What Do You Really Think It Takes to Build Something Online?

How many times have you actually asked yourself that question? Because I know I have asked myself that question more times than I can count over these last few years.

You know, it is funny. I came online here because I needed a change in my life. I experienced something that really opened my eyes, and I realized I needed to make a legacy to leave behind after watching somebody get robbed of theirs. Along the way, I brought them along on the journey of this crazy excursion I am on.

When I first walked in here, I was lost. But this place gave me confidence. It helped me get what I wanted to do to honor someone done. My goal was to get a million views on one book, and I did that. Now I get them on many books.

I came in here with a completely different mindset, and now I am thriving and building a new life with a full on direction. For the last five years, I was always worried about how many more years I could put into trucking. I asked myself that question every single day. What happens if I get hurt? What happens if I cannot handle those seventy straight hours out on the road anymore?

So, I decided to write this blog to give you guys an idea of where I am going, how I came to this plan, and how one small spark of an idea can blow up into something incredible. It can happen to any single one of you reading this. When you finish reading my story today, you will see that you can do it too.

Before I continue along this journey with you, let me ask you another big question. You can drop your answer in the comments at the end of the blog.

Do you believe in Sasquatch?

Because in this story, I am going to show you how that subject saved my life and helped me create a new path that will go on to help many others.

Have you ever worked a full day, come home exhausted, and still felt something inside you pulling you toward your dream? Have you ever had an idea while you were working, saved it on your phone, and promised yourself you would return to it later?

That has been much of my journey.

People usually see the result without seeing everything that happened behind it. They see a finished website, an active Facebook page, published books, or apparel. They do not see the fourteen hour trucking days, the ideas recorded through talk to text, or the evenings spent replaying those thoughts and turning them into something worth reading.

They do not see the articles that received almost no traffic, the products that barely sold, or the tools that did not work as expected. They do not see the time spent fixing websites, researching subjects, creating images, answering comments, and trying to understand what the next stage of the business requires.

That is the part of the journey I want to talk about today, because many of you are probably living your own version of it.

I Did Not Begin as an Online Business Owner

I joined Wealthy Affiliate in May 2024 as an Alberta oilfield truck driver looking for a way to build something of my own. I did not come from a technical background. I was not a trained writer, website developer, publisher, search engine specialist, or social media manager.

I was a husband, a father of five, and a third generation truck driver who had spent years working long days in the oil and gas industry. Trucking taught me how to work, but it did not teach me how to build a website, understand SEO, or turn a lifelong passion into a business.

I had a vision, but I did not have the complete map. I wanted more freedom for my family. I wanted to create something that belonged to us, and I wanted to prove that a truck driver could learn an entirely new world.

That vision eventually became Wildfoot Explores. At the beginning, it was little more than an idea and a willingness to believe in myself.

Building From the Cab of a Truck

There is a version of online business where someone sits in a quiet home office with a cup of coffee and several uninterrupted hours to create. That has rarely been my reality.

During the busy trucking season, I can work fourteen hour days. My schedule changes, the work is demanding, and there are times when sitting down with a laptop is impossible. That does not mean the ideas stop arriving. In many cases, the long roads and quiet stretches are where some of my strongest ideas begin.

When that happens, I switch into what I call phone mode. When it is safe, I use talk to text to capture the idea before it disappears. Sometimes it becomes the beginning of a blog. Sometimes it becomes a Facebook discussion, a chapter for a book, or a new direction for the brand.

Later, when I have time, I return to those recordings. I replay the thoughts, recover the meaning, research the subject, and turn the rough material into something people can read.

That is what dedication sometimes looks like. It is not always working for ten uninterrupted hours. Sometimes it is protecting thirty minutes from a busy day. Sometimes it is writing one paragraph, recording one idea, or improving one page.

Perfect conditions may never arrive. Sometimes we have to learn how to create inside the life we already have.

Wealthy Affiliate Became My Foundation

I once told Kyle, "Don't worry, pal. I'm not going anywhere."

I am a man who tries to remain true to his word, and I got thinking about that statement again recently. It caused me to ask myself a much bigger question.

What would I do without Wealthy Affiliate?

I could move my domain and website somewhere else. That is possible. I could find another hosting provider and continue using WordPress. WordPress itself can be affordable, but many of the plugins, security features, and additional services can become expensive.

More importantly, I would have to relearn the system and rebuild much of the support structure surrounding my business. Wealthy Affiliate provides more than hosting. It provides education, technical support, community knowledge, and people who understand what it feels like to build something from the beginning.

Without Wealthy Affiliate, my website might survive, but a large part of the foundation beneath it would be removed.

Wealthy Affiliate did not build Wildfoot Explores for me. It taught me how to build it myself. There is an enormous difference between those two things.

Blogging Became the Center of Everything

At first, I thought I was learning how to build a website. What I was really learning was how to build a foundation for everything that could come after it.

The blogs became the center of the system. A researched article gave me material for several Facebook discussions. The reactions on Facebook showed me which questions people cared about most. Those conversations led to new articles, deeper research, and sometimes complete books.

Search traffic gave older articles another life. When Bing showed that an article was receiving impressions, I could return to it, improve it, and introduce the subject to my Facebook community again. When a question created a strong Facebook discussion, I could develop it into a full blog that might eventually be discovered through search.

The website and social media stopped operating as separate projects. They began supporting and teaching each other.

That is why blogging still matters to me. A social media post can disappear quickly, but a good article can continue working for years. Every blog becomes another piece of the structure.

What One Month of Wildfoot Explores Looks Like

Over the most recent 28 days, Wildfoot Explores generated:

• Facebook: 230,758 organic views, 234 new followers and a net gain of 211 followers
• Instagram: 3,823 organic views, 15 new followers and a net gain of 5 followers
• Pinterest: 94,510 impressions, 80 outbound clicks and 558 saves
• Bing: 6,700 search impressions and 48 clicks
• Google: 497 search impressions and 1 click
• Total: More than 336,000 opportunities for Wildfoot Explores to be discovered this month

I did not pay for advertising to create any of this monthly traffic. It was built organically through conversations, images, questions, research, blogs and search results.

I will also be honest about the red arrows. This month experienced a hard drop because I have been transitioning my content while taking on another branch of the brand. Right now, I am in the juggling phase. When you manage several parts of a growing brand, something will occasionally require more attention while something else temporarily slows down.

Google and Bing are the easier parts because published articles can continue appearing in searches. Pinterest, Instagram and especially Facebook require far more time. I try to create documentary style content runs that keep people interested throughout the day. My goal is usually three strong posts, although I sometimes publish as many as five when I have something worthwhile to share.

Right now, most of my posts are built around questions. I am still discussing the same research and subjects, but I am presenting them in a way that encourages people to comment and join the conversation. This is helping me reach new audiences while I figure out how the next branch fits into everything else I am building.

Organic traffic takes time. These numbers began at zero. I experimented with different ideas until I discovered what I genuinely wanted to create. I kept sharing my blogs, research and questions, learned what connected with people and gradually built an organic network without paying for advertisements. It requires patience and consistent work, but it is 100 percent possible.

The Brand Expanded Beyond Blogs

As Wildfoot Explores grew, I stopped thinking in terms of just articles and social media. I started writing books, which meant learning covers, formatting, keywords, and promotion. That led to audiobooks and narrators. From there the brand expanded into apparel, mugs, and hats, and I built the Wildfoot library so visitors could discover the researchers and resources behind the subjects we explore.

Every expansion created more work, but it also made the brand more complete. The blogs introduce the ideas. Social media starts the conversations. The library lets people keep researching. The books go deeper. The apparel gives supporters a physical connection to the brand. Each piece led to the next because I believed Wildfoot Explores could become more than what it was yesterday.

Moving From Online Into the Physical World

When I came online a little over two years ago, I was not sure where any of this would lead. I knew that one day I would have to hang up my trucking keys, and the thought of retiring without a clear direction worried me.

Then I began recognizing what Wealthy Affiliate had taught me to build. Wildfoot Explores was no longer only a website. It had become a growing brand with articles, books, audiobooks, apparel, and an active social media community.

The professional vendor booth is the next step. I have already found the manufacturer, and we are now developing the complete design. In January 2027, I plan to roll out the booth, merchandise, and full Wildfoot Explores display as I begin my journey into the trade show circuit.

Between the booth, inventory, merchandise, displays, transportation, and everything required to launch it properly, I expect to invest approximately $25,000 into this adventure. That is not a small amount of money for a working truck driver. It shows how strongly I believe in this dream and how much I have built toward making it real.

The booth will include my books, apparel, mugs, hats, professional displays, QR codes, and footprint casts representing three different Sasquatch trackways. For now, it will remain a hobby business while I continue trucking. I can book time off, attend trade shows around Alberta, and gradually expand across Canada and eventually the United States.

The vendor circuit is also the testing ground for my ultimate goal. One day, I want to retire in Revelstoke and open a permanent Wildfoot Explores location with an incredible apparel shop, a small educational museum, and an interactive Sasquatch escape room.

What better retirement could I ask for than living in the mountains, meeting fellow Sasquatch enthusiasts, and spending every day surrounded by a subject I have loved for nearly my entire life?

Everything I am building today is helping create that future. I am not only building a business. I am building my retirement and my legacy.

What Does It Really Take?

I am going to be honest with you guys. When I said Sasquatch saved my life, you just read how that happened. It gave me the belief to push on, and everything I am doing now is because I truly want to do it. Wealthy Affiliates has been a huge part of that journey. It helped me take a simple idea and turn it into a real brand built around something I love by giving me the training, tools, and community to learn from along the way.

When the vendor booth idea came to me, I realized it was an opportunity to bring everything together. My website, books, apparel, Facebook community, reels, and real world adventures could finally exist under one roof.

Why did I really share this with all of you? Because you can build anything you want.

Wealthy Affiliates can place every tool, lesson, and expert in front of you, but none of them can take that first step for you. You have to want it badly enough to begin.

I started two years ago from the cab of a truck with an idea. Now I have a recognizable brand, a growing community, and a clear plan to take it into the physical world. You cannot change when you started, but you can decide what you are going to do now.

Forget about the money for a moment and ask yourself what you actually want to build. Share your story. Follow what excites you. Stop waiting for somebody else to build the life only you can create.

That is the real answer to what it takes. It takes deciding your plan matters enough to work harder for it. Keep believing, follow your path, and I will see you out on the road.

Shawn.