willing to share; after all, sharing income is not comfortable. But I find that there are fewer and fewer success stories recently. Now there is a success story section on the homepage, but many posts in it are from a few years ago. I prefer to believe that successful people are unwilling to share now because there is no obligation. Or they are too busy to share. This is my second confusion.
3. About my "top ten" website
I am a freelance translator. The first time I learned affiliate marketing was to translate a successful affiliate marketer's promotional video. In the video, there were wine, food, beaches, and a yacht. So I learned about passive income, discovered that it could even help you earn income while you sleep. Before joining WA in 2017, I built a "top ten" website on GoDaddy. I wrote four reviews with keywords and earned my first, second, and third Amazon commissions, which gave me an insight into the magic of affiliate marketing.
The latest income of my website
Still, I've always been a newbie. Because my translation career was very successful, it was not until August of this year that I shifted my focus to WA and affiliate marketing. The reason was simple. Because of the covid-19 epidemic, translation work chances and my income are greatly reduced. Now I have transferred the website to WA and kept updating it. There are more than a dozen posts, but I didn't know what niche was when I built this website, so this is not a niche website. I can write anything I want: top 10 cars, top 10 dogs, top 10 toys. My current goal is to update two posts a week; even if my website topic is open, I still find it challenging to complete the goal, perhaps because I am not a native English speaker.
So after learning on WA, I have been considering whether to stick to it. Although it is an old and mature website, traffic is also slowly increasing, and it is making a little bit of money; many people also say wait until you have 40 posts or 100 posts on your site before deciding. I'm afraid its success chance is not high. Maybe I should find a niche and build a new website? I hope someone can give me some advice. Thank you very much, keep going, wish you all success!
Recent Comments
16
Hi Sam
From the length and level of thought in the responses, your post clearly triggered some interest. I agree with the observation that WA ranking is just an indication of how much you interact here, not of how successful or profitable you are as an affiliate marketer. I think you also got some excellent advice on your site.
Best regards
Andy
Hi Sam,
I'll clear up your points one and two, as I see it.
Basically, even though we view WA as a platform, where we all learn, host our websites, and interact with each other, many people tend to forget that Wealthy Affiliate is ALSO a website.
Just as you own a website, I own a website, everyone who's replied here owns a website (I think), and millions of others do too,
Wealthy Affiliate is Kyle and Carson's website.
So, just as I can publish what I want or guide people where I want to on MY website, Kyle and Carson can do exactly the same thing.
You can clearly see that some of what we read here on a daily basis has actually purposely been put there.
Case in point, the Top 10 Blog Posts is typically the most popular blog posts in terms of likes and comments, but every once in a while you will see a blog post ranked as "the most popular" with hardly any likes or comments.
This will usually be pertaining to indexing, ranking, money made, or how fantastic WA is.
We have an influx of new members every single day, so Kyle and Carson are well within their rights (they do OWN this website after all) to place what they believe are the best posts for newcomers to read.
This is why you will often see lots and lots of posts relating to the subjects you mention above.
How great is it for a total newcomer just browsing the site for the first time to see WA blog post after blog post stating that within a couple of weeks of joining, members have articles already indexed, simply because they followed the training.
It just makes good business sense to place these on the front page of WA for everyone to see (espeically newcomers who are yet to decide whether they wish to upgrade).
Last month you will have seen post after post of people posting about upgrading to Premium Plus - once again a great incentive to anyone who hadn't upgraded.
It's exactly the same with the success stories.
There are certainly plenty of fresh success story blog posts, but again it makes sense to have as many of these showing as possible, so you will often see "older" blog posts.
However, I know I have seen plenty of "fresh" success story blog posts this year, Grace, Zarina, Hilde, Thabo, etc. just to name a few.
Again it's just "good business sense" for newcomers to constantly see various success stories, especially if they haven't decided to upgrade yet.
Remember this is Kyle and Carson's website, and it is their business, and the main idea behind a business is to make money by offering a product or service that helps others.
As for the Top 100 or Top 200 members posting this, don't pay too much attention to member rank in terms of success.
Member rank is simply about how much you interact on the platform.
In fact, I'm convinced that you could simply copy and paste, "Great post and thank you" on about 20 WA blogs a day, have at least 10 of your 5-word comments "liked" and within one month you will be ranked in the Top 200.
So, in reality being indexed or ranked is just as important to someone in the Top 100 or Top 200 depending on their overall experience, and current success levels.
As for your website, firstly I'd say keep it going, simply because of its age.
By "keep it going" I simply mean keep renewing the domain name and hosting.
You are obviously receiving some traffic, and always remember it only takes ONE visitor to produce a sale.
So, even a website that only receives 1 visitor a week could make one (or more) sale(s) a week, highly unlikely, but it can happen.
Therefore, as long as your website is still active and running you may accomplish this.
I've actually seen some very successful websites based on the "Top 10" theme, but admittedly they are a lot older, they typically have thousands and thosands of posts, and hundreds more added every month.
However, it is a subject that seems to intrigue people.
I always think "Top 10" websites would perform better on social media rather than the search engines, especially if they're weird, controversial, or funny subjects.
You could get HUGE amounts of traffic from just one funny post, e.g. "Top 10 World Leaders Who Took Drugs"
So, to compete with the other Top 10 websites you have a long way to go, but my advice would be to keep your website "alive" by renewing every year.
As for a niche website, well you already quite clearly have a fantastic talent/skill, have you thought about producing a website around that?
I'm talking about the translation side of your business.
There surely must be a niche within "translations" that lots of people want to know about.
And as I say, you've already proven that this is your area of expertise.
You may even want to speak to Lenka (LenkaSophie) as I know she provides similar services. Maybe get an idea about an exact niche by having a chat with her.
Irrespective of what you think or say Sam, you can quite clearly produce fantastic content - this blog post is proof of that.
Partha
Hi, Partha! Thank you very much for your detailed answer! I've had this two confusion for a long time and finally decided to get them off my chest.
I agree and understand everything you say. It’s certainly exciting to have the first website and posts get indexed, and it's worth publishing a post to celebrate. But is this really exciting? I don't think so. This is just the beginning of a hard journey. There is one thing I forgot to mention in my post. Sometimes I went back to look at the posts or websites I offered comments on. Many of them cannot be accessed, which means that some people have given up. I don’t want to see this situation. I hope everyone keeps going. So I hope everyone not to wallow in the "Hello World!" joy.
I understand that the WA rank only proves how your activity level in the community, but according to my understanding, WA is a one-stop solution platform for teaching people how to make money online. Therefore, communication is only a means, and making money online is the ultimate goal and metrics.
I disclosed the income of my "top 10"website in the post. In fact, I can also write a success story about it, but I really don’t think it is a success. I will be happy to see more and more WA members sharing their true success stories, and I will be more proud of being one of WA members.
Everyone told me I should build a niche website, and your answer gave me a prospect and a road map of "top 10" websites; it made me understand why I should build a niche site. And it also strengthened my belief in building it. I really appreciate it! I hope you are more successful!
Hey Sam, thanks for sharing this and your very honest which is great. I do think some of the things shared can be a bit strange given its a published platform.
You are your brand on here!
But...
I am in a half way house really as I do like the motivation stuff and I think in this business you need it. I also like to learn. Members have some great stories to tell.. ..
I do think it should be a business platform first and I don't always get the agenda pushing thing.
However education comes in many forms.
Having said that everyone is on a journey. Its also a great community of supportive people except for the ones who never say thankyou but maybe that's me :)
Its a British thing probably...
I agree with the comments on getting your purpose sorted and really defining your niche. That would help any business as otherwise you appeal to no-one.
Some people confuse WA as their business but its a learning platform and an excellent one at that , which provides first class hosting. It also has a referral system if that is a route you choose.
Its honest, ethical with a strong vision and probably the only training I have come across which does that.
However your business is separate from that and really defining it as that I think can really help.
Who do you help? And how do you help them? No-one ever buys a hammer because its a hammer. Except my neighbour who moved out weeks ago, I think he might...
You have all the tools and support here and I guess it is what we all do with them that matters. I include myself in that!
Niche wins everytime.
I wish you every success in your niche building business, Phil
Ps Great metaphor in your choice of picture...
Hi, Phil! I agree with you! I can understand many people think that instead of looking for another niche, maybe it is easier to promote WA directly and use WA as a traffic source, so they are very active in the community. I really hope to hear about their "real" success in the future. Sometimes it's frustrating to have a whole frontpage full of this kind of "first website and first indexed posts.
And everyone is on the same page, and I need a niche website. Thank you for your advice. I wish you continued success!
As I have posted before, WA is not for everyone. It is different from traditional hosting platforms. It is different than FaceBook. Bottom line, it is different. You can pick and choose what you read and who you follow.
Some, like me are not “geeks”, or traditional web builders. I am a motivator and that’s how my blogs run.
The secret is to find your niche, stick with it and build your business. Wish you well.
Joe
Hi, Joe! Thank you! Now I know I should build a niche website! I hope everything works out for you!
Thanks for sharing and I agree with you completely on what is being shared on here. I think you should concentrate on a single niche and build a strong website around it, as I think Google will rank it higher than a site that it might see as more of a jumble sale. Enjoy your day
Hi, Geoffrey! Thank you for your direct and clear advice! Build a new niche website will be the next step for me. I hope all goes well with you!
See more comments
Hi Sam,
I enjoyed reading your blog and understand that you are successful and I admire that. You also seem to know a lot about the Affiliate Marketing industry. This is my first year and just developing my second website.
It wasn't until I started building the second website that I noticed how quickly I could build content and all the work I needed to do and ended up with what I think is an excellent example of spending many hours previous learning the trade.
I can see you too must have placed a whole lot of energy and work into your projects and I thank you for sharing your story and hope that your success continues.
Great Post!
In Friendship
Jonah
Hi, Stephen! Nice to meet you! Thank you for your writing experience! I wish you every success!