Some Tips for Newbies and WA Starter Members
If you have just joined Wealthy Affiliate, first I'd like to say hello and welcome to Wealthy Affiliate!
I am writing this blog to share some of my personal learnings during my first month at WA, some of which are actually lessons I learnt from my own mistakes in the hope that you will read on and not make the same mistakes as me.
There are several other blogs written for newbies as well but in this blog, I'd like to discuss a few topics which I feel are important and hopefully be useful in making your first weeks or months at WA a productive and pleasant one.
1) Start by clicking on the green button that says Get Started Here and follow the lessons.
I have come across people who just joined and didn't even know where to start. As you follow through the lessons, be sure to do what Kyle asks you to do, including Completing your Account Set-up and ALWAYS ask questions if you need help.
2) Should you Upgrade to Premium?
That's a question that will inevitably arise. Although you have 1 week to decide, I know there are some who decided on Day 1 or even before the week is up that Premium has its benefits. For me, it was a clear decision as I wanted to have more choices of WordPress themes (not a must have for some) and to have access to more training and being able to continue asking questions and getting help from the community and experienced members, both of which have helped me progress more quickly.
3) Don't spend too much time choosing a Niche, Domain Name and Theme for your first websiteI could write on and on just advising about these 3 very important decisions you have to make in your early days. But I'd like to keep it very short and simple:
If you don't already have any niche in mind, pick a niche that you would be interested to write about. If I picked a niche that has a great potential but I have no interest in or little knowledge of e.g. computer games or cure for cancer, I would just be setting up a huge challenge for myself to later write pages of content for that niche.
Choose a domain name that is unique, short and simple and easy to spell. Be creative and try to come up with a name that's unique and brandable. By that, I mean don't pick a name that is too similar to another domain name that's already in use. When your domain name is creative and brandable, people are likely to remember it better. Hence, the importance of keeping it short, simple and easy to spell.
If you plan to your own domain, as far as possible get a .com domain. The next best options would be .org or .net.
With the thousands of WordPress themes available, you could spend days just trying to pick a theme. So again, to keep it short and sweet, start with a simple theme with white background, black text, and a comments section. Don't worry about having fanciful features and adding header banners, etc.
Read Nathaniel's blog if you'd like to have some suggestions:
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/nathaniell/blog/7-...
4) Understanding the WordPress Website Structure
After setting up my website, I was stuck for days trying to understand about pages and posts. Then I found this tutorial by Carson which helped get me unstuck:
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/wordpress...
5) Remember your Goals and remember to Enjoy the Journey.
As you begin life at WA University, there might be times when you feel challenged, even frustrated, or just overwhelmed by the information overload. That's why it's important that we write down our goals to motivate and remind ourselves what we are working towards - our financial and non-financial goals.
There is no fixed time schedule that you must follow, so just make sure that you keep on learning and asking as you go along at a pace that you are comfortable with.
Try to spend some time interacting with the community and reading some profiles and making new friends.
6) How Soon and How Much Money will I make?
This is a million dollar question that no one, not even Kyle or Carson, will be able to provide with a specific answer. Kyle himself shared that he started to make money after 3 months, whereas I know some took 6 months or more than a year, and a young fella who made sales in less than a week!
Have you ever tried asking a lady her age? Some ladies might not wish to reveal their real age, so they might ask you to make a guess, or they might prefer to discount it by 2 years, or add 2 years. Then when you ask another lady her age, the same thing happens, but this lady might discount 5 years or add 5 years. ;)
I'm not saying that people don't want to be truthful with you but there are just too many variables to be able to offer an exact answer. For example, it depends on which niche we are in and how much effort we put into building our websites. So that brings me to my last point...
7) Commitment, Focus and Hard Work
If you wish to make money online, you should regard it as starting your own business, not a get rich quick scheme. So as with all businesses, commitment to invest time and some money (= capital) and hard work is required.
To work smart, the best advice I can give you is to faithfully follow the lessons and step by step apply the knowledge, completing ALL the tasks that Kyle asks you to do.
As a Starter member, you only have 1 week to enjoy the privileges of a Premium member, so try to cover as much of the Get Started Here course and don't get distracted doing the unimportant things such as trying to create a beautiful website or reading too many tutorials and blog posts. When I was a newbie, I not only went exploring all over within WA but in Google as well! :D
By the end of Week 1, you will hopefully have learnt, asked, observed and done enough to be able to ask yourself "Is this really for me and am I willing to commit to the hours of hard work?" If your answer is yes, then you should sign up for Premium. If you are still unsure, then I would still encourage you to sign up for Premium and have a go for another month.
Lastly, if you haven't already, you will soon discover that there is a wealth of blog posts, tutorials and training at WA so much so that you might lose focus on doing the lessons. It'snear impossible to read everything that's being blogged everyday so it's best to be selective and remain focused.
When I was a newbie, I was inspired and benefited from reading a couple of blog posts specially written for newbies in mind and so I'd like to share them here with you (it includes one of mine):https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/suetay/blog/what-p...
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/pblackwell/blog/a-...
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/ccunningham/blog/t...
If you have found this post useful, do let me know or if you know of someone who might benefit from it, please share it with them.
Thank you. :)
Recent Comments
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Thanks so much for this blog Sue. It has reinforced the material that has been covered in the training so far. Even though it is only day 2 for me, I am feeling as though I can actually achieve my goals. Thanks again.
You're most welcome, Francess!
I'm glad you found your way to my blog and took time to read it. :)
There's a wealth of information here at WA and so I've tried to condense some of my own important learnings here!
Great advice Sue. I know because I hit a wall myself trying to figure out how ad banners, change font size and colors and all the fancy stuff. Now I am just going to get back to the lessons and concentrate on the basics. The fancy stuff can wait until later.
Thanks, Scott! That's great to hear. :)
I haven't learnt how to add product banners or change font size and colors yet, but I know that we have all the tools and help we need when it's time to do it.
It's good to explore and try doing the fancy stuff as long as we don't allow ourselves to get distracted or frustrated doing so. It can be even be quite fun but as a matter of priority, it's work now and fun later for me.
Thank you so much for your tips. I am newbie here. I wonder if my English writing not that perfect, how can I write something on my website in order to promote the products?
Is it ok? if my website only have the pictures of products and copy the description from AMAZON?
Hi,
You can do a number of things. I am not sure what products you are promoting but let's look at an example: if say its a workout device to help with weight loss you might give some information or ideas to help with weightloss to attract people to your site and maybe a free calorie converter there which will keep them coming back to your site. Your visitors will appreciate this and come to trust you.
Write from you heart describing your own experience and advice. You might discuss diet and smart exercise like walking to the supermarket rather than driving a block.
Then you could lead on to products you want to sell such as equipment that can help your customers, or books and so on. A great way to then promote an item is to do a review on it and rate it. Even better if you can rate it against another product and show it is even better.
Look at categories in your review such as price, design etc etc and give it a rating out of say 5 stars or out of 10. I think Kyle does this with a blender that he promotes on his site to lose belly fat and I recall it is an Amazon product so it is worth having a look at how he tackles the problem. I remember he said he had phenomenal success with this post on the Vitamix and also note how simple the website is with lots of great information for weight suffers along with promotion of products. You can also feel his passion for the subject as he admits he has a challenge with his weight. This helps visitors identify with him and trust him from the start:
Here is the link: http://howtolosebellyfattoday.com/
Reviews are powerful and show your customers that rather than just pushing something you are 'one of them' and taking a close look at the product on their behalf before they commit their cash.
Remember to write lots of great and useful information with carefully selected key words. Don't make your site look like nothing but product and ads as this will not be very helpful or engaging, nor is it very competitive when you want to keep visitors and have them come back.....content will do that for you. So, lots of interesting content and reviews and you will get sales.
Hope this helps and don't forget to take a look at Kyles site (you might have to scroll a long way down all the posts to find the review, but it is there.)
Take care
@EricBray
WOW!! OMG!! I got it!
I am falling in love with you now because of your passion to write long messages for helping people. I really appreciate that. May god bless you!
Hey! thank you so much.
Thanks so much Eric for taking the trouble to offer such great tips to Chalida.
Another super like from me! ;)
Hi Chalida,
I wasn't sure about Amazon, so I asked your question on your behalf and this is the reply I got from Grampamike:
[Be careful about copying Amazon content. I went to my Amazon Affiliate account and clicked on the help link. I found a FAQ that says copy and paste is a no no.
When in doubt, ask Amazon or go to the Amazon Affiliate's forum.]
Although English may not be your native language, I think that you would have sufficient command of the language to write. The proof is that you have been able to ask good questions and we could understand what you are asking. ;)
Furthermore, as you are still young and eager to learn, your ability to write better can only improve by the day as you get more practice in writing.
To encourage you further, I know of people at WA who are not from English speaking countries, but they did not allow that to deter them from learning and they have been able to make money from their websites.
Also, when you ask for feedback about your website, people may offer you advice about your content to help you improve on the content.
So, what's important is not really about designing the most beautiful website or writing to perfection, although that makes your website look professional, but writing as yourself and being able to connect with your audience is what counts most.
So, you shouldn't quit even before you have given yourself the opportunity to try. :)
My pleasure Chalida. Sometimes I think the messages are too long...but glad the info was useful. Have a super day!
Well! This is helpful for newbies and oldbies too. Thank you for setting this out Sue. Bless you.....
Shirley
Hi Shirley, you're most welcome! :)
Glad to hear that you found it useful.
Blessings to you too. Have a lovely week ahead!
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Hi Suetay, is awesome tips. Thank you. Wish you go to the next lvl. Cheers.
Michael
Hi Michael, how are you?
You're most welcome!
All the best to you.
Hi Suetay, i am fine. I wish you the same. Cheers.
Michael